Bleurgh.

Evening, chicas! I though my cold or whatever I had on Friday had gone away, but today it's back and 20 times worse! I have a fever of 102, runny nose, sore throat, aching muscles and a headache. Also, whenever I look up or to the side, my eyes hurt. I've been scaring myself by looking at familydoctor.org and convincing myself that I have periorbital cellulitis. Thankfully I have the day off tomorrow to recover.

Okay, so I have a problem I need to share. I gained weight on 3300+ calories, and I had to clean my plate at each meal to get enough food in every day. I couldn't leave the crusts of bread or scraps of a casserole, because I needed every calorie I could get and I was afraid that ED was telling me to save calories that way. But now, I can't get out of the mentality that I need to finish everything put out in front of me. Even if I'm really full, even if I don't like the food that much, I make myself finish all my food. I guess it's partially because I'm scared I'll get hungry, partially because I don't want to give ED a chance to butt in again, and partially because it's just a habit that I learned from 6 months of weight gain. But I want it to stop! I can't convince myself to do the "stop eating when you're full" thing. Any advice?

For breakfast, had an apple, plus this grilled CC and applesauce sammich.
Then a bowl of oatmeal topped with PB puffins, dark choco chips and raspberries. Yum-o! Actually, forget I said that because I can't stand Rachel Ray.

I didn't take a picture of my AM snack because it was just orange juice. I was really lazy for lunch so I ate the lunch I brought to school on Friday but never ate. It was a Pb sammich (I grilled it, of course), apple and carrots, a Zbar, and a Siggi's orange ginger yogurt. I quite liked the yogurt! Not overly sweet, just a hint of orange taste, with nice chunks of ginger throughout. Also a very nice thick texture.
This lunch was an example of not being able to stop after I feel full. I don't have much of an appetite and the yogurt made my stomach hurt, but I kept eating it anyway. Ugh ED is making me feel like a pig for this right now.

For my snack I wanted something to make my throat feel better. So I topped some strawberry Haagen Dazs sorbet with half a banana, and ate the other half on the side. I ate it in bed and it made me feel much better! Btw, the sorbet was really really good. I also had some unpictured PB puffins.

For dinner, I made chickpea peanut stew again. I think this is the third time I've made this and it's definitely one of my favorite recipes! All PB fans would love it. Didn't have any red pepper or zucchini so I just tossed in a few handfuls of spinach.
I also had a string cheese that I'm counting as part of dinner.

Sigh, I have quite a lot of snacking to do tonight. Still under calories by a lot.

Hope you all enjoyed your Sundays! And enjoy your day off tomorrow, US girls!

Freezing Rain Day

No no, we didn't get a snow day. We got a freezing rain day. It's really nasty and freezing and icy outside, so school was canceled. The buses couldn't get out on the roads or something. Hehe it gave me an excuse to wear sweats all day!

So what did I do with my day off, you ask? Not much. Mostly just lounged around and did some blog-commenting. I also practiced my cello, played Wii, and put Pegasus on my ceiling. In glow in the dark stars, that is! I found the star stickers the other day when I was cleaning my dresser drawers. The package they came in had a map of all the constellations so I picked Pegasus and stuck him up on my ceiling. It's sort of impossible to get a picture of them all glowing in the dark, but it's cool, trust me. I quite like the idea of this big, noble horse being above my bed. -End nerd-dom now-

Breakfast featured an apple, an egg, a banana muffin, and berries & banana cream oats. I cooked my oats in "berry zinger" tea. Then I stirred in a couple spoons of plain yogurt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and topped it with half a sliced nanner. Yummay.

Around 11 I decided that I wanted dip in my lunch but we had no hummus. We did have lentils though, so I created lentil dip! Yeah, I realize what it looks like, but it was really good!

1. 1 tbs chili powder
2. 3/4 c dry lentils, cooked (or 2 cups cooked)
   
3. 1 tsp cumin
4. 1 tsp coriander
5. Dash of pepper, pinch of salt
6. 1/2 a plum tomato, chopped
7. 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
8. 2 tbs olive oil

Put everything in the blender with about 1/2 c of the liquid you used to cook the lentils. Blend until smooth.
Naturally, I had to put it on a sammich and grill it! I put the dip and some thinly sliced tofu on WW potato bread and grilled to golden perfect. With a darlin' clementine, oatmeal bar and Rachel's yogurt.

Dinner had been cooking in the crock pot all day, so I didn't even have to do anything! The recipe is called mushroom & barley soup, and is from Home Cooking by Lundberg Memorial Hospital. It's a collection of favorite recipes from my the tiny town my dad used to live in, in Nebraska. The original recipe has beef in it and is cooked on the stove, but we changed the recipe so I'm totally allowed to post it. This soup is what I think of when I think of winter meals, it's really hearty and filling. And you can throw whatever you want into the crockpot.

1. 2 tbs olive oil
2. 2 c chopped onions
3. 1 c diced carrots
4. 1 lb. mushrooms, sliced
5. 1 clove garlic, minced
6. 1/4 tsp thyme
7. 4 c vegetable broth
8. 2 c water
   
9. 1/2 c barley
10. 15 0z. cooked corn
11. 1 large potato, chopped
    

Cook the onions and carrots in the oil over medium heat until onions are brown and carrots are soft. Toss everything into the crockpot and cook on low until you're ready to eat. Normally, that's about 7-8 hours but nothing bad happens if you leave it cooking longer.

Ha, I said I wasn't going to do another monster post! Oh well. I'm pretty certain that I will be having school tomorrow so I won't have so many pictures.

I really want to do Lee's Blogger Valentine's Day Exchange but my parents are currently unaware of my blogging identity. They know that I'm "safe" online, so that's not the concern. I'm just afraid that they'll think that this is just another extension of my ED and will make me stop. Do any of you have suggestions on how to tell my parents about my blog?

Love you all, sleep tight!