Tuesday, November 17, 2009

A Stuffed Acorn Squash Makes My Day

Hello and Happy Tuesday! (complete lie, is it Friday yet?) Today I woke up with a huge amount of motivation and went back to old Kelly that used to work out before work. I started walking on the treadmill and since my knee has been feeling good decided to run for 2 minutes. Later in the walk I ran for 2 more minutes. Just to make it clear, that's four total minutes of running. At five miles an hour (read: very slow). Then, I stretched...a lot. THEN, I iced.

Result? Pain all day. My thoughts? Total frustration and anger. Since I have been "injured" I have watched people recover from surgery, broken bones and sprains and run again...while all the while I STILL cannot run. It doesn't make sense and it's really annoying. I've been to my primary care doctor, a physical therapist, an orthopedist and a running coach. Most were helpful, except for the orthopedist who just told me that we don't worry about these things until there has been pain for a year. Correction: He may not worry about things like this until there has been pain for a year. I continue to worry.

So today I made an appointment with a different orthopedist for a second opinion. I already think me and this guy are going to get along much better. 1. He actually had an appointment after 4 on a Thursday which means I don't have to miss tutoring and lose money yay. 2. He listed one of his hobbies online as "long distance running." I'm guessing he is not going to tell me that not running for a year is fine and dandy. My appointment is not until December 10th so I'll let you know after that. You guys have been really supportive about this knee dilemma and I do really appreciate it. Most of the time I go along just fine with everything but occasionally the frustration really comes out.

But, on a positive note (you did know I was going to turn this around right?)...my dinner was SO delicious I just had to post it. It seems like everywhere I look everyone in the blog world has been stuffing acorn squash lately and I have been dying to try it. I finally decided to stop by the farm near my house this afternoon and get myself a nice big acorn squash to try.

I was a little concerned about cutting the squash in half by myself (Eric wasn't home this time to do it for me) but after one unsuccessful attempt, I put the squash in the microwave for two minutes and it was soft enough to cut right through. Then I let it cook in the oven while I made the inside.

I decided to fill my squash with Harvest Grain Blend from Trader Joe's (Israeli Cous Cous, Red Quinoa, Baby Garbanzo beans, and Orzo), fresh tomatoes also from the farm and a few pieces of leftover pad thai chicken from my sunday night dinner. I have to admit that while I fully enjoyed my first experience with pad thai on Sunday, my stomach was less than pleased with all of the oil. I decided with all the other wonderful things I would be eating tonight, my stomach would be okay with a small amount of chicken. This is one of the great things I have learned from having IBS (yes, there are small perks). It's okay to have something with a little fat, but try to mix it with a lot of other healthy parts to your meal. The result was fun to look at...

And more than delicious to eat. So delicious I interrupted my phone conversation with Katie to announce how amazing my dinner was. I don't do that for the average meal. I finished off my meal with a small piece of this...
I know, a healthy blogger like me should be finishing my meal with a piece of dark chocolate. But frankly, I don't like dark chocolate and I don't eat chocolate to be healthy. I can get antioxidants elsewhere. This is my favorite kind of Lindt chocolate because it is milk chocolate with white chocolate on the inside. Yum.

How is everyone's week going? Mine is dragging. I was so bored during tutoring today that I told my 3rd grader the best way to remember how to spell crocodile is to remember that song "crocodilly oh my croc croc croc" because when we say crocodile, we say it as "crocadile" and in that song we say crocodilly, which if you ignore the silent e rule entirely could be spelling crocodile. Um, what? Haha. Poor girl is going to be singing "crocodilly oh my croc croc croc" during her spelling test on Friday. Oops :) Though she'll probably spell the word right. Just get me to Friday.

19 comments:

  1. I made sure to check to see how your acorn squash came out. Looks beautiful! I will definitely be making my combination again!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mmmmm...yummy looking squash. I have one of those just waiting to be stuffed on my counter right now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That squash is so cute! I had a great sports medicine doctor at MGH when I had my stress fracture, if you need a recommendation I can try to remember who he was!

    ReplyDelete
  4. So sorry about your knee, girl :( I really hope someone can find a solution for you soon!

