Less Empty Nest Menu #32

Monday - Stir Fry with Ramen (with an assortment of veggies)
Tuesday - Lentil Soup, corn bread
Wednesday - Pork Chops, Tomato Chickpea Salad, fresh veg
Thursday - Sloppy Joes, chips or tots
Friday - Red Curry Chicken, brown rice, fresh veg
Saturday - Pasta with meat sauce, fresh veg  {we have a wine activity that I'm sure will get cancelled...}
Sunday - Tuna Salad on toast (we never had this last time)
Dessert this week is Lemon Cream Pie

Gina

Eating lunch out

I've re-discovered a shady and beautiful area at the hospital that almost no one uses.  Its called the Healing Garden, and it wraps around the back of the building.  Full of blooms and birds and art and peace and light.  It is the perfect place to take a breather and enjoy a quiet lunch.

 In our breakroom, we have people who want to watch the news at full volume.  Or tell you their political thoughts.  Or talk too loudly on personal cell phones.  Or breeze through and comment on what you are eating.  Or ask questions and offer opinions.

Out here there is none of that.  Take off your mask, find a pretty spot.  Eat your lunch.  Breathe fresh air and listen to birds.

I am still taking my lunch, avoiding the cafeteria.  I heat up my lunch and rush out to the garden.  I'm the only one there and its amazing.

Its a beautiful place.  I need to take a few more pics each day that I am out here.  And I do plan to be out here every day I have to work.

If your head isn't right - you find yourself having trouble sleeping, or you're spending a lot of time worried about the state of things, unplug yourself.  From social media, from your computer, from the news, from co-workers.  And just go outside and eat your lunch.

Gina

Weekend re-cap: groceries, Highlands, Westcave, home

I'm hopeful that the new normal on the weekends will be short-lived.  Gloomy skies and long lines at the grocery store are nothing to look forward to.

 While I am grateful that I have a car to get there early, and money to pick up what we need I sincerely do not want to spend my weekends doing chores and shopping.

 I waited in line for 40 minutes, shopped for 25.  And I was calm as I quickly made my way through the store, mindful that many were still waiting in that long line outside.

 A full pantry resulted.  I think that between cooking and take-out, we can feed ourselves for two weeks.  I focused mainly on dried beans, meat, and cheese.  We are still getting our Imperfect Foods boxes weekly.  

 I had plans to be a hermit after grocery shopping, but got hooked into going to Highlands since Bubbie was coming with.  We picked up burgers and beer and sat in the yard around the firepit until a thunderstorm swept across the hill.  An impressive lightening strike took out one of the breakers near the pumphouse.  Hubby said it lifted his feet off the ground!

Back at home I made an amazing tater tot casserole and we all pooped out.  The next day we picked up our wine from Westcave, then returned to Highlands to replace the breaker. By the time we got home it was after 5 p.m. And with that, the weekend ended and we are all tossed back into this crazy pandemic.

Gina  

Less Empty Nest Menu #31

Monday - Mole Chicken over brown rice, a frozen veggie {order produce box}
Tuesday - Pot o' beans with smoked turkey leg, corn muffins, chopped onion
Wednesday - Scalloped Potatoes with ham and carrots
Thursday - Order pizza (or something) out - keep local restaurants going!
Friday - Sliced Sausages with bell pepper and onion, tater tots, side of beans from Tuesday {will I finally go get my hair cut?}
Saturday and Sunday - TBD  

Gina

5 thing Friday - signs, art, stars, halls, Kudos

Its been a weird week.  Hubby all up in my office space.  Bubbie home, sleeping mostly.  Me working an extra hour here or there.  Bad news and stressed out people at work.  So much ugh.

 Last weekend we took a pic of the above sign into our POA intending to order 3 inch letters to add ourselves to the sign.  

One of the wineries we love has these painted brick walls with beams on the top painted black, then chains that hang down to attach art to.  Its so simple and I love it.  

The stone garden just outside of a winery in Dripping Springs has these concrete stars scattered under the trees.  I want to do a project like this at Highlands!  Big stars for Mark and I, medium for our peeps, small ones for grandchildren.  

 Missing:  all of the Little Tykes cars that are normally parked outside of the OR at work.  Notice that they left the stop sign.

I re-did the Kudos board at work last night with a timely theme.  The one next to it that is covered in stars is getting done today.  I think it will be important for all of us to keep our heads up and be supportive of each other.  The hospital is very quiet.  We all need to be geared up and ready.

Gina

Weekend re-cap: painting, breweries, wineries, exploring, relaxing

Its been awhile since I talked about what we did on the weekend. This last weekend we actually got to explore before returning to the Zombie Corona Apocalypse!

 I got up early to finish up some small projects around the house, including painting the green accent wall in the hall and hanging the abstract art.  Goodbye family portrait collage wall! 

We made a hard stop at 11:30 and headed towards Marble Falls, stopping at Chicken Express.  STW was releasing their Honey Gold Strong Ale, so we enjoyed that with our shared chicken lunch.  The skies were grey, but the beer and fried chicken were delightful, as were the tunes playing on the patio.  People looked relaxed. 

 After some time there, we headed to Highlands to enjoy the firepit.  The bluebonnets are ramping up so I hope to get some good pics of those soon.  The next morning we hung the owl house and putseyed around a bit before heading to Blanco for the pick-up party at Esperanza. It was early (2ish) so we headed out to explore the area,

 and landed in Dripping Springs where we visited two new-to-us wineries and also this pretty and peaceful sculpture garden.  One of the wineries shares some space with this carved stone company and they have this winding path that you can stroll through.

