Sleepy and a Recipe

Posted by Lisa Eirene

I’ve been back to work for a few days now. The first day was ROUGH. I was absolutely, bone-tired exhausted. I forgot just how much surgery takes it out of you. It takes awhile to feel back to normal. I’m not quite there yet. I definitely needed a nap on Monday and wished I’d taken one on my lunch break! But I got to work and blinked and somehow it was 12:30 and I’d missed my morning break and it was already lunch time.

Thankfully I work from home on Wednesdays, so I was able to sleep in a bit before getting to work. I love my Wednesdays! I’m supposed to be clear to start doing cardio in a few days. Part of me misses it and is it ready to get back to it. And part of me really wants to just sleep. LOL. We’ll see how I feel in a few days!

In other news, I’ve finished a few books but not enough to do a book update. Soon! I’ve been watching a lot of TV on my time off for my surgery. I finally got caught up on some shows that I had fallen behind on (I never have time for TV). I am currently working my way through season 3 of Outlander. If you’ve never seen the show, it’s actually really good. I love historical period books/shows so it’s right up my alley. I read the first few books in the series but then quit. But I do love the TV show.

I wanted to share a recipe that I sort of created that was really good. I adapted it from two different recipes but based it on this recipe Zucchini Pasta with Chicken & Pistachios. I made some adjustments to make it keto-friendly.

Ingredients:

  • 2 Tablespoons butter
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • minced garlic (I used 3 medium sized cloves)
  • minced mint leaves (about 7 leaves)
  • 1/4 cup chopped pistachios
  • Boneless, skinless chicken (I used chicken thighs)
  • Zoodles (We used 3 small zucchinis to make the zoodles)
  • Salt and pepper
  • Chopped green onion for garnish

Make the zoodles (We used our Kitchenaid Mixer attachment, which is AMAZING, for making zoodles). Set aside. Chop the chicken into small, bite size pieces. Cook the chicken in a skillet with ghee, salt and pepper. Then in another skillet, cook the zoodles in olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

For the sauce, melt the butter in a small sauce pan, add the garlic. Add the heavy cream, stirring constantly. Add the mint and lemon juice. Stir constantly. Then mix the chicken, sauce and zoodles all together in one skillet.

Divide into pasta bowls, top with chopped pistachios and green onion as garnish.

It turned out really well! I liked it a lot and would definitely make this recipe again. I like the flavor and texture combos. I think next time I would use salted pistachios (I only had unsalted). I loved the sauce. The mint was a really nice, unusual flavor. It all worked really well!

Tribute

Posted by Lisa Eirene

I got a new tattoo!!

It’s only been 15+ years. Maybe even longer. I tried to think back and I think my last tattoo was the lotus flower on my back shoulder that I got when I was 22? years old and went to San Francisco with my cousin Anna.

Well, I’ve wanted to get another tattoo for a long time, but never had the opportunity. Mostly because you have to take like a month off from swimming and I could never really do that. Actually, I had sort of planned on doing it after I had Logan. I mean, I had 12 weeks that I could swim postpartum, but yeah…that was a funny idea! I was a zombie and getting a tattoo was the last thing on my mind. Especially with breastfeeding and being tied to a newborn–I wasn’t really able to be away from him for more than two hours or so.

Anyways. With my surgery, I had to take 4 weeks off from swimming so I decided to be proactive and plan it out this time. I talked to a friend who got a tattoo recently and she recommended Evolution Tattoo in Troutdale. It’s a cute place in downtown Troutdale. I contacted them and Heather, the tattoo artist, was great.

My friend Robyn went with me and I appreciated having a buddy! I forgot how much it hurts. LOL

I had a few design ideas in my mind. I knew I wanted to get a tribute to Yggdrasil. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss him, still. It’s been almost two years now. He was my baby. My first baby. It’s hard thinking about it, but he’s been gone a long time now.



So I decided to get his tree, what he was named after, in tribute. I thought about getting his paw prints, too, but couldn’t figure out how to incorporate them into the design and so I decided to wait. I might get the paw prints later. I don’t know. It might be too upsetting to see them all the time.

I’m really happy with how it turned out. I got it on my ankle. It’s healing nicely. It’s weird. Tattoos are supposed to be something fun and cool and in this case it’s bittersweet and kinda sad for me. I see it and I have mixed feelings. But I’m glad I got it.

Miss you, Yggdrasil. <3