Mandajuice

Gastric Bypass Surgery: Part SIX of [many]

The main reason I had gastric bypass surgery was not just that I was fat and couldn't lose weight.  Sure, OBVIOUSLY there was that, but mainly I was too fat to get pregnant naturally and I was too afraid to try fertility treatments.  I know it seems crazy to choose to have my guts cut open and drastically rearranged BEFORE popping a few Clomid, but that was the choice I made.  I feared that there was a REASON my body wasn't getting pregnant and I was worried that if I forced the issue and got pregnant before I lost weight, I would have a high risk pregnancy.  I also knew that getting pregnant might cause me to gain even more weight and that afterwards, I'd have even more trouble dieting.  Also, surgery was covered by my insurance and fertility treatments weren't.  It didn't turn out to be that hard of a decision at all.

Basically, I wasn't ovulating, hadn't ovulated for years and I had all the symptoms of Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome.  Even though I never had an ultrasound to check for the cysts themselves, my blood work was textbook PCOS.  High testosterone, wonky estrogen, you name it.  For years I took ovulation predictor tests like my life depended on it and never once got a positive result.  I got a period every 90 days or so, but it was basically brought on by gravity, not hormones.  I had to go on birth control pills every few months just to make sure I had a real period.  It was bad.

Both my primary care physician (the one who recommended me for the surgery) and the surgeons themselves said the same thing:  after you loose weight, getting pregnant will be a cinch.  One of them actually used the phrase "oodles of babies."  Both doctors also gave me the same strict advice: WAIT AT LEAST ONE YEAR BEFORE TRYING TO GET PREGNANT. 

Fat stores estrogen, so when you lose weight, you basically pee pure estrogen and become a huge raging ball of crazy hormones.  I got my first period at exactly 30 days post-op.  The surgery completely restarted my biological clock.  I started ovulating again and got my period every 30 days from then on.  Which of course meant I needed to go on birth control to prevent getting pregnant while I was still losing weight so quickly.  After the first month, I went to my OBGYN to try to figure something out.  It turned out to be harder than I anticipated.  I couldn't take the pill because early post-ops have difficulty absorbing nutrients in pill form.  I couldn't take the birth control shots because they can cause infertility for up to a year AFTER you stop taking them and I couldn't afford to wait that long for normal cycles to return.  You can't have an IUD until you've had a baby and I couldn't find anyone to give me that Norplant thing since it turns out doctors stopped prescribing them. 

I ended up trying the birth control patch.  Unfortunately, the patch is only guaranteed to work on women who weigh less than 200 pounds (I think! Check with your doctor!) and I wasn't there yet.  My doctor basically said to use condoms along with the patch.  For the record, I hated the patch.  Not only did it not work for me (I got my period in the middle of my cycle), but the stupid thing is disgusting.  It gets sticky all around the edges and you end up with this dirty, black lint-rimmed band-aid on your ass, which is just SO sexy and then you have to take it off and put a new one in a different spot and you end up with all these dirty, sticky patches of skin all over you.  SO GROSS.  I knew it wasn't working, so I quickly stopped using it and instead of using condoms, Dave and I decided it was better to, uh, how should I put this, not make any deposits and that worked just fine for us.

Until it didn't.

Two days after Christmas, on December 27, 2002, Dave left a deposit even though he knew he wasn't really supposed to and that I might get pregnant.  It wasn't an accident, either.  At the time I was selfishly a little miffed because I had my eyes on THE GOAL WEIGHT, but figured we were okay.  I mean, we'd been actively TRYING to get pregnant for several years with zero luck, so what was ONE slip-up?!  No big deal.  I wrote an "OOPS" on my calendar that day and then promptly forgot about it.  The sex had been awesome enough to make up for it anyhow.  (Losing weight and getting smaller?  DOES HELP!)

