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Getting There

Date: March 13, 2013

Author: astottler

Ok I SWEAR I’ve been meaning to post for a really long time! Sunday was spent completely writing a 10 page paper that was due that afternoon. And then things kept coming up when I wanted to post (i.e. I was tired). And I promise I ACTUALLY have lots of food pictures to share with you guys! Yes, I’ve finally been able to eat fairly normally! After taking medication that brings down the swelling in my organs (liver and spleen) I’ve lost almost 10 lbs. It’s no wonder I’ve had zero space in my stomach these past weeks!

These are Teriyaki chicken tacos from a local Mexican place, Coyote Cafe. They are so good! They have pineapple on top and I’ve gotten them every time for years!

Here is a beautiful Vitamix smoothie with strawberries, pineapple, peaches, and mango. Not too shabby! I absolutely love this blender!

And here is the rest of this beautiful meal: leftover frittata.

Lunch that day was macaroni and cheese (this is Sunday, still playing catch up!). Plus steamed veggies. I swear I have not been able to get enough mac n cheese these past few weeks. It was one of the first things my stomach tolerated, and it feels amazing on a sore throat. Anyone with a sore throat: eat mac n cheese! Lunch was followed by a bit of a treat: trying the new froyo place in town, Menchie’s!

Sidenote: This post will include an embarrassing amount of frozen yogurt (sorry I’m not sorry!). This is salted caramel and devil’s food. My evaluation? Eh. I should have gotten the pistachio. I was trying to recreate my salted caramel experience from WIldberry, but this just wasn’t it. It was a bit bitter. And the devil’s food was ok, although I thought it was a bit bland, but it was sugar free, so afterwards I noticed a kind of weird taste. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. I spent the rest of my Sunday cranking out my paper. This whole time I’ve been sick, I told myself that when my fever broke, I’d make chocolate chip cookies. And Sunday was close enough, and I was so ready to bake after finishing my paper (which ironically is about how sugar is hurting our country….). I made the recipe on the back of the Nestle chocolate chip bag. Best recipe ever! Has anyone seen the Friends episode where Monica and Phoebe bake like 30 batches of cookies to try to recreate Phoebe’s grandma’s recipe, and then it turns out to be the Nestle Tollhouse recipe? Yeahh I’ve been watching that show a bit too much lately (I’m almost done with all the seasons…). Anyway, the cookies turned out great!

Let’s just say I never really make the effort to actually put them in nice balls….For some reason, everytime my mom makes this recipe, the cookies totally flatten out and run together. It is so weird that this didn’t happen to me! I also only made a half batch because a whole batch makes 5 dozen, and well, there are 3 of us.

In my opinion, there is one thing that must happen with chocolate chip cookies (and most cookies in general). They need salted butter. They have sooo much more flavor with salted butter! It’s the best!

So what was dinner Sunday night? An awesome dip from Cooking Light! My mom made it for my softball team party a year ago and we just couldn’t get enough! It is a mushroom artichoke dip, and is awesome with whole grain pita chips.

So good!

Yesterday I had class in the afternoon, and decided to stay on campus afterwards to clean up my dorm and get things squared away for break. Technically this is dead week, and next week is finals, but I don’t have any finals and I just have class up until Thursday, so I have a long break. Plus I had to meet up for a group project. After walking around campus a bit, and walking up and down stairs a few times, I suddenly realized I felt like I was going to pass out. It’s weird. I feel fine, but it’s the little things. Like apparently being on campus and living life for an hour and a half is enough to merit a nap. Luckily I have a bed there! It was so nice to see all my friends though! I definitely missed them! My mom had a class on campus that ended at 9:15, so she picked me up after her class, and I may or may not have demanded froyo. It’s embarrassing, the Internet search history on my phone is mostly frozen yogurt places. There’s a great place on campus, Fraiche, that is open pretty late, and is one of those healthy, organic places. I have come to seriously love tart froyo.

Plus mango and blue berry! Yay! So yes, after that day I basically fell into bed! I would have posted this morning but I had a project to work on. I can’t believe this was only yesterday!

Since we have extra dip, I’ve been thinking up creative ways to use it. Yesterday, I stirred some into my leftover mac n cheese (leftover mac n cheese is always so dry!), and this morning, I put it in scrambled eggs. That was certainly a delicious idea!

Tea and fruit on the side!

Lunch was quick on the way out the door. I’m realizing I’ve never posted this recipe before! I might need to make it its own post! It’s my all time favorite smoothie! Peanut butter banana!

