[ermadunk]

11/18 Not a miserable Monday but could of been better i haven't felt real good today part of it is stress. Cooked some pinto beans,Good Season Roasted potatoes (only i used pkg.onion soup mix instead of Italian dressing mix like the onion mix better.and fried some okra.I am trying use out of freezer and pantry to keep down cost and really need things especially in freezer it packed full.Have only spent $43.23 on groceries so far in Nov.:vs_shocked::vs_:surprise:::

 

[jettsmom]

What a day! It was beautiful, but we didn't get anything done that we had planned. Dh's mom took a turn for the worse and could pass at anytime. It's been coming for a few months.

Dgd spent the night and played around all day. We took her to the store and she bought a couple of toys. Dh spent some time with his mom this afternoon. We did go to the store to pick up a new light for the hallway. Dh will probably try to install it after he gets home from work. He had to run in to fix something on the computer, so he can log in from home and check on a couple of problems at work.

Dh and I are fighting coming down with a cold. Dgds are both sick. The oldest, who spends the most time here, has a bad cough. Now I'm coughing. I just got over a cold/sinus infection. That took about two months. I do not want to be sick again.

I haven't gotten much done on the quilt. I may be able to if dh's mom passes and he's busy with arrangements. I'll stay out of it. He has plenty of siblings.

Still trying to get puppy potty trained. He just doesn't understand that outside is where he needs to do his business. He goes out with the other dogs and runs around the yard and just when we think he's going to go, he takes off. Then comes in the house and pees on the floor.

I just can't do this right now. Can I just go to sleep for a while?

 

[rujerro]

Jett- I hope you avoid the cold/coughing! Sorry about the pup not understanding what to do outside. I hope he figures it out soon as I'm sure that watching him when he comes in is a drag.

It's been a rough year, medically speaking, for us. I had neck tumor surgery and a rotator cuff issue. DS1 has been to urgent care about 6x and even his MD couldn't figure out his issue. The last visit to urgent care was the one that figured it out. After being on 7 different antibiotics, injections, probiotics, pain meds.....It got fixed and he is better! My FIL couldn't walk and so, MIL had a nurse coming into help her with activities of daily living since she is wheelchair bound. Well, the nurse fell on her and MIL broke her hip. She ended up getting a hip replacement! Now, the doctors think FIL has a blockage in his leg and he had a nuclear dye put in to see what the blockage is. He will schedule for surgery. I haven't spoken to MIL about FIL just yet but wonder if it's a blood clot.

The house appraiser will be here today and we're expecting 16" of snow. I think we will get there. I don't know if she will cancel or not.

It has not been very miserly as I signed up for a payment plan from the surgery bill. The appraiser was $600 and I did some food shopping as DS1 wanted some things and I am not sure how this snow storm will turn out. I had to get basics like water/eggs/bread/toilet paper/milk just in case....Best thing was that cereal was on sale and the milk was free.

 

[jettsmom]

rujerro - Sorry to hear about the medical issues. It's frustrating when they can't figure things out. Glad ds is better. Hope you are recovering from your surgery and everything heals. We just went through having the house appraisal too. Spent way more money than we wanted to, but it was work that was needing to be done anyway. At least it's done now.

Stay safe in the snow. Glad you were able to stock up before the snow came. We're also expecting some type of weather this week too. I think we'll be okay foodwise.

 

[jettsmom]

rujerro - Sorry to hear about the medical issues. It's frustrating when they can't figure things out. Glad ds is better. Hope you are recovering from your surgery and everything heals. We just went through having the house appraisal too. Spent way more money than we wanted to, but it was work that was needing to be done anyway. At least it's done now.

Stay safe in the snow. Glad you were able to stock up before the snow came. We're also expecting some type of weather this week too. I think we'll be okay foodwise.

 

[jettsmom]

Happy December! 23 days til Christmas.

It was a busy, crazy week. We had Thanksgiving dinner last Sunday with ds and his family. Dh's mom was declining quickly, so we were all on watch. Wednesday night we, along with ds and dgd1 and bil went to Golden Corral for dinner. They have a decent thanksgiving meal on Wednesday. Thursday, we went to Ihop with bil and his ex. Dh's mom passed away on Friday afternoon. It's been crazy. The fights began, the contention. It's sad that had to happen, but we knew it would. It's really only one person, trying to run the show and she wasn't around enough to earn that right.

