Pass the nutmeg

My mom is a wonderful cook. All growing up, she always had a fabulous homemade dinner on the table when we came home from school. I'm still constantly calling her from the grocery store asking her about some ingredient or asking her how to making something.

One of my favorite dishes she makes is pork chops in a creamy mushroom sauce. Basically, it's pork chops slow cooked with cream of mushroom soup. But of course, I can no longer eat cream of mushroom soup since 1. it has cream in it, and 2. soups are thickened with either flour or cornstarch, neither of which I can have. So I decided to make my own cream of mushroom soup.

I found this recipe on food.com and it sounded simple enough.

• 8 ounces fresh mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons onions, chopped
• 1 -2 garlic clove, minced
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 -3 tablespoons flour (separated)
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup light cream or 1 cup evaporated milk
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1. Cut the mushrooms into slices.
2. Melt butter in large frying pan. Add in onions, garlic, and mushrooms. Cook until onions are soft.
3. Blend in 2 T. flour and stir.
4. Add in the chicken broth and heat until slightly thickened while stirring frequently.
5. Stir cream with additional 1 T. flour and seasonings. Add in cream to soup. Heat to thicken while stirring frequently.

I switched out the flour for almond flour, which seemed to work just fine. I also used some of my homemade yogurt in place of the light cream. I boiled it down probably just a little further than you're supposed to to thicken it up a little.

I have to say, it came out pretty good. I don't feel that the yogurt changed the taste much at all. And the nutmeg really set it off! That's the taste that I've really  noticed each time I've tasted it.

So I seasoned my pork chops with a little thyme and rosemary, seared them, and covered them in soup to simmer. You're supposed to let it simmer for about 3 hours to get them really tender, but I didn't have that kind of time and only let them go about and hour and a half. They were good, but would've been even better with that extra time.

Overall, big success as an SCD dish. I just had leftovers for lunch and it was just as good. I almost wanted to lick the leftover soup off the plate. Even if I wasn't on this diet, I would probably use this recipe in the future.

What the doctor ordered

I just spent the past few minutes taking my boss' advice and enjoying a few minutes outside. I could not imagine a more beautiful day! The sun is shining, the sky is a deep Carolina blue, and the cold seems to be gone for good (one can only hope here in North Carolina).

I even took my iPad with me and did a little writing for my writing class. (As a side note, I used to say that I'd love to have an iPad, but just don't really have a real need for it. I was wrong. Everyone needs and iPad.) As a homework assignment, we're supposed to write about our favorite place. I couldn't help but think of a beautiful, warm beach and that made being outside on a day like today even more enjoyable.

So yes, I have started a new job. I'm in my second week at a psychiatry office here in Raleigh. I'm heading up things in the office, taking care of scheduling and updating files and filing insurance, all the fun kind of stuff. It definitely is a change of pace from working at the news station, but a welcome one for me. I'm doing the whole 9-5 thing, which I've basically never done. This is literally the first time since Jarrod and I have been together that we've been on the same schedule, other than our college schedules.

I've decided the most difficult part of being on this schedule is the whole getting home and immediately having to dive into dinner preps. Especially since I've been on this new diet that requires a bit more legwork than I'm accustomed to. But at the same time, I consider that a rather small issue when compared to having to go to bed at 7:30pm when it's still light out until after 8:00.

I love being able to sleep in in the morning and get ready in the light! (I actually went into work at the station one time wearing one brown and one black Rainbow because I'd been getting ready in the dark.) I have time to make myself breakfast in the morning and now that I'm getting used to it all, I want to take a couple of days a week to get up early and do some exercising... both physical and mental.

I've also really enjoying working here at the doctor's office. The people are really nice and I've been enjoying getting to know the patients.  I get to pretty much run things the way I want and have a nice combination of time to myself and interacting with others. I'm getting into the swing of things now and liking the laid back nature of the position. But there are things I do miss from the station, such as the fact that there's never anything "breaking" around here. At least not for my position. But that's OK. For now, I'm just going to enjoy being able to relax a little more, not feeling so much pressure, and sticking to a normal routine. I'm also going to enjoy my first normal holiday coming up in just a few weeks here (ah, the finer things in life!)

Poetry and Prose

I just got home from my first writing class at Wake Tech. I think I'm going to like it. It's not even so much about the class, but I think it'll be the motivation I need to get me going. Already, I'm feeling really excited about writing and I think that's what I really need. Just a push in the right direction.

The class has about 12 people in it. Some of them have actually been published before, but some others have never written in their life, but wanted to give it a try. I fall somewhere in the middle, probably more on the unexperienced side. But that's OK. I think that's right where I'd like to be.

