Answers and Questions

As some of you may know, I have been dealing with chronic tailbone pain for almost a year now. It hurts when I am sitting and sleeping. It truly interferes with my life.
After bugging my doctor repeatedly, he finally sent me to a chiropractor. After two months of treatments with no relief, I finally convinced the chiropractor I needed an MRI.
The results? A cyst on the back of my tailbone.

Jerry came home last night with "Congratulations on your cyst!" flowers for me. He really is the sweetest and funniest man. We also cracked open a bottle of wine.
Frankly, we are both relieved to at least have a reason I have been in so much pain. Unfortunately the diagnosis leads to more questions on how this is treated. Will I need a surgeon? If so, vascular or spinal? Can it be done locally? Will it recur? And on and on. Hopefully I will have more answers on treatments later this week.

Dinner last night was delicious. This may have been due to the fact that we didn't eat until 9pm and I was starving, but I will share the recipe anyways. It was Meatless Monday and I was inspired by Mama Pea's Spanish Quinoa (also in her book).

Spanish Quinoa and Vegetables

• 1 cup quinoa, rinsed (can be found in the bulk section or organic section of your grocery store)
• 2 cups water
• 2 Tbls olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 1-2 jalapeno, minced
• any other veggies you like (I used 2 ears of corn and one small zucchini)
• garlic, 3 cloves minced
• 1 Tbls chili powder
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 15oz can of tomato sauce or puree

Add the quinoa and water to a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and then cover and simmer about 20 minutes, or until the water is absorbed.
In a large pan, saute all of your vegetables in the olive oil until soft. Add your spices and tomatoes and simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in quinoa.

As the temperature was a little cooler yesterday, this warm and spicy dinner tasted just right. I loved the snap from the fresh corn. Jerry is not a huge quinoa fan and even he loved it. He ate his with extra onions and cheese.

This will definitely be a Meatless Monday keeper, especially during the winter months. The whole thing cost me less than $8 to make and will easily feed 4 hungry people.

When I woke up to rain this morning, I decided to postpone my run until after work. 4 miles this afternoon, so BodyPump will have to wait until Thursday. I hate to miss BodyPump but half marathon training has to come first!

Should I continue to review the wines we drink? Would you like to see them on a separate page?