Anyway, it will be fairly quiet this week, until the end when everyone starts coming into town. Ds still isn't sure if he will be able to make it. Last I looked, the plane tickets were way too much. We'll see. He was planning to come for Christmas and take his dogs back, so he may go ahead and come and take them with him now, if he can get leave.

I went to one store on Friday, Kohls because I had $10 off and another coupon. Got dgds 3 pairs of leggings for $4. But the traffic was awful. This was at 3pm. Most of the big sales were finished and I figured everyone would be home sleeping because they were up all night. Of course it was payday. I went to Aldi and one other store on the way home. I need to get out today and return a couple of items and finish up my shopping.

We'll make a couple of airport runs this week too. I have plenty of laundry to do and sewing too. I got behind. Still need to piece the backing together and get the batting. I'll have to look at my Joann coupons to see when to get the batting.

I'm going to try and enjoy a few quiet days this week.

 

[rujerro]

Jett- So sorry to hear of MIL's passing. It sounds very stressful. If DS can come back soon to get the pups, I'm sure that would alleviate some of the stuff that will be happening all week. I wish all of you peace at this time.

Cyber Miser Monday is a good title. I did get the centerpiece & swag for the living room today by mail. I posted photos in the other forum. Since they're missing a pine scent, I ended up using Swagbucks to get pine essential oil from ebay for free. It should arrive in a few days. They will get sprinkled with the oil.

I got 4 Christmas cards with a $2 off coupon, making them $2 in total. They're money/gift card holder cards, so I'll use them for everyone since everyone is getting lottery and GC's....

 

[jettsmom]

It's a snow day here. We got at least 4 inches yesterday and it just started snowing again. It did make for a very good football game yesterday. Ds didn't realize they were playing here. He only got to see highlights since he lives out of town. The new puppy isn't too sure about the snow. He came in covered. One of the other dogs must have rolled him. Somehow one of the dogs tracked in mud. We have all this snow and you somehow find mud. I think she was digging.

Staying home for now. Dh took my car to work. It has better tires made for this weather. He plans to get some for his truck when they need to be replaced. This keeps me home and not spending money. l need to get ds' package put together. I have everything, just need to box it up and get to the post office. It may get there late, but he'll understand. I need to clean the kitchen. Dh made his lunch last night before bed and I said just leave it, I'll take care of it in the morning.

I hope to get dgd's quilt pinned together today. I think I'll do that first, then do the other things.

Dinner tonight will be pork chops. We started to eat that yesterday, but dh changed his mind and we had blts. Since the kids didn't come for dinner, I scrapped the turkey hotdish for the pork chops. So pork chops for dinner/lunch. Dh said he may not feel like eating tonight, but he'll have lunch for tomorrow.

Better get moving and get some things done.

 

[jettsmom]

*What a week! Christmas was quiet. We went to ihop for lunch. We tipped our waitress $25. She was so happy. Sweet lady. She been our waitress a few times. Dh hadn't been feeling well for a few days. Thought he pulled a muscle in his shoulder/neck. Turned out to be a blocked artery and heart attack. Took him to the ER the morning after Christmas. Rushed him right in and placed two stents. His other arteries are partially blocked. They are treating that with meds for now, but I'm sure he'll be back in. Luckily it was payday and I needed to shop, so all the food is heart/diabetes friendly. It took so long to shop because I was reading all the labels. He's doing very well. The kids came for dinner yesterday and dh asked how much chicken he could have and I told him 1 piece. He was fine with it. He had some roasted potatoes, asparagus and broccoli. He said he was full. I'm glad he's starting to watch portions. I hope that as we eat the recommended portions, he'll be satisfied. I think he had a lot of stress going on too and that made he just eat. He's very mindful of his eating now. He made popcorn last night and adjusted all the oil/salt that goes in it. It was just as good. He had his bowl and wanted a 2nd but waited a while and then realized he didn't need that 2nd bowl. Yeah!!!! He goes back tomorrow for a follow up and then he starts rehab. He may be in a study for a new drug that will pay him $50/visit and free meds. He qualifies if his blood sugar is high. It's been borderline. Although the meds he was prescribed will be about $20/month and an extra $15 every 3 months.

Going to the store to get some more bananas. I ate one and it was so good. Need some more. Also bottled water and some small, dark, glass bottles to keep some of his nitroglycerin in. I'll keep some in my purse and he'll have some in a bag and then keep the rest in his lunch box.