Two weeks later I went to take off my bra in my usual fashion, which is to unhook the back and yank it off in one fell swoop, letting my sweater pups fly (or in my case, flop) where they will.  Only this time I YELPED.  The pain was TERRIBLE.  I had never had such sore breasts in my entire life.  I knew that was an early pregnancy symptom so I put my cycle information into an ovulation calendar and realized that I had almost definitely been ovulating on the night of our infamous "oops."  I wasn't technically due for my period for another few days because I'd been on a 30 day cycle, but every fiber in my being knew already that I was pregnant.

I remember walking into the bathroom to look at myself in the mirror.  I was terrified, I mean I wasn't even FIVE MONTHS post-op and every doctor I'd seen had warned me to wait a whole year before trying to get pregnant, but man, I was happy.  I remember smiling at myself and thinking, you're totally going to be someone's MOM.  It was the best feeling in the world.

[I realize this segment is taking FOREVER, so I'll continue it again later this week.  I've actually been hoping I'd be able to someday find the time to write a nonfiction book about pregnancy after weight-loss surgery, so I'll try not to ramble on too much more here.]

Life here is a good fit

This morning I completely baffled the physician at the walk-in clinic (he sat there with his laptop open randomly googling stuff in my medical history and asking me questions that indicated he was clearly out of his league).  I was promptly referred to endocrinology.  When I called there, I was told that I'd be contacted on Thursday to schedule an appointment.  In April.  Or March if there's a cancellation!  Until then, I'm watching my sugar intake and continuing to monitor my glucose level.  I'm noticing that carbs, even more so than candy, are the root of my evil. 

We had another busy weekend, in spite of my feeling somewhat slow and tired.  Bright and early Saturday morning we got to meet Sara (a mandajuice reader!) and her adorable son Ethan at Cafe Sip 'n Play, which was super fun.  Unfortunately I forgot my camera!  Then I took Alex on a date to go get a new remote control for the cable box (amazing how the kids can basically throw that thing around 800 times and it's fine and the ONE time Dave drops it, it dies) then to Wal-Mart, then to the paint store to help Carol choose her colors for the new house.  By that time I was exhausted and required a two hour nap before I could find the energy to get the house ready for our dinner company. 

Have I mentioned how much I love hosting people for dinner?!  It's not even so much about the food, since I rarely ever cook that much, I usually order a pizza or make something simple.  I just love that we finally have the space to have friends over and not feel cramped.  The kids disappear upstairs or in the back yard, the dad's go off to watch the sci-fi channel and the moms get to drink cocktails in the living room.  It's awesome.  The quality of the company ain't half bad either!  I love all of our new friends here.

Sunday we spent a lot of time outside enjoying the springy weather.  It's still cold, much, MUCH colder than I ever would've considered "springy" in California, but for Washington, it's a welcome break from the wet and we took full advantage of it.  It seems like the Winter may be over and all I can say is, THAT'S IT?!  People complain about the evil Northwest weather?!  I totally don't get it.  I thought Winter this year was the most fun one I've ever had.  I think it's fair to say that the constant cold and rain doesn't bother this California girl at all.  Not even the short days and dark skies managed to damper my usual obnoxious perk. 

Hypoglycemia

So it turns out my blood sugar is pretty wonky after all.  I've gotten into the routine of checking it more often, usually when I feel crappy, and it's even more clear to me that I have a problem.  I'm bottoming out after meals WAY too low.  Not that this means anything to non-diabetics, but my numbers are usually around 50 or less.  (I'm not diabetic, by the way; diabetes is the opposite problem- high blood sugar).

Technically, I was saving this for the gastric bypass surgery series, for the entry I still plan to write about alcohol and post-op plumbing, but I had an interesting episode two weeks ago that is initially what set this whole thing off.  I'd gone out with my friend Callie for a mom's night out  and over the course of three hours, I had three appletini's (which was really only two and a half since I spilled most of one of them) and about two-thirds of an order of onion rings. 

I drove home completely sober (thanks to my plumbing I get buzzed super fast and it wears off almost equally as fast), but within a few minutes of getting home, I had that feeling.  It's hard to describe, but if your blood sugar has ever dropped dangerously low, you'll relate.  Basically, I was dizzy, sweaty, frantic and my hands were shaking, in fact it felt like my whole body was shaking, and I was STARVING.  There is nothing quite like low-blood sugar hunger.  It's like your whole body becomes a giant quivering empty stomach.  It's HUNGRY.  You honestly feel like if you don't eat RIGHT THIS SECOND, you're absolutely going to die.

