Day 3 - Citrus Chicken and Sweet and Creamy Corn

Today's menu was Citrus Chicken and Sweet and Creamy Corn.

The chicken recipe was a success.  Changes need to be made to the corn recipe.
 

The chicken is to marinate for 15 minutes.  Again, we marinated it a bit longer; however, not overnight -- just about half an hour.

The instructions call for reserving 1 cup of the marinade to create a glaze.

The Sweet and Creamy Corn was simple to make, also. 

I don't like mustard, and I really don't like Dijon mustard.  All I could taste was the mustard.  Mark doesn't like sour cream.  We both rated this recipe as "okay."

I really need to think about serving foods on smaller dishes. This serving looks lost on a standard sized plate.

Because the chicken recipe was for 4 servings, we have an extra serving to use for lunch tomorrow which will work well since tomorrow's dinner is vegetarian. 

One meal a week will be vegetarian -- even if one whole day is not. Although, I hope to work to that goal.  It won't be much of a stretch for me since I very rarely eat meat and generally consider myself an ovo-lacto vegetarian. [This is the most meat that I have eaten in a long time!  But, it is getting in the protein that I need.]



RECIPE MODIFICATIONS: 

CITRUS CHICKEN
No grapefruit juice.  Used orange juice instead. 
No orange juice concentrate.  Used orange juice, added lime juice and some orange extract for a stronger, more tart flavor.

SWEET AND CREAMY CORN:
Regular sour cream instead of fat-free.  (I don't like the taste, and FF usually contains more sugar than normal foods.) 

I thought that there was too much sour cream. Next time, we will reduce the sour cream, and try a yellow mustard.

Day 2 - Teriyaki Finger Steaks

Dinner tonight was begun last night.

(Recipe Page 1,  Page 2)

The recipe says to marinade for a shorter time, but this was marinated over 24 hours. 

The brown rice uses the leftover marinade.

We served this with broccoli, instead of the recommended snap peas and mandarin oranges. 

Other than marinading for longer than the recipe instructs, the recipe was followed. 

RESULTS:  We both liked the recipe.  I could have eaten more of the rice.  We will make this one again.

Day 1 - Black Bean Turkey Chili; Pita Nachos

Monday is always a good day to begin a new diet.

These are notes for which book and which page each recipe is on. 

We begin with  Black Bean Turkey Chili and Pita Nachos. 

While the chili is cooking, the pita nachos were prepared.

Full recipe of nachos

Serving of pita nachos

According to the recipe, these two nachos are supposed to be 100 calories.  By our rough calculations (not counting the few cilantro leaves on the top), the entire preparation of nachos [4 nachos] was 80 calories.

RECIPE MODIFICATIONS: We left out the tomatoes, as I do not care for hot tomatoes (except in a soup, or chili). I chose a green salsa of medium heat for the salsa to include in the recipe.

Next time, we will double the recipe and ad some grated cheese.

These were flavorful.  We both enjoyed these.

Serving of Black Bean Turkey Chili

RECIPE MODIFICATION:  Mark left out the salt and red bell pepper. We used canned tomatoes instead of fresh.

Shown in a standaed Corelle bowl, this is one serving of chili.  Mark likes it, but I find it very bland. Even adding salt into my individual bowl, the chili was lacking 'something'.  I may add red pepper flakes to my bowl next time.

It begins

Like every good story, there must be a beginning. 

Our story begins with the 2013 National Boy Scout Jamboree in Mt. Hope, West Virginia. Mark and I were happy to have been selected and approved to work the Electricity and Electronics Merit Badge booth at the very first Jamboree to be held at Summit Bechtel Reserve.

We were there for a week setting up our Merit Badge booths, and had survived the first couple of days with boys present. On Wednesday, July 17th, Mark was not feeling well.  By late that evening, he was taken off-site to Plateau Medical Center in Oak Hill, West Virginia with probable pneumonia.  On Friday, he was moved from a regular room into ICU because the pneumonia continued to grow. Saturday morning, it was clear that he was not getting better and that he needed a level of care that Plateau could not provide.  He was transferred to Charleston Area Medical Center - Memorial Hospital in Charleston, West Virginia. This is where the true adventure begins.

He arrived at CAMC and his oxygen levels continued to drop, as the pneumonia grew.  At 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning, the decision was made to intubate him. He would be medically paralyzed and sedated while the respirator helped him to breathe. He was intubated for over a week, during which time, he had multiple x-rays, a CT scan and an EKG.  The EKG showed a slight heart weakness -- with a low ejection fraction (37-40%).  A later heart catheterization showed a slight narrowing in two arteries -- not enough to require a stent; however, enough to order medication and a change in diet. During the hospitalization, it was also discovered that Mark has diabetes. More diet changes are required.

I did a quick search, and found some diabetic and heart healthy cookbooks. Once they arrived, we reviewed them, thought about what we might like, and planned a couple weeks menu.

Primary Cookbooks - along with additional recipe resources

We are human.  We are changing our lives.  Change takes time. This will be a gradual immersion with an alertness and awareness of needed changes. There will be times that we will still enjoy foods that are typically "not allowed" on these diets (things higher in fat, sugar and salt).  This life change needs to work for us. 

We invite you to follow along with us as we begin.