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.

Ahh, Monday.

Its gray out with a possibility of rain. Makes me want to curl up in my blanket and snooze all day... with a bowl of warm veggie soup near by. Which is precisely what I've been doing and plan to do until I have to go to work this evening!!

I made a great huge pot of vegetable soup with zucchini, yellow squash, green beans, corn, tomatoes, and whatever else I could find to toss in. Even Michael liked it! I've been adding tofu to some bowls, rice to others and TINY little pasta stars to yet others. Tastes wonderful no matter what!

Also I made this wonderful kale recipe yesterday... it was so good... I ate it all. http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=8364.0 The only thing I changed was instead of using pico de gallo or cayenne pepper I used Franks Red Hot sauce and applied liberally. Delicious. It screamed out "Where is my corn bread?!" Maybe next time :D

Also one good thing about today is TheVeganBackpacker is doing a free giveaway of Pure Bars! W00t! Sign up here: http://veganbackpacker.com/blog/pure-bar-giveaway/