~Skye~'s journal

[mtns]

I would love the recipe for your soup. That sounds so good. Your food looks great. I might just have to try that dip to serve up for the holidays.
Kathy

[carollynne]

I am really impressed by your wt loss and resolve to stay MWL too. One of m y weaknesses is chips, so boy do I understand that battle.

good luck and stay the course!

[~Skye~]

Heidi, thanks for your support. I really appreciate it! It is good your mother never mentioned your weight again. I can't see something like that happening with my mother. For one thing, I'm dependent on her. I'm trying to get independent, but it's taking a long time, and is very difficult.

Kathy, thanks! I try to eat well, so I don't feel deprived. I like flavor. I've tried a few recipes that sounded good, but they didn't have much flavor, and I won't be trying them again. But the soup is really good.

Carollynne, thanks for stopping by, and the support! It is good to know that I am not the only one with a chip weakness.

~Skye~

[~Skye~]

Yesterday's menu:

Breakfast: coffee with 1 Tbs. sugar, and some almond milk; gluten-free oatmeal with 1 Tbs. sugar, and cinnamon

Lunch: Curried Chickpeas and Spinach in a Pressure Cooker with brown rice

Dinner: Creamy Artichoke Spinach Dip, baked tortilla chips; Veggie Queen's Autumn Night Soup, cornbread, chardonnay

Well, I have to go vote, and I'm not feeling great about this diet right now, so I'll make this short. Since I have been eating plant based I have had a serious flare of Chron's disease, and now it looks like I might be diabetic. Both of these things may be due to some drugs I've been taking for the last decade. Nobody knows. But just in this moment, I fail to see the point of this WOE. Pun intended.

Regardless of everything, I really am invested in laying off the chips for the holiday season, so I'm pleased that I didn't get chips yesterday. I had to go to the drug store. This is a store that I used to pop in to so I could buy cigarettes and chips, so the associations with those items were strong. I got through it by telling myself I would eat the left over spinach-artichoke dip for dinner. Not the best way to get through it, but it worked. And dinner was really good.

I'm supposed to go back to Alabama to spend election night with my mother. She's roasted a lot of root vegetables, and she has some kale, and mashed potatoes. Oh, and cranberry sauce for the roasted root vegetables. I guess it will be nice to eat food I didn't have to cook.

I don't have much else to say. Or rather, I have a lot going 'round my head, but not much organized enough to put down here. So I guess I'll just sign off for now.

~Skye~

[eri]

Skye, I went to college in the ATL. I used to work in Alabama, too. Funny.

[~Skye~]

Hi eri, that's really neat. But I wasn't actually working in Alabama. Well I did work a little bit, but mostly I was living with my mother who was working in Alabama. Where did you go to school?

Yesterday's menu:

Breakfast: coffee with 1 Tbs. sugar, and some almond milk; gluten-free oatmeal with 1 Tbs. sugar, and cinnamon

Lunch: Veggie Queen's Autumn Night Soup, cornbread

Dinner: Pumpkincredible Hummus; baked tortilla chips;mashed potatoes, kale

I stayed up too late waiting for the speeches last night, and now my eyes feel swollen. I don't sleep well, so if I don't go to sleep at a reasonable time I'm all messed up. And, I still didn't see the acceptance speech. Well, four more years.

I really have to get a new doctor. I listened to her and I felt sick and like the diet was useless. And, she gave me a new pill to take. I'm thinking about not taking it - it's an iron pill, and I eat a lot of the foods high in iron so I don't think I'm iron deficient. I am anemic, but I think that is probably due to the IBD. I don't know. I don't trust her. I don't trust doctors in general, which is unfortunate because I'm sick.

Well, the TopChip was apparently delivered to my mailbox yesterday. I'll have to get it this afternoon when I get back home. I'm so excited to try it! I hope it's everything I think it's going to be. I think my whole being will calm down if I can get something that will act like chips for me. It's amazing how invested with food we can become.

