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

Exciting Sunday

Tried a new recipe John sent me for Chile Rellenos Casserole.

I totally screwed it up. I forgot to put the eggs in. Rather a crucial error since I had already poured the fluid part of the recipe over the layered cheese, chicken, and roasted peppers. But it turned out OK. I think if I changed out the chicken for hot and spicy sausage, it would be a delicious breakfast casserole. I had extra red pepper so I threw some of that in with the pablanos. And I don't think I charred my peppers enough to make them easy to peel. Live and learn. I ended up rough chopping the peppers instead of just layering them in bottom of dish. Kind of  handy since I ended up dumping said layers in a bowl and stirring it all together anyway. Those roasted peppers had a ton of flavor. And it was a lovely dish to look at. Definitely a keeper.

I did a lot of laundry today and made some Duggar family laundry soap. What an exciting day!

Dad didn't make it to church today, he was a little dizzy. And he heard on the weather that we were going to have freezing rain, and that got him worried. He worries a lot.  He was happy to see the temps are going to be in the 60's on Tuesday (crazy!), but then they mentioned storms, so that got him worried again. But guess what? LOL He forgot, so everything is cool.

Kay :)

Last year at this time . . .

Has it really been only a year? It seems so long ago. On this night last year I was cleansing my entrails in preparation for surgery. http://iwannabealoser-kay.blogspot.com/2012/01/surgery-day.html Memories . . . (yes I was singing that). Hooray for colostomy reversals!
 
I'm on target for my Get Paid to Lose Weight Challenge. Lots and lots of days (and pounds!) to go.

I got crowned yesterday. Not in a royal way. In a dental way.

My knee and heel are doing OK. Not perfect. Maybe someone forgot to do her PT for a week? Time flies man.

Sign seen at a tax service - "APOCALYPSE AVERTED - WE ARE OPEN".

Watched more new movies. How weird is that? Alfred probably thinks I have foresaken him. Another Earth (excellent); Looper (good-surprised me more than once). I can't remember the other ones but you know, I may start watching more newer movies. Maybe.

I can't believe Kristen went home on Top Chef!

Dad is doing pretty good. He uses the walker all the time now. Mom still fusses over his not eating enough, but he always has room for his junk food. 

I have to watch Shadow of a Doubt now. Alfred Hitchcock, Joseph cotten, Good stuff.

Kay :)

1072716872

OK That is my Healthy Wage referral number. Some people would look at the extra $20 as incentive, I think of it as PRESSURE! John's vegan week paid off . . . he's is off to a great start. I did pretty good too. Maybe I can eat vegan for a week. Kay the weegan? I gotta think that over!

Kay :)

Weegan

Hi folks, 

John is a weegan. He is eating vegan for a week. Get it? lol I invited myself to his house to help me stay on track for my Get Paid to Lose Weight Challenge. If When I lose 10% of my body weight and  weigh in in 6 months, they will double my money! $150 doubled to $300! That's a lot of dough. John is doing it too. Join us! Misery loves company! What a great investment, financially and health wise! Any suckers out there . . . ? (http://www.healthywage.com/

Anyway, John informed me that he is eating vegan for a week, and I should bring a recipe for Saturday supper and Sunday lunch. Okey dokey. Will do. After a Junior Whopper with Cheese (tsk tsk) to fortify myself, off I went with my vegan recipes.

There is a blog I like called Serious Eats and a blogger blogged his 28 days of eating vegan. http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/02/vegan-experience-recipes-soups-salads-sandwiches-mains-snacks.html?ref=search. Lots of the vegan recipes sounds great. I picked the soup and toast recipes from that series. What a terrific meal! We loved it. Hearty and filling and healthy and delicious.

Breakfast Garlic Toast & Garbanzos con Espinacas y Jengibre (Spanish Chickpea and Spinach Stew with Ginger)

Don't skip the  sherry vinegar when you serve up this delicious soup! It is fantastic. And the garlic toast was a great dipper.

I saw this next one in a magazine a while back, and did an internet search to find a recipe for cauliflower steaks. This is the one we used http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/quick-recipes/2012/01/cauliflower-steaks-with-olive-relish-and-tomato-sauce-2

It was wonderful! My big cauliflower steaks broke up into little ones, but big whoop. Instead of making the tomato sauce in the recipe I used my beloved roasted red pepper-eggplant sauce from Trader Joe's I love that stuff and it went perfectly in this recipe. Definitely good eats.