    I am having acorn squash tonight, too! So I really appreciate the tip to nuke it before cutting it!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love your thoughts about chocolate. IN reality, I probably enjoy milk chocolate more than dark, however, there is something about the taste of dark chocolate that I am really addicted to. You are right though, people need to get their antioxidants form other foods!

    I have this idea that you are on a low fat diet, from what you said. Is that true? How does fat effect your IBS? I'm curious because I have not read much about fat and IBS.

    Also, regarding your injury, it may be something you just have to forget about and move on. I used to love running, but now I get shin splints and plantar warts when I run (sorry, gross). I know my body just isn't meant to do it, and it's not worth growing old and gray and not being able to walk because I've beaten myself up over it. The elliptical and fast walking are my new obsessions.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I hear ya.. get me to Friday.. waay tooo many whiners this week, which is turning ME into a whiner.

    ReplyDelete
  7. You are born to run, don't take no for an answer!

    (How'd you like that motivational speech? sorry I'm in a weird mood.)
    I seriously think biking is the devil. I biked on a stationary bike all winter and spring with no knee pain and then I go on a few bike rides outside with you and Chris and instant knee pain. Now when I go BACK on the stationary bike, I have knee pain, and sometimes going down stairs and SOMETIMES even running, AH!
    I blame the bike. Especially uphill.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I am sorry to hear about your knee. That is so frustrating. what kind of pain is it? Where is it? is it ALL the time or just doing certain things throughout the day?

    You know, I had a good few weeks of good 2-3 mile runs and then BAM, a couple runs ago things weren't as nice as they had been. I am going to attempt again tomorrow and see what happens, but might have to take more time off again.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I am so sorry to hear about your knee. That is just so incredibly frustrating. I hope this new doctor can really help you out. Just ridiculous how unhelpful the other one was!!

    And your dinner looks yummy!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks for the clarification! If you were on a really low fat diet, you would have to make sure you ate fat with your vitamin D supplement (and really, you shoudl anyway, was it's fat soluble) but it sounds like you are getting about fat in your diet. As long as you get close to 20% or more, that's good!

    ReplyDelete
  11. That squash looks awesome.
    My physio guy is an Ironman...the last thing he would ever want to say is: "Don't run" so he is very thorough and gets that not running is a depression option.
    Hope things work out soon...

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'm glad you're seeing another ortho... it just does not seem 'normal' and I do not agree with waiting for an entire year of pain. WHY?

    Hope you have some success with this guy. Good luck!

    Thanks for the recipe - I love squash but can rarely think of ways to cook/eat it.

    ReplyDelete
  13. aww!!! i hope you get answers for your knee and stat! mine has been bothering me lately too- im sure its just because im WAYYYYYYYY older! lol
    (what am i 45?! lol cuz i feel it!)
    good for you for seeking out a second opinion though- i agree w/ marlene, WHY do you have to wait to be in agony for a year???

    ReplyDelete
  14. That is SO so frustrating. And not good. There's definitely something wrong if your knee hurts from 4 minutes of jogging! I REALLY hope this guy will do the trick :) And you're right - someone who actually knows what it's like to run should understand you better and the frustration!

    ps: that dinner looks super yummy! I loves squashes :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. I hope that having a DR. who is an athlete will make a difference...bummer you have to wait so long. Love the photo of the food YUMMERS.

    This week is DRAGGING for me too.. UGH!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sorry about your knee. hopefully getting a 2nd opinion will be helpful!

    But at least you had a great dinner! Haha. the Harvest Grain blend from TJ's sound delish!

    ReplyDelete
  17. I'm not a big squash fan, but that looks good! BTW, thanks for checking out my new digs and I didn't let the whole follow factor stop me from moving. I feel like if someone really wants to follow you, they will follow wherever you go. If someone stopped following me b/c I moved to WP, then they really weren't following to begin with, ya know what I mean? So I guess I'm trying to say if I wouldn't worry about that if you wanted to move. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  18. I hope you have better luck with this doctor!

    Your acorn squash looks very similar to mine the other night - great minds think alike!

    ReplyDelete
  19. You have quite the combination of ingredients stuffed into that squash! Awesome!

    I am now singing the Crocodilly song and making up the words I don't know! : )

    ReplyDelete