It's that time of year again

Here we go!

Just got my blood test back from the Dr. and it all looks super awesome. My last blood test about 18 months ago said bad cholesterol is high, overall cholesterol is high, eat better and loose weight if necessary. So on this new test all of my numbers looked great, my bad cholesterol just squeezed into the acceptable range at 101 when <=100 is desired. I guess the 1 point falls within their margin of error or whatever, I'm not asking questions, just patting myself on the back.

Despite all this great news I am a higher weight than I need to be, and bored with the Sonoma cookbook. Come out with a new edition for Pete's sake (Well for Jess's sake, and especially for Ryan's sake because he doesn't have my ability to eat whatever lean meat is on sale this week for everyday this week). So now I have to do some recipe finding myself.

This lady looks good so far ...GlutenFreeGoddess she's a little granola-y, but I suppose that happens when you are a celiac. The only problem I forsee with these recipes is I am on a budget and don't see myself buying a $31 BOTTLE OF AGAVE that doesn't even get my husband drunk! So I will have to cull the not insane recipes.

I will need to pay some extra special attention to my eating since #1 I haven't been and #2 Exercise is out of the question for at least a week thanks to my leg. Luckily I am extra motivated by the slow season at work, our awesome new appliances large and small from the wedding and Christmas, and the magic that is the Sonoma diet that has made me uninterested in pasta with butter and the like.

I'm not going to give this an official Wave status, but will be doing Wave 1 percentages to the best of my limited ability.

Menu

Bfast-1/2 c egg whites with Jazz Seasoning

Lunch-This is not quite Wave 1 since it is vegetarian, but it's vegetarian that's got to count for something. Curried Vegetable Soup This little firecracker's blog is a good read, btw. I tricked out the recipe with the following changes

• Add 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes
• Double the amount of vegetable stock if you want this to resemble a stew-the soup part of this recipe's name is misleading
• Use good curry-this isn't exactly a change, but I had to learn this the hard way, go to your local ethnic grocery and get you some good curry powder, not that McCormick crap from Wal-Mart with no flavor (eventhoughWalMartisaperfectlyacceptableplacetoshop)
• Throw in an extra clove of garlic if you don't always do that with every recipe as a matter of course
• After it was done cooking I pureed about 3 cups of the vegetable chunks and added back into the soup. Why? Because I have a submersion blender and it is freaking fun to use, and I wanted it to be a littler more soupy overall.
• I think next time I will double the raisins as well. The raisins got all bloated and puffy from cooking, and they were so much fun to pop open in your mouth, kind of like yesterday's cold quinoa.

Note, this recipe did actually deliver on portion size, seems like soup recipes always assume you having a separate main dish, but I agreed with the 8 servings it claimed AND all the ingredient only put me back about $12!!

Dinner- Speaking of yesterday's cold Quinoa, I will be trying Quinoa Salad with Apples, Baby Spinach and Chick Peas with Maple Vinaigrette I'm excited for this since we bought apples and spinach super cheap yesterday. Side note, WTH is up with recipes having the most insanely stupid long names?

Snacks-orange pepper strips! 1/2 c, tea tea tea!

Now it's time to pretty much make my menu for the rest of the week, as today is shopping day! As long as I can get off my street and to the stores in this snow.