Beef Fajita Spaghetti

Last night I made beef fajita spaghetti.  Instead of eating the spaghetti, I roasted a head of cauliflower and ate that with the meat and peppers.  It was darn good!  I did use a fajita seasoning packet which had a bit of wheat in the ingredients list but not enough to worry me.

I've found that having cauliflower and spaghetti squash on hand really makes things easy.  If I'm preparing dinner and it has pasta of some sort, I just sub mine with the squash, cauliflower or other veggie on hand.  I've added a few to my weekly grocery list even if I'm not sure how I will use it that week.  Having it in the pantry as a go-to item helps me avoid just going ahead and eating the pasta or potato I'm making for everyone else.

PS - I'm down to one diet coke a day and the rest is green tea flavored with non-aspartame flavor packets.

Aspartame

Aspartame

Without getting all science-y, Aspartame is really bad for you.  Did you know that?  I found a new soda that doesn't have any called Zeevia.  It's expensive and kind of different tasting.  I got a couple of flavors that seem to satisfy my fizzy craving.  I'm trying to make the 6-pack last a long time because of the price.

And I really love putting Crystal Light flavor packets in my iced green tea.  That has aspartame too.  But I found a Lipton tea flavor packet that doesn't have any.  They are good but a bit different.  And more expensive, dang it.

And I still have one regular Diet Coke a day.

Brownies!

I wrote this post prior to yesterday's.  So...tonight I made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner.  I had bought the meatballs from the store.  They were on sample at our local grocery store and I really liked them!  Everyone liked them...except My Man.  He knew they were store-bought meatballs and scolded me for buying them.  We have 35602 pounds of hamburger in the deep freeze you know.  Anyway, I probably ate 8 of them while I was preparing dinner tonight.  And I also made brownies.  I have a meeting tonight and when I have a meeting I always make brownies.  But my family doesn't like the edges of the brownies so I thought I would beat them at their game and trim the edges off as I cut them so no one would know if they have an edge or middle piece.  Well...those edges started calling out to me.  It's been so long since I've had brownie edges!  I took a little piece, then another, then another and then told myself I might as well just finish them off.  So I ate the edges off a 9x13 pan of brownies.  And guess what?  Now I feel sick.  Like kind of loopy sugary sicky.  Will I ever learn?

Swollen Fingers

The past few days I've been cheating quite a bit with wheat and sweets.  And this morning, it's like it all clicked.  My fingers are the first to tell me what that kind of food does to me.  If I've eaten sweets or wheat products the day before, my fingers are ALWAYS swollen the next morning.  So much so that I can't get my wedding ring off and when I straighten my fingers, the shaft of them gets white and tips pink.

When you get older, salt affects/effects your body differently than it used to.

And when I have been getting up in the mornings (4:15ish), I have been feeling SO SLUGGISH.  I just can't get going at all.  Yesterday morning I got up and did laundry, dishes, brushed my teeth, checked FB and STILL went back to bed for 30 minutes just to feel more alert.

When I'm diligent about what I'm eating, I feel GREAT when I wake up.  I am missing that feeling of waking up and being ready to go.

These things seem obvious but sometimes it takes me a little longer to catch on when  trying to find out the reason for why I feel the way I feel.  I forget how much food has to do with it.

So today...back to the grind!  I'm having a protein smoothie for breakfast and an apple for a snack.  Probably a salad with chicken on it for lunch and some carrots.   Or another protein smoothie but with different fruits than breakfast.   Oh and green tea...my love!

Spaghetti Squash - Learning

Today I made a pasta dish for dinner but I didn't eat the pasta.  I instead made a spaghetti squash.  I've done this before as a substitute and it has been just fine.  I learned, however, that even a spaghetti squash can go bad.  I had had it for almost 3 weeks.  It still looked fine, wasn't squishy or anything.  But after I cooked it and started shredding it, the consistency was a little thick and not quite as soft.  Then I tasted it and it was horribly bitter.  So it was either bad to begin with or 3 weeks is just too long to have it on hand.  My advice would be to use it within a week after buying.

Crock Pot Mushrooms

Found a new recipe for mushrooms in the crockpot.  I'm not certain how to change the recipe to make them more healthy...cus they were pretty unhealthy...but sooooo good.

In a Crock-Pot you put two packages of mushrooms (I used baby bellas).  In a separate bowl you melt 2 sticks butter and then stir in two packages of Ranch dressing mix.  Pour over the mushrooms and set on low for 6 hours.

Ohhhhh yummy to my tummy.  You could halve this recipe but we like mushrooms so I kept it big.

I am not certain that I could sub in coconut oil or any other type to sub for the butter.  Butter is butter, after all.