Vegan Lasagna

So I made Vegan Lasagna last night....

and...

Just NO

no

That's all.

Vegan Latkes

So I explained before we are having family visit who are Vegan and I'm more of a psuedo-paleo kinda gal.  So for dinner a couple nights ago I made Latkes - Vegan style for my guests and I put a big dollop of plain greek yogurt to give me that protein punch.  They were pretty darn good. I shall share the recipe -- I'm not even going to try and figure out the calories -- suffice it to say, this would be one of those comfort food meals.

4 russet potatoes, 4 small red potatoes, shredded
1 yellow onion chopped finely
salt and pepper
1.5 cups of potato starch
5 big matzoh crackers crushed

for the binder (because Vegans don't do anything with or from a face so I didn't use eggs)
6 tbs vegetable oil
6 tbs baking powder
6 tbs of warm water

Mix everything together
Make patties, thin

deep fry in vegetable oil until golden brown

place on paper towels or brown paper grocery bags.
Makes about thirty small latkes.

And they were freakin' yummy.

Yesterday we spent the day in Denver; it was unseasonably warm so it was a great day to do it -- you can see how on my other blog Zimmerhouse

Have a great day

Haven't broken a resolution yet

It's the morning of January 2nd and I'm happy to say I have not yet broken a resolution -- whoot. I'm all about celebrating the little things.

Of course, I slept most of yesterday since I worked New Year's night and got a total of 3 hours of sleep the 24 hours previous and was really really tired -- slept 'til 4 which was awesome.

To help me kick start the year I think I'm going to join in the weight loss boot camp at shrinking jeans. Come join me (along with some other bloggers and a big thanks to Linda for sharing!)

I was looking at my progress for the last year and while it wasn't what I wanted, it was still down.

• I started 2013 in the 230's and I'm 15+ pounds down from that -- this is not a bad thing
• I can shop in the regular stores - I even bought jeans, JEANS at Old Navy and they fit, not even snugly
• I don't feel people stare at me in horror
• I am okay with the way I look, I don't love the way I look, but I don't look at myself in horror
• I finally - four years after nursing school - have a job in a hospital (that whole we need nurses thing isn't really the case in the Denver area and it is really difficult to find hospital nursing jobs -- I've been working as a nurse but that hospital experience is necessary for my goals, so glad I finally got it and I'm loving it)
• Not only am I on the floor, I'm working nights and staying awake through the shift and have enough energy to care for my patients even in the 12th hour of my night shift
• I am back in school to get my teaching certification so I can teach nursing (one of my nursing goals -- my other is to eventually go into Hospice)

2013 has been good!
2014 will be good as well!

A cousin from DC is coming to visit today, she'll be here until Sunday.  She and her son are Vegan.  Gah! I'm more a relaxed version of Paleo.

HMMMMM.

I've got a lot of vegany snacks and I'll have my high protein snacks, but for dinners I'm planning:
Latkes (I'll enjoy mine with plain greek yogurt)
Vegan Lasagna -- it's made with a cashew cheese and soy cheese - so plenty of protein
Tofu Stir Fry

It was kind of fun looking for Vegan-high protein meals.  I've been kicking around the idea of going Vegan a couple days a week -- mostly to help Jason with his cholesterol issues - studies show a Vegan plan helps tremendously with high lipids.  But there's no way EVAH he'll go Vegan completely -- but a couple days a week would be a good compromise.

I'm scheduled to work tonight, but I asked to get called off if they don't have enough patients -- snow is pretty melted and it'll be 51 today - so no ice issues to cause accidents. The New Year's Revelers are back at work and not being stupid any more. So pray the skiers don't hit any trees, no car accidents and people aren't riding their horses and falling off so that I don't have to go in and I can visit with my out of town vegan family.

