AND THE DOCTOR SAYS...

I've got a mild case of food poisoning. Pretty much what I suspected the whole time. So why did I let it the symptoms go on for so long? Well, like I said, it's a mild case and pretty much like all the other sicknesses I've felt for the past little while, I thought it would go away on its own.

I'm now on a course of electrolytes (darn no Vita Coco around):
and Gaviscon for the abdominal cramps:
Plus some prescription cream for my hand rash. Just finished off this glorious platter of strawberries:
and am digging into this bowl of egg congee with BBQ pork:My dad made it with organic chicken broth so there's a little bit more oomph than usual.

I'm catching up with all my favourite food blogs (ie: all the ones I've got bookmarked which is shockingly close to 30) and then I'm probably going to lie down and take it easy. News alert: just read the ingredients on the box of my Gastrolyte and it contains aspartame ("as sweetening agent") so I will definitely not be consuming that. I'm on the search for Gatorade which we will probably not have in this house. Oh well. I hope that the almond milk I'm downing now will help replenish my fluids.

Earlier in the day I had a small handful of kale chips (yum!) and half a banana, in the car while heading to the doctor's. I'm still getting stomach upset after I eat so I'm trying not to overdo it but I have lost about 1.5lbs overnight so I'm trying to put some of that back on. I haven't really been feeling hungry though--a miracle, for sure--so it's been slow to start.

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.

===

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.

DINNER THAT ROCKED MY WORLD!

I know I'm so behind in posting. I can't even tell you how far behind I am. I'm not even going to bother using this post to catch up because I have this totally awesome dinner to blog about first--tonight's dinner in fact! Check it out:Totes awesome, right? Well here's how you can make your own.

DOM'S DINNER THAT WILL ROCK YOUR FACE OFF! (And your socks too!) Ingredients:
- two organic chicken legs
- one medium sweet potato, cut into small chunks
- four small potatoes, cut into quarters
- head of one small broccoli, trimmed and cut into florets
- one portobello mushroom, sliced into four
- leftover quinoa (I used four cooked spoonfuls)
- copious amount of garlic salt
- copious amount of extra virgin olive oil
- lemon juice
- salt and pepper

Directions

1. Prep chicken by rinsing and then patting dry. Cut each leg in half, separating the drumstick from the thigh. Drizzle with oil and garlic salt. Place in a 9x13" baking dish lined with tin foil and sprinkle with more garlic salt. Yes, I'm sure. Now set the dish aside.
   
2. Toss both potatoes with olive oil and garlic salt and place in baking dish, try and get everything in one layer. Set baking dish aside--again.
3. Toss broccoli and mushrooms with olive oil and garlic salt. Set aside.*
4. Place baking pan in 375F oven for 25 minutes. After time is up, add the broccoli and mushrooms and bake for another 20 minutes.
5. Remove mushrooms and broccoli and then broil for five minutes to achieve that crispy chicken skin. Potatoes will also have crunch factor that is highly necessary.
6. Remove from oven. Turn off oven.**
7. Mix quinoa with mushrooms and broccoli. Add olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. I added more garlic salt too, I'm not going to lie.
   

Serve up the chicken pieces on separate platters and divide the rest. I got greedy and took 3/4 mushroom pieces and only left one for Sean. Initially I had intended to roast more mushrooms but then kind of forgot about it. Then I started plating up Sean's meal for tonight and wouldn'tcha know it, he only gets one mushroom slice--oops! I really am a mushroom fiend.

I must admit that this dinner totally rocked my world. I haven't had a dinner this awesome in well...probably not that long ago in the grand scheme of things but after the week-long lunch and dinner chicken soup, I'm definitely glad I have enough for lunch tomorrow. This is definitely going to be the best thing about tomorrow--wahoo!

* If you're lazy like me you can go ahead and mix all your veggies together and just pick out the sweet and regular potatoes when you add them to the baking dish in the second step. This will save you some mixing time but nothing else.

** When Sean's parents went on vacation without him, his mom used to leave Post-It Notes all over the kitchen reminding him to do things. One of my favourite "to-dos" that she always left him was to turn off the stove or oven. I think I have one dating back at least five years that actually says "TURN OFF OVEN!!!" with three lines underneath each word. I thought it was hilarious that at 21, Sean needed a reminder not to burn the house down.

