the holidays have arrived

i discovered these last year -- don't know how i missed out on them for so long -- but they're back! candy cane joe-joe's. for those of you that haven't ever tried them, my heart cries for you. they're only around during the holidays, so go get some!

even though my chiropractor will curse me out, i purchased 3 boxes of them last night when i discovered them on the shelf at trader joe's. hey -- they don't have any hydrogenated oils. i think that makes them okay. doesn't it?

and, for the record, i haven't eaten of them yet. i'm actually a little paranoid that they're gonna run out too quickly, so i want to save them ... i think i may have a problem. a pepperminty and chocolatey problem.

a meta

my goal this week is to bring my lunch to work everyday. for two reasons, mostly:

1. i am cheap.

2. i have zero self control when french fries are on the menu.

so far, so good.

but, it's only tuesday ...

best sandwich ever

i know i've been too lazy lately to post anything, but ... some things are worth making the effort. and this sandwich is.

tomato, avocado, green onion, garlic powder, black pepper, basil, and cheese. eden's copyright.

i'd eat it everyday.

if she'd make it for me everyday.

lasting impressions

chatting with a co-worker tonight, griping about the same old office complaints ...

... i got an unexpected glimpse of the impression i leave on some people:

"i'm starving and talking to you made me think of jerry's."

[nose wriggle]. funny.

...

what do i make *you* think of??

my greasy lover, bacon

i wonder if you really could travel back in time ...

mmmm

the one redeeming quality of an overly-air-conditioned office with an adequately-supplied break room is that i get to curl up with a warm cup of soup in the middle of a 90-degree day. mmmm.

vegetariano por un día

my sister called me on tuesday with the latest and greatest fad diet for me to try for my cholesterol woes:

vegetarian for one day a week

so here's how the gig goes:

• choose one day a week to eat no meat.

okay, maybe i didn't really need to explain that, but ... i did ... live with it.

anyway, so i thought i could give it a try in order to add some structure to my resolution número uno.

being that it was tuesday afternoon that my sister called and told me, the week was about half over before i even knew about my resolution. but because i wanted to get a jump-start on this, i planned for a wednesday vegetarian day. but then the client had brought in yummy mexican food with chicken and steak burritos for lunch. so wednesday was out.

thursday was the next option. and i did really well through all of breakfast and most of the morning. then my co-worker suggested that we sushi it that night and run the charge through. well, can't go to sushi and eat vegetarian. it would be a waste. so ... thursday was out.

and today is friday. gotta do it today. because a vegetarian weekend certainly spells n-o f-u-n. it really does. i looked it up. anyway, i was delighted when my co-worker suggested that we work through lunch and take off early. that meant that i could spend the day un-tempted by restaurant menus and un-influenced by what others are eating. plus, i am way better at maintaining some food self control when i am not eating with others. (don't know why. hmmm. that might be fodder for another self-analysis blog post.)

so today my diet consisted of oatmeal, eggs, hash browns, and o.j. for breakfast. then yogurt with granola, edamame, and (of course) chocolate through the noon hour and the afternoon. i got home from san luis obispo around 9 and i had a grilled cheese sandwich. (on wheat! woot!)

look at that! i did it! a vegetarian for one day!

here's to a great start. check back for updates. y'know, if this is the sort of thing that interests you. yeah.

resolutions, v. 2009

so it's the middle of march. shoot me.

i can still make resolutions.

yeah, huh!

okay, so this year, i would first like to announce my great success related to my prior year resolutions. whereas my cholesterol did not go down as much as i had hoped ... i successfully complied with my resolution for one year.

i deserve a pat on the back.

*pat*, *pat*, *pat*

okay, and now on to the main event:

this year's resolutions!

1. red meat and cholesterol - i think i started a theme last year. so we'll see about continuing in that great cause. however, i will not limit my red meat intake to weekends only anymore. because ... well ... just because. so ... this year, i am eating red meat whenever i choose, though not as much as i did in the pre-2008 years. if my resolution last year had any impact on me at all (besides 4 points lower cholesterol, thank you), it has broken my addiction to red meat. don't get me wrong: i still love the stuff. but it is no longer the only thing i eat.

   i am trying to work oatmeal into my diet as a combatant to high cholesterol. i freely admit that this resolution this year is not as well-thought-out and thoroughly defined as last year's. but ... it's busy season. i hardly have time to think about anything. but here's the general idea: eat oatmeal. yeah.

   (if anyone has suggestions for helping me get this goal into action, let me know. keep in mind that i don't have time for breakfast, so oatmeal will be an evening meal. hmm: oatmeal ... evening meal. interesting.)

