Tonight I revisited an old friend, the beef & black bean burrito. However, I recreated the recipe with my new penchant for lightening the fat content of my meals.

First off the black beans were cooked without the benefit of chicken broth. I went a little heavier on the granulated garlic and cumin, and the result was very tasty. Second, the meat was a 50/50 mixture of ground beef and ground turkey. Not only do I like the resulting flavor, but turkey represents a significant reduction in fat.

Ground turkey breast can be 98% fat free, as opposed to the typical 80% fat free ground chuck. What I buy is ground dark meat, so the fat content is better than chuck but probably in the range of 10-15% fat. At $2.99/lb it's the same price as the cheapest ground beef but better for you. These days I won't make meatloaf or meatballs without at least a little turkey because I find the flavor brighter and more complex. My normal meatloaf mix now is 1/2 turkey, 1/4 beef, and 1/4 pork.

The black beans were cooked sans onions or peppers per Steff's request, but I added a healthy amount of granulated garlic, powdered onion, cumin, thyme, smoked paprika, pepper, and salt. I mashed them up pretty thoroughly because I wanted a thick sauce rather than individual beans. When I cooked the meat, I started with the ground chuck and only added the turkey when the beef started to brown. All of the same spices went into the meat mixture. Even the higher fat content turkey can dry out if you cook it too long, though obviously there's less danger of that then with breast meat.

For each burrito I spooned about 1/2 cup beans and 1/3 cup meat over a low-carb flour tortilla and added a bit of shredded cheddar cheese. I rolled it closed, placed it seam side down in a 13x9 baking dish, and drizzled the remaining beans over the top. Sprinkle on some more cheddar, toss in the oven at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until the cheese melts.

Nutrition info per serving:
Mission Carb Balance tortilla
110 calories
18g carbs - 11g fiber = 7 net carbs
5g protein

Ground beef (approx 1/4 cup)
154 calories
15.25g protein
9.8g fat

Ground turkey (approx 1/4 cup)
96.5 calories
11.2g protein
5.4g fat

Publix shredded cheddar cheese (approx 1/3 cup)
146.7 calories
9.33g protein
12g fat

Bush Brothers black beans (1/2 cup)
100 calories
20g carbs - 7g fiber = 13 net carbs
7g protein
0.5g fat

Total:
607.2 calories
20 net carbs
47.7g protein
27.7g fat (marginally lower because I drained the meat)

Tags: cooking

Having experienced a bit of hatespeech from one of my radical right co-workers earlier this evening, I was relieved to be able to throw a different light on his rantings. Normally I don't descend to his level, but the man was holding shrimp fried rice and had the nerve to quote Leviticus and say that "gays are an abomination before the Lord."

Well, buddy, so's your dinner.

Quoted from Biblegateway.com:
"Of all the creatures living in the water of the seas and the streams, you may eat any that have fins and scales. But all creatures in the seas or streams that do not have fins and scales — whether among all the swarming things or among all the other living creatures in the water — you are to detest. And since you are to detest them, you must not eat their meat and you must detest their carcasses. Anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales is to be detestable to you."

For some lighthearted reading:
http://www.godhatesshrimp.com/

I'm not Christian-bashing. I'm just frustrated with the hatred that this particular person spouts. He's not a good person, let alone a good Christian.

I happened across this today on deviantART, and here's the actual shop page for a very cool tiger demon mask.

Tags: comics, costumes, funny!

Tonight I caught Doom Runners on cable. Or, more accurately, I saw the title and the fact that Tim Curry was the bad guy, recorded it a few days ago on the DVR, and finally got around to watching it tonight.

It's a mid-grade Australian kid adventure movie set in a post-apocalyptic underground world. The kids become Doom Runners, meaning they leave the confines of civilization under the rule of The Corporation and make a run for New Eden.

It's a fun movie. Tim Curry is delightfully evil and a little silly at times. Nathan Jones makes a nice appearance as the muscle that keeps the kids going. I'm glad to see him appearing in more films.

Tags: movies

I forgot about this webcomic for a while, but then I came across Diesel Sweeties again when I was pruning in my garden o' bookmarks.



http://www.dieselsweeties.com/

Tags: comics, funny!

I almost forgot to mention that we have a new computer. I talked it over with one of my co-workers, and he convinced me to settle for a mid-grade machine that I could actually put together as opposed to the ideal machine I kept intending to build but could never afford.

The coolest part is the case. The photos on Newegg.com make it look more orange than it is. It's more like the rust-red of a 1950's appliance, which fits very well with our retro sci-fi theme for the living room. Check out the case here:



The has an Intel E2200 2.2GHz Dual-Core processor with (currently) 4GB RAM. I'll be adding 4GB more soon. I intend to run this mainly under either 64-bit Ubuntu or Mythbuntu. This will eventually wind up being our media PC, though I'm also going to install 32-bit Windows XP or Vista so Steff can still run her Funkeys games and other software. Now I just need to find a Windows disk. Once upon a time I had a stand-alone XP disk, but all I've seen since the multiple moves is the OEM copy of Vista that came with my laptop.

