What a Week!

Nothing but Sickies Here:

I have no idea where the week has gone. *shakes head* All week I have been chasing my tail, though unlike the cats I was not having fun just going in circles. Everything started with my mother not feeling well which meant I was checking on my parents 6 times per day and running to the grocery store to purchase and prepare things she would eat. On top of my mother not feeling well then Massimo was sick. As you can imagine I was running back and forth between my mom and the cat. I have been extremely busy this week.

We took Masi to the vet and he seemed to have a bladder infection. Now we are giving Masi antibiotics twice a day which is going fairly well. However, giving Masi subcutaneous fluids has not been going as expected. We had an old cat who was getting subcutaneous fluids every other day for a couple of years so I got fairly good at the process. Well….Massimo does not agree with that statement. When I tried to stick him he screamed as though I was killing him. This threw me off because it was so unexpected. Our prior cat who got fluids never made a peep when I stuck him. Neither did the cat of friend who I gave fluids to when he was on vacation. Needless to say after two attempts to stick him and two screams I gave up. Score one for the cat and zero for the humans. It is no wonder my vet says that my cats are spoiled and too smart. Either that or the cats just have me wrapped around their fuzzy little toes. *rolls eyes*

This morning (Thursday) I went back to the vet so that my regular vet of almost 30 years (I have lost track it has been so long) could check Masi out. I wasn't going to relax until Earle had seen him.  He told me that when cats over 10 get bladder infections statistically they are bacteria and that the antibiotics should do the trick.  *huge sigh of relief*  Now I can relax and breath again.  I get so upset when my fur children aren't well. 

Are you starting to get an idea of my week? It has not been one of my better weeks. Thankfully it is almost Friday when means the weekend. Thank goodness for weekends. I am looking forward to this one more than most.

The Food:

During the weekend I made a big batch of caponata. Well, I thought it was big batch but apparently it wasn’t because we ate it all in two days. This is one of my favorite recipes. I use the caponata on salad, to top quinoa, in collard wraps, anywhere really. It is good hot, warm or cold.  In the picture above I have the caponata on top of raw zucchini that I marined in fresh juice and black pepper.

I made a quick variation of potato salad which included a copious amount of other veggies for extra nutrition. This is more method than recipe because I didn’t measure anything but I wanted to tell you what I did because it turned out really well.

As those of you who have been reading a while know I don’t use oil any longer which means that I don’t use mayo made with it either. I still think that is a darn shame since I took so long to perfect my version of the refrigerated vegan mayo (I am sure you know the brand I am not naming). *sigh* Oh well no sense thinking about that now. Instead I used raw cashews and water as my mayo substitute. To the cashew crème ingredients I added Dijon, a little fresh lemon juice and a garlic clove. All of that was processed in the Vitamix until it was smooth and creamy. Once the dressing came out of the blender I added a couple of spoons of hot crushed peppers (wet hots). The last step was to taste, adjust the seasonings, and store it in the refrigerator.

Next I baked a few whole new potatoes in my little halogen/convection/infrared oven until a knife tip slipped in easily. I stopped cooking my potatoes in water after reading about how much nutrition leaches out into the water. By the way that is worse when the potatoes are cut. Either way for me boiling potatoes was out unless they were going into soup.

While the potatoes were cooling I thinly sliced a few cucumbers and carrots on my mandoline. I also seeded and chopped a couple fresh tomatoes. For a little extra zing I finely diced some red onion. Since we like parsley I diced some of that for the salad. Once the potatoes are cool cut them into bite size pieces.

Last stir all the salad ingredients together (the dressing, potatoes, veggies, and herbs). Taste again for seasoning and store in the refrigerator until you are ready to eat.

If you wanted to change things up add different veggies. Celery would be got in here, so would artichokes, or fennel. Also if you are a fan of tarragon that would be great in place of the parsley or in addition to it.

Last night I made us a quick “stir fry” last night for dinner. Sorry I didn’t take pictures. How long have I been blogging? *sigh*  Clearly I have been very distracted this week.  While the brown rice was cooking I prepped the stir fry ingredients. Like always I sliced the onions and minced the garlic 10 minutes before I was going to cook them so the chemical reactions which enhance nutrition had time to take place. This is something that I always do though I rarely mention it any longer. It has just become a habit for me.

I cooked the onions, garlic, fresh ginger and sliced fresh shitakes in a little vegetarian oyster sauce that I thinned with mirin to reduce the overall sodium content. To this I added a chili garlic sauce. When the rice was done I added some thinly sliced bok choy to the veggies and finished it with chopped walnuts and cooked it until the bok choy had just wilted. The “stir fried” veggies were served on top the rice. Delicious, simple and quick….exactly the way I like my food.

Like always I made extra rice last night because you all know I love my intentional leftovers. This morning I whipped up a batch of almond milk while Dan was in the shower and turned the leftover rice into rice porridge by reheating the rice in almond milk that I added a little stevia to for sweetness. When I served this I added diced fresh peaches, chopped walnuts and cardamom. The photograph above is Dan's breakfast which is why there are so many nuts.  ;-)  The leftover rice porridge will become rice pudding later today when it is cold.   You could also use the low sat fat coconut milk and that would be delicious in this.

Happy thoughts:

This week has been so insane that happy thoughts have not been on the top of my to-do list. However just writing this section of the blog makes me focus on the good things in my life which is never bad to do. I truly believe that your life is what you make of it. If you get up in the morning dreading going to work for example you shouldn’t be surprised when you have bad day. Obvious I know but many people don’t seem to be able to see things like that in their own lives. Here are my happy thoughts today:

• My mother is feeling better though she still has farther to do. But at her age progress is a good thing.

• Masi has started acting more like himself which is huge. Both Dan and I were very worried about him since he is such a sweet little baby.  I also feeling much better since our regular vet examined him a little while ago.

• Things are moving along nicely on the boat. Not everything is going exactly according to plan but most things are going great and that is better than we could have expected.

• I am thankful for my friend Laura Jill who prodded me to start a Facebook page. If I had not had that to update this week I would have felt completely remiss for not posting to the blog. For those of you who have checked out the page yet this is where I post links to articles I read about healthy and nutrition.

• Overall life is going fairly well for us. It is extremely busy and I am looking forward to the weekend but in general things are better than I would have predicted just a few years ago.

Signing out:

It is time for me to check in on my mom and fuss over a cat. I have my fingers crossed that the worst is over for both of them and that I will be back to my usual schedule. However you can find me on Facebook usually at least once or twice a day. Talk to you again soon.