VeganMoFo Day 21 - Fruit and Triglycerides

Well, the Autumnal Equinox is here. I found my first horse chestnuts earlier this week - those come before the changing leaf colors around here. It's so weird to realize that my husband has been out of work since the outside temps were close to 100 degrees and he'll be going back in 5 weeks wearing his winter coat.

I want my fall temperatures! Yesterday hit 79, today 80 is expected. I have hot meals planned, and lighting the oven means the kitchen temperature soars into the low 90's, even with a fan in the window. 

We ate nothing new last night. We ate nothing hot last night.

My husband's boss phoned, made small talk, spoke about how sorely missed he is and how far behind the  office is with him out this long (Sorry, but he's NOT going to feel guilty about this!), and made up some excuse for needing his home address.

About 2 hours later the doorbell rings - it's a delivery from Edible Arrangements! And not just a bouquet but also a box of dipped fruit, and a balloon! My husband called his boss back, thanked her and the gang profusely, then settled in at the kitchen table and started dissecting the bouquet. He stopped and asked me if he's allowed to eat all this stuff . I nodded my head and he started stuffing his face with melon balls and strawberries. I hadn't seen a smile this big on his face since weeks before his first bout of chest pain! He did a few South Park/Jennifer Love Hewitt and Godfather jokes with a mouth full of melon balls. He had his fill of fruit, we took the rest of the arrangement apart and put the fruit into a container in the refrigerator, and I was getting ready to make the pizzas for dinner.

South Park

Then he gave me a guilty look. He was so full of fruit and in the mood to have more later that he wanted to hold off on the pizza. He felt guilty because he thought the dough, made 12 hours earlier because I was up and unable to sleep since before 3am, would go bad. I told him to be at ease, that the dough will easily keep with no problem.

He then pulled a container out and had more fruit.

We shouldn't be eating this much fruit, not with our high triglycerides, but I let him go without a word. Today I'll mention that fact and restrict him (and myself) to the equivalent of 3 servings of fruit. Looking at the size of those strawberries, it'll probably be only 2 of them, that's how big some of them were. I've always wanted to get one of those arrangements but was always thrown aback by the prices. I'm cheap and would never spend that kind of money on ourselves. When I went to grab the graphic to put in this blog post I caught a glimpse at the price of the bouquet and my jaw dropped, but the gals in the office insisted on giving him something he would enjoy, and they noticed that the few times there's something going on at work and food is offered, he skips the meat dishes and all the sweet stuff and just grabs a piece of fruit or a plain bagel, depending on what time of day it is, so figured he would enjoy the arrangement. Well, he may have enjoyed the money they spent for it more, but after seeing that smile, I think they made the right choice.

So, we had fruit for dinner. And as an after-dinner snack while watching As Time Goes By. I dreamed of fruit over night. And we still have a lot of fruit in the container in the refrigerator.

I think the only fruit I'm having today will be some frozen blueberries in my breakfast oatmeal. He can enjoy his bouquet until the fruit runs out or it goes bad, whichever comes first. It's a good thing neither of us have any blood work planned for the near future. Here's Dr. McDougall's opinion on fruit and triglycerides, and here is Dr. Esselstyn's. Dr. Fuhrman claims that triglycerides go down eating all the fruit you want on his food plan and doesn't limit them. I'll stick with Drs. McD and Essy on this, because I've proven it with my own lab work. I've also proven that nuts, even Dr. Fuhrman's limit of 2 ounces a day for fat people like me, keep cholesterol levels and weight high, the same thing a certain famous veg chef also learned. In the 2 months since I stopped using cashews for my cheese sauce or adding almond or cashew butter to my morning oatmeal, I've lost 15 pounds. I'll have the lab results in another week that should show the cholesterol down again, but I do know that they went up as soon as I started using cashew cheese sauce instead of my former tofu based one.

All this to say I'm sorry there's no new recipe today, and possibly none for tomorrow, either. I was going to make and post about Mary McDougall's pancakes that I was going to make for lunch, but besides all this fruit, my husband decided he now wants those red pepper sandwiches for lunch again. Dinner is supposed to be a plain old pot of pasta with jarred sauce. If I decide to fancy it up a bit I'll let you know.

But I really wanted those pancakes. :(