WHAT'S FOR DINNER?

Hello, friends!  Hope you are having a great day.  My mouth is so much better today.  I can actually eat -- if I am careful.  Thank you for all your concern.

It's Wednesday so I'm doing a "What's For Dinner?" post.  I figure the middle of the week is about the right time for it.  I don't have a lot to show you.  Several days I didn't have dinner because my mouth was so sore.  Joe just made himself sandwiches.  But let me show you the pictures I have.

On Saturday I made air fryer chicken thighs, mashed potatoes and broccoli.  It was good.

On Sunday, I decided to try a new recipe that I found in a magazine.  It looked easy and sounded good.  It consisted of cooked rice, broccoli flowerets and cream soup.  After that cooked, a cooked chicken breast was put in and the mixture heated together.  I thought I would put the recipe up for Friday's "Are You Ready for Dinner?" post.

It looked yummy on the plate.  But neither Joe nor I liked it.  I didn't even finish the chicken and we have rice and broccoli left.  I took the recipe and threw it out.  At least we are willing to try new things.

Last night we had blueberry pancakes for dinner since it was Fat Tuesday.  It was also National Pancake Day.  We haven't had pancakes in a long time.

And that's it for this week.  I'm trying to figure out what to have for dinner.  It's Bible Study night so it has to be quick.  

I hope you got some inspiration.  I'll be seeing you all later.  Thanks for stopping by!

Kathy

THIS AND THAT

Hello, friends, and Happy Tuesday!  I hope your week has started out just great.  I don't have much to share with you.  I don't even have any pictures to show you.  Mostly I've been sleeping and watching vlogs.  Why?  You guessed it.  I'm sick again.

This time it is a lot of pain in my right ear, jaw, teeth and I have a headache.  After Joe preached at the nursing home yesterday, we headed for Urgent Care.  It's almost impossible to get an appointment with my doctor anymore, so I am relying on the Urgent Care doctors for my treatment.  I got taken in right away.  There was only one other patient in the place.  And the doctor came in almost immediately.  After asking me some questions and examining me, he said my teeth all looked good, my ear was clear and healthy and asked if I had been to the dentist lately.  Why yes, I had a week and a half ago.  He thinks that during that time of holding my mouth open I damaged the muscles in my TMJ and so now they are inflamed.  He said that would explain all the symptoms I am having.  He told me to take ibuprofen or aspirin to take down the inflammation and if it wasn't better to go to the dentist in a few days.  

Why is everything happening to me?  I don't think I like the year 2020 so far.  But... I am a little better today.  I haven't been able to chew anything because of the pain.  I lived on soft food and liquids.  This morning I was able to get a scrambled egg and two slices of bacon down so that is a good sign.

Another good thing is that my blood pressure was back to normal when they took it in the office yesterday.  So I guess the medicine is working.  I found that by skipping it in the morning three days a week I am not getting any of the side effects and it is working.  So that is what I am doing for now until I see my doctor in April.  Yes, folks, that's the earliest appointment I could get.  But if my plan is working, it's working.

As for vlogs -- I have become a vlog binge watcher.  I have found so many that I want to watch but I like watching them from the beginning and getting up to date. Even if they are several years old.  Let's face it, there isn't so much on TV that is worth watching these days.  So far I have completed watching "Susan's Cozy Condo Life" and "Cora Sue's Cozy Castle."  Now I want to clean out my house and decorate everything in sight.  Ha,ha!

Well, they did inspire me in that.  If you could see my house as it is right now, you would run for the hills.  It is bad folks.  So I picked one room to work on and it's the kitchen.  As I get things done, I will take pictures and show you.  Then when I've completely finished, I will give you a tour.  I haven't decided whether it will be photos or a video (or maybe both?).  One thing I know I want to do is switch my Keurig and my microwave so that I can create a little coffee bar.  I have been wanting one for so long but because the kitchen is small, there hasn't been room to put one.  I hope this will work.  If any of you has a coffee bar area, what do you have in it?  Mugs?  Cute baskets of coffee?  Trays?  I'll take any and all ideas.

