The Kind Heart

How many of you have been to the Texas Roadhouse?  They have a bucket of peanuts on the table (which we always bring home for the squirrels) and they give you complimentary rolls with honey cinnamon butter.  Gah.  Nothing better than fresh bread and butter!  I brought two of the rolls we didn’t eat home, and made an egg white, ham, cheese and spinach egg sammies.  Delish!

My guess was that each roll was about 150 calories.  Wrong – try 227 each!  So my breakfast was around 550 calories for those two tiny sammies.  Good thing they tasted good!

Yesterday began Week #4 of strength training.  New to me exercise yesterday was the alternating push up – where you stagger your hands and do a push up – holy balls that was hard – and 10 reps for 4 sets! Then I had time to run 1.75 miles in my favorite soft Chobani shirt.

I had to run to Mariano’s to pick up cupcakes for birthday celebrations.  Of course, I always go by the cheese section because they have samples.  Probably the first and only time I didn’t try any!

One of the attorneys has a dairy allergy. so I brought bagels in the morning, but since he can’t have cream cheese, he normally eats hummus on his bagels.  I asked him what was his favorite kind of hummus and he said “probably roasted red pepper.”  Well, I know he can handle some heat, so I decided to make chipotle red pepper hummus.  Some for a spread on his bagel, and the rest for dipping with my homemade pita chips.  I started to make the hummus the night before last, and when I opened my jar of tahini realized it had gone bad – um, it may have expired in 2013?  Fuq.  How do you make hummus without tahini?!  SESAME SEEDS! Duh.

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:59]

The spice mixture was:

• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cracked pepper
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasonings
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Just sprinkled the seasoning on the pitas, pressing down so they stuck to the pita, then baked for 10 minutes.

This was a huge hit – the attorney who declares himself a hummus aficionado said this hummus ranks in the top 5 he’s ever had.  #winning!  There was literally two tablespoons left!

We had big storms come through last night, although I think the majority of the bad stuff was south of us.   I knew grilling was going to be out of the question, so I decided to make this pasta dish with the fresh asparagus I got from the farmers market.  The only thing I added was about 1/3 of a cup of heavy cream at the end.   I mean, how bad can bacon, Parmesan cheese, asparagus and pasta be?

It was kind of nice to be off line last night because of the storms.  But I had to thank a special blog reader for some loot she sent me – Lynne, your gift was wonderful!  She was at a Penzey’s store and saw that they had a line of salt free seasonings that she thought might be good for Tony to try – how thoughtful is that??!!  The package was called The Kind Heart gift box, and she said “I know I don’t know you “in person” but you have struck me as someone who really has a “kind heart.”  I got all teary when I read that!   And inside the package was this:

Kindness brings such great comfort to our lives.  Even the littlest acts of kindness have a away of spiraling into so much more.

Kindness is at the heart of cooking and at the heart of making life great.  In little acts of kindness is the magic to transform our lives into something wonderful.

Thank you for being that kind heart, and for sharing your kind heart with the world around you.

You have reason to be proud.  You make a real difference.

Well, Lynne, your timing could not have been better.  Kindness has a way of snow balling into much greater things.  My dear blog friend (who no longer blogs because of health reasons) is in dire need of help.  Long time readers may remember that I wrote about Skippy (her blog name!) back in September of 2011.  My post title was “I ran for Skippy.”   I ran for her because she can’t run.  She’s been battling congestive heart failure for years, and has been on a medication that is keeping her alive until she can have a transplant.  That one and only magic pill, no generic versions used to cost her $80 as a co-pay.  Steep, but they were able to make it work.  Well fast forward to yesterday and their insurance company no longer is choosing to cover that medication, and the cost now?  $1,034 a month!  She obviously doesn’t work for health reasons, and I think most everyone would find it hard to pay your bills AND medication.

So today I am going to set up a Go Fund Me Page.  I also want to do a virtual bake sale and was wondering who would be interested in donating items to be sold to the highest bidder?  Does anyone remember the Great Balancing Act Fundraiser Janetha put on a couple years ago?   I am also hoping my Chobani and Cabot Cheese friends might put together a gift basket we can auction off.   My goal is to raise $12,000 for Skippy and her family.  I think with everyone’s help we can get that goal.  I figure through social media we can get the word out.  Skippy’s youngest daughter is in high school and I’d like her to be around to see her walk down the aisle!

So who’s with me?  You know I’ll be auctioning off my salsa!  I hope to have the link up for the Go Fund Me Page in tomorrows post – and hopefully by next week have everything in place for the online fundraiser.

So if yesterday was a bad day for you, think of Skippy and find something to be thankful for today.  Every day is a gift!