my mom used to make it with velvetta...very creamy if I recall correctly you could add parmesan to it to give it some sharpness.
Just a thought.
bizi

yeah seems like velveeta should work pretty well! :) .... cep i've never seen that here either. :o (velveeta's great on broccoli too.)

there is one place i might be able to get cheddar and/or velveeta though. there is supposedly an "american foodstore" someplace. first i have to find what it is called and where it is. i'm guessing they sell things every-day american stuff at not-everyday european prices. my mom who has been to every normal supermarket under the sun, confirmed just now she has never seen cheddar or velveeta here.

Mari thanks for the virtual package offer Vermont Cheddar, YESS!!! - my fav type of cheddar is Cracker Barrel Vermont Sharp White! ;) and no... i wouldn't attempt mac & cheese either, without cheddar or a facsimile like velveeta or american cheese.

~ waves ~

yesterday - lunch, afternoon, dinner

• pasta with cauliflower, carrots, cherry tomatoes
• 2 beers
• octopus-potato salad
• a little loose-leaf lettuce, plain
• 4 oblong cherry tomatoes, plain
• 3 cups coffee (of which 1 caf) w/ milk & sugar

today - at dinner and later, because of stomach upset

• 1 pc sesame wasa cracker
• 1 cup broth
• 1/3 avocado, plain
• 1 slice wheat bread, plain
• 1 plain sliced turkey sandwhich on wheat toast, plain
• 2 cups coffee (of which 1 caf) w/ milk & sugar

Waves

If you can locate Velvetta or something like it. You can make
Mac and Cheese, It would be fantastic.

It used to be the only kind I made.

Donna

well the other night i made a fantassssssstic octopus salad. came out really tender almost the texture of lobster.

last night i made zucchini and peppers with fresh tomatoes again, topped with 2 eggs each made a meal. very tasty, lots of fiber, vits, protein and very low fat.

Donna we cannot get velveeta here, nor anything like it....

all the cheese-food type products taste funny - not similar to american cheese or cheddar. :o i might attempt to do the mac and cheese using a blend of other cheeses after all, if i can dream up a combo that i think might be good? :o maybe sharp provolone plus parmesan or something? i dunno. i have to think about it. this place has tons of cheeses but only certain kinds, i really don't understand why i can't find things like muenster and havarti... sigh.... i thought those were european cheese... sigh.

~ waves ~

oh that would make a very good mac and cheese.
I felt really hungry today so had a big lunch, turkey meatloaf and mashed potatoes and brocolli and kale. I (on occasion) veer away from subway and go to this health food store to eat like today.
They use all organic foods and free range poultry and grass fed beef so everything is healthy and fresh.
dinner last night was blackened talapia( which was very very spicy) and yellow, summer squash, and a strongbow cider that I like after dinner.
bizi

cheddar subs
 

Hi,

I don't know much about cheese -- can't keep track of the names.
I did some searching.

These are mostly British or Danish or Dutch with a few others.
How about
-Capretta
-Red Leicester
-Cantal de Salers
-Cantalet
-Caerphilly
-Gjetost / Brunost
-Gloucester
-Lancashire
-Mimolette
-Matusc Misto Capra Il Forteto
(texture like cheddar maybe, but taste not so much)
-Ubriacon
(does not taste like cheddar but might taste like American Cheese)


http://www.food.com/library/cheddar-cheese-564

http://www.foodsubs.com/Chesfirm.html

http://www.coldbacon.com/cheese.html


Monty Python's Cheese Shop Sketch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3KBu...ext=1&index=18


M.

I really enjoyed the monty python sketch! lol
bizi

oh dear Mari.... (tears streaming down cheeks)

thank you ever so for that...
*lovvvve* the cheese shop sketch

hadn't seen a good old python sketch in ages! :D

the spam sketch came right after the cheese shop sketch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2...=20&playnext=2

back to youtube now off to find the Parrot Sketch...

"Piiining for the fjooooords???????" :eek:

"He's pushing up the daisies!!!" :cool:

"This, is an EX-Parrot!" :D

and maybe the traffic light sketch... and the lumberjack one... ahh, now you've got me started....

p.s. afraid i haven't heard of most of the cheeses... don't worry yourself, i'll play it by ear... try something when i'm inspired and brave enough to risk a mess, parental beratement and culinary disaster

and now for something completely different:

-- The Larch. ;)

~ waves ~

parrot sketch
 

oh Bizi if you've never seen this you MUST...
Monty Python - The Parrot Sketch

~ waves ~

lol
Great


"lovely plumage"

"I wish to make a complaint."

