I know, I know today I was supposed to be writing about the fifth installment of my Values/Goals list. I have decided to take a break on that post and write about something else that’s been on my mind.
Yesterday I went to see Dr. Ferdow’s my GI doctor to get the results of the Endoscopy that I had done in April. He so a small embolism at the beginning of my stomach and he took some scrapings of it to see if it was an ulcer or if it was something else. Thankfully, it was not an ulcer. I have a pool of acid that is just sitting there ready to erupt whenever I am not eating correctly. I had an eruption on Tuesday night when I ate a can of tomatoes with Chiles over my mixed rice and it was so yummy but a few hours later my stomach was not happy with me at all. I have had incidents like that before which always resulted in me throwing up and my stomach feeling better. This time I threw up and my stomach felt better, but I also know that I do not enjoy feeling that way. So I gave the other can to Myron so that I am not tempted to eat them. Eating correctly is a balancing act and I get tired of always being mindful of everything that I stick in my mouth. But if I do not take the time to plan out meals, think about why I am eating them, what nutrition I need, what kind of reaction my body takes to the food then I am in big trouble and the trouble is not fun to deal with. How many times do I torture myself with unwise choices when eating?

If you read my blog post about the goals I am setting to do with Health/Physical Well-being then you know that one of them was to use my crock pot more and to plan menus for myself so that I do not have to turn to convenient food when I am too tired to cook or prepare meals for myself. I do love to cook, I love the feel of the knife in my hand as I chop up vegetables, or the creative buzz I feel when I am in the kitchen creating a meal for myself. With Vasculitis I have roller coaster days when I feel exhausted with just getting out of bed or I am having a fall out from one of the medications that I am taking so that is where the crock pot will come in handy. I researched and saw some great ideas and I tweaked them in order to fit my tastes and personality.

Yesterday with the sun a blazing in the sky I felt good, but today I know my body needs a day of rest so my fabulous care provider and I put together a crock pot meal and made a yummy cucumber salad that I saw and go from the blog of the Healthy Jalapeno. All you need for the cucumber salad and let me tell you it tastes so yummy.

3 Cucumber’s (she said to peel them, I didn’t because I do not mind the peel and the peel has a lot of nutritious value)
½ of cup sliced red onion
2 tablespoons mint
2 tablespoons dill
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
½ cup feta cheese
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 diced tomato (I added the tomato because I love tomato and it seemed like a good contribution to the recipe)
I let it sit for a few hours to let everything marinate together and let me tell you 1 cup of this with the crock pot spaghetti for dinner was yummy.

I am looking forward to trying out the other recipes that I found for my crock pot and I will keep making the cucumber salad too. Have a sunshiny day and let me know if you make the salad what you think of it.