It's Been A While...

So....it's been a while since I've posted.  I've really had nothing new to report, so I didn't want to bore anyone with my nonsense.  I don't know if I should blog about things other than my post-surgery experiences (since that was the intention).  If you have an opinion, feel free to share.

Anyway, today I do have something to share.  Chili = bad news.  I made chili today, as it is cold, damp, and rainy here, and I love something simmering in the crockpot in this kind of weather.  Wellll.....if you want to know what fire in your stomach feels like, just eat some chili after having this surgery.  I didn't even make it that spicy, because the kids would be eating it too.  It will be a long time before I try it again.  So now I have a huge crockpot full of the stuff, and really only one person to eat it all.  I'll be freezing some, and pawning some off....Mom, you'll be getting some!

I've been trying to break out of the mashed potato mold, and experience new foods.  One thing new I've noticed about myself is that I really am not a meat girl anymore.  Me, whose favorite meal is a big honkin' steak and a baked potato. 

The other night I cooked up some loose hamburger with onions and spices, with the intention of mixing it with pasta.  My husband loves that, and I wasn't planning on eating it.  Then my creativity streak kicked in.  I ended up adding wine, Worchestershire sauce, a bit of reduced fat cream cheese, and a smidge of milk.  It ended up as kind of a stroganoff, and it was fabulous.  I mixed it up with radiatore pasta.  My son ate two bowls.  I ended up throwing up, because I ate one too many bites (and I didn't even have the pasta).

I also did a meatloaf in the crockpot, something I had never done before.  But I keep hearing to "moist cook" all of my meats, and the best way to do that is to use the crockpot.  With it I made (big shock here) mashed potatoes.  I tried the meatloaf, but it didn't sit well, so I went with the potatoes...again.  Luckily I had gravy from KFC to change it up.

That night, I broke out the ol' "Fix It and Forget It" cookbook (that's for the crockpot, for those of you who don't know) for some new ideas.  Well, "forget it"...practically every recipe in there calls for some kind of cream-of soup plus one or two other ingredients.  I am not that kind of cook.  I like to cook as naturally as possible, ie not use canned soups (not only for the sodium content, but it usually doesn't taste like anything other than soup).  So instead of using recipes straight out of the book, I have used it for ideas.

I did a pork roast the other day.  I wanted to throw potatoes in there, but since I had made the mashed potatoes the night before, I didn't want to do them two nights in a row.  So I decided to throw brown rice into the crockpot about 2 hours before I was going to serve dinner.  I took the roast out and put the uncooked rice in the liquid (pork juices, wine, V8, and water) that the roast was cooking in, and set the roast back in.  Well....it was ok.  I couldn't eat it.  Everyone else did, but I ended up tossing all that was left over.  The pork is making great sandwiches for my husband's lunch though.

So.  Chili is not good for me.  What will tomorrow bring?  Hopefully not more friggin mashed potatoes.  I never thought I'd say this, but damn, I'm getting sick of them!