What's on your Monday Menu?

Please do what you need to for you. If posting helps to get out the frustration, post!

You're dealing with a ton of that, on top of the pain. Your clinic is terrible. I'm sorry. I remember that getting to a different one is just about impossible but is it possible there are some telehealth options that could expand your range?

Mornin' All!

I have a skin exam later this morning, and my brother arrives (from North Carolina) at 9:44 tonight. He'll be here all week - although I think he'll spend most of his time over at my mother's. It'll be a nice break for me (I would guess he'll be the one carting her around this week, so I'll be off the hook) - plus it'll be great seeing him. It's been at least a year, I think. In addition, my mother-in-law is moving at 11:00 this morning to another facility. Her insurance quit paying for her stay in rehab, claiming she's improving - which she is - but she's still in no condition to go home. She liked the place she was at, but they currently don't have any rooms or apts available for short-term respite patients (she probably needs another 2-4 weeks, which will be self-pay). The place she's moving to is one that DH and I have been hoping our mothers will go to when its time for assisting living or skilled care, so this will be a good chance for her to check it out in person on a short-term basis. Other than that, I'll be waiting for my new mixer to arrive (today!!) and am continuing to wait for my sourdough starter to be ready to make the rye bread with. It'll be a week tomorrow, but I read it could take up to two weeks. Might be the case here since our house is air conditioned. I probably should have stuck it out in the garage or on the porch instead - but whatever (I would now, except I read it's better to keep it at a consistent temperature while it's doing its thing..)

QOTD: I can't really think because I don't even remember the last time I was in a depressed mood. I suppose I'd go down some rabbit holes on the internet or start planning for my next travel adventure?

B: protein sourdough pancakes (made with sourdough starter discard - need to think of some more ideas for the next few days - I'd rather not have to throw the stuff every day!). Topped with plain skyr and fruit. Coffee with half & half

L: bagged salad and a grilled 1/2 peach topped with Greek yogurt

AS: protein shake

D: sauteed zucchini & tomato, protein sourdough muffin (another creation from sourdough starter discard)

ex: should be another perfect day, so either walking or biking

have a great day, everyone!

P.S. I've been having a new yogurt-based dessert lately. Got the idea from Dawn Jackson Blatner, a dietitian in Chicago whom I've been following for a couple of years. In her version, she takes vanilla Greek yogurt, stirs in a spoonful of peanut butter, and tops it with some of that chocolate syrup that turns into a hard shell, and sticks it in the freezer for around an hour. I made a couple of changes to cut the calories. First, I use a really low cal vanilla yogurt, like Light & Fit or the 100-calorie one they have at Aldi's. I use powdered peanut butter (PB2 or PBfit) instead of the real thing, and just use regular chocolate syrup, since oddly, the hard shell one has a lot more calories in it than just regular Hershey's (or whatever) syrup. I love it - and it's under 200 kcal, tastes great, and it's pretty filling to boot!

Sheila has shared some great recipes in that sphere. She melts the lily's chips and puts them on top of the yogurt and freezes it a few minutes which makes it like the ice cream shell stuff.

that's a great idea! I may even have some of those around here - if not, I'll pick some up next time I'm at the store. Thanks!

actually, i just checked back with Blatner's page. She uses melted chocolate chips as well. Makes sense since they'd harden up pretty quickly in the freezer. I probably started using Hershey's syrup because I was out of chocolate chips the first time I made it and happened to have some Hersheys in the fridge...and just continued to make it that way. Plus I noticed that hardshell stuff has over twice the calories. Hershey's syrup does thicken up in the freezer, but it doesn't become solid. Well, it might if you left it in there overnight, but then the yogurt would be too hard to eat. By the time if softened up, the Hershey's syrup would have softened up, too. Anyway, I have some choc chips now - I'll try it with those next time i make it.

I don't know if it's true or not but I have it in my head that the magic shell stuff is some type of oil base so that's probably why the calories are high.

I was thinking it was probably something like that, too...

Funny this comes up now. One of the Julia at Home episodes yesterday talked about this. She made her magic shell recipe with coconut oil since it's solid at room temperature. That would do it for calories!

That makes sense!