Tuesday, June 23, 2009

A Chili Cheeseburger and Meathead Returns

Remember Meathead?



My grandmother has once again allowed this poor animal to become hugely overweight. This beagle should be around 15 lbs--she currently weighs in at around 50. Seriously, the dog is FAT.

And so she's back at our house for an undetermined amount of time to lose weight, get her nails cut down and maintained properly and for overall health protection. Evidently granny just couldn't deny the dog unlimited amounts of food--and you see the result.

We confiscated the animal. I got tired of hearing, "Oh, she's fine," knowing full well that she wasn't fine at all. Poor Meathead wheezes instead of breathes, has to make 3-point turns and has to stop for a breather when en route from living room to kitchen.

Of course the old woman means well. At least that's what I keep telling myself. The heart that kills...

Needless to say my life has become more complicated. It couldn't happen at a worse time, either--smack in the middle of my very first fertility treatment, hormones a-raging and trying to keep everything ship-shape around here, hoping for success on the first try... well, a dog that knocks over the trash in search of goodies and lacks certain training... you can imagine my turmoil. That being said, I must add that Pickle is a much happier dog having a doggie friend over.



Food has been a catch-as-you-can affair here since the dog arrived. Last night I threw together some hamburger patties. I've become quite the fan of gently--gently--patting them into shape, to allow for a very tender, fall-apart-in-your-mouth kind of burger. I topped them with a chili-bean topping I made from the navy beans I have hanging around in the freezer. About 2 cups went into a saucepan with tomato sauce, water and chili seasonings (chili powder, cumin, oregano, cayenne pepper and salt, to taste) and let them cook until they were reduced and thick, sort of like refried beans without the mashing. That was super-tasty atop our burgers with a slice of cheese and the buns dressed with a smidgen of bbq sauce from the fridge. Sweet, spicy, salty... ooh, yeah.

And the dog didn't get a bite. Not for lack of trying, though.

4 comments:

Mary said...

Your burgers look delicious! I'm so glad you are getting Meathead slim again. It's hard for me to resist giving my dog treats, but I do try also to give her regular long walks...

By the way, I'm keeping my fingers crossed your treatment works out!

Amanda said...

Thank you, Mary. I appreciate the good hopes my way. I've gone back on meds... evidently things need more time to ripen. Meanwhile, though I'm not losing weight, things are definitely "shifting" around. So I take it things are happening at any rate.

Believe it or not but Meathead has already lost some weight. We took her swimming for a few minutes Tuesday night, which was good for her (though she didn't like it). We're afraid to exercise her too robustly right now because she is so terribly overweight.

A few dog treats now and then are okay; my grama goes waaaay overboard, making doggie dinners of torn-up bread, a can of dog food and a couple of broken eggs, microwaved and served warm. *gag*

SarahKate said...

Good luck with the puppy! My grandmother used to feed her dog heartworm pills stuffed into Snickers bars. What a mess! Your burgers look SO good!

Amanda said...

Hi, SarahKate--and thank you! Those burgers were yummy! (And the dog is starting to learn the routine around here... so that's good.)

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