Tag Archives: eating

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Trying out new foods and drawing them

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My life, the planning fest.

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Cleaning supplies.
On August 15 of this year, I had my birthday. I spent it mostly ill (in bed), as I did most of the other days at HAR2009. Not what I had in mind. I've spent most of the days since also mostly ill, either in bed or on the sofa. It started with tendinitis in my neck, on the right side. Then it went to the left side. Then I had it in both sides. Then my shoulders, my elbows, my thumbs. My knees and feet and recently, my right hip. Mostly not all at the same time, it switches. Just as I think it has gone, it starts somewhere else. I've had tendinitis before, and know that the best way to get rid of it means a lot of rest and also a good dose of anti-inflammatories. I've taken a lot of rest. But not so many anti-inflammatories. See, they have this nasty habit of irritating your stomach and intestines, and as I don't have the stomach anymore, my intestines get the full blow. This makes it harder to eat. So for the past 2.5 weeks I've juggled with the tendinitis and the rest and the pills and the eating. It slowly seems to improve, very slowly. One of the contributing factors of my recurring tendinitis, my RA, will hopefully improve somewhat soon. I have started methotrexate injections (no more pills because they, you guessed it, cause gastro-intestinal problems) which should prove more effective and help with my pains. Other factors however, don't have such an easy solution. Stress plays a major role and unfortunately, I've had a lot of it. I've had appointments with my podiatrist for insoles, my RA-nurse for learning how to inject methotrexate and had to go to the pharmacy to get all the stuff. Also had to go buy groceries (a girl's gotta eat), make at least part of my flat 'injection-ready' (the methotrexate requires a bit more care than the B12 injections) and eat. And eating hasn't really gone well lately, so I had to spend extra time and extra care with the eating. Buying groceries doesn't help with the tendinitis if I do it in bulk, so I had to do it in bits, which adds more to the stress. Currently, I have a full-time job taking care of myself and doing all the necessary health related things, and not much, if any, energy left for other things, like say, socializing or 'fun stuff'. I have tried hard to keep up with what others expected from me, and have found that despite their attempts to understand and to deal with what I go through, they really can't if I keep on trying to keep up with them. I spend a lot of energy doing (or trying to do) what I think I should do, what I think others expect from me (or what they have expressed) and what I think I can do. But what I think I can do doesn't equal what I can (and stay sane and relatively healthy). What I think I can do already lies above what I really can do. I spend lots of time reacting to things that happen, trying to make the best of them, trying to keep up, trying to appear normal. No more, I say! I will not spend my precious little amount of energy feeling lived and not actually living. No more reacting, time to act on my own. No more trying to keep up, if I can't, I can't, suck it up! Don't try and 'encourage' me, please. No more pushing myself to eat things I know that don't work (hello, bread), because they make me feel like crap later on. No more not having control over my life, my self, my sanity. I will not do it anymore. I've grabbed my copy of Getting Things Done by David Allen and I will re-read it to see if I can tweak my system to help me out more with my health-related stuff and possibly the eating. Eating takes up about 90% of my energy (no, not kidding, totally serious unfortunately) and I need to get a better grip on it. I need to think the other things through, before I go out and do them. Yes, this means more planning and less spontaneity, a small price to pay for actually getting more healthy and getting a bit more sane. It may seem (too?) neurotic to most, for me it comes down to a way to survive and actually start living my life again. I'd very much enjoy that. I wish I could also say 'No more pain!', however, I don't have that much control over my RA. I will do what I can to ease that pain, and wait patiently for that cure, but not holding my breath in the meantime ;)
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Hurray for home-grown veggies.

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20090506 Bonsaibasil 001
I got the confirmation from the tax-company that I'll get a (preliminary) tax-return which should mean the money arrives in my account tomorrow or so. To 'celebrate' we went out and got some stuff for my balcony: pots / containers / soil), and seeds and plants. I got four long wooden containers (they look great!) and the following plants: 4 tiny celery plants 4 tiny parsleys 4 tiny corn salads 1 big cucumber plant (with baby cucumbers) 1 small sweet pepper plant 1 bonsai basil (very nice!) 1 small lovage and seeds for: * spring onions * rosemary * garlic chives * corn salad * courgette (or zucchini or summersquash depending on where you live) Through a friend I got three tomato-plants, seeds for beetroot, basil, parsley, peas and several types of beans. I'm still looking for pinto-bean seeds, but they seem somewhat unavailable in the NL. I also still have rocket-seed, Tropaeolum and tons of seeds for sprouts (alfalfa, garden cress, etc). I think I have enough.... (though boyfriend promised me oregano and thyme plants / seeds) I want a bunch of smaller pots to put herbs in. It'll look nice and helps to sow in phases. I'm looking forward to seeding and growing, especially the sprouts. I seem to be able to eat bread again, so that would mean nice summer sandwiches with veggies and cheese and herbs and such :D I have a balcony on the south, and even though most Dutch people think we do not get any sun, I can assure you we do. It gets pretty hot on my balcony, which I hope will help with the somewhat exotic plants (cucumber, peppers, tomatoes, courgette). Now I only need a garden-hose, cause I'm not dragging water over every day :P We haven't set it up yet, but will take pictures when we do.
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Routines, rituals and purpose.

