I’m not a chef, but one of the ways I show people I love them is to cook for them and provide sustenance. So, for all the people who let me cook for them, thank you for allowing me to show you I love you!

Please note – I am NOT a food blogger, so these recipes are not technical, and don’t give many instructions. If you try these recipes, I’ll assume you have some knowledge of cooking. If anything is confusing, let me know in the comments and I’ll try to answer it for you!

Also note – the images are stock photos. I am also not a food photographer!

One more thing – scroll to the bottom to find my recipe for the perfect Old Fashioned!

BUFFALO CHICKEN BOWLS

Chicken Breasts (one package – about 2-3) You can also use chicken tenders and it will cook faster!
2 Tablespoons Butter
1 Ranch Dressing Packet
1/2 Cup Buffalo Sauce – I like Sweet Baby Rays (you can use as much sauce as you want!)
2 Tablespoons Mayonnaise
Cooked rice – I like Jasmine Rice or use cauliflower rice on my low carb days.
Diced cucumbers
Diced grape tomatoes
Diced avocado

Put the Chicken Breasts in the bottom of the slow cooker, top with the butter, ranch dressing packet and Buffalo Sauce. Cook on low for about 6 hours.

Pull the chicken out, shred it, and put it back in the slow cooker. Mix in the mayo to make it nice and creamy!

Serve in a bowl with rice. I like to mix the white rice with cauliflower rice to get a veggie serving in. Top with the cukes, toms and avocado. 

Drizzle with more Buffalo Sauce and Ranch Dressing (if you have it).

Enjoy!

ORIGINAL RECIPE

MISSISSIPPI POT ROAST

1 (3-4 pounds) chuck roast – I just get the cheapest roast they have – it will be tender!
1 packet ranch dressing mix
1 packet au jus gravy mix – you can find this where the gravy is – it’s just a little packet. 
1/4 cup butter
4-5 pepperoncini peppers (optional – but the acidity of these help tenderize even the cheapest piece of meat!)
 
Place roast in the slow cooker and sprinkle the top with the ranch dressing mix and the au jus mix.

Place peppers on top of the mixes and add the butter.

Cook over low heat for 8 hours. Serve with noodles, rice, or mashed potatoes. Enjoy!

ORIGINAL RECIPE

FRIED BRUSSEL SPROUT CAESAR SALAD

Olive Oil
Brussel Sprouts (4-5 per person)
Arugula
Pistachios
Parmesan Cheese
Caesar Salad Dressing (I use Ken’s Lite Caesar Dressing)
Thinly slice about 4-5 Brussels per person.

Fry Brussels in a pan with a splash or two of Olive Oil. Fry to desired tenderness. I like it browned well. 

Meanwhile, add the desired amount of arugula to a salad bowl.

Add a handful of pistachios for the last 30 seconds/1 minute of cooking the Brussels. Lightly cook the pistachios. 

Top the arugula with the Brussels/pistachio mixture.

Top with your desired amount of parm and Caesar dressing and toss. 

LENTIL BRUSCHETTA

The lentils turn this bruschetta into a meal!

3 large tomatoes
3 cloves garlic (or less if you don’t love garlic quite as much as I do )
3 Tablespoons Gourmet Garden Basil Herb Blend Stir-In Paste
6 oz feta cheese
1 Cup cooked green lntils
Salt & Pepper to taste

Cut tomatoes into small bite-sized pieces. Mince garlic and add to tomatoes.

Add Basil Herb Blend (or use fresh chopped basil if you would like)

Add Feta Cheese & cooked lentils

Mix well, and add salt & pepper to taste

Serve with pita chips, toasted baguette, or sourdough.

STREET CORN SALAD

I use this as a side dish for burgers, tacos, etc.

4 Cups Corn (best if it’s fresh cut off the cob!)
3 tsp butter
1 tsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic
¼ cup chopped red onion
1 Jalapeno, diced
1/3 cup Cotija Cheese
Salt to taste

Dressing

4 Tablespoon Mayo
2 Tablespoons plain Greek yogurt
2 Tablespoons lime juice
1 tsp Tajin

Mix dressing ingredients and store in the fridge until ready.

