Day 44 - Re-entering the Grind

Mega: Back to work. Ate corn nuts, which, sadly, was the highlight of my work day. Did get a lot accomplished though! Then met up with my honey and we went and bought polish sausages and tater tots at the store. Tonight we dined like every 5 yr old child dreams about and it was glorious. That is until it made us sick. I probably shouldn't have put as much cheese as I did on my tots.

Day 43 - Last Day in TX

Mega: Didn't do much on my last day. Had Greek yogurt w/ a banana and granola. That was tasty. Oh, and Dad BBQed some bacon for me, which was really nice. I pretty much spent the rest of the day going through boxes and packing. Pretty blah. Did make it to the airport on time and bought some yummy treats. Texas is big on the pecans so I bought some turtles, pralines, and pecan brittle to bring home and "share." One thing that the airport really lacked was books to buy. It seems that Texans think that magazines are books. So, it took me a while to find a cruddy book to read. Not a big deal.

Oh, did receive two awesome surprises. 1) Low came into the airport to pick me up, which was great! I was even thinking about how nice that would be if he did and low and behold, he was there. Love it! And 2) Low shampooed the carpets in my apartment!! I have been talking about that for a while and was waiting until the rainy season was over so that I wouldn't just turn around and track more dirt in. He, being the sweetheart he is, went out and rented a cleaner and did it for me. I love that man sooooo much!!

Day 42 - Sending Low off Chuy Style

Mega: Went to our first Mexican restaurant in forever. It was called Chuy's and it was okay. The waitress was really nice and the salsa pretty hot and tasty. Other than that...nothing much. But it was our send off meal for Low as he flew back to the City a day before yours truly. Afterward, we went home and I ate the rest of my ice cream that we bought the previous day. Hagen makes this awesome honey and vanilla ice cream. SOOOO GOOOODDDDD!!!! I porked out on that and an ice cream bar. :)

Day 41 - Mosquitos & Crickets

Mega: So, I'm being eaten alive. The mosquitos here lllluuuuuuvvvvvvv me. More specifically, my calves, arms and even my thumb. Augh!! The itchiness is driving me loco. As revenge, Low and I bought some crickets at the Lady Bird Wildflower Center Store and ate them with my dad and bro. They were flavored...sour cream and onion. Very crunchy.

Low: Mega is a vocal sufferer. But in her defense, she has eight bites on one calf. Mosquitos apparently prefer white meat because I am relatively bite free. I have been bitten, but maybe a total of three or four times. I'd say the crickets were good, but it's really not so much the crickets that are good as it is just have something crunchy that is flavored with sour cream and onion. The crickets are just a flavor vehicle.

Day 40 - Home Cooked Meal

Mega: Had my first home cooked meal in years. My dad made broccoli, salad, and for the main course...blackened mahi mahi and scallops. It was fantabulous!! The only downer was that my dad put Kikkoman's soy sauce in his ginger dressing. For those of you unaware of gluten...Kikkoman's uses wheat in their soy sauce; so, it's a no no. Overall, two thumbs up. And had Hagen Daz ice cream bars for desert.

Low: The blackened fish was a treat. I think I will have to convince Mega to get the recipe from her dad. He's a great cook. As we were all eating and enjoying our blackened fish we were talking about how lots of people say "I don't like fish" and never give it a try. There are just so many types of fish, and they are all delicious in different ways. I can buy into someone not liking a particular kind of fish, but to say that you hate all fish is just a little much. I think we all just need to be a little more adventurous in our eating. I will gladly risk having a few bad meals if it means that I get to discover some really great foods and recipes. Getting off soapbox now.

Day 39 - The Salt Lick

Mega: Had Texas BBQ and it was deeelish. That's probably b/c we went to G.W.Ya's favorite place, The Salt Lick. And for those of you who do not know G.W.Ya, it's President G.W.Ya Bush. Yeeeeee hawwwww!! We ordered beef briskets, pork ribs, sausage, and turkey with sides of bread, coleslaw, beans, pickles, and onions. Let's just say, I may have overate a little...

Low: Salt Lick and overeating are mutually exclusive in every sense. I would have to say that the pork ribs were my favorite. Also I like the ambience of the place with the great big BBQ pit out in the open where you can see it. We were trying to clandestinely take pictures of the pit and when the employees saw us they told us to go right on back and take a look and even offered to take photos of us. I guess that's some of that Texan hospitality we've heard about.