And now I will stop rambling and get started with my day.  I want to go get doughnuts because it is Fat Tuesday.  I was going to go to the bakery and buy Fastnachts, but it is raining and I don't feel like driving that far.  But maybe I will.

Hope you all have a good day.  I will talk to you soon.

Kathy

ARE YOU READY FOR DINNER? -- BEEF AND MACARONI CASSEROLE

Hello, friends.  I hope you are having a good day.  Of course I began this week with church.  We had an wonderful service last week and this week promises to be just as good as we continue on through the book of Romans.

I thought I would begin the week by sharing a new recipe I made for dinner last night.  I have been watching vlogs every morning and one leads to another which leads to another.  Yesterday I found two new ones that I am really enjoying:  "Cora Sue's Cozy Castle" and "Mandy in the Making."  Both are lifestyle vlogs and both are good cooks.  This is a recipe that Mandy made for her family's dinner one night.  I made some changes to it to suit my needs.  A big one was that she used jarred spaghetti sauce.  I don't use that (I usually get sick on it), so I was going to use tomato sauce.  It turns out I didn't have that either.  So I used tomato soup.  And it was good!  So here's how I made this Beef and Macaroni Casserole.  Mandy called it Red Macaroni.  Either one works.

Begin by browning 1 pound of ground beef in a skillet.

Chop up one onion.  I used a half an onion and it was enough for us.  I think it depends on how big the onion is and how much you like onions.  I found that if you and onions are not friends, you could omit this step and it would still be good.  They really didn't add that much to the dish.

Mix them together in the pan and brown the together for a few minutes.

Add the can of tomato soup or a small jar of spaghetti sauce.

Add Italian Seasoning to taste.  We like it so I added about a tablespoon.  I didn't measure, just shook it in.

Add salt and pepper to taste.  I didn't use nearly as much as I did the Italian Seasoning.  Maybe a teaspoon of pepper and half a teaspoon of salt.  But make it the way you like it.

Stir in a cup of water.  I put it in the soup can to get the last of the soup out.  If as it cooks it begins to look too thick, add a bit more water.  I didn't need to.

Finally, add one cup of elbow macaroni to the mixture.

And stir everything together.

Cook on medium heat until it bubbles.  Then turn it down to medium low.

Cover and cook for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so.

After 20 minutes check to see that the macaroni is cooked.  Put it into a casserole dish and top with shredded cheese.  Mandy used cheddar.  I didn't have any so I used up the mozzarella and provolone I had in the refrigerator.

Put into a 350*F (180*C) oven for 5 minutes to melt the cheese.  Rather than heat the oven for 5 minutes, I put mine in the microwave for 2 minutes until the cheese was melted.

It was very good.  We both liked it.  I liked that I could change things, make it my own, and it still turned out good.

Here's what Joe thought about it.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe.  I can't wait to try some more of Mandy's creations.

Until next time...

Kathy

WHAT'S FOR DINNER?

Hello, friends!  Hope you are having a wonderful Thursday.  The weekend is coming!

I haven't done a What's for Dinner post in quite a while, so I thought I would show you a few meals that we have had.  Dinner has been haphazard for us ever since I got sick in December.  Some days I am too sick or too tired to cook.  We have been calling out a lot.  A lot more than we should.  And Wawa sandwiches and hoagies have been our friends.  But I did photo a few meals we have had this last week.  Let me show you.  Maybe you will be inspired with meals of your own.

Last Tuesday we had baked chicken thighs, fresh broccoli, and mashed potatoes.  It was good and very easy.

On Wednesday Joe went to his veterans meeting.  He eats over there so I made breakfast for dinner for me.  A fried egg and a couple of slices of bacon.  You can see I was sitting in the living room watching TV.  The remote is right there.

Of course on Valentine's Day we had our heart shaped pepperoni pizza.

