Another Way To Eat A Boca Burger

Looks like another late blog, I did some of it last night, but trying to stick to my earlier bed time prevented posting. 

This day was like most of the others, I guess, not too memorable. Breakfast was pretty good, half a fuji and half a gingerbread bagel with warm peanut butter with a little ground flax thrown in and dried cranberries. Food is the highlight of my day, most days. I realize how pathetic that sounds, lol. It's one reason why I like to do this. It adds something to my day. I am hoping that there will be more to it eventually, but right now things are tight and lack of money doesn't allow much excitement. 

My pictures may not be the greatest, but I like looking at most of them. I would like to take better pictures in the future, but until then, what you see is what you get, lol.

This is my lunch. It wasn't extravagant, but it was good, a repeat of yesterday's dinner, homemade succotash and cornbread. I do have to say, I like all bread better fresh baked, but I guess most people do. I have two versions of cornbread. One is just plain ordinary cornbread and the other is what we call, "soft cornbread". This was the plain, but I came up with the soft version for Lucas. He likes a less grainy cornbread. It is made with a little corn muffin mix, corn bread mix and flour. It's not sweet like muffins, but a little sweeter than plain cornbread. I didn't have any muffin mix this time, but next time, I'll be better prepared and I'll post the two recipes so that you can see the difference.

Dinner was late because we went with Lucas to our friends house, so that he could fix their computer. We sat around talking about our dogs mostly, but Kris showed me her latest project, her kitchen she had remodeled (I'm so jealous). I wish I would have gotten pictures, but I still feel strange whipping out my camera and taking pictures of everything. I hope to overcome that one day. I use to feel odd taking pictures of my food all the time, but it is becoming sort of normal, to me anyway. I still get strange looks sometimes.

This is another way to eat a Boca. This was really good. I took some sliced bell pepper and onion and fried it with salt, pepper, and garlic until it was tender and then added 2 Boca burgers, I had thawed and cut into strips. I let the burgers brown a little and re-seasoned everything. I fixed some instant rice, since dinner was late and I was starving, no time for the good stuff. I topped the rice with my Boca mixture and dinner was served. I enjoyed every bite, but I wish I would have used more onion and bell pepper. They always look like a lot until they're cooked. I also wish I had a colored plate to put it on. It would have made for a much better photo.

Well since this is New Years Eve morning. I will go ahead and wish you all a Happy New Years. I don't have any big plans this year. What will you be doing on New Years Eve? Send me some excitement or let me know I'm not the only one without plans.

Good Bye Magic Bars

I felt so good this morning. I slept really well. It was so nice to be able to sleep, I almost hated to get up. It was looking like a good day too, nice and sunny outside, energizing. I'd laid a gingerbread bagel out of the freezer. I toasted it and spread on some honey nut cream cheese. I also had half a fuji apple sliced. We got a bag of them from Save A Lot Food Store. They are good, but not as pretty on the outside.

Today is laundry day. I needed to get a couple of loads done and everyday is mop day when you have men and mud, luckily the sun is working with me. I'm getting started putting away Christmas decorations. I usually leave the tree up until after New Years. I liked my tree this year so, I kind of hate to take it down, but it's going. I wish the holidays were as peaceful as the  week after Christmas. I do miss the extra page views I was getting during Christmas. I even manage to get more comments. Thanks, by the way.

For lunch today, I had another Amy's frozen dinner, the enchilada verde. I know, it's not much to look at, but it tastes good and if it's gotta be frozen, it oughta be Amy's.

I also ate the last magic bar. Good bye magic bar. I love you, but I hope I never see you again.

One last look, lol.

I am afraid to get on my scales. I haven't weighed in since before Christmas. I was already teetering on the edge of my weight limit, that being the most, I want to weigh or can afford to weigh. I can't afford new clothes and I already have a couple of things that no longer fit and I tend to be leaning more toward wearing my stretchier things as it is and we all know that is a major no-no. The bad thing is that all I want to do lately is eat and I have no support system, also stress is not a good diet buddy. Stress is the one who offers you a big slice of chocolate cake with ice cream, cheesecake and magic bars. Stress also spoon feeds them to you, lol.

