I got a HUGE head of cauliflower at the farmer’s market. I think it’s going to provide enough for multiple meals – I’m thinking this soup, these “steaks”, and/or some kind of recreation of this appetizer.
I didn’t get any squash while there, but found these guys amusing.
I made this loaf the same way I make every other loaf and it somehow ended up all squat?
It tasted the same, so I’m not sure what happened. I used a different kind of yeast (organic Rapunzel was cheaper than Red Star when I went shopping last week), but I’m pretty sure I’ve used it before. I don’t know.
Like I said, it still tasted the same, so maybe it’s all in my head.
For the first time ever, I got the flu shot. 😛
I resisted it for quite a while…including the five years that I’ve been a nurse…and two months since the start of this flu season…but in the end I caved. I trust my OBGYN and he was fairly persistent. In the past I’ve refused because I am a healthy young adult. But being pregnant makes me immuno-compromised; and therefore a flu shot candidate. Blah. Of course after I (finally) consented he told me this was the last time he was planning on asking me (I have deferred at our last two appointments). I like that he listens to me and respects my wishes.
Of course in typical Elise fashion I did MEGA research before deciding on anything. I scoured the university’s online medical journals for evidence based research articles that linked flu shots and pregnancy in any way.
This is really good. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about cucumber in my juice, but it was really refreshing. I could taste all three ingredients, but there isn’t one that overpowers the rest; they are all well balanced. So even though it cost almost $5, it was worth it. I don’t think it’s something I’ll buy with any regularity though, since the whole bottle had 48 g of sugar (that’s kinda a lot, right?). But it made me wonder if I could have used this evolution juice for my glucose tolerance testing instead of that hideous orange glucola thing.
These apples completely effed my business up. FODMAPs suck. The weird thing is I seem to tolerate cooked apples pretty well (similar to how well I tolerate wheat in terms of the amount). When I made crock-pot applesauce I devoured it like it was going out of style and had zero consequences. In truth, the yield wasn’t huge, so by default I did practice moderation in enjoying it. I also seemed to be fine when I made mini peach crumbles that had gluten free toppings (as opposed to a wheat based crust that would increase the FODMAPs load even more). One of these days I’ll understand my GI system… By the way, that applesauce (recipe at the end of this post) was the best on the planet (if anyone is looking to use up some apples).
I started listening to Pandora’s Christmas station on November 1st. I’m still not sick of it. I love the holidays. Kyle resisted at first, but this past week we’ve been listening together – at home, in the car, all the time. I win!
Mama Pea reminded me that froth is fun. So I’m back to foamy warm drinks.
The ratio of almond milk to coffee in my bevies is basically 6:1 with some maple syrup to sweeten.
Question: will I ever return to my former caffeine addicted self? Now that I’ve been through the weaning/headache/withdrawal phase (thanks pregnancy), I don’t crave it very often. Every once in a while I’ll have a bit in the morning, but even then, it’s mostly milk.
Only time will tell.
Um. What the what?? I completely forgot what I was searching once I typed this in. I’m intrigued…
See Elise Lately part I and part II.
lol my two favorites “pregnant women are smug” and “pregnant women and cat liter”…. interesting. And that juice sounds amazing, but yes, 48g of sugar also sounds like a lot. And I definitely do not understand my digestive system, I ate starbucks plain oatmeal with just the nut toppings (what I assumed was a very neutral meal) and my stomach started gurgling. Nothing awful, but still unpleasant.
you need to get one of these! it’s life changing!!
http://www.amazon.com/Aerolatte-To-Milk-Frother-Black/dp/B0001RT2C4
Whereas apples are your kryptonite, cauliflower is mine. I love it but even if I steam it to death, it doesn’t do good things to my gut. Like you with apples though, sometimes I eat it anyway and hope for the best. Sigh…
Anyway, I’ve had cucumber in my water before and it’s a nice change once in awhile. As for caffeine? I haven’t had coffee in a decade (thank you IBS) and giving it up was the best thing ever. At least if I’m tired or have a bad gut, I know it’s natural and not from the caffeine.
I know you research things and make informed decisions, but I feel like I should share that healthy young adults are actually one population that REALLY needs to get a flu shot. Being healthy and having a strong immune system does make it more difficult to get the flu, but if you look at death statistics and hospitalizations from any large flu outbreak you will see that the young, healthy people are often the ones to die (more so than older people). While it is possible that the flu shot may not protect from an outbreak-level strain, it is also possible that it would. This is why healthy young adults should consider getting flu shots.
