Another Low-Carb Diet Idea: School Cafeteria Ranch Burgers

Preparing interesting meals for a low-carbohydrate diet is challenging. Especially since the diet has fallen out of "fad" status, and prepared low-carb items are hard to find.  But we Atkins acolytes are resourceful. And we have to be when we share a household with someone who is not on the diet.  "No, those are my low-carb, $4-per-pack tortillas, eat your own!!!"

I've posted a few recipe ideas in the past, from hamburger or chicken egg-drop soup, to low-carb pizzas and tuna melts.  But I came up with a new one today.  Back in school, I was a very skinny, very active kid. I could eat absolutely anything and everything, and not gain an ounce.  At lunch, it wasn't uncommon for me to scarf stuff off of others' trays, if they didn't like what was served (this was before ala carte or vending machines).  Other than pizza, my absolute favorite cafeteria food was ranch burgers.

Kids called it mystery meat, but it was really a ground beef concoction on half a hamburger bun, topped with cheese.  I just loved these things, and a few years ago, I figured out how to make them.  So first is the ordinary recipe, and at the bottom there is a low-carb addendum.

Greenlee Gazette's School Cafeteria-style Ranch Burgers

2-lbs. Ground Beef

1 Medium Onion

2 Cans of "Cream of. . ." Soup (I use one chicken, one mushroom)

Salt & Pepper

Hamburger Buns

Cheese

Chop onion, and sautee in skillet. Brown ground beef with onions. Drain fat.  Mix in soups, salt and pepper. Grease a cookie sheet, and set the oven to 350. Lay hamburger bun halves with bread side up on cookie sheet, filling the surface with buns. Spoon even amounts of ground beef mixture onto buns.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and top with cheese (for authenticity, American cheese slices, or use your favorite). Bake for 10 more minutes.

Low-carb diet addendum:

I use "Net-5" bread from Aunt Hattie's, available in Nevada at Vons, Albertsons, Smith's, and Wal-Mart.  The bread is bigger than a bun half, so you get a bigger ranch burger.  I filled half the sheet with buns for The Other Half, and half of it with my bread, and voila!

Two ranch burgers, using the low-carb bread, amounts to 10 net carbs, plus the small amount from the soups (there are 9-10 carbs in each serving of soup, so we're talking 4 or 5 max for two burgers).

Now, you're probably thinking, "why so much?"  Because these suckers are great to freeze in a sandwich bag, for a quick-and-easy snack or lunch later on.  If you don't do things that way, cut the recipe in half.  Enjoy!

NOTE: I went to Whitehall-Yearling High School from 1980-1984, Rosemore Junior High from 1978-1980, and Beechwood Elementary School from 1971-1978. Ranchburgers were a staple in all of Whitehall's cafeterias, and were a favorite of mine. They were usually served with corn and tossed salad, and probably jello or a cookie.

Eugene Robinson on the Spoiled Brat Electorate

Image from source, Washington Post

There is a reason that I'm just a hobbyist blogger, and that Eugene Robinson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.  I can speak my mind, sometimes with clarity, and sometimes with humor.  But what Robinson says in the piece excerpted below is something I've been struggling to articulate for a long time now. Yes, in mid-term elections, the party in power usually sustains losses. Yes, when the economy is bad, the electorate tends to turn to the other party.

But what if the other party is headed by increasingly daffy cartoon characters? What if the other party is even more unpopular than the one in power? What if the other party's policy plan is the very same one that got us into the pickle we're in?  For instance, we're told that extending the Bush tax cuts will allow corporations to hire people with all that extra money.  Even though those tax cuts were in place in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010. . .and they aren't hiring now!  In short, though the pendulum swing to the right makes sense historically, it doesn't make sense practically.  So why are people ready to vote the Republicans in anyway?  Does "Speaker Boner Boehner" sound good to you?

[Excerpt]

The spoiled-brat American electorate

According to polls, Americans are in a mood to hold their breath until they turn blue. Voters appear to be so fed up with the Democrats that they're ready to toss them out in favor of the Republicans -- for whom, according to those same polls, the nation has even greater contempt. This isn't an "electoral wave," it's a temper tantrum. . .

Read more at: Washington Post

If You're Wrong All the Time, Get a Job at FOX "News"

There was a common joke about FOX "News" contributor William Kristol a few years ago: "Is he ever right?"  It's something that would apply to a whole roster of Republican pundits and politicians, and the funny thing is. . .they all seem to appear regularly on FOX.  We already know that all the financial experts regularly appearing on CNBC or FOX "Business" were wrong, wrong, wrong all the danged time before the recession hit, and they all still get to keep prognosticating (I'm talking to you, Jim Cramer).  But if your bailiwick is news and politics commentary, the place for you to go--even after having been wrong repeatedly--is clearly FOX "News."

