food

meatloaf muffins

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This just an experiment.  I made meatloaf muffins!

It’s a mixture of ground beef and turkey along with finely chopped vegetables.  It turned out well but maybe a little too well done.

cereal with coconut, cereal without milk

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I really don’t like coconut.  So why did I but PC Organics Muesli, a cereal with coconut?  It’s a good cereal, one of the only ones without sugar (or some sort of sweetener) added.  Except this cereal has coconut, like so many others!  So I pick out all the coconut and give it all to Floyd.

I am also trying something new (to me) – non-dairy “milk” in my cereal.

I don’t see any problem with this.  I used almond drink (sorry – I have a hard time calling it “milk”), but, if you do some research, you’ll see that almonds consume just as much water to produce as does (dairy) milk.  So I’m trying soy and oat.  I can’t tell the difference between the two, really.  But neither of them has the taste or texture of milk.

You’re not supposed to see the bacon, eggs, bottled water, or Coca~Cola in the background.  It’s just there for decoration.  Just to be clear, I never buy bottled water (this bottle is continuously refilled) or Coca~Cola (left over from Christmas a few years back).  I bought the bacon, though – first time in years.  And, yes, I do eat eggs.

a week without coffee

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No coffee for one week now.  The last coffee I had was 1/3 Folgers, 1/3 Starbucks house blend, and 1/3 nothing but empty space.  The second-to-last was one spoon of Folgers and the rest Starbucks house blend.  Before that, nothing but straight high-test espresso beans steamed in a mocha pot.  But all that’s history now.

I had a couple of days where I ate enough Tylenols and ibuprofens to kill a good sized horse, but I’m pretty much in the clear now.  Only 2 ibuprofens.  So what are the side effects of quitting almost cold-turkey?  Headaches, a couple of backaches, sleepiness, and, believe it or not, sore hips.  Yes, three nights in a row I woke up during the night with sore hips.  I never would have imagined.  Yes, it could be from something else, but I don’t believe so.

So – will I ever drink coffee again?  Hmm.  I once went 346 days without coffee overseas.  I walked by a Starbucks on Jungang Ro (Street) and had a triple Americano.  I remember the euphoric rush of caffeine wash over me as I sat at my little round table with a copy of the IHT.  Utter and complete bliss.

All that is a distant memory now.

Oolong

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I’m drinking Oolong tea these days.  I did a search on Ask.com.  According to Caffeine Informer, the average cup of Oolong has 37mg of caffeine.  My Starbucks Americano (tall) has 150mg.  And their Pike Place – I was surprised at this – has a whopping 235mg of caffeine!  Good gawd.  So this is why I’m switching to tea as my “second cup”.  Eventually I plan to go without caffeine.

You probably don’t know this, but my nickname from way back is Oolong.  The Wife gave that to me.  Why?  I still don’t know, but it’s probably because it sounds like Allan in some languages & cultures.  Good enough reason to switch to tea.