Opinions for Nothing

Two Months After Gastric Bypass

I haven't taken pictures yet this month, but I did weigh and measure. The loss of inches this month isn't nearly as dramatic as last month, but I have lost more weight, so that's nice. (Surgery was 11/29/10.)

Since last month, I have lost:

• 9 pounds (31 total)
• .75 inches off my chest (2.5 total)
• 0 inches off my hips (5 total)
• .75 inches off my waist (2.75 total)
• .25 inches off my neck (1.75 total)
• (arm and leg measurements were a little screwy)

I found a great support group to go to once a month. They do a clothing exchange before the meeting, which is cool. I have a lot of 3X stuff to bring next month. I am continuing to do well with protein and I am doing better with the fluids. I am still not doing well with my supplements. I don't know how to make myself get into the habit on this one. I have always been terrible about. I also need to motivate myself to exercise. That's another thing I have always been terrible about.

Things I had been doing well with but I have not been doing so well lately are: eating things of little nutritional value, and consuming caffeinated, carbonated beverages. I am already back on track with the food. That part was actually pretty easy. (New tiny tummy helps immensely.) Oh, but I love diet soda. I can't drink it the way I used to, so there is no danger of returning to my former levels of mass consumption, but I can't seem to cut it out entirely.

My Super Easy Tamale Casserole Recipe

This is so easy and delicious that I can't believe I thought of it on my own.

1 lb. ground beef, browned and drained*

1 can of corn, drained**

1 can Ro-Tel Original Chile Tomatoes, with juice

Shredded cheddar cheese***

1 tiny can of mild green chiles, drained****

1 package corn bread mix*****

Mix the ground beef, corn, cheese, and Ro-Tel in a 9x9 square casserole dish, or a slightly bigger oval dish. Prepare the corn bread mix according to directions. Add the green chiles and cheese to the batter, mix. Pour the batter on top of the other ingredients, completely covering them. If I use a 9x9 pan, I usually have some batter left over. If I use a larger pan, I use all of the batter. Add a little more cheese on top. Bake according to the corn bread directions. Make sure the corn bread is very golden brown on top, or it will be too gooey on the bottom.

*I've used fake ground beef soy crumbles and it was still good. It's probably good with ground turkey, too.

**I've used frozen corn as well. Still good.

***Use as much or as little cheese as you want. Or none.

****The green chiles are totally optional. I only recently started doing this. Delicious.

*****I use Marie Callendar's corn bread mix. It tastes the best and only requires water.

My Perfectly Easy Stovetop Tuna Noodle Casserole Recipe

When I was living in Alaska after college, two things motivated me to make tuna noodle casserole: homesickness and hunger. I had no idea how to make tuna noodle casserole and I didn't have internet access. Plus, it was 1997, so it wasn't like there a million recipe web sites around. I knew the major components were tuna, egg noodles, and peas, so I started with those ingredients. I ended up making a stovetop version that requires no oven cooking and no culinary skills.

Stovetop Tuna Noodle Casserole

1 can of peas

1 small can of tuna

Half a bag of No Yolks wide egg noodles**

I can of Campbell's Condensed Healthy Request Cream of Mushroom soup***

1 tablespoon of mayonnaise****

Paula Deen's House Seasoning to taste*****

I use two pans to make this recipe because it is faster that way. I boil the noodles in one pan and combine all of the other ingredients in the other pan. Heat those ingredients while the noodles are boiling. When the noodles are done, drain them, then add them to the other ingredients. Stir and serve.

You can make this in one pan, too, if you want to save dishes, or if you are a new college grad and only have one good pan. Boil the noodles first and drain them. While the noodles are in a collander in the sink, heat all of the other ingredients in the pan, then add the noodles back in.

Easy, right?

**Half of the normal size bag, not the jumbo size bag. This recipe works best with No Yolks noodles, which are thin and light. I find regular egg noodles to be too thick.

***Full fat cream of mushroom soup is too thick and creamy and doesn't have as much flavor as the Healthy Request version.

****The mayo is optional, but it is only one tablespoon and it really makes a difference, so leave it in.

*****Before I started using the Paula Deen's House Seasoning, which has salt, pepper, garlic, and onion, I just used salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

Call for Opinions: Meal Planning Resources

I need help with meal planning. I don't do it. At all. I barely even cook these days, but I think that if I had help with the meal planning, I would cook. And by "help," I mean someone to do it for me.

