Anyway, I digress.  This post is about the veggies.  On NutriSystem, we’re eating veggies, and lots of them.  So far I’m fairly easy to please in that regard, in that I don’t really have a wide selection of veggies that I’ll eat. LOL So I alternate between salads using red and green leaf lettuces, iceberg and occasionally Romaine, and spinach, for the greens.  Then I’ll add cucumber and tomato, usually, occasionally switching out the cukes for mushrooms or carrots depending on my mood.  My alternate fixings, would be the steamed veggies, usually – and mostly – cauliflower, broccoli (less of that), and sometimes carrots or mushrooms.

I’ve learned that using the steamer machine doesn’t leave the vegetables as bright, or tender as I would prefer.  They’re usually dull colored and sometimes even mushy.  Even lessening the time a little is still less than stellar.  Plus it takes longer than I usually have time for, anyway.

So I’ve found a way to get near perfect steamed veggies, using the microwave and either ziploc or glad brand plastic containers (BPA free of course).

it’s pretty simple really – cut and add the raw veggies into a 4 cup container, add a small amount – and I do mean small amount, probably 1/8 to 1/4 cup – of water, and cover loosely with the container’s lid.  Microwave from two to two and a half minutes.  Take them out of the microwave carefully (it will be hot!!), push the lid closed for a few more minutes. I usually use that time to cook my NutriSystem meal, and by the time that is done, the veggies usually are, too.  Then I drain the water, open the lid, and voila!  Tender, not mushy, and still brightly colored veggies.  I either eat them from the container or pour them onto a plate, and use “I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter Spray” to add a little buttery flavor.

The trick is the amount of water.  If you add too much water, it will take longer for the water to heat up, the veggies will take longer to cook, and it really defeats the purpose of trying to cook them quickly!  Plus longer cook times is what seems to dull the colors of the veggies and overcooking also is what leads to the mushies.  Less water means quicker heating, quicker steaming.  Better steamed veggies!

How much weight have I lost so far, you may be wondering?  I just hit 10 pounds today.  I was stuck for about a week though, hovering between 8.5-9lbs lost.  Not too bad really, for the first month.  My husband has done even better, I think he is at 25lb down.    So far this seems to be one we’ll stick with longer than the other two we tried.  Onto the next month and hopefully 10 more pounds!

WordPress, which I had updated to the most recent version at that time, which was 3.0.

As I mentioned before I transitioned over to this software, when I imported all of my entries from WordPress, it created member profiles for anyone who had left a comment on my WP blog.  I am not sure what the passwords are for those, but if you want to comment and it won’t allow you to use your usual information without a password, contact me via my Contact page and I’ll get something created for you.  It creates the profiles using your email address, so you could even try having the system reset your password by using the “lost password” method.  But again, failing that, use my contact form to get in touch with me.

I’m sorry for the abrupt transition, but it had to happen after the second hack on my WP blog this year.  It was frustrating to see my page defaced like it was; here is to hoping it will be less likely to happen.

Time to hit the hay.  Have a good night, everyone!

I’m trying a theme that will help me export my entries from WordPress into a format that I can import to another blog platform that I am going to experiment with, and it’s going to mess up the look of this place while I do so. I will put everything back the way it looks now when I am done with it though, no worries.

And if/when I’m ready to migrate over to the other platform completely, I’ll post again but hopefully it will be relatively seamless, and the only difference you may notice is the layout of the place. Commenting would be a little different, as I’m not sure the avatars will port over. But hopefully it will be a smooth transition.

If you see any problems let me know.  I know there may be some photo links on featured studio posts that are not working, but that is really the least of my worries at the moment.

Anyway, after the morning’s events, everyone went to a pizza place down the street that has lots of games and stuff. I ordered our food and stood in line to get our drink cups filled. When it was my turn, I set my car keys down on the metal countertop. I filled my daughter’s cup first, then mine. It probably took all of one minute to do this. Then, I go to pick up my keys and immediately toss them back down, because they were SCALDING hot!!!

I kid you not. At first I thought maybe I had imagined it, so I picked them up again, but yep, they were definitely hot! I ended up getting some minor (well, superficial is more accurate) burns on two fingers, from my keyrings. I had to carry my keys to out table holding the plastic part of my car key and my gym membership badge to keep from getting more burns.

I didn’t go to the manager right away, i sat at our table contemplating what had happened, and was trying to figure out how it had even happened. I know the surface the keys sat upon was cool to the touch, I made sure to double check that before I left the counter with our drinks. They were at least 12 inches from the warming device that keeps the pizzas warm, and weren’t touching the soda dispensers either. The only thing I could think of that would do that SO quickly was maybe an exposed wire somewhere within either counter.

After my daughter’s kiddie pizza was done, and while we waited for it to cool off, I went up to let the manager know. He filled out an incident report, and kept asking if there was anything he could do or get for me. I was really less concerned about what was in it for me, and more concerned about it happening to anyone else, particularly any children. In the end I ended up with 20 free tokens and later, a certificate worth 500 tickets to trade for toys.

Later on in the evening after we got home, I decided I should probably see a doctor just to make sure it was just a contact heat burn and not an electrical burn. The doctor was also a little baffled at how it had happened, but said they were superficial heat burns, and that I only needed to use an ointment like Neosporin and bandaids until they healed up. Oh, and because for some reason “they” recommend getting a tetanus shot after burns, I was the lucky recipient of one of those too, since I have not had a tetanus shot since the one I got at 15 years old. Oh goodie. Achey arm, here I come.

Anyway, aside from the freak incident at the pizza parlor, it was a pretty good day. You can bet I won’t be setting my keys down on metal countertops anymore!

I guess they think we have no life outside of work or something. Geeze.

I’m beginning to really hate being salaried.  *sigh*

In all I had almost 50 orders to take care of, the ones that took the longest spanned yesterday and today and there were less than ten of those, but due to the nature of them, it just takes longer to do them than the others I had. No, I did not spend ALL day yesterday and today working on them, I’d take breaks now and then to hang out with my husband and daughter, and eat and such.   That is probably why it took longer over the span of the weekend than it would have if I’d sat and worked straight through it, but I was trying to have some semblance of a weekend intermingled with the forceful work I had to do before Monday.

But now I’m done, as of about 15 minutes ago, and it feels like a huge weight has been lifted. I really hope our boss doesn’t put us into that sort of situation again, it royally sucks being salaried and working with no extra compensation. Oh, I guess they’re going to buy us lunch or something. Whoop-dee-do. That’s just SO worth the loss of about three evenings and what probably equates to one full weekend day.  Pfeh.

Now, I’m going to try to work up the motivation to pick up where I left off with my office re-organization. Becaues, you know, I’d really, really like to get back to working with my clay and making stuff so I can finally make use of my Artfire studio!!