Food for Us All

 

I dressed a little too warmly for the day as it was hotter than I expected.  This top was from my stash of dog show clothes. It's a Susan Graver and 100% polyester. That makes it kind of warm for summer -- but it was good for summer dog shows because it's washable and doesn't wrinkle. My jeans are Denim and Company. I didn't plan it, but both are QVC brands! Of course, all pieces are thrifted.

Today was a pool/swim day for me -- and it was just about as perfect an outing as could be. I got a great parking spot, there was a free lane, I had no trouble with my earphones or music, and the sauna was hot. A swim, the stretching, and after-care (sauna, shower, moisturizing, etc.) takes about two hours or so.  That meant I had time to get stuff done in the afternoon.  The first thing I did was buy meat for dog food, then Tommy and I went to the garden center to buy plants for our yard. We are going with two patio tomato plants (the same variety, it was all they had suitable for containers), two peppers, a bunch of herbs, a dahlia, and dwarf sunflower.  We'll get more as time goes on but wanted to get an early start on the veggies. We paid more for larger pots, because our growing season is so short.

While Tommy did the planting, I worked on the table I thrifted on Monday. It's now black and I am letting it cure overnight. Tomorrow I will spray a clear wood sealer on it. Hopefully that will help it repel water.  It's not an outdoor piece, so it's not going to live a long life, but I hope to get at least this summer out of it.

Save-a-Lot is on the way home from the aquatic center, so it's easy to pop in to look for reduced meat. Today there was plenty. In fact, I only grabbed half of what was there. If we had more room, I would have taken it all. At $1.99 per pound, it was a great deal. This was twelve pounds of meat. All for Frankie!

The meat was high in fat, so my loaves shrank quite a bit. This batch was made from beef, pork, potatoes, bananas, and spinach.  I had some potatoes left, so I mixed them with some Super Greens powder and some puppy replacement milk powder for added vitamins. I poured some of the grease from cooking over to add flavor.  Frankie will get these instead of oats for lunch. The remaining fat will be used to make more oats for her when she runs out of her current stock and the potatoes.  She can handle fat, and it's a great source of energy in hot weather. I will probably mix some with water to give her when we go hiking. She often refuses to stop and drink because she is "hunting," and won't stop sniffing to hydrate. Flavored water should help.

I was lazy today and had a total FlashFood dinner.  I grabbed one of the trays of frozen lasagna I got a few weeks ago and also baked the squash I got the day before yesterday. We have another half tray of lasagna left which will probably be lunch tomorrow along with the squash we didn't finish.

I baked a loaf of wheat and "alternative flour" bread last night. It was a break from sourdough. It's high in fiber because the alternative flour was mixed pea and black bean -- which I grind myself. There is even a little banana flour in there.  This actually rose rather well for such a dense dough. And though I usually include raisins and nuts, this one is completely savory. I figure it would go well with cream cheese and lox for breakfast. While most people like bagels, I wanted to work on ways to have higher fiber and less gluten.  Combined with the smoked salmon, that's pretty healthy.

Have you ever ground beans or peas or rice to make flour?