Oh winter.. sickness and snow.

It has been a LONG few weeks over here at our casa.  Our youngest little guy started things off with a mild case of pneumonia a few weeks ago.  Not to be outdone, middle brother jumped in the next week with strep.  Then we had an ice storm so all kids were home for 2 days from school.  Next little jumps back in the game with some sort of fever/respiratory virus.  He’s on the mend?  No worries, now middle has the fever and coughing.  And just when I thought I couldn’t have any more fun being a mom?  SNOW.  Today was just a pretty sprinkling covering our yard.  Nothing seems to have stuck to the street so roads are fine.  Naturally, being that we live in SC they are out of school and that’s fine.  Middle is still recuperating and the oldest is outside playing with the neighbor children.  However, they are calling for MORE SNOW on Wednesday night.  Could be 4-8 inches.. surely not.  Guess we better get cozy.

Basically that is a bunch of whining on my part.  I try really hard to keep perspective during times like this.  What do mother’s feel to see their children battling something much worse?  What if they had leukemia, not a little fever and cold or strep throat?  All in all I am one blessed mom with pretty healthy kids.

Would love your prayers for my oldest guy.  He is supposed to have his tonsils removed on Thursday (barring the weather and he doesn’t catch his brothers’ virus).  We are both ready for it to be over!

And for a quick update on me.. I don’t know if you remember me mentioning how I have struggled with chronic mouth ulcers since I was a child?  Well, ever since cutting out gluten, dairy and soy I have had ONE ulcer in 7 weeks.  That is just crazy.  Here I have avoided all citrus food.. oh the oranges, pineapple, fruity cocktails, mimosas I have missed out on.. just to find out that had no bearing on it at all???  Wow.  Will keep you posted on this!  Stay warm people!

Don’t like a veggie?? Roast it!

This has seriously become my new motto.  Last night I am pretty sure I heard what is music to every mother’s ears (and it is even more momentous coming from my 5 year old who tends to be my pickiest eater) “Mom, can you PLEASE get up and get me some more brussel sprouts?”  Seems that if you toss them in olive oil, salt and pepper and roast at high heat until they are crunchy on the outside and soft inside my middle guy thinks they are amazing.  🙂 I posted that recipe a while back and it is still a hit here.

Tonight I had a pack of boneless, skinless chicken thighs in the fridge that I planned to use for kabobs.  Well, the high today was in the 20s and being southerners that is NOT grilling weather for us.  So, I found a recipe on pinterest and modified it to fit the ingredients I had on hand.  The kids loved it!  I cut up 6 or 7 potatoes into chunks, peeled and cut 6 carrots into pieces about 2 inches long, cut a yellow onion in half and then into fourths and tossed them all in a bowl.  I added my 6 chicken thighs and poured in about 3 Tbl of olive oil.  I mixed everything with my hands to make sure it was all coated and dumped it all on a cookie sheet lined with foil.  I sprinkled on top of everything some lemon pepper seasoning, dried rosemary, salt and pepper and about 4 cloves of minced garlic.  Again, I used my hands to mix it up and then roasted it all at 375 for 1 hour and 20 minutes.  When that was almost done I preheated my second oven to 425 and did a pan of green beans tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper with a little garlic powder.  I roasted those about 10 minutes and tossed them around.  Then I put them back in for another 7-10 minutes.

Pulled it all out and every bite was delicious.  Kids cleaned their plates and hubby gave it the thumbs up!  An easy keeper!

All is well here!  Had a check up with nutritionist and she said keep up the good word.  I’ve lost 10 pounds and I am feeling good!  Hope you are well too!

It’s been awhile…

I haven’t posted anything in a while.  Honestly, life has just been busy and I haven’t had the time to sit down and get it done.  Last blog post I set you up with “wait until we get those results” and then didn’t even give you the low down.

All in all my bloodwork looked great.  TSH, T3 and T4 were all right where they should be.  The panel of vitamins and minerals she drew all came back fine.  I was on the very low end of normal for Vitamin D so my nutritionist/naturopathic lady added in a Vitamin D supplement once per day.  The only number still way off is the thyroid antibody TgAb.  (Thyroglobulin Antibody.. I think..).  This is the marker that told my internist that I had Hashimoto’s to start with.  Now, I had only been doing the elimination diet for 2 weeks when they drew the blood so I did not expect to see a huge drastic change there.  We will redraw in a  few months and that will be the true test.

I have added back in eggs and corn successfully.  I even had a small cup of decaf coffee this morning with almond milk.  It was okay… just not the same as my crappy filled with bad stuff french vanilla creamer I usually use.  🙂

Otherwise the only “cheating” i have done at all is with an occasional glass of wine- my birthday, a friends birthday and my moms birthday.  Doesn’t seem to bother me so I will keep it as an occasional thing for now.  Really avoiding alcohol is more about healing the adrenals than anything else.

