smalltownhealthyliving

Hello loyal blog readers, Leah is gone right now so I’m doing a guest post.  As a quick introduction, I’m a guy who is known around these parts as Hubby, and I have been married to the creator of this blog for ‘a while’.  Last night while my wife(Wifey) was recording The Bachelor on ABC, I had the opportunity to create my own experience as The Bachelor as her and our child (Childy) were spending time with Childy’s grandparents.  So let’s get to it!

For dinner, I considered eating something that Leah doesn’t like seeing as how rare this chance is, but instead I opted for one of her favorites.  She’ll probably be upset that I made this without her.  Sorry!  I just listened to my stomach and it said it wanted a Bacon and Cheese Stuffed Digiorno Burger.  It’s super easy to make, but it does take some time to properly cook all the bacon, meat, and pizzas.

The recipe calls for- 6 lbs. ground beef, 1 lb bacon, all of the cheese in your house, and 2 Digiorno pizzas.

Step 1 – Fry bacon

Step 2 – Assemble burger.  Take 3 lbs ground beef and assemble a 12” wide patty.  Layer the top with the bacon and all of your cheese.  Then cover with the other 3 lbs of beef.

Step 3- Cook burger patty.  It is very difficult to flip this burger on a grill, so I just baked it for an hour and a half.

Step 4- Bake the 2 Digiorno pizzas, follow instructions on box.

Step 5- Place burger on one of your fully cooked pizzas.  Then put the other pizza (upside down) on top of your burger thus completing the masterpiece.

We usually split one of these, so since Wifey was gone I’ll have some lefties for tomorrow.  There are a lot of different tweaks you can make to this recipe.  Adding sausage to the beef, choosing different cheeses, or choosing DiGiorno pizzas with different fixin’s.  Sometimes we add a little bit of spinach, but this time I didn’t feel like it.  To make it healthier I did drain some of the extra fat from the bacon AND beef and also dabbed a napkin over the pizza to remove excess grease.  Additionally I dipped it in LITE ranch dressing to cut out a few unnecessary calories.

I’m not a real big sweets guy so no chocolaty desserts, but I wanted to do something special since it was my night as The Bachelor.  I considered calling up all my other bachelor buddies for a night on the town but instead decided to take it easy and polish off a 12 pack of ice cold Coors Originals while watching basketball.  Coors is the Banquet Beer and their cans have a frost brew liner.  When they are served super cold, you can practically taste the mountains!  I must have dozed off during the games because I don’t remember who won, but I did wake up fully clothed on the couch (which was the complete opposite of what I did last Monday) at 7:30 this morning.  Not only do I not remember the end of the games, but I must have had a late night snack because all of my lefties were gone!

I was pretty peeved at myself for sleeping in so late.  I had planned on making S’Mores Waffles for breakfast but I didn’t have enough time so I skipped breakfast.

I felt a bit sluggish this morning so I decided it was time to take the Highway to the Health Zone.  I went with a chipotle chicken and black bean quesadilla for lunch.  I had to walk to the supermarket because all of my cheese was gone.  Its alright though because walking counts as exercise.  Exercise and healthy eating are two of the fastest cars on the Highway to the Health Zone.

Just put some diced chipotle chicken, black beans, and cheese on a tortilla and folded it into a quesadilla.  Added stove heat and topped with spinach, hot salsa, and plain greek yogurt.  I felt like a million dollars after I ate this.  Strong enough to wrestle a bull!

Wifey won’t tell me when her and Childy will be back at home.  I have a feeling they’ll be back later tonight.  I think I gotta take advantage of my time left as The Bachelor and do it up big tonight.  I’m talking mozzarella sticks, hot wings, bbq ribs, steaks, top shelf whiskey, the works!  I miss my family a lot, but I’m also super pumped for my last big hurrah as The Bachelor!

I’m not sure if I’ll get another chance to post before Wifey takes control of her blog back.  If I don’t get to write for you guys again I hope you’ve enjoyed your time here, I sure have!  If you’re interested you can look for more of my writing on TripAdvisor and Amazon Product Reviews.

The big Iowa State and Kansas game was Saturday, and my whole family went.  Since Hubby is a big KU fan, and the rest of my family Iowa State fans, it’s a pretty big game.  Huge day for the Cyclones, as they pulled off the upset.  Don’t think Hubby was mad that they lost so much as he was mad that they played like crap. 