Add oil and butter to the pan (I like to use my cast iron)

When butter is melted, add corn and saute until corn browns and is roasted. Add garlic for the last minute of cooking.

Put corn in a bowl, and add jalapenos and red onion. Add the dressing to the corn mixture and stir. Add the cheese and stir gently.

Note: the original recipe calls for cilantro, but it’s not for me. But, if you are a weirdo, please feel free to add it if you would like!

ORIGINAL RECIPE

THE PERFECT OLD FASHIONED

Just kidding – you have to invite me over and I’ll make you the PERFECT Old Fashioned!

Here’s what 80 days on the road looks like:

As you can only imagine, 80 days, 5,767 miles and 137 hours of windshield time have given me plenty of time to think! Looking back over this time, here are a few things I have learned along the way:

1. Our country is beautiful, diverse, and unpredictable.

2. I may have a tattoo addiction … time will tell.

3. I’m not bad company if I do say so myself.

4. I love hiking and being outside in general. I never thought of myself as an outdoor girl, so this one was surprising!

5. While I still LOVE a good to-do list and looking ahead at the goals I want to accomplish, I am getting WAY better at spending my time in-the-moment, and being intentional with the people I am with rather than looking forward at the next task.

6. I like living in little downtown areas. Walkability is now important to me!

7. I can make great decisions for myself, and those decisions can be fluid. They don’t have to be written in stone, it’s ok to change my mind and pivot when necessary.

8. I have a lot of passion and love to give to the right person. And I’ll never settle again for anyone less than “the one”.

9. I wouldn’t be against moving somewhere new if my new location had direct flights to Atlanta, Salt Lake City, and San Diego. I’m keeping my head, my heart, and my options open.

10. I have never felt healthier or happier in my life.

11. I have the best friends and family who love and support me, even in the middle of this hair-brained shenanigan I am on. Grateful for these people in my life. Susan 1.0 may have thought I didn’t deserve this love … but Susan 2.0 knows better.

12. I am getting better at trusting and listening to my intuition than I ever have before.

13. The gas budget I put together (pre-Russian invasion of Ukraine) for this trip is a joke and only getting “jokier”. Contributions to my gas fund will be accepted via my Venmo account. Joking, but not really.

14. I am a fan of Crumbl cookies. They are seriously delicious and could impact my road trip bucket list goal of losing 10 pounds while traveling.

15. I will not let time and distance come between relationships that matter anymore. My priorities have changed.

16. I love true crime podcasts and can’t stop listening to them. My better judgment, as a lone traveler, tells me to stop listening. But I can’t. Maybe I actually like living in a state of edginess?

17. I don’t need a TV in my bedroom. None of the rooms I have stayed in had TVs and I haven’t missed it at all! Another shocker.

18. When I don’t have Mowgli to walk, I miss it. Our daily walks have improved my mental and physical health.

19. Eighty days go by way too fast. I can’t believe I have completed two-thirds of my trip. I feel like it’s been a blink of my eyes.

20. I can do hard things. I’ve gone on death marches in the desert. I’m traveling by myself. I learned how to use a firearm. I attempted surfing in rough waters. I made the scary decision that it’s better to be alone rather than be with someone and be lonely. I’m excited about the challenges and hard things that are coming. And maybe a little scared too.

I have 42 days until my Next Chapter Best Chapter road trip will come to end. I’m fairly confident I won’t be ready for it to end… so heads up to my friends and family who live in the 22 states I did not visit. You may be getting a message from me. For right now, the nomad life seems to be working just fine for me. So, I’ll be making the most of these last 6 weeks. For real-time updates, follow my stories on Instagram and Facebook!

Holy Guacamole! I’ve been on the road for FIFTY DAYS!!! For those of you who are new to this blog, I am a recently divorced empty-nester and on March 5, 2022, I loaded up my car and my dog and started a 4-month journey. I am touring the United States, visiting family and friends and seeing all the sights. I will be touring 5 of the 6 U.S. states I have never visited. And even more importantly, I am going on an adventure of self-discovery – my own little Eat, Pray, Love journey.

