So yeah, Bil is back home. He’s doing much better. He’s still experiencing some pain, but that’s to be expected. He should be back on his feet in no time.

As for me, my throat issue has returned. A few days ago it flared up pretty bad. So bad that it became hard to swallow my own saliva. I hate when that happens. The lump in my throat feeling has also returned. This problem never did go away. I’ve been suffering since last May. At times I hardly notice unless I go to eat something. I have to chew very carefully and slowly so that I don’t choke. But on rare occasions it flares up so bad that eating is just impossible.

I made some appointments though. I plan to get to the bottom of this once and for all. The doctors I dealt with in Jersey didn’t seem to care enough to try and find out what was wrong. I’m hoping to have better luck here. I just might since it’s more calm and relaxed over here. There’s not as much going on all at once. The odds do look good. *crosses fingers*

I did take some photos which I plan to post later on this week. Juan took me to Whole Foods before the whole Bil incident and I was lucky enough to score some great stuff. Including a delicious vegan carrot cake from The Chicago Diner. Oh my God was that good! It was so good that Ethan stole it from me. And vegan sausage and cheese pizza! Prepare to drool!

Valentine’s Day was nice. We stayed home and hung out. Juan got me some chocolates, a kick ass Team Damon shirt, some veg magazines and a bamboo cutting board with some cutlery from the Martha Stewart line in Macy’s. My baby knows me well.

Also, my two year vegiversary was on February 15th. I didn’t get to do anything special because I completely forgot. It hit me toward the end of the night. I was like “OMG! Today makes my two years!” I’m going to make it up though. I can’t let something that big pass without a celebration of some sort. Maybe I’ll make a trip to Chicago and have lunch or something? The latest VegNews has a whole bunch of cool places to visit while there. I can’t wait to go! I’m totally going to have to treat Sarah to lunch if I do go. I owe her! I just hope she doesn’t mind delicious vegan foods. :)

Sunday morning Juan and Bil were headed out to work. Bil who has been sick since Friday appeared to be worse. Much worse. So Juan dropped him off at the emergency room (against Bil’s wishes) and headed to work. During lunch Juan came home and asked about Bil. I was pretty confused since I was under the impression that he left with Juan to work in the morning. Juan started to panic already thinking the worst. I tried to calm him down and suggested he call the hospital to see if Bil was still there. Then Juan was told that Bil had to be taken to another hospital where he would have surgery.

To make a VERY long story short, we rushed to the other hospital and stood by Bil’s side. A few doctors came in and basically told him if they didn’t operate and quickly he would die. The operation itself was very risky, but not having the operation was also risky. They quickly went over what was going to happen, what could happen and what they were hoping to accomplish. Then they took him away and worked their magic.

Hours later we were told that Bil was going to stay under and open for the night. The doctors said they would resume the following day with an entourage of specialists. We went home and didn’t sleep very well. The next day we woke up and did it all over again. This time the surgery went by more quickly. In the end we were given great news. Bil made it and is expected to fully recover.

The doctors aren’t entirely sure what happened. Not yet anyway. All they were able to tell us so far is that he has Chron’s Disease which he most likely has had for a while. They said what happened to Bil wasn’t something that just happened over night. It was something that’s been going on for years. Thankfully Bil made it to the hospital when he did. If he would have waited another day, he wouldn’t have made it.

I’m sure the road to recovery will be a long one. But at least he will be here to travel it.

Things like this seem to happen to us a lot. We could waste our time and energy trying to figure out ‘Why us?’ or we could be grateful that we somehow manage to make it in the end. I used to think that we had the worst luck in the world. But the fact is, we’re quite lucky. And blessed.

Yesterday I decided it was time to get out of the house and take a trip to St. Louis for some delicious vegan foods. BIG thanks to @bobbyautry for telling me about Sweet Art. Otherwise I never would have known about them. After spending a few minutes looking through their website I just knew I had to go. Everything looked/sounded so good. So when Juan asked me “Where to?” I quickly pulled up the website and said “There!”

When we arrived I did something I’ve never done before. I actually went inside with Juan to order my food. Usually I send him to do my dirty work because I feel terribly uncomfortable in most places and end up shying away, but not this time. To tell you the truth I felt right at home. It was very warm and inviting. It was a little hard to focus on ordering though because my eyes were everywhere. The paintings on the walls were so beautiful and vibrant. Even the menu was pretty!

Needless to say my eyes quickly spotted the vegan cupcakes in the pastry case. There were only two to choose from at that time. From what I understand the vegan goodies come and go rather quickly. I can definitely understand why. They were delicious! Fluffy and moist and all kinds of awesome. It was just what I needed.