2014 - whoot and where the H-E double toothpicks did 2013 go

Wow, I haven't been on here since October -- very very bad blogger. I have to say, I have not done well. It's been quite an adjustment working nights and trying to figure out my food with this new crazy work schedule. And of course there's the whole holiday season thing and it's a much different animal one and a half years from surgery than six months from surgery and that animal was a chunky-monkey-chocolate-loving-cheeto-chompin' critter who couldn't keep her digits out of the cookie jar.

I'm not going to lament over the damage I've done.
The damage is a total of 9 pounds from my absolute lowest and 6 pounds up from where I've been hovering.

I've done worse.

And all in all I'm still happy with the success I've accomplished with weight loss.

And I looked pretty good during various holiday celebrations

see

 This was at my husband's company Christmas party. I wore a sweater dress -- I never thought I'd be able to do the whole sweater dress thing so it was nice to be able to. I wore it with black tights and boots -- yay boots. Had to buy the wide calf ones, but still felt really good to be wearing a pretty trendy hip outfit and look halfway decent. It had been a year since I've seen a lot of his co-workers  and I got some nice compliments. For which I was embarrassed but enjoyed.

 Our at home Christmas eve party -- I was super tired, I worked five shifts in a row right before this party and then stayed up getting ready for this one. If you want to you can read about it on my family blog here

So this is what happens when you're married to someone with a wicked sense of humor who had a little too much egg-nog. I had no idea what he was doing (I too imbibed in spiked egg nog -- see nine pounds up above). What a rascal -- what can I say, I love him and since we're not going into politics, I'm good with posting this embarrassing picture on the internet (seriously, it's still 'cleaner' than a lot of selfies I've seen going around :D) -- we can safely assume, my husband is happy with the way I've been looking lately (snicker).

So what is 2014 to bring?
My ultimate goal -- is to get through it alive. I'll be in school until July -- I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but I'm going back for a post-master's educational certificate. That with working nights, playing chauffeur and managing the household (not to mention a date night or two) I think getting through 2014 alive is an appropriate goal....

As for weight loss goals. I'd really like to get to my goal weight of 180 (36 pounds). To do that I need to go back to the basics.
1. Eat every 3-4 hours -- this one is difficult to do while working because I get in at 7pm and am so busy, I don't even sit down to chart until midnight, which is when I usually grab something to eat. Then I'm back up and running around and all of the sudden it's 730 am and time to go home.

how to help this one -- 1. eat snack on way to work. 2. be okay with a 5 hour lag of time and don't make it an excuse to graze on the ridiculously amount of candy that's lying around the unit. 3. use a protein drink as 'creamer' for my coffee. 4. Bring easy to eat protein snack to eat around 3-4 am.

2. Drink more water -- I've been totally sucking at this (see above). Keep water bottle on my WOW (that wheel around computer gizmo). Drink a glass of water right before I jump into bed.

3.RECORD MY FOOD (nuf' said)

4. Blog more. This probably doesn't sound like something people would put on a list of things to do to be successful in weight loss, but sharing my feelings seems to help. I attribute a lot of my success at the beginning of this journey to blogging. This also means, reading all of your blogs. Truly all of you are such inspirations.

5. STEP AWAY FROM THE REFINED CRAPOLA -- I'm not going to go all gluten-free, no sugar, never 'treat' myself to comfort food again. BUT I can make it a goal to refrain from doing that every five seconds.  Having something 'off-plan' three or four times a week is doable.

6. exercise -- ugh. I gotta do it. We all gotta do it. I feel better when I do do it. Why oh why do I not
just do it!

These are my goals. I think they're pretty realistic

So - stats:
at the beginning of 2014 I am at:
216
highest 320
lowest (since the surgery) 207
goal 180

Kay -- I'm gonna go catch up on all your blogs and see what your plans are for the new year!

yup I'm a baseball mom

My oldest is 14, 6 feet tall, and thin -- not really gawky thin, but athletic thin and muscular - he weighs about 140 pounds. He wears a men's large.