Here are a few updates to the statistics I am tracking:

• 4681 miles driven
• 103 hours in my Bronco
• 11 states I have traveled through (Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah)
• $5.70 highest gas price I have paid on 3/18/22 in Banning, California
• 6 hikes – some were death marches (Chelsey)
• 5 Friends and family homes I have stayed in
• 4 National Parks visited (Petrified Forest, Sedona, Joshua Tree, Zion)
• 2 Airbnbs stayed in
• 2 new tattoos

If you have been following along, you know that on my 56th birthday, I created a 56 item Road Trip Bucket list to complete during my travels. I’ve been crossing off items as I go, 16 to be exact! Many of the items are specifically for when I begin visiting states I’ve never been to, which will be mid-May. Check out my list and the current status. NOTE: The one-night stand was a joke, but it’s been a hot minute, and crazily, many of you are in favor of that item being checked off! So, time will tell if that happens!

Here’s a list of my recent check-offs:

1. Go to Disneyland
2. Try surfing
3. Eat something I’ve never eaten – Nilgai cheeseburger
4. Listened to the entire #EnneaSummer2021 podcast series
5. Swim in the Pacific Ocean
6. Exercise at the beach
7. Receive a ticket or violation

Besides working my full-time job and my side hustles, I’ve also done a ton of fun things not on my Bucket List since my last blog post. (Follow along on Instagram and Facebook for real-time updates on my stories)

Highlights over the last 20 days:

• Spent two weeks in Redondo Beach with my brother and his sweet family doing all the things, but mostly just loving being a part of their daily family life!
• Amazing farmer’s markets with exotic products we don’t see in Georgia
• Macrame with my oldest niece
• Dog walking with my youngest niece
• Learning mad video skillz from my nephew
• Early morning chats with my brother over his gourmet coffee
• Daytime chats and walks with my sister-in-law
• Being the 3rd wheel on their weekly date night
• Heartfelt conversation over dinner with Doreen, my sorority sister, who I hadn’t seen since 1988
• Lunch and inspiring and hopeful conversation with Dawn, my childhood best friend, who I hadn’t seen since 1980
• Driving by my childhood home
• Lunch with my older brother and sister-in-law in Las Vegas
• Visited Zion National Park on my way to Salt Lake City
• Cocktails and crafts with Zoe
• Hauling Mowgli up 3 flights of stairs, 4 times a day
• Heather McMahan Farewell Tour in downtown SLC
• Hikes and walks with Zoe, Hutton, Van & Mowgli

I am spending time on this trip reflecting and doing hard inner work. It goes against my nature to look too deep into my emotions and my past. I am the queen of pushing through and shoving things down because that’s safe for me. It’s hard to do on your own, so next week I begin working with a spiritual mentor to help me with some of the things blocking me from living the life God intends for me. So stay tuned friends! It’s about to get REAL!

Now, on to the little series, I am calling:

What would 56-year-old Susan tell “then” Susan?
Chapter 3: What would 56-year-old Susan tell 23-year-old Susan?

(Read the last two posts for advice I would give 13-year-old and 18-year-old Susie.)

Let me set the stage for you: I have just graduated from the University of South Dakota with my MBA. I went straight to graduate school because I had a lot of fun in undergrad. A 3.2 GPA in business administration in 1988 would have landed me an assistant manager job at Foot Locker. That didn’t sound fun. I knew I could do better. I committed to kicking ass. So I did. Upon graduation, I interviewed at companies in South Dakota and Nebraska, but I was ready to get the heck out of dodge. So, I accepted a position that moved me to Detroit, MI. I happily hitched my hunter-green Chevy Citation to the back of a Ryder Truck and moved myself to The Motor City.

Throwback to Detroit, 1989-1990

I look back at this time of my life and I admire this Susan. She was a total badass. She was living her best life.

Here’s what I would tell that young lady:

I’m proud of you for taking that job and making that move. It was bold, courageous, and helped you grow into the woman you are now. You will look back on this time in your life and it will give you courage and boldness you will need to draw on in the future.

You will work hard. You will play harder! That is a good thing. Make sure you do that. You can sleep later.

Work is important, but not more important than relationships. Pay attention to the friends you make during this time and the relationships you are building. If they mean something to you, don’t let them go. You don’t want to look back 30 years and wish you had maintained those relationships.

