Tasty Madness

Ingredients:

* 1 pound lean ground turkey
* 3/4 cup sliced or baby carrots
* 1 medium onion, chopped
* 1 celery rib, chopped
* 1 garlic clove, minced
* 1 envelope reduced-sodium taco seasoning, divided
* 3-1/2 cups water
* 1 can (28 ounces) Italian diced tomatoes, undrained
* 3/4 cup quick-cooking barley
* 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh oregano or 1/8 teaspoon dried oregano

Directions:
In a Dutch oven, cook the turkey, carrots, onion, celery, garlic and 1 tablespoon taco seasoning over medium heat until meat is no longer pink. Stir in the water, tomatoes and remaining taco seasoning; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Add barley; cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes longer or until barley is tender. Stir in oregano. Yield: 6 servings.

I know what you’re thinking. It’s summer. What gives with the soup recipe? Well, I feel like it today. It’s cloudy and going to rain and I can eat this for lunch this week. If I didn’t have to work today, I think I’d even take a nap!

Monday I went to my girl friends house to prepare for a “Mad Hatter” bridal shower this coming weekend. As we were stuffing loose tea in to the little pouches we were getting hungry. She decided to make turkey hot dogs and a salad. Personally, I like hot dogs, beef hot dogs. I don’t like the idea of turkey being in a hot dog, but I wasn’t the one who had to cook, so fine!

She put extra virgin olive oil at the bottom of the frying pan and added the hot dogs. She crushed up a couple cloves of garlic and added that. The pan was big enough to put hot dogs rolls off to the side. Each side was cooked to a golden brown, including the hot dogs.

I placed the hot dog in the garlic bun, threw on mustard and I have got to say, it was the best hot dog I’ve ever had. Now, you don’t have to use turkey hot dogs. Their not bad. The roll cooked in garlic and olive oil did it. I ate two. I was beyond stuffed, but it was well worth it.

To think, I actually had a dream about a piglet this morning…oh boy!!!

My Grammy is always yelling at me about taking my vitamins (and not getting a tatoo!) so I finally decided to listen to her. I myself, along with half of the population, hate swallowing vitamins. I’m sorry, but something the size of a horse pill just doesn’t do wonders for my gag reflexes, and I’m not capable of taking vitamins that big. Then, I remembered the vitamins I took as a kid. Flintstones!

The Flintstones vitamins were introduced to the market in 1968 by Miles Laboratories, which was acquired by Bayer in 1979. The original vitamins were chewable and some of the flavors tasted a little bit like candy – but not the purple ones, those were everyone’s least favorite color! When I first started taking vitamins recently this is the package I grabbed off of the shelf. Now I’m not sure, but I think my taste buds were seriously underdeveloped as a child because these vitamins tasted awful (a bit reminiscent of chalk…)!

I went back to the store and hunted high and low for another brand, or type, of vitamin. Anything that wasn’t the size of a quarter and didn’t taste like I licked the sidewalk.

That’s when I found them. A brand I knew and a taste I trusted – Flintstones Gummies Vitamins! Like the chewable Flintstones vitamins, the gummies are also based off of the animated children’s sitcom The Flintstones from the Hanna-Barbera company.

The vitamins came to the market at the same time as the television show and were advertised at the same time that the show aired. There were two popular jingles that went along with the vitamin commercials titled “We are Flintstone kids!” and “Ten million strong and growing!”

The Flintstone Gummies include gummies in the shape of everyones favorite Flintstone characters: Fred and Wilma Flintstone, Barney and Betty Rubble, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm, and of course Dino.

There are currently many variations of the Flintstones vitamins for sale, these include:

- Flintstones Plus Iron (introduced in 1969)
- Flintstones Plus Extra C (Introduced in 1980)
- Flintstones Gummies (Introduced in 2005)
- Flintstones Sour Gummies (Introduced in 2005)
- My First Flintstones

Banana Bread

1 /1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter (softened)
1 1/2 cup very ripened bananas
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Mix sugar, butter, vanilla and bananas together. Add flour, baking soda and salt. Nuts can be added if desired. Bake at 350 degrees for about one hour. Check it after 50 minutes. Make sure inside is done by inserting a tooth pick. If it comes out clean, it’s done.

This morning I made banana bread. I had a bunch that were becoming a permanent fixture on the top of my refrigerator. Actually, they were perfect for bread. I’ve noticed that the more ripened the banana’s, the more flavorful the bread.

This is so easy to whip up. The smell of it cooking is incredible! I doubled the recipe. It’s always nice to share, right!
The best choice of music for this occasion is that of Joseph Firecrow. The music is peaceful and soothing. He has a beautiful voice and I had the pleasure of both he and his wife visiting this morning. One of the most memorable Memorial Day’s ever!

Oh…throw in a brother and a best friend into the mix and welcome the season of warmth!

Saturday I spent the day cleaning out the basement and bringing a car load of clutter to the Good Will. As the day went on I bought a couple of plants and raked around the house. For me when I work hard on a Saturday, I want to take it easier on Sunday especially because I used muscles that I had forgotten about and was lame as hell!

I decided I needed chocolate. I made pudding. I’ve been drinking Soy Milk for a while mainly because I can’t seem to handle even 1% milk. I took “My T Fine Pudding” out and made it with Vanilla Silk Soy Milk.

I did some research and found out some convincing facts about Soy Milk.

1. Soy Milk contains only vegetable proteins which cause less loss of calcuim through the kidneys.
2. Soy Milk contains no lactose.
3. Soy Milk reduces cholesterol.
4. Soy Milk contains no hormones.
5. Each cup of Soy Milk contains about 20mg isoflavones, which have many health benefits including reduction of cholesterol, easing of menopause symptoms, prevention of osteoporosis and reduction of risk of certain cancers (prostate and breast cancer).

It was good, really good! I’m not a fan of instant pudding so I cook mine. It doesn’t take long. I say if any one cleaned their basement this weekend you deserve some pudding. While you’re eating it, watch “Rob and Big”, their dog “Meaty” is really cute and he skateboards really well!