A Peek in My Kitchen

Hey everyone. Long time no see! It has been a very busy week with doctors and whatnot and then last Wednesday I had to have a spinal tap done. While it wasn't fun by any means it wasn't as horrific as I thought it would be. The recovery takes a few weeks so you basically don't spring a leak of fluid from your spine. I go to work and lay down basically lol. I got my results and what's going on is pretty benign so it's all good, just need to take a medication to restore some balance (cryptic I know but it is what it is). Of everything the med has been the biggest annoyance and has basically knocked me on my ass. It makes me VERY tired, sometimes dizzy and my appetite is way down. Supposedly it should get better as I get used to it though. Anyway, that's the fun stuff that I've been doing since my last post ;) Haha what a perfect lead up for my birthday this weekend.

Anyway, there hasn't been much coming out of my kitchen since I have a very small appetite right now but there are a few things I can show you. I know inquiring minds want to know ;)

I'm usually somewhat modest with my baked creations but there is no room for modesty with what happened in that picture above. I'm very proud of these beauties. My coworker's birthday was on the 10th and one thing I pride myself on is customizing everyone's birthday treats to their personal tastes. I know she loves fresh fruit in her treats so I made an inside out cupcake with fresh strawberries! I made large chocolate cupcakes with I split open and filled with some frosting, sliced strawberries, more frosting and topped with the top half of the cupcake. I then poured some thick chocolate ganache (I can't remember what recipe I used!!!), added a little more frosting and a whole fresh strawberry. These things are ridiculous!

Yesterday I had my annual physical with my Primary Care Physician. After that I did some grocery shopping at Fairway and came home to do some cooking. Above I used every veggie in my house to make a huge batch of Cauliflower Fried "Rice." I processed a head of cauliflower to look like rice and basically stir fried it with zucchini, broccoli, onion, carrot, garlic and bok choy. There is a lot of this stuff and it is very delicious! I'll probably make some soup out of it too if it continues to be this chilly.

I didn't get a lot from Fairway but these bars are definitely noteworthy. I received one of these Bobo's Oat Bars in a Care Package Swap a few years ago in the maple pecan flavor and it was delicious. I've since tried the Chocolate Almond flavor and it was even more delicious! They are hard to find some when I saw them I grabbed a Chocolate Almond and a Coconut! I had never seen the coconut so I'm excited to try it. These will be a good snack to eat when I'm not hungry since they are calorie dense and compact. These were a very good find.

You know how I feel about the pickle barrels! I only got two half sours though since I don't know how many I'll get through and I don't like wasting stuff. Other notable purchases were oranges (yay!), some cut pineapple and some Smart Water. Something I need to watch with my new meds is that they cause electrolyte imbalance and I'm not into Gatorade so I'm going to try and drink a liter of Smart Water every day to keep all that straight.

That's all I've got for you now. Hopefully I'll be able to post a more fun update in a bit when I'm feeling normal again. I'll definitely have some yummy fall meals to show you and I definitely think some Garlic Soup will be on the menu soon.

Hope you've all been well this week. I've been having fun reading all of the MoFo posts :) I'm looking forward to celebrating my 30th with my family this weekend. From what I understand the place we are going to makes a mean Coconut margarita. Just sayin ;)