MIGRAINE DEPRESSED

I give up. I've had a migraine for more than 48 hours now and I don't know what to do. I'd rather have any other ailment than a migraine. Give me stomach cramps that feels like stabbing pains that last hours into the wee hours of the night or acid reflux or clavicle pain (which I had this morning anyway). Just give me anything but this damned migraine. I've had migraines for more than a decade now and it's ridiculous considering I'm only 27. Almost a year ago I got together with three of my girlfriends to celebrate one of their birthdays and one of them mentioned having a migraine for the first time in their life. They told me it was a kind of pain they had never felt before in their entire life. They then "commended" me because they never wanted to experience that kind of pain ever again. She should only be so lucky. I think back to the time when I had 11 migraines in two weeks. That was just plain ridiculous.

In less than 48 hours I have gone through 3 IcyHot Patches (I thought maybe it was just muscle pain leading to a migraine), four different types of medication (including two types of migraine medication, Robaxisal and Advil XS), B&BW aromatherapy roll-on for headaches and the Magic Bag around my neck, in hopes of relieving some of the neck and shoulder pain I've encountered on top of the severe migraine. I have not been in this kind of pain in months. I honestly don't think I've felt this bad since last October or thereabouts. I'm seriously at my wit's end.

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Onto today's eats...I woke up around 1pm and while I really didn't have an appetite for anything, my dad said I should eat a banana. Not one for bananas and a little bit paranoid that I had a staph. aureus (a form of food poisoning) or salmonella or botulism (which is really unlikely) from some possibly bad chicken on Sunday, webmd.com told me that my best bet would be to follow my regular diet. So I opted for a full breakfast for lunch instead. I had two eggs (sunnyside up) with two slices of whole wheat toast, three slices of tomato (I really just wanted to use up half a tomato in the fridge) and two slices of Halloumi cheese. On the side I had a bowl of fruit (a pear, blackberries and three strawberries) along with a mug of Traditional Medicinals Chamomile with Lavender (to relieve tension and sooth a sore stomach) along with some organic 2% (which I didn't drink):That's definitely what I'd consider a full lunch. I grazed on the above for a long time though so it kept me satiated for quite some time. The migraine pretty much did me in too, so my mind wasn't really focused on food.

Dinner wasn't until five hours later. (See, the food really was consumed over a long period of time. Normally food like that eaten in a short span of time would only keep me full for about two hours, tops.) Dinner was basmati with free-range chicken, mushrooms and snap peas:After that I wanted something sweet and opted for banana soft serve but since I couldn't find the blade for the Magic Bullet, I just ate the bananas semi-frozen and also had some strawberries:Call me ridiculous, but I like strawberries when they're shaped like hearts. I'm a sap like that.

I spent the rest of the evening making Earl Grey tea muffins using the recipe from justbento.com, which can be found here. I didn't have any buttermilk so I used the milk and vinegar method. I also used vegetable oil as my fat and decreased the amount of sugar for my dad who is watching his sugar intake. My muffins were a lot more airy than the ones shown on justbento.com. I have no idea why as I was extra careful not to overmix and even decided to incorporate the tea leaves before the dry ingredients were properly folded into the wet ingredients. No matter because my dad really liked them. My batter resulted in 24 minis and 2 regular-sized muffins and I baked them exactly as instructed on justbento.com. With the decreased amount of sugar, they will be perfect with a bit of jam. I can't wait to try them out in the morning with jam or heck, even coconut butter. It's been quite some time since I've dabbled into that jar.

Now I'm sipping on a mug of hot earl grey with honey before I call it another early night. I'm hoping to wake up to a migraine-free morning since I MUST go to work tomorrow; I can't afford to take another day off work.

Oh by the way, the muffins are fabulous! The slight hint of bergamot is addicting, which I think, is why my dad loves them. I love them too. I already ate both regular-sized muffins along with three or four mini ones. I kind of lost count...oops.

GO CANADA GO!

