Hospital Food

Today is five weeks since my surgery, and while I still have to limit myself with some things I am feeling much more myself again. Hurrah! I go back to work next week, so this week is a mix of doing some bits and pieces and also getting some final rest in. My procedure required an overnight stay, which made me anxious for a number of reasons. Of course one of those was wondering about food. The pre-admissions nurse I spoke to recommended I pack some extra snacks, and I was going to do that regardless. I went in with loads of peanut butter Clif Bars, BBQ Shapes, chocolate, and a just-add-water congee cup. But I was did not have to dip into them much. What a surprise!

My lunch was delivered right after I arrived in my room, when I was still zonked in and out of being awake because they had given me a super strong pain killer. So by the time I started thinking I might want to eat a little bit, it was mostly room temperature. Also it was difficult to eat, as I could only sit up with the assistance of the bed and it was just awkward positioning. I skipped over the soup entirely, I could tell that would be a disaster. I started with just nibbling on a breadroll, and then poked around the main a bit. I wasn't super hungry. My lunch was vegan singapore noodles, but they had used sweet chili sauce in them so they were a bit spicy. I mostly ate the vegetables (minus the capsicum), and a little bit of the noodles. The real star of the meal was the soy custard. That was good. Excellent for someone who had recently had major surgery.



Dinner arrived. Because I was super out of it I did not have a chance to select my dinner option, they just gave me a vegan one. It was a mild korma. The other thing I could have gotten was a vegan option of the Mexican-style salad. Again, it came with tomato soup but when I actually looked on the menu this was not listed as vegan, so I just skipped it to be safe. The mild korma was, spoiler alert, not mild to me. It was OK, but really pushed up against my (admittedly non-existant) tolerance. I again nibbled on a bread roll, and had some fruit salad to cool it down. Sadly, instead of delicious soy custard they gave me coconut yoghurt. I got them to put it back in the kitchen so it could be used again as I could not eat it.



A bit later on, I did have a Clif Bar as I was starting to feel a bit hungrier. Also shout out to the night nurse who brought me a kidney dish so I could brush my teeth in bed, as I wasn't allowed to get up and I desperately needed to clean them before I could sleep.

Morning came, and I had been able to select my meal the previous day. There were two vegan options! Avocado and sourdough toast, or pancakes. I know, I know, pancakes! But I went with the avocado toast. Also some baked beans. And All Bran with prunes. It is important to get on the fibre train asap after a surgery!! You want to get your guts back into working order as quickly as possible.



There was nothing vegan on the morning tea trolley, but I got some peppermint tea (I had to prove I could pee properly three times before I could go home, and peppermint tea is a diuretic, so I had a plan), and I nibbled on some BBQ shapes from my stash.

My final meal in hospital was lunch. I picked the vegan option of the pomodora pasta, as I figured it might be bland but at least would not be spicy. And I was correct! It was a perfectly find lunch of pasta with vegetables and tomato sauce. Also a breadroll (yes, as you can see they came with Nuttelex, a vegan spread!) and another cup of that delicious soy custard.



I was delightfully surprised that I was well fed during my time in hospital! I only wish that they didn't have spicy food as so many of the options. Not just because of my own preferences, but I feel like spicy food and being in hospital don't necessarily mix that well. But still, it was great to see vegan options (plural) for each meal. Apparently they are soon switching to an upgraded room service menu. While I am curious if there will be some new vegan options on there, I am in no hurry to go back and find out!

How have your experiences with hospital food been?

A few bonus photos! My mum made me a vegan chocolate cake for me to snack on when I got home!



And one of my friends, who has had a hysterectomy, found these amazing cookies online and had them delivered. I had never heard of this brand. They are not all vegan, but their vegan cookie box includes chocolate chip, choc hazelnut, cookies and cream (with oreos cut up through it), and Biscoff chocolate (which is stuffed with Biscoff spread!). They were huge, and so good!





Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Are you wondering what miss Abby thought of all of this? I had to get up at 4am on the morning of my procedure to wash my body and hair with special stuff before my early admission time. Abby was extremely concerned, followed me around meowing, even let me pick her up for a hug and didn't stop purring! When I got home the following afternoon, she was extremely suspicious initially, but then became a happy and purry little snuggle bunny. Then at night she jumped on top of me and stuck her foot right over one of my suture sites! Good work Abby!

Mabon 2022

This year seems to be flying by, and here in the southern hemisphere we recently passed the autumn equinox, which is known as Mabon in the wheel of the year if you follow the sabbats. My recovery is also flying by, I can't believe it is almost five weeks since the surgery! I have been getting myself back into life by setting an alarm every morning, doing some arm exercises (seeing as I still can't do anything that engages my core), doing little drives, things like that. Also cooking a bit more!

Mabon aka Autumn Equinox (21st of March, 2022)

Although it is autumn, it is definitely still warm in Australia. With that in mind, I often make an Autumn-inspired salad! Though it looks like last year it was cool enough to make some chilli! But the start of this week was quite warm still, though we have at least had some cooler mornings. I also didn't make this on actual Mabon, as our grocery deliver was cancelled and rescheduled for the next day. But the intent was still there for when I finally did get to make it!

