Rest for the Weary

I was home sick today, and after a full day of rest... I still feel exhausted!  I spent the day on the couch with Maple, playing around on the internet, reading and sleeping.  Now the day is done, and I still feel weak and tired.  I hope another good night's sleep will help put me back right.

Kendall came downstairs for lunch and I was just waking up from a nap.  He ate and we had a nice chat.  Then I got to business with my own lunch.  Luckily, we had some things on hand to make a nice, homemade broth-based soup with lentils.  I opened a can of tomatoes with hatch chiles, combined half of it with some lentils and chicken stock.  The results were good, but very salty and quite spicy!  Due to the salt, I ended up adding a bit of water.  Then it was just right!  I wanted the chiles for heat, because I've heard it helps you feel better (vitamin C and boosts your endorphines). 

On the side, some crackers, a salad and a bowl of berries.  I also had more juice.  I normally don't drink this much juice, but I'm trying to get in vitamin C and antioxidants where possible.

On the salad, I tried out one of those spritzer spray salad dressings, because they were on clearance for $0.99!  I bought two flavors and tried out the raspberry vinaigrette today.  I must say, I liked the concept and didn't feel like my salad was drowning in dressing, but the flavor was not there.  It was flat, had a faint berry taste, and was not very sweet, considering it had high fructose corn syrup as the second ingredient.  Perhaps if I had berries in the salad, it would have been better?  I still have an Asian dressing to try, so I'm hoping that flavor is better.

After lunch, I made some hot pomegranate-cranberry green tea with a squeeze of lime and 2 tsp honey.  It was so good and soothing!  Then, I fell into a deep and peaceful slumber. I woke up feeling really tired still, and after walking around and getting some water, I still felt icky.  I decided I couldn't make it to class tonight, as the thought of driving made me tired just thinking about it.

For dinner, I got out a box of sesame teriyaki noodles and got to work on some chicken and veggies.  I sliced the chicken thinly, and sauteed it in a pan with some sesame oil.  Then I steamed up some frozen sugar snap peas.  Then I cleaned out the pan and sauteed broccoli and carrots in sesame oil. 

Now, please do yourself a favor and saute your broccoli in sesame oil.  It is SO good.  By not boiling it, you keep those nutrients in the vegetable and don't lose them in the water.  And the oil adds a great nutty flavor that compliments the broccoli so well.  And truly, a dap will do ya.  It makes me want to try other fun oils, like walnut or hazelnut or grapeseed.

Anywhoo...I threw it all together and voila!

It was very tasty and tangy.  A pretty good teriyaki kit!  I also garnished with cilantro and sliced green onions.

There was plenty for two and another serving left over!  I kept about a cup of the plain, sauteed veggies on the side before adding to the sauce.  I'm going to take those to lunch tomorrow to try that new Asian dressing and to help round out some of those Indonesian-style noodles I made this weekend.

In a few minutes, I think I'm going to take a shower, then make more hot tea.  My chest congestion is coming on again (wasn't too bad today, but I noticed it got worse at night yesterday), so I'm hoping some steam and then lemon and honey will soothe it.

Good night!  Rest well!