I remembered what I'd had to eat (basically nothing) and decided to take my blood sugar.  It was 35, which is catastrophically low. 

I started pounding sugar cookies and felt better within a few minutes, but that episode SCARED ME.  What if I'd hung out with Callie a little longer at the restaurant and driven home a little later?  If my blood sugar had dropped much lower, I probably would've passed out.  This is SO not good.

Taking my blood sugar has also been hugely eye-opening when it comes to my diet.  I've always been a sugar fiend -  my whole life.  I can't go more than a few hours without something sweet.  Even when I dieted before my surgery, I had to save room in my calorie count for candy or dessert of some kind every single day.  Cutting out sugar was a recipe for failure for me.  No matter how many times I tried, I couldn't do it.  The harder I tried to cut it from my diet, the worse I would binge.

So anyway, I've started taking my blood sugar reading every time I feel like I want something sweet.  And you know what?  My sugar cravings are not all in my head!  It's not the insane lack of self control I always assumed it was.  More than half the time I feel like I need a piece of candy, it's because I ACTUALLY NEED a piece of candy because my blood sugar is too low.  I realized I've been blaming myself MY WHOLE LIFE for bad eating habits (eating too much sugar) that are at least partly BIOLOGICAL. 

I'm sure that some part of this has to do with my surgery, but I'm quite positive I've always had a tendency toward low blood sugar.  When I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, I started monitoring my blood sugar to see if that was part of the problem.  One of the most common treatments for that kind of infertility is Metformin, a diabetes drug that regulates insulin, but because my blood sugar was already so low, they never considered that treatment as an option for me, not even when I was over 300 pounds. 

I'm sure my new plumbing is probably exacerbating the issue, but I'm not sure exactly how yet.  Beth, a fellow longer-term post-op has been suffering an even worse form of hypoglycemia (seizures!), so I'm not alone here.  I'm looking forward to getting to the bottom of it all and learning how I need to eat differently to prevent the lows.  I'm going to meet with my doctor next week to see what he says.  It's a start at least.  I'll keep you posted.

My appraisal: YUMMY

We've had a whirlwind few days here chez mandajuice.  On Friday, we had our house appraised for the refinance and I somehow convinced myself that if I got my house clean enough, the sparkle would make up for how much the market has dropped since we bought it.  This meant I spent all of Valentine's day not so much filled with love as with angst.  I spent a lot of time on my knees, but not in the way Dave would've preferred. 

By the time he got home for dinner, which I had been planning for two weeks, I was too exhausted to even look at the potato peeler and I told him as much and not in the nicest way possible.   So basically, I ruined Valentine's Day.  I asked for a do-over on Friday night, which he graciously accepted.

Yesterday Alex had the day off from school, so we headed to the local indoor play area with some friends.  Apparently, I had forgotten to tell Alex that we meeting said friends because he ran up to me about ten minutes after we got there and exclaimed, "HEY MOM!! LIAM'S HERE!!!" like it was the coolest coincidence ever.  So he got to run around and get some willies out.

Then we had some other friends over to play and Alex spent the afternoon chasing Joshua around with a plastic light saber.  Watching the boys play outside on a cold, but spring-like day filled me with satisfaction about our move here.  Our boy finally has a backyard and he loves it.  I'm already looking forward to how much time we'll spend out there this summer.

Last night I made Dave's favorite dinner: filet mignon, mashed yukon gold potatoes with creamy mushroom gravy and fresh asparagus.  I'm glad I waited to cook the meal because the ingredients were expensive and if I'd have tried to make the meal when I wasn't in the mood to cook, I would've ruined it.  It's corny, but I've learned that if I can't cook a meal with love, I can't cook it at all.  Last night's meal was definitely made with love.

