Yummy Spinach Dip!

So as everyone (well most normal people who aren't living under a rock) in North America probably knew...two weekends ago was the Super Bowl. I am VERY happy to announce due to my total dislike for anything New England Patriots (sorry Jen!) that the New York Giants rallied late in the game to pull off a 21-17 victory against New England in Super Bowl XLVI!! GO GIANTS!

I will admit that I am not a die hard Giants fan. Growing up in Southwest Florida my whole life I am a through thick and thin Miami Dolphins girl so much so that it is represented not only on the front but on the back of my car as well! With that being said, as much as I LOVE my fins...I dislike (I'm saying dislike because I am trying to be polite!) the Patriots just as much along with there QB Tom Brady. So I will pretty much route for whoever they are playing against! :)

Anyway, I get side tracked easily! So two weekends was the Super Bowl and we ended up going over to some good friends of ours house to watch the game and I decided to bring over Spinach Dip. Now this isn't my original Spinach Dip recipe that I have used for several years this is actually a dip that I started making after my cousin Kasey brought it over one time to a party that we were having at our house and it was so good (and I don't even like spinach!) that I had to have the recipe! People like me who don't even like spinach or spinach dip really like this dip that's how GOOD it is. Trust me!

The original recipe comes off the back of the Lipton Vegetable Soup mix box with one little alteration which I am positive is what makes this dip as fabulous as it is. First let me give you the recipe and then I will tell you what we do differently....

Spinach Dip

INGREDIENTS

1 envelope Lipton® Recipe Secrets® Vegetable Soup Mix
1 container (8 oz.) sour cream or 0% fat Greek yogurt
1 cup Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise
1 package (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, cooked, cooled and squeezed dry
1 can (8 oz.) water chestnuts, drained and chopped (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Combine all ingredients in medium bowl; chill 2 hours.

Serve with your favorite dippers.

Now as I stated before I do a few things different (not anything I came up on my own mind you but its still different.) I don't use the optional water chestnuts because I don't care for them but if you like them by all means give it a whirl! The one thing different I do and I believe Kasey found this out on accident because she bought the wrong ingredient one time but I could be mistaken about that, is we use frozen CREAMED spinach instead of just regular and it makes it a million times better in my opinion. It just adds this extra creaminess that is just simply heaven! Another thing is I don't cook my spinach. I'm not sure what Kasey does but I just never have since frozen spinach is already cooked anyway I just let it thaw out then add it. I don't even squeeze dry it because since you aren't cooking it it doesn't get all that extra liquid and I don't want to loose any of the yummy creamy part. 

I do usually double the recipe when I make it because a) it goes SO fast at parties you really want the extra dip and b) I usually place my dip in a bread bowl right before serving and after I have hollowed out the crust If I make just one batch of the dip it usually doesn't fill the whole bowl like I like it to! :) 

So there you have it. At your next get-together try this easy and inexpensive dip. I know you will love it as much as we all do! 

As always if you end up trying it let me know what you think! 

Have a good week!

Jen

My Weekend

Friday night was my big birthday dinner with all my friends. We had a group of about 20 at Chilli's and it was a great night! The best part was my 3 girlfriends from like middle school came too so it made my night even more special. They all live about 45min to the south of where Danny and I live (where we all grew up) so even though I talk to them all the time we only get together ever so often so it meant a lot to me that they all came up for my b-day!

Danny and I at Chilli's

Me, Amanda & Eva

Saturday night was another celebration for my birthday at my parents house. It was just a family thing and my mom made country fried steak with country gravy...my favorite! :)

Sunday was our friend Curt's birthday so we went out to lunch with him and his parents who are visiting from Minnesota (that's were Curt and Danny are from) and then went over to Curt's house to watch the Super Bowl. IM sad to say that the team I was rooting for didn't win...(the colts for anyone who didn't watch) but it was a good game anyway and the Colts aren't my team anyway (The Dolphins are!) I just picked them to win cause I think Peyton Manning is a cutie no matter what Curt says about him having a huge forehead...LOL!!

What did you all think of the commercials? I think the funniest one was the Doritos commercial with the little kid telling his moms date to 1)keep his hands off his momma and 2)keep his hands off his Doritos...very funny should youtube it if you haven't seen it!

A quick health update: I am supposed to end my abx on Wednesday but I just called my doctor today and told him that I am still not feeling 100% yet. I still feel like I have a lot of chest congestion and small things are making me short of breath that usually don't. So when the nurse called me back she said he wanted to see me. So I am going in tomorrow morning at 10 and my guess is he will keep me on for another week of abx. I just don't know what he will do different if he will change up my abx again or add a something new to the mix. I will let you know tomorrow afternoon.