We didn't get into too much in the first class. We did the whole introduction thing and getting to know everyone. Then we did a couple of writing exercises and read them for the class (yikes!) I've never been to big on reading my stuff in front of a crowd, but that's part of the push that I think is going to be good for me.

I'm looking forward into really getting into stuff next week. I need to keep reading my writing book, too. (So as part of my goals for this month, I had wanted to have it finished by the time I started this class. That so didn't happen!) I think it'll provide a good foundation for what we do in the class.

I want to also keep up with my writing exercises. I was doing pretty good at doing them every day before, but haven't been lately. I think that's a really important aspect. As they said in my book, if you want to be an athlete, you have to exercise and practice every day. The same goes for writing. You have to work at it every day. Plus, I have my new iPad and this gives me a good excuse to use it some more!

Yummy in my Tummy

It's been a difficult couple of weeks on this new diet, trying to figure out what I can eat and making sure I have all of the ingredients that I need and making sure that foods settle well with my stomach. At first it was hard to get a variety of food because it's best to introduce new things slowly, that way you don't overwhelm your body and you also can keep better tabs on how different foods affect you.

However, a major concern for me has been making sure that I get enough calories. I've already lost a little weight in the past few months and this diet has made it a little difficult to gain it back. I started by making my yogurt out of whole milk and even half-and-half. I also added in almond flour. It may have been a little early for me to start eating this, but at the moment, my concerns for getting enough calories outweigh that.

I made some banana muffins last week which came out pretty good. I also tried making some cinnamon cookies. They came out alright, but I overlooked them a little and they're a little crunchier than I normally like my cookies.

So today, I decided to make another batch of muffins. I found a recipe on Amy McKenna's blog for lemon poppyseed muffins. I followed her recipe and added a honey/lemon glaze on top. And they are oh so good!! I'm having to exert a large amount of self-control to not eat the entire dozen. I try to keep my nut flour intake to about 2 muffins a day plus maybe a cookie at night. Plus, I need things like these to eat throughout the week. I've already eaten 2 this morning and I really want to go get another one. I may have to hide them from Jarrod!

SCD Lemon Poppyseed Muffins (from roboranch.com) with a Honey and Lemon Glaze

Muffins
3 eggs
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp grated lemon rind
1 Tbsp poppyseeds
3 cups almond flour

Glaze
3 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
A few drops of lemon juice

Preheat oven to 325.
Line a muffin pan with paper liners.
In a large mixing bowl, use an electric beater to thoroughly combine eggs, honey, butter, baking soda, salt, and lemon juice.
Stir in lemon rind and poppyseeds.
Stir in almond flour, a cup at a time, to make a fairly thick batter.
Spoon batter into muffin cups.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown, springy to the touch, and a toothpick comes out clean.

Combine glaze ingredients. I just squeezed a few drops of lemon juice from the other half of my lemon.
Mix until thick.
Spread over cooled muffins.

And I am in heaven...

Goodbye, 25. Fare thee well...

I can't believe it's my birthday in just over 4 hours. Birthday's are always fun. I mean, let's be honest, who doesn't like a day that's all about them?? But I don't think I tend to really look forward to my birthday, as some people I know do. It has been a very long time since I've done anything big for my birthday, and I've had several pretty disappointing ones in the past that have somewhat dulled my excitement in the future.

But I'm not here to complain. Nor am I not looking forward to my birthday. Tomorrow I turn 26. That's a somewhat odd age. 25 is a nice round number and 26 is just, well, after 25. Plus, since I'm on this diet, we can't go out anywhere for it, so I'm stuck making my own dinner and without a birthday cake.

I think I'm just a little down today because I had a rough day... Crohn's wise. Symptoms were much worse today than they have been recently and it made me wonder if this diet is really working. I feel that I'm working really hard for it and giving up a lot and not getting any results. My doctor still says there're no other treatments he can recommend, so I'm feeling a little stuck. I'm not giving up or anything. I said from the beginning that I would give it a month and then reevaluate from there. And that's still another 2 weeks away.

But despite it all, I'm still looking forward to turning 26 tomorrow. I'm encouraged to see that I accomplished a lot of what I set out to during the past year of my life. I found a new job where I'm feeling more content; I'm definitely expanding my cooking expertise; and while I did not open a Roth this past year, Jarrod and I did have more time to enjoy being together.

I want 26 to be the year that I kick this Crohn's. I want to be able to look back years from know and know that at 26 - double the age of when I was first diagnosed - I was finally able to put this behind me. I'm doing my best to stay positive and stay on top of all of this cooking, buy some days are harder than others. I'm going to stick this diet out for another two weeks and figure out then if it's something I want to continue. Meanwhile, I'm praying and believing that I will walk away from this and leave it behind for good.

He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."

Mark 5:34