Since this post is so long and the recipe is at the bottom, I’ll do a separate post for the recipe page, but I don’t want to leave you guys hanging, so here’s what this is: 1/2 cup milk, 1 frozen banana, a large spoonful of peanut butter. That’s it! It’s super creamy and delicious, and the more you blend it, the fluffier it gets! I haven’t had this in forever!

In class today, we skyped in with the guy who wrote our textbook, and gave presentations to him. How cool is that?

After class was a treat. My sister is sick and needed a prescription filled, so my mom offered to pick it up. Aaaand it just so happens my new favorite froyo place is right next to the drugstore, soooo….It’s not like I had a choice.

Salted caramel pretzel, chocolate, and brownie on top. YUM. Plus some tart with pineapple on the side, because I rally wanted to try it and YOWZA it was good! I might get that next time!

After that, my mom and I went to Costco, which I always love. It’s so fun to look at large quantities of stuff! Plus, is there really anything they don’t sell? And of course, the free samples!

Dinner was chili and broccoli. The turkey chili was topped with cheddar and avocado. Plus chips for dipping!

And let’s just say those cookies are as good as gone. 😉

And guess what? I am officially off medication! Hard to imagine I was taking 30 pills a day a week ago!

Have a great night everybody!

What is your favorite type of frozen yogurt?

I’m Back!

Date: March 9, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I’m finally ready to re-enter the blogging world! These past 2 weeks have been pretty rough, so I’ll give you an update on what is going on with me. I have Mono…and according to my blood tests,a pretty bad case of it. Since my spleen and liver are swollen, my stomach is super puffed up and I secretly believe an alien is growing inside of me. The thing is, it’s not just Mono. I tested positive for Strep throat a week ago, but that should be over now with antibiotics. But then somehow I managed to pick up a cold too. Which turned into an ear and sinus infection, which is why after 2 weeks I wasn’t feeling any better. I am convinced that I picked up the strep and cold at the ER. It was disgustingly unsanitary. I am finally on different antibiotics for the ear and sinus infections, and I am starting to feel better, although I am still partially deaf in my left ear. The biggest problem now is I have had a killer sore throat for the past week. Fortunately, I finally got prescribed with a steroid yesterday that brings the swelling in my body in general and my throat down, and I think the pain is improving.

I have basically been in bed for 2 weeks straight, though the last couple of days have been better. I have to take Advil and Tylenol around the clock because otherwise I feel like I am being strangled…and my temperature goes up. The good news is with my new antibiotic, I feel way stronger. I recently realized that I have been taking 28 pills a day. Although that was before the steroid (though I am trying to cut the Advil and Tylenol some). That is crazy. 2 years ago, I couldn’t swallow any pills at all. Embarrassing, I know! It was a huge problem, and I had the hugest fear. Well guess that is gone now, especially since my new antibiotics are giant!

I have been living at home these past 2 weeks as well. For a long time I literally could not get out of bed in the morning, and I doubt my roommate would have wanted to do EVERYTHING for me! Luckily I’m local to school. I had to drop half of my classes though, and will have to retake them next quarter. It is all I can do to keep up with my couple of classes now! My days consist mostly of watching Friends!

I haven’t blogged because my food choices haven’t been too interesting. With a swollen stomach comes a small appetite. And for a while no food at all appealed to me, so I couldn’t even think about food. Exciting news though! We got a new blender! A Vitamix. It’s amazing. And smoothies have been a top choice lately given my throat and my earlier lack of appetite. For a while nothing sweet appealed to me. Yeah I seem to have gotten over that. Frozen yogurt has been a big part of my life lately (yesterday I tried salted caramel pretzel….BEST. THING. EVER.). One night my dad ran out and got me a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. SO GOOD. Sweets do tend to send me into coughing fits though… Eh. One thing that didn’t appeal to me that I haven’t forcibly reintroduced is nuts/nut butter. And guess what? My skin is better than ever! Silver lining right?? I don’t have any food pictures. Well, except this sequence.

That was my turkey and avocado sandwich. Charlie is crazy about meat. And, oddly, bread. I stood no chance.

This morning for breakfast, I was feeling much better and wanted to go out for pancakes. I ordered Blueberry wheat germ, which were pretty good but the wheat germ was a little bitter. My pea sized stomach stood no chance for the giant stack though! Now that I am eating more though, I think I need to go back to worrying about my sugar intake. Especially if I plan on developing a frozen yogurt habit (hey, there are still HOW MANY nearby places I still have to try??). I’m thinking I need to limit my sweets to frozen yogurt…I guess part of the problem is that fruit is a little hard on my throat (it is pretty acidic). Ah well. I guess I just need more smoothies! Now while I don’t have a lot in the way of food pictures, I do have cat pictures (benefit #1 of being home).