Sometimes the moms on the team will wear their sons' jerseys to the games -- it's really cute. But not something I could do -- especially a year ago.

Yesterday was the play-offs for Jake's fall-ball league (which, by the way, they lost after the first game, even though they were seated second -- which goes to show you, anything can happen in baseball). I was wearing a sweater and jeans -- but Jake really really wanted me to wear one of his jerseys -- like the other moms.

I couldn't quite get it buttoned, but I could get it on (I'm rockin' an extra large right now -- which means I got to do some shopping at Eddie Bauer, my fave store and walk past Lane Bryant, it felt good, it really did). And since Jake really wanted me to wear it --  I did

And sadly (or gladly?) my pants are on the big side -- which is too bad because I really like the cut, the feel and the color.  I need to buy more jeans now that capri weather is leaving us.

It was a happy moment -- not because of the clothes -- obviously -- it's not like I want to go around wearing baseball jerseys. It's about the smile on my son's face because I was wearing his jersey to his play-off game.  He couldn't express what it was about this that he liked -- but he liked it. I know because I got a couple extra hugs, even a snuggle out of him yesterday.

Guest Post/new blogger/and not much else

So it's been super stressful lots going on and will settle myself down shortly and share it all, or what's appropriate to share to the WWW -- but for now this person asked if she could do a guest post and I thought, why not -- interesting information (if you can say interesting about insurance) and helpful (hopefully). Anyhow, she seemed nice and I like to help :D

Here it is:

There are a lot of reasons why people don't bother with a health coverage plan - rising cost of premiums, limited coverage, and impracticality even. But whether you will need coverage often or rarely, the fact that you will be able to afford medical services if and when you need them is reason enough to at least think about getting one. Depending on your plan, your coverage may include doctors' visits, emergency medical expenses, medicines, and physicals. Having health insurance will not only help you meet your immediate healthcare needs but help you live a healthier life too. Premiums can be expensive, yes. But good thing some plans now are flexible and will let you choose only the services you need making your premium affordable and cost-effective. 

With different types of insurance plans available out there, choosing the right one for you can be confusing. Compare plans and get free information on popular insurance providers, their contact information, advantages and disadvantages, even discounts all in one place at http://www.myclaimsource.com.

Okay -- back to me:

One of our patients started a blog! She's doing great -- I can't really give more details because I don't want to violate any HIPPA laws -- but you can read for yourself! Click here and give her some love!

Perfect Strangers Comment on Food -- Weird

This week I took an ACLS class(Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support -- basically CPR with meds and a lot of adrenaline for the nurse -- sometimes the patient too). So I was with a bunch of people who I do not know.

Went to lunch with some of them and this is what ensued.

I ordered a black bean burger, no bun, with tomatoes and onion.

And THAT generated a conversation about my lunch.

1. Are you a vegetarian?
2. Are you gluten free?
3 What diet are you on?
4. Is that really going to be enough food?

WOW!

One girl, who really had a great curvy body, but realistically not within 'range' had a huge plate of beef, gravy and green beans, the other girl had a chicken veggie quesadilla - with a lot of cheese, she was a little thing and only 6 weeks post baby -- I kind of wanted to hate her but she was super smart, helpful, and nice (ICU nurse, they're the best and if I were younger, I'd aspire to get to the ICU).

After being all jealous that these beautiful women with beautiful bodies (in different ways) could eat whatever the heck they wanted to (they both professed to never exercise too -- life is freakin' unfair), I realized, they may have food issues.

Because I don't think what I ate was that weird in the land of the non-bariatric-surgical population.

Day two of the class, the teacher told us to bring snacks so we could power through and get out early.  I brought some turkey jerky and blueberries.

You would have thought I was trying to kill myself or something equally horrid.

This coming from the woman (again, cute little thing -- who was able to rock the purple and green streaks, even in her 40's - I could not do that) who brought convenience store coffee and hoho's for breakfast.

REALLY?