Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Getting Ready for Tonight’s Fireworks: Food and Cat Prep

Our city anticipated over 300,000 visitors this long holiday “weekend.” The fireworks have been heard, off and on, in the evening and early night hours, but nothing steady and intense. That will change tonight - several large displays will take off around 9 tonight.

That means the cat will be a mess.

And I had planned to try to stay in the living room to watch the PBS “Capitol Fourth” fireworks on TV.

Knowing me, and knowing the cat. this is what will happen.

The cat: She will freak. I am hoping to sort of sedate her around 8:30 pm with some catnip in her favorite lid. She will doze for up to a half hour, get up, and eat. Then she’ll go back for another “hit” and do the same. I’m ready with her catnip, her food, and I will change her litter box this afternoon (trash comes tomorrow, so that’s timely).

Me: I will be hungry. I just prepped some carrot/raisin/celery/avocado salad. I need the carrots to be soft.

If you have anyone in your circle with dental issues (bad teeth but unable to afford dentist or someone with denture issues), you understand. You can only eat so many pureed foods. You really still need to chew, to some extent, to satisfy. Otherwise you eat soft “junk.”

So I took a 1# bag of baby carrots, tossed them into a ventable microwavable bowl with 1 cup of water, and nuked them for 5 minutes, stirred, and another 5 minutes. I drained and slightly cooled them. Then I took my manual “chopper” with the plunger/blade in the lid and chopped them so that there was something to chew but they were not mush. Took 3 times to do them all. Then I took those, and added 5 celery ribs (diced) and 1/2 cup raisins, and tossed them all into a similar container and nuked for 5 minutes and drained. They are cooling. In a short while, I’ll take a soft avocado and 1 tbsp lime juice and mix/stir it all and have my salad. It will last several days, unlike my old days with mayo or salad dressing. And it does taste sweet, and chewy to a point, and is healthy and satisfying. I usually serve it to myself in 1 cup serving portions. Love it.

For some odd reason, I am nervous today -I’ve been thinking about some things and wondering about the future so I need to console me with not just faith, but food!

The other day, I also picked up a $1 pack of turkey/pork hot dogs. I only eat them these days about once or twice a year and I usually wait until after I do any labs so the cholesterol (fat) does not show, nor does a spike in blood pressure (salt). So one of my treats tonight might even be a sort of grilled (in spray-coated non-stick small pan) hot dog curled up in a slice of bread with mustard, ketchup and relish (yep, I need ‘em all).

I need to stop for a short while. Seems like all I done so far today is prep food, but I do love having things ready to grab when I get my hunger on.

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