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Monthly Archives: May 2014

Get Your Grill On: Jalapeño Cheeseburgers with Bacon and Spicy Ranch Sauce

May 30, 2014
Kitchen, Savory
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Jalapeño Cheeseburgers with Bacon and Grilled Onions | Olas & Chanclas

It was National Burger Day this week (on Wednesday, May 28, to be exact — I had no idea May 28 was National Burger Day — you can check out a complete list of food days on Wikipedia). So in actuality, this post is a few days late, but with the warm weather and summer months coming, having an excellent hamburger recipe for a family BBQ is always a good thing. I found this particular recipe on epicurious.com about six years ago. Epicurious used to be my go-to site whenever I wanted to discover something new to try. I still frequent it, but I’d have to say I’ve been trying all sorts of different dishes because of Pinterest. Also, Food & Wine is pretty much a can’t-go-wrong resource for tasty dishes.

I didn’t have a burger on Wednesday or any day this week, actually, but it’s what we made on Mother’s Day! Yup, I wanted to grill gourmet hamburgers, so we went back to the ol’ Jalapeño Cheeseburger with Bacon and Spicy Ranch Sauce. Original recipe is called Jalapeño Cheeseburger with Bacon and Grilled Onions, but the only grilled onions in the recipe are mentioned as an aside for additional toppings, so I just say “and Spicy Ranch Sauce.” I know, probably TMI, but I figured an explanation would help if you’ve clicked on over to the original recipe. Of course, caramelized onions or straight-up grilled onions are a nice addition to any burger, in my book.

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An Aha Moment: Discovering Diastisis Recti

May 28, 2014
Life, Miscellaneous, Ramblings
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I’ve seen a bunch of folks “attending” the 30-Day Ab Challenge Event (or whatever it’s called) on Facebook. And I would totally do it (kudos to accepting the challenge, peeps!), but after having four babies (the two oldest so close together — 16 months — along with the two younger littles just about as close), I’ve discovered I suffer from Diastisis Recti.

Do you know what that is? It’s a separation of your lower abdomen muscles, which results in a gap that can vary in size. It turns out that one out of three women who have been pregnant suffer from this. I can’t find the page where I originally read this exact statistic, but I did come across a blog that references it.

Illustration of Diastis Recti from <a href="http://mutusystem.com/diastasis-recti-diagram-the-muscles-involved.html" target="_blank">The MuTu System</a>

Source: The MuTu System

When I first discovered it I didn’t know what it was, just that I would sometimes have a shooting pain after I did crunches or when I bent over to tie my shoes or pick something up and that when I sat at a certain angle, there was a protrusion up the middle of my stomach, and at another angle a gap into which I can fit my fingers. When I showed the hubs he told me to ask my OB about it. She didn’t diagnose me. Only said if it caused me enough pain we could operate (thinking it might be a hernia, which, by the way, if you don’t take care of/improve the Diastisis Recti, you could end up getting). I thought that was a bit extreme and decided just to deal with it. But she also didn’t tell me how crunches, planks, and certain yoga and pilates moves can make the condition WORSE.

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Giant Chocolate-Toffee Cookies

May 23, 2014
Kitchen, Sweet
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Olas & Chanclas | Giant Chocolate-Toffee Cookies I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this yet, but I’m a no-nuts-in-my-desserts person. I just so happen to be married to the same kind of person (thank goodness!!), so whenever a recipe calls for any type of nut (pecan, walnut, peanut), I omit it and just add extra of something else so the consistency stays the same.

Don’t get me wrong — I LOVE nuts in general (um … OK, OK, keep your mind out of the gutter, folks, you know what I mean), just not in my baked goods (I adore them in salads, actually) or ice cream. So that’s my disclaimer to anyone looking for a dessert containing nuts on this blog. It ain’t gonna happen. I take that back. I’ll let ya know they’re part of the ingredient list, but I’ll always leave them out.

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