The ends of the week seem to be very busy for me because it seems like I am doing group updates come Saturday to fill in the missing days.
Lately I have been doing an evaluation of my time and my energy levels. Finding a work/personal balance is a challenge. Even more so when I have my day job and my writing career plus a small personal life. It is a bit easier now that my kids are older, but figuring out how to do everything is a true challenge.
Before I get into what I have been grateful for, I want to put out a teaser. Next week, I will have a BIG announcement coming.
Day 22 – Breakfast sandwiches. I love the mircorwavable breakfast sandwiches. They make the morning very easy to get a decent breakfast when I am trying to get out the door. I know it is not the best thing to do, eat while driving, but it lets me get out the door and I am not starving when I get to the office. It’s enough to get me through to lunch at least.
My favorite is the sausage croissant, but I know its not the healthiest for me of the options I find in the store. The English muffins are good too, but I don’t like the biscuits at all since they crumble too much for eating on the go.
Day 23 – My Instant Pot. I love this handy kitchen appliance. Since its a pressure cooker, it cooks what I need pretty quickly and the meat usually comes out tender. I haven’t tried it on frozen meats, but they say that is possible too, just add some additional cooking time to the meal. Not sure about that for me, but nice to know that it is possible on nights I forget to defrost dinner.
The reason I got the Instant Pot is because I needed a new slow cooker and the IP is a multi-function appliance, including the slow cooker feature. I figured it was better to have one appliance doing the job of up to 7 then tying up all that space on the counter.
Yes, I am a member of a few Facebook Groups for it. There are people in those groups that have several Instant Pots in a variety of sizes. I could see a 2nd one if I used it more so I could cook the main course in one and a side dish in a second, but probably not.
Oh, and they are super easy to clean too!
Day 24 – Pizza! I love pizza. I love pizza in almost any form. Friday we usually get takeout and yesterday we were craving it. We opted for Pizza Hut since they are the only ones around that seem to do thin crust (but I have two places I want to try out because they might have super thin crusts) and for once, it arrived within a few minutes of the computer estimation.
In college, I worked for a Pizza Hut (that isn’t there any more) as a cook. I liked it but I worked my butt off there too. The benefit of it is I know how to make a pretty good pizza, even at home. I’d love to have a pizza oven someday so that it gets hot enough to cook the dough so I will be both chewy and crispy. I guess I’ll have to learn how to work with yeast dough when that happens.
Day 25 – Whew! We made it. Today I am grateful for my grill. I got off of Facebook a new to me grill. We made hot dogs on it earlier this week and they were amazing. Tonight, I’m getting fancy and taking a try at cooking a pork tenderloin there. (Uncle Joe, any suggestions?)
I love to grill. I think it is a perfect way to cook, especially when it is hot out and not wanting to add heat to the house. Sure, its not summer yet, but it is usually nice enough out to throw some meat on the grill and scent the neighborhood with it’s deliciousness. Tomorrow we are doing burgers!
I know that these posts are all food based and it could be because I am a bit hungry and it is almost time to start dinner. Okay, that’s it exactly. I can’t wait to see how that tenderloin is going to be.
