Happy New Year! And what I've been doing....

Greetings!

I promise, I didn't fall into a pit or aliens didn't abduct me.

There's been a lot going on. Let me start at the beginning....

A little over a year ago, my gallbladder, Gertie, went to heaven (or wherever dead organs go). I started the fall semester and spent it sicker than a dog. I was trying to keep my head above water, and failing miserably. I failed my first class....ever. And for an overachiever like myself, that took a huge blow. After months of tests and doctor visits, I finally found someone who was willing to take a gamble that the problem was, in fact, my gallbladder. No one had believed me, and the tests all said it was playing nicely. So a week before Thanksgiving, I had my gall bladder removed. Finally. Relief. No pain, no weird stomach cramps. Normal, finally. Yet, little did I know, my nightmare had only began.

Fast forward to the end of December, and a follow-up appointment and the news that since it took months for them to catch it, it would probably take a few more to get over all the yuckiness. Be patient. We will see you in April.

Finally, just before the Spring semester started, I was finally feeling better. Finally. No more dark circles, no more looking like I could play a part in a zombie movie. Everything was just peachy. So I started school and looked forward to the semester. Until the end of February. Strange stomach cramps are back, along with a need to invest in softer toilet paper. I figured it was just some sort of virus that would run it's course. But the exhaustion was back. I was miserable, again. And simply trying not to fail anymore classes. I wasn't sure how much longer I could take this.

Then one glorious night in April, my husband's company had a get-together to thank all the employees for their hard work and to gear up for summer. We had some great barbecue and hung out with some of his co-workers. As the evening wore on, the worse I felt. My stomach was making all kinds of noise, and as we got into the car to head home, I began to wonder if I would make it home without my dinner being revisited. We were 2 blocks from home when I got my answer.

If you have never hurled in a car, don't. It is impossible to get that smell out. There are cracks and crevices that vomit will hide in, so when I couldn't stop in time, I used my shirt. Hey, smelly car for the next umpteen years, or icky shirt...it certainly wasn't a hard choice. Needless to say, I really felt sorry for the house I puked in front of. More so, because they came out the next morning to a horrendous smell, and a shirt in the middle of the road. Yes, I abandoned my shirt. I never really liked that shirt anyway.

So, thinking that I had picked up a bug or something, we cleaned the vomit off my shoes and went to bed. Hoping that I could sleep it off. Unfortunately, I threw up, and up and up, and then, the diarrhea started. I was quite sure I had entered the 7th circle of hell. Around 2am and round #52, I was getting dehydrated, everything was fuzzy, I was shaking, and I nearly passed out on my way to puke up a lung, because that's pretty much all that was left. We go to the ER. I hurl in their bathroom, and then the blood starts. Nothing will terrify a person more than bloody diarrhea. It also motivates ER people to get you in a room...stat.

So they gave me some narcotics, as I had stomach cramps that I thought were going to do me in and IV fluids and sent me home. Probably a virus. Here's some antibiotics. Good luck. So Sunday I laid around and hoped that the gastro appointment I had on Monday would give me some answers.

I walked into the gastro and began explaining all my symptoms and what had gone on over the weekend. My gastro, concerned that there could be something serious going on, admitted me to the hospital and wanted some tests ran. I had CT scans and all kinds of other stuff. It was just super fun or not. I could almost here my bank account crying. They wanted a stool sample to see if I had this infection in my guts. I've never seen so many people who wanted a person to poop in my life. After having nothing really to eat and very little to drink in the last 3 days, I finally gave them their sample. 20 minutes later my nurse comes back and looks like she is prepared for battle. She has on a mask and a cape and informs me that I have C.Diff. Yippee.

Google and I have always been BFF's, but I think I even got on her nerves doing the research that night. Heavy dosage of antibiotics and viola. Good as new. There is no way to know how I got it, but this stuff is typically seen in people who are on long term antibiotics or in nursing home's or other long term hospital settings. It's not common to be found in a healthy 33 year old. So basically this bacteria eats on your colon. Yummy. Depending on how long you have had it, depends on the damage. There was some visible damage during a colonoscopy-like test that only looked at the bottom part of my colon. So, I was sent home on $1500 antibiotics and told to wash my hands, and to be very careful about infecting others. I also got a 2 week vacation, because this stuff is highly contagious. Highly.

I know this is becoming a novel. Just be patient.

