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.

POST-BIRTHDAY POST!

It was my birthday--yay! But wow, was I ever in a birthday funk. The 25th wasn't actually so bad. My co-workers wished me a happy birthday and my best friend since grade nine, sent flowers to my workplace! (One of my co-workers chided me for having flowers brought to a lab work environment but I didn't know they weren't allowed--a spores issue--and my supervisor never said anything. In fact, my supervisor was happy but also a little bit jealous since none of his friends have ever sent him flowers on his birthday, hee hee. The flowers are gorgeous. They're little lillies in the most amazing colours. Ah, colours. I'm a whore for colours. I haven't been able to get any good photos in the evening so I'll have to get myself up early in the morning when the sun's out to get some sunny shots of the flowers and post them here.

I totally forgot to photograph today's food so far. I was eating on the go, having lunch in the car and eating an a Royal Gala apple while doing some shopping in Walmart (no joke). At one point I was running through the aisles with a bucket in one hand and the half-eaten apple in the other. Quite a sight to behold if you were one of the many other shoppers in the store.

Right now I'm drinking this:I'm going to drink half of it and then have my roast parsnip fries for dinner along with a slice of cake. It's better a rather off day for food. I just haven't really been in the mood to eat. Let's just recap previous days' food instead, shall we?

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23rd...Tuesday
Breakfast was a piece of French baguette with cream cheese on one side and Crofter's Asia spread on the other:I miss real bread. Of course it doesn't keep me very full for long but knowing that I was going to be having second breakfast in less than 90 minutes, this was a great way to start the day.

Lunch was the following:A free-range chicken drumstick that I coated with honey dijon mustard and seasoned breadcrumbs (thyme, salt and pepper). Along with the chicken, I've got a bunch of roast veggies (potatoes, mushrooms, red and orange peppers).

Snack of the day was grapes and dates:Dinner was unmemorable and unphotographed! The end for the 23rd!

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24th...Wednesday
Sadly I woke up on Wednesday and my tongue was swollen like crazy. My throat was also hurting--despite being on antibiotics. I was not in the mood to go to work but the doctor is not in on Wednesday and I was also not in the mood to wait at the walk-in clinic so I went to work anyway. I also couldn't afford to take another day off work.

First breakfast for Wednesday was a ripe banana with organic, all-natural PB and Crofter's Asia spread:
Second breakfast was oatmeal with the following mix-ins but my fat tongue was still giving me a hard time. Eating was just not on the list of things to be done for today so I only ate 1/4-1/3 of my oatmeal. My oatmeal toppings/mix-ins included sweetened shredded coconut, roast almonds and dried cherries:Note to self: almonds are a stupid idea for an oatmeal topping when your throat is hurting. Never again.

I also spent my very last day being 25, not only with a fat tongue and super sore throat, but by having the exact same lunch as the day before. I'll spare you from another photo but it was the same free-range chicken drumstick with roast veggies. I ate my lunch slowly but quickly as I only have 30 minutes to eat and managed to finish most of it. I ate all the protein and left a few veggies pieces behind. Fat Tongue wasn't allowing me to chew and swallow my food properly.

I got home after work feeling pretty miserable. I just wanted some soup. My dad ended up going out and picking up some beef bones for me to make some beef broth with rice noodles but Sean called in the meanwhile and asked if I wanted to hang out. I said I'd only hang out with him if I could make soup at his house and he agreed! So he picked me up and we headed back to his place and I made soup while we watched the Olympics with his parents. I can't remember what we were watching but afterwards Sean and I watched an episode of Lost (the second-last episode of season four).

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25th...Thursday (MY BIRTHDAY!)
The food wasn't that interesting. My tongue was still swollen so I decided to make an appointment with the doctor during my break at work (usually second breakfast). First breakfast was the following:
I was determined to eat that Royal Gala apple and two scrambled eggs. Sorry for the crappy pic...it's from my iPhone. Second breakfast was a no-go because of my doctor's appointment so of course, by the time lunch rolled around four hours later, I was positively starving but the leftover rice noodle soup that I had made at Sean's just didn't cut it. It wasn't flavourful enough and honestly, the Chinese veggies that I had added in at the last minute had disintegrated because Sean and I were too busy watching womens' bobsleigh. Hey, at least we won a gold and silver!

Dinner was at my family's usual Chinese restaurant, King of Kings in Markham. We go there so often that the waitresses pretty much know what we want and how we like our food (no MSG and less salt). Awesome. We didn't order as much food this time and I also ate less than usual because I was saving myself for the awesome chocolate banana cake from Dufflet that was awaiting me at home.

This cake is redonkulously good. It's layers of banana and chocolate cake with a whipped chocolate frosting. The best thing about Dufflet is that they use all natural ingredients--yay for me! Here's a photo of my birthday cake:
And here's a photo of my slice:===

26th...Friday
Friday was full of really bad foods. It started off pretty well with first breakfast:A piece of French baguette with cream cheese and two scrambled eggs. I find that the small portion of protein is just what I need to get working in the morning.

Lunch was leftovers from my birthday dinner. No photo as I was more interested in eating than photographing. I had chow mein noodles with mushrooms, Chinese veggies and a piece of fish in fake crab sauce. Mmm...delicious. I then followed that up with a piece of chocolate banana cake--mmm, even more delicious!

