Shredded Pork Quesadillas

I've made no secret of the fact that I LOVE the shredded pork quesadillas from Qdoba Mexican Grill. The only problem is that the closest one to where we currently live is 3 hours away (and in another state.) There are actually two that fit that criteria... but I don't see myself going to either one any time soon. We do have a Cafe Rio where we currently live and I adore their Enchilada style burritos as well as their salads. However... their pork is sweet and ...confession... I don't really like sweet pork (I know I may be weird.) Plus Cafe Rio does not put salsa in their quesadillas like Qdoba does... and honestly the addition of the Pico de Gallo in the quesadilla makes a huge difference. Try it and see if you don't believe me!

I have been on a quest to replicate Qdoba's quesadillas and think I finally have (of course I can't do a side by side comparison and it has been about a year since I've eaten one... so there's that!) If we end up going to my husband's family reunion this year (2 weeks after baby is due... I'm not holding my breath!) there is one on the way to where it is being held and I may happen to stop and see if this one is as close as I remember. The main difference is in the tortilla... but I can handle that difference ;).

 Shredded Pork Quesadillas

Kitchen Tip: Keeping lettuce crisp longer

 Summertime is almost here, and what's better on hot summer days/evenings than a wonderfully crisp salad? However, if you're like me (and I'm not saying you are...) you're a lot more likely to have a salad if you don't have to wash and pick through your lettuce every time you want one. Also, sometimes I have the best of intentions and then the lettuce ends up going all wilty before I get to it. Every happen to you? If not, kudos to you! If so, this trick may help! 

Menu: May 21-27

I hope you had a great Memorial Day. My family and I did. We got to spend time at my parent's house, then we went to the cemetery (late afternoon, which was nice as there weren't nearly as many people there!) Since we got my husband GPS unit for Christmas we were able to mark the locations of graves in my family with it so we can find them easily! (This cemetery has my Great Grandmother & Grandfather, Great Aunts & Uncles, my Grandparents and my little brother (I can always find his though). I'm sure there are more than I know of that I'm actually related to, but that will have to wait until another year!) I plan on making (or having my cartographer husband) make a map for my mom because she can never find her grandparents. 

After the cemetery we stopped by a store and browsed. Then went out to eat dinner and tried to find some local geocaches. We're still both very much amateurs at it and it can take us a while to find them, yesterday we didn't have too much luck... Of course it was getting dark so we didn't have too much time to actually devote to it! Overall it was a great day and we enjoyed the time we got to spend together! I hope you all had a wonderful day as well.

Now on to the Menu, this week we had: 

French Onion Soup, pulled pork sandwiches and carrots

Navajo Tacos

Pork Quesadillas (had twice)

Taco Salad

Leftover Night (It was a nice conglomeration of leftover food! That totally didn't go together...)

Spaghetti & Meatballs

What did you have for dinner last week? Or what are you planning for this week?

Broken

Ever feel like you are broken? I didn't when I first learned I had PCOS. It just explained some things that I had been wondering about... and wondering if I should talk to a doctor about these things or if it was just me being paranoid.

Brownie Chunk Cookies

I promised my sister in law I'd post this after I talked about making them... However I know it's a bit later than I said it would be! So I hope you'll forgive me...

One thing about pregnancy is cravings and cravings that help create new and delicious things are great! (I'm not talking about the cravings that create gross things, like pickles and squirt-able cheese... yeah I did eat that around Christmastime... nobody else liked it and to be honest the next day I didn't even want to try it again! Still don't in case you were wondering.) I decided that brownie chunk ice-cream was so good (after having eaten some - I ate way too much ice-cream when I had morning sickness. Okay and since then too!) that having brownie chunks in a cookie would be delicious as well... So the next time we had brownies, I cut the pieces that weren't eaten up into chunks and stuck them in the freezer to make cookies with. I have to say I wasn't disappointed. These turned out absolutely delicious!

  

 Brownie Chunk Cookies

Menu: May 14-20

A list for today:

1. I'm tired

2. Have I mentioned that I'm sleepy? 6.5 hours of sleep is not enough for me...

3. I'm 30 weeks pregnant.

4. I have to get up at least 2 times (most likely 3) every night for a bathroom break.

5. I want to get a whole night's sleep without waking up.

6. How many of you are laughing at number 5? I know I did!

7. Pet Peeve: being told to get as much sleep as I can now... (before the baby arrives)

8. My heartburn is getting worse... I've already had to move to taking at least 1 Zantac 150 every day. (Some days I can get away with just one... today is not one of them!)