Holy crap! I can't believe it's been almost an entire week since a new post! What the heck is happening with February!? A lot has been going on. Since my return home I haven't really been able to catch up on my blog posts because I've been sick. Ever since Sunday morning, I've had a sore throat and my cold symptoms now include a slight cough, runny nose, body aches, headaches, bloody mucus, etc. It's not fun. I was paranoid that I had caught the E. Coli, Salmonella or Listeria bacteria but no diarrhea so I'm in the clear for now. I've just been feeling pretty awful and the worst part is that I look fine so when I tell people I'm sick, they probably don't believe me--though my cough, raspy voice and constant sniffling at work are probably turning a few people off by now.

Anyway, Here's an attempt at a quick recap of a week's worth of food:

Monday...the 8th

First breakfast was a slice of wheat and oat bread with peanut butter and banana slices. I also had a pear.Second breakfast was organic instant oatmeal with ground flaxseeds, chia seeds and a whole bunch of blueberries.
Lunch was fresh and light, exactly what I needed after the mega binging during the Super Bowl the night before: Romaine lettuce with mini carrots, radish slices and a can of flaked tuna in water. I also had some sweet potato balls on the side. I dressed it with a tiny bit of Kraft Aged Balsamic Vinaigrette, mostly letting the remainder of the tuna can water act as the dressing.
Snack bento consisted of grapes and blueberries (most of which I used in my oatmeal):Dinner was pretty boring:Rice with eggplant, two kinds of mushrooms and peas. I don't normally eat eggplant (I don't really like the texture and it gave me hives when I was 8) but I really wanted the mushrooms and peas and thought eating rice with just mushrooms and peas would be weird. Since my bowl of rice was pretty small, I ended up having this as some "extra" dinner:A whole wheat pita pizza with zucchini, king oyster mushrooms, red peppers, tomatoes and pear. It was basically a leftover pizza from the pizzas I was making for lunch the next day. Here's a closer look:===

Tuesday the 9th

First breakfast was a slice of toast with peanut butter and banana slices and second breakfast was the same as yesterday:Lunch was my whole wheat pita pizzas prepared the night before. Here it is on the cutting board:And here it is all packed in my bento:My snack bento container grapes, a couple clementines and blueberries, which again, I used for my second breakfast oatmeal:I wasn't really looking forward to dinner that night, my sore throat was getting the better of me, but we were having asparagus and I can't say no to asparagus:Rice with asparagus, tomatoes and beef, along with a side of brussel sprouts.
I also had an orange about four hours later for some extra vitamin C:Lastly, look at this bag of evil:But it turns out that two cups is only 140 calories so I no longer feel bad about my massive kettlecorn consumption!===

Wednesday the 10th

First breakfast was a PB&J sandwich with a small glass of orange juice. My jam this time around is special because I went to the "fancy" grocery store the night before and while looking for something I can't remember right now, I came across Crofter's Super fruit spread which everyone food blogger has been raving about lately. I checked out the Europe version that everyone seems to love but settled on the Asia since I'm not a huge fan of cranberries.Second breakfast was instant organic oatmeal with chia seeds, ground flaxseeds, peaches and strawberries that I buy frozen and are defrosted by the time I get to work and have second breakfast around 10:30.
Lunch was butternut squash ravioli in a homemade tomato sauce of mushrooms. I bought the ravioli in the fresh pre-made pasta section of the grocery store and these aren't bad!I also had my version of Laura Calder's warm goat cheese and bacon salad but mine wasn't very successful. In fact, it's not a recipe I would make again, or maybe my version was crappy because I tried to take the easy route and used the toaster oven instead. Anyway, here it is:Romaine lettuce with goat cheese wrapped in bacon.
Snack bento was what remained of my thawed-out strawberries and peaches:I also packed myself this small container of kettlecorn but never got around to eating it :)Once I came home I immediately ate this orange along with a banana and peanut butter and Crofter's Asia spread:I can't remember what the heck was really for dinner but I must have eaten a little bit of it.
I spent the rest of the evening making cake pops which I will post about later. It was a long night; I was up until 3am.