DEAR TYLENOL...

Whatever it is that you put into your magic pills, they really do work like magic. Nothing, absolutely nothing, makes me feel better when I have a cold like your little yellow, Daytime pills do.

Thanks very much,
Dominique

===

It's amazing how my body responds to medication. It won't respond to Traditional Medicinals Echinacea Plus or orange juice or chicken soup or anything like when I have a cold. It only and I mean, only, responds to Tylenol Cold. It's like they're in cahoots or something. Of course, knowing that I only had one measly yellow magic pill left, I was very hesitant to take it but also knowing that I couldn't miss another day of work, I had no choice but to pop the pill on Thursday morning, right before I started my eight-hour shift. But that was on Thursday morning and finally broke down yesterday afternoon and bought another $15 box of magic, orange pills. Ugh, damn Shoppers and their convenience prices! Figures that I'd end up downtown feeling utterly miserable and in desperate need of some Tylenol. So yeah, the new Cold Plus (the regular Tylenol cold plus mucous relief, what joy!) kept me going for another 4-6 hours. I managed to get through Kiki's Delivery Service, which I did not get through the night before (sorry Sean!) and while Sean wanted to take a nap after the movie ended, I was all fired up and awake. But I did manage to take a nap with him anyway.

===

But let me back up and show you some eats...from the 30th...pre-sickness:
Breakfast was the standard half WW English muffin with PB and coconut butter:Lunch was organic roast chicken drumstick and veggies:Snacks included grapes and strawberries:Along with the very last half of a chocolate walnut and dried cherry brownie (man, those were good!) and two squares of Lindt Sea Salt for my second breakfast:Sean and I were heading downtown for a concert after work so we decided we'd grabbed dinner in the city. Before that though, I decided to snack on some prosciutto sandwiches (read: prosciutto sandwiched between water crackers) in the car. Before the concert we dropped by Dufflet to pick up their lemon/lime coconut tarts:

Sadly the tarts were lacking the tart flavour that I've come to expect from Dufflet. Sigh. Their lemon tart is, in my opinion, one of the best tarts in town, so this was truly a disappointment. It was way too sweet and you could hardly taste it. The coconut top did make up for it--but not entirely. Not a repeat purchase. (And I think that's the first time I've ever said any negative about Dufflet Pastries.)

And then went to Steve's Music store so I could pick up something to clean my drum kit but it was closed. So we then headed to Whole Foods so I could stock up on the essentials (ie: Vita Coco) but they were all out so I ended up getting some watermelon, water crackers and other stuff. In the end we didn't have enough time to grab something to eat so I just ate my watermelon.

After the concert we ended up in the parking lot for almost an hour before we were able to get out and by that time I just wanted to get home to sleep since I had work in the morning. Thank goodness for the prosciutto and water crackers I had eaten during the drive into the city and in the parking lot.

PS: For those of you interested, the concert was Vampire Weekend and it was totally awesome!!!===

31st...Wednesday
I decided to try something new for first breakfast:Strawberries with two two-bite cranberry and orange scones from Whole Foods. The scones are a little on the sweet side but they're tasty. They kind of suck all the moisture out of your mouth but I like my sweet scones like that.

Lunch was organic roast chicken on a bed of pale red kidney beans along with roast veggies:It really does pay to make your meals way in advance!

Snacks were the usual grapes and strawberries:
Along with half a chocolate-dipped macaroon from Dufflet and two squares of Lindt's Sea Salt chocolate for my second breakfast oatmeal:Chocolate was consumed, macaroon was not :(

And as you saw earlier, dinner was the following because I was feeling downright horrible:===

1st...no April Fool's jokes here
With sickness setting in, I didn't really want to eat anything but I knew it would be a bad idea to skip out on first breakfast. I knew a scratchy double-toasted whole wheat English muffin wasn't an option so I went with two cranberry orange scones with Earth Balance (yay, finally) along with some Olympic green tea and vanilla yogurt, grapes and strawberries:

I assume it was all very yummy because I couldn't taste a thing!

Second breakfast usually involves oatmeal but this time I decided to swap my lunch for breakfast:Organic chicken soup with orzo, egg drop and a hidden chicken thigh. Sadly this chicken thigh was not even close to organic. Bad times ensued. Double sad that I was at work. Triple sad that I ate this soup earlier than I normally would have because I was sick. Ughs all around! Note to self: do not assume something in Whole Foods is organic unless the label says so!