Minted Couscous with Spinach, Butternut Squash, and Currants from Chloe's Kitchen by Chloe Coscarelli: I made a half recipe of this, which made two big serves. I love pearl couscous! I hardly ever use it, but when I do I always fall in love all over again. The couscous is cooked in vegetable stock, which gives the salad a lot of flavour. It doesn't have a dressing as such, just the flavour of all the ingredients, but it works well! The butternut is roasted, which is always a winner. The recipe actually calls for rocket (arugula), but I used baby spinach instead as I am not a fan. I also added some peas for fun, and served it with some Field Roast Apple Sage sausage, which seemed autumny.
Rating: :)



And normally I would also make some sort of dessert... but I didn't. I am still getting back into the swing of things after surgery, so I took it easy on myself. However I had extra butternut pumpkin, so a couple of days later I made another recipe that also seemed very autumnal. So I'll share that here as well.

Curried Lentil, Squash, and Apple Stew from Chloe's Kitchen by Chloe Coscarelli: This is a slow simmering stew, that takes a bit of time but most of it is hands off and it is very easy. I was worried initially that it might be too sweet, but the flavours combined to make a wonderful savoury base with the sweet pumpkin and apple in it. I only had 1/3 of a cup of lentils, rather than the full 1/2 cup. I soaked them overnight to make sure they cooked well. I did need to add a bit of extra water when I added the pumpkin and apple. I only used 1tsp of mild curry power, which was perfect. It was a rainy night when I made this, which was just right.
Rating: :D



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Abby and Boo! Chilling near each other in the sun room! Amazing! It isn't always so chill. Boo still chases Abby sometimes, and then gets upset when Abby stands her ground. Such a naughty little sister! But it is nice that they can also spend time in the same vicinity as each other sometimes.

Midweek Munchies

Hey friends! I'm still here. I didn't really think I'd need to take so much time off blogging. Turns out, recovery from major surgery needs to be respected, even if it doesn't look that major from the outside! I've been doing OK, just realised I can't push myself through to recover from this quicker, I have to actually take the time to rest and recover. And sitting at my laptop for too long causes some abdominal discomfort, so I have been catching up on blogs, but then felt a bit too much to continue on to do a blog.

But here is a blog! Just a simple little midweek munchies. It is Wednesday, so it is accurate!

Pringles! The thing I love about Pringles is they have a handly little ticked vegan box on the flavours that are vegan. The Southern Style BBQ Ribs were absolutely delicious! But of course they are a limited edition so I cannot get them anymore. The veggie creations one were also really nice too, I would get them again.



My mum got my a box of vegan chocolates by Only Mine for Christmas. These were the vegan truffles. There are five flavours: Salted Lime, Orange, Raspberry, Lemon Peppermint, and Chipotle. I nibbled on a bit of a chipotle one for science, but they were definitely too spicy for me so I gave the rest of them to my parents. The other flavours were really good! Every time I dipped into the box, I would change which one was my favourite. So I defiitely recommend them!



I am not a huge jam eater, but I love fun jam flavours. So of course when I found a place online that sold all these St Dalfours flavours I had never heard of before, I had to go big or go home. It was a flat rate for shipping, so I was determined to make it count! For full transperency, I got the french grape and dark cherry flavours at Woolworths, but I figured I'd just stick them all in this photo. Have I opened any of them yet? No! When will I? Who knows! But am I feeling good that I have all these exciting jam flavours? Sure am! Which one do you think you would most like to try?



I got this granola at Woolworths, and it was nice flavour but it was really a toasted muesli and not a granola. I like crunchy clumps in my granola. I ended up using this as a base for overnight oats a lot, which was good.



Some more Only Mine chocolates, these time their little vegan ganache filled presents. Unfortunately, these were not great. The chocolate left a funny taste in my mouth.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Something pretty major and exciting that has happened over the last several weeks is that Abby has started coming downstairs during the day! At first I had to coax her a bit, but now she pops down several times a day. She really likes the sunroom, and this is her sitting on top of the scratching post in there. It may not seem like much, but it is a massive step for this wary little scaredy cat. She is becoming so much braver, and it is magnificent watching her blossom.

Midweek Munchies

Hello friends, I live! I had my surgery last week, and spent a night in hospital, but was thankfully able to go home the next day. Goodbye uterus! They found adenomyosis and benign glandular tumours in my uterus, plus some endometriosis. So it definitely needed to go. A long road of advocating for my right to be rid of it, and I am so glad it is done! I still have a few weeks of recovery left until things are back to normalish, but thought I'd try a short blog post.

These are all munchies from pre-surgery times. I will at some point talk about my hospital food. But for now, let's enjoy these treats.

I got these sausages from Aldi, on one of the very few times I have been in. I just find Aldi stressful, plus the ones near me never seem to have all the amazing vegan stuff other people are getting. But these sausages were pretty good. I used some in a recipe, but had one left over that I stuck in a hotdog roll with cheese, ketchup, mustard and fried shallots.





A fun little dinner using one of the Coles Christmas Roasts I had leftover (I still have another one in the freezer), some of the Kraft Vegan Mac and Cheese, and some green beans you can just microwave steam right in the bag. The roast comes with chutney, which is the sauce used over this.





I also used some of the leftover roast, mac and cheese, and chutney to make a toasted sandwich for lunch the next day.



Finally, I bought this Ben & Jerry's Non-Dairy Netflix and Chill ages ago, and unearthed it from my freezer to finally try. I really liked it, especially the peanut butter flavoured ice cream. Would eat again.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Random photo for today is this lovely one of Possum, who was our handsome family kitty.