You are what you eat . ..

Last time I was at John's we watched "You Are What You Eat", a series where a British holistic nutritionist goes around and cures obese people by cleaning out their fridges and analyzing their bodies by pushing on their innards and looking at their pooh and changing their diets. The transformations after 8 weeks were incredible. I found it rather fascinating. She actually recreates their food intake for a whole week and lays it out in front of the peeps for a real eye opener. Hera and Isis liked it too. I've been thinking about that show and maybe I'll do that for the blog. Pictures coming soon . . . probably no pooh, but you never know. Live in suspense people. Plus I'm not even sure I can stay on a diet for 8 hours, let alone 8 weeks!

We tried these recipes from the Serious Eats Blog, the 30 days of veganism again:

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/02/vegan-broccoli-rabe-and-antipasti-panini-olive-salad-recipe.html

 http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/01/brussels-sprout-fried-rice-with-crispy-cauliflower.html

Both were delish. We kind of modified the panini recipe a bit and made it more into a bruschetta topping served on top of toasted whole wheat english muffins.  And I guess baby broccoli isn't the same as broccoli rabe, but who cares? Good eats. Brussels sprouts in fried rice kick ass. If you are trying a new bean paste, don't load it on just because it smells sooooo good. I knew when I got too close to the hot pan and it knocked the breath out of me and I started coughing and had to get a kleenex for my running eyes and nose that John put too much in the rice. Yowzer it was hot! I numbed up after a few bites and really enjoyed it though, I think. 

 Miscellaneous Mallaney Stuff . . .

Story from Mom: Dad (after some serious thought) to Mom:  “You are about 75 years old now, right?” Mom (thinking wow, Bernie is pretty sharp today): “Yes, that’s right.” Dad: “I thought so! I knew you were older than me  . . . “  Mom is 75, Dad is 93.

Story from Mom: Dad is up and dressed at 6:00 a.m., which is kind of early for him now. He has been staying in bed later. When mom commented on his early rising, Dad seemed surprised and said “Well, it is 6:00!”

I asked John if his kittens still sat on/with him at every opportunity: jmallaney: If I fall asleep on the couch I wake up with them on me. Usually I wake up because one of them is trying to nurse in my hair. LOLOL

As a reminder, Dad has been living in the his current house since 1975. Dad (or should I say Bernie my bro), while fidgeting nervously, to Kay: “I’m a little nervous.” Kay: “About what?” Bernie: “Oh, all the moving around, you know.” Kay: “Dad, you ought to be getting used to things now, you have been here quite a while!” Dad (looking at me like I am nutso and with wry laughter): “I’ve only been here 4 hours! It’s going to take some time! At least I have a good boss though, I don’ t have to worry about that.” Then he pointed to Mom. LOL

This one will only amuse the relatives . . . Dad, in the car on our way to Veteran’s Clinic in Joliet for routine bloodwork: “I know this road! This is Larkin, where I go and visit Gus and Jean, my little sister . . . the noisy one.” LOLOL

Dad frets and worries about many things, including the furnace. He tells Mom EVERY single time it kicks on. If it doesn’t kick on for a while, he wants her to turn it up to make sure it is working. Well, go figure. Furnace went out the other night. Not totally, a little hot air would come out for a few seconds every once in a while, but the blower was out. Mom had put a call into the repairman (just the regular #, not the emergency # that adds on big $$$ lol) and at about 6:00 a.m. it was about 60 degrees in the house. Mom snuck into the bedroom and turned dad’s heated mattress pad back on, and Dad did stay in bed a little later than usual. Mom turned on the oven too (mom always insisted on a gas stove just in case of power/furnace outages and damn, that has come in handy on numerous occasions!). Well, Dad finally did get up, and do you think he noticed that it was way cooler in the house than usual, and that the furnace wasn’t working properly! No. LOL  At least not until the repairman showed up.

When I told John that Dad was the “hired hand” again, John wanted to know exactly what sort of work the hired man did around the house! Dad has been getting waited on hand and foot for years! LOL So one night I asked Dad if he had many chores around the house. He informed me (and gave me that patient look of his) that he was “pretty old” and that he can’t do as much as he used, to. Plus there aren’t as many chores around a farm in the winter as there are in the summer. LOL  
 
This snippet is from a column in the paper titled “I’m not fat, I just hoard food.” by David Porter, upon being told by his doctor that he needs to lose weight and eat a healthier, lower-fat diet:

There is a bowl of apples on our dining room table that are turning black. Fruit gets eaten in our house like snow melts in Alaska. Ice cream, on the other hand, disappears like 10-cent drafts.

Amen to that!

As a postscript to the furnace story, Mom showed me the bill for the repairs  . . . $18,697.53. LOL  

Yes, it was a mistake. Whew! 

Have a good week all!

Kay :)

What is going on down there!?

John hasn't let the kittens have run of the house yet, so the basement is very mysterious to them, especially when they hear us playing ping pong down there, laughing and swearing and yelling. And having super long rallies! Ha ha!  Isis is spying under the door. And the girls like to push their cat toys (their favorite is a crumpled up red wrapper from a tea bag), under the door.

A kitten tangle-up.

It's hard to tell which body part goes with which kitten sometime.

Dad is doing  OK. Mom said they made it to church today. He has been taken off coumadin. One doc said if he stays on it he could bleed out. The other doc says if he goes off the coumadin he'll have a stroke. Depressing thoughts. 

Dieting sucks. Annoying drama at work, thankfully not in my office, but it still has me riled. And my knee hurts again.

Big old raspberry and signing off.

Kay