I took 2 rounds of antibiotics, and did some outpatient stool samples until there was no trace of the nasty bug in my guts. Yet, I was still plagued by stomach pain, fatigue, and a general not feeling well feeling. I was tired and ran down and very, very frustrated. I went to work and came home through out the summer and hoped that I would be feeling better by the time school started.

Finally, I thought I was beginning to heal. I began to count the pain free days. 1. 2. 3. then a week, then 2 weeks. Then school started. Stupid school screws up everything. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, I hurt. It was enough that I was popping Advil during the day and pain pills at night. Usually the pain would go away by lunch time on Wednesday and Friday, but then, it was hanging around longer and longer until it was constant. So another prescription was added. Which thankfully brought some relief, but it was never permanent.

Imagine for a moment, spending a year feeling bad. You have stomach pain that feels so bad that you don't want to do anything but lay around, but even that hurts. It starts to screw with your head. I finally caved and complained to my doctor that I couldn't take it anymore, and was given anti-depressants. I hated that. I hated feeling like I couldn't do this, but I had been holding on by a thread, and that thread was about to break. Those pills certainly made me feel human again, and I managed to use them to find something else to focus on. Like school. Like work. Like life. They got me through the fall semester and to the point I'm at today.

There's been a lot of changes in our house. I'm taking probiotics, and tons of vitamins. I'm eating less processed crap, because I don't really think that my intestines need fertilizer, plastic, or the variety of other ingredients that I have discovered in foods that I regularly consumed. I'm trying to go organic, and add less crap to my body. And slowly, finally, I think I'm beginning to heal. Sure, there are days when the pain is there, and the fatigue that is always present, but the pain, well, I'm back to counting days without it. I'm switching jobs, I'm starting my last year of college (at least for my bachelor's degree). I'm making me a priority. I'm also following a gluten free diet. My doctor suggested that it might help, and it's made a world of difference so far.

So all of this has left me wondering, and questioning, what to do. Sure, I still want to finish this list before I turn 40, but did I want to keep blogging and writing about it? I wasn't so sure. Until last week. See, the company that I currently work for, closed our office and gave me last week, and this week off. So I've had a 2 week vacation. I thought that it would be a great time to cook, and to get this blog set up so that I didn't have so much going on when school started back up in a few weeks. It was brilliant. Yet, I couldn't seem to find the words to write something here. I felt like I owed an explanation, and honestly, how was I going to keep up with Tasty Tuesday, when I had to be gluten free. What about the rest of you, who didn't have to be gluten free? Then I realized, that I can do both. I can still cook the gluten free stuff, and you can just substitute the regular stuff.

I can make it work...for both of us.

I wanted to be honest, and I hated that I hadn't shared any of this. But in the last few months as I've hunted down and done research to try and figure out what to do in order to heal my body from the inside out, I've relied so much on other's blogs and their experiences in order to figure out what to try and what might work to get me feeling better. I figured that some day, someone is going to be hunting for that same advice, and they will want to know that they can feel good again, and that I needed to do this, not so much for me, but for them.

I hope you'll stick around. It's going to get interesting around here.

Tasty Tuesday - Cheeseburger Paradise Soup

Bet you thought I was dead? Nope, just been sick and crazy busy. Well mostly sick and trying to keep my head above water. Your in luck for the rest of the week though. Be thankful.

It's soup weather. Thank goodness. Now my husband can't make fun of me for wanting soup when it's 95 outside. The weirdo.

Him.

Not me. I'm never weird.

Hey! What are asking him for?!?! He's biased.

I was in the mood for soup, and when I was figuring out what to fix for dinner this week, my husband saw this recipe and was reminded how incredibly awesome it was and that we needed to add it to the weekly lineup. So lucky you, I remember to take pictures (of most of it) and now you can enjoy this stuff too!

Soups on:

In a large saucepan, soup kettle, or cooking device. Lid optional.

Okay, anyway, in the pot add your potatoes, carrot, onion, green pepper, jalapeno, water, bouillon, garlic, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. Now, I am guessing that their idea of medium potatoes is different than my idea of medium potatoes, because by the time I threw everything in, the water didn't even cover everything. So, if your idea of medium potatoes is like my idea of medium potatoes, add enough water to cover everything. Just barely. The onions, carrots and peppers will add to the liquid. Trust me. I'm an expert.