Tyler did awesome at the game.  We were a little unsure because last time we took him to a big event (Twins game), he was upset the whole time.  He had his moments, but I think he was just sleepy, because he ended up falling asleep in Grandpa’s arms.  During the loudest part of the game.  What the heck.

After the game we all headed to my brother’s house in Iowa Falls for some supper.  He and his girlfriend made chili and some other yummy treats.  I took some pictures with my small digital camera, but I can’t find the cord to upload them at the moment, so they will have to wait.  They made some awesome wonton cups, a buffalo chicken one and a pepperjack steak one.  I stuffed myself silly.

We spent the night there, and in the morning, they made a great breakfast.  Took a picture of that, but again, you’ll have to wait until I can find the cord. 

The only two pictures I have for you are of my lunch on Friday and my supper tonight.  During the day on Thursday we made a beef roast, just put it in the crockpot with seasonings and beef broth and let it roast for about 8 hours.  We enjoyed it for lunch on Friday with some White Cheddar Cheetos and carrots. 

And tonight I made some maidrites again, with some steamed broccoli and sweet potato fries (some regular potato fries for Hubby).  I used a hot dog bun for my sandwich. 

It’s kind of a weird night here.  Tyler isn’t here.  Right after work tomorrow I’ll be heading to NW Iowa for the funeral of a family friend on Tuesday, so he went home with Grandma and Grandpa today in order to cut down on car time for him.  He’d be at daycare all day tomorrow anyway, so might as well hang out with the grandparents and get some lovin’ in.  Hopefully he can keep Grandpa’s spirits up, as he lost a close and dear friend. 

I’ll be out of commission for a couple days, so you won’t hear from me until Thursday.  I was thinking, maybe I’ll get someone to write a guest post, spice it up a bit.  Maybe I’ll get Hubby to write something, since he’ll be holding down the fort.  I’ll figure something out.

Have a great work week, and don’t forget to tell all your loved ones how much they mean to you and that you love them.  Love you family!

I didn’t take a bunch of pictures of meals the last two days because most were leftovers.  I did take this picture of a meal, because I’d like to highlight the “natural” Cheetos puffs. 

I think it’s ridiculous that they can put “Natural” on the bag, as if I could go to the Cheetos field and pick me some fresh Cheetos.  However, it makes me feel just a little bit better about myself to have “natural” White Cheddar Cheetos puffs than the greasy regular ones.  I suppose carrots or some sort of veggie would have been way better, but I’ve been on kind of carb kick lately.  Don’t know why. 

Last night I was freezing my butt off for some reason, so I made myself some tea.  I used the cutest little teapot that my mom gave me, that makes loose tea.  I put it in my new mug I got for Christmas from the Kiewiet’s.  It was ok, pretty strong on the cardamon.  I always feel sophisticated and mature when I drink hot tea.

Today Tyler and I ran a whole bunch of errands.  Poor little guy, he got hauled all over town.  Then I made him go to a play date afterwards, and he did great.  I could tell he was just exhausted, so we only stayed a little bit and as soon as we got home, I put him in his crib and he was out. 

I then enjoyed this salad with spinach, celery, mozzarella cheese, buffalo chicken, and a little Ranch dressing while I tuned in to a webinar.

Tonight’s workout class was a good one… lots of squats and cardio.

Neither of us felt like making supper, so I had quite the meal.  I made myself a smoothie: strawberries, blueberries, plain Greek yogurt, protein powder, spinach and water.

As a side I made some Triscuit nachos.  Cracked Black Pepper Triscuits with pepper jack shredded cheese (blended smoothie is in the background). 

Just hanging out watching the State of Union.  I know I said on here I don’t like to talk about politics, but the whole tax thing makes me mad.  We work hard all year to pay our bills and our never-ending student loans, and then have to give the government almost a third of what we make.  It’s not fun but I understand why taxes are necessary, obviously.  But how can people that make millions and billions only have to pay 15% or lower?  I just wish rates would be even or fair.  Heaven forbid the wealthy have to learn how to budget or how go without vacation homes and luxury cars.  Ok, there’s my crazy rant for the night- sorry if I offended all you millionaires reading my blog. 

On a lighter note, guess who got another tooth in??  Yeah, that’s about 6 teeth in the last two weeks.  Lots of drool going on here.