I used my fancy ladybug shaped vegetable peeler to peel two pears, and added a banana. I blended until somewhat smooth—ooh chunks of fruit in ice-cream!—and then poured the mixture in the ice-lollie-shapes I had. With one left, I added some lemonade, because that always works.

And I made drawings of it.

I stepped out of my comfort zone for this, quite literally. I stood in my kitchen drawing this and found that I prefer sitting down for my drawing. Standing cramps up my other arm, the one holding the book.

But still, here you have it. Instructions on how to make fruity ice-lollies. I did add a bit of maple-syrup though I wonder if I really needed too.

And I love my new vegetable peeler! It slips right onto my fingers and I can use my whole hand to peel.

The second salad I made with another head of oak leaf lettuce (69 grams) and some loose leaves (20 grams)² . I also added rucola flowers, and some red leaves(HG) to give it more colour. I used mostly water pepper which tastes a bit spicy, very nice, and added the rest of the orange pepper. For protein I grilled some shrimp for ten minutes or so in a mixture of olive oil, garlic, chopped scallion(HG) and some parsley(HG).

I try to add more protein to my salads currently. As far as animal protein goes, I can only stomach(pun very much intended) seafood, cheese, eggs and sometimes a bit of yoghurt, which I'll use for the dressing mostly.
Luckily for me they don't cause any allergic reaction, so yaay for that :)

I seem to do much better with a mostly vegs and fruit base, which brings on some interesting challenges. On the very good side, it doesn't fill me up very much.

Maybe next time I'll draw the shrimp before grilling them. Or after, since they have to cool down anyway...

Total harvest: 187 grams of lettuce, woohoo!

¹ a total of 98 grams of lettuce

² a total of 89 grams of lettuce

Tasty salad

I've grown some lettuce (cut-and-come-again variety), and today I started eating it. I cut off about 15 grams of it, and added some arugula and garden cress for flavour. I also tossed in a sprout mixture of fenugreek, mustard, daikon and horseradish (last three all fairly spicy). I found some leftover sweet bell pepper (yellow) in the fridge, along with a few cherry tomatoes. After I added those I still felt it needed some more. I chopped up some shiitake mushrooms and grilled them with a sauce of soy sauce, rice vinegar and sesame oil (very tasty by itself btw).

When the mushrooms cooled down a bit, I plopped them on the salad and used the small oven-dish to mix up some more soy sauce, sesame oil and rice vinegar. I used this as a dressing over the salad, preparing it in the used oven-dish gave it a bit more of a grilled taste, very nice!

I have sown plenty of salad-greens and decided I could use a challenge (oh yes, another challenge!). I want to try my best at not buying any salad greens in the store until at leas way into autumn. This excludes eating out, but includes all salads at home :D

I should get my box of shiitake mushrooms started soon too. It will take a while before I can use my own tomatoes and peppers in my salads, however, I have a lot of greens already. I like salads, I should manage to pull this one off :)

p.s. recipes for salads and dressing very welcome

I've channeled my few creative juices towards making myself salads, yesterday and today. I even went as far as buying a plate for the purpose. Salads look so much better on a white plate than on a blue-grey one.

Although the balcony has yet to produce a complete salads, I have used bits of balcony-plants to make my salads. I've sown a lot of salad-related plants, so guess what I'll eat a lot of ;)

The first one I made today, with mixed lettuce, arugula, cherry tomatoes, pickled onions and an egg from the store, drizzled with a blendered tofu dressing mixed up with some olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice and herbs from the balcony (chives, spring onion, garlic greens and leaf celery). It got a bit chunky, like mayonnaise, so I blopped it on. I then sprinkled some salt, pepper and spicy paprika over the dish.
Tasted great.

The second one I made yesterday, with the same mixed lettuce, arugula, pickled onions, and cucumber. I threw a few pieces of quorn filet on it and drizzled it with a mixture of yo-fresh (mayonnaise made with yoghurt), mustard, honey and balsamic vinegar. The lighter and small green leaves on the edge of the plate came from the balcony, and I added a few tiny sprigs of balcony-arugula.

Still working on those salad skills...

I like the idea of sprouting bags. You soak the seeds for a few hours or overnight, and you soak the bag. Then you place the seeds into the wet bag and let that drip for a bit. After a few minutes or so it'll stop and you can hang it wherever you like. I kept mine over the sink, to make sure it doesn't drip all over the floor.
Will make more photos in a few days. :)

Today I also tried some quinoa with grilled shiitakes and that didn't go so well. I thought the quinoa did not work for me, however, on testing, it turns out the shiitake caused the problems. When I checked the date it had passed its sell by date for some time already, oops. The rest of the quinoa went well, so I'll call it success too, hurray!

I found out it helps a lot if I keep on snacking / eating all day long. It prevents those moments I feel blown up because I ate too much. This makes it clear to me I have to stick to eating small meals, because my body can't handle the bigger once—unlike some other people in my family.

Some time after surgery I went to see a dietician and she told me to eat at least 150 gram potatoes, 200 grams of veggies and a good chunk of meat (100-150 gram) for dinner¹. This qualifies as a normal meal, for people with a stomach. This will never ever fit into me during a normal dinnertime. Apart from the amount, the time I need to eat has changed too. It takes longer. I could technically eat the above meal in around 2 hours or so. I don't like that, I don't want to spend more than 30 minutes on each meal, unless I go out to eat with friends. I want to have time away from food too :)

¹ This, by the way, despite me telling her at the beginning that I don't eat meat and she still thought she had to suggest the 100-150 gram portion, and suggest it several times. Stoopid. And tiring.

