another vegetarian sausage patty...

Today I tried MorningStar Farms Original Veggie Sausage Patties.  Each serving has 80 calories, 3g fat, 5g carbs, and 10g protein.  Serving size is one patty.  I also bought the maple flavor, which I reviewed yesterday.

I baked the patty, since that's the recommended method.  I popped it into the toaster oven and set it to bake at 350 for 11 minutes.  I skipped the foil this time.  There's no grease so it's not necessary.  When the patty was done cooking I scrambled one egg with a little milk.

In terms of how the sausage looked, it looked just like a regular breakfast sausage patty, but darker, and is about the same size as most.  I cut it with my fork and it cut easily.  In terms of texture, it's fairly similar to a real sausage patty, but it has a slightly different mouth feel.  Since it's made with textured vegetable protein (TVP) and not meat, that's to be expected.  The outside was crispy and the inside was soft, but not mushy.  The flavor was good.  It was pretty similar to real breakfast sausage and I tasted a tiny hint of spice.  By the way, make sure you bake or pan fry these patties. I think the microwave would make them mushy or rubbery.

I think this is a good product and I would buy it again.  I preferred the original flavor over the maple flavor, though. The maple was a little too sweet.  If you keep in mind that it's not real meat and you adjust your expectations accordingly, you won't be disappointed.

Here's my plate:  one scrambled egg and one MSF patty.  I ate the whole patty and almost all of the egg.

please help the SCP kitties...

From the Stratford Cat Project:  As the number of cats in our care increases and with kitten season rapidly approaching, SCP has designated both of its adoptions in March as food/supply drives.  Please help us help our furry friends with donations from our wish list, such as canned Friskies and Fancy Feast (chicken/turkey) Dry food such as Purina One or Friskies Surf N Turf N; Baby Wipes; Lysol or bleach wipes; gift cards to H3 Pet Supply, Walmart or Stop and Shop; scoopable litter of any kind; or paper towels.  Our little leprechauns are awaiting their pot of gold (a forever home).  Please help us help them until they get there.  Donations may be dropped off on March 15, at Fairfield Petco, 340 Grasmere Avenue, 11-3.  Or, for alternative arrangements, email scp4cats@yahoo.com.

trying new foods...

In my quest to find foods that pack a lot of protein, I've decided to start trying new products.  For example, textured vegetable protein and meatless sausage and chicken entrees.  I tried stuff like this before when I was dieting and quickly abandoned it, because I'd rather have a small portion of the real thing (that never worked) than a larger portion of fake meat that doesn't really taste like meat.  Now that protein is one of my mail goals, I see the value in eating some of these foods. So, I decided to give them a second look.

Today I tried MorningStar Farms Maple Flavored Veggie Sausage Patties.  Each serving has 80 calories, 3g fat, 5g carbs, and 10g protein.  Serving size is one patty.  I also bought the original flavor, which I'll try tomorrow.

It's recommended to bake the patties in the oven for best results, so that's what I did.  I popped it into the toaster oven on a piece of foil and set it to bake at 350 for 11 minutes.  While I was waiting I scrambled one egg with a little 2% milk and got my plate ready.  I didn't cook the egg until the patty was done, because one egg takes only a minute or so to cook.  Finally my patty was ready so I cooked my egg.

In terms of how the sausage looked, it looked just like a regular breakfast sausage patty and is about the same size as most.  I cut it with my fork and it cut easily.  In terms of texture, it's fairly similar to a sausage patty, but it has a slightly different mouth feel. And that't to be expected; there's no meat in it.  It was pretty close, though, because of the textured vegetable protein (TVP).  The outside was crispy and the inside was soft, but not mushy.  Flavor-wise, it was good, although I think the maple flavor seemed a little sweet.  Not bad, though.  I can see why they say to cook the patties in the oven.  I think the frying pan would be fine, but I probably wouldn't use the microwave.  They would be mushy or maybe overcook at the edges.

Overall, I think this is a good product and I would buy it again.  I'm attracted most to the amount of protein I get from just one patty.  If you keep in mind that it's not real meat and you adjust your expectations accordingly, you won't be disappointed.  I think that's true of any product that is meant to replace the real thing.

Here's my plate:  one scrambled egg and one MSF patty.  I wasn't able to finish the egg, but I ate the whole patty and about 3/4 of the egg.

takeout tonight...

