The Week Past...

This past week it was T. S. Bill...it made landfall around Port O'Connor Texas - about 100 miles north and east of home [Corpus Christi]. Anyway, the night before Bill came in off the Gulf waters, the sky, at dusk, was stunning! Looking toward the storm front moving in I snapped some photos just as the sun was beginning to set...



...say hello, Bill!!


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The morning Bill made his way inland, Bud and I went to the beach to see what the Gulf looked like. Of course we knew that the main beach access roads were closed to traffic, but we also know where we can go to park at a close proximity to the beach on North Padre Island. [so many confuse NORTH Padre Island to South Padre Island...]we are not close to the tourist resort island town...ours is local, and a lot more real estate that is still uninhabited!! Unlike South Padre Island that's nearly 170 miles from our beaches.


A few others were checking out the storm~A 'sea  heart bean' found!

The National Padre Island Seashore Turtle Patrol...finding a washed up nest...collecting eggs with the large John Deer to move to the special facility that will incubate the abandoned/damaged nestlings of the endangered, nearly extinct Kemp Ridley Sea Turtles,  to release after hatching [hopefully successfully]. *as seen here in my post ~  Large ocean swell against the Jetty!

Ocean Spray

Ocean Spray ~ Laughing Seagulls foraging the seaweed from T. S. Bill


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At first I really missed my cheeseburgers....no longer is it always in the back of my mind. Dining out, I've found out the hard way, can be dangerous to your health. LOL Recently, I tried a homemade pizza recipe found in my Good Housekeeping magazine...and both Bud and I agree it's delicious and so very satisfying!!!

This is a zucchini deep dish pizza.

Here are the ingredients:

One whole wheat pizza bread dough [I bought mine at the local grocery store in the frozen food aisle]

Thinly sliced zucchini [skin on]

Shiitake mushrooms [cleaned and sliced thinly]

Low fat mozzarella cheese

Grated Parmesan Cheese

Diced, Fresh, green bell pepper

Diced, Fresh, red bell pepper

1/2 jar of marinara sauce [or pizza sauce]

note:  recipe called for salt and olive oil to mix with raw veggies...I eliminated these two ingredients.  In my opinion there is enough oil and salt in the processed sauce already!!

Tho, this is all the ingredients the pizza called for in the recipe, and it DID have amounts of each ingredient, I never measure, so it was made to taste for our preferences... I also added thinly sliced onion AND thinly sliced, fresh, calamari tomatoes on top of the mozzarella cheese.

You need a cast iron skillet...medium to large. Spray entire skillet 'bowl' with no stick spray [or non-stick, margarine, shortening, whatever is on hand], Place whole wheat pizza dough into skillet and spread evenly to the rim, covering the entire skillet. Add pizza [marinara] sauce...layer veggies, Parmesan cheese, and mushrooms onto the sauce, topping it all with low fat mozzarella cheese.

Place deep dish pizza into a HOT oven [450-475 degrees preheated].
Bake at high heat for 25 to 30 minutes [ovens vary...as does altitude], until outer crust is nicely browned...a deep browning is preferred by the two of us.
Take pizza out of oven, allow it to set for a few minutes...slice in quarters and serve with fruit and tossed salad.

One quarter pizza is serving size.
depending on your amount of ingredients, anywhere from 400 calories per quarter pizza.
18 grams of fat if olive oil is used
13 grams of protein
55 grams of carbs
sodium - anywhere from 500-750 mg, depending on what you add, or eliminate
4 grams of fiber
700 mg of sodium [depending on if you add salt, etc.]
all nutrition values listing is estimated only!!!


It was a fabulous dinner pizza, and not difficult to prepare at all!! It's even better reheated as a leftover!!



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I found a new 'gizzy-witch' on my new camera, called "Bird Watching". Oh my...after yesterday and 200 photos on the camera card, I was wishing I hadn't found it! rofl. You see, I went a bit berserk on this mode. It takes five continuous photos of the subject you're aiming/focusing on. And if you take 40 stands, times 5...that's 200 photos on your card to view. My goodness. I will make sure I don't use that TOO often.

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I'm wondering....just how many MORE will announce they're on the ballot for the presidential seat?

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We were inundated with a heavy rainfall yesterday morning. Driving home from the island, and we couldn't see the front of our car. And having to contend with Texas-mania [the drivers who think that their SUVs won't crash at ANY speed, rain or shine] was scary. But once home, dry again, in the garage, we had a visitor---