Recipe Thursday - Paleo Spinach Cheese Omelet

A year or so ago I started trying to eat a modified Paleo diet. I had determined I had a wheat sensitivity since whenever I ate anything with wheat in it, I would get bloated and gassy and nothing else was working to make those side effects go away. My daughter said she had the same thing happen to her and she started on this diet and all that went away. So I started trying to change my eating habits. Slowly I have although I still have a little wheat now but I am much more careful of what goes in my mouth. It usually means we stay in and cook at home now but I learned tricks to freezing and meal preps. Oh - ignore that English muffin there on the plate - I didn't have a picture so just googled for one. That muffin is not on a Paleo diet.

One day I was looking for something different to make for breakfast. I just did a google search and came across this recipe. I wish I remembered the page I found it on so I can give them credit but alas, that is hindsight. So if this is your recipe let me know and I will be glad to give you full credit.

Spinach Cheese Omelet

Ingredients

• 2  large eggs
• 1  tablespoon  butter
• 1  cup  coarsely chopped spinach
• 1/3  cup  chopped tomatoes
• 1/8  teaspoon  salt
• 1/3  cup  (1 1/2 oz.) shredded Swiss cheese
• 1/8  teaspoon  pepper

Preparation

1. Blend and Pour. Process eggs and 2 Tbsp. water in a blender until blended. Melt butter in an 8-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat; add spinach and tomatoes, and saute 1 minute or until spinach is wilted. Add salt and egg mixture to skillet.

2. Lift and Tilt. As egg mixture starts to cook, gently lift edges of omelet with a spatula, and tilt pan so uncooked egg mixture flows underneath, cooking until almost set (about 1 minute). Cover skillet, and cook 1 minute.

3. Fold and Serve. Sprinkle omelet with cheese and pepper. Fold omelet in half, allowing cheese to melt. Slide cooked omelet onto a serving plate, and season with salt to taste. Serve with buttered toast and fresh fruit.

 

Inspirational Sunday - Regret

Regret - what a huge word! And I bet you are wondering why on earth I would use that word as part of an Inspirational Sunday.

Well, let's start with the definition. Regret as a verb means to feel sad, repentant or disappointed over something that has happened or been done, especially a loss or missed opportunity. Regret as a noun means a feeling of sadness, repentance, or disappointment over something that has happened or been done.

So what does regret have to do with anything inspirational? Well, one can't go on the definition alone. Are there things I regret? Not really. We are all busy with our lives. We have priorities and we are making the best decision we can at the time. But realistically can anyone tell me a regret they have had in the past 10 years? When I asked some of my friends, most regrets they stated they had were actually things happened to them when they were younger. Or having someone die without a call or leaving something unsettled or unsaid. They were all surprised by my answer.

Attending my 40th high school reunion, I came face to face with some of the bullies and popular kids who I always envied. It was interesting at the reunion to see how they have aged. Most were on their 3rd or 4th marriages. Most were drunk at the party and I am fairly certain that is how they lived their lives. One party to the next. Do I ever regret being like them or a member of their group? No I didn't then and still don't. I always knew I was different from them. I probably won't be attending another reunion but I don't regret going because I understand now why I never had wanted to go before. It was nice catching up with some people but if they were my true friends they would still be in my life today.

Actually I have no regrets. I have done pretty much what I wanted when I wanted to. I am not perfect and I have made mistakes but I don't regret making those mistake because it was the learning experience making that mistake that helped me grow and become who I am today.

So if I don't have any regrets, then why did I choose this as a topic? Because of something my father told me this past week. He stated that if I didn't do this or that or go there or here, that I would regret it my whole life. I told him I had no regrets because every decision I have made since I can remember I have made based on decisions I made. I don't think he liked my answer but I own my answer. I actually asked him if he had any regrets. He asked me why. I said I was just curious. He said he did have regrets. I didn't ask him what they were or if he regretted never knowing who I am as a person because frankly, it didn't matter. He owns his regrets. I don't.

So if you are one who does have regrets - turn those things that you regret into a positive - take those things you regret, dissect them, and use them to change that behavior or action. Never let a negative regret stay in your life. The above quote says it all.

Really Back for Good - I Think

Sorry everyone. I have been trying to get back here since December. But my blog was transferred to google and I couldn't get in until I jumped sideways, backwards, spun around a hundred times, reset my password umpteen times, and FINALLY tonight I am here!!!!!!!!!!!!YIPEE...........

I could get here via my cell but I am old. Typing on my cell is hard! I finally have a computer I can use and then couldn't get in. Then when I began the spinning around, I prevented myself from getting in on my cell........sigh........they don't make things easy for us older folks!

Lots to catch you up on.........but for today.........I am just happy I am back.........and yes I did check 10 times shutting my computer off and back on and yep still can get here!

So Happy 4th!

Gift Giving - Mandatory? Obligatory? Affordable?

I have been pondering this for a few years now especially in my extended family. Twice a year we have 'mandatory' family gatherings. One is an entire weekend in the summer where we literally stuff 50 people into a 10 bedroom farmhouse, get no sleep, try to get along with siblings you never got along with when you were young, then add in allergies from being around hay barns and in the country so you are sick for weeks after. The other is Christmas.

There are also 2 gift exchanges per year. One for birthdays (names of those participating go into a hat and then given a name to buy for - gift exchange is $100.00). The other was the Christmas exchange whose price was set at $100.00 years ago then lowered to $50.00 then lowered last year to $25.00).

My husband, son, and I chose not to be a part of the birthday drawing. We just can't afford that. We agreed to stay in the Christmas exchange if it was reduced to $25.00 which it was. Did my family honor this? No. So here I was giving presents $25.00 while others were spending up to $100.00 on their name.