And when something annoys me, I go fix it.

So, the food-plan! I've probably said it before and tried it before, but I'll just do it all again, because one of these days it'll stick.

In Perfect Diet Tracker¹ I can track my caloric intake, as well as protein, carbs, sugars, sodium, fat and fibers. I mostly care about the caloric intake, the protein and the fibers, and I make sure to keep an eye on the rest as well.
Because of the surgery I don't absorb protein (and some vitamins and minerals) as well as before. Some people do, however, I don't.
This means that I have to take in more protein than other people with my age, weight, lifestyle and gender. I aim for 60 grams per day, I have a fairly slow life.
I also like to eat enough fiber, because I noticed my tummy gets very happy with that, so I aim for 35 grams of fiber.
My total caloric intake currently doesn't do it. I want to get around 1600 kcal per day, which still doesn't qualify as 'good' in my book, but I have to start somewhere, and seeing how now on most days I float around 1000-1200 with an occasional 1600+ day in between, I'd say I better not overdo it. I might explode.

I eat about 6 times per day, sometimes a little more.
I've done some calculations and decided that I need to go for meals that contain roughly 150 - 250 kcal per meal. I'll come in too short, but I do also drink and can add (mostly) kcal with that, yay!
Chopping the Big Plan into smaller pieces makes it all less daunting. Also, I do really have to eat about 6 times per day, so it makes a lot of sense to approach each meal somewhat separately.

I say somewhat, because with tracking my meals the way I do now (logging everything right after I eat / drink it) I can adjust the following meals. If I notice after three meals that I come in short on the protein side, I can toss in an egg or some extra cheese. If I notice I need more fiber, I'll toss in some more vegetables. This does mean a near constant adjusting but it also allows for some more flexibility per meal.

Right now I mostly track my meals to see what things I eat, what I like, what goes easy and what stays in and / or causes no issues.
I had to eliminate all bread, pizza, cookies, pasta etc (wheat) and that does provide me with yet another challenge. However, since I did, I feel much better and have had a lot less tummy issues than before.

From tracking I've discovered that the following already obeys my 'rules':

• one portion of mashed potatoes (instant), with a little grated cheese and a hard boiled egg
  this qualifies as a pretty serious meal to me, and clocks in around 260 kcal, score!
• two rice-crackers with black-olive tapenade (or peanut-butter)
  pretty salty (not the pb), so can't have it too much (makes me thirsty), but tasty, and around 150 / 160 kcal. as an extra bonus, easy to make, woohoo!
• one portion of Quaker's oatmeal, prepared with water, no extra additions
  around 150 kcal, so if I add some dried fruit, it'll go even higher, yay!
• one portion of yoghurt and one high fiber OJ drink
  around 160 kcal, added bonus of extra protein and extra fiber, good breakfast :D
• one glass of Soya macchiato (drink)
  around 150 kcal, has protein and I can spread drinking it easily
• one hand of mixed nuts and dried fruits (about 1oz)
  around 120 kcal, so not entirely sufficient but it does really well on the fiber and protein part

I've only got a handful so far, so I want to spend more time trying out things and looking for easy snacks on the internet. When I find something that works, I'll experiment with it some more so I'll have variation and add a bit more oomph to it. For now I make the instant mashed potatoes with water, adding some cream to it will boost the kcal and the protein (and hopefully not the bad fats too much because I don't want to clog up my arteries...)

It feels like juggling most of the time, keeping everything tracked and in the right amounts and seeing what works and finding out it doesn't. Food high in calories usually also as either a lot of fat or a lot of sugar, and both make me ill in large enough amounts (not so very large, really).
I don't think this will ever really become routine, though I do hope that eventually I don't have to track as much and check as much and try as much. I'd like to do more on a day than 'dealing with food'. For now, I'll stick with it though.

If all else fails I do have few recipes for that Christmas dinner...

¹ Last year I got a license for Perfect Diet Tracker which, apart from running on multiple OSs (woohoo!), helps track food-intake. I briefly flirted with HealthNut and though I still like that program too, it didn't offer me enough data / settings / feedback. At least, not now, I need all the info I can get basically.

As a dressing I used a simple balsamic vinegar / olive oil mix.

I have this feeling people start to look at me oddly, as if I've gone crazy... I haven't, really ;)

I generally make a shopping list when I go out buying groceries (about once per week). I used to go nearly every oter day, and spent money on food I hoped I could eat (but usually couldn't) which turned into one big waste pile which didn't feel good, money and waste wise.
I put myself on a 'shopping list diet' basically, not buying anything that's not on the list. I check the pantry and the fridge before I go out and note what I need to buy. I read somewhere that if it wasn't important enough to put on your list while checking pantry and fridge, it's certainly not important enough to buy in the store just because you see it.

I do stray from this a bit, sometimes, when in the store I remember I need to buy dog-cookies (not in my pantry, so I don't see that I need too) or better, when they're on sale. I want to have a good enough stash of dog-food and treats for my dog. So occasionally I will stray from the list a bit, however, in general, the list really works. I have basically cut my grocery spending by at least 40% (yes, I did overspent horribly on groceries for a while).

For my shopping list making I've used Shopper for iPhone since September last year (and I admit I've strayed from the list a lot until last month, nothing to do with the program). I love the way it works, though I have flirted with other programs in the meantime. See, what I missed was the option to set the price based on store (to see where I could get the best deal). Realising today I had never e-mailed them to tell them that, I went to the website and found an entire page about Shopper v3 with all the functions I missed.

Now I can't wait for it to come out. I'm sure I'll love it. I love Shopper v2 for its simplicity already. Can only get better... ;)