Some of the Monty Python stuff is the funniest stuff ever recorded. :)

I am taking my smaller sized scrubs to the cleaners tomorow.
Going back to them...that was one of the reasons I started dieting because I bought 14 pairs of the next size larger scrubs!!!!
:)

Dear Bizi,
I'm so happy for you!
What are you going to do with the larger scrubs?
Give them away?

M.

actually I put them in a bag and stuck them in the back of my closet jsut in case that ever happens again....I am a yo yo type person and have gain 50 pounds and lost 50 many times in my life, so I have the fat cells in me and will always have to be careful with my eating.
thank you
bizi:o

well I have put on some water weight due to all of the chicken broth that I have been drinking....have not been eating much so that must be the reason why.
I am home from work again today, getting ready to eat a healthy chice tv dinner...
I hate being sick.:(
no fever so am not contagous, will force myself to go back to work tomorrow whether I feel good or not...have to work.
bizi

Dear Bizi,
I'm sorry you have been sick.
Don't worry about weight gain. You will get that sorted once you feel better again.
Keep resting.

Mari

That's right Bizi... just get better. you're number one, every last chicken soupy ounce of you! ;) :hug: whatever's there needs to feel better, first and foremost!

looks like i've put on at least 3 lbs again. but this time... i suspect it's for real, and i have an idea why too... i dunno if i can reverse it either... i broke down tonight on the food front, and am comfort eating. :o cuticles are much less fattening... :rolleyes: but that really needs to stop. sigh. :(

~ waves ~

waves
(((((((HUGS)))))))
biiz

Dear Bizi,
I hope you start feeling better soon.
M.

Dear Waves,
I'm sorry that you are having a difficult time.
M.

I had two Arby's junior roast beef sandwich's for dinner.
And cottage cheese.

I am really trying to make myself find good foods again.

I also had a cheat earlier today. Derrick and I were at the mall,
and had some cinnabon food.

But that is okay, as he said, its been a while. I haven't had
any since last time he and I had it.

Donna:grouphug:

blacken talapia with brocolli and califlower and chocolate kisses:rolleyes:

edited to add that i drank 3 blueberry beers and ate lots of candy peanut brittle and plain peanuts while we watched 3 episodes of lost season 6....oh it is so good. The beer and the candy and the lost!
lol
bizi

well. i have officially gained back a couple pounds. :( sigh.

yesterday i made vegetable soup for dinner.... more a sort of minestrone actually (different vegs cut finely, handful of beans, handful of rice.) dad loes this soup.

i also made two buckwheat salads. i wanted to make a tabouley-salad facsimile. i used buckwheat thought because we have some that needs used. i mixed most of it with parsley tomatoes red onions and lemon juice. supposed to have other ingredients but oh well.... i was working from memory of what i'd eaten from Gooding's. :rolleyes: i left about a cup behind and just dressed it with a little pesto sauce (from jar).

mom and i ate those today. mom liked both, but preferred the tabouley-salad-facsimile one she said the grain was a bit bland, but i think part of the reason is i overcooked it (had a few mishaps there :o) and then it absorbed a lot more moisture from the vegs. she said the pesto one was a little too strong for her...i can make use less pesto next time. so then mom mixed the two and said that was good, so i am going to add a little pesto to the salad version. (the buckwheat-with-pesto version is all gone. :D)

my dad made an amused/disgusted face at the buckwheat. he sneered at us eating it. he had leftover veggie soup for lunch.
little does he know :D...... i snuck in about a half cup of that over-cooked buckwheat ... i'm sure it mostly disintegrated by the time the soup was done.... hehe! ;)

i found out buckwheat is another complete protein, it is gluten free, good for high blood pressure and lowering cholesterol! wooohoooo! :D

~ waves ~

p sounds very good, do you put pasta in it or jsut the rice? theey always put pasta in most of the minestroni soups but wondered if that was an americanized thing. I love tabouli!!!!! and pesto, your meals always sound so good. bizi:)

i lost three more pounds even with cheating
bobby

that's great Bobby!!!! :):):)

~ waves ~

minestrone
 

not americanized.

minestrone is not a specific dish - it just means "big soup" and is generally bunches of vegetables, often leftovers, cut up, or whatever one has on hand. beans are often added, and pasta OR rice are typically added. in the US we get more pasta-oriented things, because most immigrants are from the southern (poorer) parts of italy where rice is practically unheard of - pasta always used. in the north rice is common - in fact there are rice plantations. pasta is also used in the north however.

pasta and rice are never used together. either one or the other. even in asian dishes, that have pasta-like preparations based on bean, or rice starch, i've always seen a single kind in any given dish.

the only place i've ever seen a pasta + rice type thing is in rice-a-roni :D (and i'm not even exactly sure what's in it, grainwise, lol!)