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Nano in the water.
Today Nano and I walked to our default swimming-spot. She does the swimming, I just stand on the side. It got pretty warm so I sat on the grass as she hopped into the water and dragged herself to the mud. On our way home she rolled around on the grass and in more mud, which resulted in a trip to the bathroom after we came home. She did not enjoy that much, however, napping on the balcony in the sunshine seemed to make up for it. While sitting in the grass I thought about Michael's post about routines. Like Michael I have worked on a drawing routine and routines in general. My life in general got pretty thrown upside down with the surgery and I still feel I haven't quite got my life back in order. Ever since surgery everything revolves around food and eating, or as my boyfriend recently said 'You're either preparing food, or trying to get and keep it in.'. I had little choice but to just do exactly that, as part of recovery. I make food, I eat, I drink, and I try to do things around that. Any type of routine I have, revolves around food. Recently I've had this itch. I want to do more and especially do more drawing. Despite having a bit of trouble getting it into my daily routine, I want to, I have to do more drawing, more creative stuff. I want to get back to that situation where my schedule and routines don't revolve around food and eating, but the eating becomes a part of the routine itself, without being the routine itself. I do try to make food-preparation as creative as possible, by trying new recipes and making a nice lunch for the days I go to work. But it's still about food and eating. I need working routines, I'd love some inspiring rituals and I want some meaningful purpose in my life. I need more than just food.
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Mmm bread.

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I still have issues eating bread, so I’ve made a bit of my own (totally abused my rice-cooker for it too!). I like pita-breads, they seem to work well, so I searched for a recipe and found one. I will cut the recipe into 1/3 (this worked pretty well with my previous bread), because 1/4 means too many calculations and weird things (call me lazy ;) ).

I’ll still make eight, just eight small ones :D

They’ll fit in my bento too!

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The Ambitious Monday Meal Plan!

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For Monday I have planned the following meals:

  1. Danoontje Snack (curd cheese?)
  2. Breakfast cereal (cornflakes)
  3. Burrito for lunch (pre-made)
  4. Little tomatoes filled with mozzarella balls, sprinkled with herbs and pepper and salt.
  5. Slice of ontbijtkoek
  6. Poffertjes!
  7. A mini babybel or two.
  8. Boiled egg.

For Tuesday I’ll eat oatmeal, with fruit and cinnamon sugar, instead of cornflakes (oh, how I love the timer on my ricecooker). Not sure about lunch or dinner yet, will think about it some more tomorrow.

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How do I do mealplanning?

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Unfortunately, so far I suck at mealplanning. I know I need to, it helps with eating and all, and because lunch plays such an important part in my day, I think I should plan lunch and dinner.

I don’t mean I have to make a list of lunches and dinner and days and stick to it with my last dying breath. Anything can happen. Mostly I want to have a list I can refer to, that I can fall back on.

I’ve tried googling this, but what I find usually refers to big families and I don’t have the mealplanning-foo to translate that to me as a single very small portion eating person.

Anyone ideas? Links?

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Making (bento) lunches.

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Improvement!

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I’ve missed eating pizza since surgery. I did, a few times, but it only went well if I ate take-away pizza from one of those pizza places, not the kind I can buy in the supermarket. I could only eat 2 or 3 slices, and it seems a bit expensive to order in and only eat 1/4 of the pizza. It has to do with the dough, although I don’t know the details of why it doesn’t go well. Can’t eat bread either, same problem. I get really ill.

Today I made a most excellent discovery. Gordita’s (small, thicker tortilla wraps) work really well as a pizza-bottom. I tossed on some tomato sauce, chopped up veggies and mushrooms, added shredded cheese and popped the whole thing in the oven for 15 minutes.

Best pizza I ever had.

So I made another one just now. Two pizza’s in one day. I like to spoil myself.