Here’s the new cookbook I ordered a while ago. I did use Amazon which I guess for some things like this, I will. This book was from a third-party seller though but still. I just heard about Feb. 28 as a nation wide no buy anything day so I hope you’ll join in.
It has some good recipes and the recipes are the way and what I cook. She also has a new cookbook coming out in June. I made the fried chicken pieces last night and it was a good recipe. She started as a youtube channel and I guess got pretty famous quickly. I plan on making some new recipes this week.
So, last night we had the fried chicken from this book and we had a packaged salad on the side. B had a quiche from Trader Joes.
Tonight, I think I’ll do tofu burgers because I have several packages of tofu. I don’t have any fries or potatoes so when I go to Costco I’ll pick up some of those baby potatoes.
Tuesday- I think something with beans. A bean bowl with rice, avocados, sour cream etc.
Wednesday- soup of some sort, ?
Thursday- a recipe in the new book for roast chicken with garlic. Probably salad on the side.
Friday- Pizza. I haven’t made homemade in quite a while so I think I’ll make a batch of dough. The recipe I use makes 4 dough balls.
Saturday-TBD
Our daffodils are coming up and it’s starting to look like spring. I picked a nice bouquet yesterday. My daughter has started all the tomato seeds and some other things. She got the onions in the raised beds too.
A very rainy, simple Sunday. It now feels like we should be building an ark with all the rain we’ve had. At least it hasn’t been very cold although later in the week it is supposed to drop way down to freezing! So maybe snow?
I did a fair amount of things yesterday. I made a sourdough boule that had raisins, walnuts, and some cinnamon. It came out nice. Very hydrated, so quite moist. Then I also mopped floors and dusted some. For dinner, we had two kinds of soups. A minestrone from the freezer for B, and My daughter and I had a Greek lemon soup from Costco. It was good, but I’m not sure I’d buy it again. It was a two-pack, so there’s another one left. My daughter(S) liked it a lot, though. I made cheese toasties on the side with the homemade cheddar jalapeno sourdough.
I rearranged my desk, but it’s still not how I wanted it. I think I’m going to get an Ikea little cabinet to put my extra office stuff in. Right now, the one I want is out of stock, but they have it in a grey finish, so I may get that. ( I wanted the white finish). Basically, I keep my office stuff in a wine crate that has a hinged lid. It works good, but it takes up most of my ‘desk area, which is really my Heywood table.
I slept terribly last night, I think, because of coming off Dex. I’m not planning on going to the gym unless I totally change my mind. With all this rain, we’re not doing our morning walk, so I really should go, but I am not too motivated right now. Oh well, hopefully, I can go use the treadmill in our studio. My daughter has done a great job changing the studio( which was my son’s room) into an exercise space with a treadmill and bike. Plus, her piano is out there now, so she can play with some privacy. She has headphones, but still, it’s nice to get out of the house. We still need to paint out there to freshen it up.
Our new little stray ‘Tux’ is hanging around more and sleeping in the sunroom. We made him a bed so he’s warm and dry. He’s a real cutie, but we will need to get him spayed and shots.
Tonight, I’m planning a new recipe using some of our delicata squash. It’s baked with some spices and maple syrup, and then the salad part is apple, lettuce, and goat cheese, which I do not have any of. I’ll stop at the store later to get some. I’m not sure what I’ll have with it, but I’ll think of something.
I can’t even begin to express how upsetting it is to read the news about Trump banning all celebrations for Black History Month, MLK Jr. Day, etc. I just finished reading John Lewis’s graphic novels,” March”( it’s a 3 volume set) on his early civil rights days.
It is truly amazing what all of those people did to get the voting rights bill passed. It’s stunning to me that we are going back to such blindness and discrimination against blacks, LBGTQ+, and everything it seems we have worked so hard to overcome. Where is it going to go? What are the next 4 years going to bring down? It’s horrifying to me, really, and scary. I would highly recommend buying the 3 set Volumns and read and pass on to everyone you know. It’s eye-opening and shocking the hate from whites in the South. Bull Connor, Wallace, the list goes on. Truly awful.
Well, I’d better get a move on if I’m going to town.
First, what a tragedy about the AA plane and the Black Hawk helicopter. Very sad indeed. I listened to part of what trump said, and at first, he was somewhat consoling and then spiraled into his usual blaming of Obama and Biden. Geez, give it up, just be with the victims here and not political.
I’m very thankful to get the Stanford call, and at least we can get this part done. Today, he has a video call with the anesthesiologist, and tomorrow, a video visit with Dr. Neal, who is the mesothelioma oncologist at Stanford.
I’m thankful we’ve had a nice period of no rain. Tomorrow starts a long period of lots of rain. I’ll have to see how the walking will go.
I’m thankful to feel like myself again after that awful night. It’s the simple things, right?
I’m thankful I got to the gym before my Velcade. It was nice because then I came straight home.