Also, free kitty!

Before I forget, I've been asking around looking for someone willing to adopt a kitty. My friend Dave is moving out of state at the end of the month, and he's looking for someone to take his cat Shadow. Shadow is very sweet, if a bit nervous around new people. (Hence the name. He jumps at his own shadow.) Here are a couple of photos for those who might be interested. Flickr won't let me copy the image location, so I'll have to give links.

Shadow I
Shadow II

If someone out there has a place for Shadow, let me know. I'll pass on your message to Dave. Give me an email address or a phone number, and I'll have him get in touch with you. Thanks!

Tags: cats, computers

You guys here on LJ didn't get my daily blasts of info about Steff's condition, but I must be nearing the 800 mark. At least now I have good news to report every time.

Steff's blood sugar still isn't entirely under control, but it's a lot better than it has been. Just by way of an example, the reason we decided to go to the hospital this last time was that her sugar was 580. She bolused for it, but an hour later it was still over 450. If everything worked properly, she should've gotten down to 120 or at least a lot lower. Now she doesn't usually go over 400 at all, and she's much more responsive to the insulin when she does bolus. Part of that is the new pump we got on Monday. (It's metallic pink, as opposed to "pepto-bismol pink" as Steff calls the old one. She's happy.) Part of the improvement is also due to the fact that we're checking her sugar more frequently and keeping it from climbing high in the first place. It still creeps up when she's asleep (or at least when I'm asleep and I don't bug her), but it's been a lot better than it was.

Also, and more importantly, Steff is eating normally again. She's a little sensitive to certain smells and she's still prone to a bit of nausea, but considering how little she's eaten over the past two months it was a great relief to see her devour an order of Chicken Alfredo even if it meant eating the semi-fast-food Italian that is Olive Garden. At least it wasn't Fazoli's, though I even would have eaten there if it was what Steff wanted.

We've got appointments with her podiatrist and endocrinologist coming up. In terms of Steff's foot, everything looks great. Before the latest surgery she still had a sore on the bottom of her big toe with occasional flare-ups of infection that kept putting her in the hospital. Since the last surgery, her toe looks fantastic. It's obviously healthy, and there has been no sign of further infection at all. We're more concerned about following up with the endocrinologist to see if we can keep her sugars in a more normal range. Under 400 is better than before, but it's far from ideal.

Tags: steff

No, this isn't a throwback to Bartles & Jaymes, although I maintain those guys were awesome.



Steff is slowly improving, though she might not agree. She's still tired all the time and sleeping through most of the day. Now we've got her sugars under control, which hopefully will lessen the nausea that has been plaguing her for so long. She has eaten a few small meals, which is a vast improvement over eating nothing at all. We're getting there.

Considering the quantity of emails, comments on LJ, tweets, etc. I've gotten, it's going to be awfully difficult to respond to everyone individually. Thanks, everyone, for keeping Steff in your thoughts. I'm afraid it'll be a while before she's back to being truly herself, but we're moving in the right direction.

Tags: steff

So, uh... Steff has been home since Thursday night. I updated Facebook to reflect this wonderful news, and I believe I even tweeted about it. Alas, poor LiveJournal, you were forgotten in the rush of getting her the heck out of the hospital.

After, of course, waiting for about 8 hours for the doctors to clear her for release. Of course.

The good news is that they say they removed all of the infected bone. It looks promising. It looks a lot better than I expected, actually. After seeing Steff's toe in its infected, swollen, and altogether nasty state for so long, it's a relief to see the tissue looking pretty darned healthy. The frankenstitches are kind of cool.

Steff is doing well. She's tired all the time, but someone who had the Mega Infection of Doom!!! should expect to be tired. We think the Reglan she has been taking for nausea might play a role in her ongoing fatigue, but we haven't had a chance to talk to any doctors about it yet. No one's available on the weekend, and Steff is understandably leaning toward the "avoid doctors for a while" mindset.

--

In completely unrelated news, I just found out about the game called Shift. I was bored at work and looking for more games for my iPod Touch. There's a free version of Shift that mentions its web popularity. After playing the iPod version entirely too much, I finally got around to checking out the original. If you haven't seen it yet, I recommend checking it out. It's not often that there's such a ground-breaking game. Neat soundtrack, very different and entertaining gameplay, and a sense of humor - all rolled into one!

Shift by Armor Games

Tags: games, steff

It's just like Joe vs. The Volcano, except with no poi, no leis, and no Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, or Abe Vigoda.

I got an update from my mom after she left the hospital at around 6:00 Sunday night. They've discontinued the no-contact order, but there's no official word one way or the other about MRSA. It's promising, still. Steff is still in ICU until noon today, at least.

I wish I had more info to share, but that's all the update I've really got.

Tags: steff