For lunch I ordered the Flad. It’s a delicious, spicy three bean chili with sweet potatoes served with a house made salsa. You can have it as a burrito or as nachos. I went with nachos. I have had lots of chili and many a nacho in my time. But this my friends, this takes the cake. I think it’s the sweet potato that sealed the deal. Wow. The mixture of sweet and spicy really does come together nicely in this dish. I’m probably going to have to walk/jog an extra five miles, but it is SO worth it.

I only hope that my photos depict just how great the food was. The food stayed in the car for quite some time while we shopped and then had a rough ride home. I did my best to keep it all in one piece so that I could take some photos when I got home. If you want to see some better photos of the goods, I suggest browsing their website. Once I’m more settled in here and have some decent photo props, I will go back for more goods and take some much better photos. Until then, feel free to drool over those nachos. :)

Last night I got a little creative and tried a little something different with the package of Match Meat chicken I had sitting in the freezer. I grabbed my Candle Cafe Cookbook and found the seitan piccata recipe and used the Match Meat chicken in place of the seitan. Ok so maybe that’s not super creative, but it did turn out great.

All I did was take a smallish portion of the chicken, form it into a cutlet, dredge it in flour, saute it in a pan with a little oil until golden brown on both sides, then transfer the cutlet into the piccata mixture and cook a little longer so that the cutlet absorbed some of the flavors. That’s it. It sounds more complicated then it really is. The outcome is amazing though. If you don’t own the Candle Cafe Cookbook you can use another piccata recipe. I just prefer the Candle Cafe version. Oh how I miss that place. *sigh*

I’ve never eaten a crab cake. Truthfully I never cared to eat one either. That is until I saw Match Meats Crab Cakes. They looked so delicious. I couldn’t wait to try them. But for some reason every time I pick up some Match Meats I end up getting every one but the crab. While at the market on Friday I decided that it was time to buy the crab and make those crab cakes once and for all. I’m so glad I did. I loved them! They were SO good. I didn’t serve them with anything though. Since I’ve never eaten a crab cake I had no clue what would compliment it. I think a nice sauce would have worked. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

You know, I bet I could make a kick ass ‘egg’ roll with this stuff. That will be next on my list.

I’ve been pretty busy this past week. As you already know we moved over the weekend. So naturally I’ve been doing the best I can to make this place a little more homey. The photo above is only part of the living room (please excuse the quality of the photo, I took it using my iPhone). The living room is pretty big so I still have to work on filling it up a little more. Later on this week we’re going to get a plasma to replace the teeny, tiny TV that we’re currently using. We cannot play Rock Band on that thing and that’s a big problem. We’re in the middle of a tour!

Anyway, it was a little difficult picking out a living room set that we both liked. At first anyway. Juan wanted a leather living room set. Me being vegan and all I flat out refused to allow such a thing. When we both saw this one we checked out the materials and after finding out that it was a-ok we settled on it. Yes, I know it’s brown and beige. We always go for brown and beige. I know. We’re boring. What can I say? The kitchen, however, will be cream and green (but not an ugly green). So there will be some color floating around here.

Our bedroom set will be here tomorrow. I can’t wait for that. It’s been a long time since I’ve slept on an actual bed. You know, I’m probably going to hang out in my bed all day long. Ok, probably not. But it sure would be nice.

Ethan is loving the new place. He loves having all of this room to run around and play. He keeps telling us how happy he is. Which of course makes me happy in return. I really do believe this move was good for him. He gets to go outside and play a lot more, he has playmates, he has lots of room here to play, the people around here are so friendly and I could just go on and on. The fact that all of this was for him and he is actually benefiting from it all, well, it makes me feel like we’ve accomplished something BIG.

A tad off topic, but the reason I didn’t do my little healthy Saturday post last week is because I’ve been so busy with the move. I didn’t make it to the track at all, but I assure you that I did get plenty of exercise. I should be back to my regular schedule by tomorrow. If not then definitely by Monday. Thank you and good night.

There are no details really. I mean you’ve all heard my complaints time and time again. Basically we closed our eyes, held each others hands and jumped. Somehow we landed on our feet. Now we work our asses off to keep it that way. There’s lots of sacrificing involved, but isn’t that how it’s supposed to be? If it’s too easy, you’re not doing it right.

Anyway, this is exactly how I envisioned starting off the new year. There are lots of other things we still have to work out. Like paying off ALL of our debts (which if my calculations are correct should be in about four-six months), saving for a house, travel a bit and then of course my own personal goals/resolutions. We still have a ways to go, but we’re finally on the right track.

I’ll post some photos soon. I did take a few before photos and will post them with the after photos once we’re more settled in.

So, how is the new year treating you so far?