I’m thankful for the library and the huge bag of books I checked out. Three cookbooks which were new, so that’ll be fun. Reading cookbooks is like a hobby. I don’t often make the recipes, but I like looking at them.
Well, whatever got me left pretty quickly. I think it may have been a build-up of acid reflux, which is why I take omeprazole daily. But I’m not a doctor, so I don’t know. This happened once before but then I had taken Dex and Dr. L thought the two were related. This time, no dex, but I did eat the turkey chili which probably was acidic. Who knows? Ill keep take in my journal. Anyway, I felt better by yesterday afternoon. And I slept well last night.
I didn’t walk this morning, though, so I’ll go down to the pool and swim. Tomorrow I’ll walk and get back on schedule.
Great news. Stanford called, and we have an appt for Feb 12. She didn’t have the exact time yet, so we need to hear what that is. So, at this point, we’ll go down on the 11th, he does need labs from their lab, so we’ll do that first. The lab is in the Medical Center, so we know where that is. I’m glad we have a focus finally!!
The 12th is also my appt with Dr.Laptalo, so I’ll have to cancel that and reschedule. As long as my numbers are stable( with some fluctuations), I’m fine with that.
I’m seriously trying not to be totally flipped out about what Trump is doing. Hesgreth confirmed?? RFK is a lunatic, the press conference person with a cross around her neck big enough to ward off vampires?? WTF is happening in this country??? I feel so hopeless right now. I just can’t imagine 4 more years of this if we even make it before we are an autocracy. So hard to imagine where we are in this country right now.
Well, I need to go get my suit on and control at least some fraction of my life. Swimming does help, as does walking. Keep on keeping on, I guess.
Last night, we did end up having the Costco ravioli. It’s their spinach and cheese ones. Quite good. I grilled baguette slices in some olive oil, and we had a big salad.
Monday- I took out a container of turkey chili, and we’ll have that. B will have the vegetarian barley vegetable soup. I’ll probably do another big salad.
Tuesday- I am defrosting some chicken, so I may do Mexican chicken, and B can have another veg chick patty. Maybe I’ll do a Mexican burger-type thing. I’ll need to check if I have rolls. I have lots of avocados in the fridge. The best tip ever I learned was to put the avocados in the fridge after they just start ripening. Right now, I must have 6 in there, and they’ll be good for a few weeks.
Wednesday- I have some dark rye bread and plan on Ruebens minus the meat. Basically, grilled cheese with sauerkraut with a Russian dressing.
Thursday- My daughter starts back at her librarian job this week so she works late Thursdays, so I’ll just do something for B and myself, maybe blueberry pancakes.
Friday- pizza of some sort.
Saturday- TBD, leftovers??
Well, I’m not sure what I’m planning today. It’s early yet, so I can think about it.
I’ll save on gas today since I opted not go to the pool. I just woke up grumpy and don’t feel like driving. Next week is busier with a dentist appt and then Velcade on Thursday so I’ll be out quite a few days including a gym or swim day.
I spent $75 at Winco on salad stuff and a few misc like cottage cheese. I wanted some bulk items too.
We went out for a coffee yesterday, so that was $16. B paid for that with his money.
I sorted out my cash envelopes for the month. I added $200 to the firewood envelope because we are going to need to buy a cord. I’ll have to check out from B how much we have left. We would need to have that sorted before a hospital visit.
Other than that, I don’t think I spent anything else. I did order the humidifier, which I like, but it didn’t really have any effect on the sleep apnea. Oh well, I think a humidifier in winter is probably a good thing, and it wasn’t expensive.
Yesterday, I put the Ranco Gordo Ayocote beans in the crock pot. I hadn’t made them before, and they were delicious. They are white beans but bigger than Marcella beans. There’s lots left over too.
After reading about the severe cold in the south and midwest, our weather is something to be thankful for. I love living in California and am so grateful that we have a conscientious governor despite what the orange king has to say!
I’m grateful my LLS grant money came for my insurance. It makes a huge difference. Without it, I’m quite sure we would be struggling money-wise.
I’m immensely grateful that B is feeling so good for now. He’s doing all kinds of chores and is outside a lot of the day. Soon enough, with the Stanford surgery, it’ll be different but for now, it’s great. He still doesn’t have a date for the laparoscopy but hopefully soon.
I’m grateful for the other usual things, the Mike Shelito pool, the gym, and how well Roseville Parks takes care of things. It is much appreciated. If there was one other place I’d move to, besides Tahoe or Capitola, it would be Roseville. The former two would be beyond anything we could afford although if we had bought in the 70’s or 80’s it would be worth a fortune now. So much for hindsight.
I’m thankful for family and the support we all give each other. I do miss my sister, Heidi, even if we weren’t that close, she was still there and very supportive.