Last night was Bible Study night.  That's always a rushed dinner.  I took left over rotisserie chicken and made delicious chicken salad sandwiches.  They were so good.  It's always good to get more than one meal out of a chicken.

I had a photo of another meal, but I can't find it.  I think I accidentally deleted it.  Two nights ago we had grilled pork chops, spinach and I made potato salad.  When I was making the salad I accidentally put too much celery salt in it.  It came out of the jar so quickly and of course I couldn't take it out.  So it was a little salty, but still good.

That's what's going on around here.  I have a ham steak in the refrigerator for tonight.  I don't know what I will have with it, but I'll find something.  Hope you have a good dinner too.  Talk to you soon.


 

SUNDAY PRAISE

Hello, friends!  I hope you have had a wonderful Sunday full of God's blessing.  I woke up at 4:30 this morning with an awful headache which lasted most of the day.  But that did not stop me from going to church.

Our opening hymn was "Give Praise to God" written by Dr. James Montgomery Boice and Paul Stephen Jones, the organist at Tenth Church.  I knew Dr. Boice very well because I worked with him for about 5 years at Tenth Presbyterian Church here in Philadelphia when I was the church secretary.  He was a wonderful man.  It brought tears to my eyes when we sang it because even though he died 20 years ago, I still miss him.  It is a beautiful hymn and I found it on YouTube for you to hear.

Today we began a new part of worship.  We are learning memory verses each week.  Pastor calls this section "Hidden in the Heart."  A perfect title since this truly is what we want to do.  Our verse this week is one I already know:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  Romans 1:16

Maybe some of you would like to learn the verses each week also.

We stopped at Sonic on the way home and got burgers and fries for lunch.  I also got a lemon slush.  If you have been reading my blog for any length of time, you know I love my slushes.  And even though it was so cold outside and this was an icy drink, I enjoyed every drop of it.

After I ate, I took some aspirin and laid down on the sofa.  The next thing I knew it was 8:00 p.m.  Joe had made himself some hot dogs for dinner and I slept on.  So I got up and had a couple of cupcakes so I could take my medicine.  Don't you like that for dinner?  I'm still full from lunch and really not hungry at all.

So now it is almost time for bed and I will go back to sleep.  It's Nursing Home day tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to that.

Until later...

Kathy

VALENTINE'S DAY

Hello, friends!  I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day.  It was one of the best days I have had in a long time.  I have lots to tell and show you. 

First of all, when Joe went to his Veterans' Meeting on Wednesday, one of the ladies there sent me a plate of Valentine's goodies.  That was so sweet of her.  I would like to say I still have some left, but that would be a lie.  Hee, hee!

Joe had to go to a doctor's appointment on Thursday at the V.A. hospital.  I drove him down in some horrible weather and even more horrible traffic.  I just left him off and came home.  After his appointment, he took the train home.  When I met him at the train station, he had the most beautiful flowers for me for Valentine's Day.  He always makes sure to give me one red rose, and there is a red rose in the mix.  I put them onto the stove to get the photos of them because the hood light is so good.  And I took a lot of pictures.

First, I took pictures of the entire bouquet from different sides.  If you turn it around, it looks different.

You can see my one red rose among the mix.

I'm trying to remember to turn it a little each day so I can enjoy all of the flowers.

Here is the red rose.  I love roses.

I don't know what these are called, but they are so pretty.

A light yellow carnation.

Some pretty yellow and pink freesia.

A red carnation.  There seems to be one or two flowers of so many different kinds.

A light yellow daisy.  The flowers all seem to be pink, red, purple, yellow or white.

Right in the middle is a big sunflower.  I love sunflowers.

A purple lily.

A purple daisy.

I had missed this pink rose in the beginning.  It's so pretty.

And finally white daisies.

The flowers Joe got me last week didn't last very long and he was disappointed.  I put these in a bigger vase and since it is glass, I figure I can keep an eye on the water level.  So far, it is still beautiful.