Interrupting this booze fest with an important message

I FOUND MY WEDDING RINGS!!!!!

[You can read the whole story over at The Mom Street Journal.]

The Pomegranate Martini

One of the strangest things about moving to Washington was the idea that I couldn't buy liquor at the grocery store anymore.  It took me almost two months to figure it out, too.  I kept making my giant Fred Meyer list and I'd get to the end of it, by which time the kids were pestering me and I needed to get out of there, and Vodka would be the only item not crossed off.  Fred Meyer is HUGE, so I always figured I just missed that aisle.  Then I finally drove past a liquor store and realized there wasn't a liquor aisle at Fred Meyer.  One Stop Shopping my booty!

Over the years, mostly since having children, I've developed a taste for The Chick Drink.  I'm not sure it's the alcohol that I love so much as that I get to enjoy something that's just for grown ups.  And my drinks are basically like a sweet, tart dessert, so what's not to like?

This drink is crazy easy to make and has very basic ingredients.  I tried, I really really did, to make this into some fru-fru thing where I purchased four-dollar pomegranates and juiced them with my own blood, sweat and tears but you know what?  They sucked that way.  Pomegranates are ridiculously difficult to juice and even after all that work and the huge mess in my kitchen, it didn't actually taste better than store-bought drink mix.  I even tried buying pure pomegranate juice and not even that tasted better. 

So here you go, these are the ingredients for a tasty pomegranate martini.

1/3 cup of Rose's Pomegranate Twist Mix
1/3 cup of Vodka
A splash of Sweet & Sour mix
Rim sugar (this can literally be any kind of sugar, you don't have to buy the $10 tins like this one)

You'll also need:
Martini glasses (mine are from Pier One and cost $2 each)
Cocktail shaker

I'll be honest here, I skimp on the vodka quality.  Since I'm not drinking it straight and I wouldn't know the difference anyway, I tend to buy cheaper brands.  This Svedka stuff was fine, even better than Smirnoff and I think it cost me a couple bucks less.  Of course if you're a Grey Goose person, just use that, you lucky devil.

The first step is to get your glass ready.  I can't emphasize enough how important it is to use a glass made out of glass, preferably with a thin rim.  Because of the kids and my tendency to spill, I made many attempts to enjoy this beverage in a plastic martini cup and it was not the same.  Not even close.  You can't drink a grown-up drink out of a sippy cup.  That said, I go through martini glasses like you can't believe.  I've probably broken at least a half dozen of them over the last couple of years.  They're top heavy and thin and they shatter.  Good thing they're only $2!

So, get out a cocktail plate and pour some Sweet & Sour mix into it.  Just enough to get the rim of your glass wet when you turn it upside down like this:

Next up is the sugar.  If you don't have the actual "rim sugar" tin, then just get out another cocktail plate and throw some sugar onto it in a thin layer.  I really like the look and taste of the thicker, more crystallized sugar you buy at cake stores (and at Michael's).  It makes the rim look like icicles.  I did that for our Christmas party and I thought they looked pretty.  This time I just used the lemon drop sugar tin that Dave bought me for Christmas, like so:

And voila!  Your glass is ready.

(Like I said, this drink is like dessert, so if you're not into that much sweetness, skip the rim sugar.  I always ask my guests whether they want it or not.)

Now fill your cocktail shaker with ice and measure out 1/3 of a cup of Rose's Pomegranate Twist Mix.

Then do the same with your vodka.

This will make a relatively strong cocktail, so if you'd like to not get a buzz then go for slightly less than a third of a cup of vodka.  I then always add a splash of Sweet & Sour because it adds some tartness to the drink and I like that.

Then put the top on your cocktail shaker and make sure you hold the cap on with your finger. (Yet another lesson this bartender learned the hard way).

And shake that puppy up.

I like to shake it pretty hard for about a minute because I like it a bit frothy and with tiny little ice chips in it.  Yumm.  Now pour it into your pretty little prepared glass.

And try not to spill it, like I did.

Did I mention how I need an assistant for these posts?  It's incredibly difficult to take pictures with one hand and pour a martini with the other.  And this was BEFORE I had anything to drink!

