Hello world!!!  Last week ended with a bang!  I just love celebrating my mom!  What you didn’t know was that I was in agony that day.  I had a cyst that just wouldn’t quit and left me feeling like this…

All night long I thought, should I go to the hospital!?!  But my practical side said, wait until the morning and go to your doctor!!!  Which is exactly what I did.  I love my doctor, she is one of my longest time clients and I feel like she is a rare person in the medical field because she actually looks at me and she finds a way to make the experience personal.  Long story short, I had a cone shaped infected cyst and had to go in for a procedure.  I was out of work and out of it in general until Thursday.  When things like  this happen, these are always the moments where you question your lifestyle change.  Not because you don’t believe in it, just because it’s a lot of effort and you don’t feel your best.  Ordering food is so easy and cooking (shopping, chopping, etc) really takes effort.  But I feel so different now and honestly, I’ve never been so grateful for leftovers!

People always try to help me and I used to always push them off…I didn’t want to be a bother.  But now I am so grateful for help when I need it.

My parents came through in the biggest way!!!  They cooked me food so I could be ready to go back to work.

My mom helped me clean and kept me company.  Both my parents happily drove me to appointments when I couldn’t drive. (Thank you will never be enough, but thank you so much!  I love y’all so much and am so grateful for everything that y’all do for me to help me stay focused and moving forward #mycuprunethover!!!) Jenny brought me a coffee, lunch and company.  My sweet sister checked in on me frequently and so did my friends.  Ben brought me flowers and  all the cuddles!!!

I reached out to all my people for things that I could do to heal quicker and everyone obliged!

So what does this mean!?  It means that  by midweek, instead of looking at the nothingness in my fridge like this…

and then housing pizza straight to my face like I used to when these situations would arise and ultimately feeling worse because then you start dreaming of awful food…

I actually ate healthy things that will heal my body and followed my new lifestyle change as an actual lifestyle.  And thanks to some pre-planning and having waffles in the freezer, breakfast was a breeze.

I followed the advice of those that I trust and I took the help that was offered to me so lovingly. I rested. I let my body heal so that I could go back to work in one piece instead of sad, broken little pieces.  I listened to my body and I listened to my doctor.  And now, a week later, I am feeling so much better and not depleted.  Thank you to everyone who reached out!

On another note, some really exciting  things happened this week!!!!  First, I got this email…

And a couple of days later, I received my first produce delivery box from Split Acre Farm!!!!!

My sister Kelly and I decided to split a box.  In the past when I have gotten a produce box, it was too much for me to eat in one week before it all went bad.  And I love sharing, especially with Kelly!!!  I opened up the box to find…

Lettuce, green onions, bok choy, spinach and swiss chard…something I’ve never eaten before!!!  I had very little energy until yesterday, but I made a Pinterest board called Split Acre Farm (@meatballsgetfit) to get myself excited about all these ingredients!

The first thing I felt able to tackle was that beautiful red leaf lettuce!!!  I chopped it up with heirloom carrots, tossed with Primal Kitchen Caesar Dressing and I used my new Air Fryer to make radish croutons!

I ate this with fried eggs, sausage and a giant pickle!!! What a freaking difference fresh ingredients make!!!  This salad was delicious!!!  Y’all, those radishes were everything!  I have also made some ribbon fries and roasted nuts in the air fryer!

Then I used some of my own home grown basil (squeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!) to make slow roasted cherry tomatoes preserved in olive oil!

I tweaked a recipe by Heartbeet Kitchen:

2 pints heirloom cherry tomatoes

3/4 cup high quality olive oil

6 basil leaves, torn

8 cloves of garlic, smashed with knife

1/2 tsp kosher salt

fresh ground black pepper

Heat oven to 225 lay tomatoes on rimmed baking sheet, add olive oil, basil, garlic and s&p, toss to combine, making sure that everything is coated so that it won’t burn.  Cook 2 hours 20 minutes, stirring about 3 times throughout.

This is flipping delicious!  My mind is exploding thinking of all of the possibilities!  Today, I ate it with brunch!

And I haven’t stopped cooking!  I don’t want to wasted any of this beautiful food.  So on my farm to table menu:

Sweet potato noodles with spinach

https://pin.it/2hdabyqmlsyrr4

 

I deviated from this recipe and added coconut aminos and fish sauce!  But look at that beautiful, farm fresh spinach and green onions!  So good!

Swiss Chard with raisins, pine nuts and Porkitos from Nom Nom Paleo

https://pin.it/ntrza4lxbh2gad

Now this was my first rodeo with swiss chard and I’ve got to say…big fan!!!  This was so savory which you know is my favorite!!!  Here is the recipe for the Porkitos!!!

https://pin.it/twkdjphbv6zmi3

So crispy and salty…my dream!

Then I made the yummiest bok choy EVER!!!

I winged this:

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 lb bok choy

4 cloves of garlic

3 handfuls of spinach

4 chicken sausages

2 tbsp Thai Almond Sauce

3 green onions chopped

1/2 tbsp sesame seeds

1/2 tsp kosher salt

pepper

Heat up the sesame oil over medium heat in a non stick pan, add garlic then bok choy, add salt now…when they start to wilt, add spinach.  Then add your almond sauce and stir everything around.  Chop up chicken sausage and toss in the mix.  Reduce heat and cook with lid on until everything combines. Probably 7 minutes total (if your sausage is precooked, if not cook longer) Add green onions and sesame seeds and go to town!

I have officially used everything in my box and I have healthy delicious food for the next couple of days.  I cannot WAIT for my next box and my flower delivery to start in May!  Thank you Split Acre Farm  Joe and Lisbeth, thank y’all for contributing to my healthy lifestyle!!!  And thank you to everyone for all the positive vibes and actual help this week when I was down for the count.

What a beautiful day it is today.  I had the pleasure of writing outside today.

I am grateful for so many things.  Thank you for reading and sharing this journey with me.  Can’t wait to see you next week. Xoxo