2. exercise - there was a month a while ago that i went jogging / running 3 times a week. really. i calendared it -- yeah -- i can show you. so ... i think i'm going to do that again. jogging / running 3 times a week. it was easier when i had a buddy, but yeah. no more excuses.

   until busy season is over, i can't promise anything more than maybe 15 minutes at a time, but that's something at least. when summer gets here, we'll talk about maybe stepping that up a notch.

3. spiritual - my stake relief society released a new program called the personal righteousness program in which we make goals around 7 different values and the complete a 15-hour project. it's kind of like the personal progress program in young women.

   as of this moment, i have read through the suggested goals for exactly 1 of those values. i'll remedy that. and then i will do those goals. (if anyone wants more detailed information about the program, let me know. i have a pdf of the whole thing i can send you.)

okay, i think that is all the burden i can pile on my own shoulders right now. i am getting a bit overwhelmed just re-reading all that. [deep breath] just gotta remember that i have the rest of the year to work on these things. yeah.

anyway. there you go. someone once said that a goal not written down is just a wish. so these are my goals: they are written down.

the results are in (again)

last year, i set a goal to limit the amount of red meat i was eating in order to decrease my cholesterol. it's been difficult and i have whined a lot, as you may recall, and i have had to really expand my ... umm ... horizons ... ? (something. can't think right now.)

anyway. i got my lab results back today. here are the highlights:

---

	PY (2007)	CY (2008)
triglycerides	97 mg/dL	82 mg/dL
cholesterol, total	215 mg/dL	211 mg/dL	(should be less than 200)
- hdl cholesterol	60 mg/dL	58 mg/dL
- ldl cholesterol	136 mg/dL	137 mg/dL	(should be less than 130)
glucose	80 mg/dL	83 mg/dL
sodium	138 mmol/L	138 mmol/L
potassium	4.0 mmol/L	4.3 mmol/L
white blood cell count	5.9 thousand/uL	5.7 thousand/uL
red blood cell count	4.91 million/uL	4.71 million/uL
hemoglobin	13.0 g/dL	13.4 g/dL
hematocrit	38.4 %	39.0 %
platelet count	283 thousand/uL	308 thousand/uL

---

okay. so ... my cholesterol is still a high. grr. it went down 4 points. woohoo. but ... honestly, i kinda expected more. i mean, i cut my red meat consumption by roughly 73%. so ... yeah, i kinda expected more. [sigh.]

so now what? as i see it, there are a few options:

1. continue the red-meat-on-weekends-only regime.

2. amend the rules such that i can have red meat on any 2 days of the week. i mean, c'mon, it went down 4 points: that deserves some kind of reward.

3. eat oatmeal everyday (or on some regular schedule) to fight this with a little proactivity instead of just restraint.

4. give up entirely and eat red meat whenever i darnwell please since it's not making any difference anyway.

anyone care to vote? c'mon, we all did it a month ago ... let's exercise our right to vote again!!

meatatarian

i just saw the most fabulous commercial for the new wendy's baconator.

there's a couple sitting in the wendy's dining room, enjoying lunch. the chick offers a bite of her salad to the guy, but he turns her down with an, "ah, no thanks. i'm a meatatarian." "a what?" "a meatatarian. y'know, beef, bacon. it's a personal choice. you gotta be committed."

friends, i am a meatatarian.

... i mean, i'm a recovering meatatarian.

... man, this is hard.

healthy evidence?

oh, no. look what i just found on the internets ...

"beef has a rep as a diet buster, but eating it may help you peel off pounds. in a study published in the american journal of clinical nutrition, women on a diet that included red meat lost more weight than those eating equal calories but little beef. 'the protein in steak helps you retain muscle mass during weight loss,' says study author manny noakes, ph.d. try to consume local organic beef; it's healthier for you and the environment."

i may have to re-think my new years resolution. afterall, i want to be healthy: the primary purpose of the resolution is health-related ... to reduce my cholesterol ... so ... hmmm ...

thanks, eden, for sending this article my way. i may be able to turn it into some sort of rationalization for ending my beef ban. hmmm ... 8-/

i'll let y'all know.

(p.s. -- i must admit that i didn't read anything further in the article after the beef part. ha. i got what i needed out of it. the rest of the article might really be interesting, though. lemme know.)

nuts

cashews are good.

rancid cashews are not.

the "best before" date on these is jan-05-09. someone lied.

didn't wait long enough

you will recall my traumatic grocery experience from a few months ago. i think i was too ambitious last night when i decided enough time had passed so i could once again return to the hallowed halls of my neighborhood ralph's.

innocently enough, i just stopped in to quickly grab some milk and some toothpaste (very quickly: i had mcdonald's calling my name from the car).

so as to not let my fries get too cold without me, i followed a very efficient route inside the store, spending a total of about 5 minutes in there. mom would have been proud. so, with my goods in hand and ready to check-out, i noted only one cashier on duty: grocery guy. hmmm. but ... there's always the self-checkout registers ... so i headed there, quickly rang myself up, and started toward the door.

i had to cross the front of the store, though, right past grocery guy. and at the very moment i was passing his cash wrap, he turned around and saw me. he smiled with a smooth, "hey gorgeous, is tax season over?"

