Sleep Whisperer

I went to visit Tony before work yesterday.  I normally leave my house around 8:10 in the morning and my 16 mile commute takes me about 30-35 minutes.  There usually isn’t too much of a back up because I take the back roads to work where the two lanes are 55 mph.  Nice.  Yesterday?  It took me 35 minutes to drive 5.5 miles to the hospital.  I left my house at 6:55 and didn’t get there until 7:30.  But I have commuter trains that time of day that back traffic up and it was a gloomy, rainy day.  (I was at a complete stop for the record)

Tony said he slept pretty well, but he still looked really tired.  I ended up staying for about 45 minutes before I had to head into work.  I ended up grabbing my breakfast at the hospital cafeteria – I had strawberries in my bag, but I picked up an English muffin, scrambled eggs and bacon to make a breakfast sammie when I got to work.  $2 – nice!

I wanted to leave work at 4, so I worked through lunch.  The doctors normally start their rounds from 5:00 on, and I didn’t want to miss that.  I will post this recipe later because it was awesome.  Kind of like the lasagna soup you know I am crazeballs for, but this time I used potato gnocchi (my store sells a 1 pound package for ,99 cents) and Jennie-O turkey hot Italian sausage.  Wowza, is that stuff flavorful spicy!  I didn’t even have time to take a picture at work it was so busy, but I took a picture over the weekend when I made it.  Only 1/4 cup of heavy cream to make this soup seem so rich.  This was super filling too.

I rushed to get all my work done and was out the door at 4:01.  When I got to the room, Tony had just gotten back from the x-ray of his esophagus, and while there didn’t seem to be any apparent blockage, his GI doctor said he was going to look at the video sometime today to see how the esophagus is working.  Later today he’ll get the scope that goes down his throat to see if there are any varices, and are running tests on his liver function.

Tony and I have been down this road so many times – I don’t think there has been a year he hasn’t been in the hospital for one reason or another since 2007.  I had forgotten that I am the sleep whisperer!  Typically he will fall asleep within minutes of me getting there.  I think he just feel safe with me being there and can just finally relax and let go.  Um, can you tell I had a bit of fun with picmonkey?!

Around 5:45 he woke up and sent me downstairs to get dinner before the cafeteria closed.  All the cooked food looked like ass, and I didn’t feel like a greasy burger or grilled cheese and tater tots.  Yep, that was the special last night – for $4 you got a grilled cheese on choice of bread with tater tots – add bacon – just a dollar more!  I got a salad:  mixed greens, black beans, kidney beans, chick peas, carrots, banana peppers, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds – oh, and maybe just maybe a chicken tender was added to it at the last minute!  They had no low fat or fat free dressing, so I mixed in 1 part ranch to 2 parts balsamic vinegar – this was delicious actually!

Tony ended up kicking me out last night at 8:00.  I could tell he was tired but felt like he had to stay awake for me.   As I left the hospital, it finally stopped raining – the clouds looked pretty cool though!

So over the weekend I posted my picture of my homemade pitas.  I had a dozen people asking when I was going to post the recipe, and since I got home earlier than usual from the hospital last night, I decided to post it today.  My store normally sells pitas for $3.99 for 6.  But they are really thick and have between 35 and a whopping 50 grams of carbs each!   I used this recipe for inspiration, although I disagree with the second rising of the dough, and I cook mine on a non-stick skillet instead of baking them.  I also made mine thinner, so I got 16 pitas for this recipe – each one comes in at 105 calories, 2 fat, 18.9 carbs, .8 fiber and 2.6 protein.

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:37]

No need to cover the dough either while these cooked – the dough didn’t dry out at all.

Once the dough hits the hot pan, bubbles form on the top.  So when you flip the pita, the bubbles are the first thing to touch the heat on the flip side, so you get these gorgeous brown marks on the pita.

I had a breakfast pita on Monday morning that I never posted because of Tony going to the hospital – and I had chicken gyros on my menu later this week that will have to be put on another day.  I ended up freezing these on a cookie sheet for 20 minutes, then putting them in a freezer bag.  They actually come right back to life just putting them in a toaster.

Alright, I am off to the hospital again before work.  Can you guys keep a secret?  Don’t tell Tony I left the basement light on all day yesterday, mkay?!