Quick and painless, like ripping off a band-aid

I feel I've been a good citizen following the presidential debates, reading hundreds of pages of other's opinions, participating in lively discussion with family and friends on both sides of the issues.   So, I'll make this relatively quick and painless.

Both candidates are extremely clear on what they hope to do the next four years.  The plain fact of it is that neither of them will do much without the support of the middle class (case in point: the first failed bailout plan) as well as the support of Congress.  So, for me, it comes down to who I think has the calm, steady, reasonable leadership we'll need to develop the compromises that will no doubt be needed to keep us moving forward.

Barack Obama/Joe Biden.  Done deal.

I'll vote this Saturday as Nevada has two weeks of early voting.  I implore you to exercise your privilege to vote as well.  

Can you say keen-wah?

I'm a foodie, amateur for sure, but a foodie no less.  I've promised a few recipes now and again, and today is more of a food nutrition lesson first, with a recipe thrown in. 

It's a challenge to eat healthy.  It's even more of a challenge to determine exactly what eating healthy is.   I'm a carb addict.  I was raised on biscuits and gravy, pancakes and homemade bread, and more potatoes and rice than I care to think about.  And let's not even mention the homemade cookies or pies or cakes with real sugar.  Those are the foods that helped my mother keep the bellies of six kids fairly full on a mechanic's salary.  My mission is to balance my diet, my favorite cravings, with what's good for me.  If I can satisfy both of those needs with one food, I'm a happy camper.

I've discovered quinoa, pronounced keen-wah.  At first look you'll think it's couscous, but couscous is a pasta made from flour.  Quinoa is a whole grain that's been traced all the way back to the Incas of South America.  Scientists tell us it's a "supergrain," meaning it's high in fiber, a good source of iron, has all eight essential amino acids, and is at the top of the list of all grains for complete protein content.   We're talking a home run food for vegetarians.  Simply put, it's the most nutritious of all grains.

It takes minutes to cook in plain water and doubles in volume, so I make small batches and keep it in the fridge to use when the mood strikes.  Besides a simple side dish just plain, you can add any number of veggies to it to perk it up flavor-wise.  I've added it to scrambled eggs.  And the cold salads you can make with it are as delicious as any you would make with pasta or rice.  I highly recommend cooking it in chicken broth or stock instead of plain water to really pump up the flavor.  My favorite use is to pile in those leftovers veggies from the last few meals to make a vegetarian main dish that's just chock full of taste and nutrition, not to mention economical.

Best of all - it's cheap because a little goes a long way.  Look in the rice/pasta or international foods section of your grocery store.  And keep an eye out for rice/beans mixes that include quinoa that are appearing on shelves.   Quinoa can be processed naturally so that it doesn't need to be rinsed or soaked, and I highly recommend Bob's Red Mill brand for that reason and their website has pretty cool recipes using it.

So, have fun practicing the name, and enjoy a new carb in your diet.  It's so easy to raise, digest and nutritious, NASA is thinking of using it as a crop on future long manned space flights!  

It's a Conspiracy I Tell Ya!

Others that know me will  readily confirm - I'm generally a positive, happy person.  Seriously, I'm a firm believer in the fact that I am the one who makes the choice every day to be either up or down, and a vast majority of the time, I'm up. 

 

But I gotta tell you, and I'm not being paranoid, I swear there's a conspiracy to drive me over the edge, into the depths of down, and it's a bunch of health care providers that are the conspirators.

Without the gory details, I'll just tell you this latest charade of "healthcaring" began when I made an unplanned visit to my local CICU - that's Cardiac Intensive Care Unit - in July 2007.   Though I was constantly reminded that I did the right thing, followed the right protocols for my symptoms, it turned out to be a lot less scary after 24 hours of tests and observation.   The little angel on my shoulder reminding me how lucky I am was counterbalanced by the devil on the other shoulder reminding me how the bills will really start rolling in.  And, oh, how right that devil was.

Over $20,000 for my short visit, officially not even a hospital stay as I was never admitted, just "observed" in the special unit.   The bills did start arriving in the mail box within days, funnily enough just shortly after the last of the morphine and other drugs had cleared out of my system.  And the bills kept on coming for a few months.  And then things settled down to no more bills for almost a year.  This month I got a significant bill with claims I alledgedly hadn't paid.  Research and multiple phone calls revealed the story.   Apparently, the doctor's group had a lousy biller, and this new biller just discovered my outstanding invoice.  Great.

Of course I have a new insurance company since then, so tracking it all down has been less than fun, but I'm determined to be sure it's a legitimate bill and that I'm not paying twice.  Sure enough, one charge was never sent to my insurance company, so now it starts all over again.

Here's the thing.  I think there should be a statute of limitations on things like this.  No way a person who thinks they are all paid up and debt-free should get a big bill 15 months later and be expected to pay it.  If the doctors can't monitor their own business, to know that their biller isn't doing their job sooner than over a year later, then they should eat the cost.  It's not that I don't want to be responsible for my bills, but this is ridiculous.

I took good care of myself, always have, but I surely hope I don't have to make another trip to the hospital any time soon, because the anxiety of knowing what I'll go through to get the bills paid could be overwhelming.  And I don't want to even think about the issues of a real hospital stay, for multiple days, and/or surgery, would take me.  

If that's not enough incentive to stay healthy out there, ya'll, nothing else will be.