I'm baa-aaack.....

Today, I'm 17 weeks along.  But the big news today?  I cooked, I ate, and I enjoyed it.  Even though I've been feeling well enough to eat for a few weeks, it's been slow progress.  I'm able to eat a little more each week, but until today, anything I spent time cooking (and smelling), I had little appetite to eat afterwards.  Today has been monumental.  I came home from work and made two kinds of food and ate both of them, enjoying every bit of both the cooking and the eating.  I have missed this process so much- cooking is by far one of my favorite pastimes, and I've really been frustrated by not enjoying eating what I've been cooking.  In time, I've come to realize that what I love about cooking is breaking down food, combining it, cooking it, and creating something that tastes better than the ingredients on their own.  When I don't like the end result, the process loses its appeal, too.  

This afternoon, I enjoyed both the creative process and the end result.  I made cauliflower soup based on this recipe from epicurious.com.  Mine is a little orangish because I added some carrots and other veggies for nutritional variety and also added nutritional yeast, a great source of vitamin B12 and protein that gives the soup a slightly cheesy flavor.  I also made Spanish tortilla, a traditional Spanish dish of potatoes and eggs (I added eggs to my diet a few weeks ago as an additional source of protein- a specific concern while I was eating less).  I added some grated zucchini and topped it with a dusting of Spanish hot smoked paprika.  I loved tortilla when I lived in Spain and, since the dish is traditionally served chilled, it's easy to eat the leftovers.  Although eating leftovers has been another challenge while I haven't felt well, I'm hoping the mild flavors in the soup and tortilla will go over well multiple times.  If not, I'll just have to have Mark and Todd over for dinner!

Mmmm...  I'm off to go get seconds of both items.