Oh, the pumpkin hummus was quite good. It wasn't as good as regular hummus, but it was good. I definitely tasted the smoked paprika, and it definitely didn't taste like chick peas. It might possibly could have used a bit more lime juice. I enjoyed knowing I was eating pumpkin though.

Oh, one good thing about the doctor's appointment - I weighed exactly the same as last month when I went in. That wasn't bad at least. I still don't know if I want to focus on loosing weight. But at least I'm not gaining weight.

Eat well!
~Skye~

[eri]

Skye,

I graduated from Agnes Scott. Whose cornbread recipe are you using? I need to find a good one.

[~Skye~]

I graduated from Agnes Scott!!! Class of '93

I'm using the Bayou Cornbread recipe in Everyday Happy Herbivore. It's really good. And it goes well with this soup, which is really delicious. In fact, I might have to make another batch of this soup. I'm not tired of it yet. It has onion, little bit of garlic, white beans, potatoes, delicata squash, corn, fire roasted tomatoes, cumin, cayenne, and salt in it. YUM!

~Skye~

[eri]

I graduated from Agnes Scott!!! Class of '93
~Skye~

Shut up! Class of '02! What a trip! We should compare notes.

[~Skye~]

Shut up! Class of '02! What a trip! We should compare notes.

Yeah, that would be good! I visited a few years back and things were different from what I remembered. They had put an addition on the library and there was a whole new science building. Was the new science building there when you were there? I wonder what they did with the old science building.

~Skye~

[~Skye~]

Wednesday's menu:

Breakfast: black tea with 1 Tbs. sugar; gluten-free oatmeal with 1 Tbs. sugar, and cinnamon

Lunch: roasted root vegetables (sweet potato, parsnip, butternut squash, carrot, turnip, and rutabaga); cranberry sauce; kale; kasha

Dinner: Veggie Queen's Autumn Night Soup; cornbread

Snack: potato chips made with TopChips

Thursday's menu:

Breakfast: coffee with 1 Tbs. sugar, and some almond milk; gluten-free oatmeal with 1 Tbs. sugar, and cinnamon; apple chips made with TopChips

Lunch: brown rice, mixed vegetables (broccoli, carrots, sugar snap peas & water chestnuts) with tamari and garlic powder; portobello mushroom basted in teriyaki sauce; potato chips made with TopChips

Dinner: Veggie Queen's Autumn Night Soup; cornbread

Exercise: 20 minutes swimming laps

So, I made potato chips! Yay! I'm really happy with the TopChips device. I haven't quite gotten all the kinks worked out, and it's a lot more work than buying a bag of chips, but I think it's just what I needed. I made a whole large yellow potato with salt and nutritional yeast, and it took upwards of 10 minutes in the microwave for the first batch of three trays, and then another batch of one tray. The chips filled one of my vegetable bowls, and were quite satisfying. I could, of course, eat more, but that was a good amount.

I'm really pathetically excited about the chips. My mother thinks the novelty might wear off, but I'm thinking about making some for breakfast. I really love chips. And these chips are real food - not junk food! In the past I've been very fond of potato chips and corn chips, now I have healthy alternatives for both, although the baked tortilla chips aren't salty enough to eat by themselves., but they are really good with dips. I've been thinking about all the things I can make into chips - purple potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, mango, taro, parsnip. This is really the best thing I've gotten kitchen-wise since the combined pressure cooker, slow cooker.

And although I don't think I'll get to my three days of exercise this week, at least I got out swimming yesterday. I'm planning on going again today. I like swimming. And, it's really good exercise. I don't know if it's aerobic, or more like weight training, or a combination, or what, but at least I spent some time being active. I need goggles though.

Seriously though, with the chips? I kinda feel like all my problems have been solved. Everything is going to work out fine. I can make potato chips any time I want. It's funny how solving one problem can make other problems look less worrisome.

