Breakfast after bloodwork

As some may know, I have a past history of stress-induced severe anemia. This is what ended my almost decade of a vegetarian lifestyle. This also ended my relationship with my former doctor, and led my to a new team of medical professionals who make me feel like they care whether I live or die.

That's a good thing in a doctor. 

So, today I pledged I would take care of my annual bloodwork. Fasting. And of course, my child, the early riser, sleeps until 9. 

But I manage not to eat and we walk to the lab about a half-mile from the house. It's about 9:30 and I'm sweaty already. 

We get home at 10:10 (walking home I'm mentally calculating the distance to the nearest diner). I am completely inept at making coffee. No matter what I do, my coffee turns out double strength. This made me very popular in the Lehigh Valley News Group newsroom. Reporters like caffeine.

To make a decent cup of coffee, I have to use my little espresso machine. Which I did. I took advantage of the fact that I had the espresso brewer out to warm and steam some almond milk to give my daughter a hot cup of chai with local raw honey. I drank what didn't fit in her cup and it was good!

Breakfast was scrambled egg wraps, with a pinch of garlic pepper and a drizzle of Annie's Organic Cowgirl Ranch and a few sprinkles of parmesan cheese.

Sliders on the Grill

Yesterday we bought some hamburger sliders on clearance at Target.

We bought three packs of eight, one of which were bacon cheese sliders. The regular beef sliders were $1.99 a pack. The fancy ones were $2.49.

My husband proposed grilling them. It rains every time we grill. And we never get a good fire going. It took us about an hour to grill the sliders, a rousing success.

I served with my homemade multigrain biscuits, lettuce and the first tomato of the season.

Fête Nationale

Slept in this morning and since it is "Bastille Day," my husband had procured croissants from Wegmans.

Coffee, croissants and jam from the farmers market.

Blender day!

We finally bought a blender. A 700-watt Black and Decker with "easy pour" glass pitcher.

It was 29.99 at Target, and I was debating about a 450-watt on clearance for 19.98 or a 700-watt at a higher price. My husband kept saying not to cheap out. I just wanted the right amount of blender. My research indicated that most people and most use only require 450 watts. But lots of ice and harder to grind stuff, well, some folks get impatient with the 450.

And our old one was a Hamilton-Beach, but I have no idea what the wattage was. 

And the Hamilton-Beach models at Target were ugly and more expensive.

So, I got the Black and Decker 700-watt. It turned out to be on sale for $24 even before my employee and RedCard discount.

Made the family strawberry smoothies with coconut milk and Greek yogurt for dinner. I think my old blender was 450 watt, because I blended for the same amount of time "as usual" and they came out as strawberry milk. Delicious but milk.

Meaty hot lunch

It's another day expected to tap out at a max of 90 degrees. Another day of errands, doctor's appointment and finally work at 5 p.m.

I slipped back to Market after my shift last night for lettuce and noticed a ton of meats going out that night-- the ones that say sell by or freeze the next day.

Guess who bought a mix?

Me.

Steak. Pork chops. Chicken breast. And my lunch today-- Angus beef sirloin medallions wrapped on bacon. And my lettuce. $17.54.

The sirloin I'm making for lunch normally sells for $9.79.

I'm cooking the beef and some roasted cauliflower for a main meal with the family at noon. That beats the heat and allows me to have a nice meal before an evening shift.

The basic premise for roasting cauliflower:

- wash

- preheat oven to 450

- break or cut into hunks no bigger than a golf ball.

- spread on a cookie sheet

- brush with olive oil

- sprinkle with salt

- cook for 35 to 45 minutes turning every 15 until browned in a speckled fashion. You want crispy.

Hot summer night equals nachos

It's darn hot.

So we had nachos for dinner: chips, lettuce, black beans, salsa, black olives and a light layer of cheese.

It made me laugh when I noticed our salsa collection, mild for baby bear, medium for papa bear and extra hot for mama bear.

Saturday biscuits

Yesterday I bought a pound of ground chicken at Target for $1.50 and asked my husband to make his spinach-chicken meatballs today.

Meanwhile, I made biscuits with real lard-- straight from the butcher. I wanted to see if I could tell a difference in the final product. I couldn't. But it worked well.