Homemade seitan is so good. How do you prepare it? Our family likes the seitan piccata in Veganomicon (it's a lemon/caper/olive sauce over the seitan) and we always serve it with mashed potatoes and green beans. But that's not part of a bland diet probably.

I just got home from the store and I'm avoiding putting away the groceries. :) Here's what I've planned -- Pasta Tutto Giardino (rotini with vegetables in a creamy sauce) Chicken Tikka Masala + basmati rice Vegetable Korma + basmati rice Malai Kofta (maybe -- seems overly ambitious to me at the moment) Curried Peanut Soup + salad every night We stopped at the Indian grocery and got some frozen breads and new chutneys, hence the prevalence of Indian-themed entrees. My goal is to use up the chutneys rather than have them hang around the fridge for months as we usually do. So I'm going to cook a bunch of Indian food this week and next week.

Yup, that's my issue too. What about this idea? I haven't tried it, I'm just brainstorming. I remember when I was pregnant I froze casseroles like this -- I put foil in the pan, then filled the casserole pan (like lasagna, for example) and put it in the freezer. When it was frozen, I popped the casserole out of the pan and wrapped it in plastic. Or maybe more foil. Anyway, I wonder if it's possible to do something similar with liquid foods. Freeze them in a flat container, then pop them out and wrap them. Obviously my old method of wrapping in plastic wouldn't be good, but perhaps freezer paper would work. The popping out part seems most difficult. A flexible silicone container might be best. Does something like that seem feasible? I might experiment with just water to see if it's possible before risking my precious homemade broth.

I know I had something I wanted to say, but now that I've reached the end of the thread it has vanished from my mind. Swept away by bedbugs and slimy asparagus and beets in jello. Perhaps this was not the best thread to read over breakfast.

I love having a workhorse of a kitchen table. Ours looks kind of beat up, but it's very solid. Dh sometimes talks about wanting to refinish it, but I love being able to do anything at the table and not worry about it. We can put cups down without coasters, do all kinds of projects, and scrub it vigorously. Other tables in our house are nicer and treated more gently, but the kitchen table gets no special treatment. I like it that way. If we ever want it to look nice, we just throw a tablecloth on it.

If you don't use trash bags, can I ask how you get your trash to the landfill? I thought most garbage companies required bags. And it's hard to picture transporting it in our car (which is what we do) without any bags.

Great topic. This is something I'd like to work on too. We use a lot of plastic bags. I wash and reuse them a lot, but eliminating them would be my preference. What kind of stuff are you freezing? There's old fashioned freezer paper, which you could use for meats. I wonder if that would work for fruit too. We often freeze bananas and berries. I freeze chicken stock in quart sized plastic bags, but I would love to find a non-plastic alternative. Mason jars seem like they would take up so much space, whereas my bags lie flat. It would certainly be a more environmental choice, though, so I should try it.

I'm sure we all know this, but it's worth making sure your kids know that any time a person is unconscious it is a medical emergency. It doesn't matter if they are passed out drunk or passed out from drugs. If they do not respond to words or touch, 911 should be called. Sadly you hear stories of young adults who don't call 911 because they think their friends are "just drunk". But friend or stranger, alcohol or no alcohol, if they don't respond, it's an emergency. That's obviously not the case for the OP, as the man did respond. That's a trickier situation for sure.

Obviously, the $8000 figure must be an average and it will vary considerably among individuals. But one would have to make sure to include the cost of the car, whether that is through payments or cash. For example, we paid $15,000 for our car nine years ago, and will probably be replacing it next year. So, dividing that payment over 10 years gives us a cost of $1500 per year just for owning the car (minus whatever we can sell it for -- probably not a lot). That cost would be higher for a newer vehicle but on the other hand, maintenance would probably be less. Gas and parking depend on how much you drive and where you live. I don't see how getting rid of a second car reduces that expense. Changing your driving habits certainly can, but that can be done regardless of how many cars you own. (ETA: In fact, occasionally having only one car forces us to drive more than if we had a second one, in a situation where one person needs to be dropped off/picked up. But for us other factors outweigh that occasional occurrence by far.) Anyway, I do think it's worth making these calculations. More info means better decisions. But I wouldn't take average figures and assume they apply to everyone equally.

