Granola Bars

My husband was admitted to the hospital for his stem cell transplant on Monday, November 5.  He had a rocky start, with a medication making him violently ill, and then he had a reaction to one of the anti-nausea medicines.  He was "out of his head" (i.e., confusion, agitation) for about 36 hours.  It was a very, very difficult time for me, trying to keep him from getting up by himself, having him get angry with me for coddling him, and not being able to answer his nonsensical questions.  Since the confusion cleared, he has progressed as expected, with all his blood counts reaching zero yesterday.  He has developed a sore in his mouth today after several days of complaining that his mouth was tender.  Again, not unexpected, but it makes eating even more difficult.  I don't know how much longer he will be in the hospital.  The original estimate was 14 days, and I am hoping he will be home for Thanksgiving.

Unfortunately, I haven't gotten more than a couple of stitches put into my current project.  I spend a lot of time helping Phil, doing things that help the nurses, who are patiently dedicated to their patients in this unit.  But I did want to say that the granola bars I mentioned in my last post are absolutely delicious!!!  You can find the recipe at Money Saving Mom.  I used the Rice Krispies (generic ones from Aldi), and for my add-ins I used tiny cinnamon chips, peanut butter chips, and peanuts.  (I love peanut butter!)  I would like to try making them with flax seed (maybe using half flax seed and half wheat germ), and using other mix-ins such as coconut (another favorite) and sunflower seeds.  I froze my bars after I cut them, and they are still deliciously chewy once they thaw.  I highly recommend this recipe!  If you make it, let me know how you tweaked it to your taste.

I have pictures on my computer to share, so hopefully I can get to those soon. 

Pizza!

It's no secret that I love pizza.  I think I could eat it a couple times a week.  But what I can no longer love about pizza is the fat in the cheese and the meat.  (I am making an effort to cut back on fat and cholesterol in what I eat since my LDL is too high and I am trying to avoid going on medication.)  What I have been doing lately is combining my love of this book

with my love of 'za.  This is the result:

I start with a delicious crust made without oil, using whatever dough I have in the 'frig.  Once the dough is shaped, I put just a smidgen of olive oil on the rolled-out crust, followed by whatever I can find for toppings.  On this pizza I used thinly sliced tomatoes, some black olives (yes, I know they contain fat, but no cholesterol), some thinly sliced fresh mozzarella, and lots of fresh herbs such as thyme, basil, oregano, and parsley.  Bake it on a pizza stone in a 550 degrees F oven for 10 minutes, and you have the most delicious pizza on earth.  I especially like tomatoes and basil as toppings.

If you haven't been bitten by the artisan bread craze, I urge you to check out Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and/or its sequel, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  You can also visit the website at artisanbreadinfive.com.

Yummy Dinner

I made fresh Tomato-Basil sauce and penne pasta for dinner a few weeks ago. The only change to the recipe is that I barely coated my skillet with olive oil to cook my garlic. I've made this before, and we like the fresh tomatoes and basil. It's also great diet food!