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Thursday, August 15, 2013

Puree of Summer Squash soup

I love to make blended soup, but it's harder to do in the summer because who really feels like making a pureed soup when it's hot?

The other week I had an abundance of fresh summer squash from my aunt's garden.  I didn't want any of it to go bad so I thought what can I do with a few of them? Soup puree!

I made it exactly like I make all my puree of "insert vegetable here.' with onion and chicken broth (or you could use vegetable broth to make it vegetarian friendly. 

You will need: olive oil, one onion, two big summer squash, about 3 - 4 cups of chicken broth and salt and pepper to taste.

1. Cut up the onion and saute it over medium heat in a splash of olive oil, salt and pepper it while it cooks for several minutes, until translucent. 


2. Cut up the summer squash and add it to the cooked onion.  Let it cook for a few minutes.


3. Add the broth and bring it to a boil for about 15 minutes (I add just enough broth to be about an inch over the squash.)  Then put it in the blender and puree.  (Be very careful with the hot liquid, hold the top on very tight!) 


4. Add salt and pepper to taste, you can also thin it out with more broth if needed.  


Thursday, August 8, 2013

NY Visit

I am having reflux again (which likely is the cause of my first lungs going bad) so we have been doing some testing to see why it's happening again - since I had a previous stomach wrap to stop reflux.  My test was early so I stayed in the city the night before at my friend Aly's apartment.  We were able to have a nice dinner out.  On Wednesday morning I had an esophagram.  This test is performed by drinking a barium substance (think chalk.) They lay you on a table and start to take imagines with a moving xray.  Then they tilt the table up and down and move you from side to side and all around to try and make reflux happen.  The radiologist told me he didn't see any reflux but this is a pretty unreliable test.  It only showed reflux in 1 in 3 people who have it.  So we are going to attempt another test at a different hospital in Manhattan to see if there is reflux happening.  They have seen evidence of reflux in my bronchoscopy and endoscopy procedures.  My throat always looks raw and inflamed which is evidence of reflux coming up, but they want more before they go in and tighten my wrap. 
esophagram

post esophagram lunch


Tuesday, August 6, 2013

I'm back!

Hi all of you beautiful people that I have neglected the past year! I apologize! I guess the good news is, that means things have been going great here with lungs pair number 2! I haven't really had any major bumps in the road with my lungs (just a minor fungal infection that we took care of right away) and so far so good! Things have been different the second time around for sure... I still experience pain and discomfort (which I never had with lungs number 1!) my lung function remains much lower than my first pair, and my kidneys took a hit from my second surgery so we are watching them closely! But I AM BREATHING and I AM ALIVE, so what could be better?

I am working on writing a memoir about my journey, so I would love to start blogging again as much as possible, to share my life with you guys again! I hope that you will return and share with me what is going on on your life!

PS.  Amazingly my little guy Pazzo, with all his health problems and old age, is still kicking!