Inside Out Stuffed Pepper Casserole

Inside out Stuffed Pepper Casserole

1 bell pepper
1 onion
Minced garlic - 1-2 cloves (or more)
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
2-3 tablespoons Ketchup (to your taste)
Italian seasoning
Salt
Pepper
Red pepper (optional)
1 lb hamburger or Italian sausage

Dice onion and pepper
Mince garlic (I buy the jarred garlic)
Add 2 tbsp olive oil to pan
Add peppers, onions, and garlic
Sautee til just softened
Add meat and brown
Drain grease
Return to pan on low heat
Stir in 1 can tomatoes to meat and vegetables mixture
Add Ketchup - to taste

Prepare 4-6 servings of rice while tomatoes are simmering.

Add cooked rice to meat and vegetables and stir.

Top with cheese and let sit for 5 mins.

Serves 4.

Fall Cleaning

I live in Florida, so we never really had to do Spring Cleaning.  We don't have fires going all winter long, nor do we stay inside all winter long, so our house just needs to be maintained.  I prefer fall cleaning.  The air feels cleaner, so why not make everything else feel the same?  A couple of weeks ago, I cleaned my house top-to-bottom, like deep cleaned.  Everything has a place and we don't go to bed with even a fork in the sink now, and I'm going to keep it that way.  It's the way I'm used to living, but couldn't do so with a slob in my house....

This morning, I went through my blog reading list; I cleaned out the ones that haven't posted in over a year because it's just clutter to me.  In regards to clutter, a lot of people have trouble letting go of things, such as their high school prom dress that they will NEVER fit into again.  It's holding on to your youth, I get it.  What I don't get is why you need to hold on to your things from elementary school, like toys.  Sure there can be some sentimental things and those are okay to hold on to (within reason), but you don't need EVERY LITTLE THING that you've ever had in your life. Trust me.

I like to live very simply.  I have a lot, to me anyway, but I started with nothing, too, so it may just seem like a lot to me; but I have everything I need, and then a little more. A couch, dining room table, a bed, a dresser, and a headboard (re-purposed into a shelving unit for my dining room) were all given to me.  I bought 2 side tables for my living room for $5 and stained them and a $3 coffee table and stained that.  We also bought a fish tank $40, but it had everything, and stained that, too.  I re-purposed a bathroom shelving unit to be a stove-side table because we had a big space between our stove and fridge and it was just awkward, and it fit there.  We used the other half as a microwave stand, but that broke because it was made of particle board, so I had to spend $15 on a little coffee table from the dollar store, which we now have our microwave on along with pastas and canned tomatoes and other whatnots- it came with 3 little collapsible drawers which hide things very nicely. 

Decorating doesn't have to be expensive, either. I bought a few pictures from Goodwill and framed them - they were $1 each plus the $1 frame which they now sit on my side tables.  I bought a nice large picture of a harbor for $10 because we are going with a sea theme in there.  My uncle had given me a mermaid poster a while back so that's our backdrop to our sofa.  Also a g-will, I picked up some nice palm tree stuff - 2 pictures, a lamp, and a seashell picture frame.  Walgreens had some little air plants that were in a seashell planter and they fit perfectly on my mantle.  I went to a garage sale a while ago and this lady had an old potato bin and some old lanterns so I picked all those up for $20 and the potato bin sort of looks like a crab trap, so that's in my living room as well. To top off the whole sea theme, I bought a little sago palm tree and that's in a planter in the living room.  That's another thing I like, live plants.

I started a garden a few months ago with just some chive roots.  I planted just to see what happened, and hey, they grew!  I also planted some cilantro, basil, and oregano.  I never could get my oregano to grow, but the other two did.  Now, I have planted a tomato plant and a cucumber plant.  So far, my tomato plant has two little green tomatoes on it and the cucumber plant is growing, but hasn't produced anything yet.

I don't really know where this post is going, or if it had any direction at all in the first place, but that's what I am doing with my life right now and I'm okay.

Autumn Blues...

Well, it's that time of year again; my favorite and least favorite time of the year.  I love the leaves changing, pumpkin patches, hot chocolate, bonfires, and all that jazz, but I don't like the autumn blues I tend to get every year.  It's not to say that I'm sad or down, I'm just in a funk.  I have zero motivation.  I've been doing things on a weekly basis just to get out of the house, like going to the farm to do a corn maize and we are going to a fall festival this weekend as well, but during the week, I just can't seem to feel any sort of motivation to do anything other than lay in bed.

I'm tired. I'm not really emotionally drained, but my brain feels like it's on overdrive, even though it hasn't had to do much work.  None of it really makes any sense to me and this year has been the best year I've had so far with this since it started about 13 years ago.  

I'm happy where I'm at and who I'm with; I'd like some things to change, such as my neighborhood, but overall, I'm satisfied.  A little more money wouldn't hurt anything, either, but I'm not going to be greedy.  I am able to pay my bills and do things I enjoy and still have a little extra left over, but I'm certainly not rich.

Okay, enough of the negative stuff, It's fall, the time I've been waiting for ALL year long.  This weekend we went to a fall festival, which wasn't all that great, but we did pick up a $2 pumpkin, which we carved last night.  After the fall fest, we headed north about 45 minutes to Conner's A-Maize-Ing Acres, which is a local farm that used to be a huge chicken farm for Tyson, until Tyson decided to shut down the North FL operation, which almost put them completely out of business.  Today, the farm has Redneck Olympics, a hay ride, farm animals, and mostly, a CORN MAIZE!  We spent a good 45 minutes-an hour trying to find our way out; it would've probably been much more enjoyable had it not been like 90* and the sun not beaming down on us.. oh well, it was still fun!