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Thursday the 11th

Breakfast and lunch from the 11th were the exact same as the day before so I didn't bother taking photos of any of it. I also still felt pretty crappy because of my sore throat and taking photos of food was the last thing on my mind--especially after only five hours of sleep. The only thing I do have a photo of is half a slice of sour cherry cheesecake that I bought from the Valentine's Day bake sale at work to benefit the Hospital for Sick Kids:I normally really dislike cheesecake but this one was really light and the cherry topping was a great contrast to the cream cheese.

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Friday the 12th--let the Games begin!

Yay to the start of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics; boo to being totally sick and miserable and having to stay an extra hour at work on a Friday night. Sean ended up having to wait for me in the lobby for 30 minutes too. Boo-urns to that.

Friday's first breakfast was a sunnyside-up egg with two slices of bacon and wheat 'n oat toast. Second breakfast was organic instant oatmeal with the usual defrosted strawberry and peaches.
Lunch was quite dismal because I ended up eating most of this:Yep, that's right...Kraft Mac 'n Cheese, which I realized, just because of the night before (because I had snuck in a taste), tastes disgusting. Seriously!! I can't eat this crap anymore. It was so gross. I can't imagine how I managed to palate that orange gunk all these years. That was definitely my last box of the blue stuff. I finally understand what the heck Sean has been talking about all these years.

Along with my Mac 'n Crap, I had sweet potato balls (unpictured) and the remainder of my strawberries and peaches:To the right of my sweet potato balls are two chocolate meringue cookies with chocolate chips. They are ridiculous light and airy and really, really addictive. Despite not having an addiction to chocolate, I ended up eating six of these the night I baked them. Good thing to recipe makes a whole bunch of them. You can check out the recipe here. I modified the recipe by splitting the batter in half and adding chopped-up dried cherries to one half and chocolate chips to the other. They were both great but I prefer the cookies with the dried cherries.
Sean and I picked me up after work and after running an errand or two, we headed to Famous Sam's for a couple of homemade burgers and fries. I forgot to take photos. I was really, really hungry and the pre-Olympics opening ceremonies were on TV in the restaurant. Sean and I headed back to his place and watched almost two hours of the opening ceremonies with his mom until we all gave up and then Sean and I watched the first two episodes of Weeds season five. I sipped on a mug of tea and ate two out of three of the following:
There was also a chocolate pretzel stick that was eating but I'll leave that up to your imagination.

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Now it's time for me to get back to watching the Olympics coverage! Oh by the way, what the hell is up with the coverage on CTV?? BRING BACK THE OLYMPICS ON CBC!! And where the heck are the mascots?!

YAY FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE!

Facing yet another $125+ cell phone bill in which I couldn't understand my data usage, I finally called my cell phone provider and guess what, she was able to remove those charges and go back three months to figure out why I was being charged extra! It resulted in a in a credit of $160!! Plus she advised me on adding $6 for unlimited texting considering that my monthly text charges were hovering around $25. She was great. I wish I had remembered her name so I could have sent in a thing about her to my cell phone provider. Ever since working in retail and being a manager, I now realize the importance of making sure companies know just how happy/unhappy you are with the service you are receiving; this is why I try to voice my complaints/compliments whenever I see fit. I'm actually in the process of sending in a compliment to the TTC for the fantastic service I received earlier this month. Crazy, right? Well, as crazy as it does sound, the driver of my bus (I wish I had remembered to check the bus number) did a fantastic job of getting everyone to their destination in a great time and when he forgot to stop at my stop (it's too close to a previous stop in order to ring the bell in time), he asked if I had boots on so I wouldn't have to walk through the really tall snow. What a great guy.

So I'm done with my first week of work and wow, what a crazy week! So much going on, not just work-related. I feel like I was constantly on the go without much down time. I am really ready for this weekend except that Saturday's already over and the only thing I've managed to get done is the laundry, boo.

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Now onto the eats...from the 27th:
Breakfast was oatmeal with frozen peaches that I nuked in the microwave for a minute. No picture because I was running late. It's ironic that I constantly am running late even though I live like five mintues away.

