Pink Pomelo Morning

Still no coffee yesterday, but rest assured, I have now fixed that little problem. Yesterday my morning wake up came in the form of a large refreshing citrus fruit. Lucas and I split a great big pink pomelo, similar to a grapefruit, but larger and with out that sort of bitter taste. These don't even need sugar or at least this one didn't. It's not extremely sweet, but it won't make you pucker like the grapefruit or the lemon. It's more like a slightly sour orange. It has a mild flavor, but it's very good. I could have eaten the whole thing myself. Next time we will have to buy two, lol. BTW if you like eating grapefruit or pomelo, you really should get a grapefruit spoon if you don't already have one. It makes eating these so much better.

Since I only had half a pomelo, I also had four French toast sticks as well.

My need for caffeine led to a carb filled day. For my mid morning snack, I finished off the last of my Christmas cookies, crumbs and all.

Despite all the carbs, it was a good food day. I had a grilled tofurky and cheese sandwich with spinach and taco sauce. I used sliced American cheese. I think it would have been even better on whole wheat or pumpernickel with cheddar.

Speaking of cheddar, my afternoon snack was 3 cheese on wheat crackers and a chocolate butter cream from my assorted dark chocolates.

Dinner was a repeat of the one I'd had the night before, another Sweet & Spicy tuna salad with iceberg, spinach, broccoli, carrot, celery, French dressing & red pepper flakes.

I think I need some fresh red pepper flakes. It snowed pepper flakes and still hardly any heat.

After dinner and while watching a movie, I had some of the wonton chips in a bowl drizzled with duck sauce.

The movie I watched was No Strings Attached with Ashton Kutcher & Natalie Portman with just the right amount of comedy & romance. I don't do overly stupid, sorry. It does have some nudity, but it is about friends having sex. The story line is very good and both actor & actress were perfect for the parts. I gave this one 4 stars, possibly 4 1/2.

I manage to get my photos sorted and uploaded while watching the movie and finished up in time to get a few pages of my book read before going to bed. Getting done in time to read a little is an accomplishment for me. Unfortunately my eyes have been extremely dry lately and I could hardly see the book, which is why I love my kindle and wish I had the kindle version of the book I'm reading. I may see if they have the large text version at the library. Well, I guess that's it for today. Have a great day and I will see you all in the New Year!!! Enjoy your New Years Eve and please be safe!!!

North Catch Sweet & Spicy Chunk Light Tuna Review

It's looking like the beginning of a great day. I'm feeling pretty positive today, hoping to get a few things accomplished. I slept in a little this morning, but also didn't get to bed quite as early as I have been.

Yesterday was totally different. I felt like icky pooh. I really needed a cup of coffee. I did get breakfast before the girls arrived, but the coffee came later unfortunately. I heated my leftover pancake in the toaster oven. I spread on peanut butter as usual and drizzled it with some pancake syrup.

It was yummy. I love the smell of this and they are so much better when you don't have to stand there cooking the whole batch before eating.

Finally I got my coffee or actually half coffee/ half mocha hot chocolate. I made this using the Keurig, 2 cups mixed together because I didn't have quite enough coffee left. It was not that great. I don't really like whatever it is they use to sweeten those little kcups of cocoa. At least I had some watered down coffee to cut the sweetness.

Speaking of sweetness. Dale's Aunt Doris sent us some of her homemade peanut brittle which she always makes around Christmas. I did have to have a couple of small pieces.

After many, many, many, interruptions, I had lunch. I had the last of the leftover potato salad, onion rings, and leftover vegetarian beans with a sliced Veggie Patch veggie dog.

I drizzled ketchup all over my onion rings right before eating them. This was so good.

I had a cup of orange juice while I fixed my dinner. I like the kind with pulp. It's like eating an orange without all the chewing.

For dinner I had some of Northern Catch's Sweet & Spicy Chunk Light Tuna from Aldi.

Nutrition Facts 1/4 cup northern catch chunk light tuna sweet and spicy
Calories 70 Calories from Fat  15
% Daily Value
Total Fat 1.5g	2%
Saturated Fat 0g	0%
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 15mg	5%
Sodium 210mg	9%
Total Carbohydrate 2g	1%
Dietary Fiber 0g	0%
Sugars 1g
Protein 12g	24%
Vitamin A (IU) 100	2%
Vitamin C 0mg	0%
Calcium 10mg	1%
Iron 0.9mg	5%

I had half the pack of tuna over a salad of iceberg, spinach, celery, broccoli, and carrots.

I used a French/Catalina type dressing. The tuna was not very spicy. It was good, I think I could have gotten a similar taste with just plain tuna & catalina dressing. I added some extra hot pepper flakes to the salad to give it some actual spice. I gave the tuna 3 stars. Another thing I did like about the tuna was the fact that it didn't need draining. Now days the canned tuna is almost mush and has become harder to drain. The cans have gotten thinner and the lids usually bow up when you try to drain it using the lid.

I had a dark chocolate Coconut Cluster from my box of Russell Stover chocolates after dinner, loved it. I watched a little tv, fooled too long on the computer and read a little in my book before going to bed. That was my day and in my rush to get this post published, I am leaving it at that. Have a Great Day!!!

Bad Start To A Good Day

This morning didn't start off so good. I didn't know what the plan was for the day. I got up early thinking the girls would be here early and that my blog post would be delayed, but as it turned out the girls wouldn't be here until later and I had plenty of time to do my post and get some last minute baby proofing and cleaning done. 

For breakfast I had a pancake spread with peanut butter and drizzled with butter flavored pancake syrup plus a half cup of 1/2 caf. coffee.

Lucas was still up this morning. He was nice enough to make pancakes for breakfast, while I did a little baby proofing. The pancake was really good, but the coffee was really what I needed.