After we carved our pumpkins last night, we toasted some pumpkin seeds, which I'd never done before.  I haven't tried them yet, so I'm not quite sure if they are good or not.  Speaking of pumpkins, we are planning on visiting a pumpkin patch in South Carolina on our trip up to South Mountain State Park, in North Carolina.  We will be spending a week (yay!) there to take in all the fall colors and just enjoy nature.  I haven't been to NC for fall in FIVE years!  I'm overly excited; Someone else has to drive though because last time I drove up there, I almost drove off the mountains from looking at all the gorgeous leaves - amazing! 

I am my focus right now.

I realized last night that I don't like what I've become.... again.

I go from happy to angry in a matter of seconds.  I am very short-fused lately and there's no good reason for it.  I've even been yelling, which I don't like to do.  I am a nice person, but I guess I'm just stressed out, which still isn't an excuse to be mean.

I need to make a list and a goal set for what I would like to change.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my life right now. 

I guess I need to learn how to set aside work at work and then just live my happy life at home.  There are a few other personal goals I would like to get back on track with as well, but we won't discuss those on the internet. :)

Change.... it's good.

Change, even if extremely minor, can be good; it depends on what direction it changes.  I've changed my mindset in the past month and let me tell ya, it's changed me for the better.  I'm happier.  I feel more refreshed.

Some days I am crabby though, for reasons that I won't put on the internet. :)

I've been planning a lot of things, down to schedules, food, and events.  It helps me to relax a bit and give me things to look forward to.

This post is extremely short, probably because I just don't have the concentration level I'd like to have.  The main reason I'm on here is to add a blog to my reading list, which I'll be cleaning up later; I have a lot of blogs on my list that haven't posted in well over two years and it's time to de-clutter... even digital things get cluttered and it drives me nuts!

I am not even sure.

You know the best part about a blog?  The fact that I could go on saying endless things and you can decide if you want to sit through it or not.  It's optional for you.  I don't have to bore you with my thoughts but if you do take the time to sit through, I appreciate you.  You're listening to my nonsensical rant about potentially nothing and that means a lot to me.

Blogging is like going to therapy, but free!  And who doesn't like free?

I haven't written in a good while, and why, I'm not exactly sure.  It feels good to get all this "crap" out.  Thoughts, especially when you have anxiety, are very hazardous sometimes.  They put on extra weight.  It'd be pretty awesome if I lost 5 lbs every time I blogged (I'd do it all the time!), but it's different.  I guess neurons and brain cells don't really weigh that much.  

I wish there was a way to download your ideas onto a thumb drive and set it off to the side until you need to revisit it later.  There's no reason why we need to be bombarded by every single thing in our life, especially when it's negative.  When you think negative, you feel negative.  When you feel negative, you look negative; and when you look negative people are negative towards you, and then it's just an endless out-of-control spiral situation that nobody wants to deal with.

I really had no idea what I was going to post about today but all I knew was that I didn't feel good, emotionally.  I'm irritable and anxious.  I'm not a fan of either of those.  I'm bitchy lately and I'm not sure why. 

I have things going on right now but I just don't feel like writing about those today so I'll leave those for another day.

I think that's about it for now.

I can't breathe

Cars come with bleeder valves, so why don't we?  I guess theoretically we do and they're called tear ducts..

That's not exactly why I'm referring to though.  I'm more referring to an exhaust pipe.  And I'm not referring to needing to fart either.  I just need to vent.  I have so much built up inside and I feel like if someone poked me with a needle from any angle I would explode.  

Stress from work has got me angry almost every single day and some days it depresses me.  I love[d] my job... up until recent changes and now I'm not really a fan of my new supervisor.  Everything is nitpicked.  I feel like everything I do is wrong.  Walking in the door makes me sick to my stomach.  Thinking about coming in on Monday morning leaves me overcome with a dreadful feeling on Sunday afternoons.

For the past month I've been dealing with thyroid issues. They sent me for an ultrasound and found some nodules; mostly fluid filled but some solid. They then sent me for an iodine uptake scan to see if my thyroid was functioning properly... which it was. They did a thyroid scan and blood work which raised some red flags with elevated white blood cells, so they sent me to the endocrinologist. The endocrinologist came to the conclusion after seeing the blood work that she felt the only way she would be able to give me a solid answer would be to do a biopsy of the nodule.

During the biopsy, on the 4th stick, she said that it looked highly likely that it was cancerous but she couldn't say 100% for sure until the results came back but it was very suspicious. So on the 5th and final stick, I managed to have a panic attack and pass out on the bathroom floor of the doctor's office.... We made a follow up appointment for the 16th of April for the results.

Today I'm grateful more than ever to report that the dr has called to report that my results are back and my cells are benign, THANK YOU GOD!

Now.... I'm on anxiety medication and a weight loss medication.  The anxiety medication works great.  I drink wine probably 2-3 glasses a day.  I had no problems with this amount with the anxiety medication.  Once I added the weight loss medication to the mixture, even without the wine, I am all of a sudden an emotional roller coaster.  I constantly am depressed and cry at the drop of anything.  I'm even sad right now.

I'm sad so much.

*sigh*... anyway. I must go for now..