No Regrets!

Yesterday Tony and I went to the Cracker Barrel, in Kerrville, to eat lunch with our dear friends: Kris & Jim and Denise & Les. But I have a confession to make, but I will tell you about it later.

For Tony and me it was Day 16 of us mainly eating a plant based, whole foods diet. Since starting this healthy lifestyle change we have totally excluded: beef, pork, chicken, lamb, fish all dairy, etc. and Tony has lost 12 pounds and let's just say that my weight is coming off much slower than his.

Tony and I have not missed eating meat, fowl, fish and dairy, because when we decided to eat healthier we decided not to give up everything that we love to eat.

We decided to keep on drinking our two morning coffees with the delicious Coffee Mate French Vanilla. Which I know is non-dairy, but is full of chemicals. And we also decided to allow ourselves to cheat once a month if we are really craving something—as long as we would jump back on the wagon and continue to eat mainly vegetables and fruits.

We decided to cheat once a month after Drew & Ellie came to visit us. They are vegans and health fanatics and they are extremely healthy and intelligent.

When Ellie told us, while eating one of my black bean brownies, that she has been a vegan since age 15 she gave us some much needed advice. "It is okay to cheat every once in a while and then get back to eating healthy the next day, because if you don't you will simply quit and give up. And then go back to making poor food choices that can wreck your health." And we decided that those were words for us to live by. And it works.

So yesterday, while enjoying a fun time with our good friends, I was munching on small servings of green beans, pinto beans, coleslaw and carrots, while Tony enjoyed "His Cheat Day" eating fried catfish with green beans, pinto beans and along with a buttermilk biscuit.

Near the end of our lunch, one of the girls started talking about dessert and they showed me this picture of this beautiful, banana pudding with vanilla wafers and topped off with whipped cream, just as I was eating my last bite of coleslaw.

When the friendly waitress came to our table to ask if any of us wanted desserts—Denise and Kris ordered the banana pudding deal and I must confess that I ordered it, too.

It was absolutely delicious and I enjoyed eating it without feeling any guilt, because yesterday became my once a month Cheat Day. And I have no regrets.

After our fun lunch with friends Tony and I went to the big H-E-B to pick up a few more groceries and this time I put in my cart: some frozen dark, sweet cherries, veggie burgers, bananas, almond milk, vanilla extract and walnuts.

FYI: I know that veggie burgers aren't made with only vegetables, but we are fine with that, because Tony and I have decided to just be vegans and just eat healthier.

We are still going to avoid eating anything that has eyes (or shells-eggs), avoid sugar, white flour, bread, pasta, etc., because we know that we can live with that.

Today, Day 17, for our healthy lunch I water-sautéed mushrooms, onion, garlic, red and green bell peppers and I served them over a veggie burger—topped with avocado with sliced tomatoes and bowls of beans. And for our dessert I made us delicious Banana Walnut Ice Cream, a fabulous recipe from my Eat To Live Cookbook, by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. And it takes less than 5 minutes to make.

And I only used these four ingredients: frozen bananas, almond milk, walnuts and vanilla extract. Tony and I plan to eat this regularly for dessert and tomorrow I am making the book's Chocolate Cherry Ice Cream recipe! Life is good.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

Cosmos! or Fall Headgear!

Today has been great. This morning our dear friends Jonell & Roy came over to deliver us our very first cord of wood. So now we are truly ready for the cold weather months. I was so thrilled to get the oak wood. So after Roy & Jonell left Big Foot Ranch I took a picture of it.

But Henry Standing Bear was not as excited about it as I was, because we stacked the wood, along the fence line, in front of his side yard, blocking his view of the wildlife.

After taking this picture I stepped back to admire the tall, beautiful Cosmos that Tony had planted, months ago, along the fence line to attract hummingbirds and butterflies.

Then I took this picture of this beautiful Cosmo flower.

Before returning to The Cabin I decided to take another picture of our delicious, climbing Malabar spinach plant that is growing so fast, we can't eat it fast enough. 

Earlier this afternoon we met our dear friends Kris & Jim, in Kerrville, for two reasons. The first reason was to enjoy a fun lunch with them and catch up with each others news, at the Cracker Barrel. 

