Just when you think things are going to slow down…

I never thought I would be busier than I was about this time last year. In April 2012, I had just moved to a brand new state, was planning a wedding, and going to school full time. I hardly had any time to just sit around and not do anything.

Things seemed to slow down a bit after the wedding which was nice because all I had was work since the wedding was done and I had my degree.

This month, however, was one of the busiest months we have had since probably last year. We have had something planned every weekend so far this month. I had a shooting class, we went to Vegas to visit my family, and went to Albuquerque to meet a friend and participate in a color run. It has been a blast but I am excited to have this weekend where we aren’t going anywhere.

We do, however, have to start going through the garage and our things and figure out what we want to get rid of since we will be moving into a new house on base next month. Which brings me to the subject of this blog.

If I thought April was busy, May is going to be even worse! I have 3 spouse socials going on, we are moving, there is a Community Day on base to showcase what our base does, and I also have my normal work schedule on top of all of that.

Posts may be a bit scarce for now and I apologize but I have not had much time to even sit down on the couch let alone write a blog. I will do what I can this weekend to get some new recipes on here because I have made some ah-mazing things lately and I love sharing good finds.

I hope all of my readers are doing well and thank you for bearing with me while I try and get my life to slow down a bit.

PKD Video

Here is a video I found to give more insight into what comes with this disease.

Kidney Pain

I have always tried to be positive about my condition and I have been so lucky to have gone 5 1/2 years without any major problems. I didn’t think that anything could stop me and I could still live a fairly normal life. Boy was I proven wrong. I need to accept the fact that I am not a ‘normal’ person and will never be able to do everything everyone else can.

Earlier last week, I went to the ER because I had a fever of 103 degrees F and severe lower back pain. If I just had the back pain, I probably wouldn’t have thought much of it but because of the fever, I figured something was wrong.
The ER doctor was probably THE most unhelpful doctor I had ever met (which says a lot because I have seen a lot of doctors). He basically just walked into the room and said “I don’t know what is causing your fever or your pain.” Then I proceeded to tell him that I had PKD and that the pain is probably from my kidneys. He tells me that PKD doesn’t cause pain because that is what he read in some literature. SERIOUSLY?! You are talking to a PKD patient about something you read in a book?! He offered to do a CT scan if it would make me feel better. I asked if he suggested it and he said he would do it if I wanted it. Since you never know what you may see, and I have excellent health insurance, I said to go ahead and do it. After the results came back, he just said that all he saw were cysts. I was sent home with pain meds and no answers.

Since I just had a feeling that it was kidney related, I called my nephrologist to see if I could get in to be seen. I was able to get in the very next day and I was so glad. He looked at my test results and knew immediately what had happened. A cyst burst and was causing some bleeding inside of my kidney. It was at high risk for infection so I was sent immediately home and put on bed rest for 3 days. Thankfully it was toward the weekend so I didn’t have to take too much time off of work.

It was a long 3 days and I hope that it doesn’t happen again for a long time. I don’t like feeling helpless and I really hate asking for help. I did like being able to relax and get some rest since the pain was pretty bad. Imagine getting kicked really hard in the back or having your kidneys used as a punching bag. It was just a throbbing pain that wouldn’t go away.

I went back to work today and I was still a little sore but it felt good to be back. I am glad I work with such great people because they helped a lot. If they saw I had something on the printer, they would bring it to me so I didn’t have to get up.
My nephrologist was great too. He had me check up with his office and he called me back to make sure I was ok. I am really happy to have a doctor that actually cares about me.

Right now, I am just taking things one day at a time and hoping to be back to myself soon.

Spaghetti Squash Alfredo

Lately I have been trying to incorporate one vegetarian dish a week into our lives. It definitely isn’t going to hurt us and give us a chance to get some extra veggies in. I came across this recipe on Pinterest (of course lol). 

Definitely make sure you give yourself plenty of time because it takes about an hour to cook the spaghetti squash. Once it is cooked, the rest comes together really fast. 

 

INGREDIENTS:

1 medium-sized spaghetti squash

1 Tablespoon butter

3 cloves of garlic, finely minced

2 Tablespoons flour

1 1/2 cups milk

1 Tablespoon cream cheese or Neufchatel cheese

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus 2 Tablespoons extra for topping

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Crushed red pepper flakes and fresh parsley, for optional garnish

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

First, prep the squash. Cut spaghetti squash in half using a large sharp knife, scoop out the seeds and place cut side down on a rimmed baking sheet covered with water. Bake until tender, about an hour. Let cool about 20 minutes (I prepared the sauce during this time). Once squash is cooked, use a fork to gently scrape the “spaghetti” strands into the center.

For the sauce, melt butter in a small pot over medium-low heat. Once hot, add garlic and sauté for 1-2 minutes. Whisk in flour, cooking for another minute while stirring. Whisk in milk until no lumps remain. Once hot, add cream cheese and stir until smooth. Remove from the heat. Stir in Parmesan, salt and pepper.

Spoon sauce equally into each spaghetti squash half. Gently pull up the spaghetti strands to coat as much as possible with the sauce. Top with extra Parmesan and place under the broiler of your oven for 2-3 minutes, or until golden and bubbly.

Top each half with a pinch of red pepper flakes and fresh chopped parsley, if desired. Serve hot.

Enjoy!

Please let me know if you try this and how you liked it! I love feedback! 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

I am 1/3 Irish so this is a great day for me.

Last night, my husband and I went to the club on base and watched the dueling pianos. They were amazing and it was a blast.

We got home around 1am and I thought that was a great time to put the corned beef in the crock pot so we could start eating it around lunch time. Yes I do realize that corned beef is loaded with sodium (970mg in 2 oz) but I only eat it once a year on this day so I am going to splurge a little. I also eat cabbage and red potatoes so it’s not just all corned beef all day.

