Cooking, Coupons, and Calcium

Today is my 100th day post op from my surgery! yay for the first 100 days of my new life. Today is sponsored by the letter "c"


C is for calcium...

I got my blood work back from my 3 month surgery check up today. My B12 came in at 320 so between my 1000 mcg daily and my monthly shots my B12 is looking good towards being at 400 and hopefully over 400 by July. My Vitamin D level is 46, but my PTH level that is associated with calcium (the lack of absorption) is 88 so I need to increase my calcium citrate with vitamin D to 2000 mg a day and be rechecked in 8 weeks. they want me to increase my Vitamin D with the prescription for another 8 weeks, but I can't take the prescription. I end up throwing up after I take it, I get mad headaches, and I don't feel good so I've asked if I can increase my chewable intake of 10,000 mcg of Vitamin D to 7 days a week instead of 5. I have to go back and get my Vitamin B1 check as they broke a tube of blood and they missed out getting that checked, so back to the vampires I go.

I think my new calcium supplement will help me level out my PTH and I will be diligent in upping it to 2000mgc which means I'll be taking 5 calcium pills a day now and upping my B 12 to 30 drops of liquid B12 each day and then more than likely upping my vitamin D to 7 days a week. It really isn't a bad deal overall as my blood work is overall fantastic and this is fine tuning and getting into a rhythm of things that work for me. I've got 3 months to figure it out fully and 8 weeks to get my levels up to a place where Dr. Clements would like them. I'm not upset or concerned, just realize that this is a part of my new life and right now I'm finding a new schedule of normal. Its part of the new life...the change continues.

C is for cooking...

My crock pot recipe this week has been awesome! I love my stuffed pepper casserole with couscous. I thought originally I made too much and would freeze some, but it was so yummy that I have one more meal left. The total meal cost me to make was 2.89 for the ground beef, 1 large can of crushed tomatoes for .80, 1 can of mushroom .40, 1/2 bag of frozen onions .75, 1/2 bag of frozen green peppers .75, and 1 can of stewed tomatoes .89, 1 cup of Israeli couscous 2.00. Total = $8.48. I've had 5 meals and that = 1.69 a meal! Phenomenal!!!!! This is definitely a keeper in the recipe box and in my tummy. Very easy on the tummy for the gastric bypass folks. It has enough liquid to help keep you "wet" while eating and not needing to sip and plenty of protein too. Between the ground beef and the couscous I was getting around 15 grams of protein per serving.

I took the left over couscous that I had and cooked it normally. I mixed it with some sugar free apple pie filling with splenda and cinnamon. I heated it in the microwave and added a little milk over it. It was warm and yummy like a tapioca pudding but more runny. Total protein around 12 grams for 1/2 cup and it was a nice snack overall.

Sugar free brownies were made this week. I have to say it was nice to have a brownie, but I have a hard time controlling my urge to want to eat eat and eat them! The brownies have sugar alcohol in them and it did not agree with me that well. It was good going down, but my tummy didn't like them overall. Hubs really enjoyed them so it will be a nice treat. The sugar free cake mix doesn't have the sugar alcohol and it acts better with the tummy. I like them and so does hubs! I've found though with baking that I can make almost anything sugar free and more gastric bypass friendly, I just have to learn to make it.

This weeks menu will include chicken pot pie minus the crust, chewy oatmeal bars for breakfast, and orange lime shrimp stir fry with udon noodles.

C is for coupons....

I'm working on saving money and making a pantry that I can shop out of and cook from. Since I didn't cook from scratch much prior to surgery there are things that I just need in my cabinets so I've started building some of the key ingredients. I've also started clipping coupons to bring down our much lower food bill. Hubs found me a coupon clipping services today and I scored some great coupons on sugar free cake mix, icing, and brownies. With birthdays coming up and bbq's it will be good to have stuff I can make to take with me to things.