I've added a few new features to Musings of a Housewife that I hope will be helpful. Over the weekend I created a Whole Foods Resources page that is a great place to start if you are interested in learning more about the whole foods lifestyle. I also compiled my design tutorials into one convenient location. Both are linked in my nav bar. And there is now a Print Friendly button at the bottom of each post, should you feel like printing recipes or information for future reference. Before printing, you will have the option to delete any photos or content you don't need.
So I went with a group of ladies from my neighborhood to Dream Dinners on Thursday night. It’s a great concept. For those who don’t like to cook, at least. For those of us who do? Well, it was fun to socialize. Ahem.
And the other fun part? Someone comes along behind you and cleans up the work stations. That alone is worth the price of admission! Of course, the wine collection on the sidebar didn’t hurt either. I think everyone brought a bottle of something.
By the way, did I mention that, according to this Blood Type Diet that was recommended to me by the nutritionist I saw this week, coffee and red wine are both on my "Highly Beneficial" list. Unfortunately chocolate and Coke were on my "Avoid" list. As well as red meat, milk, bread, and about every cheese known to mankind. But hey. Jesus said, "Man can not live on bread alone." He never said we can’t live on coffee and wine alone. Which is what I might be doing. Because I don’t know about yall, but spelt bread and alfalfa just don’t sound like an appetizing diet to me.
But I digress. Back to Dream Dinners. We reserved the whole place, and that was great. I don’t think I would enjoy sharing the place with a bunch of strangers. Because you have to make each meal at an assigned station, so it would be awkward to work around a bunch of people you don’t know. With the whole room full of friends, it made waiting for a station to clear out just another opportunity to socialize and have a glass of wine.
(Your personal beverage was not allowed at the food prep stations, for obvious hygienic reasons. Even my germophobic self was impressed with the cleanliness and the guidelines in place to keep everything sanitary.)
The food itself? Time will tell, I guess. They did provide us with some samples about half-way through the evening, and I’d say it was a step or two above a Swanson TV dinner. It definitely didn’t taste homemade. But then, my standards are set pretty high these days, thanks to my friends Emeril and Ina.
Everything was prepared and ready to be assembled into baggies. The meat was already frozen. And the vegetables were already chopped. Which grosses me out just a little. Especially the big vat of pre-chopped garlic. ::shudder::
I think, if I ever return, I will leave out a few of those ingredients that I really prefer to be fresh, and then I can make note of what to add at the last minute when I go to cook the meal at home. That might make a big difference in the final product.
Because when you leave, you freeze everything until time to throw it together in your own kitchen, so nothing will be fresh unless you add it yourself. And a few fresh herbs or some fresh garlic go a long way to waking up a dish, dontcha think?
At least, that’s what Giada tells me. (Don’t you like how I’m on a first-name basis with all these great chefs? In fact, Giada and I were just hanging out together last week! What, you don’t believe me? Okay, so I was kidding. But I would love to hang out with her sometime. She seems like she’d be so much fun.)
So that’s my 2 cents on Dream Dinners. Has anyone else tried it? What was your impression?
I snagged this fun meme from Susanne and Laura. They want us to show our handbags and what’s in them.
The hardest part about this challenge, for me, is choosing a bag. Hahaha!! I love handbags. And I change them regularly to go with my outfits.
This is the one I’ve been carrying most often because it’s neutral and goes with everything. And it’s the biggest one I have, so it holds everything nicely.
It has these nifty side pockets on the outside that are the perfect size for my phone in one side and my keys in the other.
Inside, I keep my wallet and sunglasses. (Yes, I got new sunglasses. I was going blind without them.) As well as lipstick, tissues, and my pharmacopeia.
If you wanna play, consider yourself tagged!
No, I have not exhausted this topic yet. The OCD is getting the better of me.
I was waiting on that trip to the nutritionist, hoping she was going to guide me through this maze, but she served only to complicate matters. So I guess I’m on my own.