Corned beef is a very tough piece of meat and it needs to be cooked low and slow. I thought I would share my favorite corned beef and cabbage recipe, slow cooker style.

Corned Beef and Cabbage with red potatoes

Ingredients:
Corned beef
1 head of cabbage
10 red potatoes, quartered
1 med onion, roughly chopped
4 cups water
6oz beer

Directions
Put potatoes and onions in the bottom of the slow cooker.
Pour in water.
Put corned beef on top and sprinkle with spice packet
Pour in beer.
Cook on low for 10-12 hours
Cut cabbage into eighths (quarter and then half the quarters) and lay on top about an hour or 2 before the corned beef is done.
Enjoy!

The house smells amazing and I am so ready to go dig into the corned beef and cabbage with red potatoes.

Comprehensive Airman Fitness Day

Friday was Comprehensive Airman Fitness (CAF) Day. It was formerly called Resiliency Day. There are one of these days in each quarter of the year to boost morale. When it was resiliency day, it meant the day was not about work but being resilient and recovering from the constant workload and stress that comes from being in the military. They decided to change the name to encompass more than just physically recovering. They wanted to be able to boost morale and make people remember why they do what they do and be able to relax their mind, body, and soul. 

This is only my second CAF Day since I started working at the base and this one empowered me in a way I never thought I could be empowered. It really made me think about how I live my life and how I am perceived. 

“If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present. ”
Lao Tzu

This is a great quote that I saw during one of the many briefs I attended. I try to always live in the present but sometimes it is hard not to get anxious about the future. We also talked about how you would want people to remember you by and one of the things I thought of was that I want people to know me as being the positive one. I almost always try and have a smile on my face and try and see the good in things. Whatever may be happening right now in your life that just sucks, know that there are tons of people that have it way worse.

We are about to go through a tough time with the military community but we all need to stick together because we will get through this. This whole sequestration thing is not permanent and things will get better. People are not in the military today because they have to be. There was not a draft. Everyone is doing it because they want to serve their country, not necessarily to pay for them to go to school or get medical benefits. Those things are nice but they are a luxury, not an expectation.

I walked away with a lot after work on Friday and I cannot wait for the next CAF Day to learn even more! 

Spaghetti With Cheesy Cauliflower “Bread” Sticks

I really think I out did myself on this one. It was so fantastic! I would make it more often but it is a lot of work and I don’t have an hour of prep and 2 hours to wait for it to cook during the week since I work until 4pm and we usually go for a half hour run after I get home or we workout at the gym. That usually means I do not start on dinner until about 5:30 and I like to have dinner ready by at 7pm at the latest.

The spaghetti sauce has so many veggies that come together beautifully. It is also very low in sodium which is the complete opposite of anything you would find in a can or jar. I think that made this taste even better!

Make sure you read the whole recipe before starting so you don’t go crazy adding everything at once. I realize now that I forgot to add the fresh parsley and the sugar at the end but now that I think about it, it didn’t really need it. I might try adding it next time to see if I notice a difference.

I was actually able to pull the nutrition facts from this recipe. A serving size is a whole cup of sauce. I probably use about 1/3 to 1/2 at the most in one serving on top of noodles. Spaghetti squash probably would have been good to use with it as well instead of noodles.

Nutrition Facts: One serving (1 cup)
143 calories
3 g fat (1g saturated fat)
12 mg cholesterol
57 mg sodium
22 g carbohydrate
4 g fiber
9 g protein
Diabetic Exchanges: 4 vegetable, 1/2 fat.

Ingredients
1/2 pound lean ground turkey (or turkey sausage)
1 pound fresh mushrooms, chopped
3 medium sweet red peppers, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cans (29 ounces each) tomato puree
2 cups water
1/2 cup red wine or additional water
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons dried oregano
2 tablespoons dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon dried mint
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
3 tablespoons sugar

Directions

-In a large nonstick skillet, cook turkey over medium heat until no
longer pink; drain and set aside.
-In the same skillet, saute mushrooms, peppers, onion and garlic in oil until softened.
-In a large Dutch oven, combine the next nine ingredients. Add turkey and sauteed vegetables. -Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 2-3 hours.
-Stir in parsley and sugar. Discard bay leaves before serving.
Yield: 10 servings (2-1/2 quarts).

This makes for some great leftovers as it heats back up nicely and still tastes great! Now the cauliflower sticks don’t make great leftovers but it doesn’t make an insane amount and it is easy to eat it all up!

Who doesn’t love having garlic bread with their spaghetti? I know we do! I definitely wanted to find something that was healthier than garlic bread but still good and didn’t make you miss it. Then I found this recipe on Pinterest.

Ingredients

1 cup cooked, riced cauliflower
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
1/2 tsp garlic salt
olive oil
For Topping:
2 tablespoons softened butter
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup grated mozzarella cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Chop the cauliflower florets into chunks and steam them in a steamer or on the stove until slightly soft for 15 minutes. Place in a ricer or use a grater.

To Make the Bread:
Prepare your baking stone or sheet by spreading a small amount of olive oil on it and top with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup cauliflower, egg, Parmesan and Mozzarella. Add oregano, crushed garlic and garlic salt, stir.
Transfer to the baking stone or sheet, and using your hands, pat out into a large rectangle.
Bake at 450 F for 15 minutes.
Mix 2 tbsp butter and garlic in a small bowl and spread the butter and garlic mixture over baked cauliflower bread and top with parmesan and mozarella cheese.
Place back in the 450 F oven until all cheese is melted.

This meal was perfect for the weekend because I had the extra time to devote to making this dish. I do foresee myself making it again in the future.

Enjoy!