I find it incredibly easy to live without meat but i can't live without rice. Just a little bit turns steamed veggies and sauce from a side dish into a meal in my mind. The same way that some people don't feel it's a "meal" without meat: i require a starch for a meal. Sweet potatoes count. I can't begin to explain that rationale.

I have cut all my starches way down. No potatoes, white flour, pasta or rice, and the only bread I eat is this stuff: [link] And I find brown rice nom nom nom.

I don't miss it much--way less than I thought I would. I still eat some sweets and once a month or so, I will have french fries or white pasta.

The only starches I've had since the surgery, other than a few saltines, some tortilla chips, and some Club crackers at various meals, was a Wendy's potato with sour cream and chives before Christmas, a double-stuffed potato from my dad's Xmas dinner, and about 2/3rds of a mini-baguette from Panera before NYE. That baguette was a huuuuge mistake, but the others weren't so bad. However, since my order of food types is 1) Protein, 2) Veggies, 3) Fruit, and 4) Carbs, starches are too far down on my list for me to eat.

I just realized that I've seen the same woman playing "grandmother who had no idea her grandson was involved with guns/drugs/etc." on three different episodes of Law and Order. Good for her for getting work, I guess, but they can't find any other actresses who can play that part?

same woman playing "grandmother who had no idea her grandson was involved with guns/drugs/etc." on three different episodes of Law and Order

...she's got a lot of grandkids, and is pretty oblivious?

I really wish I had a camera right now, because my cat is sitting on a pile of 3 pillows and 2 blankets, and she looks like the Princess and the Pea.

I skipped omg a million posts. I totally forgot the GGs were last night and missed them, anyone have them and can burn for me, anyone have red carpet?!?

Um what else?

YAY Kathy and I'll catch on more later.

oh and I'm 40 and a few days now. not feeling any more grown up.

Happy belated 40th, msbelle! I ordered you some snow but they delivered it to the wrong address because I got it instead!

Seriously. I feel better when I eat more protein, but I don't always get it, because sometimes it's just easier to make pasta for dinner.

I'm finding quinoa just as easy to make as pasta and it's a complete protein.

The trick, it seems, is to rinse it before cooking. I never rinse any grains because I'm lazy like that, but rinsing the quinoa makes is taste a lot better. I cook it in a savory broth, which adds flavor.

10-15 minutes later, voila, nom!

Plus, it is good cold, unlike most pastas I've cooked. Also, any sauce I'd put on pasta works great on quinoa...just ask the puttanesca I made the other day...Oh, wait, you can't...it's in my belleh!

I love quinoa! I can't eat wheat or things with wheat in them. So i eat a lot of rice, quinoa and some non-wheat pasta.