9. My son is sleeping and instead of taking a nap I took a shower... sometimes being clean supersedes getting sleep!

10. I'm not excited about actually cooking dinner tonight.

11. I did 2 loads of dishes today and my kitchen is still not clean...

12. Dishes did not get done yesterday.

13. If cooking didn't require doing dishes I'd be so much more enthusiastic about it!

14. Anybody want to come be a dishwasher at my house? 

15. Didn't think so...

16. I'm on the two week visit schedule at the OB's office.

17. Why does 10 weeks seem like such a long time?

18. Why does 10 weeks seem like a short time when I remember all I want/need to get done before then?

19. Have I mentioned I'm tired...

20. I need to go start making dinner...

Speaking of dinner, here's what we had for dinners this past week:

Spinach Bacon Quiche (I made this crustless and used regular onion instead of leeks)-we had for dinner 2 nights- with pineapple (one night was actually apples) and steamed broccoli

Bacon PepperJack Stuffed Chicken, broccoflower, honeydew melon

Breakfast Burritos, bananas and steamed asparagus  (was going to be chicken chile rellenos, but the chicken I'd just shredded ended up dumped on the floor due to one clumsy little mistake! Not a happy occurrence. I used the peppers in the burritos though.) 

Chicken Finger Salad (just a simple salad with chicken fingers.)

Mac & Cheese, cauliflower and honeydew melon

What did you have for dinner? Anything fun or interesting?

I've been keeping a secret...

I have to admit that I've tried to start this post a few times. A couple of times I had the post open to edit and just closed it with the screen completely blank. There is so much I am wanting to say and I'm also hesitant to even start this discussion. This is going to be a multi-post topic as there is no way I'm going to write it all in one post!

I've known for a little over a year that I've had PCOS (PolyCystic Ovarian Syndrome). Luckily the awareness of PCOS is growing and I have not had to struggle my whole life not knowing why I had all these symptoms - only about 10-12 years (Awareness should be growing because about 10% of women in the US have PCOS whether they know it or not!). I think part of the delayed diagnosis (besides lack of awareness) is because each time I went to a doctor I only had one symptom I discussed and then because we'd moved a lot, each doctor only heard about one symptom... I didn't really connect that each of my symptoms were, uh, connected. I was very lucky to have a doctor at my last Pap Smear who noticed some signs and probably asked some questions (I honestly don't remember now) and told me that I had PCOS. However, it is not something that I've announced to the whole world or even had the desire to talk about openly - I'd rather push it under the proverbial rug. Up until now I've only told a few people that I have PCOS. I think partially it is because it has the word Ovary in its name and my ovaries are not something I just bring up in casual conversation... I'm a little old-fashioned that way! (I have learned that there have been multiple attempts to rename it in the past but none have been successful... it was named after one symptom of the syndrome. PCOS is a syndrome not a disease as symptoms are not consistent.)

When I first learned about having PCOS, I'd never heard of it and so was a little curious. I did a little research online and found that just having PCOS put me at high risk for Type 2 Diabetes, Heart Disease, Obesity and a few other not so happy things. I also learned that by keeping a healthy weight I could reduce my higher risk of developing these not so happy things. Sounds easy right, just lose a few pounds... except people with PCOS actually have a HARDER time losing weight. Which I personally think is not fair since PCOS increases male hormones in your body - so should losing weight be EASIER! After I learned all this, I doubled my efforts of trying to eat healthy and lose weight (partly because I wanted to live past 50). I was actually fortunate to go on my first real diet (I'd never actively dieted before... just tried to eat healthier) that is actually close to the recommendations for women with PCOS. At the time I had no idea that I was so lucky in finding the right type of diet right off (I just knew it stressed eating fruits and vegetables as well as healthy grains - cutting back on the amount from the USDA recommendations however. So I knew it was healthy and since it worked, I stuck with it.) Then I got pregnant (infertility is common with PCOS and is something I'll discuss later) and for some reason a lot of vegetables actually taste like dirt or earth to me when I have morning sickness so out the window went my healthy eating... and I have to confess that I do have a tendency to use pregnancy as an excuse to eat whatever I want to (instead of eating healthier like some people... I blame it partly because I had been on a diet for so long!) 

About 2 weeks ago I needed to take the glucose screening test to see if I had gestational diabetes. After the test I was just curious as to how much glucose I had just drunk. I learned it was equivalent to about 1/4-1/3 cup of sugar (except sugar is half glucose and half fructose... fructose is digested differently than glucose. Our bodies handle straight glucose a lot better than fructose... but I wanted a general idea.) I also learned that because I had PCOS I was also at a higher risk for gestational diabetes. I would have to say that is when I decided to delve more into learning about what PCOS is and why it puts me at a greater risk for everything under the sun that I don't want to be diagnosed with in my life (okay slight exaggeration here)! I am still on a quest to learn more, but feel that I have learned quite a bit and will be sharing some of this stuff with you in the coming weeks.

However before I leave today, here are some common symptoms of PCOS: 

Irregular periods (also heavy bleeding and painful menstruation)

excess hair (facial-specifically beard/mustache area, body hair-back, toes, chest.)

male pattern hair loss

acne

infertility

polycyclic ovaries (diagnosed by ultrasound)

 -there are others, but these are some of the most common

This is part of my series on PCOS and learning to understand and live with it. *I am not a medical professional, nor do I have a lot of knowledge of PCOS other than what I've read. This is just me, my opinions, how I understand PCOS and how I am dealing with it.