Travels in the South

Welcome my friends to another week of Travels in the South.  You know my daddy, he loves his hamburgers.  A couple of weeks ago he and mom found a restaurant that was a little hole in the wall.  It wasn’t much on the outside but they were known for their burgers.  And dad said they were right.  Their burgers were out of this world delicious.  Now, this is not something you should eat everyday for sure, especially when someone – snort mom snort – is suppose to be watching those calories.  But I had to share their meal.

Both burgers had eight ounce angus beef patties.  And that is the only thing they had in common – snorts with piggy laughter.

Dad’s had a hard fried egg, bacon (gulps), melted Jack cheese and pickles on it.  Mom had bacon (gulps), a portobello mushroom, red onions and pickles.  I couldn’t believe the size of mom’s burger.  She couldn’t even wrap her mouth around it – HA!   And of course she had to get daddy to help her finish it.  Dad had onion rings with his burger.  Mom had a salad so at least she *tried* to somewhat healthy.

  

 

Travels in the South

 Welcome my friends to another edition of Travels in the South.  This week in honor of the eclipse, we want to bring you something special.  Something that is so out of this world that mom had to make pre-arrangements last week so she could partake in this glory.  Pre-arrangements as in she walked extra – snorts with piggy laughter.  And I don’t blame her because this was well worth the extra calories.

We’ve all heard of Krispy Kreme.  It’s a doughnut chain  that makes awesome doughnuts of every kind imaginable.  And when the HOT doughnut sign is on, it means they have hot glazed doughnuts coming off of the conveyor.  Hot glazed doughnuts that will melt in your mouth from being so fabulous.  Okay give me a second – I need a moment.

Okay I’m good.  With the eclipse coming this week, just for last weekend their regular glaze went chocolate.  Can you imagine hot doughnuts going through a waterfall of fabulously hot chocolate?  Trust me.  It sounds much better than what it looks.  But you can see from the pictures what I’m talking about.
   

Now do you see the hot chocolate glazed doughnuts in the box?  Yes trust me on this.  Mom/dad said they tasted so much better than what they look in the box – ha!  Their thoughts about the first time chocolate eclipse doughnuts?  They come off the conveyor hot.  They are great but messy.  I mean messy.  Mom told daddy that she thought she was going to have to hose him down before he got into the Jeep.  That kind of messy.  But good.  And mom said she preferred them once they went cold.  They weren’t as messy then – which she loved.  Either way, it was a once in a lifetime treat all the way around.  And yeah, mom/dad didn’t forget about me.  They brought me one of my favorites – an apple fritter.  Now *that’s* what I’m talking about!

 

Travels in the South

Welcome my friends to another week of Travels in the South.  My dad says that sometimes you just need a good hamburger, something solid and substantial.  This week he wanted just that – an awesome hamburger.  You’ve heard us talk about the great pizza that a restaurant called Mellow Mushroom has but did you know they have build your own burgers?  Daddy saw it on the menu and just had to try it… of course while mom had a wonderfully delicious salad – poor mom.

The burger is 100% black angus beef topped with dad’s favorites:  pickles, lettuce, tomatoes, cheddar and swiss cheeses and bacon – gulps.  Dad said it was a handful and was so delicious.  Of course, it did take two hands to eat and plenty of napkins.  I guess that’s a good sign to a great juicy burger, huh?

So if you have a Mellow Mushroom close by, check them out for their burgers.  They also have vegan burgers which mom says sound delicious.

 

Travels in the South

 Welcome my friends to another edition of Travels in the South.  This week mom/dad stumbled onto something that was simply amazing – Onion Rings.

Who doesn’t love a good onion ring?  Mom/dad were visiting a place a couple of towns over from the Hotel Thompson.  They saw homemade onion rings on the menu and decided to give it a whirl.  This alone amazed me because here is a little tidbit for you.  Dad hates onions.  He hates them raw.  He hates them in salads.  BUT, he loves onion rings.  I think that’s a little weird, right?  But then again, we are talking about my daddy – snorts and rolls with piggy laughter.

The onion rings finally came to the table and oh my piggy heavens – look at that mountain of goodness!  These are huge!!  They are fresh cut, hand battered and made to order – thus the ten minute wait to get them upon ordering.

The restaurant serves them with a Cajun dipping sauce (which when mom asked was told it was a ranch sauce with cajun spices).  And it does have a little kick.  Mom/dad asked for extra dipping sauce.  Trust me, they said you needed it because look at how many onion rings you get.  And mom said the price you wouldn’t believe – $4.99 for this tower of an appetizer.

