Sawdust on the Floor...

Several people were joking with me about my cholesterol and making oh-so-clever jokes about eating sawdust. Well... I have to say - that's some pretty tasty sawdust (Thank you Mrs.!). Seriously, I felt like I was in Tex-Mex heaven last night - only without the rot-gut hangover I usually get from all the fried stuff. My taste buds are feeling fantastic.

Had some serious Robot temptation today at work - a big bowl of tortilla chips... I'm happy to say I avoided them, thanks in large part to those pita chips last night. In fairness, I'd have been totally defenseless without the major taste explosion last night :) Made it a lot easier to say no... Just had it last night anyway, right?

I'm a bit short on voice tonight, but I wanted to pop in and tell all the jokers to come and see where the sawdust turns into jalepeno poppers. With a little magic from Mrs., of course.

-Mr.

Poppers?!

Yes, poppers! I couldn't believe it when I read a heart healthy recipe for Jalapeno Poppers! Mr is obsessed with Mexican food and these are always his craving so get this - he said mine were better that the local restaurant! The poppers have a great crunch factor, but taste really fresh rather than the deep fried version. And they only took 15 minutes from start to finish! Tortilla chips (or any kind of chips really) are another weakness for both of us, so we were thrilled with the baked whole wheat pita chips we made - they taste delicious and I'm definitely going to make sure to have plenty of them around. They were great paired with the Fire & Ice dip we made (filled up some leftover containers so that it's always in the fridge, ready for any craving)

Oh, and we went for a 40 minute walk together...it's definitely time to up the ante on the exercise too!

Mrs

xxx

Wednesday's Menu

Breakfast - oatmeal with raisins for Mrs, oatmeal with honey and bananas for Mr. 

Snacks - green grapes and rice & corn puffs

Lunch - Salisbury sandwich in a whole wheat bun

Dinner - baked chicken in hoisin and BBQ sauce (from Amercian Heart Association Handbook) with brown rice

Price Wars...

I had a funny experience last night.  Mrs. and I were trying to decide where to do our shopping and thought we should try a new place.  We were wondering if it would be better value than our usual haunt, and in the course of our debate she said, "Well, think of a few things you know the price of and let's compare."  Uh-oh.  Things I knew the price for:

Potato Chips

Sour Patch Kids

Whole Milk

Orange Cinnamon Rolls

Chocolate Chips

So... that's another thing that'll be under revision!  

Today I also had another interesting thought... when I was eating the Salisbury Steak for lunch, I was surprised at the fact I didn't crave any cheese or crazy sauce to go with it.  The flavours were so rich, I didn't even miss it!  Interestingly, it's not the first time I've noticed the richness of these foods changing the way I crave the accessories I'm pairing with them.  

With a busy head, 

- Mr. 

Tuesday's Menu

Breakfast: Whole-wheat muffins...still going strong. Next time I'm just going to bake as much of the batter as we want, and leave the rest wrapped in the fridge so we can have fresh muffins whenever we want. 

Snacks: Green grapes, bananas - and then we went to the store, and magically ended up at the chip aisle. Wow, temptation much? We ended up spending 10 minutes reading the backs of the packets to find out calorie, salt and fat levels and did end up finding some great corn and rice puffs. Serving size was 1 oz. but that was almost a full bowl of these puffy crispy things so we shared. (And then spent the rest of the night thinking about the open bag...must resist!)

Lunch: Whole-wheat bread sandwich with slow cooked pork filling (left-over from yesterday)

Dinner: Another great recipe from the American Heart Association Cookbook - healthy salisbury steaks with mushroom red wine sauce with a baked potato. I had the steaks pre-marinaded so the whole thing only took about 15 minutes to be cooked and plated! Mr. was impressed with the flavors and the sauce which seemed really rich and I was happy to find a great meal option that didn't take forever to make!

Mrs

xxx

Mondays Menu

Whoah! Healthy muffins that are totally filling? Yes please! I was really shock at how these turned out - they didn't rise very much so looked pretty small when they were baked. I understood why when I ate one though - they are so delicious, but so filling! Mr. actually only had two for breakfast with banana, and was totally stuffed - he didn't snack at all before lunch! I'm totally not a breakfast person normally, but these were light enough to eat early in the morning, but still filling enough to keep me away from the cookie tin..definitely a keeper recipe!

