Happy Saturday everyone. I’m sitting here enjoying my Saturday morning with a cup of coffee, and reflecting on my favorite day of the week. Saturday is my fun day, I sleep in a little bit and usually get together with friends on a Saturday evening. I am feeling great this morning, after Round 2 of my chemo started yesterday. It came as a little surprise.
On Tuesday afternoon I found out Round 2 of my chemo started Friday. So I have 15 weeks of chemo, in 3 week cycles. Every 3rd Friday I get to sit for 3 hours and have IV chemo. My first one was yesterday, and I’m feeling great today. Wild side effects though, I can’t eat or drink anything cold. It has to be room temperature or warm. It feels like shards of glass in my throat. That will last 3 – 5 days. The funniest part for me is I have to keep a pair of gloves by my refrigerator because I’m not allowed to touch anything cold from my fridge or freezer. It causes a lot of pain. Numb fingers, hands and arms, but that will go away in a few days.
So, this has been my beverage of choice for the last few days. It’s Vino Zero Merlot & Vino Zero Cabernet Sauvignon. I was invited to a dinner party Thursday evening and since I didn’t want to drink the day before my treatment, this is what I bought. It was ok and it served the purpose. Same thing, I visited some friends last night and had a glass of this wine. I was still shaky yesterday evening, and I can’t drink more than 1 glass of real wine while on treatments, I’m discovering the non-alcohol wines. The above wines can be found at your favorite grocery store and they are $11.99 a bottle. There’s one here in Halifax I’m dying to try, it’s called Proxies.
It’s $35 a bottle, which is a lot. At first, I said I can’t justify paying $35 for a bottle of wine, without getting a buzz. $35 is a treat bottle of wine, when there is alcohol present. But I’ve been doing a lot of research and it’s been recommended by Master of Wines, James Beard award winning chefs, Sommeliers and more. It’s supposed to be quite good. So I think I will treat myself and I’ll tell you all about it if I do get to try it.
In addition to the IV chemo, I’m on oral chemo for 2 weeks, and then I get one week off. These are my medications for the next two weeks. Honest to God, I felt like a drug dealer when I picked them up on Thursday. Because IV chemo is so much stronger and I’m on 10 chemo pills per day (instead of 6 last time) there is much more anti-nausea meds.
On to some food and wine. I have tried a few new wines over the 5 weeks I had off from treatments, so I’ll tell you about them one at a time, where I’m not drinking much wine at the moment. But first, OMG my homemade chicken nachos.
If you’ve ever bought the taco package from Costco, you’ve tried the lime and cilantro crema. Well here’s the knock off recipe.
BBQ chicken breast pieces and bacon over taco chips and cheese. With my homemade salsa and homemade lime and cilantro crema. I have actually gained a couple of pounds in the past two weeks because I’ve had these almost every evening. But that’s not a bad thing going into chemotherapy. Here’s my homemade salsa recipe. So good. You can use white sugar or brown sugar, I like using brown sugar, it just adds another flavor profile.
Ok, let’s talk some wine. Actual wine…. you know, with alcohol.
If you’re looking for a great wine at a great price, here it is. Montgras Day One Cabernet Sauvignon is your new wine. It’s new here to Nova Scotia and priced at just $17.99 a bottle. It’s full bodied, not oaky, and I think in this picture you can see my plate of nachos. This wine is also great for BBQ, meat and pork dishes, and if you’re like me, nachos. You should definitely try this wine, I think you’ll love it, and it won’t break the wallet.
That’s it for me for this week. Enjoy whatever you’re drinking this week.
Till next week, Cheers
Darlene
Wine-It’s Just My Opinion 