Recipe Thursday: Sonoma Chicken Salad

I made this recipe the other day and it was freaking awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank Whole Foods for their awesomeness and their willingness to share. I like serving it on croissants. YUM YUM!!!!

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/526

Ingredients

Dressing
1 cup mayonnaise
4 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
5 teaspoons honey
2 teaspoons poppy seeds
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Salad
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3/4 cup pecan pieces, toasted
2 cups red seedless grapes
3 stalks celery, thinly sliced
Method

In a bowl, combine mayonnaise, vinegar, honey, poppy seeds, salt and pepper. Refrigerate until ready to dress the salad. This can be prepared up to 2 days ahead.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Place the chicken breasts in one layer in a baking dish with 1/2 cup water. Cover with foil and bake 25 minutes until completely cooked through. Remove cooked chicken breasts from pan, cool at room temperature for 10 minutes, then cover and refrigerate.

When the chicken is cold, dice into bite-size chunks and transfer to a large bowl. Stir in pecans, grapes, celery and dressing.

Our Baby Story (April 30th)

So our baby story continues...Den always reminds me that the first time we got pregnant I was 7 weeks before the home test came out positive. He always wants me to be reminded that this has happened for us before and it will happen again. I am all ready 6 weeks late so I took a pregnancy test the other morning because I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Unfortunately I had been low that morning and somehow had all ready gone pee twice. So I wanted to kick myself for not doing it as the very first thing. The test said “No.”

I told him that how I feel now is how I felt then. If I’m hungry I can’t sleep. I feel super hungry for no real reason. My body feels odd. There is one difference from the first time....I literally feel nauseated all of the time. When we went to the doctor Monday he gave us his plan of getting my cycle figured out so that we could get pregnant.

Step 1 – take a hormone to start my period.
Step 2 – get an ultrasound to make sure there are no ovarian cysts that will be amplified by the drug that makes a woman ovulate. If there isn’t...
Step 3 – take ovulation medicine.

So since the home tests said no, I decided to take the hormones. The fact that the home test said no made me worry that something else is wrong. I worried that I’ve been wanting this so badly that somehow I tricked my body into behaving this way. I don’t want that to be the case. Taking the hormones should make my period come so I can start taking the medication to make me ovulate. I have been trying my hardest not to worry about all of this and that's very hard. I mainly want to focus on just being healthy, working out, keeping my blood sugars low and eating right. I figured with changing those things, a baby would happen at some point.

Recently I saw the movie, Did You Hear About the Morgan’s, starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant. And I hate that movies make me think about random crazy things. If you haven’t seen it, I won’t spoil it but I decided then that I didn’t want trying to get pregnant to ruin our marriage. That’s not a big part of the movie but it is an underlying cause of some of the things that happen. But here I am again wanting a baby so much, hoping that it happens but deep down inside, worrying that it will never happen for us. It would be so nice for someone to just randomly give me their child...I would gladly find the money for court fees to pay for an adoption. I just can't imagine trying to find the amount of money it costs to have a surrogate or to do an adoption through an agency.

I swear sex education in school is officially worthless. The whole class makes it sound like it's an easy process to get pregnant. If that were the case IVF, and surrogates wouldn't exist.

I should have warned you readers out there, I was overly neurotic the week all of this happened. I’m sure I drove my husband insane.

Our Baby Story (which began March 25th)

Our baby story....So the main obstacle that is keeping us from getting pregnant is the Poly-cystic WHOOZIE WHATS IT. It's actual called Poly-cystic Ovarian Syndrome. To explain what this is.....It’s basically that my ovaries have a scaring over them that makes timing my ovulation harder. I found out recently that this used to be a death sentence for a woman's reproductive system. Today with modern medicine, it's not so much. I can take medication that will regulate my ovulation. We debated the side effects of the medication. One would having more than one baby at the same time. Yea that might be a problem but would take care of our kid needing someone to play with also. The doctor said the scaring would improve with time and really low blood sugars (60-70s) and I’m usually around 130-140, which is normal but not in the lowest range. So we’re trying to keep my blood sugars pretty low, which is sucking. I have had some really low blood sugar mornings which have been bad but I’m trying to get the scaring to improve. So in a couple of weeks I’ll have another ultra sound to see if the scaring is getting better. We’ll see. I’m not stressing about it and I know we will get pregnant when the time is right.

There is much to write about.....

The last month has been a bit crazy. A lot has gone on, so I have not kept up with things on the interwebs and have neglected my blog. I have not made any interesting things for dinner lately....we have been eating out more than any one couple should. We tried the Hind Quarter in town for a steakhouse. While very tasty, I wish there were more menu options for appetizers. I guess that is my fatal flaw of being an Outback Steakhouse girl. We have slowed slightly in consuming food at Phil's Fish Market, even though my husband suggests going there every weekend I am able to keep him at home a lot of the time. We have had Tlaquepaque once during the month of April and it was on the Furlough Wednesday. I picked it up on the way home from visiting Celine. I decided that pastor soft tacos are the way to go. I had a pastor burrito also but the corn tortilla is what makes the flavor profile amazing. Luckily this week we have cooked two wonderful meals that turned out fabulous. We worked together on Sunday to make apple cider marinated pork chops, spiced apples, mashed potatoes, and asparagus. Yesterday I made pot pie but with biscuits as topping instead of pie crust. Tonight I will probably make chicken roll ups in honor of Cinco De Mayo and this weekend I am making mac and cheese to take to grandma's house on Mother's Day. I will make ribs tomorrow and I have no idea what I will make on Friday....maybe a pasta with salad. That's it on the food front.