You didn’t have to change your name from Susie to Susan because you thought it was more “business-like.” Who cares what people think of your name? There were many strong and amazing things you accomplished as Susie. Susie may seem like a little girl’s name, but for you, it was powerful.

What would you tell your 23-year-old self?

Highlights from the last 10 days of my Next Chapter Best Chapter Road Trip

• 35 hours in my car
• 2,110 miles driven
• 8 states traveled through (Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona.
• 1 National Park visited – Petrified Forest National Park
• 8 friends visited with 124 years total since I had seen them
• 10 Gas Fill Ups
• $3.39/gallon in Wichita Falls, TX on 3/7/22 – Lowest gas price
• $4.59/gallon in Gilbert, AZ on 3/10/22 – Highest gas price
• 1 Hike at the San Tan Mountain Regional Park
• 3 Instagram Reels, 4 TikTok Videos, and way too many Instagram and Facebook Stories to count!
• 1,000,000 – the number of times I have said “I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS IS MY LIFE!”

Lessons learned in Week 1:

Don’t let friendships get lost in the day-to-day busyness of life: I reconnected with seven friends I hadn’t seen in years and in some cases decades. While we easily and quickly fell back into the step as if we had never been apart, I think of all the wasted years in between. Life gets busy, I know that as much as anyone. But relationships are what life is about. Set aside some time to reach out to a friend you haven’t talked to in a while. Go have coffee or a zoom happy hour and catch up. I promise you won’t regret it.

Don’t stop at gas stations with dog runs: Somewhere in the middle of Mississippi, I stopped at a Love’s Travel Center that had a dog run. I thought it was a good idea. The dog run was small and had 3 large dogs in it, so I decided to just walk Mowgli around the grassy area. Bad decision – there were SO MANY smells, Mowgli got so worked up, it took him an hour back in the car to finally calm down. And people who travel with their dogs and stop at truck stops don’t believe in cleaning up after their dogs. You guys – it was DISGUSTING!

When God closes a door, know he is protecting you or planning on something even better than you could have imagined: I feel like I have always known this, but sometimes it’s hard to remember. Sometimes we get reminded of it when a door we thought was wide open for us gets abruptly and firmly slammed in our face, as it did for me this week. For a hot minute, I was so angry and didn’t understand why this opportunity fell through. But when I took some time to pray and think about it, I know that God ALWAYS has my back. I’m not sure what that will look like, but that slammed door now has me SO EXCITED and on the lookout for what He has planned in my life. That slammed door has given me the freedom to be open to the outrageous and the unexpected. So…stay tuned, and let’s all hope God reveals that plan in the next four months! Wouldn’t that be exciting?

Listen to new music: There is comfort in the known and listening to songs that bring back memories of great times and places. But there is also something amazing about opening yourself up to new songs, new styles of music, and new memories.  Thanks to my son Zach for setting up some great playlists for me, and helping me to create new memories tied to those songs along the way!

Be nice: Being on the road for over 35 hours, it’s so important to be nice. It’s EASY to be snarky and short-tempered, but it’s so much better to be nice. Let the trucker in, even if he is going below the speed limit on a hill while passing another trucker. Move to the right, even when you don’t want to get behind that car that is going way too slow, but the person behind you is obviously in a hurry. Be polite and nice to the gas station attendants, they see weary travelers all day.

Take a detour: You don’t always have to be on a schedule. Some unplanned stops on my trip were some of the best resting and reset points along the way. Mowgli and I hung out in Tupelo, MS at Elvis’s birthplace where Mowgli got a ton of pets from all the tourists, and I got a need stretching of my legs. At the Cadillac Ranch outside of Amarillo, TX we met a super sweet couple who we chatted with for a while, and Mowgs and I got our first road trip picture together. And I got the best scenery pictures so far at the Petrified National Forest in Arizona. 