[Excerpt]


Media turn to discredited Bush officials to respond to Obama's Iraq speech





Following President Obama's speech on the end of combat operations in Iraq, media outlets hosted discredited Bush administration officials Karl Rove, Stephen Hadley, and Ari Fleischer to respond, despite the fact that the three were at the forefront of the campaign of misinformation used to sell the war. . .

Read more at: Media Matters

DVD Review: George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead

Image from Wikipedia

I've been a zombie fan ever since I watched George Romero's Night of the Living Dead from the back of the family station wagon at the drive in. I was probably eight or nine, and Mom and Dad thought I was asleep in the back after the first feature ended.  I was of course freaked out, but I seriously dug it!  I never did catch a Romero Zombie flick in its first run.  But with the advent of home video, I've caught them all, some in multiple formats, over the years.

The original Dawn of the Dead, the first sequel, was a horror masterpiece. Even jaded critics like Leonard Maltin thought so.  Day of the Dead followed, and while it was initially considered a disappointment, it holds up pretty well today. After that, there were a series of spoofs, remakes, sequels-in-name-only, and imitators like 28 Days Later.  The remake of Dawn of the Dead was alright, but the original was so good, it couldn't be improved upon.  Shaun of the Dead turned out to be both a great zombie flick, and a fantastically funny comedy.  And then, finally, Romero made another official sequel, Land of the Dead.


Oddly, that sequel does not stick with me at all. I remember at the time being let down, and not feeling the viewing experience was worth it. Maybe with zero expectations, I should rewatch it, to refresh my memory.  Anyway, when trying to fill up my Amazon.com shopping cart, in order to score free shipping, I discovered that there was another zombie flick out there, Diary of the Dead.  Despite being disappointed with the previous offering, I decided it was worth the $14.

So, was it? Yes and no.  First of all, the style of the film--shot from the perspective of a film student--has been done to death.  It's a confining format, forcing the story to be told from the cameraman's (or camera men's) point of view. This can stretch credulity (much like in Quarantine), when no sane person would be so obsessed with capturing video when the world is falling apart. But if you're going to use this framing device, you can't tell the story unless somebody is filming it.  My suggestion for future filmmakers using this contrivance:  let us see through the lens, sure, but occasionally come outside the first-person perspective.  I think we can handle the shift.

 The story is interesting, putting the action at the beginning of the zombie infestation. This assumes that Diary is contemporaneous with Night, and possibly Dawn.  We'll just have to ignore the old 60s and 70s cars and hairdos in the originals.  Because Diary is chock-full of modern touches, from the cameras being used, to the internet and cell phones.  The zombie effects are good, as they usually are in Romero films. There are scares, and plenty of grossouts. The on-screen dissolving of a zombie's head via acid was particularly cool.

The acting--never a hallmark of the genre--is perhaps a notch above some of the other entries.  There are a few good lookin' actors, both male and female, to give everyone a little eye candy. This film spends more time than any previous entry showing us the world-wide scope of the zombie epidemic, via media and YouTube. But the global scale of the problem may be the film's undoing.  As in each of the sequels, the outcome is so hopeless. Each time, our batches of survivors gets thinned out while attempting to outlast the zombies. Eventually, they get winnowed down to just a couple, with no hope in sight.  Perhaps if the scale of the problem weren't so big, there might be some sort of hope, a refuge or something for the characters to get to.

All in all, it's a decent movie, for all of its familiarity and the contrivances.  The other main trope they use is voice-over narration of one of the survivors. If that sort of framing bugs you, you've been warned. If you're a George Romero fan, absolutely, give it a spin.  But it doesn't come close to the first three installments, Dawn of the Dead being the pick of the litter.  Amazingly, while writing this review, I found out that there is yet another sequel, released last year, called Survival of the Dead.  Amazing the stuff you miss when you stop reading Fangoria.  


This is the kind of movie where it doesn't matter what the reviews are. You will watch it or not, depending upon your attraction to these kinds of movies.  I suspect that even though I can't remember Land, and only halfway liked Diary, I'll still be checking out Survival.  No sense fighting it. . .

