Look at me with a Mishmash Friday like Shelley and Fran! While I have been writing about my Spartan Race life has been going on behind the scenes. I did want to show a few pics I took while in Milwaukee. I had every intention Sunday morning to walk around the lake front, but the weather was iffy – it was lightly sprinkling the whole time I was walking in the morning which wasn’t bad, but then it started getting worse so I decided to cut my losses and head back to the hotel. Much like bigger cities have pigs, or cows decorated all over their downtown areas, I love that Milwaukee has decorated bicycles with flowers! The architecture downtown is amazing too – the Federal building as well as the Milwaukee Art Museum.
While it was a great weekend, it’s always nice to come home, isn’t it? Word on the street is that Hannah’s dog Rummy missed me – so cute.
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Astute readers will know that my deep fryer died last week. She’s been with us for about five years, and I washed it so many times that I scrubbed off the number so I was never really sure these past couple years where exactly 350 was on the dial control. No worries! I had a Bed Bath & Beyond gift card and with the 20% off discount coupon, I got a new one. This one is digital, which I love, has three baskets if you are making separate things, and was only $30 out of pocket for me.
I don’t know what’s gotten into me lately. Is this a mid-life crisis? I find myself suddenly cooking with onions! First with my 30 minute beef bolognese and then earlier this week I made onion rings to top our burgers. Now, I do have to say, that I am picky about what type of onion I use for onion rings – I only use vadalia onions, because they are sweet. I sliced an onion, added it to a ziptop bag with 1 cup of Silk unsweetened almond milk that was seasoned with one tablespoon of Frank’s hot sauce overnight. When I got home, I made my flour mixture – 1 cup flour, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. pepper and 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper. Dredge the soaked onions into the flour mixture and fry for about 1-2 minutes at 350. I made myself a burger salad topped with a few onion rings. Not gonna lie, this was an amazeball dinner!
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Our weather has been all over the map lately – cool mornings, rain, then humid. I ended up making a batch of Michael Symon’s Cincinnati chili on Tuesday night to have for lunches. I always add Bush’s Beans to my chili – Tony used to love just meat only chili, which is why he gravitated toward Cincinnati chili. I mentioned in my Instagram post that I used Bush’s beans, and of course, they thanked me – ya, know, just helping out National brand to get the word out about their product out – ha!
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So while my friends Alison and Cameron came to my rescue to get my mower working, and did I great job I might add, we tried several times to get it going and well. . . no luck. Battery is dead again – I already replaced it with a new one and well, while our yard is a decent size, there really isn’t a good reason why a push mower wouldn’t work, and with three adults living in the house, pretty sure we could do just that. So I came home Wednesday night, tried to start the riding mower – nothing. So Hannah was talking a nap because she worked a 10 hour shift, and I told Jacob “hey, going to get a push mower – there is chili in the downstairs fridge if you guys get hungry.”
See, that’s one thing about me. I can be COMPLETELY compulsive about something and Wednesday night – that was buying something so that my lawn didn’t look like I lived in an abandoned house. I went to Menard’s, and I am not going to lie, it’s the first time that I used the “widow” card. I stood in front of the mowers, and an employee walked by and said “can I help you?” and without even batting an eye I said “my husband died and I don’t know how to work our riding mower so I need something simple.” He could not have been nicer. Even pulled down the mower showed me how to put it together when I got it home, where to put the oil and the gas. All I knew was that I wanted big wheels and a self-propelled mower. I actually don’t even know the brand I bought, other than it has a Briggs & Stratton mower and I was fine with it. I am sure Tony would have been on consumer reports for weeks before making a decision. Me? I spent 20 minutes at Menard’s.
While I was gone Hannah woke up and said “my Mom went where? was she not hungry? what about dinner?” I was on a mission! I was literally gone all of 40 minutes before I got it going. I just wanted to do the front of the house and Jacob ended up finishing the back yesterday – along with RAKING the whole yard – he was probably working on the lawn for several hours yesterday since he was off of work. I so appreciated it and it looks fantastic.
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So guys. I have got THE summer recipe for you, especially those of you who have gardens and wonder “what the fuck am I going to do with all these zucchinis?!” I’ve got your answer – ZUCCHINI TOTS!
Now, I did not come up with this idea, but when I searched for recipes all the pictures looked like this – (no offense Gina – I am sure these are amazeballs too!)
