Luna Eyelid Surgery

Whelp it has been an interesting 24 hours that is for sure and not just from our lack of sleep. Over the last couple months we noticed Luna had a little growth on her eyelid that was causing some discomfort that progressively got worse over time. She would paw at it and had a lot of runny eye discharge issues. Due to this issues the vet recommended we surgically remove the growth. We brought her in yesterday for her surgery in which they cut a triangle shaped part of her eyelid out and sewed it together. Similar to when you do the corner of upholstery on a chair. They used internal stiches and put a soft collar on her. We came home and she was her normal goofy husky self coming out of the drugs from being put under. A little loopy and whinny. She did really well resting till about 9pm when she stood up and I saw her lean in towards the couch. Sadly I could not get to her fast enough and she leaned into the couch with her soft cone on.

The following section is GRAPHIC and contains graphic content and pictures please be advised!

In this moment Luna looked over at me and her entire eye was covered and dripping in blood. She looked like a zombie dog to be honest. I did not know if she ruptured her eye or what I just knew something REALLY bad had happened. I rushed to her screaming for Ryan. At this point there was blood all over the floor and her. Lucky for me she had the soft cone still on and it caught a lot of the blood. I was shaking but managed to call the ER vet they said come ASAP and out the door we went with her. I legit was wearing insane leggings, crocs and left all the lights/TV on as we ran out the door. Fun fact my Netflix just kept playing the whole time we were gone.

When we got to the ER vet (shout out to them for staying calm) they took her back right away and managed to stop the bleeding. The girl at the desk did say "WOW  that is really bad." They wanted to keep her till the AM when our vet opened at 7:30am. So we kept her there till 6am and brought her home for a bit before our vet appointment at 8:10am. They replaced her soft cone with a hard cone which I think was a good idea.

Her hard cone cannot contain her floof!

Resting.

I promise this looks so much worse than it is!


I love Dr. Jen at the De Pere Animal Hospital by the way. She is my favorite and has a way of calming me when I am out of my mind worried. She put some iodine in Luna's eye and shined a bright light in her eye. To our surprise she did not do any damage to her eye nor her stiches it just looks horrible right now. We were able to come home right away.



Resting on the floor with mom while she works.

Currently we are resting on the floor in my living room together. She is resting at my feet. She has woken up from sleeping and tried to paw a bit here and there but I am close enough to stop her from messing about too much. She gets her pain pills and a little snack at 1pm. If you want more updates check my Instagram I have been keeping the posts up to date on progress.

I think a PSA for this little story is a bit of a warning. I am a firm believer that pets are expensive. I know this as I have 3 special pets that have special needs and honestly I know they are expensive. Before you take a dive into pet ownership I highly recommend you do your research on the cost of surgery/food ect. I will be honest in the past year I have spent maybe $1,500 plus (and... counting) on surgeries alone for Luna. She was always a healthy dog but things happen and I took her into my family so her health is my responsibility.  I am lucky enough that I do not have children and I can afford to do these things for her. Just know that this is common for animals and you have to be prepared to shell out money regularly for their care. They are family we have to treat them like it!

I love my little pirate puppy and I cannot wait for her to heal up.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

Cowboy Caviar (Salsa)

This is a solid pot luck recipe I love to make because it makes a ton and is a healthy option. I made this for our work potluck last night and ate it on tacos and for lunch today with chips. It is so easy to make and yum!

What you need~
1 red pepper (diced)
1 yellow pepper (diced)
1 orange pepper (diced)
2 green peppers (diced)
2 cans of black beans (drained and rinsed)
1 can of black eyed peas (drained and rinsed)
.5 a red onion (minced)
1 cup of corn
1 head of cilantro (minced)
4 large green onions (minced)
1/2 cup lime juice
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 tablespoon sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Before the onions and spices.

Cilantro mix!

Start by preparing all veggies and putting in a giant bowl. Mix them well. When I prepare mine I use the food processor to speed up the process. I start with doing the peppers each and make sure they are diced well and move onto the cilantro, green onion and red onion which I add 1/4 of the cup of lime juice to so those are blended really well. Almost a minced look as those are smaller bits then. I add all of that together before moving onto mixing the dressing. Start with the remaining 1/4 cup lime juice and add the remaining items on the list; red wine vinegar, olive oil, cumin, onion powder, sugar and salt/pepper to taste. Whisk that all together before pouring over the bowl that has the mixed veggies in it. Chill and serve with chips or on tacos.

