Halloween / Flu Confessions

Sunday was pretty uneventful. After an amazing Longhorn win, I got a pretty good night's sleep and woke up around 9:30am. I wasn't hungry until about 11 and when it hit, I decided to try a new hot cereal mixture. To my Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Hot Cereal I added: a sprinkle of raisins and dried cherries, cinnamon, and some maple syrup, and topped it all with peanut butter. It felt like fall and was delicious!!



The day was otherwise uneventful with some tv watching, book reading, and a nap. For dinner, i got a craving for Thai food so I decided to make my own chicken phad see eiw. It was pretty successful! I managed to stay up for the Next Top Chef, snacking on some cinnamon toast as I watched, and went to bed.


On Saturday, I had a quite different experience - I woke up at 8:15 this morning, ready for a good breakfast. I tried one of my new frozen waffles and had it alongside an egg white and a pear with PB. I had a glass of OJ as well as some green tea and that seemed to do the trick.


It was also Halloween, a holiday that gives children and adults alike the opportunity to prance around in costumes for fun, trick-or-treat for candy, and celebrate in a myriad of other ways. I had planned in participating in a Halloween bar crawl with friends, just like last year. However, because of my flu, my new celebration (in full costume of course) will be watching the Texas Longhorns beat the Oklahoma State Cowboys from the comfort of my couch. This game is a bit personal for me because my brother began his college career at OSU, thus creating a bit of sibling rivalry. The Longhorns have the winning record in the match up though and I'm sure they'll continue the streak tonight.



I've decided to compile a few confessions to make the blog more interesting while I'm on my flu-cation. Hope you enjoy!

Confession #1 - I really hate scary movies and all things scary. I don't do haunted houses, thrasher movies, and the like. I was that kid who got scared by Disney movie villains until the age of 6 or 7. So, while some delight in watching scary movies on this holiday, I'll be alternating between the football game and any rom-com that's on tv.

Confession #2 - I am not good at being sick. I hate feeling crappy and I also really hate the sitting still / laying around. I'm normally pretty active so spending a lot of time on the couch for multiple days at a time is hard for me. In fact, this morning, I decided my apartment needed tidying and my mirrors needed cleaning - partly because my apartment got a bit cluttered and partly because I needed to move for a bit. I'm now paying for this decision by being tired but it was well worth it!

Confession #3 - Even though fall means winter is coming, I LOVE the change of seasons and being able to enjoy the leaves changing. I think that this week was the peak for coloring and I snapped a few pics of trees in my neighborhood:

Trees lining Embassy Row:
The Indian Embassy across the street:

And finally, the rest of what I ate this weekend (at least what I took pictures of):

Tomato soup and rice for lunch on a rainy Saturday afternoon

What goes better with football than the last of my veggie chili and some Alexia oven-baked fries, complete with bbq sauce on the side?!


There were also some apples, pears, and European style plain yogurt for snacks!

What's your favorite rainy day lunch? What about your favorite french fry condiment?

Another one bites the dust

After 12 hrs of sleep and a midnight dose of Advil after my evil fever returned, this time at 101.8, I kind of struggled to get out of bed. The only reason I did was I was really hungry that for some reason. I made some toast with PB and cinnamon with some grapes (no picture) and parked it on the couch to watch The View. I knew I was sick because the next time I moved from my couch was at 1:00 when it was time to head to the doctor's office.

I decided to take the short walk (just a few blocks) to the doctor and was glad that I did. My legs needed to move a bit after being so sedentary for the past 24 hours. I did however, pay for this decision as the fatigue really kicked in once I sat down in the waiting room. I joined the army of smartphone users wasting time until their name was called and gave myself a thank you for continuing to make my COBRA health insurance payments so that I was able to see a doctor without a huge hassle.

I found out that my flu test was positive (seasonal) and that I needed to plan to stay home for the next 4 to 5 days to recover. She also prescribed Tamiflu yet said that I could use my own discretion for filling it or not, and I was on my not-so-merry way.

Because I had exciting Halloween plans for the weekend, I didn't have much food in my apartment, let alone the foods that I crave when I'm sick (and are recommended by friends, colleagues, and Jewish mothers alike): soups, juices, and plain grains. I made a very quick pit stop at the grocery store, touching as few things as possible, and brought myself home.

My shopping purchases:G2, Amy's Black Bean and Chunky tomato Bisque (low sodium) soups, 2 kinds of chicken and rice soup, brown rice, Trop50 OJ, Hot and Sour soup, and Autumn Mix candy corn :-)

I also got some toaster waffles because who really feels like cooking from scratch when you have the flu...
One of my favorite Halloween treats:

I unpacked my goodies, which included my special Halloween treat since I'm no longer to celebrate the holiday out with friends, and took up residence on the couch for a Say Yes to the Dress marathon. I did finally get hungry later on in the evening and had a simple and comforting dinner which consisted of:

Amy's Reduced Sodium Shepherd's Pie
baked sweet potato with cinnamon
3/4 c peas
OJ, G2, and lots of water
a few pieces of my Autumn Mix candy corn

I headed to bed early yet again. My head was pounding and I was exhausted. My body decided to protest all of the rest though and I laid in bed wide-awake until about 12:30am.