I generally tend to make one drink at a time since Dave prefers a scotch on the rocks.  That said, I can make two at a time in my cocktail shaker, just barely.  For a party, you can mix a bunch of cocktails ahead of time and then shake them individually in your shaker before you pour them.

Enjoy!

Random incomplete thoughts

1.  I'm still going strong on my dinner-making streak.  For the first time in as long as I can remember, I'm actually looking forward to being in the kitchen.  I'm keeping a running list of what we're eating every night over in the sidebar and I hope to find the time to get some more recipes up ASAP.  Coming later this week: POMEGRANATE MARTINIS.  You don't want to miss it.

2.  We had a most excellent play date on Friday with Annagrace and Penelope.  Genoa had a blast and we loved getting to check out their new house, which is fabulous.  We listened to music while the girls danced and jumped around and a great time was had by all.  I'm so happy we've been making such great new friends here.  I also love that since Annagrace and I both moved into our houses at the same time, there is a seemingly endless supply of decorating discussion that might be mundane to others, but is plenty exciting to us.

3.  Speaking of friends, I'm SO SO SO SO SO looking forward to seeing my California ladies again soon!  My parents bought tickets for me and the kids (and Dave too, but he can't go because of work) to come visit at the end of March/beginning of April.  MARK YOUR CALENDARS PEOPLE.  We're gonna party like it's 2007.

4.  We've been sick all weekend.  Just annoying snotty colds, but still.  Last night Genoa FREAKED OUT for over an hour beginning at 1AM.  I still have no idea why, but she was just screaming inconsolably.  Probably teething.  Those canine teeth are horrific.

5.  The weather was unusually Spring-like today and I ended up spontaneously taking the kids to the park on the way home from school.  It's amazing what twenty minutes of fresh air can do for your sanity.

6.  I think it's finally time for me to see a doctor about my blood sugar.  I've been using Dave's glucometer to check it more often, usually when I feel like it might be low, and today my random readings were 45, 60 and 80.  All low.  The normal range is from 80 to 140, depending on whether you take it before or after eating and technically, hypoglycemia sets in once you get under 70 or so.  Fun!  The only place this entire problem leads is to Sugar Free Island and that's pretty much at the top of my Never Going to Happen list.

7.  Today's weather has me thinking about the garden I want to put in this spring.  I realize that today's weather was a big, skanky tease and tomorrow it's going to freeze again or go back to raining cats and dogs, but still, a girl can dream.  I have no idea when it's even going to be the right time to start planting or what's going to grow in this climate, but I look forward to learning as I go.  I'm going to cry if I can't grow tomatoes.

8.  Remember how I'm allergic to the cold?  (Don't look at me like I'm crazy!)  I totally break out in hives within a few minutes after I'm exposed to cold temperatures, usually outside morning or evening air. At first I thought it must be some pollen or tree allergy, but it isn't.  Depending on the length of my exposure, my hives last anywhere from 20 minutes to two hours.  I didn't have any allergies at all my entire life until a few months after Alex was born and then I got this.  Apparently I'm not crazy and there's even a name for it!  I have Acquired Urticaria Idiopathic Cold.  Woo-hoo!  At least Zyrtec is finally available over the counter so I can start taking it again when Genoa weans.

How romantic

Today's tiny moment is hopefully going to spawn many future tiny moments.  Or at least moments up to 30 minutes long.

For months I've been eying the Flip camera (I hate to admit this, but I think I first heard of them on Oprah) and Dave got me one as an early Valentine's Day present.  We weren't planning to do any gifts this year, but he had selfish reasons for buying it for me - he wants me to take more videos of the kids.  This camera makes it SOOOOO much easier.

[Video of Genoa trying to feed me oatmeal]

Potty training update

So Genoa has been doing really well with the potty.  As long as I remind her, she'll pee-pee in there at will and she loves how excited we get and thinks it's the best thing since mac 'n cheese.

BUT...

