Mashed root veggies!

Today was pretty good, eating-wise, though I didn’t exercise today.  I’ve had these killer headaches almost every day for a month, and today was no different…it also made me pretty dizzy in the early afternoon.  The symptoms were bad enough that all I could do was nap.  Terrible! 

Breakfast was one packet of banana bread Weight Control oatmeal from Quaker (oftentimes I’ll use two packets) with flaxseed, a banana, and almond butter:

I cleaned up the kitchen some and then dirtied it up again baking some muffins:

I’ve had them in pancake form before and it was SO GOOD! I was going to add sugar sprinkles on top of the muffins, but I forgot.  I did remember to add white chocolate chips though!  Aaaaand then I forgot to take a picture of the end result.  I ate one throughout the day…pinching off bits here and there as I buzzed through the kitchen.

While I was baking and cleaning this morning, I snagged a cake truffle and got an instant tummyache.  My body was totally saying “eff you for eating all these things, they’re way too sweet!”  And I should listen.  And I kinda did – I ate fewer today than yesterday.  I’m thankful that Mom took most of them to work with her today for the voracious radiology department to finish off.

After some housework, I broke for lunch at like 2pm and had a Weight Watchers frozen meal – cheese ravioli – with Birds Eye Steamfresh green beans

…plus parmesan cheese, of course. 

My head hurt sooo bad that I popped ibuprofen, sudafed, and benadryl.  None of these things seemed to work, so I tried caffeine…

…which totally didn’t work, so I passed out in my aforementioned nap.  Why is it that benadryl barely makes me sleepy when I take Advil or Tylenol PM, but when I take it in the middle of the day, I simply MUST pass out?  And caffeine never really wakes me up…I’m so bass-ackwards.

For dinner tonight, I tried a couple of new things; first off, Bud Light Golden Wheat beer.  I’m a HUGE fan of wheat beer, and I didn’t realize it when I bought it, but the label even says it’s brewed with citrus peels – huge selling point for me, as I’m a ginormous Blue Moon fan!

I had probably 1.5 of these as I shared with mom.

The next new thing I tried was a recipe for mashed root vegetables.  Funny story – Mom was given some veggies from a friend who has a garden, and the friend thought they were turnips.  Mom and I didn’t know what to do with them, so they’ve been sitting in our fridge a couple of weeks before I decided to try this recipe tonight.  It called for butternut squash (which I had already bought for something else), potatoes (we didn’t have white but we had sweet potatoes), carrots (we had semi-stale carrot chips, but it would’ve been better with whole carrots), and turnips.  Well, I peeled and chopped the squash (super-hard to cut and peel this!) and the potatoes, then I scrubbed the “turnips” and cut into the end…only to find they were beets. 

Don’t make fun of me - I should’ve known, because turnips are mostly (all?) white, even on the outside…right?  I’ve never had turnips before, never bought them, never really given them a second glance, so this was an adventure from the start.  So yeah, the recipe was missing its turnips, and now I have beets (which I’ve never had before) and don’t know what to do with them.  I’ll find something though…

So here’s all the stuff cut up; sweet potato, butternut squash, carrot chips, and minced garlic…

…then you boil it, drain it, mash it, add broth (veggie!), sour cream (fat free!), and salt and pepper.  Then devour. 

It was pretty good!  It was somewhat bland, though, so I might experiment with different spices as I heat up portions of this giant vat.  The way it is with the sweet potatoes, I might add some nutmeg to it tomorrow.  If I did it exactly as it was called for with white potatoes and turnips, I might add rosemary and/or thyme.  Anywho, I like experimentin’, and tonight that’s just what I did!

The co-star of my meal was a naked Quorn cutlet, but I made a foil pouch and added apple cider, a quarter of a sliced onion per cutlet, and a tablespoon of apple butter, then baked that bad boy.  It really helped with the taste and texture of the Quorn…it was pretty awesome!

Has anyone noticed how much better my portions and plate ratios have gotten?  I’m trying to load up on veggies and make them the majority of my plate real estate.

On the flip side of being good, I had these for dessert…

They are smaller than the pop versions, so…yeah, I shouldn’t even try to redeem myself. 

Oh god, while I was writing all this, I ate a peanut butter and honey sandwich with skim milk – WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME??  I didn’t need them…I’m about to go to bed!  I probably wasn’t hungry, just idle…I can sit and be ok without eating!

Before I launch into a tirade of self-hatred, here’s some animal love:

Here’s Brooks and me (and some sunblock) both looking sad…him because I’ve got him in a death grip, and me because he’s trying to get away from me…and I’m wearing no makeup. 

And here’s Maddypants licking a white chocolate-covered milkbone…she (and Mom and I) had the best time with this…she wasn’t too sure about it at first and kept licking it then jumping away from it and lunging at it…I took some funny pictures and video, but I like this one because it looks like she’s saying “pleh” with her tongue out like that.