~ waves ~
p.s. i like rice-a-roni! :D

Re: food
 

Believe me, I hear all of you who are on that journey to better nutrition, less weight, and feeling better altogether. I wish all of you the very best, and hope the results of your efforts pay off. I think what turned it around for me is fear, no kidding, I got scared about what the weight was doing to me. I thought I would die from it, and with all my other medical problems, I had to make that choice. I am now on the other side, but maybe I can offer hope, and a few tricks I did to help, I did have help too with others in my life that encouraged me to keep on doing the good food routine. I miss pasta and lots of butter, that wont change, but I do find other things that take the place of that food. keep in touch, let me know what the hard parts are, and maybe I can talk to you about it. I do care as I spend 90% of my life about 186lbs and I am 5' 2''. I did get up to 192 at my highest. I weigh too little now because of my surgery, but I will correct that too and become stable. I do care about all those who go through this diet stuff that is so hard. ginnie:D

hi ginnie!
I hope that you are resting and healing from your surgery.
It is nice to see you here and I appreciate your taking part of this thread...so thank you!
(((((HUGS))))
bizi

Hi bizi
 

I am glad to be up a bit bizi. So glad to be healing, and not feeling the pain I did before. I had not realized how bad my neuro problems where until I didnt feel them again. No shocks, first time in 7 years. What a relief. When my surgeon releases me, I will be back to my PCP to see about getting off some of my medicines. It is going to be hard. I look forward to the change however, as so many on this site have hard things to do too. How are you? I am just starting to answer some of the long overdue posts. There are alot of really good people here. I am sick of being in bed, so being here to say hello to all is wonderful! :D ginnie

ginnie, we are glad that you are here.
glad that you are already feeling some relief from your surgery.
that is great news!
take time to heal eat well for wound healing, vitamins, fluids proteins...you have heard this before...
((((HUGS))))
bizi

Hello (((Ginnie)))

i am glad you are feeling better! i hope you keep getting better-er and better-er and able to be up and about more! :D

~ waves ~

Ginny
I'm glad you are feeling better.

I am wondering, think I missed something. What kind of surgery did
you have.

Donna

Hi Bizi
 

:D[ I am back to feeling a bit more normal, and very very grateful to my doctors, and to all of the people on this site to get me through. Every day is better. I sleep alot, and I have not done that before in my life. I am tring to eat well, for strength. That is lacking some.....I can tell the surgery worked. I wonder why the first one didn't correct all of what was wrong, but that is in the past. Now is a real relief from the pain I felt for years. Life will get better, and there is a rainbow:D ginnie

Hi Donna
 

Hi donna, thank you for asking. I had fusion at C-6-7 six years ago. They had to re-do that and from C-3-7. I have DJD,and I had continued to degenerate very badly. The surgery was very hard to do, and I was afraid. I came to this site to look for others, who experience this kind of thing, and many other different and hard to face medical problems. I was blessed to find this site. How are you? I am really new to this site, just found it in the nick of time. I would be glad to hear from you anytime. ginnie:D

Hi waves
 

I am glad to be back feeling human again. ginnie:D

Ginnie
I'm so glad you are finding it worked this time.

I can totally relate to the need for support also. I have lots of medical
issues that I have needed to find answers for. And more times support,
this room always has both.

I have had the shots and the procedure to put pain meds in my neck so
that it would be better.

The shots themselve didn't work for as long as they would have liked.
But the procedure did, and has for about 3 or 4 years now. I do have
tightness and pain at times. But it is tolerateable. I also have Fibromyalgia,
and it can get very bad. So I see my pain doctor every three to four months
usually.

I Have lost so much weight that I just figured out I needed even another
lower size pants. So that was even nice. I am really pleased with were
I'm going. I know I've lost close to 50 lbs, hate to admit I've just started
telling people that I have.

I will find out next week exactly how much. But even if its less. I personally don't think I will care. I think I will just continue to see myself as losing
the 50 lbs.

I am really happy right now.

Donna:grouphug:

Hi lower in pant size
 

I am happy you lost the weight too. That 50 does make a huge difference in the way you feel. I did it because I had to take weight off my ankles, the same kind of deterioation happened in my ankles. That will be my next challange. I was actually frightened of what I had done to myself. The pain was limiting my mobility, so I did less and gained through the years. I know about your condition, and know that it is painful. Did you have spinal epidurals for your neck? Mine helped, but in the end I had to have the surgery. I went to walmart, out of the house, felt great just to do that. I will see my surgeon next week to hopefully get released from my neck collar. I wonder when he will let me drive etc. I am glad you go see a good pain specialist, they are sure needed. ginnie:):)

Virginia

Yes, I had neck epidurals. And then had a procedure that helped more.

Not sure what it was called.

Donna