Now I attended Christmas yesterday. At no time was there ever a meeting or a vote. But somehow the monetary value of the Christmas gift was increased to $50.00 to $100.00 again. My husband's name, my son's name, and my name was eliminated from the 2015 Christmas list.

Guess we were eliminated because we stuck to the $25.00 gift limit.

Family.

Craptacular

Yes you read that right. My new word of the day is crapactular. Thanks Reyd! I am loving this word.

If there was any word to sum up my last year it would be crapactular.

Hubs and I have $20.00 to our name. That twenty has to last us a week maybe more. We finally got our practice management software back so I can get billing out. But with all the legal fees which of course had to be paid up front, we are down to our last twenty.

Do you think family would help us? Why would they? There is a wedding to plan for in January. There is a sister in the midst of a divorce so my father bought her a house. Brother's wife has gout again (no idea why that should mean anything but that was their excuse). Inlaw's money is tied up in a trust. Brother in law and his wife who combined make over $300,000.00 per year have a plane to worry about. Why should they help? After all they have never acknowledged their god daughter or their only grand niece. They don't attend or help with anything.

Somehow we will eat and put on a Thanksgiving dinner.

I will have faith. It will come together.

In the meantime, I am going with everything is peachy keen and crapactular!

Update - When It Rains It Pours - FIL, Death, and More

I believe things happen for a reason. Right now I can't think of any reason but I am hoping there is one. Life has been one curve ball after another.

1st - We admitted FIL into hospice August 20th after 3 days of total unconsciousness. We learned his heart was still functioning around 20% capacity but he was in total renal failure. Dialysis was not an option. He would not respond and flunked the swallowing test twice. So we all made the decision to admit him to hospice. My husband and I signed the paperwork and I arranged his transfer from the hospital for the next morning via ambulance back to his dementia home. We thought we would be having his funeral the following Monday for our 35th wedding anniversary. Betting is not our forte :)

I swear someone sprinkled fairy dust on him during his transfer. The man I had spent 3 days with at the hospital was not the man I saw in a picture taken Thursday afternoon at his house. That picture showed a man who was sitting up in a wheelchair, eating dinner. Fully awake and conscious and talking.

He had good days and bad days and in the last few weeks there were more bad days than good days. We got a call Monday the 27th that he had lapsed back into a coma like state. We rushed out to see him. Taking a look at him, I knew it would be just a matter of days. We were out there for MIL daily also working every day. Thursday the 30th we got a call that it was any time. We drove back out after re-arranging patients. We stayed until almost 9p, then took MIL home, drove back home picking up a pizza on the way. We had just finished eating the pizza when we got the call he had died. We drove back out, taking MIL to see him to say her final good-byes. Yes, I allowed her to crawl into bed with him. She needed that closure and at this point after being married 66 years, I felt it was her right. We stayed to midnight and took MIL home, then went back to the home to wait for the hospice nurse to pronounce him, and then waited for the funeral home to pick him up. I think we finally got home between 3-4 am. BIL called us and stated he had scheduled for us to make all the arrangements at 9 the next morning. Hubs and I looked at each other and said absolutely no way and changed it to 11. We were still late but we had to have some sleep. BIL had only been there once that week and for a few hours. We had been splitting what little time we had to be there for MIL and FIL. We were exhausted.

The funeral was Monday, October 31st. It was a very fitting day for a generous man. He was more of a father to me than my own ever thought of being. He loved me and never hesitated to tell me. He encouraged me and trusted me - things my own father never did. I will really miss him.

#2 FIL's funeral was not the first the month of October for us. We lost our beloved 5 year old cat Trouble earlier in the month. We also lost a friend who dropped dead of a heart attack at 58, a cousin who died at age 55, and a friend who couldn't bear life anymore and took his own life at the age of 64. We also lost our son-in-law's grandfather early in the month. So if things come in 3's, I figure we have one more to go.

It has been a month of testing our faith in God. There were 2 other things that happened that I will address in another post.

A Not So Inspirational Sunday

I had originally thought my life was busy and crazy but I had no idea it could get worse.

Since my last post my husband and I split every day between visiting FIL whom we admitted to hospice and work. But there are so many other things that totally fill our time, some days I just want to have everything go away and just hide. One of those things is we had to make the difficult decision to euthanize our beloved cat 5 year old Trouble. Just 3 weeks prior to making that decision, Trouble was diagnosed with a bladder infection. Trouble recuperated fine after a round of antibiotics or so we thought. A week after he took the last antibiotic he became listless again. We fed him syringes of water and isolated him from the other cats. A mere 6 hours later we rushed him to the Emergency Vet who diagnosed him with bladder stones and in acute renal failure. Since he was so young, we decided to treat by having the vet put in a catheter and give him IV fluids. He didn't respond. His kidney failure was too much so we made the difficult decision to put him out of his pain. We picked up his ashes yesterday. His blood brother misses him but we all do.

On top of the above, we are dealing with the complications of trusting our software vendor who we thought was a friend. There is the Attorney General of 2 states and a legal firm and our lawyer trying to help us sort out a huge mess. I feel betrayed. What I thought was a 21 + year friendship based on ethics, honesty, and mutual respect has turned out to be a fake. I want to just shout out to everyone what is happening but I have too much respect for myself to stoop to his level.

I keep telling myself that God doesn't give us more than we can handle but right now I am having a hard time believing this and coping. I have been praying a lot. I know there is a lesson and a plan He has for the reasons I am going through all this. Just hard to be patient.

So my inspiritational Sunday message isn't so inspiritational.

Sorry