Alternative Foods

Although I am considerably overweight - I could stand to lose about a hundred pounds - I try to eat fairly healthily. I am also mildly allergic to cows' milk (I can manage a serving a day without ill effects) and I tend toward high blood pressure, which limits my options somewhat. Generally on Friday Game Night I use my triple crock pot to make things everyone can eat - we have me, one allergic to tree nuts, one sensitive to onions and mushrooms, two with diabetes, and several on lower-carb diets among our usual attendees. So - for instance - on spaghetti night I use whole wheat noodles (and I've been known to use spaghetti squash or steamed veggies as an alternative base) and I make three sauces - one veggie (lots of onions and mushrooms), one meat (no onions nor mushrooms), and one cream-sauce-with-meatballs (using Campbell's low-sodium Cream of Something). The triple crock pot is freaking amazing; it's the best thing my mother-in-law has ever gotten me. Not including her oldest son, of course, but that's a separate post.

However, here in the last week or so, I've had Tooth Issues. Which means my options are even more limited than usual, because I'm not allowed anything crunchy, chewy, too hot, carbonated, or taken through a straw. I've drunk a lot of iced tea and water, and eaten endless rounds of Jell-o, Greek Yogurt, and pudding (and lost eight pounds). Most of the soft noodley things are either too hot, too high in sodium, or both, although I have done some of that too. This morning for breakfast my mom took me and the girls out. I had two pumpkin pancakes and a slice of bacon and it was wonderful. I thought I'd post a couple of my recent concoctions in an effort to remind myself that although I'm in pain and exhausted (and "taking it easy" per the dentist), I'm not completely out of my normal creative mode.

Frozen dessert: two overripe bananas, one cup light chocolate soy milk, one cup (4oz) chocolate pudding, and a squirt of Hershey's chocolate syrup in the blender. It wold make a good shake, but I chose to freeze it and eat it like ice cream.

Poor Man's Stroganoff: one package lower-sodium stroganoff noodles mix, 2oz browned ground beef, a couple chopped fresh mushrooms, some minced green onion. Prepare the stroganoff mix per the directions but when the time comes to turn down the heat, add the extra ingredients. Yum.

Also, some of the newer flavors of pudding and such are yummy, and Gerber Yogurt Melts  - they're freeze dried bits of yogurt - are great. They have some crunch but they are meant for toothless babies so they melt quickly. When I'm too tired to get creative, well... that's what the packaged stuff is for, right?