She's not totally ready to train yet.  I mean physically, she's got it down.  She knows when she needs to go and can pull down her pants and make her deposits, but I don't think she's quite ready for the responsibility of ALWAYS having to make to the potty in time.  We've had some accidents and they were odd.  I could see her dancing like she needed to pee, which is good because it means she knows how to hold it, but then I'd ask her if she wanted to sit on the potty and she'd say no and leave a piddle five seconds later, two inches from her potty chair.

I don't want to pressure her, so I think I'm just going to keep the potty seats around and let her use them when she wants to.  We'll probably wait until she's a bit closer to two before we switch into big girl panties.  Either way, I'm stoked that she's even this far along at this age.  I'm just going to keep an eye out to make sure we don't blow right past this opportunity and miss it.

Alex got to wear his grandma-made flannel airplane pajamas to school today.  He had an excellent time and didn't even need to change his clothes before plopping into bed for a nap.  I think I'll go join him.

Magic Meatloaf

To anyone who's ever read my other blog, the Naked Ledger, it's no news that I suck at budgeting and that the main source of our budget problems stem from our grocery consumption.  We eat a lot, most of it ain't cheap and I'm an absolute NOOB at meal planning.  Even during the weeks in which I remember to plan out our dinners, I barely ever make it to Wednesday before I'm scrounging for meals and running back to the grocery store.  I'm terrible.

That said, I'm on a SERIOUS streak right now.  I've made dinner every. single. night. for going on ten days.  (You can check out what I've been cooking over at The Mom Street Journal.)  I'm not sure yet if our grocery bill is any less, but I'm sure we're eating better.  About a week ago, I had some leftover rice and some defrosted ground beef and I threw together a meatloaf.

Which?  TOTALLY BLEW MY MIND. 

Both my kids - the 20-month-old AND the four-year-old - macked this recipe down like there was no tomorrow.  Genoa ate more of it than *I* did.  And my kids won't even eat rice!  Dave and I literally FOUGHT over who would get to have the leftovers for lunch the next day.  It was that good.  I was shocked since I'd basically thrown it together in less than ten minutes with ingredients I already had laying around.  And it was tasty and easy and moist and awesome.  I ended up making it two more times in less than a week and each time it only seemed to get better. 

So here's the recipe for my magically disappearing meatloaf.  Enjoy.

First off, preheat your oven to 375 degrees, then get out the whoppingly complicated SEVEN ingredients you need to make this meatloaf:

2 eggs
half a cup of SOY VAY ISLAND TERIYAKI sauce (absolutely NO SUBSTITUTIONS!)[If you can't find this ingredient because you live in Australia or something like that, read the bottom of this post for instructions!]
ketchup
Parmesan cheese
Ritz crackers
1.5 cups leftover rice pilaf (my recipe to follow, but you can use whatever cooked rice you have on hand)
1.5 pounds of ground beef (I use 93% lean)

Start off by beating together your two eggs.

Then measure out a half cup of well-shaken SOY VAY ISLAND TERIYAKI.  This is the KEY to this recipe.  If you've never tried Soy Vay, get thee to a Trader Joe's (or most Safeways, Fred Meyer's, etc) and buy some.  It's to die for.  And I mean it when I say no substitutions!  Not even plain old Soy Vay Teriyaki sauce will do.   It has to be  ISLAND TERIYAKI, the one with the surf board and the chopsticks on it.  Trust me.

Combine the teriyaki with the eggs.

Until it's good and mixed.

Then get out your meat tenderizer and a tube of round crackers.  Technically, you could probably get away with using bread crumbs here, but I wouldn't.  Have you ever actually READ the ingredients in those things?  The average can of breadcrumbs could survive a nuclear holocaust.  TOO much crud for me, so I've always just used crushed up crackers or made my own bread crumbs.  The crackers are much easier to do and have a longer shelf life, so that's always the filler ingredient in my recipes.  Also you can use whole wheat just to give your family some fiber.

So, put about 2/3 of the sleeve of crackers into a ziplock bag and start crushing those puppies up.

