About two months ago I cut all meat except fish out of my diet. I had just been feeling terrible for quite some time. No energy and bloated all the time. After about a week of doing this I felt so good. I wasn't bloated and I had a ton more energy. It was hard to do at first and I will tell you straight up right now that I have tried adding meat back to my diet a couple of times and, I don't like the feeling I get the next day. In all honesty, it makes me feel like crap. So I think I safely say that I am a pescetarian. I just learned that word. I kept calling myself a "vegetarian but still eat fish." Little did I know there was a name for that. I guess we learn something new every day don't we.
Here is my problem, I have no clue what to make. I love portobellos and salmon but I can't live off of that. I've done the occasional bean and cheese burrito too.
Here is the awesome part, I am now a carrot lover. If you know me, you know that in the past I have hated vegetables and especially carrots!
There is one vegetable that has always intimidated me.
It's eggplant. It's a beautiful vegetable but I had no clue how to prep it, until recently. I didn't know if it had to be peeled and such. Are there seeds that need to be removed? Well a friend from work told me how to do it. So I ventured out. I made eggplant parmesan. Oh my gosh it was soooo good.
Here is what I did. I cut up the eggplant. There were seeds but I didn't remove them and it was fine.
I then dipped the slices in an egg wash and then into italian seasoned bread crumbs. I fried them in melted butter until they looked crispy.
Then, I layered the slices about 3 high with spaghetti sauce and a slice of mozzerella between each layer.
I topped it with another spoonful of sauce and shredded parmesan. I baked them at 350 degrees until the cheese was melted, bubbly, and browned. I served it with roasted broccoli and cauliflower, pasta (could have done without), and artisan bread. Oh my gosh, so good I tell you. I am now a fan of eggplant.
If you have a favorite vegetarian recipe, please share it with me!
I found this recipe on Bakerella's blog and had to try them. I have made them twice already and they are seriously divine. And, super easy to make. If you like oreos, you will LOVE oreo truffles. A coworker of mine has actually asked me to make some for her hubby for his upcoming birthday. Poke around Bakerella's blog, seriously check her stuff out. And now the recipe for what I call Heaven, aka Oreo Truffles.
1 package oreo cookies (you will be using the WHOLE cookie) 1 8oz. package cream cheese (softened) white chocolate candy coating
1. Finely crush 7 cookies in a food processor or place them in a ziploc bag and crush into a fine consistency. Reserve for later.
2. Crush remaining cookies and stir in softened cream cheese. I used my kitchen aid with the paddle attachement, it worked great.
3. Roll the mixture into 1" balls and place on wax paper covered cookie sheet. I let them chill for a while before dipping but you don't have to.
4. Melt chocolate as directed on the package and then dip balls into chocolate, tap off extra and set aside on wax paper covered cookie sheet to dry. Sprinkle reserved crumbs on top before the chocolate dries.
5. Once dry, refrigerate and enjoy!
**NOTE** In the picture above I had used white chocoate chips and you can see that it's much thicker than the candy coating would be so it's hard to cover the whole ball. They were still just as good though!
***UPDATE 9/6/09*** Thank you all for you prayers for Mackenzie. She seems to be feeling much better and has been fever free since yesterday. She still won't eat much but I'm sure she'll be back to her normal self in no time. Her cough is getting better which means she is sleeping better! Original post follows...
This week has been insanely crazy with Mackenzie being under the weather. It all started Monday. She woke up and was a happy girl with a slight cough but nothing that alarmed me. Matt took the morning off and decided he wanted to take her to Toys R Us. She loved it there but then again what kid doesn't! She listened very well and we got her a little piano that has a stool to sit on and a tee ball set.
So, we get home and Mackenzie goes down for her 2+ hour nap. She wakes up and has this awful barking cough and a fever of 101.5. I'm telling you I thought a seal had invaded my kids body! Mackenzie also said that her right ear hurt.
We have yet to look for a pediatrician in our new area and seeing as though it was after 3:30pm we decided to take Mackenzie to the walk in clinic in town. We actually didn't have to wait that long which was surprising. We were told to get a cool mist humidifier for her cough, I was pretty sure that it was croup but there is no way to confirm that. When looking at Mackenzie's ears the doc said the right one was fine but the left was a little red. She also said the tube has come out of the ear drum (no big deal) but she couldn't tell if Mackenzie actually had an ear infection because she couldn't see that well into the ear. She gave us a prescription for an antibiotic and we were on our way.
