A Wrench Thrown Into Our Lives

So I know I've been kind of spotty over the last few weeks and I've decided to hang up the towel on this blogging thing for the time being.

You see today we found out my husband's cancer is back and has spread to his lungs. To say we've had the wind knocked out of us would be a major understatement. The next couple of weeks are going to entail more tests, doctors, specialists and still somehow trying to manage having a "normal" life and following all of that will be another round of chemo with who knows what after. As much as I love blogging it just takes up too much of my time and I'm becoming resentful of that considering I want to spend as much time as I possibly can right now with the love of my life. I may come back every once in awhile to use this as a release and a distraction from everything else in my life but right now I want to keep myself from starting to hate something that I currently enjoy so much.

I'll be back one of these days and until then please just keep my sweet Tim in your prayers. He can use all he can get right now, you can follow his progress here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/timbright.

Thank you!

Still Under the Weather

I feel bad for myself for feeling so awful but more-so I feel bad for Tim because I'm the worst sick kid ever. I whine, complain and essentially turn from a twenty-something year-old back to a six year old. I took my dad's advice last night and attempted to "sweat it out" by going to sleep with layers upon layers of blankets and clothing but so far no-go.

I do feel lucky that I decided to go on a soup-making binge on Sunday and made some homemade chicken noodle soup I had placed in the freezer. Tim sweetly heated it up for me and I was perfectly content to sit on the couch sipping away at it. Nothing beats a good homemade bowl of Chicken Noodle (sorry for the bad picture I sipped away all of the liquid before I shot it).

Here is my recipe:

I boil a whole chicken for about 30 minutes with just enough water to cover the top and flipping it about half of the way through. It doesn't really matter if the chicken is completely cooked at this point because you will continue cooking it for awhile longer. I pull out the chicken (save the water) and take all of the meat off the bones & put that to the side placing all of the remaining fat, skin & bones back into the pot I was cooking the chicken in previously and boil it for another 30 minutes.

During this time I go ahead and cut up my vegetables which are typically one large onion and two carrots. I saute them in Olive Oil or leftover bacon grease I keep in the fridge in a different stockpot. I add in salt and pepper and 1 can of corn with one can of green beans both drained (but you can add anything you like to this) and get everything heated back up. While its all getting warm together I strain the chicken stock into another bowl  and can usually save about a 1/3 of it for other uses while putting 2/3 of it into the soup. After that cooks for about 10 minutes I add in half a box of macaroni noodles and keep it cooking until they have all puffed up. I let the soup cool a bit before separating it into individual portions in sandwich bags and freezing.

The Sick Kid

I don't know if it was tailgating from 9 AM until 6PM (at least) on Saturday, the fact that the weather just went from summer to winter overnight or that I caught a bug but I have a cold. I'm terrible when I get sick, I whine, I complain and I become 6 years old again. I do not like feeling bad.

I'm also on a kick (that will most likely be over tonight) where I don't take medicine until its absolutely necessary. I'm trying to get my body to a point that it takes care of itself for the most part (so far its failing). So today I have been (miserably) toughing it out. I went to Starbucks today to get a nice little decaf black tea with some honey and lemon in it. I discovered they don't have decaf black tea and they don't have lemon but the nice little barista guy introduced me to a new tea flavor I'm a huge fan of now. Tazo Vanilla Reoibos, it has a warm light scent to it and is delicious but not too strong. Only thing that could've made it better was fresh squeezed lemon.

Ok, so now that you know I'm going to bed. Be back tomorrow!

Don't Quiche and Tell - Meatless Monday: Week Five

For some reason over the past year or two I've developed quite the affinity for quiche. I thought it would be the perfect addition for Meatless Monday and although Tim & I both agreed it was good we thought it would be really good with bacon. So here is what we did for the meatless variety.

I rolled out a pre-made pie crust into a pic dish while Tim sauteed onions & spinach (although you can use whatever meats & vegetables you personally like). I went ahead and mixed up 3 eggs, about 3/4 c of cream and 1 1/2 c of shredded cheddar cheese. I also added in 1/4 tsp of salt and 1/3 tsp of black pepper, 1/4 tsp of paprika and 1/2 tsp of garlic salt.

We layered in the vegetables at the bottom of the crust and placed the mixture on top before baking on 375 degrees for about 20 minutes or until the top puffs up and turns slightly brown. You're supposed to let it sit for about 10 minutes first but it was pretty late and we were hungry so we dug in for a slice. It was the most successful Meatless Monday we've had thus far. Glad to finally be 2 for 2!