Yesterday we were going to go to Yamoto's for lunch.  Yamoto's is our favorite Japanese restaurant.  I love the vegan sushi they have there made with mangos.  Joe wanted to get a chicken bento box.  We started out about 1:00 p.m. and found we couldn't get onto I-95 to get there.  The on ramp was blocked and cars were lined up in both directions for blocks.  I-95 is only two blocks from my house and it took us 10 minutes to get there.  So we decided to just eat at the restaurant at Shoprite instead.

We both had California roll sushi and iced tea.  The Japanese man who works there had just made the sushi a few minutes before and handed it to us.  He's so nice.  He used to live in the same place that Joe was stationed in Japan so they have a bond.  😊

I took a picture of Joe but because the window was behind him, it didn't turn out so well.

The one he took of me was better even though my hair was messed up.  I forgot to say that the temperature dropped dramatically.  It went from 45*F (7*C) to 25* (-4*C).  When we went out, it was about 34*F (1*C) and very windy.  It went down to 17*F (-8*C) last night.  And that's without the wind chill.

Coming home, I took the back way into the neighborhood where I live to avoid the tie up which was still there.  We found out later that there were two major accidents, one northbound and one southbound.  That is why we saw no traffic on the overpass and heard a lot of sirens from police and ambulances rushing by on the empty highway.

Later on, I bought dinner for us.  One of the restaurants in the neighborhood makes a heart-shaped pizza so I got that.  Isn't it cute?

We had also gotten a few things at Shoprite while we were there.  If you read my post yesterday, you might remember I had forgotten to get olive oil.  So we got that.  We also got some cute cupcakes for our dessert.

Would you like white icing or pink?  I had one of each.  Today I will go back to eating healthy.

This morning Joe is going to a men's breakfast at church.  We have them every other month.  He got some Danish and some coffee to take over.  I have to go with him because I need some bulletin covers for this week and I will try to get a few pictures before I leave for our Facebook and blog pages.  If I do, I will share them with you tomorrow.

Have a good day everyone!

Kathy

ANOTHER GROCERY HAUL

Happy Valentine's Day!  I hope you are all having a lovely day with your loved ones.  My day hasn't really started yet.  Well... my day has, but Joe is still sleeping.  Because of my medication I fell asleep early last night and had no idea when Joe came to bed.  I woke up around 4:30 a.m. this morning.  So far I have put out the trash for collection, fed Jack, made my breakfast and watched the three shows I make time for on Netflix each day.  I also saw a few vlogs and the exerpts from "Good Morning Britain" on YouTube.  When I finish this, I will have my morning devotions, read the newspaper and get dressed to go out.  

Joe and I are planning on going to Yamoto's for lunch.  They were closed for awhile so we haven't been there in months.  When I passed it to go see my cancer doctor last week, I saw that it was open again.  Going out to lunch is better than dinner.  Not only is it cheaper and less crowded, but I don't like driving in the dark.

Yesterday I had to get just a few things from the store.  And after all that I forgot olive oil.  I am completely out, so I will have to pick some up today.  Let me show you what I got.

I hadn't gotten anything out of the freezer for dinner, so I got a rotisserie chicken.  It was so good!

I got pork chops, chicken breasts, and a ham steak.

I divided up the pork chops and bagged them up before putting them in the freezer.  We are getting four meals out of it for only a few cents over $5.  A bargain for sure.

I just used up my body wash, so I needed that.  Joe wanted some Comet.  We were getting low on paper plates, dishwasher tabs, and foil so we got all of that.

I have never used the pomegranate and mango fragrance Softsoap body wash.  It sounds as if it is just what I would like for spring and summer.

And finally salad mix, organic bananas, and asparagus.

We got another bag of Pear Gorgonzola salad mix.  I made it for dinner last night.  It was so good.

I still have not had time to photo the last four pair of Christmas socks, but I will soon.

Joe just got up and I am going to get ready to go out.  I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.  Have a good day everyone!

Kathy