Normally, cooking for my family when they all gather makes my heart sing. Labor Day weekend hosts a baseball tournament where older guys, like my husband, can play alongside their sons. For a couple of years now, our oldest has returned to play with his dad. Its a sweet gig and they both love it. Lest you think the old guy might be stretching himself athletically, this man plays full up baseball about eight months out of the year. "Buff", could have his picture by it in the dictionary.

So the house filled up again with son, wife-with-child and large dog along with everyone else living here. Dirty dishes piled up, laundry increased, but so did the love and laughter. For occasions such as these I like to make meticulous lists of menus and groceries to buy. This time was different.

While I laid in foodstuffs which met my dietary needs, nothing sounded exciting or tasty enough for my gang. I just couldn't get past the "I can't eat such and such" enough to enjoy planning food for the weekend. Add to that, nausea has kept me even more off my hospitality game.

Fortunately the family rallied nicely despite my sullen mood. My daughter baked a pan of chocolate chipped cookies which kept everyone happy all weekend. My husband took everyone out for Mexican while I attended a wedding. Again, gastronomic victory! And the one meal I did plan for everyone besides breakfasts proved a rousing success. I grilled chicken, served a large green salad dressed with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette and made a red potato, green bean salad as a side. Either I have raised very polite kids, great actors or they genuinely enjoyed the meal.

It was hard to clean the cookie pan without snitching a bite. Morning waffles from scratch almost had me cheating as well but I survived day eight without veering of the strict diet plan.

I can't say I feel good about this because right this minute, I feel pretty miserable but maybe relief lurks around the corner. Dr. visit number three occurs tomorrow so we will see if she has an encouraging word.

My husband reminds me this is temporary. I focus on the discomfort of it all. I actually looked up some recipes for waffles which would have been allowable but they contained so many bizarre ingredients, none of which I had on hand, so I gave up and nibbled a rice cake instead.

Waiting for some relief,
Caroline

Labels: baseball, buff, Elimination Diet

This entry was posted on Monday, September 05, 2011 at 3:17 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.