Grass-Fed Beef Jalapeno Cheddar Hot Dog with Salsa & Microgreens

I’m back to hot dogs again. My life get so full sometimes to take time to cook for myself. My grandmother was a wonderful cook as grandmothers should be in a perfect world. Growing up I noticed that her cooking was her way of caring about those she loved, much like a man fixing things. She pushed me to eat no matter how many times I’d say no thank you. She always had a fruit Jello in the refrigerator and butterscotch cookies in the freezer ready to defrost in fifteen minutes. Something changed in my grandmother and I am not sure why, but she stopped cooking. I first noticed the change when I went to her house for dinner and had the worst lasagna. It was not the one she had always made. I reluctantly said yes it was good to not hurt her feelings and she was pleased to tell me it was a TV dinner. I think she was looking for shortcuts. She was my age right now when that happened. Eventually she stopped baking cookies, making Jello, all of it. She made occasional apologies for the fact that she didn’t cook anymore and though we let her know that it was ok I now realize looking back she was hurting herself by not doing what she loved anymore. Eventually she stopped crafting too. Pretty soon all she did was watch tv and get the man across the street, who asked to marry her on several occasions, to do more and more for her. This was her demise, she stopped doing and she got weaker and more frail from doing all that nothing. We hear these stories all the time of someone retiring, if they make it there, and their plans of living the life of leisure gets old real quick and so do they. Sedentary kills. I know I am taking a shortcut this week with the hot dogs, but it is in exchange for a productive and meaningful week, and I was thoughtful to balance it with the sprouts and coffee. There is a saying I heard many decades ago and I am positioned more than ever to be that precautionary tale if I don’t keep doing and it goes, “Even if you’re on the right track you’re going to get run over if you just stand there too long.” With that being said I am going to try out Pilates tomorrow….