So, here we are.  I made a yummy vegetable quinoa minestrone type soup I found on Pinterest.  Turned out really well and reheats well for lunch.  My kiddos ate a bowl with a turkey sandwich and I just had a large bowl of soup.  So delicious and so filling.. give it a try.  I followed the recipe as written.

http://www.cookingclassy.com/2014/02/kale-quinoa-minestrone-vegan-gluten-free/

What will tomorrow bring…

I know I haven’t posted in almost a week.  Honestly, I haven’t had much to say.  I’ve been cooking, eating right, taking my vitamins and herbs, and such like I’m supposed to be.  I feel like I am waiting with baited breath to hear the results of my blood work from last week.  Today marks one week since they sucked those vials of blood from me and I want to know what they found out!  What are my other deficiencies?  Have my TSH and T3 changed at all.. for better or for worse?  Will they confirm my doctors suspicions that the antibody levels are probably higher than my original draw that diagnosed me with Hashimotos since we caught it so early?  So many questions swimming through my head.. I am just ready to have some answers!

I will post a longer blog tomorrow and share a recipe for mini frittatas that I made in the oven in muffin tins.  It was shared by my nutritionist as a different way to eat eggs in the morning.  They were pretty tasty!

Until then!

An awesome doctors appt, a new holistic doctor on the team, and an updated plan

I just love my internist.  I can thank my mom for that.  I honestly wasn’t terribly unhappy with my previous one, but mom saw this particular doctor and loved her and highly recommended her to me.  I am so happy she did!  As I previously posted my hypothyroidism was caught during a routine physical.  I truly have her to thank for the fact that I got in this game early, before things really spiraled out of control.  I was honestly nervous to go in there this week and tell her about my dietary changes and goals for remission.  You just never know whether a physician is going to be open to that sort of “outside the box” thinking.  Well, she wasn’t only open to it.. but very encouraging.  And, better yet, she referred me to a doctor of naturopathy who specializes in nutrition and natural health education.  She also ordered a comprehensive blood panel that should help expose any vitamin and mineral deficiencies I may be dealing with.

Wednesday was my birthday.. and we all know how exciting birthdays are at 33.  🙂  How many people can say they took the free time on their birthday to go have 3 vials of blood drawn?  I really was eager to get it done and get a few more pieces for the puzzle that is my overall health.  Also, that morning I called Alison, the nutritionist/natural health educator, and she just happened to have a cancellation that afternoon.  Normally it takes a few weeks to get in so I really lucked up!

I am so pleased with her overall assessment and suggestions.  I won’t bore you with the long details of the whats and whys of my body systems, but I will summarize it like this: she thinks my current diet is great but wants to see me eat less sugar and flour and more protein and healthy fat. Therefore I am adding eggs and corn back in starting this weekend (well, one at a time) and trying to limit my simple carbs to once a day and at my midday meal.  Also, she wants to work at flushing out my lymph system and focusing hard on probiotics and adrenal recovery.  All this to say… a few simple tweaks and I am staying dairy, gluten, soy, alcohol and caffeine free for the time being.  I think I can.. I think I can.. I think I can.

So, here we are at Thursday.  It’s been a good day!  I ate delicious leftover white chicken chili (will have to share that recipe later) for lunch with some diced avocado and fresh guacamole with nut thins for lunch.  For dinner, I tried a new recipe shared with me by a member of hubby’s family (thanks Susan.. and Margaret for sharing it with Susan!).  We had spaghetti with spaghetti squash instead of pasta.  It was so delicious.  My oldest son and I liked it the most.. but everyone ate it!

Recipe- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Cut spaghetti squash in half long ways and scoop out the seeds.  Discard seeds.  Brush with olive oil and sprinkle on salt, pepper and garlic powder.  Place cut side down on a baking sheet lined with foil and roast for 40ish minutes.  What you are looking for is the fleshy stuff to be pulling away from the edges and it to flake easily with a fork (into stringy pasta like noodles).  While the squash is in the oven you can make the spaghetti sauce.  Peel a zucchini and dice it.  Cut up some fresh mushrooms (maybe a cup or so) and saute them both in olive oil and a little minced garlic until soft.  Drop in a couple of handfuls of fresh spinach and wilt it.  In another pan, brown a pound of ground turkey.  Mix turkey and veggies with your preferred spaghetti sauce and let simmer on the stove.  Remove the squash from the oven and let it cool.  Scrape it with a fork to make your pile of pasta and add the sauce to the top.. so delicious!!   

Enjoy!