Let’s start with yesterday. I’m walking when suddenly my phone rings. I stop and say “Ah come on.” While walking I run two applications on my iPhone. The iPod and RunKeeper. Both automatically pause when someone calls. It kind of sucks especially when you’re in your zone. So I ignore the call and start up again. Then it happens again. Now I yell “Seriously, WTF?” I ignore the call AGAIN and resume both applications AGAIN. I try to get back into my zone by singing along to the current song playing which happened to be Boulevard Of Broken Dreams. “I walk alone, I walk alone, My shadow’s… oh shit!” I looked to the side and was startled by the woman running beside me. She must have heard me singing which would explain her smile/laugh as she ran past me.

I’ve been at that track every day for two weeks and not once have I seen someone besides me walking or jogging. So I feel comfortable enough to blast my iPod and sing along. I truthfully have no idea how I sound or how loud I am. Alls I know is that I gets down. It’s a damn good thing I wasn’t listening to some LP as she ran past me. I might have scared her away lol. The weird thing is that Breaking The Habit was next. Too bad I couldn’t sing along.

Anyway, she must have thought I was crazy. I’m assuming she saw me yelling at my phone and I’m almost positive she heard me singing. How embarrassing!

Then today I’m walking when I feel as if I’m being followed. I turn around and see a dog creeping up behind me. I jump and grab my chest and turn back around and continue going about my business. I kept turning around to make sure the dog wasn’t going to attack me or something. Every time I turned around the dog would quickly slow down and start looking around as if it didn’t see me. Too cute. So I say “Hey, dog. Big dog. Hey, big dog. How are you?” I keep walking. It tries to catch up rather quickly. I turn around again and it stops and lowered its head. I assume its harmless, but still refuse to approach it because you never know. I say “You’re not going to bite me are you? I’m thinking that would hurt. Please don’t bite me, ok?” I’m almost done with my final lap and realize that the dog is still following me. I say “What’s the matter? Are you lost? Did you lose your family?” Of course the dog didn’t answer lol. So I looked back again and it stopped. I said “Awww you’re just a baby still. You’re so cute.” Then the dog sees someone else and runs toward that person. I say goodbye and finish up my lap. I decided to go around once more just to make sure the dog was ok. But I didn’t see it. Maybe it found its family? Poor little thing. I hope its safe.

I wonder what tomorrow has in store for me.

I’ve been working on my resolutions for one whole week now. I wish I could say that I’m doing great, but unfortunately I’m not. I really wanted to eliminate soda from my diet more than anything. I came so close to accomplishing this goal, but after one moment of weakness I sort of threw that right out the window. Then there’s the walking/jogging for three miles for five days straight. I was only able to get in four days. It snowed a few days ago and the wind is just so strong… I just couldn’t make it outside. I failed.

There is some good news though. I didn’t gain any weight. I didn’t lose much either, but at least I didn’t gain. I lost about a half of a pound. I know I can do way better than that, but it was my own fault for drinking crappy soda instead of water. I’ll do better this week.

Food wise I’m doing great. When we moved here I knew that continuing a vegan diet would be somewhat of a challenge. And it is. So much so that Bil has fallen off the wagon and now eats whatever. I guess we really were pampered back in Jersey. There are a number of health food stores within a few short miles. We were only fifteen minutes away from the most vegan friendly city in America. Yeah, it was easier over there.

Here? Apparently it’s easier for you to come across deer meat than tofu. That’s pretty sad. And quite disgusting too. That’s not all though. It’s also hard finding vegetable stock, dried beans (apparently everything is sold in a can around here), organic produce and the produce that is available (while local) is rather limited due to the crappy season that is winter. I have to travel to the Whole Foods and Trader Joes in St. Louis at least once a week to stock up on the goods. And if I forget something, oh well. I have to do without. It’s not like it’s a quick drive right down the street anymore.

Now while I may be limited to certain things, I haven’t let that stop me from eating delicious vegan foods. After all, there’s one thing I CAN get here that I can’t get back in Jersey. That would be the delicious Match Meats. Which I am still experimenting with here and there. So expect lots of recipes in the future.

Also, I have learned to be more creative. The local(ish) Whole Foods doesn’t have my beloved spicy black bean soup, so I made my own. I did try the black bean soup from St. Louis Bread Company/Panera Bread, but wasn’t impressed. It tasted like… well… just beans. No seasoning or spices. It was pretty bland. So I got to it and made my own. It was awesome. Not as good as the Whole Foods version, but still pretty good.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that while eating healthy around here is one heck of a challenge, I haven’t let that stop me. In fact its having the opposite effect. It’s forcing me to try new things. Things I wouldn’t have tried before. In fact I’m even tempted to open up my own vegan restaurant around here. Although I’m not sure how well it would do in a place that promotes hunting. *sigh*

Anyway, next week I will do better. Hopefully I’ll even have my treadmill by then.