Day 38 - Texxxaaasssssss

Mega: Arrived in Texas last night and discovered that dieting in vacation is really hard. Really hard. So, since there has been no improvement with my overall belly health, I texted Low to see if it'd be cool if we bag the diet until I figure out what is truly wrong with my innards. It's hard to rule out food allergies when you feel crummy all the time. Low's response, "I agree. I don't think the diet will help you with your stomach bugs. We should just try not to go crazy. With the exception of Texas BBQ of course." So, I added pork and tomatoes in and no response. However, we went to the pizza place, and though I ordered gluten free crust...kinda forgot to ask about the BBQ sauce. I don't think it did, but dunno.

Low arrived also. Yay! Thankfully his flight wasn't too late and it did give us an interesting opportunity to park by a motel that had the El Tenampa Bar next door. The sign had this awesome gal with a bikini on. Looks like a great place to hang out and meet people...

Day 37 - Leaving and Leftovers

Low: Dropped Mega off at the airport for her trip to Austin. She is headed down today, but I am following after her tomorrow. Since we are both going to be out of town for a few days I took it upon myself to try to eliminate all the leftovers from my fridge. I tried to eat all the lamb from Sunday night, but I was only able to make it through a few slices of lamb. I was, however, able to polish off all the leftover broccoli and sweet potatoes. I'll have to reevaluate the lamb when I get back into town. Hopefully it will still be in edible shape.

Day 36 - ...

Mega: Three words say it all...mango sticky rice. -----drooooolllllll-----

Day 35 - Gyro's and a movie

Mega: Went to see His Girl Friday at our local park and eat gyro meat over rice. Both were quite good. The dialogue was quite fast and witty, and the lemon rice tasty. Movies and food outside are the best. I wish we had more drive-in theaters. I know there is one in town. Sadly I never remember it when I'm thinking about watching a movie. Low and I really need to go.

Day 34 - Low's Bro's B-day Dinner

Mega: One of Low's bros had a birthday a little while back when he was out of town. Because of that, we were unable to have a party. So, Low and I decided to invite him over for Sunday dinner/B-day celebration. We cooked our lamb, sweet potatoes, and broccoli and sat around the TV watching Innerspace. None of us had seen that movie in the last millennium and it was one all of us expressed more than slight interest in. Surprisingly, it wasn't one of those movies that was better in your childhood. Dennis Quaid and Martin Short were pretty funny...and Meg Ryan's clothing and hair was VERY 80's awesome. I was glad we could get together since I will be missing the real b-day party this week. I'm heading out of town to go visit my dad. I can't wait to see him!!

Day 33 - Friends and Frogs

Mega: Had a day with the girls and it was great to be around some estrogen. :) We got together (myself, Low's sis, and Low's sis-in-law) at Low's place for lunch and a movie. We had a nice salad, fruit, and pecans. The highlight was the baby pineapple and the low was the fish. For some reason when it was requested that I cook the fish all my culinary talents went out the window. First, I forgot to season it with anything other than garlic and olive oil. Then it kept sticking to the bottom of the pan; so, when I was done, it looked thoroughly Mega handled. ---sigh--- Oh well, it was edible. But I promise I really can cook better than that. Below is a pic I took:



Low: J'aime bien les grenouilles jambes. Well at least somewhat. I thought the frog's legs were good but a little on the fishy side. They were nice for a change though and they were really cheap at only $5.99/pound. Next up is escargot though I'm not sure if that is officially on the list.

Day 32 - Dinner for Low

Mega: Usually it is Low that cooks with my assistance. However, I decided that it was high time for me to cook for him. So, I made turkey burgers over a bed of lettuce, steamed broccoli, and sweet potatoes with rosemary (his idea.) It turned out awesome! And as Low predicted, the ice rice didn't make it through the night.

I have learned in this process that I eat a lot more than Low does and now he teases me with calling me a hoover...followed with vacuum noises. That wouldn't be so bad if he didn't say "yip, yip" to me like the kid in the Avetar/Airbender show. Grr.... :)

Day 31 - Ice Rice

Low: Mega was fixin' for ice cream last night--more than usual that is. This time she said it was unbearable so we went down to Whole Foods to get her a fix. I feel like I'm enabling her for some reason.

Anyways, since rice is now officially "in" we thought someone might have had the good foresight to make ice cream using rice milk or the like. Lo and behold, someone actually has taken the time to make quite a few dairy free, sugar free, and soy free ice creams. We actually had a few to choose from but ended up settling on one that was flavored with carob and almonds, both of which are on the "allowed-to-eat" list.