Tonight, dh will most likely have fish, I'll fix myself some chicken with brown rice and veggies.

 

[Spirit Deer]

I read the part about the suspected pulled muscle and not feeling well and knew what had happened. Husby had the exact symptoms 2 yrs ago and ended up with 1 stent. I'm sorry to hear you're going through this now, but it's good he's accepting the limitations. Salt snd sugar are horrible for heart health and need to be eliminated as much as possible. Very hard to do.

We bought a treadmill because part of Husby's rehab was walking every day. In the long run (no pun) it was cheaper than a gym and much more convenient, therefore actually got used.

I highly recommend the Complete Mediterranean Cookbook by America's Test Kitchens. Also several cookbooks by American Heart Association. I checked out every heart healthy cookbook I could get through interlibrary loan so I could get a good look at them all before buying, and those were the ones that seemed best for us. YMMV. I already had a shelf full of WW cookbooks, also generally heart healthy except sodium usually needs adjustment or elimination. There is sooooo much good food a heart patient can eat! Rule of thumb, cook from scratch, avoid processed foods of all kinds, read labels, eat fresh foods as much as possible, realize "reduced sodium" is probably still too high in sodium, and buy foods with no salt added as much as possible.

I hope you husband continues to improve. It's a scary experience, but good outcomes aren't at all unusual.

 

[Spirit Deer]

Jettsmom, one more very important thing. Be sure several people who work near your husband are aware of his heart attack and know he carries nitro pills. Be sure full instructions are with the pills. He may not be able to tell someone what's wrong and where his nitro is if he really needs it, or how it use it. If people around him know, they can save his life.

Docs would not give Husby extra nitro. He carried his in his pocket. He knew where it was, I knew, and 3 coworkers knew. Luckily he's never needed them.

 

[jettsmom]

Thanks so much Spirit. I'll look into those cookbooks. I had already started looking online for heart healthy diets and diabetes diets go right in line with it. I'll be sure to have him let a few people know about his condition. I know there is one there that will be looking after him a lot. But I think he needs to let the vendors he works with know also, since he might be outside working with them. He was shocked at what a serving of chicken looked like. But his appetite was satisfied with the little bit of food he ate. He had no appetite in the hospital, so that helped him to start cutting back. We are both in this together. I need to lose weight too. He has rehab for 12 weeks and after that we were going to join a gym, but maybe getting a treadmill would be better. I'm afraid that having to leave the house to exercise will stop him, so a treadmill may be a good option. He was saying last week that he just doesn't want to eat out anymore and now this happened and he really doesn't want to eat out. I think there is one place that we could eat and it would be okay. I'm looking at making my own seasoning mixes and cream of....soups to cut back on the sodium. I can believe how much is in a serving of cream of mushroom. It's crazy. I got him to try avocado toast. He liked it. We had bought avocados before he went in and they were almost too ripe, so I got him to give it a try. I think once we get into it all, we'll be happy. Just figuring out the seasonings.

 

[Spirit Deer]

I was going to post about mixing your own seasoning mixes. Pinterest is a great source for recipes. If there's one that sounds good but has salt, just leave the salt out. Cutting way down on salt is HARD. It's in everything in massive amounts, and we all have developed a taste for it. Salt-free seasonings can take a while to get used to. I even found a salt-free ramen seasoning recipe! I hadn't eaten ramen in yrs and I love ramen! Seasoning recipes are hit and miss. I make a small batch to try them, then a full batch if we like it.

Our doc recommends the Mediterranean diet. I selected the book above because it seemed to use the most common ingredients (some unusual ones too) and because it includes some history about the recipes and tells where they come from and other interesting info, since I like reading that kind of thing. The Med diet emphasizes fruits, vegetables, healthy grains, plant proteins, and smaller portions of meats and other animal proteins. It's a large cookbook and I felt like it would be the only one I needed, so it was cheaper to buy the one big one than several smaller ones.

I had bought an air fryer shortly before Husby's heart attack, and it proved very helpful in cutting back on fats in cooking. They make great French fries and crispy vegetables. We ended up buying an air fryer oven for bigger capacity, even though we had bought the big air fryer. I cut boneless skinless chicken breasts into cutlets and season with HM no-salt seasoning and air fry, just to have on hand. There are so many uses for the chicken.

Plain yogurt is a good sub for sour cream. I often mix it half and half with light mayo to cut fat and salt.