Make sure you use the flat side of your meat tenderizer or you'll end poking holes in your plastic bag and end up with a big mess.  Yet another noob cooking lesson I learned the hard way.

I usually throw a dish towel on top of the bag just to muffle the noise and make sure I don't accidentally poke any holes in the plastic.

Here's the part where I run off to sit on the bathroom floor while Genoa uses the potty for the umpzillionth time and when I come back, I find that Alex has been "helping" me make dinner.  This is his FAVORITE PART.

Next grate up some Parmesan.

I use a little over half of an 8 ounce block.

Then combine the cheese with the breadcrumbs.  You want the mixture to be about 50% crumbs and 50% cheese.

Then empty most of the bag into the bowl with your egg mixture.  Save about a third of a cup to use for the meatloaf topping.

And whisk that in until it's all combined.

Then add a big squirt of ketchup.

Like so.

Don't forget the ketchup!  It definitely adds some tang to the meat. 

Next get out your leftover rice pilaf.  I keep meaning to take pictures when I cook rice so I can post my recipe, but then I get busy and forget.  Dave and I both love long, firm, white basmati rice.  We like it fluffy, not sticky.

My recipe is as follows:

1.5 cups white basmati
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, grated
2T butter
3T olive oil
2 cups of chicken broth (I usually make my own by boiling a roasted chicken carcass, but you can use any kind you have on hand).

WASH the HECK out of your basmati rice.  It's transported in burlap sacks and if you don't wash it THOROUGHLY, you'll have burlap sack-flavored rice, which is NOT delicious.  I usually throw my mesh colander into a larger bowl and let it soak over and over again in about 8-10 changes of extremely HOT water.  I know it's clean when the water in the bowl is totally clear and the rice is bright white, not translucent.

I throw everything but the chicken broth into my pan and brown everything for about ten minutes.  Then I add the chicken stock, stir and cover the pot and leave it alone on low heat for around 15 minutes.

Anyway, you can use any rice you want.  I think using a pilaf recipe adds flavor AND vegetables to this dish, though, so that's my recommendation.  Measure out a very heaping cup of rice.  Maybe it's a cup and a third of rice, I'm not sure since I suck at measuring.

Add that to your egg/cracker/cheese/sauce mixture.

Then get out about a pound and a half of lean ground beef.  I always buy my meat in bulk because it's cheaper that way (duh!).  When I get home from the store I separate it out into 1.5 pound bags and then flatten them out and freeze them.  The flatter the better because the meat will defrost SUPER fast and then you get to stop telling your husband that he needs to stop at McDonald's on his way home from work because you forgot to take something out of the freezer.

Throw that into your mix.

And use your be-latex-gloved hands to mix it all up thoroughly.

Until it looks like this:

Then, spray the bottom of a loaf pan with cooking spray.

And plop your meatloaf mixture right in there.

Flatten it all down pretty.

And then use the remainder of your cheese/cracker crumbs to make a nice crunchy topping for your lovely loaf.  I actually had some cheese/cracker/parsley mix leftover from when I made my crab-stuffed mushrooms, so I just used that. 

That's it!  You're done. 

Pop it in the 375 degree oven for about 40 minutes.  Hopefully, it will look like this:

The best part is that in the time it has taken you to read this post, you could have made this meatloaf and it could be cooking in your oven RIGHT NOW.  I wish I could tell you that I have more pictures of what the slices looked like, but I was too busy shoveling this into my pie hole to remember to take any.  Sadly there isn't any left to photograph.  The slices barely hold their shape and fall apart as your eating them, but that's just because they're so moist and delicious.  Dave took the last of the meatloaf with him to work for lunch today.  But that's okay, I'll probably just make it again in a couple of days.

[Again, if you decide to try this recipe and post a review on your blog, let me know so I can link to you right here.]

[If you can't find Soy Vay Island Teriyaki sauce, you MIGHT be able to make your own.  It's basically a sweet pineapple soy sauce.  I bet if you tried a mix of 50% regular teriyaki sauce and 50% pineapple juice, you might get close.  Let me know if you make your own!]