 

A very peaceful setting and the wines were all wonderful - I will write about them on the Texas Wine Lover website.

 We split a tasting at each place, and since I was mainly doing some fact-finding about the wineries, we will come back at a later date to just sit and sip.  So we headed a little further down the country road we were on and found this place:

12 Fox Beer Co.  It wasn't busy in the least - maybe half a dozen other people besides us, so social distancing was not a problem. They had an adult playscape with a sign that said "we're beermakers, not babysitters". 

 The beer was really good, the place is clean, and the owner pouring our beer was very nice.  

They even had a pizza food truck (hopefully all the food trucks will not die out).  They sell cider and wine for non-beer drinkers.

 We played Giant Jenga and cards for a while.  Then reluctantly headed home into Monday, where everything seems to have changed:  Hubby is working from home, Bubbie is home from college, and I am in the trenches at the hospital.  Its only Wednesday but this has been a long week already and we are taking it here one day at a time, looking forward to the next weekend.

Gina

Empty Nest Menu #30

Monday - Grilled Chicken Breast, garlic green beans with shallots {customize IF box}

Tuesday - Tater Tot Casserole (use ground turkey, fresh corn, carrots, mushroom, onion)
Wednesday - Salmon Patties, cabbage slaw, sweet treat after dinner
Thursday - Lo-Salt Ham Slice, zucchini, twice baked potato {turn lawn sprinklers back on}
Friday - Beef Taco Salads with lettuce, tomato, avocado, green onion, and cheese
Saturday - Fish in the Uuni with bell pepper, onion, tiny red potatoes {work on the barn reno at Highlands, hang our new barn owl house}
Sunday - Albacore Tuna Wraps with spinach, red onion and tomato, low salt ships {wine club pick-up}

Gina

5 thing Friday - beer, food, veggies, owl house, bluebonnets

The last couple of months, Hubby and I have not been able to really go and do at wineries like we love to.

Meanwhile, we have enjoyed a great beer now and again, including a couple of cold ones (Celis White) just before the Kool and the Gang concert a couple of weeks ago.  {the show was amazing btw}  Celis White is very much like Agnes Dei at Save the World - a beer brewed with coriander and orange.

And speaking of STW, we stopped by there on our first Teddy-free Saturday to enjoy the Winter Warmer before its all gone.  Think cinnamon ale - very delightful.

While The Girl was here, I made enchiladas using my homemade enchilada sauce recipe.  This was just before I pureed it with my hand held blender and put a couple of jars of it into the freezer.  So rich and delish this time with a secret ingredient - pumpkin puree.

 I had a fairly decent appetite from all that painting, I guess.  I also ate at Tino's Greek Cafe that day for lunch.  I am in love with gyro meat with tzatziki sauce.

 The carrots in last week's produce box.  They're like Frankenstein veggies!

While at Highlands, we took advantage of not having to get home soon and built a barn owl house!  Hopefully we will get it installed tomorrow.  I know for sure we have great horned owls, so I would like to build a house for those, too.  We had all the stuff for this, including the screws.  

THE BLUEBONNET(S) ARE HERE.  In a month or so this yard will be filled with blooms.  Its shaping up to be a rainy March so the wildflowers should be explosive!  Happy Friday the 13th!

Gina

Empty Nest Menu #29

 Literally two days after I took this photo of the grackle statue in downtown Austin, someone burned it down.   Why?!  Like my mother used to wail "that's why we can't have anything nice!".

Monday - Meatballs and Marinara with wholegrain pasta, broccoli {customize produce box}
Tuesday - Creamy White Bean and Apple Chili, Mexican cornbread
Wednesday - Farro Skillet with chicken sausage, bell pepper, onion, tomato, corn
Thursday - Grilled Chicken Breast, baked sweet potato, kale
Friday - Bulgogi Salmon, green beans, carrots
Saturday - Cooking at Highlands (pork tenderloin chops and a potato in the SBT oven, chopped salad) {beer release at STW}
Sunday - Tuna Salad on toast with sliced avocado, low salt chips {wine club pick-up at Esperanza}

Gina

Pumpkin Muffins

The elementary school were my peeps went used to have "Muffins for Moms" and "Donuts for Dads" - meetings held once a month or so in the school library to discuss various current events at the school.  For some reason, these pumpkin muffins make me think of that.  

Pumpkin Muffins (makes 12)
1 1/3 c. flour
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. cinnamon and 1/2 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 c. salad oil
1/3 c. water
1/2 can pumpkin (save the rest to stir into oatmeal or pancake batter - or double this recipe...)*
1/2 chopped pecans (you can sprinkle these on the top of the muffins, like I did)
Mix all ingredients well and pour into greased muffin tin.  Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes - check to see if tops of muffins spring back when done.  Store in a covered container - you can freeze these and they thaw quickly and stay moist.

Gina

*here are some other pumpkin ideas!

Less Empty Nest Menu #28

The Girl will be home to pick up Teddy and help me paint!

Monday - Crockpot Beef Stew, corn muffins {go get oil change, start painting}

Tuesday - Fish Tacos, coleslaw, avocado and tomato {rake yards, paint}

Wednesday - Pulled Pork in the crockpot, leftover coleslaw, low salt chips {finish up painting}

Thursday - Grilled Chicken, Chickpea Tomato Salad, kale {take The Girl to a winery}

Friday - Stir Fry {maybe pick up some crab rangoon to go with, get my hair cut}

Saturday - Out?  Make homemade enchilada sauce

Sunday - Enchiladas, borracho beans, lime cilantro rice {turn lawn sprinklers back on, mow, fertilize}

Gina