On the Dad front, Mom told me that Uncle Jim (Dad's younger bro, 92 years young!) phoned today. Dad told Uncle Jim that he is living in Joliet now, with Jo Ann Black (mom's maiden name!) LOLOL. What a hoot. I told Mom she is moving up in the world, she is no longer cousin Ione, now she is shacking up with Bernie in Joliet! I had a good giggle over that.

Dad still thinks he is the hired man sometimes. I took him for a ride Saturday before I left for John's, and he was talking about Morris . . . "I still can't believe I ended up in Morris. I used to know people in a lot of these houses, and now I don't know anybody. Of course when you are a hired man, you don't get out much . . . " I took him for a doughnut, gosh he loves his junk food, AND I'm not the only one packing it on here. Finnegan is a real whopper! He must be worried and depressed about Dad too! We'll get a handle on it. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

What!? I'm not fat!

Dad took a fall in living room, Mom isn't sure what happened. He bloodied up his chin. He seems OK though. He made it to church today. He loves church. He keeps telling us he won't be here much longer.  He has been saying that for 25 years, I swear. I ask him if he knows how much longer he is going to be hanging around and he laughs! LOL  Then he tells us that nobody lives forever . . . though he would like to! LOL

John's cats are sweet as can be. You sure laugh out loud a lot more when there are kittens around, that is for sure. We watched a lot of movies this weekend, movies I would never have watched had John not cut the cable Cord. Slumdog Millionare (good); The Pack (bad dogs! I mean bad owners! 70's movies often have a lesson); The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea (bad boys!); The Night Digger (wow Patricia Neal); The Day the Earth Caught Fire (very good); and some other ones too. I have to agree with John that 70's movies have held up better over time than 80's movies.

New furniture at Johns.

Sisters. And gosh they throw off a lot of heat, handy with John's low thermostat! They were laying on my belly under a blanket while I was vegging on couch watching a movie.

One of Hera and Isis's fave spots, John's shoulder.

It was fun when the kittens saw snow for the first time. They were wide eyed, looking up at the falling snow, occasionally taking a leap into the sliders. And I'm sorry about locking you in closet Isis! You little sneak! (She loved it!)

Went to the hospital to see Mar, she went in for some tests, and I couldn't help but remember that it is coming up on the year anniversary of having my colostomy reversal. Hooooray!!!! LOL And Mar is out of hospital and fine! Hooooray!!!!

Have a good week peeps!

Kay :)

Happy 2013!

Happy New Year people!

Had a nice dinner with the family over at John's today. Dad enjoyed the ride, and everyone enjoyed the cute, peppy kitties. The girls got tuckered out and crashed with Dad in the recliner after dinner.

Mom told me a story. The other day Dad was in the living room, and the TV was NOT on (very unusual lol!), and she asked him if he wanted the TV on. Dad gave her a funny look and said "It wouldn't be right for the hired man to sit and watch TV in the middle of the day!" LOL  The brain is amazing, isn't it, trying to make order out of chaos? Sometimes he thinks my brother, Joe, is the hired hand. I'm pretty much always his sister, Noreen. I find that kind of weird, because I'm named after my Aunt Kay, and Dad never thinks I am her! LOL 

Dad, Hera and Isis.

John and I are doing the 10% challenge here . . . http://www.healthywage.com/. If anybody wants to join it with us, use this number please - #1072716872. We did our videos today. Oh boy. That was fun. NOT. But getting paid to lose weight sounds great! I need to get over being sad and depressed about Dad and stuffing my face. O-V-E-R! And to stop making excuses, like being sad about Dad! LOL Now that my knee and foot are fixed, it is time. I've been so sedentary the last few months. Also, another New Years resolution, besides getting a handle on my weight, I'm going to keep track of my inflow and outflow . . . of MONEY! lol 

Spiral ham, potatoes gratin, roasted broccoli, sweet potato rolls. Carrot cake for dessert. Yum.

Had a party at Mar's on Saturday night for her 20th anniversary of her catering business, Lestina's Catering, then a small New Year's Eve gathering at Mark & Donna's last night. Very pleasant times. Too many yummy treats. Then off to John's house today. Quite the social whirlwind for this homebody. I've had this bitching cough, and no pep, and back to work tomorrow, and I got nothing done the last 4 days I've been off. Grrrrr. Hopefully I'll pick up some steam soon.

I'm glad the holidays are over and I'm glad 2012 is over.


Kay :)