Well, that’s it from mi casa. Today is mostly a home day. I want to catch up on some house things and then pop into town to go to the bank.
Last week ended up kind of a mish-mash of my menus. I did some and not others. Oh well, I’m flexible.
Last night I made a Mexican chicken dish and veggie Chicken patty dish. I grilled the chicken and then when it was done dumped the rest of the salsa in the pan and topped it with Monterey Jack cheese. I did the same in another pan for the veggie chicken patty. We had salad on the side. BTW, Wico has these new chicken veggie patties and for the price point, you can’t beat it compared to Quorn or another name brand.
Monday- I’m either doing fish or the Costco Slice beef, which is sous vide. The reason I’m not sure yet is my son is spending the night so I’ll see which he prefers. I have salad either way.
Tuesday: Quesadillas, beans, and cheese. If there’s any beef left over, I’ll toss that in, too. I bought 2 bags of avocados from Costco so if there are any ripe I’ll top with that. BTW, once the avocados start to ripen put them in the fridge. They will last weeks in there.
Wednesday- Vegetable Barley soup from Costco with homemade sourdough
Thursday- ravioli with marinara sauce with salad
Friday – pizza of some sort.
Saturday- TBD
The sun is out today and it’s a lovely day to be home.
I’m still showing ( apple watch)somewhat elevated sleep dist indicating sleep apnea. There doesn’t seem to be any pattern as to why one day it’s not elevated and the next it is. Does anyone have sleep apnea and what did you do? If I could lose some weight I’m sure that would help:)
I probably should start on our taxes, but not today. 🙂
A big shout out to Donna over at Retirement Confidential for gifting a sub to The Contrarian. I love Jen Rubin and she’s the one, along with a co worker to start this Substack program( I’m not sure what they’re called). If you believe in democracy, go sign up. I’m not sure how substack works totally and was having some trouble reading the articles but I’ll figure it out.
I will not watch the inauguration. It really makes me sick to my stomach to think of him swearing the oath of office after everything he tried to do to overthrow the last election. I just hope we survive the next 4 years.
I went to the gym this morning and it was again, a little busier than normal for a Sunday morning. I did 30 minutes of weights and 20 on the treadmill.
After I got home, I made up another batch of sourdough for the baguettes. What I’m doing is freezing 1/2 of what I make so I have some sliced bread in the freezer. Plus, when I’m on a roll( no pun intended) with bread making, I like to keep going.
I still need to mop the floor and tidy up.
I drove Buggie to the gym and she’s working great. I hope it keeps going that way. Well, that’s all for now, I want to get my stuff done and go read.
When I got to the pool Monday, the parking lot was fairly empty. It seems the warming pool was closed because of something so a lot of people weren’t there. Also, the lap lanes were not too crowded. I got my favorite lane by the stairs. I had a good swim and did 950 yards again. My guess is that’s about my limit right now. I was pretty tired when I got home.
I am really enjoying having the Apple watch. I didn’t think I’d like it as much as I do. Usually, I don’t like anything on my wrist but this has really helped me track my steps and swimming and the sleep stuff. I’d definitely recommend it if you’re on the fence.
The baguettes came out GREAT!
The recipe is straight forward and easy to follow. I wouldn’t buy the book though for just this recipe. I took a picture of the recipe to use later. Most of the other recipes are using more unusual grains like Eikorn which I don’t have. Still, this is a great recipe to have. I made this with rosemary and wowza!!
Today is a home day. Usually, I go to the gym but I don’t feel like driving. It’s still early yet so I may go to Costco and get a few things.
Here’s the front room without the rug. We took it up because it seemed every time we vacuumed it was full of lint and fibers. I think it was because the rug was a shag rug and it just had that stuff. I love the fact it’s so easy to clean and when I vacuumed there was very little stuff in the vacuum so my point was taken. I will get another rug eventually but it’ll be something like a Ruggable. I can’t afford that now, especially with the VW in the shop.
My labs came back with my Kappa up some to 19.8 so a bit of a jump from 18.2 but since I’m just over high normal, I’m not too worried. High normal is 19.4. It is what it is and every month there is some variation.
B has his labs today. He’s only going once a week now and all have been good. Tomorrow is the big day with the appt with Dr. Lee so we should have a good idea of what comes next.
The menu plan has changed a bit since I made it up. We had Boca burgers last night and tonight we’ll have the soup( pasta fagioli ). I used some of my canned beans, the Marcella, and kidney. I plan on canning more pintos very soon. It takes some planning and it is time-consuming with the pressure canner going.
I've been married for nearly 20 years to a wonderful husband and I'm a mom to three great kids ages 17, 16 and 14. Oh, and I just happen to have cancer. Multiple Myeloma is a cancer of the blood that is currently incurable but IS considered highly treatable! My goal is to make people laugh, cry or feel a little less alone whether you are a mom, cancer patient or BOTH!
Tahoe Girl 