November Menu Is Set

November Menu Is Set

It's been a crazy month so far, between the kid's job interviews and medical problems, the election, 3 doctor's appointments, lab and radiology (some for me, some for my son). Then the gloomy weather - I don't remember the last time I saw the sun. Oh, wait - it was as I was coming home from the opthamologist with my eyes fully dilated from the drops he gave me, and because it was raining when I went in I didn't bring my sunglasses so I was in pain for the next few hours.

And it's not over yet. My son is still waiting for the doctor to call him back with the results (He was out of the office at the time my son was told to call), and he still hasn't heard back from the job interview, but in that case she did say in 3 weeks and it's only been less than 2. I hope he hears something soon - his first student loan payment is due in 2 weeks.

And I'm still jerking myself back and forth between vegan foods and SAD (Standard American Diet). Don't get me wrong - I do love the healthy vegan foods that are available. It's just that some of it is so darn expensive! Rice milk is more than twice the cost of powdered skim; a batch of scrambled tofu costs about ten times more than 2 scrambled eggs; vegetarian sausage is more than twice the price of real sausage and sometimes has the same amount of fat, unless I make it from scratch. And I miss dairy cheese and yogurts. Not only are they much cheaper than vegan versions but they taste so much better.

But I really should avoid them. Tonight we were supposed to have this mushroom and barley thing, but my mushrooms turned fuzzy, so we're having burgers instead. I have no veggie burgers made right now so we'll have the turkey burgers that I have in the freezer. At least I have plenty of stone ground whole wheat burger rolls. I have plenty of fruit for snacks, especially bananas and apples, but have to get used to not putting peanut butter on them, or in my morning oatmeal. I made a tofu scramble this morning and felt guilty because of the price, but I was just so sick of oatmeal and needed a change.

And the dinner menus are not just chosen but printed out and hanging in the kitchen for all to see for the rest of the month. I have December's planned but not printed, too. Out of all these meals, every one is McDougall legal, as long as I eat cheeseless pizzas on Fridays, that is. :) This month we have 2 birthdays, and in both cases they want pizza, so again, a cheeseless pizza for me, with cheese for the birthday boys.

Our 31st anniversary is also this month. On the day of our wedding, my husband and I never got to eat dinner. As soon as the meals at the head table were served we were called by the photographer to get the cutting of the cake pictures. While we were gone the waitstaff cleared our plates! We complained loudly, even calling them idiots - Didn't they notice that every plate for the entire bridal party was untouched? They had no food left in the kitchen (Even the band ate their meals while we were getting snapped) so we were to go hungry. The kitchen helpers felt sorry for us and did give all of us a larger piece of cake each, but we were still going table to table asking our relatives if there was any FOOD. Our best man's mother and an usher's wife had some leftovers that they ate up, but the rest of us had to make do with some candy from the machine in the bar.

My husband and I were almost the last people to leave the reception. What the heck, we were paying for this party and not leaving for our honeymoon until the next day so why not?! As soon as we got to our apartment we popped a frozen pizza into the oven, put Tom Waits on the stereo, and started counting the money and signing the checks from the envelopes, as my mom was going to deposit it into the bank for us while we were gone. Every anniversary we go through the same routine - we eat frozen pizza while Tom Waits is playing on the stereo, and since we have no money we just count our blessings.