Lunchtime was oatmeal with two chocolate squares and the following grapes and strawberries:along with this box of Vita Coco:I wouldn't normally have finished both boxes of Vita Coco so quickly but I was sick and being sick means I make excuses for lots of things.

Here is the chocolate and macaroon I had that still did not get consumed:Sean and I had plans to get our hair done later that evening but plans fell through when the time turned out to be inconvenient. We headed downtown anyway so that I could go to Steve's to pick up some cleanser for my cymbals and we grabbed some Korean food for dinner. No photos...it wasn't that great anyway. My dumpling and rice cake soup was really nothing to write home about though Sean's cold noodle soup looked way better. I forgot that Korean dumplings tend to be heavy on the ginger and ginger in savory form makes me want to gag. I was really hungry so I managed to eat all but one. Blech. Dinner left my Korean craving very unfulfilled.

===

2nd...Good Friday
Breakfast was eaten in the car on the way to the city:Whole wheat English muffin with PB and coconut butter on top. Clearly I put way too much coconut butter on top--hence the oozing. Some of it even dripped onto my makeup bag in the background. And yes, I did lick the CB from my makeup bag. I can't waste good coconut butter!

Lunch was had several hours later after Sean went from this...to this:HOT! Wow Sean looks so young now! I think we now look like an age appropriate couple rather than him looking super old and me looking super young. Don't let that "before" shot fool you--his beard used to be longer than that. Plus I now this his hair matches his clothing. Before his hockey hair didn't really match his (I hate to say it), "indie/hipster" clothing.

I also got my hair done but I just got my colour touched up. Photos to come. A full review of Caplansky's will also follow but for now, here's the smoked meat sandwich and fries that I had for a late lunch (it was a little after 4pm):I was smart enough to only eat half of everything and take the rest to-go. This lunch was consumed while my nose was running non-stop. It was kind of gross. After lunch we had plans to hit up Greg's Ice Cream on Bloor St. but my cold had other plans. We had to hit up the Shoppers stat for above-mentioned Tylenol. I was going down--fast! After a quick stop into the devil store (just kidding!), we came out with a box of orange-coloured relief, I popped one of those into my mouth and then Sean and I stood in line for some ice cream--just the thing to cheer me up! Sean ended up getting a scoop of orange marmalade and I got a scoop of Fifty's Frost--a malted chocolate.

After that we headed back to Sean's place. It had been a long day in the city and I was ready for some downtime. Upon arriving at Sean's, I was hungry again so a snack was consumed:Tea along with a bowl of fruit...blackberries, pineapple, canteloupe and some sketchy blueberries that I ended up tossing into the green bin. I felt bad about it but Sean reassured me that no one else would end up eating them.

And that's was the end of the day's eats.

RECIPE: ROAST CHICKEN & VEGGIES

A lot of the time I don't post recipes on my blog because they mostly consist of crap...err, foodstuffs, I kind of just throw together. This isn't going to be an exception but I thought I'd do a full out post of what I usually make myself for lunch, considering it's almost the exact same thing I've been eating for three weeks now.

It all starts with organic chicken drumsticks. It's not really my chicken part of choice but buying and cutting up and then freezing and defrosting a whole chicken isn't really my thang, so I usually go with chicken drumsticks because it's usually that, or a whole chicken at the local grocery store. My thang about touching a whole raw chicken is that it reminds me of holding a baby. I mean, have you ever grabbed a chicken right under it's wings, like where you would pick up a baby from its...uhhh...armpits (I guess)? It's kind of creepy! And the raw chicken is kind of like a baby...it's the same size, weight, a little smooth and wet and stuff. It totally grosses me out. The first time I ever held a chicken like that it totally reminded me of holding a baby and then I couldn't deal with the chicken any longer.

Anyhoo, for today's menu (which ended up being lunch for three consecutive days), I made roast drumsticks and veggies. My choice of veggies are usually the same with some mix-ins, depending on what's in the fridge or what I have a craving for, if I can get a hold of my dad before he's been to the grocery store. This time I had butternut squash, zucchini, mushrooms and broccoli. Normally I have sweet potatoes in place of the butternut squash but I had asked my parents to pick up the squash for me and not remembering the original reason I wanted it, I figured roasting it would be a good idea. So into the oven it went...

