The Delinquent Blogger

I've been very delinquent in updating but am trying to catch up with a few posts so here we go...

We are now only 5 weeks away from the due date! I continue to negotiate with baby Ko in the hopes that she will come a few weeks early with a relatively small head and narrow shoulders. Gestational diabetes hasn't been nearly as bad as I thought it would be. This is, of course, because I cheat. The best example to date is the dinner I had a Boulevard this past Friday. Cheating has never been quite so delicious...

Boulevard

Cuisine: French

1 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 543-6084 Reserve Online
www.boulevardrestaurant.com


Hours:
* Mon-Fri 11:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m.
* Mon-Wed, Sun 5:30 p.m.-10:00 p.m.
* Thu-Sat 5:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m.

Website: http://www.boulevardrestaurant.com/
Address: 1 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94105
Telephone: 415.543.6084

What we ate:
Foie Gras with toast and currant sauce
Hamachi Sashimi with Daikon Salad
Roasted Veal Filet with Sauteed Shrimp
Wood Oven Roasted Iowa Berkshire Prime Rib Pork Chop with Butternut Mashed Potatoes and Roasted Quince
Chocolate Medley Dessert
Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches with Chocolate Fondue and Berries
Lychee Juice with Club Soda

My overall assessment of Boulevard, while positive, is that it wasn't really amazing. I would give it 3 out of 4 stars. Comparing it to a restaurant we recently went to and loved, Quince, Boulevard didn't give us more than what we expected: great ambience and solid food but no surprises. I didn't feel like doing cartwheels after I ate dinner like I did at Quince when I tasted their pesto sauce. It was to die for. I was full and happy with the meal from Boulevard but I didn't feel any exclamation points.


The one exclamation point I felt was after I cheated and ate a Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich with chocolate fondue and found that my blood glucose level was low enough to warrant yet another serving of carbs! The company we ate with was great and the building is truly beautiful but I can't say that it was everything I hoped it would be. I have to say, though, cheating on this gestational diabetes diet was truly divine!

Fajitas para me

My heart goes out to diabetics everywhere. I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes a couple of weeks ago which hopefully means I only deal with this condition for another two months. Then it's back to full on gluttony with respect to chocolate dipped ice cream, french fries, and white bread.

We've been trying out a bunch of different foods just to see how it affects me versus him. I was saddened to see that the In 'n Out double-double (despite the reassurances of my dietician) caused my blood sugar to go above the desired 130 limit. Albert's blood sugar had already self-regulated down to a 93... and he had had the whole plate of fries with ketchup.

Still, there are lots of things I can eat that are quite tasty. My favorite so far has been our version of the fajitas so here is the recipe:

Chicken Fajitas for the Diabetic who loves to eat

1 whole wheat tortilla
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella
1/2 purple onion
1 chicken breast
1 orange bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
1/2 avocado
bunch of cilantro
salsa (as much as you want - go crazy because this barely has any carbs)

Cut the chicken, onion, and peppers. First sautee the chicken. Salt to taste and add course ground pepper. When the chicken has almost fully cooked, add the onion and peppers. Continue to sautee until the the onions are fully cooked and slightly translucent. On a separate frying pan, heat the tortilla and sprinkle the shredded mozzarella over the tortilla. Warm until the cheese has melted. Slice the avocado. Over the tortilla, add the chicken, onion and peppers. Add the sliced avocado, cilantro and salsa and you are ready to eat!

These fajitas were tasty and kept my blood sugar level fairly low. It should be pretty healthy as it's not too high in fat (except for the cheese). I'll keep adding recipes that end up working for me!

Girls girls girls

56 more days until the due date!

It feels like I've been pregnant forever. Now, I have the look to go along with the feeling. The belly is pronounced. I waddle. I even let out that unattractive grunt when I bend over to pick things up.

With a daughter on the way, I look at my niece who is four years old now and think of how quickly those years have flown by. My brother and his daughter came for a visit from Japan a week ago. I think she's great and that feeling only grows when she tells me how great she thinks I am. My mom asked her:

"Michele, what do you want to be when you grow up?"
"I want to be just like Reiko."

Al and Michele
Originally uploaded by amiura.

Of course, that also meant she wanted to have a baby. We had to explain to her that she had to first study and become a big girl (possibly getting a Ph.D. in some scientific or engineering field) before she could have a big belly just like Reiko.

I took her to Palo Alto Toy and Sports World to buy her something. She immediately rushed to the pink corner of the store where they had dress up costumes for princesses and her favorite Calico Corner toys. I brought her back to the front of the store where they had Legos and "build yourself a robot"-type toys in an effort to expand her horizons into more engineering focused toys. Isn't that why they say boys are more likely to become scientists and engineers than girls? Michele's response was textbook.

"Michele, what do you think of this really cool machine we can build that will dig up dirt using a remote control?"
"Um, Reiko... that's a toy for boys."
"Michele, this is not a toy for boys. It's a mechanical toy that is completely unisex."
"Um, Reiko... I want the Calico Corner doll set."
"But, if you want the mechanical toy, you can have them both."
"That's ok. I don't want it."
SIGH....

After all, she is only four. She loves pink. She loves dolls. She loves playing make believe. If you ask her to pound your shoulders with her fists, she'll patiently do it for more than ten minutes. She pretends to like soy milk because I'm drinking it. She's fiercely competitive and has a deep love of learning new things. If I pronounce new words to her in English, she repeats them back to me until she gets it right. So even if she doesn't love the mechanical toy that I probably would have hated at four as well, I think she has so much ahead of her. I look at my belly which shifts and moves even as I type this and think of what this little girl will love and what she will say that will make me laugh years later.