Diary of a Chocoholic

I had intended on posting on Friday but got sidetracked by everything going on Boston-- I was glued to the computer watching my hometown news from 1am until Shabbos. At the risk of sounding like a religious freak, I'm going to leave it at this: Hodu lashem ki tov (Give thank to the L-rd for He is good).

So now, let's get to it. The truth is, I am more than slightly obsessed with chocolate. It's not really my fault- my mom's also a certifiable chocoholic (sorry mom!). Forget gummy candy- I can totally live without it. And forget oatmeal raisin cookies; as some wise internet dweller once wrote, they're the reason I have trust issues. It's CHOCOLATE that's my comfort and most-craved food (admittedly, I'm a girl of many cravings. Any time of the day/week/month I've got at least one craving going on). So the lack of sugar (my other big-time love- sorry EE!) in this whole PCOS diet journey is rough.
Side-note: I'm not going to lie- this weekend I definitely cheated on this new diet that I've been romancing. Shabbos is going to be rough. I've got to figure out what to do about Challah... do I just eat the bare minimum required, or is even that amount going to throw this whole thing off? Clearly we've got some kinks to work out. But despite that, I was super "good" during BOTH meals this week. And when we went out to dinner with some of our best friends Saturday night, I ordered a salad! ....and mozzarella sticks and a milkshake, but shhhh. We're back on track as of Sunday afternoon! Hopefully for good. Buckle down, kiddos.
Clearly, the no-sugar rule mostly freaks me out because of all the chocolate it rules out. There was a faint spark of hope while we were out food shopping the other day. We found and bought a sugar-free coconut chocolate bar made with stevia... but not surprisingly, and yet much to my dismay, it was pretty gross. Like so gross that the fact it's chocolate I can eat gets completely cancelled out by it's grossness. So, what's a girl to do? I NEED my chocolate, people!

Worry not- as of today, there is hope! I found this recipe for "Chocolate Brownie Bites" on Pinterest Sunday afternoon, and by Sunday evening I had eaten about half of the batch. Yeah, I know. But can't we just work on WHAT we're eating first and then we'll focus on portion control, k? ....ugh, okay fine. We'll work on it all!

Here's the recipe:
Ingredients-

-1 cup raw almonds
-1 1/2 cups pitted Medjool Dates (approx. 10-11 dates)
-3 1/2 TBSP cocoa powder (the higher quality the better, obviously)
-4 TBSP shredded unsweetened coconut
-1/8 tsp salt
-1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract (more or less depending on your preference)
-Water

Instructions-

1. Add all ingredients except water into a blender, in the order listed (to keep the dates from getting     stuck to the blades)

2. Pulse until your almonds are well-chopped (there will be pieces).

3. If the mixture is dry/not sticking together, add a small drizzle of water.

4. Once combined, scoop the mixture into a bowl and mix/knead to fully incorporate it all.

5. Roll the mixture into TBSP-sized balls and ENJOY!


They're super good. Check out these pics!

YUM. I highly recommend them. They totally quenched this chocoholic's chocolate craving. :)

Chick-Chick-Chick-Chick It Out.

That's a little Beastie Boys inspired humor for you. See?
(Heads up: There might be some swearing involved.)


Beastie Boys - ch-check it out by powernine

ANYWAY... For the past month I've been trying to get onto a more normal sleep schedule. I've been pretty nocturnal my whole life... and then I married a night-shift nurse. At first it was great and super convenient. I stuck on his schedule (nocturnal on the nights he worked so we could sleep at the same time and then switching to nighttime sleeping the rest of the week). But honey, I ain't getting any younger. And in my old age (har har) I'm finding it harder and harder to function without... regular sunlight? Vitamin D? Social interaction with other people in my own time zone? A SCHEDULE? All of the above? Yep. Aside from that, everything I've read about dealing with PCOS-induced fertility issues stresses normal sleep schedules as being über important (and yes I did in fact just Google "uber" so I could copy and paste the correct spelling here. I'm just that dedicated. You're welcome). So, here we are.

For the most part, this whole diurnal thing is going great- I'm way more productive, socializing more, and, here's the kicker- actually seeing the husband MORE than before. I've been waking up right as he gets home in the morning so we can both have a little space- he can unwind and have breakfast and I can, well, wake up in peace. Then we can chill for a few before he goes to sleep and I have the day to myself. If he didn't sleep like a....

(Oh yes, that's a real screen capture. "Sleep like a tiger"?? Really?!)

Well, if he didn't sleep as insanely soundly as he does, this little arrangement wouldn't work out, but thank the heavens, he does. 

To get to the point, I have a lot of newfound free time during far more productive hours than before. Stores are open during the DAY! So if I, let's say, want to make dinner for this person I'm married to, I can! Which has in fact been happening more in this past month than possibly our entire marriage. That's sort of an exaggeration. 

Without further ado (adieu?), here's what I made tonight: 

Coconut Almond Chicken with Spinach and Pineapple Salsa

I found it via Pinterest, one of my biggest time-wasting obsessions. 

Here's the original post: Paleo-Primal Coconut Almond Chicken but that doesn't include the salsa.

And here's my version: 

In an ideal world the salsa would have come out a different color, since it blends in with the pieces of chicken so much. I kind of winged the salsa though, so I could easily tweak that in the future. Orrrr just not be so picky. I would, perhaps, add more spices to the almond-coconut mixture next time, but it was still fun and delicious and totally satisfied my breaded-anything craving (I'll talk more about our my PCOS diet restrictions in a later post). Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

- 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts

- 1/2 c. finely chopped almonds

- 1/2 c. unsweetened shredded coconut

- cinnamon (and/or any other spice- I used black pepper and ginger)

- coconut milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°.

2. Mix coconut, almonds, and cinnamon in a bowl. Pour coconut milk into a separate bowl.

3. Dip chicken in coconut milk and roll in mixture, place on pan.

4. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Voilà! So easy!

Emeril's got my back.

Was that long-winded enough for you?? Catch ya on the flip side. :)

Oh, bother.

I said I wouldn't do it. Over and over again.

But, welp... here I am. I've gone and done it.

I freaking created a blog.

....now what?

Let's start with my intentions for this sucker. Idk if anyone will ever read this (or if I'll ever even write again after tonight), but here goes nothing. About a year into my marriage, I was diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). We'll get to all of that later... the point is, that nearly three years later, I've found myself in a completely different place than I ever imagined- about to celebrate my fourth wedding anniversary, still childless. This isn't a sob story- I'm not looking for sympathy at all, whatsoever-- the past four years have been amazing and crazy and I wouldn't change them for anything. But that's the "fruitful" aspect of this blog- PCOS and Reproductive Endocrinologists and not-so-monthly cycles- oh my!

I've got to document the whirlwind journey that we've sort of been pushed into. You'll hear about our travels to exotic places. There will be cooking blunders and triumphs. There are going to be adventures- for example, today I went to a farmers market. All by myself. I'm serious. But of course, there's also been an abundance of time for home decorating- and there we have the "Furbishing", folks! BOOM. Y'see what I did there?

These are (probably) moments I'm going to daydream about when I have a tired, teething, drooling infant in my arms at 4am someday. So I guess I want to document them and sort of force myself to appreciate them while I've got 'em all to myself.

K. This is clearly gonna get goofy. So hang tight while I figure out where the heck the start button is on this thing so we can get going...

Here's a random photo of our "breakfast nook" partially set-up for a dinner party. AKA Shabbos meal.