Facts are Stubborn Things: Reagan Would be Unelectable Today

Say it ain't so! Saint Ronald Reagan couldn't get elected as a Republican or even as a Democrat today? It's plain as day if you go over his policy decisions.  One thing this clears up for me:  of course the right-wing thinks President Obama is a Marxist/Socialist/Communist. . .the political discourse has been drug so far to the right (and further all the time), centrist positions now seem "radical leftist" by comparison.

Separated at Birth: Rexella Van Impe and Jan Brewer

It's been bugging me since the first time I saw her. Who does Arizona Governor Jan Brewer look like?  Then it hit me. Have you ever had insomnia, and happened upon the bizarre Jack Van Impe Jeebus show?  It's an apocalyptic, Jesus-is-coming, end-of-the-world religious infomercial. Van Impe may be a crazy Apocalypse-craving nutball, but he landed himself a blonde (for him) younger babe. And she's every bit as maniacal and twisted as he is.  She may be a different sort of crazy from Jan Brewer, but she's almost a dead ringer.  But I'm not ruling out a lingering Star Trek memory of the Cardassians.  Jan's got those crazily prominent eyeball orbital ridges, she's only missing the spoon-like protuberance and gray pallor.

Hillary Clinton in 2012?

Heh. No, I'm not touting Hillary Clinton for President in 2012.  I caucused in Nevada for John Edwards (ohmigod, can you IMAGINE?), and had to re-caucus for either Clinton or Barack Obama. I picked Obama pretty much on a coin-toss, though the Hillary brigade at our caucus event rubbed me the wrong way, and nudged me to the Obama camp.  Always in the back of my mind was just how much the right hates all things Clinton.  They've transferred their derangement syndrome onto Obama now of course, but they weren't there yet in early 2008.

I have my issues with Obama, and have related them here on the blog. But I haven't given up on him yet.  The demonization of the man (and the similar demonization of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid) is so out of scale, so contrary to reality, that I find myself in an instinctive defensive posture.  He ain't perfect, but he ain't all that bad.  He's certainly better than John McCain (and *shudder* Sarah Palin), and I can't imagine him being replaced by another candidate, let alone Clinton.  Still, I'm sure this dentist's (What's with the dentists anyway? Is he related to Orly Taitz?) ad gives Mrs. Clinton a little smile. And the leftover PUMAs are probably delighted, though they'll be stumping for Palin.

[Excerpt]


Dentist starts 2012 ad race by touting Hillary Clinton for president





This could make for awkward chatter at the White House: Even before the 2010 midterms are over, a Chicago dentist has started the 2012 ad race with a spot that supports Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for president. . .

Read more at: Washington Post

Hat-tip to Dan at Las Vegas Badger again for the link.  Full disclosure:  Dan's a conservative blogger--technically a rival--but we've got a little friendly banter going.

Las Vegas Review-Journal Sues Sharron Angle for Copyright Infringement

I'm a moonbat, lefty liberal blogger, and the headline above gives me no joy. Why? Because while I disagree with just about everything Sharron Angle stands for, and cannot for the life of me figure out why anyone would support her, I think she's getting a raw deal here.

As I wrote about before, The Las Vegas Review Journal, Vegas' only full-time daily newspaper--the Las Vegas Sun is an insert--has been suing bloggers and websites for excerpting their material.  Not warning them, not asking--or even demanding--that site owners remove the material, just literally making a federal case of it.  This situation has had me worried for quite some time, and I'll admit, I'm still not sure what to do about it.

I'm basically a one-man show, writing this blog as a hobby for the past three years. In that time, I've probably used the LVRJ as a source 15 times or so.  Considering that I've posted nearly 7,000 different posts, and that I live in Las Vegas, that's pretty light.  As most bloggers do, I usually write my own opinions on a news story, and then post a small excerpt, possibly a photo, from a variety of sources.  I've made every effort to show that these excerpts are not my work, and always provide attribution and live links.

There's a thing called "fair use," and it has always been my assumption (and clearly the assumption of most bloggers) that the conditions above meet fair use.  Most of the time, I'll only use the headline, photo and the first paragraph of a story. Occasionally, I'll use a little more, especially if the article is long and the paragraphs are short.  I make it a practice not to use so much of an article that there would be no point in clicking through to the original source.  I'm trying to "tease" the story, not steal it.  The RJ apparently does not see any distinction.