It was good, and surprisingly, as I write this, we still have leftovers in the freezer, though I imagine they won't survive the night. It's nice to at least have made it to the point were someone makes a treat that isn't fruit.

Day 30 - Enter the rice

Mega: Low came home and what better way to celebrate than to add rice into our diet. I made white rice with ground lamb, zucchini, rosemary, garlic, and salt. It was pretty good though I will be better about putting smaller chunks of the meat in the pan rather than the whole thing. I am just soooo glad that something new is in our diet. Now we can have rice milk and cereal. Hurrah!

Day 29 - Laundry at Low's

Mega: Confession...I left some dishes at Low's place from when I did a couple loads of laundry; so, I had to return to clean up and do one last load. Since Low's fridge is as pathetically empty as my own, I bought groceries. I cooked up yellow squash and zucchini and had rockfish. It was very yum! And fairly easy to clean up after myself. Here's the progress photos.





You know you're jealous.

Day 28 - More leftovers

Mega: Today's food is about the same as yesterday. Yeah...exciting. I'm really looking forward to having Low back. So depressed...I think I'm going to go embroider.

much later.....


Well, I was embroidering when a friend called up and talked me in to stepping out of my comfortable abode for a movie. Normally, I would have just said no thanks, but it was a free screening of Charades with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, who is my idol. It was tons of fun! Plus, I was really glad to hang out with my friend.

Day 27 - Embroider this!

Mega: Nothing to report food wise. Just ate leftover turkey stuff and sweet potatoes at Low's place. I was over there to do my laundry. He's such a sweetie!! :) And in return, I didn't eat his sweet potato chips.

Did a lot of embroidery. Currently putting poppies on a pillow case. (Just heard the wicked witch of the west saying, "Poppies.... Poppies..." in my head. A little weirded out.) Anywho, they are looking okay so far. And it's a great thing to do outside or while watching TV. I watched a lot of Veronica Mars on Netflix and a little irked that the canceled that show. It was one program I actually liked.

That's it. Peace out.

Day 26 - Meals prepared by Mega when Low is gone

Mega: Dropped Low off, which was sad. I always miss him when he's gone... ---sigh---

Back to food. So, I don't think I've ever posted a pic of my breakfasts. Here it is in its full glory as taken through a camera phone that's almost 6 yrs old.



Though it isn't the best pic in the world, I still think it looks really yummy. It is raw pecans and almonds with raspberries, blueberries, and mango. And to top it off, a drizzling of honey. Sooo good! And good for you! Well, at least it is for me.

Sadly lunch wasn't as awesome. You see, there is a fundamental difference between my cooking and Low's. He likes to look up recipes, buy the ingredients, and meticulously prepare the meal. I, on the other hand, think to myself (especially when in lazy mode), "What do I have in the fridge that is edible?" On Day 26 I knew I had bell peppers, spinach, and ground turkey. Here's how it played out:

First, I chopped up an orange bell pepper and threw it into the frying pan along with the ground turkey. I seasoned it with sage and rosemary from the garden and a good dose of garlic salt. It looked like this:



Then I stirred it around til the meat was brown and added spinach. (Looking a little scary.)



And voila! The final product and assessment:



Overall, it wasn't really that bad and would probably be pretty good over rice or quinoa. My cat was duly impressed. Do not let yourself be fooled by her "too awesome for this" attitude. She was amazed that it was edible as much as I was:



I am really looking forward to adding things back into our diet. I think we are starting with rice so we can at least go eat sushi. ssuuuuusssshhhhhhhhiiiiiiii

Day 25 - Low Meal

Mega: Friday was an interesting night. First, I was invited to go up to Low's sis-in-law's family's cabin for a girls night. As Low was leaving the next day, I decided to at on my lovie desires and stay in town. Thank goodness I did. Why you ask... As it turns out, when I told him that I was invited, he said that I could have gone and he would have found another ride. I had no idea I was supposed to take him to the airport, not that I mind at all. I actually prefer it...

Anyway, I was rewarded for staying behind b/c Low made a great dinner. It was halibut over a bed of lettuce with half a mango and avocado on the side. It was really nice! We sat around, watched some Avetar, and enjoyed each others company.

Day 24 - Modest Attempts

Mega: Tonight I was supposed to accomplish two things: 1) sew a cute patch back onto my sweatshirt that I bought at the Black Chandelier a few years ago, and 2) attend the Modest Mouse concert. Unfortunately for me, I accomplished neither. My friend and I tried to fix the patch, but ended up almost ruining it. (Too bad Low wasn't there earlier to recommend suturing it. Gr.) I would like to try again someday.

