Kryptonite Comes in Many Forms

So, the other day I brought my lunch to work just like I have been for the last several weeks.

Rare are the trips to fast food land anymore. The daily rushed stops at McDonald's, Hardees, or Burger King on the way to work, the lunch time get out of the building for a breath of fresh air runs to Taco Bell, Taco John's, Wendy's, and Arby's pretty much gone. Now, it's an occasional stop at BK, TB, or Arby's for a very strict, researched ahead of time for nutritional content item or two. Arby's becomes the kid's menu jr roast beef with or without part of the bun and a side of honey mustard sauce (use half only) along with apple slices and a light lemonade (12oz kid's size). Burger King becomes a jr whopper no ketchup, no tomato, no onion (blah), no pickle, no cheese if it usually comes with it, and again the smallest size light lemonade they have on hand. For awhile Taco Bell was interesting with 2 chicken rolled tacos with a 1/2 side of spicy ranch sauce, but that's off the menu now so it's back to the occasional one or two hard shell tacos hold the tomatoes and cheese and sometimes upgrade to a supreme for the sour cream but continue to hold the tomatoes and cheese....ah how I miss cheese! (At least this time it's an ice tea no/light ice or a diet mt dew for variety.)

Where am I going with all this you ask? Well, yesterday I brought a relatively boring sandwich to work along with the usual apple/clementine/cucumber/pepper add on options to round out lunch and then a co-worker popped into my room and said those magic words...."I didn't bring a lunch, I'm ordering from JIMMY JOHNS."

You guessed right, I caved and the thought of that boring sandwich versus a hearty Jimmy Johns sub like creation was like the sirens attempting to lure Odysseus onto the rocks only in this case I didn't cover my ears but instead full speed ahead sailed towards certain food doom and piped up with a "let me know when you are ordering and I'll order something too." Of course I ordered and this is what I learned---bread is not only full of carbs, it's full of salt. I ended up really, really regretting bread.

I've been told more than once that my kryptonite is bread and potatoes and I think that was once the case but with these new dietary restrictions I am getting better about bread (at least basic bread, artisan bread still calls to me) and potatoes can still be a problem, not as much as they were but French Fries are still a problem and mashed potatoes and gravy, but I'm trying. The issue is that now that I'm supposed to really avoid/cut back on cheese, I really, really want it's salty taste. I'm even desperate enough to try nutritional yeast instead. It tastes cheesy but I asked the dietitian and she said it should be an okay substitute, so I'll try it on toast or grits or mixed with tuna. As for grilled cheese that's a bit harder. I did find a substitute recipe using cream cheese and it's not bad, but it has yet to totally grow on me as a replacement. So for now I struggle to try to cut back on cheese but it's very very hard and I haven't much will power for it yet.

Biscuits and Egg Salad

In order to try to cut back on bread I've found making some egg salad and scooping it with a serving of crackers or "biscuits" is a great way to try to cut back on salty bread. The key is to find a biscuit you like that is about 6 (or more) biscuits/crackers per serving (and obviously one with a lower salt content then the 2 slices of bread you would normally use on an egg salad sandwich.

--Basic Egg Salad Recipe of Your Choice
--1 serving of crackers/biscuits (I like Bretons, Carrs Oat Biscuits, or even Chicken in a Biscuit, but Triscuits Hint of Sea Salt are tried and true and actually lower in salt than regular Triscuits)

What's up with the egg salad?

Well....a long time ago, on a planet far far away.....oh wait, wrong story!

As Meredith Grey is want to say, "Seriously!"

I write on and off, probably more off than on. I like to write, I feel like I can't say "love" because if I did, then I think I would find the time to write more often. I wish I was a writer (preferably best selling like Elizabeth George with I hope a nice royalty check from my books being turned into a TV series and the ability to still teach classes/workshops and live in a comfortable house on an island off the coast of Washington...oops I'm drifting) because to me that is a cool job that sometimes you can even do while sitting in your pajamas, eating chunky monkey ice cream. So, back to the writing....I do like to write, but I never feel like I have enough time for it or do it enough. I have realized over time that I am a bit like a tennis ball during Wimbledon...one minute here, one minute there. I like a lot of different things: books, tv shows, movies, knitting, even hiking/biking/walking. Sometimes I wish I had less interests, that I just concentrated on only one or two things instead of getting distracted by so many things I enjoy, then maybe I'd have more time for writing without feeling like it was a chore to do.

So, I guess that's why I'm here.

I've written a few blogs before and liked it, but over time the content has grown stale. I was in a KAL (knitalong) but that ended and so that blog is now defunct. I wrote a blog for awhile about my experiences with infertility and it was a place I could vent my frustrations and share with the other infertile women in the infertility blog community, but most of those women finally had kids (their own or adopted) and stopped writing their blogs, and I never did get to have kids so I found myself posting less and less on that blog and trying to turn it into a "generic life" blog just didn't seem right. I have a blog about trying to read "Anna Karenina" from beginning to end, but I think the only one interested in that is me--and I still haven't finished it. I have a couple of other blogs that I barely post on anymore and even I don't necessarily want to keep those up anymore! So, I guess I just felt it was time for a new--"life in general" blog that I could post anything I want to (daily stuff, poems, recipes, story plots) and maybe a few of my really good friends could read it if they wanted to keep up with my writing or just me in general and if not, that's okay.

As for the egg salad...well I'm getting there, but basically I'm on doctor's orders to "EAT MORE PROTEIN" and while I do like eggs and they are a good protein source, I am trying to find new ways to eat them. I also have a "dairy" restriction so cheese-filled omelets are now out, and you can only eat so many scrambled or sunny side up eggs and so I find that the easiest fix is hard-boiled eggs that I can just grab and go and when those get boring I can easily convert them to egg salad which has tons of possibilities for exciting add ins, so basically that's "what's up with the egg salad."

It all started with some egg salad...

Basic Egg Salad

1-2 Hard Boiled Eggs
2-3 Tbsp Vegenaise (or Mayo)
Ground Black Pepper (to taste)

Peel and cut up the hard boilded eggs into bite size pieces.
Use a fork (or spoon, but I prefer a fork) to mix the egg with the Vegenaise (or Mayo).
If you would like sprinkle on or add in 1/4-1/2 tsp of ground black pepper to your taste.
You can spread the egg salad on bread or toast or if you are like me just leave it in the bowl and scoop it up and eat it with some crackers.