Just Tomatoes!

In addition to what my sister and I have christened "pumpnies," I discovered Just Tomatoes Just Strawberries 'N Bananas this week. They're a little pricey, but are possibly the best snack I've found yet. It's like eating fruit snacks or gummy bears but without the sugar (or diarrhea-inducing sugar alcohols)! It's freeze dried fruit with literally nothing added. The fruit isn't even treated with sulfur dioxide or the like, like dried fruit. I'm not sure how, but it's also not hypercaloric like dried fruit - a 5 oz tub, which they say is equal to an entire pound of fruit, is only 180 calories. If strawberries and bananas aren't your thing, they have pretty much every other fruit available (think blueberries, peaches, and pomegranate, among others), plus veggies - corn, peas, tomatoes...you get the idea.

I think this is especially good for sleevers - especially early out, when we have such a hard time even squeezing in the protein we need, let alone any extra food that may actually contain micronutrients! I haven't tried the veggies, but I suspect they may also be especially good for reluctant veggie eaters like myself. I bet the mixed veggies would be really good to snack on tossed with some garlic powder or maybe cayenne pepper and salt.

PS: No, nobody paid me or gave me free stuff to do this review. I just found these and think they're great, so I'm sharing them with all two of my faithful readers.

Un-Stuffed Pumpkin Recipe

Mmmmm....fall is here, and to me that means SQUASH! I love winter squash, but for some reason, I hadn't really tried cooking with pumpkin before now (other than, you know, pie).

I went out to dinner last night and had the best roasted veggies I've ever had - there were pumpkin and kale in them. And THEN, I went to whole foods and they were having a freaking amazing sale on sausage. And thus, this recipe was born. It has pretty much every color of the rainbow in it, so you know it's healthy - although it is definitely NOT high protein.

(You could definitely vary the amounts/quantities of veggies in this recipe if you wanted. The peppers were kind of a whim, because my neighborhood fruit stand was selling them for 59 cents and I couldn't resist. I also think this would be good with butternut squash or even yams instead of pumpkin.)

Un-Stuffed Pumpkin
(about) 1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 large sweet onion, chopped
2 red peppers, chopped
1 small sugar pie pumpkin
herbs and salt to taste - I used rosemary
1 bunch kale
2 large mild Italian sausages (about 2/3 lb raw)
2 eggs
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 cup shredded parm (optional)

- Heat oven to 350.
- Brown onions in a couple tbsp. olive oil (you could skip this - I just like my onions REALLY cooked).
- Mix the onions and peppers in a baking dish and put them in the oven.
- Gut the pumpkin (save the seeds and roast them - yum!) and cut it in quarters.
- Place the quarters face-down on a plate, add some water, and microwave for about 10 minutes.
- Allow to cool, remove skin, and cut into 1" cubes.
- Add to the onions and peppers and toss the whole mix with another couple tablespoons of olive oil, salt, and herbs. Return to oven.
- Remove sausage from casings and brown in a skillet. Set aside.
- Remove stems from kale and chop leaves. Wilt in the sausage drippings and add to the veggies in the oven. Turn down the oven to 300 and roast veggies for about 45 minutes.
- Beat eggs and mix with sausage and breadcrumbs. Toss meat mixture with veggies and top with parmesan. Bake for about 20 minutes.

Makes about 12 servings, with about 200 calories and 7 g. protein each.

By the way, a sweet tip I learned about pumpkin seeds: pull them out of the pumpkin guts as best you can, then put them in a bowl of water - guts sink, seeds float - viola!

New info (to me) about B12

I wrote a post a while ago about my vitamin regimen that I realized was wrong. I still learn something every day about life as a sleever, even now, almost a year out! I was talking to my nutritionist about supplementation the other day. I don't take B12, except what's in my multivitamin, because a.) I can't tolerate the sugar alcohols used to sweeten the sublingual tablets and b.) I know I eat at least the RDA (according to mayoclinic.com,"a day's supply of vitamin B12 can be obtained by eating 1 chicken breast plus 1 hard-boiled egg plus 1 cup plain low-fat yogurt") every day. HOWEVER, she informed me that supplementation is still necessary for sleevers because the creation of "intrinsic factor," required to process B12, is one of the few stomach functions that we sleevers lose most of. I always thought that our bodies absorbed everything we eat, but apparently B12 is an exception! Like I say...learn something new every day! So I guess I'm gonna have to either figure out a way to tolerate the sublingual tablets (I wonder if I would be more tolerant of sugar alcohols now than I was early on...although, to be fair, they've always done a number on my stomach!) or get monthly shots :( Bummer dude.