And the second reason, so I could hand off a copy of the first chapter (Wednesday), of my 3rd novella The Cowgirl Sisterhood: Ghost Riders in the Sand, so they could help me edit it. And here is a peak of page one.

Since it may be hard to read, here are those first, three paragraphs: And yes, this is a teaser  : )

                                         "Wednesday

After we had eaten my delicious tuna fish salad for our lunch, another recipe that I have stolen from my best friend Carol Vail and took credit for, I washed and dried the dishes and put them away. Then I went back to the bedroom, sat down at my ancient sewing machine again and got back to sewing some cute, tiny eye patches for Little Debbie to wear. Because her old ones were starting to fray. 

I had just finished sewing this darling, pink, camouflage eye patch when Tony walked into the bedroom, and said, "Hey. Here come the Waxlers." Then the phone rang. "I'll get the phone. Don't let them leave until I get back."

"Okay," I said, as I carefully trimmed away the top and bobbin threads for Little Debbie's newest, adorable, Fall, headgear collection. Then I went outside to greet our dear friends, "Good afternoon, Alison and Blake. I hope y'all slept okay, last night, during that thunderstorm.""

🌵🐾🌵

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

An Old, Cute, Goofy Couple!

Today has been great, except for one thing and it upset Tony more than it did me. Actually, I thought it was totally hilarious and was bound to happen to us sooner than later. To keep it simple we'll call it a "Wardrobe Malfunction" sort of. Anyway, I am still laughing about it and that is why I am writing about it tonight.

You see, about a month ago or so, Tony and I were at Walmart for some reason that I can't remember now. Anyway, while we were there we saw these pretty, men's button-down collar, flannel shirts that were on sale for only $8.00.

We love to wear flannel shirts and because I really love button-down collar shirts we decided to buy 3 for each one of us. And after we wore them a few times and I had washed them we decided to go back to Walmart and buy a few more if they were still on sale. Bottom line—we each bought 3 more flannel shirts, again.

Well, it turns out that Tony's favorite flannel shirt is this dark blue plaid and it is also my favorite, too. So by now you must have figured out where this story is headed. Seriously, without either one of us knowing or paying attention to the fact that we were wearing the same dark, blue, plaid shirts when we took off for Kerrville, to eat lunch, at the Cracker Barrel, because I wanted to eat there, so I could eat a turkey, Thanksgiving dinner.

When we were about ten miles from the Kerrville City Limits, Tony said, "Omg! I knew this was going to happen. We are dressed alike." I laughed about it, but he didn't.

"Good grief, Tony," I remarked. "Who cares? It is no big deal if you ask me. Besides that, people will just laugh and think that we are a cute, old couple that likes to dress alike." Tony said nothing.

So, when we got our table, at the Cracker Barrel, in the middle room, this sweet, perky waitress walks up to our table, and she says, "That is so cute that y'all are both wearing matching outfits." And I nodded yes, as she handed us our menus, while Tone turned as red as his next favorite, new, buttoned-down flannel, red plaid shirt that he bought, which thank goodness I hadn't bought, because red is not my color—pink is.

And to make a long story short, we enjoyed eating our lunch, even though we both ordered the exact same thing—their Chicken Pot Pie Special. Because I sadly found out from our waitress that they weren't serving turkey dinners until tomorrow. And I am betting that our attentive waitress is still laughing about us being an old, cute, goofy couple that dresses alike and also orders the same thing, at restaurants.

Before going back home, we went to the big H-E-B to pick up a few more groceries, even though we had sworn not to do that, because we knew it would be packed with people, again, because tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. And we survived that, even though several people stared at us for wearing matching clothes.

And in hopes of ending tonight's post on a good note, when we got back home, from Kerrville, we rescued a 3-4 year old, sweet, female Chihuahua mix, from Hoegemeyer's Animal Clinic, because Kathy had called us and left a message about them trying to help find a home for this sweet, lovable Chi-mix, that their elderly client could no longer keep, because of some health related issues.

We are planning to pick her up on Friday or Saturday. So, if any of y'all know someone wanting to adopt a small, sweet companion dog, please ask them to call us, so we can get her into a forever-loving home. And that's about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!