But I just have one question.  Not that they were good because mom/dad both said they were.  My question is why does daddy get to play with his food and I can’t?  Go ahead mom.  Tell me.  I’m waiting.

 

 

Travels in the South

Every once in a while, your body just craves a good steak – well so says mom/dad.  And when mom craves steak, dad takes full advantage and takes her to a local steakhouse that they both love.  On this date, mom/dad shared this plate above, of course with a side salad.  This is one of mom’s favorites – a ribeye steak fire grilled on an open flame, medium please.  The juices were still running and mom licked her lips before jumping in with both feet to eat her way out.  And of course by splitting the meal with daddy, that does mean 1/2 the calories.  Dad said it was an awesome dinner.  When was the last time you had steak calling your name?

 

Travels in the South

  Welcome friends to another edition of Travels in the South.  Today is being brought to you by daddy.  Recently McDonald’s launched a bigger Big Mac called the Grand Mac.  Now dad loves his Big Mac’s of any kind but he has been opting out of trying this because of eating clean.  Well this past weekend, he couldn’t help himself.  He had to try one and of course mom was there to interview him and take pictures – that’s my mom.  She didn’t try one or any of his french fries – go mom and your will power!

Now this is from the McDonald’s website:  “A regular Big Mac is two pure beef patties, Big Mac sauce, sandwiched between a sesame seed bun, American cheese, crisp lettuce, onions and pickles.”  And a regular Big Mac has 540 calories.

Now here is the description from McDonald’s website on the Grand Mac:  “Sink into 1/3 pound of real beef seasoned with salt & pepper sandwiched between a sesame seed bun.  All dressed with special sauce, crisp lettuce, onions, pickles and two slices of American cheese.”  And a Grand Mac has a whopping 860 calories!

Okay, a little more beef, an extra slice of cheese and 320 more calories.  And the pictures on television and on the McDonald’s website show there is a size difference and we all know that size matters, right?  So what did daddy think about the Grand Mac?

Daddy shrugged his shoulders at it.  The Grand Mac that he got did not look much bigger than a regular Big Mac.  It didn’t taste any different per say.  It was just okay.  In fact, if dad had to do it all over again, he said he would pass.  It just wasn’t that awesome.  So there you go – from the dad’s mouth.

 

Journey with Friends

Welcome my friends to our weekly issue of Journey with Friends.  This is a time that we come together for support, for encouragement, for fellowship – all with one single goal in mind – to live better.  Welcome to our journey to share our goals and our accomplishments and our disappointments and frustrations.

Together we can do this!

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Hey friends – Happy Monday.  How are you doing today?  How was your week?

I’m learning to be nice to myself.  To take care of me first and then let others fall closely behind.  It’s a hard thing to do but I’m trying and it’s a step by step process.  Speaking of step by steps – LOL – I want to talk about something I got last week.  It’s a knock off of the Fitbit.  You know the little band you wear on your arm day and night that monitors your steps.  I can’t say enough nice things about this.  It’s awesome.  I charged it up Tuesday morning when I got it.  The only bad thing I can say is when you charge it, it pops into the charger and getting it out of the charger takes a little flexing.  After 45 minutes, it was ready to go.

I put it in the band, downloaded the app to my iPhone, made some updates on the app and there you go – time to forget about it and get on with your day.  Now the only time you take the band off is if you are showering (you don’t want to get it wet) or charging it.  It connects on your cell phone over Bluetooth.  Usually the face is black but I turned it on by a gentle touch to show you how it looks with the time.  It shows you the time, the date, steps you have taken and converts the steps into miles for the day.  At night, you turn it on sleep mode and it monitors your sleep patterns – how cool is that huh?  AND, it has an alarm that vibrates on your wrist every 2-3 hours to remind you to get up and move around if you are to sedentary.

Now, I’m a true lover of this watch and in no way got paid for saying any of these things.  I think this ‘knock off’ is ideal – especially when normal Fitbits go for around $130.00 and up.  Since I’m a bargain buyer you know that’s just too much for me.  I got this sweet band on sale from amazon for – are you ready for this – less than $20.00!  It is totally awesome and I’m hoping that it reminds me to move it – move it.  In fact the second day I wore it, I was up to over 3,000 steps which is great to me.  My goal is to eventually get to 10,000 steps a day.

So my friends, what have you done lately to help yourself out?  Have an awesome week – remember WE CAN DO THIS TOGETHER!