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Hello, friends and fellow home cooks!
This is my weekly newsletter (it’s one day late), which includes 7 weeknight meals + 3 healthy salads (for the week of September 2-8, 2024), and a brief life update.
7 weeknight meals + 3 healthy salads
DAY 1: Creamy Chicken Pasta with Green Beans and Bacon
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DAY 2: Mexican Street Corn and Shrimp (30 Minutes, One-Pan)
DAY 3: Greek Salmon Salad with Spinach, Tomatoes, Olives, Feta, and Lemon Balsamic Dressing
DAY 4: Pan-Seared Flank Steak with Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato and Spinach Orzo (30 Minutes, One-Pan)
DAY 5: Stuffed Spaghetti Squash with Broccoli, Sausage, and Cheddar Cheese
DAY 6: Chicken with Apricots and Honey-Lime Sauce (30-Minute, One-Pan Meal). You can use peaches, nectarines, plums, or apples instead of apricots. Or, soak dried apricots briefly in a pot of boiling water to plump them up, drain them well, and slice them up.
DAY 7: Ham Spaghetti Pasta with Spinach, Burrata Cheese, Crushed Pistachios, and Lemon Butter Sauce. It’s a great recipe for lunch ham meat or any packaged sliced ham. You can also use fresh Mozzarella cheese (soft balls or a sliced log) instead of Burrata.
SALAD 1: Arugula Salad with Apples, Dried Cranberries, Pecans, and Balsamic Dressing
SALAD 2: Beet and Apple Salad with Mixed Greens, Pecans, Blue Cheese, and homemade Honey-Lemon Mustard Dressing. Perfect for roasted, boiled, marinated, or pickled beets!
SALAD 3: Strawberry Orange Salad with Spinach, Arugula, Toasted Sliced Almonds, and Feta Cheese
LIFE UPDATE
It’s been a bit of a hectic week, and I’ve been in constant catch-up mode, having to solve many problems and handle numerous tedious tasks and minutiae. On top of that, I’ve had more doctor’s appointments in the last 30 days than I’d like. I was unexpectedly diagnosed with severe anemia, so serious that it needs immediate attention, and it cannot be put on a back burner.
My July lab results were alarming, with nearly all of my red blood cell metrics flagged with High Alert notifications. For example, my Ferritin 5 ng/mL (normal range should be 15-150), Iron 12 ug/dL (normal range should be 17-159), Iron Saturation 3% (normal range should be 15-55%), Hemoglobin 7.7 g/dL (normal range is 11.1 – 15.9). Anemia is typically categorized as mild, moderate, or severe. Unfortunately, all my numbers fall into the “severe” category, which explains why my doctor kept persistently trying to reach me on the phone in the last 3 weeks.
Living at 9,000 feet, my red blood cell count should be high (as it usually has been), but right now, I’m operating with the bare minimum. In fact, my red blood cell count is currently much lower than it should be, even for someone at sea level. My iron absorption is almost nonexistent at 3% (compared to the normal 50%), leading to dangerously low hemoglobin levels. This means there’s hardly any oxygen being carried through my blood to my lungs, muscles, and other vital organs. It all makes sense now—I’ve been consistently 20 minutes slower on my usual hikes and couldn’t push myself harder without nearly passing out. This has been happening for a year and a half now. My initial instinct was to ignore all of this for a while with the hope that the anemia resolves itself on its own since I have so much on my plate right now and so much to catch up on. But then I realized that would be foolish—it could actually be life-threatening. So, I’ve started taking it seriously by taking supplements, eating plenty of red meat, and regularly incorporating chicken liver, beets, Vitamin C into my diet to boost my iron levels.
Unfortunately, because of all that hecticness, I got thrown off my usual routines, which I always find frustrating.
On a brighter note, even though I’ve been bogged down with many tedious tasks and dealing with my anemia that showed up out of nowhere, I’m happy to say I’m finally catching up. I’ve started filming new recipes and have already photographed four new amazing recipes with red meat, with plans to do many more this week. And, of course, I’ve made sure to get outside and hike three times a week—that always helps me stay grounded.
I wish everybody a great week filled with delicious food, fun conversations at the dinner table, good mood, energy, and happiness. Be healthy, and do a complete CBC blood test at least once a year!