Lunch was the following:

Orechiette with organic all beef hot dog (that I cooked out of the sausage lining) along with the roast veggies.
For snacks I brought along Garden Fresh Gourmet salsa and blue corn and unsalted chips:And fruits of the day consisted of grapes, a clementine and blueberries:Dinner that night was brown rice, liver and onions and a whole lotta veggies:I have to admit that I actually hate liver (this was veal liver--ew!) but if it's loaded with a TON of caramelized onions I'll eat it on the odd occasion--mainly because I can't taste the liver. Today was not that kind of night though.

Later in the evening I headed over to Jessie's and we made creme brulee:Do you like our Mickey Mouse set up? Jessie, her mom and I ate the big ramekin and her dad already sneaked away one of the small ones. I also had an Oreo McFlurry and medium French fries after the veal liver debaucle.

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From the 28th...breakfast was organic maple spice oatmeal with blueberries and peaches and a mug of milk tea:Lunch was leftover orechiette with the hot dog and roast veggies, mini carrots, grapes and blueberries hidden underneath the grapes.
I also brought along a snack bento of TONS of fruit:Two clementines, a pear, grapes and strawberries. I also never got around to the salsa and chips from the day before so I brought those back again:For dinner Sean and I went out for sushi. I thought we were going to our standby, Sushi on 7, an all-you-can-eat buffet but Sean wanted to try somewhere different, so we headed to Ginza Sushi instead. Sadly, I have no photos of the meal. I do remember most of the stuff we ordered which included sweet potato tempura (even though we had ordere purple yam tempura), two special rolls (Black Pearl roll and a deep-fried California roll), a tuna maki, crispy salmon maki, a few handrolls and I think that's it. It was definitely too much food but really, really good. The handroll was so fresh and delicious. I absolutely love handrolls (salmon and unagi being my fave) but can never order more than one or two because they fill me up too quickly. We took the leftovers home, which included half of each of the "special" rolls.

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From the 29th...Friday's breakfast #1 was two slices of rye toast with jam and a bit of leftover omelet which you will see later, plus a mug of 3:15pm milk tea (which I will review in another post). I neglected to take a pic because I was in a rush. Then at work, breakfast #2 was two hash browns (cooked at Sean's the night before), plus a two-egg omelet with mushrooms):This was definitely a great idea. I had a 30-minute break at 10:30 so along with my 3:15 milk tea, it was a great second breakfast.
Lunch was at 2:30pm and I had leftover sushi from the night before along with this snack bento:Strawberries, mini carrots, grapes and a clementine. I didn't finish it all but saved the rest for later, which ended up going in the fridge when I came home late at night.
Dinner for the evening was take-out from the hot section of T&T Supermarket--you'll see it later.

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Now for today's eats!!
I slept in until noon (man, it felt good!) so I had my leftover Chines food for lunch:Rice with roast pork and duck and some veggies. After eating this I still felt hungry and then ate two Pot of Gold chocolates (when did those boxes get so tiny?!), one chocolate crepe biscuit and a banana some time around 4:30pm. I really need to get back to photographing my food. It seems to help to photography my food because it keeps what I eat in check.

Dinner tonight was honey garlic ribs with mini carrots, fried plantain and some kind of Chinese green. I think they're called garlic bulbs but I'm not sure, along with a mug of mango juice:

And you'd be right in assuming that mug is from Petro-Canada and features the Vancouver 2010 Olympics symbol! On the ride home from Jessie's on Wednesday night, we popped by the Petro-Canada to see if they had the latest mug in stock (see above) so Jessie could pick one up and of course, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to pick up more Olympic swag. So I picked up two of the mugs above and two other mugs, the Robson, a 14-ounce glass featuring the symbol as well as the bear and person. The back of the glass above features the bird along with a person. I kind of want a set of four of each (there's four in total) but that means 16 Olympic-themed drinking glasses/mugs and considering that Sean and I are only two people, it seems a little excessive. It's just that most mug/glass sets always come in sets of four. Oh well.