It’s ok to feel the feelings: I am an Enneagram 3 and the last thing an Enneagram 3 wants to do is feel our feelings. I am an expert at stuffing down my feelings, and quite frankly wear it like a badge of honor! “I’m fine. I’m good. I’m great. I’m awesome.” But, this trip is designed for me to heal and restore my soul so I can live a life of joy and freedom from guilt, shame, and others’ expectations. So, I forced myself to spent a lot of time on the road just feeling the feelings of the last 12 years of my life. From sadness to joy, heartbreak to happiness. And that was a good thing.

If you don’t already, follow me on Instagram and Facebook. I am posting daily on my stories of all my adventures!

Little did I know that my next chapter was going to have a killer plot twist. At midnight on January 1, 2022, as I rang in the new year, I found myself single at 55 years old and a divorcee. Whoa – a year earlier I had not anticipated that. Now, the first words I speak each day are to my daughter’s pug, Mowgli. I get lonely. It’s hard to cook for one when I had previously cooked for six people for over twenty years. I work remotely from my home office and some days the only reason I leave my house is to walk Mowgli. That’s been the tough stuff.

But perhaps the biggest plot twist of all is I LOVE THIS NEW LIFE! I’m obsessed with my new home and finding all the right pieces of furniture and décor. My look is boho, mid-century modern, splash of farmhouse, and a smidge of dog hair. I’ve lost weight in the last six months because I have decided to stop eating my feelings and get off my ass. I bought a brand-new car, and the only consideration was “what do I want”? I have my very own power tools and can switch out the bits in my power drill at lightning speed. I have pink bamboo sheets and a marble nightstand with a lampshade made of pink feathers. I keep my heater at 62 degrees at night because I’m 55 years old and … menopause. I do get lonely, but lonely because you are alone is so much different than lonely when you are married.

I’m not proud to say I have been married twice. Honestly, I held on to the last marriage longer than I should have simply because I didn’t want to “fail”. What does that say about me? What will people think? But a good friend of mine told me that it’s not failing, it’s simply auto-correcting a decision that I made in good faith with the best information I had at the time. I’ll take that! I am ok with being in the process of auto-correction in several areas of my life.

I have learned valuable lessons in my 55 years, and the best one that I have finally learned is to stop letting life happen and start making life happen. I am a huge believer in holding myself accountable and not blaming others. I know I am where I am in my life because of all the little and big decisions I made along the way. And honestly, most of the decisions I made were considering other people and their wants and needs. And while that is not necessarily a bad thing, it was bad when I completely disregarded what I wanted and needed. Being a martyr is not pretty. Being a martyr is self-destructive. Why was I like that? I don’t know, but I’m tired of being that woman. I am going to put myself first so I can heal. I will live my life on my terms. I will enter this new chapter whole and healthy both mentally and physically. I’m not there yet, but I’m working on it daily.

I have decided the first step on this journey to being the best me I can be is to go on my own little (or big) Next Chapter Best Chapter Road Trip. There are six states in the U.S I have never visited. (Idaho, Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Hawaii.) And beginning on March 5, 2022, Mowgli and I are hitting the road for a 4-month road trip to complete my 50 States bucket list. Well, except for Hawaii – that’s for later in 2022. I’ll be staying with friends and family along the way, and I have rented a few Airbnbs and hotels. I’ll also be working full time and continuing to work my two side gigs. I hope to reconnect with old friends I haven’t seen in years and even decades. I want to see and experience new things. I want to spend time outside in God’s beauty, doing my version of Eat, Pray, Love. There may even be a tattoo or more in my future, AND…I’ll be working on me.

I’d love for you to ride shotgun with me on my journey through what will likely be 25 states and over 7,500 miles as I work on Susan 2.0! Stick with me and I will get into the nitty-gritty of how the decisions I have made over the years led me to this place in life. I’ll be posting here at least weekly, sharing things I learned, saw, and experienced on the road. Maybe through my experiences, something will resonate with you and give you the courage to try something new or make a different decision. And maybe you’ll just be entertained. Either way, I’d love to have you along for the ride.

For more real-time content, you can follow me on Instagram and TikTok, I’ll be looking for recommendations and feedback on all the things you think I should experience along the way! And, if you are in my path or even a little off my path, let’s connect!

The countdown begins! Thirty days from today I’ll be heading down the road, searching for my next plot twist!

Hope you join me and Mowgli!