I Make Muffins for My Roadblocks

Today my family and I had some very sad news.  My uncle, Jack, passed away after a 10 month battle with pulmonary fibrosis.  The last month has been a roller coaster of emotions for us all when one day would bring hope and the next day would bring despair.  I am thankful he is at peace now and he will be greatly missed by his family and friends.  On Thursday, I will be flying down to Vero Beach, Florida for the funeral and will return to Denver on Monday.

While I know my eating and activity levels will be lacking, I am thankful for what I have learned thus far because it tells me that I don't have to be (nor can I be) perfect all the time.  I can take my time in Florida to focus on my family and the life of my uncle.  If I happen to make a few good food decisions or am able to walk or swim while I am there, then that will be a happy bonus.

I do plan to go to my aquatics as normal tomorrow because I know it will help put my stresses at bay. I will then go to Whole Foods and see what kind of snacks I can come up with and take with me on my journey.  After laundry and packing, I am also going to try to fit in working out my meal plan for the next week.  I'd like to place my food order before I leave and have it delivered to Joe on Monday morning so when I return Monday afternoon, I will be able to relax knowing my healthy food choices will be waiting for me.

After I heard the news of Jack's passing, I bought my plane ticket to Florida and then I was antsy and hungry.  But I didn't seem to be physically hungry for food.  Rather, I felt emotionally hungry.  At one point in the day, I said to Joe that I wanted some chocolate and peanut butter.  We didn't have any in the house, so I just ruminated on that feeling for a while.  Eventually, I had a bowl of grapes and strawberries.  As I ate them, I knew I wasn't physically hungry for them...but I ate anyway.  We can't eliminate our bad habits over night and emotional eating is definitely one of my bad habits.  I was glad to have at least acted in a way that wouldn't make me feel guilty later.

Another thing I tend to do in these type of situations is bake.  Not only is it a comforting experience for me, but the end result is a comfort food.  Joe and I went to a bookstore yesterday and he bought me three new cookbooks.  One is full of meatless recipes, one focuses on beans, and one is about high altitude baking.  I had been thinking about making blueberry muffins this week because I had bought blueberries earlier and I really don't tend to eat fresh blueberries.  So I decided to go ahead and make the muffins.

I used organic flour, real blueberries, and organic cane sugar, just to name a few ingredients.  Thankfully, the recipe called for a very small amount of sugar (my biggest trigger) and the muffins turned out beautifully.  They aren't very sweet at all (not blueberry cake as most American muffins are these days) and the sweet comes from the blueberries themselves.  Plus, Joe loves them because he has never been big on sweets anyway.  They are enough of a comfort to me that I can have one, but they aren't packed with sugar so I don't crave a second one.

Aren't they beautiful?

Finally, Joe and I were supposed to go to a friend's house this evening for dinner and games, but I wasn't feeling up to it, so I made the dinner I was planning for tomorrow.  I made chicken nuggets, roasted sweet potatoes and green beans.  The chicken nuggets were a big hit and didn't need any sauces.  They were incredible by themselves.  I actually enjoyed eating a nugget and sweet potato together, which kind of mimicked nuggets with ketchup because the sweet potato filled that sweet need...and it was way better than ketchup.  (The perfect bite.)  The nugget recipe is to the right of this page and I highly suggest you try it.