Back on the road to wellness

I haven't posted much of anything in while and it's been far too long. My hiatus also reflects my temporary abandonment of my gluten-free, vegetarian (almost vegan) diet in favor of being more of a "flexitarian" as my neighbor has called me. Well apparently "flexitarianism" hasn't been good for my health. Last week I had a little flare up of endometriosis resulting in a ruptured ovarian cyst. While I've had them before, before going on an anti-inflammatory, endometriosis diet four years ago, this was the first one I'd noticeably had in about 4 years. I feel fairly confident that this has to do with venturing off the healthy path in favor of being more pragmatic. Well now it's caught up and it was enough of a wake up call to go back to eating the way I know I should. So today I got started and back on my road to wellness and stocked up on all kinds of good things at Trader Joe's: kale, coconut oil, gluten-free pasta, coconut milk, dairy-free cheese, avocados, tomatoes, decaf green tea, organic fair trade Bolivian coffee (for the bulletproof coffee I've heard so much about with grass-fed butter and coconut oil), dry roasted, unsalted pistachios, and several other things.

I've just finished making my mid-day meal, which is a vegetarian pasta sauce over gluten-free pasta. For the sauce: heat up some coconut oil and sauté chopped garlic and onion. Add baby orange bell peppers, spinach, chopped fresh mushrooms, 1 large can of organic diced tomatoes, one peeled and chopped blood orange, a handful of walnuts, a handful of sun dried tomatoes (not the ones in oil, just dried in a bag) and sea salt. Simmer until ready to serve over GF pasta.

The finished dish - the cheese is a soy-free, dairy free
mozzarella alternative. 

Sunday 9-12

The timer is ticking and I'm starting my first 15 minutes. I've just had a wonderful breakfast consisting of homemade gluten-free blueberry cinnamon vanilla pancakes, fresh local cantaloupe and am sipping down my chai latte (with almond milk and stevia) from my over-sized Berlin Starbucks mug. Food will probably be a main part of this blog since it is something I love - especially when it comes to fresh, local produce. I get a produce box from local farmers delivered to my door every week (theproducebox.com) and try to come up with new things to make from the seasonal items. This past week I tried Afghan okra and potatoes served with brown rice, which turned out quite well. The next project is to tackle the mounds of butternut squash I have been collecting, which will probably turn into an Afghan pumpkin dish, maybe another curried butternut squash soup (with coconut milk) and a butternut squash stir fry (also featuring coconut milk). I should also probably say that I keep a mostly gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free vegetarian diet for health reasons, but still eat fish and eggs. I can post some recipes if people are curious as to what such a person might eat. I actually eat a wide variety of things and love ethnic foods, especially Ethiopian, Afghan, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Lebanese, Tibetan, etc.

So the idea of this blog is to write for 15 minutes a day on anything that comes to my mind - preferably in one sitting. Of course I could happen to have multiple posts a day, but I should be able to find at least 15 minutes a day.

I've had a lot of ideas lately that I need to get down somewhere. One idea has to do with dating and how sick of it I am. It's a horrible process of elimination in which I do so much eliminating I doubt there will be anyone left over worth keeping by the time I'm done. The problem lies in extremely high standards, requirements of a prospective partner and the fact that most of the guys who could potentially fit the bill are already taken or not interested. So I guess I'll just keep eliminating.

Essentially I want someone who is at least bilingual (preferably German-English), a non-smoker and not an excessive drinker, no tattoos or piercings, preferably not older than 36, never been married (and should also have never lived with a girlfriend) and has no children, intelligent but also has a great sense of humor, not atheist or agnostic, should be taller than me (I'm nearly 5'3" - 5'2" and 3/4 to be exact), preferably have a full - but clean cut - head of hair (shaved heads are fine, but I'm not really attracted to thinning hair and certain patterns of male baldness), no beard or mustache (I find facial hair repulsive), should be physically fit and active (no beer belly or excessive body fat), should preferably eat similarly to me since if I ever have children I would want to keep a vegetarian, dairy-free household and would need a partner who would be on board with that... Sadly I don't think this person actually exists and if they do they certainly don't live anywhere near me. I know I'm picky, but I'd rather get what I want than settle for less.

My first 15 minutes are up now.