Yes I can

Today started off badly in general. I had cried for a long time last night because my sister with whom I had been arguing has switched to ignoring my existence; she won't return my communication. Then I had trouble waking up. My period was gushing randomly like a geyser. (Sorry for the gross imagery, but, well, it did affect my day.) It was raining. I was late to work. I forgot (forgot!) to eat breakfast for the first time since the start of this year. I had a nosy coworker frustrate me. There was a heinous smell of dead rats in our office from some rats that died above our ceiling tiles. I felt gross and bad and off. But I was determined to get back on track today.

So when I realized I had forgotten to eat breakfast, I ate an early lunch of my leftovers--white bean and kale soup--with a side of a piece of whole-grain with almond butter and honey. I bit my lip so badly it bled and bled; finally my boss came in and asked if my nose was bleeding. That's how much blood there was! I blotted it and kept on eating.

Knowing that I'd be eating a late dinner tonight with a visiting friend, I ate a snack of smoked almonds and dried fruit about 3 p.m. When I left work for a minute to pick up my new shipment of contacts, I learned that I somehow never got two boxes previously--six months ago--that I was charged for; no manager was on duty to refund the money, and the woman who was working the counter argued they probably wouldn't give me a refund--"because it's been six months since they came in." Um, do contacts go bad in six months? No. So resell them. I'll deal with it tomorrow, though. I considered popping through Starbucks for a hot chocolate, but I realized what I wanted was to feel better, to feel on track, and that wouldn't do it.

When I got home from work, I immediately felt tired. I wanted to take a nap. I stood by the bed and stretched the top half of my body across it. But I didn't lie down. Instead, I pulled on some exercise clothes and went for a long walk, listening to my mp3 player along the way. I even ran three fairly short stretches during my walk! That probably doesn't sound like much, but it was. The first time I ran past runners--well, what did I expect? that they would point and laugh?--of course they did nothing. I wasn't remarkable--just one of many people running in the park. I must not have looked as foolish as I felt. That experience made me more confident. I went home and took a bath to get all the sweat off. (It is, quite randomly, 65 today.)

When my friend arrived tonight, we walked to dinner. I had a tasty alcoholic drink and ate about 2/3 of my meal--about two bites too many, but not bad. I was aware. I was planning to walk home, but my husband had met us and told me he didn't want to be lonely in the car by himself. (That means, I miss you! Come love on me!) So I rode with him and held his hand. Now I'm home. I got myself back on track today. And I'm going to keep it up tomorrow.

And now for a tasty meal with a terrible photo ;)

To be stored in our kitchen at work this week, I bought two kinds of organic salad greens, smoked almonds, dried berries, and feta cheese mixed with flecks of sundried tomatoes and basil. The idea is for me to make a side salad each day that has just a bit of extra goodies in it.

The trick was to come to work today and not eat all of that together for lunch on my first day! That would be a very high-calorie meal.

I also brought several frozen entrees. My leftovers from my home freezer are a bit low at the moment, so I bought some from the store. (I do recycle the packaging . . . and I consider $3-4 or a frozen entree that keeps me from spending $10 at a restaurant to be a bargain!)

Today for lunch, I heated up some spinach lasagna (no tomato sauce) from Seeds of Change. It was delicious--the pasta was, I'm thankful to say, still al dente after microwaving--and it was richly flavored. One of my coworkers was microwaving a Lean Cuisine meat-and-tomato lasagna as I was getting my lunch ready, and we both noted (she first) that my lasagna looked a lot more appealing than hers. My lasagna had 30 more calories and 3 more fat grams than the Lean Cuisine variety, so it was a reasonable choice in that way.

To go with my lasagna, I took out my herb salad mix and tossed it with two teaspoons of feta, a tablespoon or so of toasted walnuts (I toasted them on the stove for three minutes), and about two teaspoons of the homemade lemon dressing I've mentioned that I use previously.

It was quite a delicious meal. Unfortunately, my cell phone camera does no justice for tasty meals . . . but such is life.

V. Paparazzo's Pizza Kitchen

A cell phone shot: certainly not the greatest photo ever. But that was my lunch today--leftovers from our dinner last night. Perspective on its size is difficult, but the plate is a small salad plate, so the pizza serving isn't as large as it looks, and the salad is large. The salad isn't brown in places; that's my raspberry dressing on it.

I find pizzas much more interesting when they are made a little different, a little special. So on pizza nights, my kitchen turns into something resembling a California Pizza Kitchen . . . er, kitchen.

The whole, 4-5 serving pizza I made last night had about a cup total of three cheeses: fontina, parmesan reggiano, and asiago. It also featured caramelized organic red onion (one onion total), two sliced organic pears, and--underneath it all--a pesto of walnuts, olive oil, thyme, and honey. All ofthis was on a multi-grain crust.

For the salad, I tossed organic, local mixed greens with a dressing made of pureed (originally frozen, but defrosted) organic raspberries, olive oil, a dash of honey, and pepper.

Then the salad went on top of the pizza, and we ate the pizza and salad with knives and forks. Yum.

I just reheated the pizza in the toaster oven at work to make sure it stayed toasty, then tossed the salad onto it.