Meatloaf Recipe: MMM....Bacon

After I was diagnosed I felt like my world came crumbling down. I cook. I cook for love, for comfort, for stress, for my family and for nourishment. Telling someone, who spends more time in the kitchen than any other place in the house, that they cannot eat the food they have been preparing for 15 years felt like a big ol' kick in the gut!

It took about 6 months for my food anxiety to settle down. I instantly felt like everything was being taken from me. I could no longer run (adrenal fatigue) and I was too scared to cook or eat foods that other people prepared for me. Every place I went I felt like someone was going to poison me. Mostly because I had spent the better part of 10 years saying that gluten intolerance, sensitivity, allergy, and celiacs were all made up as a hoax to help people chose a new trend. Clearly, I believed that the karmic world would come back to me for belittling an entire culture of people trying to heal their digestive tract and hence the rest of their lives. 

After the initial 6 months of being terrified of food and basically living on smoothies and gluten free garbage from the grocery store. I slowly began to get my confidence back in the kitchen again. I started by trying all new recipes (short story, I'll save you the reading, I failed...miserably). It was a waste of my time and a waste of money. Then I realized that about 70% of the meals I had so much practice making were safe for me minus one or two substitutions. Then and only then did Sharissa get her groove back (see what I did there). With taking my already honed skills in the kitchen and making only minor tweaks, I was back. Finally I could feed my family again. So from now on I plan to share with all of you every Thursday either one of my own recipes that should look similar to your regular weekly meals or I'll share a fellow bloggers foolproof recipes that I have tried and successfully enjoyed.

Tonight for your viewing pleasure (too bad there is no such thing as smell-a-screen) my "throw all the crap in your fridge into a bowl, mix it together and call it Meatloaf" 

Recipe: Meatloaf

Ingredients:

1. 1 Medium Onion

2. 1 large carrot or two small carrots

3. 2 cloves of garlic

4. 1 cup of mushrooms

5. 2 lbs of ground meat of your choice (I do 1 lbs turkey and 1 lbs ground beef)

6. 1 egg

7. 2 tbsp almond meal

8. 3 slices of bacon (optional)

9. Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Dice ingredients 1-4 and saute until fully cooked and soft

2. Mix 1-7 and S&P  together in a bowl

3. Form into a log on a sheet pan

4. Cover the meatloaf with the 3 strips of bacon

5. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes or until fully cooked (time may vary depending on how thick the meatloaf is)

6. Serve with some yummy root veggies and prepare to be comforted.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe and it becomes a super quick and simple weeknight meal for you!

Surgery, Ice-packs and stitches: The ins and outs of endometriosis recovery

The weeks leading up to my endometriosis surgery, I searched the internet looking for personal accounts of what the surgery entailed, how I would feel before, during and after. I found only the webMD version of what I was facing. From that account I figured I would be up and going about my "normal" life after a few days of laying in bed being pampered. During my pre-operative appointment with my surgeon I asked him the questions I was dying to know the answer to: how bad is recovery? Is this worth it? Will I feel better after? How long will it take to feel better? At this point, my surgery was scheduled on a Monday morning and I had taken that day off of work and planned to be back to work by Wednesday. He very politely informed me that I would not be able to walk let alone drive or sit in a car comfortably for at least a week. He was far less reassuring than the watered down WebMD version. But, what did he know. He was a male, he had never had an emergency C-section after 36 hours of labor. I knew I could handle this and anything it threw at me.

Boy was I wrong...

The point of the post today is to put an accurate depiction, on the internet, for women everywhere to know exactly what to expect from this procedure and the recovery.

My surgery took place on Monday morning at 7:30am. I was nothing short of terrified of what they'd find inside my body that had been causing so much pain for such a long time. Being wheeled into the OR I remember physically shaking and the staff trying the mood light. Seemingly minutes later, I awoke in recovery feeling very beaten up. Like someone had just run me over with a car. I could walk and understand clearly what the staff was explaining to me. I arrived home and was in bed by 12:30pm. Not too shabby medical staff, not too shabby.

Some things they didn't explain to me: I had long burns under my armpits from being strapped to a bed tilted head first towards the ground. The gas that they pumped inside my so they could clearly see my organs (which left me looking like I was about 4 months pregnant) doesn't have a way to get out of the body so it settled in places like my diaphragm and collarbone. The pain from my surgery didn't hit until about Wednesday morning because the gas and burns caused so much pain that it far outweighed the rest. The rest of the recovery was to be expected, all my organs were swollen from the places that the camera bruised or the laser burned excess tissue. The incision sites hurt for another week and the overall feeling of sensitivity has still not gone away.

Life has returned to somewhat normalcy, I have returned (begrudgingly) back to work and for the most part I can wear regular cloths (so long as they do not rub on any incisions).

My advice for anyone embarking on this journey. I know that very soon I will feel 100% better and recover better off than I was before the surgery. I know the pain relief is coming and I am going to have more good days than bad. I do not regret this procedure one bit. I simply wish I had been more informed and had taken at least 10 days off to recover fully. The scar tissue, endometriosis and cysts that were found and removed gave me and my spirit such validation that it made the whole experience worth it. I could not have done this procedure without the love and support of my family and friends. I am beyond grateful that I had the opportunity to have this procedure and that I had so much love and support behind me.