Ok, lets see what stress is serving for dinner this evening, lol. Well, it looks like we're having a nice big cake....... of cornbread, lol. I also fixed a pot of succotash to go with it, not the canned stuff either. I may have to eat it for a couple of days, but it's so much better than the stuff you get in a can and with my appetite lately that shouldn't be a problem. The succotash took a little longer than my cornbread, so I had a small piece with a little butter, to tide me over.

The cornbread was delicious, crispy on the outside and soft cornbread-y goodness on the inside. My secret weapon for great cornbread is my iron skillet. It is designated cornbread only and those using it for any other purpose will be hung by the neck in a tree until dead, just ask my family, lol.

The best nonstick pan I ever owned.

Well, that's another day down and not many left in the year. If you decorated, have you taken down any decorations yet? What about the tree? 

Texas Pete Makes Food Yummy

I think I'm getting the hang of going to bed early. I woke up this morning after sleeping fairly well. It was the first decent nights sleep I've have in a while. I found the best way for me to use the melatonin is to take it when I go to bed instead of 30 minutes before. For some reason it doesn't work as well that way for me. I still wake up during the night, but I don't have any trouble getting back to sleep, except when there are dogs barking and then it only annoys me some before I go back to sleep.

I wasn't as hungry this morning as I normally am. I just had half an everything bagel with vegetable cream cheese.

I decided to try the gingerbread cocoa mix from World Market. It was better than the peppermint, but I think that was because, I used more milk and less cocoa mix. Lucas said it was very cinnamon-y, but I didn't think so, of course, I like my food with lots of flavor. I was really in the mood for a hot drink and it certainly hit the spot. 

For lunch today, I did a repeat of yesterday's dinner. The Domino's Wisconsin 6 cheese pizza was even better today, it was hotter, lol, and the baby carrots and salad with fresh spinach was so good last night with the mixture of Texas Pete and Ranch dressing that I repeated that too.

I actually had 2 pieces of pizza. They both wouldn't fix on this plate, lol.

I had been thinking about dinner for 2 days, but didn't get around to fixing it until today. I started out wanting poached eggs, but decided on fried eggs. I haven't had fried eggs in probably 20 years. I've had scrambled,  and boiled, but not fried. I use to eat them with a runny yellow in the middle, but this time I didn't. I just can't eat runny yellows anymore. I had 2 fried eggs, fully cooked on a sandwich with fresh spinach, 2 slices of tomato, salt and cracked pepper and several shakes of Texas Pete and you know what word best describes it, YUMMY.

Sure today was pretty boring, but the food was not or at least it didn't taste boring. How do you add some zip to boring food? 

Hungry For Pizza

I awoke this morning with a headache and a cough. I gave in and took a decongestant and some ibuprofen, which made me feel much better. I had a wonderful breakfast, a sweet juicy navel orange, so juicy, I nearly strangled, lol. I enjoyed it anyway. I also had a Chobani peach Greek yogurt topped with cheerios, cornflakes and peanut butter almond granola, from Yoder's Amish Market. This was a really yummy breakfast. The peach Chobani ranks right up there with the vanilla and pineapple. They are making my choice for favorite very difficult.

For lunch I had leftover stir fry veggies with a little rice, mostly vegetables. I tried to make it look good, but there wasn't much hope. I'm also having a bad camera day. Some days, I love my photos and other days I hate them. It's almost like I have 2 cameras that look alike and one is broken, but I can't tell them apart until I see the photos. I know none of them are great, but some days their better.

A little while later, I had a magic bar. I am really going to pay for bringing those home. 