We go to Fred Meyer and shell out $60 for a cool mist humidifier which by the way has helped her cough more than I thought it would. We did not fill the prescription since there was no confirmation that Mackenzie had an ear infection.
Tuesday she seemed ok though she had a mild fever off and on. Her cough still sounded bad too. It was $2 admission Tuesday at the fair so I decided to take her to see the animals. She actually didn't like that very much and we didn't stay long. See picture below. Tuesday night she ran a fever of about 101 again and actually fell asleep on the couch with not one but THREE pacifiers. She doesn't usually fall asleep just laying on the couch. Plus it was only about 6:00. She slept off and on the rest of the night. Keep in mind this was my second night of sleeping on her floor watching her breathing and listening for wheezing.
Wednesday was more of the same, less barkey though. She still had a fever which meant she couldn't go to daycare. I didn't want to send her anyway. She looked pitiful and felt awful. Another thing to keep in mind that this was my last week of work and I had to call in. Hello guilt, my name is Eva. Matt slept in her room this night and we were hoping the fever would be gone by morning so I could go to work. Matt is taking all of next week off so he couldn't stay home with her.
Good morning Thursday. Fever was slightly higher during the day, it actually stayed elevated up around 101.5 or so. Again, I stay home. Mackenzie did not look good at all. Why is she not getting better?? Did she really have an ear infection? More guilt hovering over my head at this point just at the thought of it. By about 7:30pm her fever elevated to 102.8, this was with tylenol on board. I started to panic a little as all of a sudden she is much, much worse. Her cough is more frequent, she is lethargic, she won't eat (actually she hasn't eaten much since Monday). I sleep on her floor again and decide to take her to her regular pediatrician up north which by the way is next door to my work. Her Grandparents actually agreed to take her Thursday but with her being so much worse, I couldn't part with her. They offered to watch her the next day so I could at least go to work on my last day. Boy do I feel lame. I slept on her floor or really just dozed here and there. Her fever stayed at least 102.5 throughout the night and by about 3:00am it went down to 101.
Happy Friday! I go to work for most of the day feeling so guilty for not being with my baby girl. Though, I know her Mimi and Papa are giving her extra cuddles for me. Here is what I found out at her doctor's appointment...NO EAR INFECTION! I am so glad Matt and I went with our gut and didn't give her an antibiotic when she didn't need it. She's had her fair share of them. She did have croup and that was a seperate illness from what she has now. Nice. That explains why her fever went up. Her lungs are clear which means no pneumonia. Throat is a little red but no blisters (likely from coughing and post nasal drip) so no Strep either. Whew. The doc thinks she has enterovirus of some sort. He asked if myself or Matt had any unusual really bad headaches last week, DING DING DING! I had one last Friday that made it difficult for me to see. Apparently teens and adults usually only get an extreme headache with enterovirus and young children and babies can get runny nose, cough, fever, and intestinal symptoms. In thinking about it, Matt has been having an off and on cold the last couple of weeks.
So, we are to keep an eye on her and if her fever is still over 100.5 on Sunday, we are to call the on-call doctor. I am so thankful to everyone that knew she was sick for keeping her in your prayers. I hate having a sick little girl, it breaks my heart to bits.
Look how pitiful she looks with her sad face and puffy eyes.
What do you think? I love the colors of this background that I found at Delightful Dots. While updating the look of my blog, I found the fonts to be really boring. This blog needed to be spiced up! I also wanted to change the name of my blog.
Well I tweeted about my desire to do this. I have a blogging friend, Stephanie, she also happens to be a nursing student as well. She is fabulous and I know we would be great friends if we lived near each other. She has an amazing talent people. She made me a new header to go along with my background. And, she was able to incorporate a couple of my favorite pictures of Mackenzie! How cool is that?! I love the header!
She also made me a button (see side bar) for you to grab and add to your site.
It's eggplant. It's a beautiful vegetable but I had no clue how to prep it, until recently. I didn't know if it had to be peeled and such. Are there seeds that need to be removed? Well a friend from work told me how to do it. So I ventured out. I made eggplant parmesan. Oh my gosh it was soooo good. 