Just look at that face!

DEFINITELY not about to fall off or anything!

Who really needs to fold laundry? Or have non-furry towels?

I’m so glad to be back blogging! Unfortunately it will be a while on the workouts…I think the first things I’ll be allowed to do are spinning and running. No weights, and probably no erging, until my spleen has no possibility of rupturing….but hey, now I know where my spleen is! Going back to crew is going to be so difficult…Seeing the erg workouts they are doing just seems impossible. I guess I’ll have to cross that bridge when I come to it!

How’s everyone doing?

Quick Update

Date: February 27, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! Just a quick update on how I am doing…not too well. As it turns out, I have Strep Throat and Mono. And Mono means I will be feeling pretty terrible for about 4 weeks….so now I’m scrambling to try to drop some of my classes because there’s no way I can keep up if I’ve barely gotten out of bed this past week. I am so grateful I live close to home and can just stay there, because I can’t get out of bed in the morning without Advil, which I can’t take without eating….yeah. No food pictures because I’ve been eating the smallest amounts of the blandest foods imaginable. I am on Antibiotics for Strep and they definitely mess with your stomach….I’m hoping that when the Strep is gone I’ll feel a lot better. It’s sad. I haven’t even been able to read food blogs lately! I can’t even think about food. So it will most likely be a little while until I post again because unless you guys want to see pictures of dry toast….This little guy has been with me a lot though! Especially when I am with said toast. He has this weird thing for bread. So you can imagine the pandemonium when last night I was eating a turkey sandwich in bed…

Hopefully everyone has a great day! Stay healthy!

What do you eat when you’re sick? Have you ever had Mono?

Chugging Along

Date: February 25, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Not a lot to share with you guys today….I’m still sick. I keep getting better….but then my temperature climbs right back up. I feel like some sort of mutant…I am on like 4 different things right now to treat my symptoms (so I actually feel ok right now…while all 4 are working!). I’ve gotten some new symptoms, so I wanted to get some tests done yesterday to figure it all out. I was a little concerned it is mono, but the doctors really don’t think so. Either way, I finally convinced them to at least test me for that. But first, let me back up a little. The evening started by calling Urgent Care to see if they would be able to do these types of tests that night, and they said yes. After going in and waiting, and finally meeting with a nurse, they said they didn’t have the resources tonight to do it, so they sent me BACK to the ER. It was way more crowded this time, and I felt a lot worse (pounding headache mainly). I waited in the Pediatric waiting room because the wait was supposedly shorter. This was a very unpleasant experience. There were 2 kids SCREAMING (they were older brothers of some other kid who was sick) and there was one little boy who had just been throwing up all over himself/his dad who walked over and stole a little girl’s Cheetos right out of her hand. In summary, I was there for 4 or 5 hours (can’t even remember at this point), and basically had to beg for any type of test at all. Even worse, there was supposed to be a specialist to draw my blood but she never showed up, so finally a nurse just did it…let’s just say my arm is slightly mutilated….

I don’t have a ton of food pictures. My stomach has been feeling kind of off. I just had some scrambled eggs for dinner, but I didn’t want anything else because I couldn’t stop coughing.

I slept pretty late this morning, which was kind of a problem because it meant my fever did nothing but climb the longer I stayed in bed…and I couldn’t take anything before I ate, but I didn’t feel like getting up at all. I ended up with a cherry and mango smoothie. Lunch was saltines, plus apple juice and fizzy water (trying to rehydrate myself). Later on I had a breakfast burrito. Dinner has a picture though. Vegetable soup plus Gluten-free biscuits!I honestly haven’t done much at all today but lay in bed. I seriously don’t know how I am going to keep up with my schoolwork when I feel terrible most of the time. I can’t remember the last time I was this sick!

