Not Cereal!

Yesterday was an unexpected blast. I slept in Sunday morning and got up around 8:00. Tony had already fed our dogs their homemade breakfast, so our dogs were already outside, leaving calling cards and watering the weeds for us.

But before I go any further, I want to explain about "our dogs homemade breakfast." Since early August, I decided to quit feeding our dogs—name-brand, manufactured dog food. So after spending several hours researching (Googling) high quality dog foods, it dawned on me that I could, and would love to, cook healthy meals for our dogs instead of feeding them bags of dog food that are full of fillers, etc.

The good news is it is not anymore expensive than buying name brand dog food, our dogs love it and I know exactly what they are being fed.

So every evening, while sipping my one glass of Franzia Chillable Red Wine, I precook breakfast for our dogs and I really enjoy doing it.

And thank goodness I have my faithful Instant Pot, because every evening I use it to cook 3 cups of long grain brown rice, in just a matter of minutes. And while the rice is being pressured cooked, I drink a few more sips of delicious, cheap, boxed wine, while listening to some of my favorite music.

After the rice is cooked, and my wine is doing its thing, our dogs become my personal audience, with their eyes glued on me as I add either raw meat or chicken or fish or scrambled eggs or diced up hot dogs with some raw, home grown, organic spinach leaves. Then they really start drooling as I dump in a can of Veg-All, Parmesan cheese, that comes in the green jar, and I top it off with Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning. So now you know and I hope that you will try doing this.

Now back to my story. As I was sipping my coffee, Tony comes into the big room and says, "I've got great news. Jim Keaveny and Rachel are coming to see us today. They just got back to Austin yesterday, from Jim's Netherlands tour and they will be here later this afternoon...."

Tony and I were thrilled about Jim & Rachel coming to see us and spending the night with us, before they headed back home, to Terlingua.

Around noon, Tony and I took off for Kerrville to run a few errands. He dropped me off at the Country Clean laundry, so I could wash and dry a load of dirty clothes, while he went to Walmart to get a slow-leaking tire fixed.

We normally only use Wagoner's Tires, on Sidney Baker, to buy tires or to fix a tire leak, but because it is family owned. And because we love the family, because they are good people and because years ago, on November 12, 2013, they adopted sweet Bee Spears from us.

But because it was Sunday our only option was Walmart. Here is the link to my April 5, 2015 post, about Bee Spears' fabulous adoption. And here is a picture of this magnificent dog that once lived, at our Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch. And lastly, here is the link my blog post on the day Bee Spears came to the rescue ranch.

Rachel & Jim arrived around 5:00, and we enjoyed a happy hour with them, while I cooked up our dog's breakfast. We talked about Jim's tour and how much fun they had, we caught up with each other's news and we did a lot of laughing, too. They also told us about them getting a Vita-Mix machine and loving it as much as we love Jaws (our Vita-Mix machine). So we started trading smoothie and soup recipes, etc.

Then Jim excused himself and he went out to his truck and came back inside with presents that he & Rachel had bought for us and Kinky. And he was wearing these beautiful, hand-carved, wooden shoes (clogs) that he had bought while touring, in Holland.

After admiring Jim's awesome, wooden shoes, he & Rachel gave us this cute pair of miniature clogs, made in Holland.

And before I put them on the window sill, I put them on Little Debbie's front paws and she loved them even though they were a size or two too big for her dainty feet.

Then there was more. Jim got out his pocket knife and cut open a bag of tulip bulbs, from Holland and he gave us four (pink, yellow, blue and red) bulbs and one yellow bulb for us to give to Kinky.

Because Jim & Rachel were tired last night and dealing with jet-lag, we didn't stay up late like we usually do when they visit. And I had a hard time falling to sleep, because I kept laughing about the fun time that we had had earlier.

This morning, I got up at 8:00 and Rachel & Jim were already up, drinking coffee and packing up their things. When I was making a cup of coffee for myself, I noticed two bowls of delicious cereal, sitting on the counter top, so I said, "Your cereal looks delicious. What's in it?"

They started laughing with Tony, and Tone said, "Nance, it's our dog's breakfast—not cereal. I haven't fed the dogs, yet." And that made me laugh, too.

Around 9:00 this morning, we sadly adios-ed our dear friends and bid them a safe trip back home. And that is about it for today, because I plan to spend the rest of my day writing up a storm, until it starts thundering, because I will have to unplug everything.

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

Forks, Knives & Hiaasen!

Yesterday and today have been great. Yesterday, while Tony and I were waiting to checkout our groceries, at the big H-E-B, an interesting-looking magazine, on the rack, caught my eye, so I picked it up and started thumbing through it. And I found it to be so interesting about their whole-food, plant-based lifestyle, I added it to our pile of groceries, that we were still waiting to pay for.

So on our way home I started reading this FORKS OVER KNiVES magazine  and by the time we got back home, I was completely SOLD on the idea and I could not wait to check out more about it on the FORKS OVER KNiVES website. 

Good grief, I spent over an hour browsing around, reading several articles and checking out their delicious-looking plant-based recipes, on FORKS OVER KNiVES, so now I was even more excited about learning more about living a healthy, whole-food, plant-based lifestyle. 

So, I immediately went to Netflix and then watched their fabulous FORKS OVER KNiVES documentary. And I was so totally convinced and overwhelmed by all of the research studies, testimonials, etc. I race-walked, down the hall and told Tony all about it. And I am proud to say, that I talked him into trying it with me.

Feeling happy and excited that Tony was on-board with me about trying this whole-food, plant-based lifestyle, I celebrated by sitting down with Little Debbie and Big Al(ice), sitting on my lap and enjoyed reading over fifty, hilarious pages on my 3rd Carl Hiaasen book Basket Case. Then I went to bed and counted cabbages instead of sheep to fall asleep.

This morning after exercising with Leslie Sansone again, Kinky called me and then he put Dylan, on the phone, because Dylan was over at the Lodge visiting Sophie, and he wanted to talk to me about a dog possibly needing some help. Anyway, after our conversation Tony and I took off, for Kerrville, so we could go buy us some healthier whole-food.

Our first stop was at Next Generation Produce, that we love, and I quickly filled up our grocery cart with healthy plant-based food that I never knew existed. Then we went over, to the big H-E-B, so we could buy more healthy food.

When we got back home, we had more whole, plant-based food than we had space to store it. So, we piled up the remaining, homeless, healthy plant-based food, on the counter. Then I took this picture of it, for my blog tonight. And I've titled this picture—Our Counter Runneth Over.

And then with-tongue-in-cheek, (not a pretty picture since I do wear dentures) I said, "Tony, the freezer is way too full, so I think that we should finish-off that big carton of Blue Bell Home Made Vanilla Ice Cream, instead of just wasting it and throwing it out, so we can put more healthy food, back inside the freezer." Tone liked my idea and that's exactly what we did and it wasn't easy, but it was really delicious, with the added topping of Reddi-wip which we had to eat, in order to free-up more room, inside the fridge. 

So, as I sit here, contemplating if I should go walk a few more miles with Leslie Sansone tonight, because we had to purge our refrigerator, to make more room for healthier food choices—I've decided not to, because I would rather sit down, with a glass of Franzia's Chillable Red boxed, fine wine and read more of Carl Hiaasen's hilarious book Basket Case.

But before I finish writing this and get to enjoy reading more Hiaasen, I want to share this super, great, short video, that my dear, old friend, Judy Ward, sent to me today. It truly is a must see and I guarantee that it will put a big smile on everyone of y'all's faces. So please do check it out, because I am going to buy one of these.

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