I don’t know about all that. From what I understand, the flu was worse in healthy people because their immune systems would go into overdrive and end up attacking itself – as was the case of the Spanish flu. Older people or people with already comprised immune systems didn’t flare up as much. I was just reading about all this last week because medicinal mushrooms should not be taken as a flu preventative since they initiate a cytokine storm and this would not be good if you got the flu. I just feel like there are sooooo many other ways to protect yourself from the flu other than giving $30 every year to the medical industrial complex. I know people at Walgreens and they have flat-out told me they know nothing of the health benefits/risks of the flu shot, but they have to sell a certain amount of vaccines every month. It’s all about the numbers, they said. It just seems like a big money-making scam to me. It’s kinda interesting that the pregnant and healthy were the last ones that were recommended any vaccines and now they are being pushed on these groups hardcore.
The flu shot is a touchy subject for me. I am an asthmatic who does reasonably well at controlling my asthma symptoms most of the time. After a huge scare a couple years ago in the dead of winter where my asthma went completly uncontrollable on me, my doctor all but made me swear I would never skip a flu shot.
all the years I worked with naturopaths, none of them ever had a flu shot 🙂 I love that you researched it, and I can see how I might change my mind if pregnant. I have never had one, and earlier this year was the first “cold” I had in … a good five years?
as I read this I am drinking my fresh juice this morning – I used to add cucumber to my juice, I like the flavor in small amounts. I love pineapple in anything, and I am drinking it right now 🙂
happy Wednesday!
I’m already listening to Christmas music, too – but I think I started them up in the beginning of October 🙂
I’ve seen those ginormous squash at farmers markets before too! I think they are called Tahitian Squash? That particular flavor of evolution juice is one of the best in my opinion!
I know you didn’t ask for cauliflower recipe recommendations, but I LOVED Katie’s Crock Pot Cauliflower Sweet Potato soup! (http://yesiwantcake.com/2012/09/21/crock-pot-cauliflower-sweet-potato-bisque/) I replaced the evaporated milk with plain unsweetened almond milk and omitted butter and cream cheese. Also with the crock pot it could not have been easier, and it fed me for a lunch for a week 🙂
oooh thanks! katies always got some great ones 🙂
have you tried any others? which are your other faves?
i know what you mean. im pretty content avoiding medical measures that are meant to be preventative because of how i live my life. odd coming from a nurse, i know, but while i was doing research i found that a (scary) majority of the deaths from the avian and swine flu were pregnant women. i dont know. im still on the fence about it. if i werent pregnant id continue to refuse it. those studies convinced me for this year though.
happy wednesday!
you both make good points which is why im so on the fence about it. in the end, i dont want to get into a huge debate about it because obviously i already made my choice.
julia – im not sure where you got that info but as a nurse, i feel like i should clarify that the flu shot is actually prioritized for people with a high risk for infection or health complications, namely the elderly, or those with chronic conditions like asthma, lung disease, etc. it is still recommended for anyone over 6 months of age, but healthy adults arent the stressed population. {here’s some infor from the CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/keyfacts.htm}
brooke – i have never heard anything to back your theory about healthy people’s immune systems “going into overdrive” and physiologically speaking, it doesnt really make sense to me. feel free to send an article or study my way though. and while i do appreciate your skepticism of places like walgreens simply having to meet numbers, i can only comment on the medical community. as a nurse i honor each patient’s choice. i have no motivation to give the shot or not. the hospital requires no such numbers. its purely about giving people who are sick access to a shot that may or may not prevent them from certain strains of the influenza virus. i totally agree with you that its a guessing game, since the strains they choose may or may not be the right ones that cause an outbreak, however, this isnt some conspiracy theory. they use national and international data, following various viruses, tracking infection rates, and pick the most likely strains based on such (in recent years theyve been extremely successful in correctly matching the flu shot to the circulating viruses). i also agree with you that there are plenty of other ways to protect yourself. if youre a healthy adult, the chances that youll come down with the flu are minimal if you use common sense.
in the end, the thing that stuck out most for me was the statistics from the avian and h1n1. a huge majority (i cant remember the exact numbers, sorry) of the deaths were pregnant women. while i think my immune system could probably do the job, its just not a risk i feel like gambling with.
that said, in future years (that im not pregnant), i think i will probably refuse the vaccine again. who knows. we will see…
the cat litter one is related to toxoplasmosis. the bacteria is really dangerous because it can cause mega damage to a fetus. its often transferred from outdoor cats (in their poop) so pregnant women arent supposed to handle cat litter. its a good excuse to get out of that duty for 9 months, but i think as long as you wear a mask and gloves youre fine. they also tell pregnant women to avoid gardening for the same reason – again – a bit excessive in precautionary measures.
the pregnant women are smug thing however….im not sure what its all about, but its definitely funny that it was the first to come up…
i like my caffe froth though!
