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Clinical Trial, Cooking, and Recipes!

   Clinical Trial and Food (& recipes!):
     Today was my 4th clinical trial visit, 4th out of 9... 5 more months to go! I was excited to see my Cipro (oral antibiotics) helped. My lung function was up from last month! Read about my past Clinical Trials HERE in these 3 Posts! It has been a roller coaster, but finally my lung function is going in the right direction. It was 58% today! Which is up from 50%..so YAY! Cipro is definitely working.And I'm almost done with it, so then hopefully no other antibiotics for a LONG TIME!  During this Clinical Trial we can't change my medical routine or do anything majorly different. So my plan (I hope it works!!!) is to prove I can keep my weight up without my use of my stomach tube and then get it taken out after the trial is over. I haven't used it in a couple months, so far so good. My weight at the appointment was 108 lbs. I need to stay above 105 at all times (even when ill) and try to maintain around 109 -111.

    Which is why I have been discussing food so much lately. I've discussed Some ways I Gain Weight HERE and Great Recipes HERE too!  But I also have been cooking and experimenting with more recipes! If I make a meal that is low in calorie or I have no idea how many calories are in the meal, then I make a high calorie drink or snack to make sure I get all the calories I need! Its all about getting excited about food, finding food you love, and eating a variety so you don't get sick of it! We found some pretty good deals at Sam's Club, so we got a Beef Loin, some Pork Chops, and Tilapia there. I love right after we grocery shop because there are sooo many choices for meals!
 
    A couple nights ago I made pot roast; we sliced the beef loin we got at Sam's Club for $13 into one pot roast, and 6 loin cuts (totaling 5 meals for 2 people). I used the roast, 4 smaller potatoes, a handful of baby carrots, 1 onion, and a couple cloves of garlic. Filled the crockpot with water, and sprinkled some garlic seasoning, poultry seasoning, and a little beef gravy mix... and it sat for 8 hours. I should of made that on a day when I wasn't home, because I could smell it cooking all day..yum! I wanted to eat it before Andrew even got here. We gobbled it all up that night! However, there was quite a bit of broth and about half an onion left. I didn't dump it though! I re-used it. I put the broth & onion in the fridge. (Above: Pot Roast pre-cooked, Below: Leftovers Soup)

And the next night I made this stew/soup. I put the broth, 2 large potatoes, a handful of baby carrots, chopped the left over onion in the dutch oven. Then I put cubed chunks of beef loin (2 loins cubed) in it. To make sure it didn't taste the same as last night's pot roast, I added some chunky Spaghetti Sauce that we had in the fridge leftover. We had a couple biscuits too leftover from having biscuits and gravy from a few days ago. So our entire meal was from leftovers or food we had lying around. I love those meals! My mom always called them garbage meals/ garbage soup. She could make soup out of the weirdest things. Sometimes we'd love them so much, we'd ask for them again. But you can't replicate garbage soup, since the ingredients are never the same. But that is part of the fun!

I told Doc I can't wait to get my G-tube out, but he says I'll need some kind of supplement drink in my house at all times, in case I don't feel like cooking or I'm running late. Which is true. They taste okay, but I prefer masking the taste and putting them in other things. Like pudding, milkshakes, smoothies, and  coffee drinks.... He loved the idea of finding new ways to sneak supplements in and a chance to try all the different brands at once. He said it was a good idea for his next CF roundtable meeting. So we'll see. I'd love to see them sitting around a table taking different shots of boost, ensure, VHC boost, Scandi Shakes, Carnation, Protien drinks, Muscle Milk, etc... hahaha. Love the thought of this!

Anyone else have ways of sneaking ensure in?? I get a lot of my ideas from my mom, she had to be sneaky and quite creative to keep me healthy. Hats off to you Mom, you rock!
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