I mix 99% fat free Jennie-O ground turkey breast 1:1 with lean hamburger to cut fat almost by half. I bought a meat grinder for my KA mixer and plan to start using chicken breast instead. Much cheaper, same result. For burgers I sometimes mash up cooked beans and mix with hamburger for patties. Beans are your friend in so many ways.

You hit the reason for telling multiple people about the nitro. Husby told 3 who worked around him so if one happened to be gone, others would know. He had so many work wives it wasn't funny, and they were like a flock of hens caring for a single chick! 😁 It was nice to see them so concerned.

Try things like bean burgers with an open mind. You might be pleasantly surprised. Try to find vegetarian meals you like. Still working on that one myself.

Husby's rehab was pretty much all on the treadmill at the hospital, I think. That's why we bought one. That, and we live out of town and driving in the dark and the cold to a gym just wasn't going to happen. I'll confess we went for the fancy shmancy model with the screen that allows us to pick different hiking trails around the world. If there's an incline showing on the screen, the treadmill inclines automagically to match. We love it! Now is a good time to buy a treadmill. There will be lots of sales. If you buy a new one, ask for discounts on accessories. We got 10% off on accessories when we got ours, but wouldn't have without asking.

Just some random thoughts.

 

[dlrcpa]

Wow, I am so glad you got him to the hospital in time and avoided bypass surgery.

 

[marthamfi]

sorry to hear about your husband! glad it was caught in time. my mom has to watch her salt which is in everything because of congested heart. hopefully he doesn't go back to old ways after scare is over. my fil had a stent put in after a heart attack. I remember there was make your own cream of soups too https://www.humoroushomemaking.com/homemade-cream-of-soup-mix

 

[rujerro]

Jett- So sorry to hear about your DH! I'm glad he had the surgery quickly, though, and is doing better! Great idea to get a treadmill. I got one, along with a stationary bike for when the weather is bad. I end up using one or both every day, even after the gym! Your culinary skills are impressive. I never would've thought to mix ground turkey with beef or add beans to burgers!

I told DH we were having a vegetarian dinner and he was like, what?! He is a meat eater for sure....He was NOT happy with my idea, but it was a creole dish with shrimp, rice, spicy seasonings, tomatoes.... He ate it and made a comment about needing to have a steak later....But I made it many more times after that and he never made anymore comments...I even make shrimp fajitas and he likes it now. Paella is another good dish and I need to make that soon.

 

[yassin3]

hope you feel better

 

[jettsmom]

Dh is doing great in rehab. They really work them out there. Eating has been going great until this weekend. He had to work and had too many sandwiches over the weekend. I found a lot of chicken recipes I want to try. Just leave out the salt. And more veggies. He didn't have a good weight loss this week. I think I know why.

I have a ton of errands today. I didn't have the car all week because of the snow. So I have to make up for it today. I need to pick up some shirts for my dgds. THey need Chiefs shirts for the super bowl. The oldest one needs another one for karate. They get to wear chiefs shirts instead of their uniform this week. I have several packages to drop off at UPS. Dh has been trying to find shirts for his rehab and two didn't work out. I'm trying to find shoes and returning two pair. I really like amazon's prime wardrobe. You can have up to 8 items sent and you can try them for 7 days before they charge you. THey only charge you for the items you keep. Also need to transfer one of dh's meds. The doctor had our old pharmacy on record. I'd rather get everything from a different pharmacy. It's more convenient and they have a drive thru.

Dinner tonight will be chicken or leftover turkey and veggies.

 

[marthamfi]

Jett- So sorry to hear about your DH! I'm glad he had the surgery quickly, though, and is doing better! Great idea to get a treadmill. I got one, along with a stationary bike for when the weather is bad. I end up using one or both every day, even after the gym! Your culinary skills are impressive. I never would've thought to mix ground turkey with beef or add beans to burgers!

I told DH we were having a vegetarian dinner and he was like, what?! He is a meat eater for sure....He was NOT happy with my idea, but it was a creole dish with shrimp, rice, spicy seasonings, tomatoes.... He ate it and made a comment about needing to have a steak later....But I made it many more times after that and he never made anymore comments...I even make shrimp fajitas and he likes it now. Paella is another good dish and I need to make that soon.

well that isn't vegetarian lol but not beef or pork. I just don't tell the family anymore because of all the years of picky eating you get what you get. I just try to make fish etc on the days dd isn't home for dinner.