Those don’t look like tots to me. So I came up with this recipe:
[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:125]
That’s not salt, but the white corn meal that shines through that actually gives the tots a nice crunch. THESE ARE SO GOOD! You can thank me later. The only thing I was bummed about was that Hannah was home – she was closing last night. I texted her just a picture of the tots and she said “OMG, what???!!!” I’ll definitely be getting more zucchini this weekend.
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Traffic was a bitch yesterday. It took me nearly an hour to get home – there must have been an accident or something, so it forced me to take the back roads home. There is a road that I go down near the horse farms – you can’t drive more than 25 miles per hour and no one was behind me and instead of getting pissed that it was taking so long to get home, I turned on my favorite Sirius station (Coffee House – Channel 31) and stopped and took a picture.
And I didn’t see it until I got home, but there is Tony’s orb, or what I like to think of as him. In the millions of pictures I’ve taken for this blog over the nearly 7 years, I’ve only had that green orb show up in pictures after Tony passed away. I know he’s still with me. I just wish I could see his face again.
Have an amazing weekend – wish every week could be a short work week! Come back on Monday – I am bringing back my 101 Days of Summer Challenge! The first one was in 2010 – can’t believe five years ago already! Check it out – curious to see who was part of that challenge that still follows me!
Make it a great day!
Hey Biz! I’m dying to know about the fryer since I’ve been looking at getting one! Is it hard to clean? What do you do with the oil once you use it? If it takes a gallon of oil to fill, surely you don’t throw it out each time right?
Hey Lauren! I love my fryer – it has a removeable insert so after I use my gallon of oil, I save the empty container and pour the old oil in that to throw out. I can usually go about 15-20 fries on a gallon of oil – it just depends on what you fry and how fast the oil goes – you know it’s time to change it when you can’t see to the bottom of the fryer.
And I do deep clean it every time I change the oil – makes it easier to maintain 😀
The tots look amazing! !
Thanks Laura – they were delish!
You shock me: onions! 🙂
Going to check out your post about the summer challenge later today but think I will be in it.
I love the mishmash of this post!
I thought you would Fran! Love your goals this summer! 😀
The zucchini tot recipe was great! The only thing I did different was to bake them at 400 degrees because I don’y have a fryer. I baked them for 10 minutes then rotated them and they were very tasty, thanks for sharing.
Yeah! Glad they worked out in the oven! I made them again tonight, but had a small zucchini so I added half a shredded baked potato and I think it was even more delish!
I bet they would be good too Aimee if they were half potato and half zucchini – I may try that this week. 😀
Posting the challenge tomorrow 😀
I think Carlos might even eat zucchini if it looked like those zucchini tots. They look delicious.
The riding mower intimidates me. OK actually trying to get the riding mower out of the shed scares me. I don’t mind the push mower. It’s good exercise too and there’s something almost calming about it.
I remember now that I found you because of one of your challenges. I can’t wait to see what the summer challenge is all about. Have a wonderful weekend!!
I’m like you – I have no problem using a push mower but I don’t use the rider. If I’m going to be outside working I want to get some exercise:)
It is definitely exercise! I am sure I will regret the decision when its 100 degrees outside 😀
Say biz, you are an awesome woman, do you know that? Between your race, your cooking, the kids, your work and life in general you are truly amazing. I really couldn’t say how I would handle life if Jim wasn’t here but you are …………I can’t find the word but you make me so happy I “know” you.
I read all your posts but you know my life so commenting sometimes just isn’t in the cards but tonight while making taco’s I’m doing so.
Thank you for sharing your life.
Blessings Biz!
Aw, thank you you Julie – this comment made my day! Some days are harder than others, but I am doing the best I can. 😀
Love the mish mash posts….and also love that you equate onions with a mid life crisis. Hilarious! Have a great weekend Vat.
Roz, I even caramelized onions for Hannah’s pizza on Friday night -what??!!
The tots look delish! If I weren’t avoiding fried foods due to my labs, I’d totally be making these this wknd. Maybe one day. 🙂
You could easily bake them Tammy – 350 for about 20-25 minutes – maybe spray them with Pam to help make them crispy? I should try a baked vs. fried version!
Holy crap, those tots look amazing. I love fried zucchini. We planted a ton of veggies and tomatoes in pots on our balcony because our friend Carole couldnt plant her garden this year. Everything has taken off amazingly. I’ll have a buttload of zucchini soon.