Ha ha, that google search is awesome. People are odd. I kind of want to try out that squash just because it looks really awesome. I feel you on the apple situation. Apples make my tummy a mess. GI issues are so odd. I can’t figure mine out. I wish it were so much simpler!
Apple are the same with me. Cooked I seem to be fine with any amount but raw I’m very not fine and raw on an empty stomach is just nausea/reflux material.
Have you noticed you can tolerate any foods more when you’re more relaxed?.. I know it seems odd but the more stressed I am the more foods seem to hate me…
It has been interesting to read the debate on the flu shot – thank you for posting about it. And those “pregnant women…” searches are crazy! Although I looked up the first one and realized it’s a song by two women who also have done a video about the difference between ages 29 and 31: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-gfxjAaZg0. Haha!
I *love* cauliflower! My absolute favorite way to eat it is roasted. Yum! I know you didn’t ask for ideas and that you have your plans for your huge head, but now I am totally craving it. Mmmmmm 🙂
I am so sorry that the apples mess with your system so much 🙁 That is so not cool. Fall=apples and that = deliciousness. I am glad you can still eat them cooked, but I wish you could still enjoy biting into a perfectly crisp juice apple!
Courtney
Elise,
I concur; FODMAPS suck. I hope one day they actually figure out IBS! Also, Pregnant Women Are Smug is a song, a pretty funny song by female comedy/folk singers. I don’t know much about them, but my friend showed me the video a few months ago.
So about the caffeine thing – I was a real addict before I weaned myself (slowly, painfully) off it to get pregnant. Then after almost three years without it (after weaning my girl) I found that even a little gave me the jitters! I’d never been a coffee-jitters person (see above: addict). So I got myself back on it like I got myself off – little by little, slowly. Now although I’m happy with half-caff (which itself is just fine with me) I can take a full-strength coffee just fine. Strange, eh?
They practically pinned me down to give me a flu shot when i was pregnant! I was shocked at how insistent they were about it. But after getting a half dozen colds during the first couple months of pregnancy I completely understood how much more at risk I was. Better safe than sorry.
I stopped drinking caffeine as well with the exception of a couple of iced teas on weekends (wild child…). But now? I looooove me some coffee! The best way for me to start my day is to get up about 30 min before Lyric does so I can drink a giant mug of glorious coffee in peace. It’s my “me time”.
Every time I see the organic Rapunzel yeast I get excited, especially at the price tag. And every time, I end up making a bunch of bricks. Toasting it like crazy helps but always disappointing when I make a big batch, expecting my usual three loaves and it ends up being one small lump. I have had the best luck with the spoonable stuff in the jar.
Yes! I liked the essential veggie and the sweet greens one. I’m loving the fact that Starbucks sell these guys now. After drinking WAY too much coffee while studying there, one of theses juices is just what I need!
E, what happens when you eat apples without the skin? I wonder what cooking the apples does? I have still not had a single bite of any form of apples since being aware of Fodmaps back in Feb. triste.
hmmmm…the skin eh???
I did hear on the news the other day that a study in Denmark linked flu during pregnancy with increased risk of autism for the baby. I don’t know if the study is very thorough, but here’s a site with some info…
http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/flu-autism-pregnant-denmark/2012/11/13/id/463979
I think it’s great that you got the flu shot, it may end up protecting your little one! I never get it either, but when I’m pregnant I think I will, just in case.
hi amanda – thanks so much for the link.
i wasnt going to go into details, but this is actually one of the studies i found when i was searching that swayed me! i also found one that linked pregnant moms who got the flu to having a child with schizophrenia.
also, the stats i listed in response to the comments above about the majority of the deaths from avian and swine flu being pregnant women.
so all in all, a good thing to get to protect me and my babe 🙂