Anywho, we were also supposed to go to the Modest Mouse concert, but that didn't work out either. The line was too long. So, we went and looked at iPhones. I didn't purchase one...just browsing.

Food kinda ran the same line. Breakfast was wonderful. It was my usual of raspberries, blueberries, sliced banana, pecans, almonds, and all drizzled with honey. Yum!! Lunch was a sad affair of raisins and almonds. (Need to get better about planning!) And dinner was a turkey burger w/ spinach and sweet potato chips.

Day 23 - Tragedy

Mega: I made sweet potatoes and broccoli for dinner. Unfortunately, I over salted the potatoes. I love salt, but not that much. And it wasn't fixable via sugar. I tried to balance it out by no salting my broccoli, which worked out okay. Mainly, I ended up eating a bunch of sweet potato chips bought from Costco. Not a meal to be proud of by any means.

Day 22 - Despretely seeking salad

Mega: So, lunches probably are the hardest part to plan since I don't like to cart around a whole meal and such. Usually they end up being leftovers from the night before. Today I didn't have anything but celery, pineapple and almonds to eat. As this is unacceptable, I emailed Low to see if he was down for going to lunch, which, thankfully, he was. Since eating out is really hard, we opted to go up to the grocery store and buy supplies for a salad. It turned out so yummy!! The ingredients are as follows: salad, radishes, cucumber, red bell pepper, olive oil, salt, and chopped up basil. For desert we had a kiwi.

After work we went over to Costco to renew our supplies. We found that they sold packaged mango slices! I, of course, bought some of those along with tons of other fruit. We also bought some ground turkey. Dinner tonight consisted of a turkey burger (with fresh rosemary and garlic salt mixed in) over a bed of lettuce and a side of steamed broccoli.

Day 21: 3 Weeks and Well-fed

Low: Today, Mega and I did pretty well. I don't know what Mega had for breakfast or lunch (but I'm guessing fruit and nuts), but we had a pretty nice supper and we were even able to entertain guests. We went swimming again today and there were many shenanigans similar to the last time we went, but this time we have no video evidence of said shenanigans. By the time we finished swimming and having a good time we were pretty hungry and ready to eat. We had invited two of Mega's friends over for supper so we ran to my place and got started. There were four of us so we cooked up two nice cornish game hens with rosemary and garlic. In addition to the hens we also had brussels sprouts, yams, broccoli and some nice Pelligrino. Everything came together nicely and I don't think our friends even realized that they were eating a healthy, yet somewhat restrictive diet.

Mega: Hmm...I had a mango and almonds for breakfast, so Low was correct. The game hens received two thumbs up from both of our friends. One thing that was nice was that we were able to convince my friends that brussels sprouts, when cooked properly, are really quite good. We roasted them up with our sweet potatoes. Tasty! Anyway, they gave them a try and liked them. Sorry if this post doesn't make any sense. Currently being distracted by Low playing Modern Warfare 2 and this kid, who must be 12, is on and singing, "we are the champions" very badly. It is really making me laugh! He doesn't even know the words, just "we are the champions, we are the champions," and random laughing over and over. My thoughts are where are his parents? And why are they letting him play this very violent game? Plus, they really need to educate him on the lyrics of Queen. Freddy Mercury is probably laughing and shaking his head too... Either that, or crying cuz the song is being butchered.

Day 20 - Kosher Dinner

Mega: Low's family is major sweet and supportive. They invited us over for dinner and made a tasty kosher meal for us. We had sole (which is a type of fish), sweet potatoes and yams, asparagus, and salad. There was also frogs eye salad that we finally remembered to bring, but couldn't eat due to the marshmallows and whipped cream. Quite the story about the frogs eye salad...we showed up to the blessing the day before and Low's mom walked up to me to tell me that I had failed. Since I had no idea what she was referring to (I fail at a lot of things) I inquired further. Turns out that Low had forgotten to bring the salad that his mom had given to him to stick in his fridge as they had run out of room. I had then failed to remember to remind him to grab it. In my defense, I was not assigned this task, and with a some laughs, she forgave me. :) I like Low's mom. She's fun.

Anywho, the night went really well.