This evening for dinner, Lucas treated us to pizza from Dominos, my favorite. Although I love their Pacific Veggie, we decided to get their Wisconsin 6 cheese and the Memphis BBQ Chicken pizza for the guys. They did help eat some of the cheese as well. I had 2 pieces of the cheese with fresh spinach mixed with lettuce, shredded carrots and red cabbage. My dressing of choice tonight was ranch with Texas Pete. I haven't had this in a while and I could drink Texas Pete. I also had some baby carrots. I used the leftover dressing mixture to dip my baby carrots. This was a super delicious meal. It was one of those meals that you have to stop eating because you're full, but you really don't want to.

Nobody waits for photos, lol.

Ranch dressing & Texas Pete

I thought about food all day. I don't know why, but I've been very hungry lately. Ahhh..... it's lack of sleep. I forgot. I'm trying to get my sleeping schedule changed to one that's more normal, so far, I'm just not sleeping, lol, but I'm going to give it a few more days. I'm bound to sleep from exhaustion, if nothing else. Well, if, I'm going to make my bedtime, I've got to get this posted. Cya tomorrow! What time do you go to bed and get up? Do you sleep good?

Taco Seasoning Mix Recipe

This morning, I awoke to a winter wonderland. The ground was white, the trees were white and it wasn't just a dusting. We had actually gotten several inches, not something that happens here often. Usually we get sleet, freezing rain or ice, which is no fun.

The snow put me in the mood to try the peppermint hot cocoa mix from World Market. I used 2% milk. I guess I'm not really a cocoa person. It was good, but very sweet, so I added baking cocoa and a bit more milk. It was still rather sweet for my taste. If I'd had some instant decaf coffee, I would have used some of that.

I also had half an everything bagel. It was one of the ones I got at Target. I spread some vegetable cream cheese on it, which came from Panera's. I froze the Panera bagels to eat later.

I felt pretty good today. I got to bed early last night. I slept a little better and my neck was not so stiff this morning. I suppose Christmas stress is fading. I'm still holding on to the head cold, but it doesn't seem to have gotten any worse, just not better. When I am sick, I want soup, so for lunch today, I had Campbell's tomato soup, seasoned with a sprinkle or two of my taco seasoning mix. I've included the recipe. I also had a vegetable burrito/enchilada and tortilla chips for my soup. It really hit the spot.

Taco Seasoning Mix

⅛ C. onion powder
¼ C. chili powder
3 Tbsp. salt
4 tsp. cornstarch
1 ½ tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. crushed red pepper
2 tsp. vegetable bouillon (actually beef bouillon, I substituted)
1 ½ tsp. dried oregano
1 Tbsp. ground cumin


Combine all ingredients. Store in an airtight container in a cool dry place for up to a year.

For Tacos:
Add 2 Tbsp. of Taco Mix and 1/3 C. water to 1 lb. hamburger or veggie crumbles. Bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes.

After my lunch I nibbled on another magic bar. Those things are magically disappearing and I am afraid to step on the scales, lol.

I decided to have brown rice and frozen stir fry veggies. I just love brown rice. I made the rice in my steamer which I also love. It does take about 40 minutes for it to cook, but I don't have to stand over it and it comes out perfect.

Since it would take a little while for the rice to cook, I had a Chobani pomegranate greek yogurt with a sprinkle of peanut butter almond granola from Yoder's Amish Market, which was one of my other Christmas presents. The granola and the yogurt were very good. I still have to say though, that the pineapple and the vanilla are my two favorites.

When my rice was nearly done, I tossed the frozen veggies in a pan and stirred them around until they were hot and steamy. They also had their own sauce which was actually pretty good. I spooned the veggies over the rice and dinner was served. Their is no way to make frozen vegetables look good. Fresh veggies are definitely the way to go. Next time I will try to get fresh veggies.

It has been a very relaxing day, which I have enjoyed. Most people around here don't care for the snow, but I like it. I'm not one to go out and play in it, but I do love to see it. What do you do when it snows or does it snow where you are?