What to Eat

When I was discharged from the hospital, I was put on a strict No Lactose, Low Fiber diet. Now normally, I am on a Low Fiber diet (Fiber can really irritate your intestines, and mine are already messed up enough), so that part of the diet hasn't been so bad. However, lactose and I are pretty much Best Friends. I have cheese on everything, I love yogurt, enjoy Instant Breakfast milk-drinks... the list goes on and on (chocolate? ice cream?!). So it has been a little bit of a rough patch for me the past few weeks, trying to figure out what is okay to eat.

Here's a few things of what I've come up with:

Vegan Banana Bread Muffins.
This idea came about when the bananas that I bought before I was admitted to the hospital had turned very black by the time I got out & finally went back to the LiNK house. I was trying to decide what to do with them, and really wanted banana bread muffins, like Cheyanne used to make when we lived together at CLU. However, banana bread muffins usually required at least eggs, and oftentimes milk. Clearly that wasn't going to cut it, so I started thinking. Lucky for me, Dylan was standing right there and said "why don't you make Vegan banana bread?" What a genius. I finally got around to making them last night... and wow. They tasted so delicious. So there is one thing that I can eat. Check out the recipe HERE*

Chicken and Rice.
While at the grocery store the other day, I was looking through all of the instant pastas, wishing I could eat them, (but alas they all have cream bases) when I continued down the aisle to the rice section. I was very excited because I saw that Rice A Roni had some sort of herb and rice concoction, which sounded delicious! So like the good kid that I am, I read the ingredients list, and about 3 ingredients in was "MILK." What?! Who puts milk in rice (unless its that delicious Cheddar/Broccoli one)?! So I had to rethink what I was going to do. Most of the boxes that they had on the shelf were some sort of cheese or that herb one. Then I came across another box, Chicken-flavor. I decided to give that one a shot. So I read the ingredients (twice), and there was nothing! (well, nothing harmful for my gut, anyway).

Finally when I got home from work today, I decided that I needed to try said Chicken-flavor rice. So I cooked up a nice HUGE chicken breast and made the rice, finally mixing it all together at the end to have a nice chicken & rice meal! I was amazed at how well it turned out. The chicken was pretty juicy after spending its last 5 minutes cooking in with the rice, and the rice was flavored really well (thank you Rice A Roni). Lucky for me, it made about 3 or maybe 4 servings, so I'll be able to have delicious chicken & rice for a few days now! (yay not having to cook!) Check out a similar recipe HERE*

I found several recipes online that I will be trying over the next several days/weeks. Hopefully I'll be able to find some delicious stuff to keep me filled up & happy (but not too broke). I might venture into making my own pancakes, bagels, and bread from scratch... we'll see how that all goes.

:)

Rain, rain, go away!

Oh the rain of southern California. Isn't it supposed to be spring now? It only rains in the winter here! Don't I wish...

In other news. Things are starting to look up for me! I am so incredibly excited about starting a new chapter of my life in September. I officially decided that I am going to attend the School of International Relations/Pacific Studies at University of California, San Diego for an MPIA (Masters in Pacific and International Affairs). Saweet!

I got the admissions packet last week, so I have spent a lot of time perusing all of the information that they piled on me in that. It was funny, because while reading over the list of courses that they offered this year, I got super excited (Policy Making Process, International Politics and Security, Program Design and Evaluation, etc). How geeky am I?

Now the only real thing for me to do is to figure out what I'll be doing this summer... I can't decide what kind of job I'll be wanting. Clearly I want to be able to do something in my field at some point, but up until I have my degree, its going to be a lot of working for free, which I can't really afford. Ever. So I need to find a semi-decent job with semi-decent hours with semi-decent pay. I'm taking suggestions! haha.

In other news, being NOT in the hospital is really nice. I spent far too long there last week, and I don't ever plan on going back. Ever. For anything. Except perhaps if I have children someday... maybe. Being cooped up unvoluntarily is one of my least favorite things. At least when I stay home all day long, I have the OPTION to leave if I ever wanted to. But in the hospital, I was pretty much confined to the 5th floor. Not so fun. Perhaps one of these days they'll come up with a way to prevent future hospital visits for me. Until that day, I'll be avoiding anything and everything that has to do with hospitals, or that could potentially send me there (at least as much as possible).

Now then... off to my summer reading list of 10 books, plus all the other books I want to ready & movies I want to see & people I want to hang out with & jobs I need/want to apply for... yes yes.

:)

The Sun Will Come Out

You know those times when nothing seems to be going your way? Everything you do just turns out wrong, or you are criticized for the way you did it? I've been having one of those weeks... or months. Not sure, really.

Today is Tuesday, but the past 2 days collectively have felt like about 5. Monday morning started out with a doctor's appointment (day 1). Then I went off to work (day 2). Afterward, I went to dinner & out shopping with my mom who just came to visit (day 3). Today was very similar. I went to work, then drove mom to LAX (day 4), and then went back to work to finish up the day (day 5). Wow.

It's been feeling like this since the switch of the month too. Usually March rocks my socks because it starts to get warmer, my birthday is coming up, and its just overall awesome. So far, this month has been the exact opposite. It has been cold & dreary, and rather miserable.

But I do know (thanks to Annie) that the sun will come out tomorrow! Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow there'll be sun! I'm just waiting for "tomorrow." Maybe that will actually be the day after today this time!

For now, I just have to keep trucking along, waiting for that rumored "tomorrow" to arrive. :)