January 2

Nothing too exciting to report. I did end up in a walk-in clinic yesterday b/c my hand was more swollen, I couldn't bend my pinkie down any more :( and it was getting red and warm to the touch. The good thing about going to a walk-in clinic on New Year's Day is that nobody else is there. So at least there was that. In and out pretty quickly, script for Augmentin in hand.

After I got home I laid around and watched movies, the boys were at Grammy's and I took the opportunity to baby myself and just lie around. So today I had a bit of catching up to do, lots of laundry, and more laundry, and even more laundry. My hand is getting better, I went ahead and took pics but you can't really tell anything...the space between my last two fingers is pretty bruised on the back surface, and there's still a good bit of bruising on the palm surface, but I'll be damned if I can get it to show up in a picture. It hasn't been too painful, but all the hand motion needed for folding a mountain of laundry wasn't very pleasant. And our tree is still up. C'est la vie.

PS. Augmentin sucks.

Oh yeah, I made stuffed peppers tonight and shhhhh...I used half tofu and half ground beef. They were pretty darn good. Zach loved them, all but the actual pepper part *roll eyes* I'm going to put my ingredients down here in case I want to make them again, I'll never remember otherwise. Feel free to try it out!

4 bell peppers, tops cut off, seeds and insides removed....boil briefly to prepare for baking
approx 1/2 lb ground beef (extra lean, 93/7)
1/2 block of tofu (7 oz, give or take)
small onion, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
Fresh herbs: oregano, thyme and parsley, chopped
dash of hot sauce
tsp of Worcestershire
Paprika, a tsp or two (I was going more for color to hide the tofu)
salt and pepper to taste
Rotel (about 1/2 can, more if you want it spicier)
cheddar cheese

Start browning the ground beef. About half way done, toss in the onions and garlic, and then crumble in the tofu. Stir frequently, and if you haven't done it yet, run outside and snip some herbs. Hurry and wash them and throw them into the skillet. Once all the liquid is gone, turn off the heat and put on a lid (or not, I just did to help the herbs stay warm and give them time to spread their flavor). Add salt and pepper to taste.

Oh yeah, rice...brown rice is great. Cook it per directions using a broth or add base to your water. I used vegetable base. 1 cup of cooked rice is needed for the peppers. Make extra and feed the plain rice to your picky kids.

Mix the cooked rice into the meat mixture. Make sure it's not too hot and then add in 1 1/2 cups freshly grated cheddar (I prefer the block kind, it's not as dry as the bagged stuff which has anti-caking starches added). Stuff the peppers and place them in an ovenproof baking dish. Add about a cup of water to the bottom (not sure if this is necessary but I read it somewhere, so I did it) and then add an extra 1/2 cup shredded cheddar split between the four, lightly piled on top.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.