I’m sure there was some helpful advice sprinkled throughout our two-hour consultation, but unfortunately her credibility is seriously in question and therefore I don’t know what to believe. Plus some of what she told me is in direct contradiction to other information I’m finding about IBS.
I spent an hour last night, reading through eight weeks worth of food diaries. Yes, you read that correctly. For the past EIGHT WEEKS, I have written down every morsel of food or drink that has entered my mouth, every trip to the potty with a detailed account of what I produced, every gas pain and stomach ache, and my emotional state.
I went through each page at least three times, and I can find NO rhyme or reason to my symptoms. The only thing I can possibly deduce is that I feel worse after I overeat.
I’ve been doing a lot of online research, and I came across Ten Commandments of Eating for IBS. Now, tell me, how depressed would you be if you had to eat like this for the rest of your life!? (Note #4. And note how this is in direct contradiction to that “Eat For Your Blood Type” diet that advises me to drink coffee and red wine!!)
The other huge contradiction I found is that the nutritionist told me to lay off gluten, but this article seems to suggest that soluble fiber (which, go figure, is found in the more simple carbs, not the whole grains!!!) is key to my survival.
I just spent 30 minutes at the whole foods store and left empty handed. To say that I’m feeling overwhelmed and confused at the moment could possibly be the understatement of the year.
Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints,
and give thanks to his holy name.
As usual, my titles are so original. NOT. As I began typing, it filled in the rest for me, so I have obviously used this title before.
So. Steph is challenging her readers to post a picture without makeup. She’s calling it Bloggers Without Makeup. And when you play, you get entered into a drawing to win a prize! Fun, huh?
Now, I hardly go out in my yard without makeup. I was raised that a lady always "puts her face on". So this is stepping out of my comfort zone just a little bit. But hey. If the rest of them can do it, I can do it.
So here you go!
R is in good spirits this morning, eating and drinking with no problems. So she seems to be on the mend.
The house reeks of Lysol, and it’s pretty chilly in here b/c of all the windows I have open to air out the joint, but but so far, no one else is puking. I know it’s too soon to declare victory, but I’m encouraged, nonetheless.
I didn’t know there were so many puke-a-phobes out there (referring to the comments on this post). We should form a club! I love the idea of the Puke Evacuation Plan, compliments of June Cutoff Cash.
Hey, June, did you ever figure out what M.G. spent that $300 on? I’m banking on a real sweet birthday gift for his beloved wife. His post was hilarious. Evidently you aren’t the only comedian in your household.
Any-Who. We canceled our house guests for tonight, which is sad, but at least it takes the pressure off me to have the house in order. And I could use some "down time" this weekend.
So, here I sit, nursing my second cup of coffee and trying to figure out what the sam hill I’m supposed to do about this IBS mess.
The comments from AL and Jamie have me really back-peddling here.
I’m a skeptic, yall. I’ve always been about as "mainstream" as it gets. I am much more interested in trying to work with my diet than with supplements. And that’s what I thought this "nutritionist" was going to do. So maybe I need to seek out a nutritionist who is more mainstream.
Or maybe I need to take a list of questions to my GI and get him to help me understand this a little better. There is still that antibiotic that he prescribed. I haven’t tried that yet because he wanted me to try going off dairy first.
Which, while I didn’t have a big attack while I was doing dairy-elimination, I did have some icky tummy aches on occasion. I think that there is more than just dairy that is bothering me.
The antibiotic also sends up some red flags in my mind, but maybe it is safer than these supplements.
I was saying to Jamie this morning via email that this is sort of like politics. It just seems to me that there is probably some validity to both camps, and I am feeling frustrated that there seems to be no middle ground.
Meanwhile, it’s a gorgeous morning, and my family is outside enjoying it while I am in here blogging and reading ibsgroup.org hoping to gain some insight. I think I’ll take a break and enjoy my last cup of coffee on the deck. Hope everyone has a nice, relaxing Saturday!
Just a mom attempting to juggle three kids, four blogs, a blog design business, and the laundry. 