But my mother is coming over tonight so we can go see the opera tomorrow, and I have to feed her, and I have no food in the house. And my college roommate might be coming over Sunday, and I have to feed her too. So I have some menu planning and food buying, and cooking to do. It never ends.

Eat well!

~Skye~

[eri]

^^The library addition & student center were remodeled while I was there. The science center opened the year after I graduated. I was a bio minor so I was pissed. I did like Campbell, though(the old building).

[~Skye~]

eri, I was a Bio major, and when I was on campus a couple years ago, I walked all over the science center, and I was just wishing it was there when I was.

Yesterday's menu:

Breakfast: coffee with 1 Tbs. sugar, and some almond milk; gluten-free oatmeal with 1 Tbs. sugar, and cinnamon

Lunch: hummus; baked tortilla chips

Snack: potato chips with salt and nutritional yeast; pomegranate seeds

Dinner: Asian-Dijon Spinach Salad; Sloppy Lentil Joes; cornbread; pinot noir

Exercise: 30 min. day one C25K workout

~Skye~

[~Skye~]

Yesterday's menu:

Breakfast: coffee with 1 Tbs. sugar, and some almond milk; gluten-free oatmeal with 1 Tbs. sugar, and cinnamon

Lunch: hummus; baked tortilla chips; grapes

Snack: fat free potato chips with salt and nutritional yeast

Dinner: Sloppy Lentil Joes; cornbread

Weekly weigh in: 138 lbs.

I don't understand how I gained 8 pounds in a week. That's worse than being on a cruise! I know there is some monthly variation in a woman's weight, but this is extreme. As a result of this weight change, and the recent arrival of my TopChips thingy, I have revised my goals for the holidays.

1) No added oils
2) No flour products
3) No wine
4) Exercise three times a week
5) Enjoy the holidays

The flour products and wine can be excepted on the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's days. But other than that, I really want to stick to this. I have decided to become reacquainted with the potato. I like potatoes, and they are nice and starchy. Mmmm potatoes!

Oh, and I probably will have cornbread today too. My college roommate might come over and I promised her cornbread and soup. And I have half a bread from last night. But starting tomorrow, no more bread. And no wine because I think it aggravates my IBD. So we will see how this goes.

8 pounds in a week. Wow. I never would have thought. I am surprised.

~Skye~

[~Skye~]

Yesterday's menu:

Breakfast: coffee with 1 Tbs. sugar, and some almond milk; gluten-free oatmeal with 1 Tbs. sugar, and cinnamon

Lunch: Sloppy Lentil Joes; cornbread

Dinner: Veggie Queen's Autumn Night Soup; cornbread

I think I ate enough cornbread yesterday. No more for me. And no more corn chips either. If I want hummus, I'll have to eat it with potato chips or bell peppers or something. I wonder how raw broccoli and hummus would taste.

I can do this. It's not like Doritos which I'm not supposed to ever have again. I can have the cornbread and corn chips again. I'm just going for two months without them. And I have the TopChips thingy so I can make chips. That will be something good to eat.

I bought a parsnip, carrot, and Japanese sweet potato, as well as several Yukon Gold potatoes to make into chips. My goal is to make them all into chips and have a mixed bowl of them. That's going to take at least an hour. But I'd rather spend the time making a lot and then just be able to sit down and eat them. I want to try making everything into chips.

In other news, my rejuvelac went putrid. So, I have to start with sprouting the brown rice again. I think I'll start that today. I'm still really interested to see what the nut cheese will be like, but I'm not as desperate as I was to have cheese. I do think it's cool that I can sprout brown rice.

Coming here and reading what other people are doing and having problems with, and the support I have gotten has really helped me. It is good to know that I am not alone in my struggles, and it's good to know that there are people who might be struggling a little bit more than I am. Perspective. Knowing how far I've come and how far I have to go. That's good. So thank you.

~Skye~