Friday, July 22, 2016

And Summer Goes On

Well, surgery was successful for Keith's right eye. We are in the last week before payday in the surgical financial crunch. Not really sure how "crunchy" it will get for his left eye, which needs to be done within 30 days after the left eye. But, at least he isn't almost totally blind now.
With the financial crunch, I've tried to stay on my eat-style program as much as possible. We've, basically, been buying whatever we can afford at the grocery store. I've been putting off my summer porridge, but will be making them again this afternoon (if the yogurt is still good in the icebox, that is). 
The heat and humidity of summer has kept me on the boat, but on the plus side, with the a/c working again, my heat rash is almost gone. So, I haven't been to the store to weigh in. 
Because we had accumulated enough reward points at the local pizza joint for a free pizza (this was before I started this program), to save money we used the points for a free pizza. 
One thing I discovered - pizza is something I'm going to have to stay away from while losing weight, because I can't eat just one slice. Oh no, I ate FOUR! Not good. As a result, I'm sure I lost points on pound loss. 
We've been able to keep dinners almost normal. I've fixed a lot of chicken and ground turkey meals.
Speaking of ground turkey, last night I didn't know what to do with the gr. turkey I had, so I got on the internet and found a seasoning for turkey burgers. It was delicious. It was a copycat seasoning for Fuddrucker Burgers from Todd Wilbur, and it was great (although I'm cutting back a bit next time on the black pepper and cayenne pepper. Some people replace the cayenne with cumin). Here is a link to the website.

http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/Fuddruckers-Hamburger-Seasoning-Copycat-Recipe.html

As there are other copycat recipes that are not so low-cal or healthy on this site, I do recommend browsing carefully, but do browse. There are a few that have been modified for low-cal. Not all links will give a complete recipe. You'll have to purchase his cookbooks for them.
But this seasoning I used on the turkey burgers made the burgers very flavorful, and not bland at all. I mixed the ground turkey with Worcestershire sauce and a little A1 Original with a mix of onion and celery bits first, then added the seasoning to the burger while pan frying. I'm not sure what the total calorie count is for these burgers, but it's gotta be better than beef. In fact, they were so good, I might not go back to beef.




Friday, July 8, 2016

Most Difficult Summer

With the heat index over 100 degrees F every day, it's been a brutal time for me. I am not heat oriented. I don't thrive on it, and I certainly don't love it. On top of that, our a/c unit went out. And we can't fix it.
First, DH can't see to pull the unit and take it in for repairs. Second, money's very, very, very tight this month with the first laser surgery scheduled for DH's cataracts (which thanks to the 6 month fed government waiting period for part b of his medicare to kick in, has left him almost totally blind). Third, we didn't exactly get all the costs for this surgery told to us, even though we asked for totals, what's involved, etc. Seems they left out the anti-biotic prescriptions to the tune of 338 dollars, and the EKG required before the surgery that must be done by a different doctor. 
So, what does all this have to do with my eat style blog? Well, between the heat (of which I'm not cooking except stuff for the thermal cooker once in a while), and the extremely low funds this month, I have had to "shed" my eat style as we are buying whatever food we can afford - this includes frozen dinners, canned stuff, and the all evil (to me, anyway) processed crap.
The heat has given me a heat rash on my stomach, chest, arms and the top of my right thigh. Yesterday, as I was opening a can, I deeply sliced my finger on the jagged edge of the can lid that the can opener did not open all the way. I couldn't get it to stop bleeding until I taped it up with non-stick pads surrounded by gauze. I also had to take two Aleve to numb the pain. 
I have been drinking a lot of cold water and some juice, but my morning porridge has gone by the wayside temporarily. It's just too hot to make it. I ended up having sweat drip down onto it from my forehead....yuck.
I still try to limit portions, which hasn't been that hard to do since the heat does not generate a lot of hunger.
I don't fancy summers in the south at all.