Dom's Usual Roast Chicken & Veggies
Ingredients:
- Mix of veggies...in this case I used one medium butternut squash, one head of broccoli, 10 or so medium mushrooms and two small zucchinis
- 3 organic chicken drumsticks
- extra virgin olive oil
- Mrs. Dash garlic and herb seasoning
- salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Prep veggies. I peeled the butternut squash and trimmed the broccoli. Cut the squashes into medium chunks...I'd say around 1.5" square-ish. I left the mushrooms whole and cut the broccoli into large florets since they roast faster. Once prepped, dump into a large bowl.
   
2. Coat veggies and chicken in olive oil. Coat well. You want everything to kind of glisten with oil--especially the broccoli so it doesn't burn and get all black and crusty.
3. Season with Mrs. Dash, salt and pepper. My Mrs. Dash doesn't contain salt so it would be wise to add your own. Season well. Plain roasted chicken tastes bland and boring. No one wants boring chicken. Boring chicken, boring life--just ask the Slap Chop guy.
4. Dump everything into an oven-proof baking pan lined with foil. Lining things with foil makes for easy clean-up and doesn't ruin your baking pan. I like it.
5. This is what everything should look like before you stick it into the oven:
6. Roast at 350F for 35 minutes, then broil for 4.5 minutes so that the chicken skin gets brown and crispy. I love crispy chicken skin and because it's organic and kind of a luxury, I eat it up when I get the chance. You can discard it if you want.

So when you're done, everything should look similar to this:Note that this photo was taken the next morning so my chicken doesn't look as appetizing as it would if it were taken straight out of the oven. I usually portion out my meals with the chicken first (one drumstick per meal, usually lunch) and then divvy up the veggies.

For about 15 minutes of prep and 35 minutes of roasting time (in which you don't have to really do anything), you have enough food for three meals (or more if you're a light-eater, which clearly I am not when it comes to work lunches).

It's also a really great way to get in a bunch of veggies and who doesn't love roasted veggies--don't answer that! The butternut squash was a really nice change this time around. It was super sweet. Next time I think I'll make mashed butternut squash instead of potatoes when the craving hits me.

I SPENT HOW MUCH MONEY?!

$73 and change. Yeah, that's right...$73 on groceries at Sobey's. Damn their organic and/or all-natural aisles. But you know what, it's probably cheaper than going to Whole Foods and I was in the area so it saved me about two hours of commuting times. Here's a quickie (sort of) rundown of all the goods:

Let's start with meat I can eat:Clockwise from top left: proscuitto, drumsticks, frozen chicken nuggets and whole chicken. I was debating between my usual chicken fingers or chicken nuggets but the five-year-old in me won out and I decided to be all crazy and go with the nuggets this time. Too bad there's no non-HFCS-added sweet 'n sour sauce to enjoy those with.

Things I know I should not have bought but couldn't help it:Popcorn in sea salt and kettlecorn flavours from Popcorn, Indiana. This company makes amazing kettlecorn. It's freakishly addictive. I have to pour myself a serving in a bowl but then I just go back for more servings. I also make Sean hide the bag from me but then manage to get it off the top of the fridge twice before he realizes I'm taller than he thinks I am. Popcorn crack.

50/50 on what I should and should not have bought:On the left is what I should not have bought but I'm a sucker for new things in modern packaging. Metromint flavoured water. I got the lemonmint version. On the right is Newman's Own Oil & Vinegar Dressing. Despite being more than double the other brand that was currently on sale, I decided to get Paul's version because a) it's all-natural and b) contains no sulphites or ingredients I couldn't pronounce. I was a little bit iffy on the red wine vinegar as I'm currently staying away from all wine since it typically gives me a headache but we'll see if the small amount of dressing I use anyway, causes a reaction.

New-to-me items:Almond milk! I'm going to give this a try in lieu of milk in my cereal and oatmeal. Of course, this means oatmeal that I have at home so it'll mostly be oatmeal on the weekends since I don't have enough time to heat up almond milk at work and have time to eat it. I eat incredibly slow. Or I just eta oatmeal incredibly slow. Oh and Kashi bars. I wasn't really crazy about the three flavours I kept seeing everywhere (cherry dark chocolate, peanut peanut butter, seven whole grains and almonds) but then I saw all kinds of other flavours including trail mix, pumpkin pie, raspberry chocolate and the two you see above: Dark Chocolate Coconut and Dark Mocha Almond. I'm excited about the one with coconut--obviously.