Still so sorry about your friend Randi, but glad you can continue what she started 😀
Those zucchini tots look AMAZING!
Thanks Amanda! Enjoy your weekend, even if it’s going to be a bit cool – I actually don’t mind a bit 😀
Ready to start 101 day challenge!!
Yeah! Check back on Monday for the details! 😀
Curious about 101 day challenge!
Biz still eating onions. Love it.
I’m not on Instagram, but perhaps you could post 101 pictures of you eating onions.
LOL!
happy weekend!
Ha – maybe I’ll do a flip book of the onion eating!
Basically my 101 Days of Summer is just a group of us that try to encourage each other to living healthier lives during the summer months – it’s so easy to let all the BBQs, graduation parties, pool parties, etc. to derail you. Mind you, it has nothing to do about the number on the scale, just making more positive choices basically. It’s a good forum and on Monday’s I open up the comments and have people tell everyone how their week was, if they need help, if they want to share a non-scale victory – it’s fun and I am being quite selfish – it motivates me! 😀
First off let me congratulate you on your Spartan finish. I’ve been reading but have had little time to comment these past couple of weeks. Funny how that finish line adreneline kicks in and you feel like you want to register for ALLLLLL the Spartans lol!
I’ve heard that taste buds do change over time, which is why even pediatricians say to keep reintroducing foods to kids – what they don’t like they might love 6 months later. I definitely feel my own taste buds changed a lot through menopause. Used to be I almost always would choose a sweet over a salty but now it’s the other way around.
I make a zucchini fritter that is mostly shredded zucchini and parmesan cheese. I bet some freshly grated parm would be delicious in your tots!
Thanks for checking in Helen! Yep, it was definitely a great race and I can see myself doing it again. And yes, Parm would be delish on these tots!
Yay, another Friday Mishmash. I love being a trendsetter – HA! 😉
You know, I would have just set up a lawn service at this point. But good on ya for making it a family affair – and I’m glad you got a mower (plus the help – hey, whatever works for getting what you need at a store, right?!).
I am shocked about your onion eating. WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO??!!??
Have a great weekend!
To tell the truth, I was being frugal – I couldn’t imagine spending $50 a week on a service when I could use that money to buy good beef! 😀
I have no idea Shelley, somehow I’ve stepped foot into onion land and it doesn’t feel too bad! (Shsss… don’t tell my Mom!)
So do you have some special tater tot mold or something???? Those zuke tots are shaped so perfectly. I so happen to have some zucchini in the fridge and will try them this weekend. Any chance you think I could bake them instead? I have really enjoyed the recap of your Spartan weekend. Nice impulse purchase. You impulse purchase like I do. Most women would use an impulse purchase on shoes, a handbag, nice outfit. We lean toward practical impulse purchases. 🙂 Big shout out of thanks to Jacob for helping out with the yard work.
Ha, nope, I just shaped them in my hand until I got them to look like that – just about 30 seconds each to mold – by freezing them it helped keep the shape when they went into the fryer – and since I now have a DIGITAL fryer, it keeps the exact temperature, so these were not greasy at all.
Yep, I impulse about big stuff – the new car, the mower – and I think I would mull over buying shoes longer 😛
Yay, thanks for sharing the recipe! I don’t have a fryer, but I can pan fry or give a shot at baking.
Looking forward to seeing your summer challenge – maybe I’ll join 🙂
If you decide to bake them Errign, brush them with a touch of olive oil – it may help the outsides stay crunchy when baked. Have a great weekend!
My how time flies! Still reading your awesome blog!! I looked at what I wanted to
accomplish back then and happily I have met those goals and then some.
I gave up soda for good a few years a go. I have lost closer to 20 pounds than
10 since 2010. I eat at least 3 veggies daily if not more.
I am happy at my new lower weight of 148-149. Love how I eat and my blood work backs this up as being healthy for me. I walk now not jog anymore I walk 5 times a week and lift weights twice a week. I am at my lowest weight in two decades but I am a long way from being in my best fitness shape of my life. Strangely enough I don’t care about that so much anymore. I am happy and content with my life and that is what really counts in the end.
This comment makes me so happy Susan! Glad you’ve stuck with me all these years – it certainly does fly by, doesn’t it! And yes, happy and content is priceless! 😀