Sunday, November 21, 2010

Blech, home sick!

Woke up bright and early (4:30am) and felt realllllly yucky this morning. Threw up half an hour later and have not felt good since. I finally braved it and ate a plain rice cake since my brain was telling me I was hungry even though my stomach has been telling me "I wouldn't eat that if I were you." Really sucks. I feel like I've been "off" all month which is really unusual for me.

Anyway, the beginning of last week I found out one of my feline companions had a urinary tract infection, I've been treating her with antibiotics but my vet mentioned she might get more UTIs because she's overweight. All of my cats are a bit chunky. So I asked what I could do to help with weight loss as I've already tried feeding less food. She suggested canned pumpkin! I guess its high in fiber and makes them feel full without adding fat/calories. I mixed it in with everyone's wet catfood and it was a hit... they actually ate all of the bits of pumpkin and left the food behind.

I was pretty impressed, who would have thought?

Well... I had left over pumpkin - I had planned on saving it to feed again tomorrow but... Michael said "leave some for me." I was like "Huh? What are you going to do with it." He replied "Eat it." Now... i've eaten raw pumpkin, it tastes like squash - not a surprise since it really is one... however the concept of eating pureed pumpkin was not something I'd considered before.

I googled "easy, vegan canned pumpkin" and came up with lots of pies and stuff - but I didn't want to bake... so I looked up "easy vegan pumpkin soup" and came across a really simple recipe and thought "Why not?" By then I'd kept the rice cake down for a couple hours... fully knowing there is no guarantee it will stay there. My stomach was still turning.

I didn't read the reviews first (which were mostly negative)... I knew I was going to change the recipe since my ingredients varied a little - first it required more pumpkin than I had. Then it suggested soy milk which I don't drink - i have almond. I did purchase soy creamer on a whim because it was on clearance so I used that too. I used a lot more veggie broth and a lot less "milk" and creamer. I also used a lot less onion because onion and my stomach don't get along very well. It was surprisingly tasty however as a snack... I think it would need a protein source, maybe tofu... or it could go sweeter with some more pie-like seasonings. Still, rather excited to have found a new food I can work with.

Now I'm going back to bed to relax and pack a little.

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