So today is my LAST chemo treatment! (hopefully -- FOREVER) Yippee! While I am very happy that it's finally going to be over, I feel slightly disoriented since my life has revolved around my treatment schedule for the past 5-6 months.
After this weekend (I'm usually very tired and sleep like a zombie over the weekend) I get to enjoy a lull (so exciting!) until September 1st, when my radiation treatment starts (I feel tired just thinking of the daily slog to & from the hospital for 6 weeks). Hopefully, I will be perky enough to enjoy my friend's big 50th birthday bash at City Hall Restaurant on Friday night, and also my great-niece (grand-niece?) Lillian's 1st birthday party on Sunday afternoon.
Of course, this hiatus doesn't take into account my appointment on the 19th, when I have my simulation, where they align and triangulate and tattoo me. This usually takes maybe 2 hours I understand. Oh, and the tattoos are going to be TEENY from what I hear -- the size of really small freckles.
Right now, the idea of a break is really appealing since work has been exhausting lately -- a combination of prima donna clients (who don't see why we can't work solely on their request ALL DAY LONG), and vacation schedules (since there are only half the staff left after this winter's layoffs, every absence counts, and they've been counting for the past 2 weeks!) Put it this way: you know it's bad when I actively look FORWARD to going in for a chemo treatment because it's more restful!
So yeah, mentally, I am clinging on with my fingernails to the idea of week off (which includes my long weekend visit to my friend Margaret in Seattle) at the end of the month. Since she will be 8 months pregnant, and I will be exhausted, our energy levels might match. Heh.
Of course, it is a little ironic, my complaining of exhaustion considering that I've been cooking and baking up a storm lately. (Hey, I find it soothing and restorative.)
So on Monday night, I made Moroccan chicken as planned for my friend Jackie on our weekly knitting night. I must say, that prep work on Sunday night really paid off: I was able to come home from work and immediately start flinging things into the pan (see above). And of course the couscous took no time at all, so plating it up was zippy. Yum! Enough left over for lunch for 2 days as well.
And then with the leftover chicken breast I did not use, I made a variation of chicken en papillote last night, using the much more plebian recipe name of tin foil chicken and veggies. Instead of barbeque sauce (even though I bought some as part of my gargantuan shopping trip to Whole Foods on Sunday) I used my engineer's mom's apple tomato chutney. (She gave me a jar that she made and I have had a hard time not just spooning it up straight from the jar.) Still have one packet left over (sometimes I wonder about the portion sizes in these recipes). I forgot the onions, but it was still tasty using the chutney, fresh mushrooms, red peppers, frozen peas, and super-thinly sliced russet potatoes (didn't have any fingerling taters).
Finally, I leave you with my recipe for Zucchini Blueberry Muffins, which sounds kind of odd I know, but is a variant of this lowfat zucchini bread recipe I found on Recipezaar. (Hey, I had 2 zucchinis left over from the Moroccan chicken, and since it's not a veggie I particularly like...) I made it more whole grain-like, since when I made an all-white flour muffin recently it tasted odd to me -- I guess I'm not used to that anymore.
While it's a bit startling to be able to see the little shreds of zucchini (is that normal?!) in the finished product, it's been so moist and tasty that I have had a hard time restraining myself to 2 muffins this morning. Normally, I could just brinng it in to work and offload it that way, but since I will be at the hospital and then my mom's tonight, I don't feel like hauling them around for 24 hours. Maybe I should freeze some...
Zucchini Blueberry Muffins
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpoose flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
3 cups finely grated/diced zucchini
1 1/2 cup sugar (which I still found a bit sweet for my taste)
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tbsp cinnamon (this made the apartment smell fab!)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 pint blueberries
After this weekend (I'm usually very tired and sleep like a zombie over the weekend) I get to enjoy a lull (so exciting!) until September 1st, when my radiation treatment starts (I feel tired just thinking of the daily slog to & from the hospital for 6 weeks). Hopefully, I will be perky enough to enjoy my friend's big 50th birthday bash at City Hall Restaurant on Friday night, and also my great-niece (grand-niece?) Lillian's 1st birthday party on Sunday afternoon.Of course, this hiatus doesn't take into account my appointment on the 19th, when I have my simulation, where they align and triangulate and tattoo me. This usually takes maybe 2 hours I understand. Oh, and the tattoos are going to be TEENY from what I hear -- the size of really small freckles.
Right now, the idea of a break is really appealing since work has been exhausting lately -- a combination of prima donna clients (who don't see why we can't work solely on their request ALL DAY LONG), and vacation schedules (since there are only half the staff left after this winter's layoffs, every absence counts, and they've been counting for the past 2 weeks!) Put it this way: you know it's bad when I actively look FORWARD to going in for a chemo treatment because it's more restful!
So yeah, mentally, I am clinging on with my fingernails to the idea of week off (which includes my long weekend visit to my friend Margaret in Seattle) at the end of the month. Since she will be 8 months pregnant, and I will be exhausted, our energy levels might match. Heh.Of course, it is a little ironic, my complaining of exhaustion considering that I've been cooking and baking up a storm lately. (Hey, I find it soothing and restorative.)
So on Monday night, I made Moroccan chicken as planned for my friend Jackie on our weekly knitting night. I must say, that prep work on Sunday night really paid off: I was able to come home from work and immediately start flinging things into the pan (see above). And of course the couscous took no time at all, so plating it up was zippy. Yum! Enough left over for lunch for 2 days as well.
And then with the leftover chicken breast I did not use, I made a variation of chicken en papillote last night, using the much more plebian recipe name of tin foil chicken and veggies. Instead of barbeque sauce (even though I bought some as part of my gargantuan shopping trip to Whole Foods on Sunday) I used my engineer's mom's apple tomato chutney. (She gave me a jar that she made and I have had a hard time not just spooning it up straight from the jar.) Still have one packet left over (sometimes I wonder about the portion sizes in these recipes). I forgot the onions, but it was still tasty using the chutney, fresh mushrooms, red peppers, frozen peas, and super-thinly sliced russet potatoes (didn't have any fingerling taters).
Finally, I leave you with my recipe for Zucchini Blueberry Muffins, which sounds kind of odd I know, but is a variant of this lowfat zucchini bread recipe I found on Recipezaar. (Hey, I had 2 zucchinis left over from the Moroccan chicken, and since it's not a veggie I particularly like...) I made it more whole grain-like, since when I made an all-white flour muffin recently it tasted odd to me -- I guess I'm not used to that anymore.
While it's a bit startling to be able to see the little shreds of zucchini (is that normal?!) in the finished product, it's been so moist and tasty that I have had a hard time restraining myself to 2 muffins this morning. Normally, I could just brinng it in to work and offload it that way, but since I will be at the hospital and then my mom's tonight, I don't feel like hauling them around for 24 hours. Maybe I should freeze some...
Zucchini Blueberry Muffins
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpoose flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
3 cups finely grated/diced zucchini
1 1/2 cup sugar (which I still found a bit sweet for my taste)
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tbsp cinnamon (this made the apartment smell fab!)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 pint blueberries
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Mix all the ingredients together except the blueberries (really, no need to segregate the wet and dry ingredients) which I put in last
- Scoop into 2 paper-lined muffin pans for 24 muffins (Ilove my 99 cent ice cream scooper!)
- Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean
- Resist urge to eat several at a time!
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