Everyone needs produce!Sadly I didn't buy as much produce as I usually do. Actually it's probably okay that I didn't buy that much produce since none of it was organic--oops! But I bought a pound of spring mix, a pound of radishes, pre-cut watermelon (I'm a sucker for pre-cut watermelon--it screams summertime to me) and Liberte Greek yogurt. The yogurt came with a $1 off vendor coupon which was good because it didn't have a price tag listed and at $5, was pretty damn expensive! Good thing I passed on the $6 faux-meat burgers.

And that is what $73 will buy you. It was actually a bit of a shock when I saw the total and had to use my debit card since I didn't have that much cash on me. Saaaad! But at least the grocery store will see that someone is buying their all-natural products and maybe they'll start carrying more stuff. I tend to shop like this in the chain grocery stores (buying the natural/organic stuff rather than the traditional stuff) if the price difference is less than 50 cents for each product. I guess that with 18 different items, it all adds up! Of course, some of this stuff I hadn't intended to purchase and it'll last me a while (ie: all the meat, granola bars, almond milk, dressing) but then other purchases will not last as long and were actually a little more expensive than I was used to paying (ie: popcorn).

Oh well...now it's time to go eat my purchases.

OATS FROM START TO FINISH

The plan for the day was to wake up bright and early, apply for some jobs and then watch Sherlock Holmes with Sean later that evening. He didn't know about the plans yet though...I was going to call him at some point in the early evening to see if he was up for it but he beat me to it when my dad woke me up at 9:30 to take a call from Sean.

About 30 minutes later Sean was at my house and we headed downtown to pick up concert tickets to see Vampire Weekend and Japandroids in late-March and early-April, respectively.

I had excellent plans for breakfast. Knowing that I'd have to get ready "on-the-fly," I prepared myself some oatmeal to go (instant organic oats with chia seeds in a mug) but was too tempted when offered breakfast by Sean. So instead of eating this bowl of free fiber and goodness: I ate this a McDonald's bacon egg McMuffin plus not one but TWO hashbrowns and I washed it all down with an apple juice. Sigh. It's the 2 for $5.98 coupon that totally lured me in. Had Sean not had those coupons on him (which expire at the end of the month anyway), I probably would have passed. I really have been indulging in McDonald's way too much this month but Sean and I figure (or I anyway), that once we move in together, my days of fast food will be over--once and for all.

After our trip downtown, in which we grabbed a couple grande white chocolate mochas (which were free because I used a Starbucks gift card), we headed back to our homes and instead of sleeping, I made myself lunch. I had two small bowls of watermelon salad, which was really just watermelon chunks with mint, olive oil and salt:And a medley of mushrooms (shitake, button and king) stir-fried with onion and a 1/4 of a leftover tomato:
I ate half of the mushrooms and intended of saving the rest for dinner. In the afternoon I got a little bit of a sweet tooth so I decided to give this giant Lindt chocolate bar a go (a gift I received for Christmas from my parents)Check out the nutrutional list:I wouldn't consider it too bad. If you can't read it vertically (*shakes fist*) it says that four squares are 160 calories, which for me is perfect because I normally don't crave sweets or chocolate for that matter. So I ate about 3.5 squares because half a square fell into the garbage can by accident.

Dinner was served a couple of hours later but I dug into something completely different because I had leftover free-range chicken to eat. I paired my chicken up with the leftover medley of stir-fried mushrooms and made a quick salad of watercress and cucumbers. And I washed it all down with a small glass of organic 2% milk:
I don't know why but I felt hungry a couple of hours after dinner so I didn't want to let the oatmeal I made in the morning go to waste. I added some boiling water to bring it back to life:
And then added in the usual suspects:
But about an hour after that I was STILL hungry. So I decided to finish off the remaining slice of pizza I had from a couple of days ago. I also decided to cut it half so I could enjoy it longer.
And after that I decided I needed to call it a night of eats.

Money spent: $5.80 (McDs) and $2+ (meter parking)