I'm Back!

I haven't posted in almost three weeks but I've been so busy. Work has been hectic though I can't complain because the busier it gets the more fun I have. My boyfriends mom lives a good couple of hours away from us and she had surgery on her spine so he went up to her for a week. She's in a lot of pain but she can walk which is very good. My one dog had a nasty accident and ended up with a 5cm long gash on his front leg (his metacarpus). I have no idea how he did that 'cos it happend while I was at work, but when I saw it I freaked out and started crying. Silly to cry like that but I've been so stressed out and it was just the second night I'd be without my boyfried... things just piled up. On that same day I had gone to the doctor and found out that I have a gastric ulcer (or inflamed stomach, they couldn't tell which). So I'm taking Topzole and Contromet. If the pain doesn't stop by next week I'll have to go in for a scope to ensure all is well. There is still pain just not as bad as it was 2 weeks ago.

Well back to my food...

25th November: Went to braai at a friend's place, drank 4 Cobra beers and got sick! But there were extenuating circumstances. I'd only eaten a hand full of biltong that day and I didn't know about the ulcer yet AND no body told me that the beers cans were draft size. So yes its understandable that I got sick after 2 liters of beer.

6th December: Had dinner at my parent's house. My dad was planning to make paella, but on hearing about my ulcer decided to make a VERY bland meal instead. Pitty... he's usually such a good cook, but just can't make a good bland meal. I'm not even going to tell you what it was, its just too sad.

8th December: Boyfriend arrives home from seeing his mother. Brings back a "breakfast" pie filled with tomatoe, egg, bacon, cheese and mushrooms, which I eat for dinner. Also brings back 9 liters of black pepper feta cheese... yes that means eating a lot of feta for a long time (well thats HIS plan).

10th December: I have a revelation... my boyfriend has no clue one how certain food can send me into reeling pain. I'll have to cook dinner from now on.

Settle debt or go shopping?

Fist thing this morning I ate chocolate... lets just leave it at that.

4 cups of coffee. One of the cups had no milk because the office ran out of it. That’s been the only bad part of my day. Its payday to day today, plus they made a mistake over the last couple of months, so I'm getting about 1,000 more than usual. Yay! Let’s go shopping right? Wrong... I've got tons of debt to settle. I'm not going to talk about the debt right now... its too depressing for such a happy day. Lets pay the bills and hope there is enough left for some shopping.

International Repetitious Meal Day

Well I don't really know when International Repetitious Meal Day is, but it looks like I'm calling for encores today.

Coffee X 4
Oros X 4

Left over bolognaise for lunch. It could be a week old and still taste good. I actually remembered my Apple Cider Vinegar tablet this time, which I forgot to take with dinner last nigh. Also started taking vitamin C tablets today. No particular reason to take them, I just want to be healthy, especially because I suffer from bad hay fever during spring/summer.

I was naughty and had a bowl of the gelato ice-cream when I got home... a small one I promise.

We had boerewors again last night. But this time we did it on a stove and not a braai like we did on Sunday (First Braai of Summer). Not a very "all rounder" meal as it was just the wors on a hotdog roll with mayonnaise. I had two of them.

Gelato at midnight

Coffee X 3

Breakfast - one closed sandwich with apricot jam

Lunch - half a baked potato with roast veg and a side salad. I was going to resort to another apricot jam sandwich for lunch but a friend of mine wanted to share her potato and salad. She's started dieting and gyming so she freaks out about eating too much. I also started to take apple cider vinegar tablets which are supposed to help with weight loss. So if I remember to take them I'll write ACV next to a meal.

We took the dogs for another run in the park for about an hour. If it weren't for the dogs I'd probably be another 20kg overweight. They don't let me sleep in late or sit on my butt for very long... kind of like two year old kids.

Well nothing much to drink at home. Oros finished, beer finished, wine finished (only cooking wine left). Its too hot (no air con at home) to drink coffee or tea so I resorted to drinking powdered Soya milk, just add water... not very nice.

For dinner I made linguini and bolognaise. Now bolognaise is the one thing that I can cook well. Both my parents started teaching me how to make it from the age of 6. They had different ways of making it so I combine the too. The great thing is that the recipe can vary go much and still taste great. So tonight's bolognaise was made of half a large onion, fresh garlic, a dash of white wine, pork mince, one can of chopped tomatoes, 2 sachets of tomato puree, salt and sugar.

After dinner my boyfriend went to the "Friendly 7 11" and got us some ice cream and mango flavoured Oros. So I had a bowl of almond and cherry gelato and a glass of Oros.

Not always a good idea

4 cups of coffee. I have 3 teaspoons with each coffee with is allot I know. Lets see... a teaspoon is 5ml, X 3 spoons, X 4 cups = 60ml That’s just about 1/4 cup sugar, which is the same amount that’s in a can of coke... interesting.

I had 2 closed whole wheat sandwiches for lunch with peanut butter and honey (not syrup) on them.

No Oros today, my bottle is finished and I'm too broke to buy more. Guess I'll just have to have what every else is left in the house... or water.

2 Pilsner beers... that’s what I have left in the fridge (well not after today). They're ok, but a bit bitter for my liking.

My boyfriend did something he doesn't do often... he cooked a bad meal. Pasta shells with Ham and Mushroom sauce with cheddar cheese.

Pasta shells - excellent
Cheddar cheese - excellent
Ham and Mushroom sauce made from condensed can of soup - not so nice. Its a good idea, but doesn't work all the time. It usualy depends on the brand and flavour of soup.

No coffee on a Monday morning!?

1 cup of rooibos tea with 2 sugars because there was no milk in the office this morning.

1 cup of coffee at 11:30... finally! So late to be drinking your fist cup of coffee on a Monday morning.

At Lunch time: Another packet of sour cream and chives flavoured popcorn

15 minutes later: The popcorn didn't help, so made myself a ham/cheese/lettuce whole wheat roll. I've got my period this week so am permanently hungry.

At home I had 2 glasses of Oros and two glasses of wine with dinner.

I made dinner because my boyfriend was coming home late. This can mean one of two things:

1. I make a surprisingly good meal that can't be repeated again (I forget how I made it).
2. Or we'll end up going out for dinner because I've burnt down the kitchen.

Good thing that the meal came out good; its the end of the month and we don't have much cash to go out for dinner.

Dinner consisted of sauté chicken strips with slices of radish and strips of green pepper and white wine. And a side of steamed broccoli and plain fluffy white rice.

First Braai of Summer

Breakfast - two chocolate croissants!!!! But I did go for a 2 hour walk on the beach (Muizenberg again) with my boyfriend and our 2 dogs.

We decided to have a braai (BBQ to most other people) for lunch/dinner because it was such a beautiful summers day. Unfortunately we don't actually have a braai, so we used my sister's disposable braai. It’s basically a cardboard stand with a tin foil tray in it. Well I guess the fire was too hot because we burnt a hole through the bottom of the tray and the coal landed on the plastic table that the stand was on! So we filled the hole with more tin foil and kept on braaing... you gotta keep on keeping on!

While waiting for the fire to bet ready we had a couple of pilsner beers (I had 4 by the end of the day). We also nibbled on some chutney flavour Papa Bites (deep fried samoosa pastry) and a veggie roll each.

Well when the braai was finally finished I ate a bit of boerewors (kind of like a sausage), a slice of garlic bread and some potato salad made with mayonnaise, alphalpha sprouts and grated radish.

oh yes and had 2 glasses of Oros.