Breakfast : Yummy homemade raisin, oatmeal and wheatgerm whole wheat muffins (Mr had his with a few slices of banana on top)

Dinner: Slow cooked pork in Cranberry & Orange Sauce with a side of scalloped potatoes (you can find these recipes in the American Heart Association cookbook)

Supper: Whole wheat toasted sandwich with home baked ham, light cheese and no salt tomato ketchup

Mrs.

Moving Forward...

I knew it wouldn't be great. But over 250? Man... I didn't want to tell anyone; just hanging out with my all-too-big cholesterol secret.  Okay, I broke down after a few minutes and texted Mrs. to say I'd had a bad result.  As rotten as it was to get the number, it was a hundred times worse to hear the worry in her voice when she called me.  Luckily, we were planning to meet for lunch, which would give us a chance to really talk about it.  

It was a good lunch.  I'd sum it up with two words:  short shrift.  Mrs. gave me some honest insight to go along with my big number.  While it was a bit hard to hear at times, I knew she was right.  I had to use this as a turning point.  Anything else would be cheating both of us.  The funny thing is, even though it was a bummer getting the result, moving forward has been a really positive time.  I'm getting really excited about food again, in a way that was totally missing from my life in the last year or so.  I had forgotten how good it can feel to plan a menu or do an extremely selective shop based on one of Mrs.' many fantastic recipes.  I also realised how totally joyless (and thoughtless)  much of my eating had become.  I wasn't eating an extra slice of pizza or those few extra tortilla chips because I was enjoying the food.  I decided I'm going to call it Robot Eating.  No thinking, just munching.  Anyway, mustn't ramble too much. It's time to get going.  This is going to be a quite a battle at times... but for the first time, I really believe it's moving forward - I know we can do this and the payoff should be phenomenal!  

- Mr. 

Shopping...

Yeah, so we had a good talk and then headed to the local bookshop. I love to bake and cook and I hate the thought of hubby having to give up all the foods he loves. And I know him well enough that if it's tastes like crap he's not going to stick with it, so I tottered up (a girl's gotta have her heels) the stairs - yes stairs and heels, a great combination for burning calories! The mecca at the top was the nutrition baking section, one I have always avoided because I thought that it was just common sense. And I like the cookery books with flashy pictures - not many of those in the granola/yoga/I'm so healthy I'm practically a saint section. Well, I trudged through, thinking of many more good years with Mr. Klink and lo and behold I found a phone book sized red book from the American Heart Association. Yeah, yeah I know what you're thinking - I was too - who wants to eat cardboard? Well apparently no one because the book is jam packed full of great ideas...even heart proofed versions of Mexican food, hubby's favorite! 

So I was carsick by the time we got home from reading out all the amazing things he can still eat, but there was a sparkle in his eye - he knows he can do it and so do I!

Mrs.

xxx

And so it begins...

After a shocking cholesterol result of 250 (!) I sat my hubby (who is only in his late 20's)  down to a conversation that went something like this:

me: "Do you love me?"

him: "Of course I do!"

me: "Do you want us to have a long and happy life together?"

him: "Of course!"

me: "I'd rather be a divorcee than a widow"

him: "What?!"

me: "If you're just going to let yourself die, I'd rather leave and let us just be friends - I can hope to deal with my friend dying, but I would hate you if I lost the man I love because of something he could have fixed. So there're your choices."

him: "Okayeeee"

What followed was a really honest conversation where we realized we owe it to each other to have the healthiest, happiest lives we can and that means making some changes. It may have come from craziness and fear, but we love each other and we can do this - I'm ready to make my heart healthy husband!

Over the next year we are going to be trying to get healthy and this will be a warts and all blog of all of it. We love flavor and food, so if it tastes like sawdust we'll tell you :-) And both of us will post so you'll get a full picture.

Wish us luck and happy heart health!

Mrs.

xxx