So, what to do? The deed has been done, and has been around on the internet for years.  I know there are internet "way-back" machines, and that even changing the original posts or deleting them altogether would likely be of no use.  Besides, I haven't made even a penny at this here blog thingy.  Sure, there are Google AdSense ads here, added on a whim a couple of years ago.  But you need $100 worth of AdSense earnings to get paid anything.  And after all this time, I ain't there yet.  Supposing that day ever comes, if you divide that $100 by the hours I've spent writing this blog, I'm still making nothing per hour. Fractions of fractions of a cent.

Still, I get the butterflies.  So today, I went through my entire archive, and went through each post containing RJ material, and deleted everything but the headline, link and occasional photo.  One photo I won't take down is one containing images of my husband, his friends and co-workers shortly after 9/11 that appeared in the RJ and sat on my hard drive for seven years before I used it.  It's credited, I'm not making money off of it, that should be enough. 

But have my actions in deleting and resaving those posts "flagged" my blog? Possible. I don't know. But that's why I've written this post.  Which could also flag me, I suppose. Hopefully, it will serve as an explanation, should any of their lawyers see it.  Ugh. Still with the butterflies.  But the Las Vegas Review-Journal need not worry. I won't be sourcing them in the future. Not ever. I'll even delete every mention of them from the archives if they want me to.  I'm sorry that I may have led some traffic to their site.  Sorry if my massive worldwide audience of 50-200 people per day might have stolen that one Las Vegan who might have bought one day's paper from them.  And I'm nervous about even hitting "publish post" after writing this. But I'm keeping the 9/11 photo. 


Sharron Angle Being Sued For Copyright Infringement

Read it (what, you think I'm going to actually EXCERPT it???) at: Las Vegas Badger

EDITOR'S NOTE:  I thought I should add this copy of my disclaimer, which has been a part of the blog for most of its existence under "Mission Statement" at the top left:

© Copyright 2010 James L. Greenlee


All site contents © Copyright James L. Greenlee, except those works previously copyrighted by others. All efforts will be made to properly attribute non-original content. If your work has been improperly attributed in this space, or if you would like your work removed, please contact editor@greenleegazette.com.

Other bloggers are free to use anything from this blog, in whole or in part, as long as attribution and a live link are supplied.

What REALLY Happened at the Jan Brewer Debate Fiasco

I suspect that this isn't far from the truth.  Remember George W. Bush's "mysterious bulge" at the debate with John Kerry? The strange pauses and the "let me finish" when no one was speaking?  I'm just sayin'. . .



Found at: Joe.My.God.

What Happens in Vegas: Missing Woman Found Dead Under Pile of Junk

Ugh. This episode of real-life Hoarders does not have a happy ending. Hat tip to my mother for the link.

[Excerpt]

Image from source, Newser

Missing Woman Found Dead, Buried Under Junk in Home

Something to think about the next time you don’t feel like cleaning out the garage: A missing Las Vegas woman was found after four months…dead in her own home, buried underneath piles of junk. . .

Read more at: Newser

Teabagger Candidate Against. . .You Know. . .Solitaire

The classic sitcom Seinfeld managed to do a whole episode on this topic ("The Contest") in which they never mentioned the act in question. They didn't need to. Everybody does it, and those who claim that they don't are almost assuredly lying. Seinfeld also never once claimed there was anything wrong with it (much like the companion episode "The Outing"). So, if you're a politician who is "Queen of the Castle" and thinks everyone should be the "Master of their Domain," you're up against some pretty stiff opposition. Ahem.

Sure, you're not going to meet much of a vocal backlash.  But you can bet, once they get behind that curtain, they're going to do something you don't like. Vote against you.  And it doesn't really matter how hard they pull that lever.  Ahem.


[Excerpt]

Delaware Tea Party candidate running in GOP U.S. Senate race publicly opposes masturbation

Christine O'Donnell and her interesting take on human sexuality and morality clearly was going to come back to haunt her, but common sense should have told her that appearing on a show called "Sex In The 90s", it may come up if you run for office. . .  Read more at: Pam's House Blend

A Day in the Life of a Blogger

The tray of torture implements my
hygienist Betsy used. Scraaape

I'm late in getting something up on the blog today, but I have an excuse. It's been a very busy day. First, I had a dental appointment, something I have to endure every three months due to periodontal disease. Fun! The visit was mostly positive. I've seen a very good improvement in the last six months, though I believe my progress dropped just a tiny bit from three months ago.  So, I'm still on a prescription, and still have to be tortured four times per year.

The looming lamp monster.
You can see him, can't you?

Each time my butt hits that dentist chair, I marvel at how it feels like I was just there. No matter which little exam room they put me in, it feels the same. And I see the strange little lamp monster above me.  I took a picture of him this time, so that I could prove he exists. You don't see him? Those little Phillips-screw eyes, that little hinge-mouth below?  He hovers over me, taunting me.