Meanwhile, in a skillet, add some butter, beef, and mushrooms and cook until meat is no longer pink. If you need to drain, drain. Otherwise your soup will be greasy. Greasy soup is bad. Hopefully your burners don't suck as much as mine do and your potatoes will be done and you won't have to wait like I did. But when your potatoes get their act together, add in the beef mixture. But first - remember where you added more water? Does your potatoes seem awfully "watery"? If so, drain some out. Leave just enough to barely cover the potatoes and other veggies.

Trust me.

I'm an expert.

Then your going to forget to take pictures of the rest of the steps. But even though there are no pictures, that doesn't mean that you can ignore the rest of the steps, otherwise your soup will just be ingredients floating in potato and carrot flavored water.

Sounds.....atrocious.

Add the milk. Now remember, if you added additional water, you'll need to add additional milk. Otherwise it won't have the creamy texture that your looking for. You can substitute heavy cream or half and half to use less and still get the creamy-ness. I probably added about a cup extra of milk, but I added about 6ish extra cups of water.

Let everything bubble and boil and toil and....stew. In a small-ish bowl, add the flour and the remaining cup of milk. I left my flour the same and everything came out fine even with the additional liquid. Mix it all up until it's nice and creamy, and add it to the pot. Mix everything up and return to a boil. Let everything boil for a few minutes or until thickened. Now, your going to add cheese. Velveeta tends to help thicken, so don't get the soup so thick at this point that you forget that your adding Velveeta, otherwise your soup is going to become more like a casserole. So leave it a little runny, and start adding your Velveeta. It will continue to thicken.

Trust me.

I'm an expert.

Or don't trust me and live with runny soup. To run or not to run that is the question.

So just trust me. I'm an .... well you get the idea.

Once your Velveeta has been added and had the chance to melt and cover everything in its cheesy processed goodness, it's time to grab a bowl and a spoon. Top it off with some grated cheese, and the bacon and a few slices of green onion and inhale.

Note: If you make this the way I did, you'll have enough for several meals. For two of us it came out to about 4 meals...times 3. But that was my goal. Dinner now, and dinner again when it's close to finals and I'm too busy studying to care about cooking and then one more go round next semester. Just get it out of the freezer and let it defrost in the fridge overnight. Then you can either microwave it up, or stick in back in the pot and warm up that way. Either way works. Enjoy!


Hint: Want to print this easier? Just click on the title and print. You can keep what you need and what you don't.


Cheeseburger Paradise Soup

6 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 carrot, grated
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1/2 cup chopped seeded jalapeno pepper (about 2 peppers)
6 cups water
2 tbsp plus 2 tsp beef bouillon granules
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 pounds ground beef (or turkey)
1/2 pound sliced mushrooms
2 tbsp butter
6 cups milk divided
8 tbsp all purpose flour
1 (16 oz) Velveeta cheese, cubed
crumbled cooked bacon (optional)
grated cheddar cheese (optional)
diced green onions (optional)

1. In a large saucepan, combine the potatoes, carrots, onions, jalapeno, green pepper, water, beef bouillon, garlic, pepper, salt, and cayenne pepper; bring to a boil Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook beef and mushrooms in butter over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain well. Add to potato mixture. Stir in 5 cups of milk; heat through.
3. In a small bowl, whisk the flour and remaining milk until smooth; gradually stir into soup. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 3-4 minutes or until thickened. Reduce heat; stir in cheese until melted. Garnish with bacon, cheese, and green onions if desired.

Update on the List Progress

Sheesh. This semester is whizzing by, but at the same time, I find myself asking numerous times each week "is it Thanksgiving yet?". This has been one of those weeks, when I've wanted to drop all my classes and take a 6 month long nap. College at 34, with a full time job, a couple of free-lancing gigs, and trying to have a life that doesn't revolve around college, work, or free-lancing is kicking my butt.

Here's some updates on the progress on the list.

