The "Winter" Plague

We're currently dealing with the annual winter* plague, which means sick kids.  The Elder spent the weekend and yesterday convalescing, and the Gum Zombie woke up yesterday with a fever.  I left the boys with Choreboy while I went on to work (we've been freaking slammed, and it's been awesome because hooray! something to distract me from the clock ticking), and today the Elder went back to school.  The Gum Zombie, though, is still home, and today's my day to stay home with the sickie.

As his temperature rises, he becomes more perky.  I don't get it.  Here's hoping he can go back tomorrow or at least, failing that, he can head to my parents' house while I get back to the office.  I have sick days for a reason but they are limited and we're still slammed.

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Since I was home today anyway I made some whole wheat pancakes for breakfast.  I had two, and measured out my butter and syrup (yes it was real and it was amazing).  Those combined with some blackberries came in just under 400 calories, and while I won't do pancakes every day (I think I make them twice a year) these were definitely worth it.  Lunch will involve a piece of Ezekiel bread with a tablespoon of nut butter of some sort, the rest of the blackberries, and a piece of 2% cheddar.  Dinner's looking like my old faithful of turkey burger with mustard and steamed broccoli.  A snack will figure in there somewhere -- likely apple with either cheese or more nut butter.

It'll do.

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I've been having to work on some new recipes for lean protein sources since we reworked Choreboy's macronutrient levels.  I settled on this recipe for chicken in garlic-vinegar sauce and it was fantastic.  Skinning the chicken was a bit of a PITA, but I got to use my ridiculously over-priced Le Creuset Dutch oven and any day I have an excuse to use it is a good day indeed.

Not only did I love the outcome, so did Choreboy which is a good thing considering he isn't content with sucking down turkey burgers or tilapia every night.  Eh, it helps to break out of my rut as well on occasion.

Next I need to work out a decent low sodium marinade for my chicken that goes on my workday salad.  I'm moving from the pressure cooker to the George Foreman because, honestly, I just can't stand another week of the shredded variant.

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Rat count is still at 4, thank God, so we might have dodged that bullet. Another 10 days and we'll know for sure.

Okay, that's about it for now. I'm feeling sluggish, and I'd better not be coming down with what the kids have had.  Have a good one, y'all :)


*Yeah, I know.  "Winter".  It's 72 now, with a high of 84 expected.  But on Thursday we're not supposed to even break out of the 60's!  Choreboy's gonna be all bundled up -- if the mercury doesn't rise above 70 he considers it a cold snap.