Tonight's dinner was chicken and broccoli from the local Chinese place.  I skipped the white rice; I'll save it to make fried rice for Bob next week.  This portion is about 1/5 of the meal I received.  It looks like a bigger portion, but I used a small salad plate.  It's so nice to spend $5.25 on a small order of chicken and broccoli and know I'll get about 5 meals out of it for myself, plus the makings of another meal with the rice for Bob. I'm such a cheap date nowadays.

life lately...

I figured I'd talk about a few other things going on, other than my weight loss.

Bob and I are starting to think about looking for a new house.  We're getting really tired of our current location and need more space.  We've been in our current house for 17 years.  We bought it right after we got married.  We got it cheap due to it being a foreclosure and it needed work.  We're on a dead end, but we're surrounded by a few small businesses and a couple houses.

The business that's at the end of the dead end is getting to be a nuisance.  They make artisan pasta and now that they've bumped up production, their crew is there almost 24/7; liquid nitrogen deliveries are coming at all hours, sometimes at 6 AM and others close to 10:30 PM, which are really noisy; and many of their workers are completely disrespectful of the fact that people live on the street.  They speed up and down the street, blast car stereos, and carry on outside during their breaks in the summertime. We lost power one morning so the AC went off.  (That's what drowns out any noise we might hear since the bedroom faces the street.)  They were all out in the parking lot screaming and hollering, having a good ole time, blasting their Spanish music.  It was 7 AM!  On a Saturday!  I got up, went downstairs, threw open the front door and started yelling at them to keep it down because it's 7 AM on Saturday and people are trying to sleep.  At first they acted like they didn't understand me.  Then I said, "this is me being NICE!"  They finally turned the music off and quieted down.

So we're going to start house hunting.  Since he works in Danbury and I'm in Bridgeport, anything in between is fair game.  We want space, both in terms of square footage and acreage.  I have a big family and it would be nice to host parties and picnics and have the room to accommodate everyone.  All Bob wants is a garage.  I'm a little more discriminating. LOL

Speaking about work...my new work life is rough.  Not the place or the people or even the job.  After a couple weeks I've realized that I made a huge mistake and should have chosen the other job opportunity. Even though I thought I wanted to go this direction, I didn't realize until I was in the new job that it's not the direction I want to  go.  I even went to visit the psychologist who did my pre-surgery evaluation, just to get a completely objective opinion.  She agreed that I should pursue the other job and feels I made the "safe" choice between the two.  She said that eventually I will become frustrated and return to my old eating habits. After thinking about it I realized she's right.  She said after spending so many years in one place there's bound to be a "rebound relationship" with the first job that I take, and that I should give myself a pass on this. So, I emailed the other place and I'm waiting to hear back.  Let's hope.

Random kitty pic for you.  Leo got a lion's cut a few weeks ago.  The kittens try to play with the pom pom on his tail and I can tell he's embarrassed.

Before

 

After

i tried a brownie...

Yesterday I talked about the potluck breakfast that my coworkers set up for someone's birthday.  I was good and stayed away from it all.  I took home a piece of broccoli casserole for dinner and that was it.  I came in today and they had put out the leftover muffins and brownies.  At lunchtime, I decided I would treat myself to a very small slice of a brownie.  I would say it was 1/2 inch wide and an inch long.  It was so delicious and incredibly fudgey.  It went down fine, but about 3 minutes later I felt a little queasy.  I continued on with my lunch and I felt fine after about 5 minutes.  Later in the afternoon I was feeling my work ADD kick in and decided to have another slice. Again, I felt queasy and this time it sat like a rock in my stomach. Lesson learned.  It's too soon for that stuff.  I'm actually glad I didn't feel good afterwards.  It will serve as a deterrent in the future.  I'm starting to feel a little "head hunger" lately, and I really dread when it comes back in full force.  I'll have to learn to distinguish head hunger from stomach hunger.  Not easy to do sometimes.

temptations...

I've developed a routine at work:  I come in, boot my computer, go hang up my coat, unpack my bag, go make my high protein hot chocolate (can't seem to get up at 6 am anymore in order to make it at home), and then sit at my desk, drinking hot chocolate and checking my email.  About 45 minutes later I eat my breakfast.

I go into the kitchen to make my hot chocolate and I see an insulated casserole carrier, a big jug of pancake syrup, and all the plates and utensils set up.  No big deal.  I go back to my desk and enjoy my cinnamon hot chocolate.