1. I'm working on that graduate thing. You know, trying to pass my classes and do my homework and all that jazz. There is progress. Somewhere. I hate homework.
2. I'm trying to "plan" my technology free weekend for this month. I hate that I can't just plan, but I've got to make sure that I don't have stuff posted on Craigslist, since texting will be out of the picture.
3. My plans to lose 60 pounds begin tomorrow.
4. Saving every $5 bill that comes into my posession has been hard. I keep forgetting to save them. Since I'm using part of my weekly allowance as "extra" money to help make my tuition payments, those $5 bills have been my only source of cash. While I'm still hoarding them, I'm also using them to keep up with other little things when I need too. I'll start doing better with this. It's harder than I thought.
5. My "thankful" list. This has been tough. School is kicking my butt and wearing me out. I took too many hours this semester and I'm paying for it. I'm not getting enough rest and my stress level is crazy, crazy high. I've got so much stuff going on, that I am barely, barely keeping my head above water. It's been hard to be thankful for the things I wanted to. Right now, I'm thankful for 5 hour energy, and weekends. So I can catch up on sleep and try to de-stress some before the next week starts beating me up again.
6. The recipes, well that's been easier. I have to cook on the weekends so that we have something to eat during the week. So that's worked out well for both of us.
7. The launching of a cooking blog - well, I'm sorta doing that here, so I'm going to consider it a work in process. I might start a separate one later, but I can barely maintain one blog let alone 2.
8. I keep looking at some of the things on that list and wonder what in the world I was thinking. Karoke? Seriously? I can't sing? I don't like getting up in front of people I don't know. What was I thinking?!?!?!?

Coming up next week......
1. A quick soup recipe that involves cheeseburgers.
2. Wordless Wednesday The theme is "things I do in my spare time". Don't worry there will be no pictures of textbooks. Sewing projects, cross stitch, and whatever else I find that I've made.
3. A Finance exam....well that one really isn't for you...but if you wanted to know where I'll be at 6:30 on Wednesday night, I'll be taking a Finance exam.
4. Hopefully something exciting will happen over the weekend and I can come up with something else for you for next week.

Tasty Tuesday - Magic Millionaire Pie

I love quick and easy. Homework, work, sewing, even cooking. Every now and then I just want something awesome to come together quickly.

That's exactly what this pie does. I call this a "dump" recipe, because you basically dump everything in one bowl and go. You can literally make this pie in under 5 minutes, then just put in the fridge to chill and viola! Instant dessert.

Its quick, it's easy, and the best part - it's amazing. My grandmother always requests this pie at all family gatherings when my mom asked to help. Always. I think that my grandmother things my mom slaves away hours to make this pie, it tastes that good. Most people don't believe that you can even make this, low sugar, low fat and still enjoy something this decadent. So are you ready to make one, punk? Well are you?

The stars of the show:

Graham cracker crust, vanilla pudding mix, crushed pineapple, sour cream, and whipped topping.

Like I said before, just dump. In a medium bowl, add the pudding mix and crushed pineapple. Straight from the box and the can. Don't drain or otherwise do anything. Give it a stir until the pudding and pineapple have became one. Now, dump the entire carton of sour cream in, now stir it all about and do the hokey pok....nevermind.

Stir until it's all mixed together. Now, here's the cool part. It's time for the magic. Say you need to make enough to feed 12 people. Obviously 1 pie isn't going to cut it, but never fear. Instead of the extra large crust that I used to make one pie, just split the ingredients between the two regular size crusts and top with their own tub of whipped topping and voila - 2 pies. Just want one pie, well, just dump it all in the extra large crust and - 1 large pie. See, magic.

Either way, dump the filling into the crust and top with whipped topping. Cover and refrigerate 2 hours or until set up. This pie really tastes the best when it can sit overnight and all the ingredients can really get acquainted.

Once the pie has set in the fridge for a few hours, cut it up and enjoy! Hopefully you have a trick to getting that darn graham cracker crust to stay together so your pie doesn't fall all apart. It might not be pretty, but it sure makes up for the ugliness with it's awesomeness. And as long as you get it all mixed up, you can't tell there is a drop of sour cream in it. It's sneaky and magic.








Millionaire Pie

1 box vanilla instant pudding
1 (16 oz) container sour cream
1 (8 oz) crushed pineapple
1 (8 oz) whipped topping*
1 large graham cracker pie crust*

In a large bowl, combine pudding mix and crushed pineapple; stir until pudding is dissolved. Fold in sour cream and stir until well combined. Pour into graham cracker pie crust (or divide if making 2 pies). Top with whipped topping. Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight until set.

Note: You can make 2 pies instead of one. If you get the small crust you can make 2 pies, the extra serving pie will allow you to make one pie, but you will need 2 tubs of whipped topping, one for each pie.