THE WEEK AHEAD - February 9

What a game yesterday! If you are a Carolina Panther's fan, I am truly sorry. The best team won. Could I say that if I were not a Bronco fan? Yes. I believe in good sportsmanship and as a Bronco fan I am always embarrassed at the way Aqib Talib behaves. He is constantly getting called for 'unnecessary roughness'. Usually, after a play is made. I swear this man is lookin' for a fight and someday, someone is going to answer the call. Does he not understand that our youth are watching these games and learning by example? 

Okay, my rant about yesterday's game out of the way I have two more comments to make... Pictures are worth a thousand words...

Whatever Peyton Manning's decision, I am proud that he has been a part of the Denver Broncos. Today, in his honor, I ordered one of these...

And this is where the whole 'weight loss' part comes in. Because I could not try the shirt on, I ordered a men's XXL. Traditionally, I only wear a ladies 1X but no two manufacturers seem to size the same. Do I want to wear a XXL? NO! But then I do not want to wear a 1X in ladies either. 

With diet issues discovered last year, I'm making some adjustments. Adjustments are not easy. And with finances changing within the house, those adjustments will be tested. So I hope, in the coming weeks to show comparisons in being able to eat healthy without spending a small fortune. It's a fact that American's spend way too  much money on food anyway - and a lot of what we purchase is tossed in the garbage. 

In the words of Earl Pitts... Wake Up America! 

I was going to get on the Wii this morning and start that process over. Somewhere between drinking my morning coffee and waiting for Bob to check in, I lost all momentum to do anything. I even took a nap. Not that I was tired, just putting my head on a pillow seemed like a good idea at the time. I know I will pay for that choice tomorrow. We always pay for the choices we make.

Time to make better choices.. and 

Enjoy the Journey!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hey everyone!

Just a quick check in. Still trying to get a routine down. I have some changes coming to the blog over the next couple of weeks.

I am starting the year at 183. I did beat Bob on the December weight-loss challenge, which allowed me to pocket $100 towards my summer travels. I would really like to make a trip to Colorado but I know some weight has to come off if I'm to deal with an altitude I've not been in since the 1980s.

I've also become enamored with a show on Food Network called The Kitchen. One topic that has me intrigued is 'Meatless Monday'.. apparently a hot trend.

So stay tuned...
In the mean time, share your 2016 plans for Enjoying the Journey!

THE WEEK AHEAD

I found this on MorgueFile and thought how pretty! I've seen places like this through the Ozarks and Virginia.

Autumn is slipping away here in the Ozarks and thoughts turn to comfort foods. Soups mostly for me, but I'm also looking ahead to the holiday baking. I'm not a big cookie person but when Christmas time approaches, I want to bake up a storm and I have a few favorites that I only make during the holidays... treats.

If you do not know, I am a writer by trade. My job as a freelancer is what has kept me away from this blog. I see I have three of you who visit each morning and I thank you. I am blessed.

So over the remaining weeks of 2015 I will be posting here and there. Right now I am taking part in the annual National Novel Writing Month Challenge. This is my 9th year. So when I'm not doing the day job of promoting musical artists and working the freelance gig, I am working on my latest novel... the 2nd in my Branson trilogy.


For the week ahead I will be striving to stay on task. Money is a great motivator. Bob is off on the boat and we are on our weight loss challenge. Except we have decided to up the anty... Instead of the usual $100 to the winner, we've decided to roll over the $100 neither of us won the last time out. So this time the pot is worth $200! That would look nice in my travel money bank for 2016.

His biggest challenge is while he does not have an official cook on the boat, he does have a deck hand who likes to cook - from scratch! LOL Bob said he will limit his portions. Last time he had a deck hand who liked to cook, he gained #6.

I have it a little easier. I eat lots of stir fry while he's gone and plenty of protein. After a recent Glucose reading scare I'm really trying to watch my carbs.

So there you have it. Bear with me and I'll get things back on track.
Love the Journey!
Kelly

RECIPE WEDNESDAY - Burrito Bowls

Today's recipes is one of the easiest to make. Very filling, delicious and had a variety of ways you can serve this. 

Another Pinterest recipe which came from iheartnaptime  One Pot Burrito Bowls is like 7-layer burriot in a bowl and is a keeper in my Pinterest Recipes book. 