I started my search on Amazon.com thinking that surely someone had written a meal planning cookbook that lays out a week's worth of meals with a shopping list. I was shocked to find almost nothing online.

I just want someone to tell me what to buy and what to cook (that's easy), and I will do it. I don't want to plan every meal and come up with the shopping list and then find out I didn't plan very well and I have a ton of groceries I don't need and can't use before they spoil, or a ton of leftovers that I don't have room to freeze or that we don't eat some night that same week. I know that some of you are diligent meal planners, so please help me out with some resources. If there isn't a cookbook, surely there is a good online resource somewhere.

What do you use to help with your meal planning?

How to Quit Caffeine

I am running this post again because I am quitting diet sodas (and caffeine) as part of my Lenten reset.

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I think this advice originally came from Joanne who heard it from a coworker. I love diet soda, so I have used this method several times. I quit caffeine but then my love for diet soda calls me back and I am not diligent about buying decaffeinated soda, so my caffeine addiction returns as well.

Anyway, this method is easy. It only has two steps.

1. Reduce your caffeine intake to one caffeinated drink per day, in the morning, for a week.

2. No more caffeine at all once the week is up.

Even if I had let myself get up to many caffeinated drinks throughout the day, one caffeinated drink in the morning is enough to stave off a headache for the whole day. After a week of that, my caffeine dependence is so low that I can quit altogether without getting a caffeine headache.

SOYJOY is No Joy

I tried a SOYJOY bar for the first time today. Let me save you some money; SOYJOY bars are gross. I tried the Peanut Chocolate Chip and the Apple Walnut. They tasted surprisingly similar, but one was peanut scented and the other was apple scented. They looked like those kindling sticks you buy in bundles for your fireplace and tasted just as dry. Don't waste your money or your caloric allotment on a SOYJOY bar.

These bars were provided to me free of charge at the SOYJOY booth at the Head to Toe Women's Expo.

Why is Pinkberry so popular?

I had Pinkberry frozen yogurt for the first time at work. A coworker didn't want one that someone had brought for him so he gave it to me. I thought it was just OK but I chalked it up to the fact that I hadn't chosen the flavor or the toppings. Today, I had Pinkberry again. It is weirdly tart and thin. Why does it have to be so weird? Why can't it just be normal?

Should you become a wine snob?

Amy asks:

When I drink I'm totally going for the buzz factor. When I'm out I even try to calculate bang for buck sometimes. My question is, should I make an attempt to learn more about alcohol because I'm not a 19 year old frat boy and should start acting like an adult someday? Should I learn what wine goes with which meat or just stick with the fact that a glass of wine may sometimes be the key to my sanity?

I may not be the best person to ask about this because I do not like wine, but you know I have an opinion about it anyway. I don't think you should bother to learn which wine goes best with what. What you should do instead is always ask your server or the sommelier for a suggestion and then just order the cheapest option they suggest.

That said, if you are going for the buzz factor, you need to lay off the wine and switch to the hard stuff. I recently learned that I like a gina and tonic with lime. Ordering that is much classier than ordering my usual Malibu rum and diet Coke.

I love Twitter; it just got me cake.

@talleyklotz posted:

Omg!! We just met Chrystal of @KissMyBundt in West LA. She is amazing & so r her bundts! Thank u for talking to us for so long!

I'd heard of this place, but I hadn't been since it is a bit far from the office for a lunchtime jaunt. I clicked on their link and read some of their tweets. When I got to the one about pineapple upside down cake being on the menu today, I texted Amy (@talleyklotz) as fast as I possibly could to ask her if she would get one for me if she was still there. I think she had already left but had purchased a mini bundt in that flavor that she would save just for me. End result is the same: Twitter got me cake.

PETA Wants Ben & Jerry's to Use Human Breast Milk in Ice Cream

PETA (People for the Ethical Treament of Animals) needs to knock off the bullshit. I don't care about 99% of the shenanigans they pull for the sake of gaining exposure, but now they have gone too far. PETA has asked Ben & Jerry's to use human breast milk instead of cow's milk in their ice cream. PETA says the health of humans and cows will benefit.

The biggest problem that I see with this asinine suggestion is that there isn't exactly a surplus of human breast milk in the United States. If there were a surplus, it would obviously be better used by all the preemies in the NICUs across the country. If there were still a surplus after that, it would be better used by every other baby in the country who is not being breastfed for whatever reason.

It's not like I was ever onboard with PETA's bullshit before, but now I actively despise them.