Good news has wings

[sienamystic]

Got my blood test results from this morning back already, and the news is good news. My BG levels are all where they should be, and the doc is taking me off Metformin. But this doesn't mean I get to slack off on my eating - in fact, not having Metformin to be that psychological "best friend and helper" will assist me with keeping my eating on the right track.

My metabolic panel and cholesterol numbers were also right where they should be. The only little blip is that the albumen test for the kidneys came back at exactly the number that's the border of acceptable/too high, and I'm supposed to eat a little less protein. So stay low-carb, back down on the protein a little bit...I'm totally going to have to incorporate a vegetarian meal into my day, aren't I? This is...well, not intimidating, exactly, but not happy-making, because I am still weird and fussy about all-vegetarian dishes. It's partly how they tend to be spiced - lots of onion, lots of bell pepper (which I loathe and refuse to eat), lots of things in the salsa family...stuff I really just don't like. You know how you see festive photos on those magazines in the checkout aisle with "Healthy Heart-Friendly Dishes!" and they're all colorful and look like they're vaguely Tunisian? I hate most of those types of dishes. Too much onion is usually the problem.

I'll help Bemo wolf down a pan of roasted Brussel sprouts, and I'm excited about the butternut squash bisque that I'll be making soon (although that'll have a chicken broth base) so if anybody has ideas for meals in that range, I'd be glad to hear them. Maybe I'll try and do the spaghetti squash with marinara sauce more, too. And roasted carrots are supposed to be fantastic - wasn't there a recipe featuring roasted carrots and ginger floating around the interwebs a while back?

When I was diagnosed, I was 267 lbs. I am now 210 lbs. I still carry weight on my upper arms, my thighs, and my stomach, but there's much less of it, and I can see the weight loss, oddly enough, in my hands and feet and neck and face the most. It's taken me just about a year to lose what I did, and I'm happy that I've been doing it slowly, because it means it won't rebound on me like a rabid boomerang.

My feet don't hurt in the mornings for no apparent reason anymore. The odds of my needing another back surgery have lessened. I can jog easily to the top of the stairs and not have to stop and catch my breath, so I'm not still panting when I get to the person I was wanting to speak with. When I bike to work, it's not much of an effort anymore. If I want to, I could go horseback riding again. I can keep studying aikido. I'm going to start swimming again. And best of all, I can keep fighting off this disease that I carry. Most days, it's really fucking hard to do, and I feel hopeless, like it's already won. So I have to celebrate the victories, and then keep on plodding forward.

Insert uplifting Latin motto here

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Wow! Can't you see there are a LOT of victories there! You are doing really, really well. I can really see the difference in your photos, but what's more important are all the things you listed: that's health coming in full force! Good job! I have a good carrot and yogurt soup, a pumpkin and ginger soup, and others if you're interested.
Jess

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

Ooh, please, both recipes sound fabulous. Please send?

[swooop.livejournal.com]

Congrats!

Recommendation--see if you can find a used copy of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. It's a great book, and it gives so many variations on basic recipes that you'll probably be able to find things that are not too oniony/spiced more to your liking pretty easily. It's very expensive new (like $35), but I'm sure there are used copies floating around in used bookstores and on the web. Well worth it.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thanks - I'll go hunting for it.

[(Anonymous)]

Ginger Carrot Soup

Prep Time:
10 min
Inactive Prep Time:
35 min
Cook Time:
20 min
8 servings

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped sweet onion
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced ginger (I substituted dried ginger last time and just sprinkled it over the cooked onions and let sautee for about 40 seconds)
2 pounds carrots, peeled and chopped into even pieces
1 medium russet potato, peeled and chopped
4 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock for vegetarian version
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 1/3 cups plain yogurt
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper, plus more for seasoning

Directions
In a heavy Dutch oven,(I use regular large stockpot), over medium-high
heat, add the olive oil and the sweet onions. Sprinkle with salt and sweat for 10 minutes, until just starting
to caramelize. Add in the garlic and ginger and saute for 2 minutes more, being careful not to burn the
mixture. Stir in the carrots, potatoes and the chicken or vegetable stock. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook
until carrots and potato is very tender, about 15 to 18 minutes. Keep warm.

In a small saute pan, over high heat, lightly toast the pine nuts and set aside to cool.

In a small bowl, combine the yogurt, honey, thyme and black pepper.

