What A Day! Food Friday - The Big Grocery Haul

I probably have no business trying to write a blog post today because I am so freaking tired! I slept poorly last night and have had the devil of a time trying to get some necessary prescription refills today... I'm really feeling salty... but I'll give it a shot and if it's fit to publish, I will.

Last month, like an idiot, when I left the pain doctor I headed straight down to Marvin's (that's not the dumb part). Instead of filling my prescription at my usual pharmacy, I went to (what I thought was) the same pharmacy at the location close to his house. It's really complicated because Walgreen's has bought out all the Rite Aid pharmacies in our area. My local pharmacy is literally a Walgreen's Pharmacy in a Rite Aid building. My Spidey Sense told me at the time that it was going to be a problem and I wish I had listened to that inner voice saying, "nothing in life is this simple" because... it's true. Well, that Rite Aid location completely shut down and the prescriptions on file were transferred to the Walgreen's across the street. That's a Walgreen's and my usual pharmacy is a Walgreen's so... easy, peasy, right?  Notsomuch. My Walgreen's Pharmacy in a Rite Aid building is not on the Walgreen's computer system so... in the eyes of the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) I am "pharmacy shopping" with a controlled substance.

So... when my local pharmacist told me this morning that she couldn't transfer the prescriptions to my local pharmacy, she presented me two options: either go to the pharmacy near Marvin's house (45 minute drive away) or have my doctor call in the prescription to my local pharmacy. She said, "if your doctor will call me, I'll explain that it's really not your fault, it should not have been a problem, you couldn't have known..." etc, etc. Instead the nurse from my doctor's office calls and says, "why were you filling your prescription in Flowery Branch instead of at your local pharmacy?" My internal answer was, "none of your blankety blank business" but... like the polite drug seeking patient that I am... I said, "because I was going to be down there for a few days and needed refills so rather than drive all the way to Cleveland (the opposite direction) when I left  your office, I filled the prescription at the location that was nearest to where I was going to be". "You can't do that". Apparently. I swore on the lives of my grandchildren that I would never, ever, ever attempt to fill a prescription anywhere else in the world except my local pharmacy and she said the doctor would call in the prescriptions to save me from having to drive an hour and a half round trip for a refill.

Except... he didn't call in the prescriptions and they closed for the weekend at 2pm and... too bad for Heather. It's so frustrating. It makes me mad at the pharmacy for being in transition and making things so darn confusing. It makes me mad at the DEA for treating chronic pain patients like criminals. And it makes me mad at my doctor who knows, better than anyone, how severe the withdrawals are from these medications and what living hell it will make my life if I don't drive down to Flowery Branch to pick them up. My doctor also knows, better than anyone, how painful an hour and a half drive would be for me. What I'm going to do, rather than make the drive, is let Cody pick them up for me on his way up here tomorrow and just suffer overnight. BUT I'm not HAPPY about it, trust me!

Anyways... it's Food Friday so I will try to be on topic for a minute and talk about food. I didn't do a restaurant review this week but I will tell you where-all we ate on date night (and day and night and day) this week. On  Tuesday night we went to our usual Tuesday night - on the way to or from softball place - Twisted Taco. I had the ahi tuna tacos in wonton shells with sesame sauce because they are absolutely amazing and I love them with a purple passion. Marvin usually has the Korean taco (hold the mushrooms), the tropical shrimp taco and the ... wild Alaskan taco (I think... ). They also have really good chips and salsa and mine comes with a lot of extra avocado which we both munch on with the chips. Wednesday for lunch we went to Atlanta Highways Seafood Market which... if you're near Gainesville, Georgia, is the best place to go for seafood. It's incredibly fresh and quick and they're super nice there. I had fried crawfish tails because... yum... and Marvin had fried crawfish tails and fried catfish (and I shared some of his catfish and fries because... that's what we do). I bought some ceviche from there for my dinner Wednesday night (because Marvin eats at work on Wednesday and Thursday for dinner). On Thursday we went to our favorite little Chinese restaurant near him - it's called the Golden Phoenix but we always call it the Happy Lucky Golden Seven Phoenix because it used to be called the ... something Seven.... and we could never remember the exact name. I had shrimp fried rice because their shrimp fried rice is the best I've had anywhere and he had the General Tso's Chicken. It's a super affordable lunch menu so it was a win/win for us. Since we went to places that are our usual haunts, it didn't occur to me to take photos of our meals so you will just have to use your imagination.

Today I did a big grocery shop and a big food prep and I'm pretty stoked that I was that organized. I made a big batch of what I call "Three Bean Salad" but it's black beans, red beans and white beans (rinsed to remove lots and lots of sodium) with tomatoes, red onion, cucumbers, grilled chicken with olive oil and red wine vinegar and cilantro. I did my roasted salmon and veggies... I used tomatoes, sugar snaps, broccoli, carrots, zucchini and.... I think that's all. I've got enough food prepped to last me probably a week or more (if i don't eat more just because it's already prepped and ready to eat LOL!) AND I bought my favorite yogurt to have for breakfast because I'm pretty much addicted to it at this point. I'm fairly worn out from shopping without Austin and all the prep and cleanup but it's done and that feels great. Oddly enough my blood pressure was a happy, normal little 115/79 today after all of that so... who knows? Just the thought of eating better lowers my blood pressure. And I'm taking the beet root and... nothing else has really changed.