Oh yeah I almost forgot...we went an seen Avatar tonight. We saw it at the IMAX theatre in 3D! I almost didn't see this movie because the previews did nothing for me. But EVERYONE I know said how good it was and that if I was going to see it at all I had to see it on IMAX.....and boy am I glad I did! I urge anyone who hasn't seen it yet to go see it you wont be disappointed!

Now that's 4 out of the 10 best picture nominated movies down...only 6 more to go before Oscar night!! :)

Doing Good

Hey everyone! I hope everyone is having a great weekend...3 day weekend for those who get Columbus day off too! ;)

I have been pretty busy. Thursday I had to take Brodie to the vet for his yearly check-up and shots. I was shocked when I left there and the amount of money I had to spend. I was seriously not expecting it to be as much as it was!

Friday, I had my CF doctors appt and I am doing great. My PFT's are all up (not as high as I want but improved from when I did them in August) I sound clear and am moving air well and my weight was up another 1 1/2 pounds! WOO HOO! :O)

Friday night we then went to see my little brother's high school football game. His school didn't win but he did really well and stopped the other team 3 times from completing a play. Great job Jordan!!

Saturday, I went down to Fort Myers Beach with my Sister-in-law and Brother-in-law and there kids (Danny was working.) It was such a gorgeous day out and I needed sun BAD. I am a little pink today especially on my one knee for some reason...I must not have put enough lotion on it or something. weird I know! LOL

Saturday night, Danny and I and my other brother Josh along with our good friends Curt and Karen went to TGIFridays for dinner and then went to see Couple's Retreat. It was such a funny movie. Oh yeah and did I mention I love Vince Vaughn! :)

Today Danny is helping his brother again so I have a whole day by myself! Hmmm...what to do?

Tomorrow

So tomorrow is my first "official" day at pulmonary rehab. I am anxious and nervous all wrapped into one because I know its going to be hard and I will probably be wiped out by the time I get home!

Wednesday night we are having a New Year's eve party at our house. We had one last year too and it was a lot of fun so I am looking forward to that. I will hopefully take a few pictures so I can put them up to share with all of you! I always plan on taking pictures but sometimes I get distracted! :)

Oh yeah....did I mention that the Miami Dolphins are the AFC East division Champions??!! Go Fins!! Now all we need to do is keep it together long enough to survive the playoffs. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

HOORAY FOR MIAMI!!

The Miami Dolphins beat the New England Patriots 38-13!!! It was a great game and I am SO happy they won.

As for me...I am still in the hospital. I am scheduled to go home Tuesday which I am totally ready for. I am going to be done with IV abx but will continue to be on Cipro (a pill) for another week.

I have had a super boring weekend with not much to do. My mom visited yesterday for awhile and Danny came today but once they leave and I am here alone time seems to stand still!

Luckily, tomorrow is Monday and I have daytime tv to look forward to!

Just a little rant...

The last couple of days I have been getting annoyed and today it finally came to a head!

Usually while I am in the hospital my doctor has me hooked up to lipids at night so I can gain some extra weight. It's supposed to run for 10 hours at night while I am sleeping.

Seems simple....but not only do I have the lipids that need to run but I also have 2 abx, one running every 8 and the other running every 6 hours. The first night the lipids were hung the nurse said she had talked to the pharmacists and they told her the abx and lipids were compatible so they could be run at the same time. Great.

Then, the next night the nurse (a different one) came in and said she talked to another pharmacists and they said absolutely no way are they compatible and when my abx need to be run the lipids need to be stopped.

Well between the lipids the abx and nurses being slow I was hooked up from 10:30pm LAST night until 3:30 this afternoon with no break in between.

Finally, I said to my doctor that they needed to figure out if the abx are compatible or not because it is ridiculous that the same pharmacy gives a different answer everyday. I mean if its not compatible then what does that mean for the days they did run together...did I not get the all the med? Will my port be affected? I mean WTF people??!! This happens all the time and I am tired of it!!

It turns out that it hasn't been "tested" yet so they don't know if its compatible so my doc just said to run them separate to be safe. So now all I need to do is hope the nurses pay attention to there schedule so I am not hooked up to the wall the WHOLE time. The girl tonight came in and went over a "schedule" with me (cause she knew I was unhappy about being hooked up all day) to hopefully have me unhooked by like 9:00am so we will see how that goes.

To answer a question about the mucomyst....it doesn't really taste bad but the smell isn't great. It kind of reminds me of well water which if you don't know what that smells like its kind of like rotten eggs. My doctor and the RT were making me think I was going to hate it and honestly it isn't to bad. I absolutely HATE 7% saline so I welcome any alternative and so far its working fine.

Also, today was the first game of the season for my Miami Dolphins and unfortunately Brett Favre and the NY Jets won the game. Its ok though we can only go up from where we were last season so lets just keep thinking good thoughts!