With a stick blender, puree the carrot mixture and gradually add in the pine nuts and the yogurt mixture.
Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper, to taste, and serve immediately.

Cook's Note: You can prepare the soup 3 or 4 days ahead, refrigerated, and add the nut and yogurt mixture when
ready to serve.



Ginger Pumpkin Tomato Soup

2-4 tbsp butter or olive oil
1.5 cups minced yellow onion
1 cup minced celery
3/4 tsp dried ginger
1 14oz can stewed tomatoes (I've also used my own roasted tomatoes from the market, if you do that)
2 cups chicken broth (veggie ok, too)
1 15 oz can pumpkin


Melt butter in Dutch oven (Again, I use regular stock pot) over medium heat. Add onions and celery and cook for about 10 min until softened. Sprinkle dried ginger on top and saute for 30 seconds. Add broth and bring to low boil. Puree tomatoes (or leave whole for chunky). Stir tomatoes and pumpkin into broth mixture and simmer 20 min (be sure to use a lid as it bubbles). Add more borth if desired. Season to taste with pepper or sour cream and parsley.

Serves 4-6


African Peanut Soup

1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tbsp peanut or canola oil
2 cans diced tomatoes with juice
1 can tomato paste
4 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup creamy PB (I like the natural kind, less sweet)
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp salt (I leave this out as the broth has salt)
1 tsp cayenne (I also leave this out)

Precooked rice (wild rice works great, aboou 1/2 cup uncooked)
crushed peanuts
chopped scallions

In stockpot, heat garlic and oil over medium heat for 1 min. Whisk in tomatoes, tomato paste, chicken broth, PB, vinegar, salt and cayenne. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 20 min.

Add some rice to each soup bowl, pour in soup and garnish with peanuts and scallions. Add remaining rice to soup once soup has cooled. Even better the next day.


Enjoy!

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, that peanut soup sounds faaaabulous.

Thanks, chica!

[dickgloucester.livejournal.com]

Good news! And well done with the weight loss.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And yeah, it was much better news than earlier in the day, when I was whining about being stuck full of holes.

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

In a perfect world, I would have brussels sprouts with EVERY SINGLE MEAL.

You've done fabulously at managing your disease--I'm so proud of you, pie.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

I wish I could go back in time and tell young-me how good they really are. No, strike that - I wish I could go back in time and tell my mom to stop boiling them into little fart-balls of oblivion and to stick them in the oven, for cryin' out loud.

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

Ha, yes--except, see, I like them boiled, too. I think I have a genetic tendency to just love brassicas, no matter what. Well, except for cheese sauce on cauliflower, that I cannot abide.

[genarti]

If it helps, I'm a vegetarian who hates bell peppers, and I can try to pass on recipes if you like! I do also have a very haphazard assortment of recipes saved in my LJ memories here, and any recipe with bell peppers there is pretty much guaranteed to be one where I felt they could be removed or have mushrooms or something substituted without much difficulty. (There are some non-vegetarian recipes there too, for the record. Some of those are because of side dishes, and some of them are because something sounded so good that I saved it anyway for if I'm inspired sometime when having local free-range etc meat, which I do eat once in a blue moon.)

Congratulations on all the rest of this! That is seriously something to be very, very proud of.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

I'm definitely going to take a stroll through those recipes. Bell pepper just seems to cut through everything it's in. I have been known to strain it out of Manwich sauce, for crying out loud.

I actually have good access to the good free-range type of meat, and don't take as much advantage of it as I could. And really, both the husband and I could stand to cut back on the red meat consumption. I just really, really like a good piece of beef so it's hard.

Ooh, mushrooms. Gotta hit up the stuffed portabellas again.

Insert uplifting Latin motto here

[strawberrykaren.livejournal.com]

Ad astra per aspera works well. Go you! :-)

Re: Insert uplifting Latin motto here

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

That's...a really great one. Tattoo on my wrist kind of good.

[(Anonymous)]

Gen, that is really amazing and inspiring. And quantifiable, which is also nifty. Congrats on the huge success this year. And thanks to Chess for those recipes. I might need to make that peanut soup this weekend. Yum!

~Kate-h

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

Thanks! And yeah, that peanut soup is going to come in handy when the weather gets colder.

[(Anonymous)]

You're welcome! I love making soups. It allows for so much creativity. I make at least 1 soup a week. I long to be a great soup cook someday.