When it's time to go heat up my breakfast, I see a few of the women have set up a potluck breakfast and the table is now full of food. (The rice crackers I brought in to share had been relegated to the empty table, all by themselves.)  There were fresh sticky buns, broccoli and cheese casserole, fresh fruit, big muffins, small muffins, mini cinnamon swirls, Dunkin' Donuts coffee and OJ.  It smelled heavenly.  Especially because they were heating the sticky buns in the microwave.

Apparently it was a coworker's birthday today.  I wished her happy birthday and ducked out of the kitchen. I let them know why I wasn't going to eat (I'm very open about my surgery).  Everything smelled delicious, but I sat at my desk and enjoyed my egg bites; it didn't bother me at all.  Later on I ducked back in and snagged a piece of the broccoli casserole for tonight's dinner.  It was delicious!

Later in the day it was round two:  Chocolate Bomb cake and brownies.  Again, I avoided the kitchen and didn't touch any of it.  I made a cup of raspberry hot chocolate and enjoyed it.  It crossed my mind to grab a small brownie, but I don't want to get into my old habits.

Speaking of temptations, I have found a new trigger food:  honey roasted sesame sticks.  They generally come in the Chinese rice cracker mix and they're delicious.  I bought some at the local health food store and that was a mistake.  I've noticed that when I eat any kind of item high is carbs, like crackers, my weight loss slows down.  I want to take advantage of the next year as much as possible, so I will need to limit my crackers.  The first year after gastric bypass is when we get the most weight loss with the least amount of effort.  Sounds good to me!

today's breakfast and lunch...

I'm finally being different today.  Although I love the protein kick I get from Greek yogurt and granola, I want to start eating some different foods.  I don't want to get used to eating just soft or "slider" foods all the time. Sure, they're easy to throw together and to digest, but they won't help my stomach get used to regular foods like meat, salad, etc.

For breakfast I'm going to eat my loaded egg bites.  I had some yesterday.  They're very filling and seem to have a lot of staying power.  For lunch I'm having low sodium ham.  It's not Boar's Head brand, but it will do.  I find I much prefer low sodium ham nowadays.  It seems to have more ham flavor and doesn't have as much water in it.  I'm having some muenster cheese with it.  (For some reason I always think "monster cheese."  I'm weird.)  My mom was a big fan of muenster cheese and I could never understand why.  Back then I didn't like it (not that I actually ever tried it until a few years ago), but now I love it.  Especially paired with some red seedless grapes.  The sweetness of the grapes and the slight saltiness of the cheese really complement one another.

So, here's today's menu, minus dinner, which I haven't figured out yet.

my two-month follow up...

Yesterday I had my two-month follow-up with the bariatric doctor.  We reviewed my blood work and all is well.  I'm a little low on vitamin A and B12, but that's apparently normal for the first year post-op.  I'm going to buy new vitamins when I run out of the ones I have now.  The new ones contain everything I need except the extra calcium.  Anything that allows me to take less supplements is a good thing.

I've lost 15 pounds since my last appointment a month ago, for a grand total of...61.2 lbs!  I'm almost halfway to my goal.  I'm not shrinking out of any of my clothes yet, which is kind of a blessing at the moment, but my shirts are definitely getting bigger on me and are hanging better.  I don't notice any difference in my pants yet.

So, how do I feel physically?  Before surgery I always felt like I was wearing a big down parka with layers of clothing underneath and a scarf around my neck, if that makes sense.  Just imagine how it feels having all that clothing on.  The scarf is snug against your neck.  (Or imagine a turtleneck  Whichever one you hate most.  I hate both.) You can't move as well as when you're dressed normally.  Moving is an effort.  You're hot all the time because of all those layers.  If it helps, picture Randy in that movie A Christmas Story getting ready for school everyday.  Since the surgery, I feel as though I've shed my big down parka and my scarf (or turtleneck). And maybe one layer.  I'm not hot all the time anymore.  I have more energy.  I can move better and actually want to move.  And my knees don't bother me anymore.

Emotionally, I feel fine.  I didn't go through all the emotions I was told I would probably go through. Apparently, this surgery can really mess with the hormones and make people very emotional, kind of like PMSing all the time.  Lots of people say they put off making any life-changing decisions in the first year after surgery, because of how irrational it can make one feel.  Maybe I'm OK, because I kind of just said to myself, "This is my new life now.  End of story."  And I don't think about it.

Do I mourn food?  Not really. Do I mourn the experience of enjoying food?  Yes!  More on that later in the week.

my little bailey boo...

"Monday is over!"