Tomorrow Cody and Oliver (and maybe Marquee) are coming up and I'll get Cosy in the morning so she and Oliver can play together. Marvin was such a sweetheart this week.... I sent him a text while he was at work Wednesday night and mentioned that I wanted to get the little swimming pool I had seen at his Walmart for the grandbabies... and he actually stopped on his way home from work after 9pm to get it. It's a good thing he did because it was the last one! He had a heckuva time getting it because the garden shop was closed and it was a real ordeal to get the upc code for it and then he couldn't do it through self-checkout and then he had a hard time getting it in his car (and was sure it wouldn't fit in mine but luckily it did!). I kept wondering why it was taking him so long to get home after work and he's out there getting the babies a pool. So they won't have to swim in buckets this time... all thanks to Marvin! He called this morning while I was in the middle of pharmacy hell and has had to listen to me whining about it all day. Sometimes I'm not so much fun to be around... a lot of times, probably... but he's a good egg and pulls me back from the brink when necessary.

And I guess that's about all I have to say today. Hopefully all will go according to plan and Cody will be able to pick up the prescriptions on his way up tomorrow... and the babies will be cooperative and I'll have some cute photos to share. How many of you are off for the whole week next week instead of just the 4th? Going anywhere fun? I've heard that this is supposed to be the biggest travel week of the whole Summer so safe travels or happy homebody week, whichever the case!

Food Friday - Pappadeaux

Happy Friday! Friday is the day I like to talk about food simply because I appreciate alliteration. Throwback Thursday - Food Friday - it just makes sense to me. This week I wanted to do a little review of the restaurant we went to on date night this week... Pappadeaux.

fried crawfish and crawfish etouffee

 As I've mentioned before, Marvin and I are kind of obsessed with New Orleans. It was our first road trip together... it's where Purple Michael lives... and then there's the amazing food and culture and music and food! Did I mention food?

On Tuesday night Marvin surprised me with dinner at Pappadeaux in Lawrenceville, GA, which has a New Orleans/French Quarter themed menu. There was a bit of a wait for a table but it was one hundred percent worth it! (other than the mosquito bite I got while waiting outdoors... small price to pay!)

Since we had to wait for a table, we had time to really study the menu and plan our meal. We always order different things so that we can share. Marvin went for the crawfish platter... fried crawfish and crawfish etouffee with dirty rice. I had shrimp creole and grits. Both dinners were delicious but if we go again, I would do fried crawfish all the way. My shrimp creole was great... it was a lot of food. Even with sharing, I had leftover shrimp creole for lunch the next day (we polished off the grits at dinner). I liked his crawfish etouffee just fine... but for me, the fried crawfish was the best we've had yet. Marvin prefers the fried crawfish at Louisiana Bistreaux, the place we went two weeks ago because it was a bit spicier but for me... Pappadeaux has it just right.

I also have to mention that I was really hesitant to try fried crawfish. I've always been big on fried shrimp... I like seafood but I'm not terribly adventurous with it. Then Marvin took me to the Atlanta Highway Seafood Market for lunch and we had the crawfish and... I've never looked back. I'll always take fried crawfish over any other seafood!

shrimp creole and grits

This particular Pappadeaux location is fairly new, I think, maybe in the past year or so. It was spacious and clean and had a nice atmosphere. There was a little jazz band playing near the bar that we could hear in the background but it wasn't too loud for us to have a conversation. I HATE THAT! It was busy - hence the wait for a table. But once we were seated we ordered right away (since we had already studied the menu) and our food came out lickety split. Our server, a guy named Mike, was friendly but he did this weird thing with refilling our drinks... he stopped at the table and asked if we'd like a refill. Marvin answered because I had a mouthful of food. Mike refilled Marvin's glass but not mine. It was a good ten minutes or more later before he came back and filled mine. I don't know if the pitcher ran out or he thought I didn't want a refill because I didn't specifically answer him but... it was just odd. Otherwise, the service was fine.

This was another splurge price wise for us but... it was enough food to cover us for lunch the next day so... it balances out.

On Thursday Marvin made black and bleu burgers for us for lunch... burgers with blackening seasoning, bacon bits, fried onions and bleu cheese dressing. They were huge and they were delicious! He had Cheerwine to drink... it's a North Carolina thing... and I had this new flavored Georgia Peach flavored coke that was... so good! I'm not a big cola drinker but I would definitely go for the peach coke again.

I am trying to eat healthier because of my high blood pressure... so for lunch today I roasted salmon and assorted colored cherry tomatoes and green beans. I just lay it all on a cookie sheet and bake it at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes. I had sliced the tomatoes open and drizzled everything with olive oil then gave it a generous sprinkle of salt and garlic powder. I know... high blood pressure and salt do not necessarily sound healthy BUT, as I've recently learned, it's the sodium content in the processed foods that screws with your blood pressure, not the sprinkle of salt while cooking fresh food. Honestly, this cooking method - fish, fresh veggies all drizzled in olive oil on a cookie sheet - is my favorite go-to meal. It's fast, easy, the clean up is as simple as pulling the tin foil off the cookie sheet (except for today when I accidentally ripped the tin foil while plating). I took a picture of my plate before eating and the light is not so good but you will get the idea. I made enough for two meals because heaven forbid I actually cook twice in the same week. Actually... I've already cooked twice this week because I made mac-n-cheese and tuna the other day so... I'm practically a chef!

I'm thinking of making a big "garbage salad" over the weekend to pack in a lot of fresh, healthy stuff. I've got a list in my phone of stuff I want to add to it... and then I'll just do olive oil and vinegar for the dressing. What are your favorite things to pack into a salad? Have you had an amazing meal lately? Feel free to share in the comment here or on the Facebook link for this blog post.

Hope you have a great weekend!