After the scraping and interminable gum measuring was over, I had to line up a prescription. Then I had to drive over to the auto dealership to pick up a touch-up paint pen for my car (just a couple of tiny dings to take care of).  After that, back across town to the library to get some homework for my new Mac, and drop off last week's supply.  And I'm back here using the Mac for this update. Whew! It's only 1:30, and I'm kinda pooped. It's a damned good thing I don't have the kinds of chores my ancestors had. I'd have been such a whiny bitch about it!

More bloggy goodness to come this afternoon and/or evening. I hope everyone's having a terrific start to their holiday weekend. Cheers, everybody!

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer Participates in Debate

. . .And does not come off well. Not at all. How are these cartoon characters leading in the polls? Really?

No, We Don't Miss George W. Bush

I know that the blog has been a little top-heavy lately with videos, but this one is important.  There is an attempt, now that the Iraq War is (hopefully) effectively over, to spit-polish George W. Bush's legacy and image.  At these times, it is important to reiterate the actual history.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Young Turks: Obama is a Christian Muslim?

Want to see logic tortured right before your eyes? This is cognitive dissonance in action. . .

Keith Olbermann on "Praising" George W. Bush for Iraq War

The President gave a fairly ordinary speech Tuesday night, notable really only for its historic value (the end of the combat mission in Iraq) and its restraint over the controversial beginnings of the war.  Conservative views of the speech tended to focus on the Oval Office decorations, Obama's weight, complexion and mannerisms. Oh, and he didn't mention George W. Bush enough.  Though Bush's name was brought up three times, apparently Obama didn't give him enough credit for the War in Iraq. Or the surge. Or something.

In the following clip, Keith Olbermann and Jeremy Scahill  lay waste to the very idea that the war or the surge were anything to celebrate in any way. 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Sarah Palin: Sound and Fury Signifying Nothing

It's been a while since I've had a good rip about Sarah Palin on the blog. She's been makin' her speeches (like at The Beckoning last weekend) and dolin' out her endorsements (on which she has a fairly low batting average), but I haven't been keeping tabs on her much. But I couldn't resist excerpting a little of this article and leading you to it. There's not much I can add to this except with a little help from a certain cable news host. . .



[Excerpt]


Sarah Palin the Sound and the Fury


Even as Sarah Palin’s public voice grows louder, she has become increasingly secretive, walling herself off from old friends and associates, and attempting to enforce silence from those around her. Following the former Alaska governor’s road show, the author delves into the surreal new world Palin now inhabits—a place of fear, anger, and illusion, which has swallowed up the engaging, small-town hockey mom and her family—and the sadness she has left in her wake. . .

Read more at: Vanity Fair

Harry Reid Ad Strikes the Right Note on Sharron Angle

This ad may have been around for a little while, but Wednesday is the first time I can recall seeing it.  It hits the right note about just what is so extreme about Sharron Angle.  Today on the radio, I heard someone from Angle's campaign talking about the "vicious lies" in Harry Reid's ads about her. Bull pucky. This stuff is all sourced. She really said this stuff.

Rachel Maddow: The Iraq War, Credit Where It's Due

What would a new month be without a Rachel Maddow Show post on the blog?  And this one's a doozy.  With the War in Iraq effectively over (we hope), the President gave a speech to mark the occasion.  It was a speech with a soft touch as to how the war started, and what we were there for.  President Obama did mention President George W. Bush (three times, despite what you may have heard), but he didn't blast him for the decision to invade, or really say much of anything negative at all.  It would seem that the President is still in the "looking forward, not back" mode, and would prefer we would do the same.

Harumph.  The Iraq War was not only started under false pretenses, the official reason for the war kept shifting, to equally implausible scenarios.  Americans have famously short memories for this sort of thing (history? boring!), but thankfully we have people like Rachel around to put things into perspective.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Sharron Angle: We Don't Need No Education!

Well, this is interesting. . .

[Excerpt]

Sharron Angle’s Plan For Education: Eliminate All Of It



Speaking at a forum for the right-wing Steamboat Institute last week, Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle effectively declared that public schools should cease to exist. Early in her speech, Angle reiterated her belief that America should abolish the federal Department of Education because education is “better taken care of at the state level.” Yet, in response to an audience member’s question, Angle also highlighted her work to de-fund Nevada’s public schools. . .

Read more at: Think Progress