Good coffee and internet service. We already have just one car, no AC, keep the heat low, no cable, low cost phone plans, etc. But we buy expensive locally roasted coffee and internet service costs a decent amount. I wouldn't give up either of those unless things were pretty dire.

You may be thinking of the Brady Bill, named for James Brady. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brady_Handgun_Violence_Prevention_Act

Just the way you describe it makes me want some. :lol: Are there any other chains that have it? I'm in New England. I want the good ice too!

What is this softer ice y'all are talking about? We don't have Sonic or ChickFila here, but I am another ice lover. I have to confess we buy all of our ice because the store-bought stuff is so much better than homemade ice cubes. I think it's the hole in the middle of the cube. And I like the ice from some stores better than others. I also love crushed ice, Hawaiian shaved ice, snow cones, you name it. I love it all. Well, except for homemade ice. Not so fond of that. I do chew the ice. I'm disappointed to hear it's bad for my teeth, but gosh as far as vices go, I guess it could be worse.

Why not try it? Recipes aren't laws. You could try some other kind of hot sauce too. Or leave it out. Whatever. It's just food. But if your kid likes hot sauce, sriracha is great to have around.

You get 30 minutes free the first day + 5 minutes a day after that. Whoopee! Beyond that, you do have to have a "tv service" to watch, but it doesn't have to be traditional cable or satellite. There are lots of other options, including hulu. Someone posted an article above. Here's another one from Wired that explains several options-- https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-watch-the-2018-winter-olympics-online/ I don't really understand why we can't just pay NBC to access their app and website. Like you, I am happy to pay a reasonable amount to access their coverage. We want to be able to use our Roku player to access it, and I think we're going to sign up for a month of one of the services listed in the article. So our money will go to SlingTV or Hulu or whatever instead of NBC. I'm crossing my fingers that it will work.

Yeah, that didn't happen. I ended up working on bills and paperwork until 7:30. We're making nachos instead.

Baked tofu, brown rice, roasted beets, and sauteed swiss chard At least that's my plan at the moment. I'll see what happens when I actually start to cook.

Never heard that use before. On a related note, in the past couple of years I have occasionally heard "out of pocket" used to mean "unreachable", as in, "I'll be out of pocket while travelling to Alaska next month." To me, "out of pocket" refers to a monetary expense, so that kind of use is new to me.

Yes, exactly. Maybe that's not what Eeyore means. I haven't read Pooh in ages, so I can't really remember what Eeyore is like. But the person I'm thinking of is just always negative. He is determined to find fault with everything. Good things are never a pleasant surprise because the paint is probably going to chip, and the music is too loud, and it will certainly be too expensive.

The "Eeyore" I know best is fond of "at least" statements. We can be in a meadow, sitting in the sunshine, drinking champagne, and he'll say, "Well, at least it's not raining." Isn't "at least" for when you're trying to find the bright side of a bad situation? He seems to use it only when he can't find anything to complain about. And he sounds almost disappointed!

Thanks for posting. I have been running for the past few years. This is the third or fourth time in my life of taking up running and for this go, my progress has been so incredibly slow, probably due to age and overweight. But I have (finally!) gotten to the point of almost exactly the guidelines Laurie posted -- 3 times a week x 30 minutes at 6 mph. I have been strategizing how to increase from there, but now I am rethinking. Instead, maybe I would be better served by incorporating more strength and flexibility training, which I have been very inconsistent at.

That sounds so weird! I see you have tried using a different browser. Do you have another device you can try? Such as a different computer or a phone. That might help to pinpoint where the problem is. FYI, there is nothing wrong with the site. It's working fine for me.

Nobody ever calls my phone except scammers. Maybe I should set my ringtone to the Imperial March from Star Wars. LOL It would be sort of fun to have different tones for text messages, though. Is that even possible? I've never tried.

:ohmy: That would have been a jolt. I'm glad it was straightened out quickly.

Thanks for all the suggestions! I will see what I can find in my stores. I have been buying Polar Orange Dry or San Pellegrino for my pizza night soda, but I would love to find some other options again. :)