Greek Shrimp with Tomatoes And White Beans

I discovered some shrimp in the freezer that needed to be used and decided I wanted to make something simple and friendly to my diet from them.  There was a bag 16-20 size that I had previously cleaned and frozen in water and a small bag of Alaskan Spot Prawns that had to be cleaned giving me a pound of a cleaned mix of the two.  To make the meal even more protein rich, I opted to add some white beans to the dish.  So, I looked around the web and found several recipes that included the beans or to which they could be added.  I settled on the recipe for Greek Shrimp with Tomatoes from the “Spicy Southern Kitchen” blog to which I added the beans.

Grilled Pork and Grilled Romaine Caesar Salad And Computer Help Needed

Let’s talk about the computer first which is an HP Laptop.  Some of you have commented that my blog posts used to auto fill some info for you and it also auto filled your info when I commented on your posts or when I did banking – it would show my log-in ID.  Obviously I have hit a wrong button at some point so if you have any suggestions for a fix, I’d love to hear them.

Sheet Pan Sausage & Veggies And Blueberry Cream Cheese Muffins, Limelight Hydrangea

This beautiful shrub at our driveway entrance is a Limelight Hydrangea providing some great mid-summer blooms.

Summer Tomato Meals

It’s summer time and for us that means loading up on foods that we rarely eat in the off season.  While we eat some grape or cherry tomatoes, we rarely buy tasteless slicing tomatoes, we generally only eat the Malibu Pole Green Beans that come from the Mennonite market although we might cook a mess or two of something else, and we keep a bag of frozen corn in the freezer for use in soups and such but eat none fresh.  While off-season okra tastes the same, it’s just always been a summer dish for us.

So here are some tomato meals that we have eaten recently in addition to the usual tomato sandwiches, tomato and cottage cheese, etc.  First up is Roz’s Italian Cheesy Tomato Pie with Buttermilk Biscuit Crust which Cindy made for the first time and it was delicious.

Turkey (And Ham) Club Sliders

We were planning to have a big Chef’s Salad for our Friday card group, but since the lettuce parasite scare was going on, we switched to sandwiches and decided to use Pam’s recent recipe for Turkey Club Sliders but when Bev advised that she preferred ham, my first thought was to make half the sliders with each.  But then I just decided to use both on all of the sliders.  I also made a double batch of the mayo and changed the slider assembly process a little but the original can be found by clicking on the above link.

Summer Meal And Best Corn On The Cob Cooking Method Then Another Summer Meal

Bev had made a trip to the Mennonite farm market and we decided to have a summer time meal for supper.  So, the meal was Malibu Green Beans cooked with Benton’s country ham, cucumber salad, and boiled corn (sort of). I had recently read an article on Serious Eats about the best ways to cook corn on the cob.  I think it’s a must read if you like this dish and I opted to give the cold start method a try.  The article also discusses using salted water but I decided to wait until next time to try it.

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW IF YOU MOVE TO (or Visit) THE SOUTH & MY WEIGHT LOSS

 Things You Need To Know If You Move To The South

1. A possum is a flat animal that sleeps in the middle of the road.

2. There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 of them live in the South.

3. There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 of them live in the South, plus a couple no one's seen before.

4. If it grows, it'll stick ya. If it crawls, it'll bite cha.

5. Onced and Twiced are words.

6. It is not a shopping cart, it is a buggy!

7. Jawl-P? means: Did you all go to the bathroom?

8. People actually grow, eat, and like okra.

9. Fixinto is one word. It means I'm going to do something.

10. There is no such thing as lunch. There is only dinner and then there's supper.

11. Iced tea is appropriate for all meals and you start drinking it when you're two. We do like a little tea with our sugar. It is referred to as the Wine of the South.

12. Backwards and forwards means I know everything about you.

13. The word jeet is actually a question meaning, 'Did you eat?'

14. You don't have to wear a watch, because it doesn't matter what time it is, you work until you're done or it's too dark to see.

15. You don't PUSH buttons, you MASH em.

16. Y'all is singular. All Y'all is plural.

17. All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable, grain, insect, or animal.

18. You carry jumper cables in your car for your OWN car.

19. You only own five spices: salt, pepper, Cajun seasoning, Tabasco, and ketchup.

20. The local papers cover national and international news on one page, but require 6 pages for local high school sports, motorsports, and gossip.

21. Everyone you meet is a Honey, Sugar, Miss (first name), or Mr (first name)

22. You think that the first day of deer season is a national holiday.

23. You know what a hissy fit is..

24. Fried catfish is the other white meat.

25. We don't need no dang Driver's Ed. If our mama says we can drive, we can drive!!!

26. You understand these jokes and forward them to your Southern friends and those who just wish they were from the South.

AND one more:

27. Why did the chicken cross the road? To show that stupid possum that it CAN be done!

Weight Loss Update

I’ve now been on Zepbound for 19 weeks (as of 7/13) and have lost nearly 50 pounds (2.6 lbs/wk) – should have been more but didn’t lose anything during the two weeks that included our trip to Nebraska.  I believe I understand that these drugs don’t make you lose weight but make it easier to do what you need do to lose weight – eat less calories.  If I eat slow, it makes me feel full with not much food and I’m never hungry – can go all day without eating.  Unless we want the leftovers for another meal, Bev and I have begun sharing meals in restaurants and I often don’t eat all of my half.  I don’t miss eating anymore but I do miss my wine which I have cut out partially for weight loss but more so for a different medical issue.  I don’t have a specific weight loss goal in mind but I’m sure I’ll know it when I get there and I already like that my shirt size is now down by one X.  It's hard to find pics of the before me as I tried to avoid them but here are a couple to give you an idea.  

Here I am at this point and sad to say that after a nearly 50 lb. loss, when I exit the shower and look in the mirror (no pic of this to share), my belly is definitely smaller but I’m still huge so still a ways to go.  The negative to the weight loss is that without the fat pooching out the wrinkles, I'm looking older.

Photos can be slightly enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

7/13/25 event dates