Marshmallows Descended From The Heavens

This has been a completely crazy week. I know I said I was going to do a “catch up” post the other night, but I decided to just scrap last week’s updates and do the current ones. We were so busy last week with shopping, my mom’s birthday, her party and work that I was looking forward to welcoming a “normal” week. Then this week started off with insane amounts of snow, my mom having to go to the ER for a kidney infection and now I’m sick with what I believe to be sinusitis. We got 17 inches of snow the other night and another 38 inches last night!! We can’t even see our car, it’s covered in snow! Our house looks like its surrounded by pools of marshmallow– a gingerbread house gone wild! LOL

Our back deck, there’s nothing under that mound of snow!

At times I thought we moved to Narnia, which would be totally awesome.

Dustin went outside to take some pics. This is our car buried under the snow. It’s a crossover, so it’s not small at all. To the left is our white Jeep, also covered in snow.

Luckily, Dustin found a good use for the snow

2 days later, we just now got our driveway cleared. We had a “snow hurricane,” yeesh! I’m so over you, Jack Frost. Warm Spring air is going to feel SO good!

The other day when I still had my taste buds, I made a glorious Field Roast sausage and pepper pizza on dough from the bakery:

I preheated the oven to 450F, then rolled out the dough, which was being difficult every step of the way. Then I topped it with: tomato paste, 4 slices Sargento reduced fat provolone cheese (200 cal) that I shredded in the food processor, 1 Field Roast Italian sausage (vegan) link (240 cal), 1 chopped medium red onion, and Trader Joe’s tri-color bell pepper strips zapped in the microwave for 1 min and drained before putting atop the pizza. The crust didn’t rise like it did last time, nor did it get that brown, but it still tasted delish.

With a spinach and dried cranberry salad on the side topped with 1 TBSP Bragg healthy vinaigrette (45 cal)…

I love making homemade pizza, it’s so gratifying and not to mention, inexpensive.

I found these pics while editing my food images. Mongo and Clyde wanted to be on the blog, too!! This is Mongo:

And this is Clyde:

The next day, my sinus woes were getting progressively worse. I had felt this infection creeping up for over a week now, but I wanted to believe that my nose and throat were just irritated due to the cold air. We went to see Shutter Island last Saturday and that’s when I started to notice that my sinuses were draining because I had an annoying cough. Ugh, thankfully it didn’t disrupt the movie, which was excellent despite the RUDE, talkative people in the theatre. Why do people go to movies to have conversations?! Go to a diner or something!

I haven’t done too much cooking this week between mom being sick and now me. The first day that I woke up with official sickness, I wanted soup and a sandwich. So I made a spinach, Laughing Cow Light and berry fruit spread sandwich on this whole wheat bread from Shop Rite.

Hard to argue with these ingredients:

A little high in sodium, but it’s so tasty! You have to freeze it right away because without preservatives, it doesn’t last more than 2 days. So I bought 2 loaves the other day ans stuck them in the chest freezer to be enjoyed at my leisure. hehe

On 1 slice (100 cal) I spread half of a Laughing Cow Light Swiss cheese wedge (25 cal) on it, then 1 TBSP Everyday 365 Fruits of the Forest fruit spread (30 cal) and a handful of fresh baby spinach (7 cal).

On the side: A cup of Dr. McDougall’s vegan Chinese Chicken Noodle Soup (140 cal)

I picked up a package of these new Stonyfield Oikos yogurts the other day after seeing them around the blogosphere.

110 calories and 10g protein for something that tastes like dessert? Perfect. I still had my taste buds when I ate it and I was pleased! It’s a little tangy, obviously, because it’s yogurt, but it was sweet and delectable. I liked it so much I bought a package of the chocolate flavor the next day.

I started to feel worse and worse as the day went on, then the next day woke up with a runny, stuffy nose and head/teeth pain. My upper teeth hurt so badly, as if they are in a vice. Ugh I had a shot of cognac to try to fall asleep with, but apparently cognac doesn’t work the same as Nyquil. I woke up every 15 minutes, then eventually found some Nyquil to take. That knocked me out for a few hours I guess, everything is a blur. I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep in days now, I can’t breathe through my nose and I feel so lethargic. I’m almost positive it’s sinusitis because I get a mild infection every few months, and a really bad case at least once a year since I can remember. Being allergic to sulfa and penicillin, there’s not much doctors can do for me. Hopefully it clears up soon. I have a doctor’s appointment on Monday, so we’ll see what she says.

I wanted comfort foods yesterday, all warm things, nothing cold or raw, except for ice cream. The prospect of eating a raw salad makes me cringe just thinking about it. When you can only breathe through your mouth and your throat hurts, chewing a cold veggie and then swallowing it sounds like the worst idea ever. lol! I made French toast for breakfast with a tall glass of orange juice:

I bought a can of coconut oil cooking spray at Mother Earth’s last week, so I decided to try it with this.

I don’t know if it was the eggs/bread combo or the spray, but it didn’t seem like the French toast wanted to get brown. It was weird. I made mine with:

• 3 slices Harvest Pride no salt added white bread (180 cal)
• 2 large eggs (150 cal)
• Splash of whole milk (20 cal)
• Coconut cooking spray (15 cal)
• 2 TBSP Fifty50 fructose maple syrup (35 cal)
• ~2 cups of OJ (220 cal)

365 calories for the French toast, 400 with the syrup

Unfortunately, I couldn’t taste very much of this. I couldn’t even taste the syrup! Dustin tells me it was delicious, so I’ll take his word for it. LOL Sighhhhh

I’ve been eating just 2 meals a day for the past few days, so I don’t mind if they are calorie-dense. My mom feels better now, so she made dinner last night:

• Grilled porterhouse steak with sauteed crimini mushrooms and onions (I cut off the filet portion for mine, which came to under 3oz)
• Baked russet potato topped with Fage Total 0% Greek yogurt and caviar
• Roasted carrots tossed in EVOO and garlic salt, then roasted on 400F for 20-25 minutes

We have so much leftover caviar from Valentine’s Day that we have to use up, so we looked up ways to eat it online and someone said it goes great on potatoes. Once again, I had to take Dustin’s word for it because I could barely taste it.

I ate all of my steak and carrots and half of my potato. I hate feeling hungry but not being able to taste what I’m eating. I also hate not being able to breathe through my nose when I chew, it’s so annoying. Please go away sickness, I don’t like you. At all.

I feel soooo groggy. I’m going to take a shower, then lie down. I feel yucky to the power of 10. And for some reason I’m craving liver. My nanny used to make it for me when I was little, I thought it was steak at the time. It’s supposed to be very good for you though, my body is probably craving the nutrients, but I’m generally more of a plant person.

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