1. i don't do taxes.
2. [whimper] i just want to do my grocery shopping in peace ... [whimper, whimper]

i smiled, because i always smile and i really don't want to be mean. then i answered with a simple "yes" and kept walking, to which he responded, "good. well, then maybe we'll see more of you now."

[whimper ...]

what do you do?

what do you do when the power goes out?

well, when the freezer is full of ice cream and you aren't sure when the power will come back on, i think y'all would do what we did:

make fruit smoothies using a battery-powered hand drill.

it was ingenious!

we jury-rigged the drill: hooked it up, first, to a blender blade to chop the fruit and then to a beater to mix it all up. then we enjoyed our concoction by candle light while playing super munchkins!

puttin' it all together now ...

when we got back from lunch today ...

1. we noted a white rodent control van parked outside the client's office.

2. we saw a man in a blue exterminator jumpsuit having a conversation in the hallway with debby.

3. we overheard debby, in accounting, say, "there were a couple that came running out from over there. and i think i saw one little one behind that over there, too."

4. we climbed the stairs to the conference room where we have been working for the past 3½ weeks, where we saw the empty bag of trader joe's honey whole wheat pretzel sticks on the conference table.

5. we remembered a conversation from this morning wherein we concluded that the night janitorial staff is to blame for the empty bag of pretzel sticks, which was not empty when we left last night.

6. we noted that one of the corners of the bag had a decent-sized hole with jagged (maybe nibble-like?) edges.

... we may have been wrong about the janitorial staff.

beef day!

so the red cross just called to remind me that i am donating platelets on saturday at 7am. yea! you know what that means, don't you ... ??

... today is beef day!!

yea! ryan (here at work) informed me that we will be dining on some *fab*ulous burgers at the munch box today and the habit tomorrow. i am *so* excited!

longing

i need more milk. i poured the last drops into my cup with dinner on sunday night. but because of recent events, i can't just stop at the grocery store after work anymore. what's a milk-cravin', grocery-guy-avoidin', pathetic-flirt of a girl to do?

listen to this

"because you really, really love chocolate.
we start with a perfect balance of the very best ingredients -- rich, dark ghirardelli cocoa, the finest wheat flour, and a hint of sweet vanilla flavor.
a generous measure of ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips adds that luxuriously rich, intense chocolate experience chocolate lovers cherish.
the result is a brownie that is ultra rich, moist and chewy.
in short, pure brownie perfection.
ghirardelli double chocolate brownie mix.
creating moments of intense chocolate pleasure, from people who know it best ... ghirardelli."

that's what i made today. ... uh, huh ...

oh. and i spread mint-chocolate swirled chocolate chips on top, melted and luscious. pure decadence.

(by the way, i'm not gonna just listen to this: i'm gonna eat it. a lot of it.)

another sandwich post

the monte cristo:

at brent's deli, it is described as: "ham, turkey & swiss on thick egg bread deep-fried in batter. served with strawberry preserves and powdered sugar." but i'm telling you, it tastes better than that. just imagine a ham and turkey sandwich made with french toast and deep-fried to perfection.

for those of you who haven't tried this artery-clogging sensation yet ... you are missing out. when i ordered it at lunch yesterday, two of my co-workers had very emotional responses -- one guy seemed ready to have a heart attack himself at just hearing my order, and the other guy was ready to jump up and down in excitement over my order.

and had i known beforehand just what i was getting myself into, i probably would have had both reactions at once.

but i'm tellin' ya. good eats!

of course, i will also tell you that i went running last night, too, y'know to try and make up for my indulgence and i seriously couldn't run to save my life. it's a very good thing that no one was chasing me. really.

but wow, what a sandwich!

a favorite, with a twist

the other night, i was whining about my no-beef resolution again and cute guy just wasn't letting me get away with any of it. he had lots of ideas and suggestions ... and i have to say that i have fallen completely in love with one of them: grilled cheese and tomato sandwich.

oh my goodness. i love grilled cheese sandwiches -- but this is so much better.

see? it starts out as a regular grilled cheese sandwich -- i make mine with dark rye bread and shredded colby jack. mmm. and i always butter the pan, not the bread; that way i don't get butter on my fingers or on the counter.

so, butter the pan, put your first slice of bread in and load on some shredded cheese. but before you put the second piece of bread on, you put a couple slices of fresh, ripe tomato! yeah, huh! it's just so dang good!

when it's ready, flip it over (yes, buttering the pan for the other side).

wow. makes me salivate just thinking about it ... maybe i'll go make me another one ... yeah, that sounds like a good idea.