Health issues...my grandma passed out a few weeks ago. Apparently her blood sugar was too low but she didn't know it. Having a low blood sugar for someone that doesn't know what the feeling is has to be the oddest experience. So for my little 87 year old grandma this was probably the worst feeling and experience she could have had. Her medication should be in perfect harmony by now, taking care of her insulin needs for the minimal food she eats. I bought her a purple one touch mini meter in hopes that if she ever starts feeling odd that she tests and realizes that her blood sugar is low before anything bad happens. My uncle from San Diego London, my aunt Cookie, my cousin Sabina, my husband, my mom, grandma, and I were all together on mother's day. It was so sweet. My grandma cooked her butt off and LOVED having everyone together. The main thing that sucks is that no one listens to her. She doesn't like being at home alone all day. That means....someone do something so she's not alone all day. I'm trying my hardest with Den's help to get her to move in with us but she thinks it will hurt my mom's feelings. At this point I don't really care about her feelings because I don't want my grandma in an old folks home and I don't want something bad to happen to her when no one is home.

On another health issue...we've been going to the doctor a bunch to make sure we're healthy. We are also trying to make sure that all of our medication is perfectly done so that everything is perfect as we try to get pregnant. Yes that's right people...hopefully this Blog will also be about a 21st Century mom with 2 dogs that might as well be children and the insanity that ensues. Unfortunately it's going to be a little harder for the 2 of us than it is for other people to conceive. I have a condition called poly cystic ovarian syndrome. Apparently this used to be a reproductive death sentence but now with modern medicine and drugs having a baby can be done pretty easily. So we'll see and maybe in a few months we'll have news.

I think that's pretty much it for April and the beginning of May. I promise to try to be better about recipes and writing something on the blog. It might become baby hysteria or frustration or rants...be warned!

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

I am in LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! With Jamie Oliver. No I'm not planning on leaving my husband to go hunt down this awesome married chef but I am challenging myself today....I plan on making a change today. I am going to take Jamie's Food Revolution to heart. I LOVE cooking but sometimes with how busy I don't feel like I can make the time to cook and exercise. NO MORE!!!!!!!!!!!! Even if I have to make dinners for the week all day on Sunday, we are not eating out as much as we do currently. I absolutely LOVE what Jamie is doing for this town in West Virginia and he's just one person changing thousands of peoples lives. If he can work hard to do that, I can work my hardest to change my little family's life.

Last night I went shopping at Nob Hill. I purchased food for the week...chicken, spices, veggies, fruit, and bread. I cooked last night and made what my husband requested, which is VERY healthy.

I made turkey meatballs, with whole grain pasta, and a HUGE salad. Yesterday started my own personal food revolution. I need to change our lunches....that's the next thing to tackle.

Scared of things to come.....and missing thoes that are gone

As I was grabbing my purse to walk out of my office for lunch today, I saw the printed picture I have of my dear friend Tim. I had to stop myself from falling back into my chair. I had forgotten that the picture was with some other items from my EPC office. I printed it for our day of the dead at my former office. I wanted Tim and his family to be blessed and prayed for. I still think of Tim often. He always liked the same silly stupid stuff I did, and it's hard not to think of him when I used my video iPod. Tim was the first person I knew who had one. He was the person who showed me video podcasts and he was the person that told me changing the cover of an iPod could be done. I was not video iPod savvy. I still had my little 4gig iPod mini that was awesome for my car. Tim was a great friend and I wish I would have had more time to spend with him. More than anything I wish he were here to see his boys grow up and to be there for his wife. Having Tim die so young makes me so scared and nervous of things to come. Missing him just makes my heart ache and makes me sad.

I try not to worry about all of the "what ifs" but it's hard not to. I want to see my little family grow and flourish, but what if I can't....what if Den isn't here to see those days. It's getting harder to live in the "NOW" because we are getting older and we aren't the healthiest people in the world. I am determined to grow old with my husband and to see my fair share of the days ahead. Change is coming, and even if the change is too late....at least the change began.

Recipe Thursday....Back to the normal day...

Over the weekend, the husband and I went grocery shopping. $150 later we had food for the week and a bunch of other necessities. Save Mart was having a kick ass deal on meat, so we got ground turkey for chili, chicken drumsticks, ground beef and a pot roast. Sunday night we decided that Monday we'd make the pot roast. I checked out this Tyler Florence video and recipe. It turned out wonderfully!!! Please feel free to try it because it's wonderful.

Pot Roast with Vegetables

Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence

Ingredients

* 1 (3 to 4 pound) piece beef chuck roast, trimmed of excess fat
* Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 3 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 can crushed tomatoes
* 1 cup water or wine (we used a shiraz)
* 2 yellow onion, halved
* 2 garlic cloves, chopped
* 1 bunch baby carrots
* 2 celery stalks, sliced
* 1 cup button mushrooms, stems removed and sliced in half
* 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
* 4 sprigs fresh thyme
* 2 bay leaves

Directions

Season all sides of the beef with a fair amount of salt and pepper. In a large Dutch oven or other heavy pot that has a tight cover; heat 2 tablespoons of the oil over moderately high heat. Brown the meat on all sides, taking the time to get a nice crust on the outside. Pour in the tomatoes and the water. Scatter the vegetables and herbs around the pot roast, season with salt and pepper; and drizzle with the remaining tablespoon of oil. Cover the pot and reduce the heat to low. Braise for about 3 hours, basting every 30 minutes with the pan juices, until the beef is fork tender.

Slice the pot roast and arrange on platter surrounded by the vegetables. Serve with the pot juices.