I Think I'm Losing My Mind!

It's 2013.  Christmas decorations are packed up and put away, the recycle truck came this morning and took away the tree.  The boys are back to school.  This is normally a time where I try and organize the closets, give a good winter cleaning and catch up on some work that I've been neglecting.  But not this year.  

The week before Christmas, my husband had an elective minor surgery that had a recovery period of a couple of days to a week.  After 3 weeks, he is still suffering the complication of a hemotoma and the doctor ordered no lifting, resting, warm baths and anti-inflamatories.  He may be laid up another 3 weeks and still has a risk of developing an infection.  Having my husband home during Christmas and New Year's was actually kind of nice.  We all cuddled in bed, watching movies.  We had nice dinners together and just overall relaxed.  

But now, enough is enough.  The kids are back to school and he is here for most of the day.  "Make sure you put a plastic glove on if you're going to take out the garbage."  "The towel basket is overflowing, don't you think you should wash them."  "Don't take out the tree, I'll call Ryan (the neighbor) and he'll take it out."  "You need to vacuum in here."  "What are you making for dinner, can you make some for my mother?"  "Did you wash your hands?"  "Draw my bath."  "Where's my medicine."  "Can you make me some oatmeal?."  And so on, and so on, and so on.   

(Where's the vodka?).

Luckily, he had to run to his office for  a couple of hours on Sunday.  As soon as he left the house, the kids and I went into high gear and took all the decorations off the tree - I moved the dining room table out of the way and dragged the tree, stand and all, to the back door.  Not too gracefully, I crammed it out the door, then chucked it over the deck, leaving hundreds of pine needles in it's wake, all over the living room rug, dining room floor and on the deck.  All was cleaned up when he got back, but of course I got the look...  

(more vodka please).

And this extended 'vacation' has been brutal on my weight loss - I am up 7 pounds from the nearly 20 that I lost in the fall due to not only the few pounds most of us gain during the holidays, but the fact that I am cooking more for my husband.  Normally, he eats out a few nights a week and that keeps me in check, but we've had full course meals including lots of comfort foods.  Homemade mac & cheese (recipe on previous post), pasta and meatballs with garlic bread (loaded with cheese and butter), stuffed mushrooms, italian stuffed chicken breasts, pepperoni and cheese pizza (don't look at me that way), and ravioli (lobster for me, mushroom for him) with homemade pink vodka sauce.

Since it is too cold for the bike path, I decided today to pick an alternative exercise regimen and found an awesome kickboxing workout on Fios On Demand.  I felt like I sweat in this 40 minute workout as much as I do with 2 hours on the bike, so we'll see what happens!  In the meantime, check out the pink vodka sauce recipe that I adapted from a couple of online recipes below: (not really a low fat recipe, but oh so good and quick!)

Pink Vodka Sauce

2 cloves garlic chopped

1-2 tablespoons onion chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup unflavored vodka

8 oz heavy cream

24 oz prepared pasta sauce

Put olive oil in saucepan and sautee onions and garlic for a couple of minutes over medium-low heat until translucent.  Add butter to pan and melt.  Add vodka, bring heat to medium high and cook until you can't smell the alcohol, about 5 minutes. Lower to medium heat, add cream and pasta sauce and heat through.  

Serve on your favorite pasta, (or ravioli),  add some fresh parsley and grated parmesan cheese to taste if desired 

Bon Appetit!!