I Have To Confess To Being Dumb As A Red Brick Sometimes.

I have to confess to being dumb as red brick sometimes.

Let me tell you why I am saying this about myself.

Yesterday I woke up with a bad back. Sometimes my back goes out for no real reason. The doctor tells me its because my back is  bone on bone and I should be careful  and face the limitations of what I can do and not do because my back will never get any better and can get worse if I refuse to accept what he tells me. 
 Sometimes I am truly my mother’s daughter and reality  has nothing to do with what I believe to be true and when it comes to limitations I chose to believe the doctor is wrong or overly cautious. 

Nothing stops me but I know you’re thinking sometimes maybe it should. Your right but then it would take an intelligent person to do that and as I said sometimes I am as dumb as a red brick. I usually blame it on being blond  but the truth is that I am stubborn and refuse to accept limitations.

This is what happened yesterday. 
My neighbor stopped by and asked me to take her to Wal-Mart. I told her my back was really bad but as soon as I took some Ibuprofen and it started to work I would be ready to go. It took about an hour before I started feeling a little better but finally I did  so off we went to get what she needed.

We got to Wal-Mart and what she needed was in the paint and the  the garden department. I  remembered I needed some mulch for my garden so I went outside to look at what was available and I was excited about what I found they had shredded tire mulch. 
I never thought I would see it at Wal-Mart.

 I tend to be ecologically minded and buy and do as much as possible to reduce my footprint on this earth and finding something so earth friendly did make me happy.
 It has become a very popular way to recycle tires and on the practical side it will last for at least fourteen years and was very inexpensive. Only six dollars for a large bag. I bought two bags and my neighbor helped me get them in the cart and into my van. When I got home I left them in the back of my van not planning on using it until my back felt better.

Needless to say I am not good at pacing myself so I should have realized that waiting to spread the mulch was not in the cards . 
I rested for about a half hour and finally gave in I could not resist I had to go out and spread the mulch. I have to say it looked great.  My back was aching when I was done but I felt surprisingly well so to push myself a little further I decided since I was outside and it was a nice day maybe I should paint the porch. So of course I did just that and by last night I really hurting. I woke up at midnight and took a couple more ibuprofen and went out to the kitchen and took a turkey breast out of the freezer because I knew I would be suffering for a few days and would not be able to do much cooking.  I was right when I woke up this morning I could not even stand up straight. I looked very much like a bent over little old lady. I was glad I had taken the turkey out of the freezer because nothing is easier than cooking a turkey.

The turkey breast was defrosted by noon so I slid it in the oven on a pile of foil so there would be nothing to clean up later and all I would have to do is drain the juices off the foil and throw it out and the pan would still be clean. 
 When the turkey was roasted and I had took it out of the oven and let it  rest for twenty minutes because  that allows the juices to go back into the turkey and you get a moist turkey.
 I was able to freeze two big sections of the turkey breast and the carcass to make soup for at another time.

Then I cut up the rest of the turkey into smaller pieces. All that was left to do was to make a rue and add the drippings from the turkey breast and some chicken broth and made some gravy. While that was cooking I made up some instant potatoes.
 One suggestion I have if you resort to instant as I did today even  if your buy the best instant potatoes I would still switch the amount of milk and water. In other words if it called for a half a cup of milk and a cup of water do the reverse and use a cup of milk and a half a cup of water. It makes the potatoes richer and more natural tasting. It took about ten minutes total when I made the potatoes turkey and gravy and that was allowing for five minutes to freeze the turkey  and the carcass for other meals. 

Now I am sitting  here on the loveseat with a heating pad on my back and I know that I have enough turkey and gravy   made up for the next couple of days. If I want to switch it up I will put some of the turkey that is not in the gravy in some spaghetti sauce that I  have in the freezer ready to use and serve over noodles (you guessed it) already cooked and in the freezer as well. I will top it with mozzarella and baked in the oven for about thirty minutes or twenty if I use my  convection oven.  Then  while this is heating in the oven I will put either some canned or frozen vegetables in the microwave along side the instant potatoes I made today and microwave for about five minutes or so. ( I have a low powered microwave by choice. If you have a high powered one then maybe heat for three minutes or so)

I will be fine and I will have to take it easy but as this blog tells you I am living single but I enjoy eating well and yes even when I am not feeling well I do keep the budget in mind and no I did not go over my goal of eating on two dollars a day because no matter how I feel my budget does not change so being careful is still the order of the day even when I am being dumb as a red brick!