At least my kitties spent some time with me today! As it turned out, all I had to do was move the cat climber in my room next to the window….Silly cat!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Turning a Corner

Date: February 23, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Guess what? Still sick :/ But I think I’m finally getting better (knock on wood). What have I been doing the last 2 days? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Thursday night was interesting. My fever climbed above 103 so I went in to Urgent Care, who sent me to the ER because they were closing. After waiting for 3 hours, they told me it was probably the flu because I had no other symptoms. I felt dumb sitting in the waiting room. After taking Advil and Tylenol, my fever was gone and I felt perfectly normal. I felt like I was the healthiest person there! I felt rally bad for some of the parents in the waiting room dealing with their really sick little kids. That would be so difficult! After the lack-luster diagnosis, I told my mom that I wanted something delicious. We could only find one place open, and it just happens to be the one place with the best cinnamon rolls in the world, Peninsula Creamery in Palo Alto. Unfortunately, a picture didn’t occur to me. But trust me when I say it was amazing! They have the most amazing looking desserts, especially the pies! I Kind of wish I had gotten something chocolatey but I’m not complaining! I live fairly close to school, so I just spent the night at home. I’m actually going to spend all weekend home. I figure if I’m lying around doing nothing, I might as well be lying around doing nothing with furry animals. Friday was back to a more strict Paleo routine. After my late-night cinnamon roll, I wasn’t that hungry so I made a green smoothie for breakfast. Cherries and spinach again! Plus some blueberries. After breakfast I went to my 2 Friday classes because I really couldn’t afford to get behind. Plus, when I’m on Advil/Tylenol I feel perfectly fine and normal.

It was parents’ weekend at school, so campus was swarming with parents. My parents went to a few events before being introduced to the wonders of dining hall food (yes, it looks all new and exciting the first time, but every meal??).

Italian salad, tilapia, and butternut squash (ok, they do step it up a little for parents’ weekend).

After lunch I was back to resting. Dinner was simple: breakfast!

A smoothie with frozen banana, mango, strawberries, cherries, and almond milk. A little potato, and a Greek salad my mom whipped up for me with leftover ingredients. Bonus: I had extra smoothie leftover!Plus chicken apple sausage!

So last night, a couple of spots near by eyes swelled up a little, but it went away with Tylenol. It was weird, one spot next to my eye, and one spot on my lower eyelid. It freaked me out a little at first! I also realized that my lymph nodes were swollen. I thought that my chin looked bigger, and I figure I had just gained a lot of weight since I haven’t been exercising, but then I figured out what it really was!

I’ve definitely been enjoying dark chocolate lately. It has so little sugar that I figure it is ok. Plus, it really is hard to eat a lot of it (especially considering I’m eating, 85, 90, 99% chocolate) and I never really want something THAT sweet. Which brings me perfectly to the next topic. What would Hunter Pence do?

As you may know, I’m a huge baseball fan. A huge Giants fan specifically. My mom recently sent me this video about one of the Giant’s players, Hunter Pence. He fairly recently adopted the Paleo diet, and feels great! One concern I always have is whether the eating style is ok for an athlete, but if he can do it, then I can! And he includes some dark chocolate. So when I’m trying to decide if something is ok, I’m going to ask myself, what would Hunter Pence do?

Also, I have a quick question for all of you. Thursday night when I was picking up Tylenol at the grocery, I bought some coconut butter. I didn’t think anything of it until my mom asked what the difference was between coconut butter and coconut oil. I was confused at first, because I guess I always just assumed they were the same, though I suppose this makes a little bit more sense in terms of some of the blog posts I’ve read…So what is the difference? Help me out here!

This morning’s breakfast was leftover smoothie, plus an egg scramble. It is based on Tina‘s Sweet Breakfast Scramble, but I added pumpkin pie spice, and pumpkin instead of squash (leftover from the pumpkin bread I made last week). It was so, so good! And I didn’t even need nut butter (yes, my skin is seriously hating me right now).I also tried a new type of coconut water that a lady recommended to my mom at the store. It was actual chunks of coconut in it! It was really good! Way fresher and more coconutty!

Ok, one more meal to catch up on! Lunch was a simple salad (my patented salad). Lettuce, apple, craisins, candied pecans, rotisserie chicken, avocado, and Italian dressing. SO GOOD.

Plus some baked barbecue chips and dark chocolate!

Ok, one more topic before I go do work (yayy). My hitting coach for softball always told me: “You’re a perfectionist. Never drink alcohol or you will be an alcoholic.” I never exactly got the connection…but he was totally right (NOT that I’m saying I’m an alcoholic!). I’m definitely a sugar addict. Plain and simple. My dad finally recognized this for the first time. And see, the tough thing about this is that there is sugar around me everywhere. There are sweet/dessert options available and displayed EVERY MEAL. My dad compared me to an alcoholic who constantly is in bars. Thanks dad, that gives me tons of hope for recovery! I’ll end with that today!

Any tips for sugar addicts? What is teh difference between coconut butter and oil?