Dinner was yet another stunner: a Quarter Pounder meal from McDonalds. And I opted out of the two slices of processed cheese not to save calories, but because two slices of cheese is too much for this pseudo-Asian. Alas, my idea was not a good one because a Quarter Pounder with no cheese is just a glorified hamburger--and that's not a good thing. I didn't finish all my French fries though--they were a little too salty and a tad on the crappy side, if you know what I mean. I thought McDonalds was supposed to be fool-proof?? And of course, I had a slice of chocolate banana cake--all of this in Sean's car, no less. We were on our way to the Fucked Up concert in Toronto, which proved to be highly entertaining for two reasons: Fucked Up and the D'Urbervilles. Yes, leave it to Damon what's-his-face to book an opening I really like when I decide that there's no way in hell I'd like any of the opening bands and leave my money in the trunk and then find out that while there are $10 D'Urberville CDs for sale, I can't get any because there are no "in-outs" for the night. Boo!

But anyway, that was Friday.

WEEKEND MADNESS!

The weekend was awesome! Not so much Saturday because I actually spent most of it (a good six hours) re-organizing my room (under my desk and closet) but Sunday was great! Let's do a recap:

Saturday morning started out rather well with a breakfast of whole wheat pancakes, a banana and pure maple syrup...The banana was so sweet and so ripe though that after one dip of the maple syrup, I decided to nix the rest of it and just enjoyed my pancakes with the banana slices.

And from breakfast we go straight to midnight snack of fruit:which consisted of an orange and a kiwi. Okay, okay, I lied...there was definitely more food consumed than just these two photographs show but not much more.

Between re-organizing, of which I'm become a big fan since becoming unemployed, I had a couple bowls of vermicelli soup, half a raisin bun and ummm...that's it. Cleaning pretty much consumed me on Saturday. Other than a phone call from Sean on Saturday night, that's all I did. So clearly Saturday wasn't the high point of the weekend.

Sunday was definitely the best part of the weekend but I'm saving Sunday's food photos for a restaurant review. In the meanwhile, check out this hilarious restaurant photo:Until next time...

Money spent: $0 (staying at home to clean is awesome!)

HEALTHY WHOLE WHEAT PANCAKES

My cold is not relenting. I thought I was getting better yesterday but after finishing what I'd consider to be a big meal and a mug of hot water, lemon and honey, I feel worse than yesterday. I'm afraid of catching pneumonia. So far, so good because I have no signs of a cough but I've now got a slight headache and my chest still hurts. I've added more layers of clothing and have put on thicker sweatpants in hopes that the warmer clothes will help. I've also turned up the heater in my room. Sorry for the increased heating bill dad, but I'm not risking pneumonia again.

For those of you not in the know, I had pneumonia five years ago this month and it was seriously the worst illness I've ever had. I was out of school for three weeks, mainly because it was misdiagnosed as bronchitis the first week. After the first week I finally got the right medication but it took two more weeks to recover from and then after that I was told by my doctor to take it easy at school and work (which was easier said than done). I feel like I never fully recovered. As a result I have a weakened immune system and lower pain threshold. Pneumonia is not something I would mess around with. Five days in I didn't think I was going to make it.

Anyway, what's with the title...well, I want pancakes. Ah, pancakes. What an interesting relationship we have. Let me start from the beginning...

My childhood memory of pancakes doesn't involve a lazy Saturday morning or a box of a pancake mix. In fact, it involves my mom, my brothers and pancakes from scratch. My family makes almost everything from scratch: pasta (when we were younger), tomato sauce, cakes, bread, for a while even ice cream and heck, even fish paste! So it came as no surprise to me when my brothers and I all gathered around a large stainless steel bowl and as my mother let us dump in the ingredients for pancake mix: flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, eggs and milk.

My parents' penchant for making everything from scratch kind of marred my delight of eating-out; nothing really tasted as good. When your parents give you your first taste of bone marrow or beef tongue, it's hard to imagine that an all-day breakfast diner could measure up.

As a result, I kind of hate pancakes; the light, fluffy texture that everyone adores...well, I detest it. I find it repulsive. It reminds me of stuff you eat when you're a toddler. I also hate how bland they are and how "exciting" they become only until after you've poured over a truckload of maple syrup. Oh and don't get me started on maple syrup; that brown viscose liquid you get in those plastic bottles? That's not maple syrup.

But I digress. I will eat pancakes if they're filled with fruit...for example, the strawberry pancakes Sean's dad made for his family and I on Valentine's day several years back when Sean was out of sorts because he had just gotten his wisdom teeth taken out the day before. Or banana pancakes...the last time I had them I can't remember from where, or blueberries pancakes that Sean had from...from...well I can't remember but they were good. I also like pancakes topped with actual fresh fruit or made with whole wheat or buttermilk or just something that tells me that they didn't come from a box and you just added milk and eggs.

And so I found this recipe for whole wheat pancakes that didn't include any oil and used whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose white flour. It also gets bonus points for allowing me to incorporate applesauce and an almost-rotten banana sitting on the kitchen counter!

About an hour, I had a plate of these beauties:Nom, nom nom! Satisfying! The added banana and applesauce gave them a texture that wasn't quite light and fluffy and therefore not "dough-y" as traditional pancakes are, thankfully. They also contain whole wheat flour and will fill you up longer than regular pancakes will and my mini pancakes mean you can dip them into your cute heart-shape silicone baking cup filled with 100% real maple syrup.

Sorry for the long post but the end result was worth it. To me anyway.