Newest Incarnation of Lasagna

Recipe of my own invention - this is seriously the best lasagna I've ever had. I don't have the health info for this, sorry - but it has no starchy white carbs in it!

~ 1/3 lb. lean organic Italian sausage
~ 1/4 lb. lean grass-fed ground beef
16 oz. marinara sauce (if you get the jarred kind, be sure it is very low in added sugar)
6 whole wheat lasagna noodles
1/2 bunch raw spinach leaves, cleaned, chopped, and dry
8 oz. part skim ricotta (use organic dairy!)
8 oz. part skim cottage cheese
~ 1/2 cup egg whites (choose free-range!)
2 cups + 1 cup part skim mozzarella, grated
1 cup + 1 cup parmesan, shredded
Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt, and pepper

1. Brown sausage and ground beef together in a large frying pan. Add marinara sauce, season to taste, and simmer on low for as long as possible.
2. Parboil noodles for 5 minutes in heavily salted water. Drain, rinse, and lay out on waxed paper so they don't stick to themselves.
3. Mix ricotta and cottage cheese with egg whites. Add 2 cups mozzarella and 1 cup parmesan, stir well. Fold in spinach gently.
4. (this is probably a good time to preheat the oven to 350). In a 9x13 pan, layer a sauce/noodles/cheese, repeat. End with a layer of sauce and cover with the remaining mozzarella and parm. Bake, covered, for about 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for about another 15 minutes to brown the cheese.  Enjoy!

Spritzer

I realize that I didn't invent this combination, but I am SO happy that I found it! A little background: I was a HUGE diet coke drinker pre-op. I mean, like 8-10 cans a day huge. HUGE. I kinda did everything huge pre-op. Anyway, I still really love pop, but don't want to drink that much of it for obvious reasons - #1 being that it's not that comfortable in the sleeve unless I sip it and #2 being that it's really not very good for you! And I've really tried to cut waaaay down on the aspartame. But god I love that fizzy pop feeling! SO, I created this spritzer:

Sleevey's Spritzer
1 part 100%, no sugar added juice (any kind, I love the Old Orchard apple-combinations and Mott's Medleys)
2 parts water
1 part club soda (or diet ginger ale if you don't mind a little aspartame)

I like to think that it's relatively healthy because of the small amount of juice (low calorie, but does provide some vitamins etc) and the water diluting the whole thing. The juice and the water really tone down the bubbliness of the soda. What I generally do is buy the frozen Old Orchard juice concentrates and then make them up super diluted (1/2 can to about 2 liters of water). Then everything's waiting in the fridge for me to make a cool and refreshing beverage.

Artichoke Chicken Salad

It's been a long time since I posted a recipe! This is my latest obsession...

Artichoke Chicken Salad
25 oz (2 large cans) canned chicken breast, drained well and shredded
1 cup mayo
2 tsp lemon juice

garlic powder to taste

2 stalks celery, very finely chopped 

45 oz canned artichoke hearts, drained well and chopped
1 - 3.8 oz can sliced olives
1 cup shredded parmesan

Mix chicken breast, mayo, lemon juice, and garlic powder. Gently fold in celery, artichoke hearts and parmesan.

Makes 12 - 1/2 cup servings. This is great on crackers, in sandwiches, or all by itself! I like to make a big batch and keep it in the fridge for snacks, lunches, etc.

Nutrition stats: 275 cals, 17 g fat, 6 carbs, 19 protein.

Barley risotto

Last night I made barley risotto (aka "orzotto"). SO YUMMY!!  Why would anyone use plain old rice for risotto when you can use delicious, nutritious barley? I followed this recipe and while it was insanely, addictively delicious I think it's too fatty. Four tablespoons of butter is NOT necessary. I bet I can take out the butter entirely and just add more cheese (which is high in calories but at least also packs a protein punch). I'm gonna tweak it and figure out the proper proportions, and then I'll post it for y'all. Just fyi, if you're going to try it, that recipe's proportions are WAY off - I only had about 2/3 cup of barley and it took 3 - 14 oz cans of chicken stock.