OMG YUM!

Served it on some tacos.

I love this and so does anyone I make it for. I hope you make it really soon.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

Braised Cabbage

Another St. Patty's day geared dish for you. I went all in and made corned beef this week in the instant pot. Along with it I made this as a side dish. Relatively simple to make and cabbage is healthy for you. Ryan and I hate to reheat it due to the odor so we ate this whole thing in one sitting. Not even mad about it because it was delicious!

What you need~
1 green cabbage diced or shredded
1 onion diced
4 cloves of garlic minced
1 can of beer (I used Guinness as that is what I had)
2 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon bacon grease or olive oil
Nature's seasoning to taste
Cinnamon sugar to taste

Start by putting your bacon grease or olive oil in a pan and heat the pan to medium heat. Add your cabbage, onion and garlic and let this cook for 2 minutes before adding some of the beer. You slowly add this as it gets absorbed by the cabbage. This process takes about a half hour to have it properly break down. Make sure you season with your natures seasoning as you go and keep adding that beer so the mixture does not burn. Do not add all of the beer at once you do not want the cabbage swimming. Close to the end of cooking when you feel all the beer is used up and the cabbage is the right consistency then you want add the butter and a little cinnamon sugar. The cinnamon sugar is added to cut through any bitterness from the cabbage or beer in the dish.

Enjoy this nice and hot!

Starting out in the pot.

Yum!

All ready to be devoured!

I love cooking cabbage this way. We often eat it like this with sausage and brats. Worked really well with light beer as well as dark. If you do not  want to use beer you can always use some sort of broth to braise. All liquids work just depends on the flavor profile you want.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

Instant Pot: Corned Beef

St. Patrick's Day is right away the corner folks. Ryan has to work on that day this year so I figured I would make this yesterday as a little pre-celebration since we both found out we were Irish last year with our DNA testing. This was relatively easy to make and I mashed up two recipes I found that I seemed to like. This time of year it is not hard to find corned beef already pickled up and ready for cooking at any local market I picked mine up at Maplewood Meats a local butcher shop.










What you need~
1.5 pounds of corned beef (mine was already pickled)
1 small white onion diced
3 cloves of garlic
1 bottle of dark beer (I used Guinness beer)
4 cups of beef broth
1 bay leaf

I poured the beer in the instant pot and then placed the beef, onion, garlic and bay leaf in before pouring the beef broth on top. Seal the instant pot and make sure not vented. Set the pressure cooking setting for 90 minutes (1 hour 30 minutes) and leave it alone. Once the timer goes off let it natural release for 10 minutes before quick releasing the rest of your pressure. Serve it up hot!

Steamy. The meat was fork tender.

Melt in your mouth meat.

Yum!

I served this with little potatoes and cabbage. I will post those recipes later once my mouth stops watering. I will say this was delicious and I would make it again.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

Travel Adventures: Cape Coral FL

The last month was a whirl wind and frankly exhausting. I logged out of social media for the weekend including my Instagram and Facebook account and took a trip to the warm lands of FL. I think it really helped me to center myself a bit before I got back and dived back into work etc. at home. Here are some of the fun highlights of our trip for our extended weekend.

Food-

Florida is the land of seafood so of course all my favorite pictures and meals included it. Yum!

The blackened shrimp on here and that mango guacamole!

I mean this red snapper was a delight.

Seafood trio hello!

Ceviche one of my favorite things.

Oysters!

Octopus. Spicy.

 

Beverages

Key Lime La Croix is the best flavor ever.

Bloody Mary by the pool.

One of my favorites.

Beer!

Ohhh fancy Relax-a-lada!

Margarita!

Dark and stormy.

Mango Mojito.

Tea refreshing.

A local brew.

Last Bloody Mary on vacation.

Some of the sights

In full chill mood.

A book and a pool.

Sunset.

Sunset picture.

This guy was a riot.

Fort Meyers beach on our mini road trip.

Sand in my toes.

FL has crazy cool trees.

Sanibel Island and Captiva Island.

Captiva Island

Beach!

Funny birds

pretty.

This mini has eye lashes.

Sanibel Island. :)

It may have been a quick weekend in FL but it was sunny and hot the whole time. Nice way to warm up that is for sure. Cannot wait to go back and explore some more.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily