Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Health Food Ahoy!

Last month, Boyfriend got his blood tested and his cholesterol is through the roof. The maximum amount of cholesterol a person should have - he's got twice that amount. But if you looked at his diet last year when he was living alone, you wouldn't be surprised. I'm sure you've all heard horror stories about what males living alone survive on. Eggo waffles. Hotdogs. Canned foods. Cup noodles. McDonalds. It's not that Boyfriend can't cook. He just lost the motivation do so, having a soul-sucking 6 day a week job which left him with no energy except to sleep and watch TV. On top of that, he has this morbid curiosity about combinations of food that can only be described as revolting. He got to the point where boiling ramen was too much work. He ate cream of mushroom soup straight out of the can. He ate half a package of ham for lunch. Not ham sandwiches, mind you, just the ham. He ate ketchup on rice, with crabsticks. And possibly mayo. He snacked on cocktail cheese sausages as if they were potato chips. Vegetables were either of the frozen variety, or a can o' corn.

So now he's on medication and he's not allowed to have red meat, eggs, junk food, processed meats, or full cream dairy anymore. We read labels for trans fats (especially horrible in Asia where they put palm oil in everything packaged). We made hummus (it's too expensive to buy ready made here). We bought olive oil (also crazy expensive here). I'm grilling the chicken. I'm steaming the fish. I'm steaming the veggies. We're looking into cheese substitutes, butter substitutes, and meat substitutes. I'm buying those plain white Shanghai noodles instead of the eggy kind. And rice vermicelli. We replaced ham with smoked chicken because turkey costs too much. Tofu is our friend.

But now I'm craving cookies all the time. I open the fridge, look at the food, close the fridge, walk around the apartment, open the fridge again, and sigh. Oh, what I'd do for a chocolate chip cookie...

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Posted by Kea to Bumbling Bees - Food at 7/25/2006 01:26:00 PM

3 comments:

greeeenwithenv said...

Lordy! Poor BF, but even poorer Kea! I cannot be deprived of chocolate chip cookies. I cannot. But aren't there some "healthy" cookie recipes out there that are made of unprocessed this and low-fat that? Probably won't taste as good, though. :p

Lana said...

There are lots of good things you can eat that are healthy!! Although, I think healthy eating is a little more of a challenge in HK. Celery. Celery is good. And you can try grilling/broiling fish if steaming it gets old; it's also more fragrant. And, since it's probably hot and muggy over there, how about cold soba noodles?

Hang in there, Kea, and keep your junk food at work!

Kea said...

Waaaaah! But I work from home! *sniff* If one good thing came out of this though, it's that I discovered the wonder of toasted sesame seeds. MMmm. Sesame noodles.