Subway Discovery

Hi readers,
I am such a bad blogger. I apologize to anyone who may have read my first post and then returned to find that I had neglected my poor blog ever since. Although I suspect I have no readers yet. I like to think that someone out there is reading, even if they don't make their presence known.

As I mentioned in my first post, I may mention food in this blog from time to time, as my life seems to be ruled and fueled by it at this point in time. Thanks to the prednisone, my mind and stomach are non-stop food machines. It consumes my every thought. My obsession for buying new and expensive new clothes ended when I started gaining weight from the steroids, and my love for expensive specialty organic foods and new kitchen utensils began.

I put myself on a low salt, low fat diet as soon as I started the prednisone, because of bad experiences during my first go round with the medicine. About eight years ago, not really caring to read about the side effects of the drugs the first time around, during my first week (on 80mg a day) I indulged on my every foodie whim, and I paid for it. I gained 12 pounds in the first week, most of which was water. There was much painful fluid retention and ugly stretch marks to follow. My worst mistake was going to Chilli's, my favorite restaurant at the time. I ate the bottomless chips and salsa, chicken taco's, a mushroom Swiss burger, and a molten chocolate cake. Our waitress watched me in horror, or maybe disgust, or maybe a little bit of both. My legs swole to three times there normal size within about two hours and I couldn't walk for about two days. They sent me to a dietitian right away to tell me what a bad girl I had been. They basically told me that I could not eat anything that I normally ate. I pitched a hissy fit. I cried on the spot. I kicked, I scratched, I screamed, I insulted anyone who looked my direction. I suddenly went from 15 years old to 2. Despite the fit I pitched, the diet worked. I lost 13 pounds the next week, and stayed on the diet until well after the steroids were out of my system. This time, I didn't wait for my legs to swell up like a corps fished out of the Hudson. I took it upon myself to start the diet back, and I can't say that I am sorry I did. The diet forces you to be more adventurous with ingredients. You try new fresh produce, spices, new ways of preparation. I will go into more of this in future posts, but I just wanted to give a purpose for my many discussions of food to come.

My main revelation or discovery about food that I wanted to blog about today, which it took me so long to get to was my secret for a great lunch out at Subway. Living in a small town without many fast food options, and where most of those options involve fried chicken, which of coarse I can't have, my only choice for a quick meal out is Subway. Now, since I am on a low salt, low fat diet, I always go for a veggie salad (yes, that means no meat and no cheese)which is actually delicious. I get lettuce, spinach, bell pepper, tomato, black olives, cucumber, onion, and jalapeno. Now, here is the true secret, and my most recent discovery. Do not use any of their premade dressings, they are full of sodium and sugar. Don't even go near the fat free ones. My new trick is to ask for them to hose my salad down with their red wine vinegar. What's so special about that, you may ask? It doesn't end there. Then have them add just a touch of olive oil. Oh, and be careful to make sure and ask for the red wine vinegar. Don't just ask for vinegar and oil, or they will spray a premade mixture of the two on your salad, and you won't be able to control the amount of oil that goes in and you could end up with a much higher fat content than you want. Once, they have added a little bit or oil, ask for them to add a little squirt of their spicy mustard, and then top it off with black pepper and oregano. When they hand you your salad it will have a lovely plastic sealed top on it which makes it perfect for shaking and mixing your dressing. Shake it like you've never shaken anything in your life. Flip up and down and all around. Don't be afraid of looking silly. Once the vinegar, oil, mustard, pepper, and oregano have been mixed together, you've guessed it, it makes a wonderful homemade vinaigrette. The mustard acts as an emulsifier, and really helps the vinegar and oil to coat each shred of lettuce and each piece of vegetable. I hope this little tid bit helps you out. I promise from the bottom of my foodie heart that it is really delicious.

I won't say that I will post again tomorrow, because that has already turned out to be a disasterous claim, so I will just say that I will blog again soon!