Low: Sole is a good fish but it is difficult to cook. We found this out the hard way unfortunately though. We had our pans all set up and threw the fish in with some salt and thyme. The first side went pretty well but as we were moving it around in the pan we saw that the fish did not want to stay together. Needless to say, by the time we had all the fish cooked up, it was nice and browned but it was more flaked than filleted. So we learned that Sole definitely cooks up nicely, but you need a very hot and a very non-stick pan to cook it well.

Day 19 - Blessing & Formal Dress Party

Mega: Day 19 was full of food. First, we went to Low's niece's blessing. It was held at his sis-in-law's parent's place up on the side of the mountain. Their place is so nice and has a great view of the valley below. Plus, they have a pool! Anyway, the blessing was really nice and afterward we had food. Unfortunately, everything there was not kosher to the diet except some fruit. I ate some of that and then was offered some nuts, raisins, and dried mango. Sis-in-law's family is really sweet.

After eating (and proper digestion period) we jumped in the pool for some crazy fun. Low's fam cracks me up. They did this giant tier of people with Low at the bottom. I'll leave it to him to explain.

After the pool, I had to run over to my friend, Liz's, place for her fancy dress party. The fun began at 2pm and lasted until 5. We all dressed up into those gowns that we haven't worn since forever. Liz wore her wedding dress, Joni her bridesmaid dress, Thena and Neighborgirl a closet dress. We put on makeup and jewelry and gabbed about food, work, houses, and men. I had to run to the store to buy olives (though I can't eat them) and pick up a few other items for Low and myself. For example, I bought a couple bison steaks and sweet potatoes for Low as a treat. He has been soooo good with not cheating (though, he was busted for almost taking a bite of some enchiladas at the blessing.) Anyway, the party was tons of fun! And afterward Low came over and we had dinner and walked over to the park to watch some fireworks.

Low: So I have this four-year-old nephew who we'll call Bean. Bean loves the water and he's pretty adventurous too. I started playing with him by holding him over my head and standing on my head and by standing on my hands. He like to get up high and then jump or fall in. So we had this good idea to start stacking people upon people. We started off by putting Bean on top of my dad and then having me lift everyone out of the water. Bean was not satisfied so we decided to try and go higher yet. We started with Bean on my dad's shoulders then my dad on my brother's shoulders and finally I got under the water to get my brother on my shoulders and to try and pick them all out of the water. As you can see from the video, it was marginally successful. We got everyone out of the water, but everything fell apart soon after. Overall, it was a lot of fun though and everyone had a good time.

Day 18 - Arrival of Low's Rents

Mega: It's so hard to post retro notes. Hm..what do I remember... Well, Low's parents arrived on Day 18. They are such nice people! We sat on the front lawn and chatted with them and the rest of the family. It was a beautiful night. The weather was really hot during the day, but nice and cool in the evening. That's one great thing about living in an area that has little to no humidity.

Food wise...did pretty well. For breakfast I cut up a mango and pineapple into bite size pieces and threw in a couple almonds w/ honey. Next time I go to Costco I am going to buy some kiwis to put in the mix. It was tropically delicious.

Day 17 - BBQ and Introductions

Mega: Tonight we had dinner over at Low's bro's place. The grill was fired up and we had halibut with some sweet potato chips (yay!) and something else that I cannot quite remember right now. OH! Watermelon. There was cantaloupe as well, but that stuff makes me gag. Low had a little salad as well that had these mini croutons in it; so, I abstained.

Anyway, there was another girl at this party that has been going trough the same ordeal as myself except her elimination diet was a lot worse. Poor girl. And she's been doing it for three months and finally adding things. However, she said she's feeling better, and that was encouraging. I'm still hoping to start feeling better.

The only negative part of the evening was when Low's sis-in-law brought out the lemon bars. I love, love, LOVE lemon bars. All with their sweet tartiness....... ---drool--- Okay, deep breaths. Ultimately, I abstained from them as well, but mark my words, once this diet is over lemon bars here I come (with a side of ice cream)...(and chocolate)....(and hot tamales)...(and...

Day 16 - Buffalo Burgers and Craziness

Mega: The day was full. Had to take an exam and write a huge paper. Exam went well and the paper okay. Thankfully, Low fueled me up with a dinner of bison burgers over spinach with zucchini and yellow squash on the side. It was a quick meal, but very good. He cooked the zucchini and squash in the frying pan with olive oil, garlic, rosemary, and I think sage.

After I was done with all my homework, I treated myself to a mango.

As for the status of my bag of sweet potato chips.....they were polished off during lunch on Day 15. Next time I'm definitely buying 2 bags.