Two ingredients her recipe calls for that I left out of mine were chicken stock and rice. While the rice would stretch the dish and be more filling, I opted out of the starch and went straight for vegie. Also, if you leave these two items out plus the ground bee, this makes a great vegan recipe.

I used twice as much ground beef because I'm just a protein lover. You can serve this in a bowl, use it as a burrito filling, lettuce boats or scoop chips. Great Football Party dish!

RECIPE WEDNESDAY - Shrimp Tacos

While I had the shrimp out I thought I'd double up on recipes and meals. I saved out about 20 of the shrimp from the package and just tossed them in a teflon pan with a little butter-flavored olive oil (Spritzed) and a couple Tablespoons of Taco Seasoning. I thought I might have used too much seasoning but was pleasantly surprised.

I spread a bit of sour cream on the inside of each Spelt Tortilla added chopped Romain Lettuce. I divided the shrimp up between the two shells and sprinkled a bit of fancy shredded seasoned cheese on each. Very tasty. Also very quick. 

What's on your menu? Share a link to your favorite recipe.

Enjoy the Journey!

RECIPE WEDNESDAY - Shrimp Salad

Another Pinterest discovered recipe for you but this one I modified ahead of time. Due in part to not having a couple of ingredients and part because they are seasonings I use in almost anything.

The Quick and Easy Shrimp Salad recipe came from Erren's Kitchen.

Erren did choose to use fresh shrimp, which she prepared because they tend to have a bit more 'crunch' to them as opposed to the precooked/ thawed version. Due to the fact that I waited too long to prepare this and was past dinner time, I opted for the quick thaw of the pre-cooked. The cat was happy as he always gets a shrimp for his very own :-D  She also used fresh Dill, Mustard Powder and lemon juice. I am not a fan of lemon juice on ANY seafood so I skipped that one. I didn't have fresh Dill but did have dried and no mustard powder. But I did use Onion powder and Seasoning Salt.

Her recipe called for #2 of shrimp. I had a 12 oz bag, which since I was only cooking for one, I divided the package between to meals/ blog posts.

I think I got a bit heavy on the mayo. I've tasted the final product and it's okay - just a bit over mayo'd.. which I expected. I've covered the dish and put it in the fridge for the flavors to meld and that will be lunch tomorrow. (this post was written and scheduled on 7/13/15)

I may wind up scraping part of the mayo out of the way and plan to either put in Romain Lettuce boats or eat by itself. 

RECIPE WEDNESDAY - Crock Pot Broccoli Beef

A couple weeks ago I tried the Crockpot Broccoli Beef recipe from Just A Pinch that I found on Pinterest. While I need to make some adjustments to this recipe, I did like the concept over all. For one, I could not get the sauce to thicken up until I'd separate the juice from the rest of the goodies. However, by the time I'd made that move, everything was cooked too much. I also don't think the beef needs to cook as long (6-8 hrs on low) since I sliced mine much thinner. I could do this in 4 hours easy.

Here's what we started with:

This chuck roast was just under #2. I keep chuck/ pot roasts on hand as pot roast is one of Bob's favorite meals.. and very easy for me to do on a busy office day. 

One thing to keep in mind when slicing any meat. Always cut across the grain. If you cut with the grain, you are going to wind up with long pieces hard to chew. Here's an example:

Notice the piece on the right is cut with the grain. Long strips that will be difficult to bite unless you cook them beyond recognition. The slices on the right were cut cross-grain. These pieces will be tender. If you are not sure how a grain is running, cut a slice and see. Then you can rotate the cut if necessary and slice the other direction.  

This is what I wound up with:

In the crockpot with the recommended additions (see recipe at Just A Pinch).

As I said, slicing thin would have given me a cooking time of 4 hours before adding the broccoli. I'm also thinking next time I will quick steam the broccoli while I'm thickening the sauce then toss everything together. I realize this kind of defeats the purpose of the whole crock pot thing but keep in mind, the meat cooking in the juice will be very flavorful and slowcooking meat is usually the best way to get a tender morsel. Making the sauce and steaming the broccoli only takes five minutes at best and if you are serving over rice, you are going to take time to cook that anyway... so no real time inconvenience at all to do this in layers.