I also threw my reusable grocery bags into the washer on the hand wash cycle. It's a good idea to do this once in a while. I hung them on hangers to air dry instead of putting them in the dryer. I wasn't sure the bags would hold up, but they were getting dingy and needed to be washed or thrown out. The bags came out fine, even the 2 insulated bags I have. They are my favorite because they have zippered tops and hold quite a bit.

I opened a pack of cheese on wheat crackers while I was waiting for the girls to arrive. They helped me eat my crackers and we opened a second pack to share.

I had a pile of raw veggies with light ranch dressing for dipping. This was lunch. The girls kept me hoppin' today. I fixed them chicken nuggets with mac & cheese. I also divided a slice of cheese between 6 of the nuggets. Neither of the kids were big eaters today, probably sick of nuggets w/ mac & cheese, lol, I know I am.

I offered them raw veggies & dip, but had no takers, although they would have eaten every bite of cheese on my plate, no problem there.

We had a pretty good day, but I do think they are much better when they are sick.... or asleep (just kidding). Lexi and I  played with Barbies & sticker books, while Mary rocked on her rocking horse and then took a nap.

For dinner I had my vegetarian beans with a MSF riblet and leftover potato salad.

This was a pretty good meal.

Now I'm ready to publish this post, so that I can hit the sack and try to get a little sleep, before I have to do it all again. I'm beat. Have a great night/ day!!!

Mid Dinner Snack

I wasn't sure I'd be able to work on the blog any this morning. I'd forgotten I was going to have the girls until I was going to bed last night. I wasn't even sure what time they were going to be here because Lindsay forgot to call remind me and because of the holidays, her schedule is different this week. I found out this morning that they were coming, but not as early as usual. I still don't think I have time to finish this post on time. I have to baby proof and do a few things I'd planned to do after blogging, so that the girls have my full attention.

I didn't get everything done yesterday that I should have done. I spent too much time doing more unnecessary things. One thing I did that was necessary, was breakfast. I had a great big navel orange and a slice of cranberry walnut bread with cream cheese, dried cranberries and a few chopped dates. The orange was really ripe, but a little sour. The sweetness of the dried cranberries and dates helped.

I had a Tofurky wrap with pasta salad for lunch.

I used a flour tortilla, spinach, sliced colby cheese, peppered Tofurky deli slices and a little Italian dressing. It was just a little sloppy, but it was very good. It could have looked better, but even with my lack of wrap making skills, it didn't look too bad. The important thing was that it tasted good.

I had a my piece of leftover pecan pie after lunch. It wasn't quite as good as I'd hoped. It was way too rich and not enough pecans. I really need to make a mystery pecan pie. It has a cream cheese mixture underneath the pecan pie to balance the sweetness of the gooey layer under the pecans. It is so delicious. I use to make one every Thanksgiving, but haven't really be able to in the passed few years.

My dinner was sort of divided into two small meals with a snack in between. I was trying to finish off some of my leftovers. First, I had the last of my veggie chow mein.

The snack in between dinner was a few wonton chips with duck sauce for dipping.

These are so good, but just a little on the greasy side. They should sale these like potato chips or do they? I would love to find a baked variety. I would buy them more often than potato chips. Maybe it's a good thing that they don't have them on the chip isle.

The second half of my dinner was a helping of leftover potato salad with some dill pickle slices on the side. There's nothing better with mustard potato salad than some dill pickle chunks or slices.

Well, I've wrapped this one up fairly quickly, surprise to me. So it looks like I will have it out on time after all. Have a great day!!! The week's already half over.

Getting Back On Track

Two days after Christmas and I'm still catching up. It was wet and dreary all morning, but has started to clear up some. I had to get up very early this morning to work on the blog, because I didn't get to sort and upload photos last night. My new camera battery died and it took longer to charge than I was willing to wait, so I decided to go to bed early and do it all in the morning.

Yesterday's breakfast was a fruit & yogurt cereal bowl with bran & corn flakes, cheerios, strawberry yogurt, chunks of apple and chopped walnuts.

It seems to match my placemat, very colorful.

I had chinese leftovers for lunch, a couple of the cheese wontons with my vegetable chow mein and rice. I added a little soy sauce to the rice this time after the photo.

I had a couple of Mom's cookies afterwards.

My late afternoon snack was a small bowl of chex mix. Dale likes the cheerios, but I like it with the Fritos. I love the pecans too.

For dinner I had Ziti with green beans and a mushroom stuffed with crab and cheese. This was right about the time my camera died. Luckily I had gotten a shot of my dinner first.

I had another piece of dark chocolate candy from the assorted chocolates I got for Christmas while watching reruns on tv and waiting for my camera to charge. Tired of waiting, I got ready for bed, read a bit in my book "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest, then called it a night. Now with this post done, I'm back on track. Have a great night/day!!!

Quiet Christmas Day

Christmas morning was quiet here at my house, no small children and all presents had been opened on Christmas Eve. I'd slept in later than usual and after breakfast, I enjoyed just doing nothing for a while. My breakfast was a piece of cranberry bread with nuts, which I spread with peanut butter and a glass of orange juice.

The bread needed something more, so I topped it with a few more dried cranberries and some chopped walnuts.

For lunch, I tried the Tofurky peppered meatless deli slices.

I wasn't sure what the texture would be like, but was pleasantly surprised to find that it feels very similar to the thinly sliced deli slices made from meat. I'd considered heating it in a frying pan, but having tried it cold first, found that it was good just straight out of the package. I really liked the peppery taste of it. Although it might not taste exactly like meat, it had a good flavor and given the chance, I think even meat eaters might like it. I'm giving it 5 stars and can't wait to try their other varieties.

I used the tofurky slices to make one of my Thanksgiving sandwiches with spinach, onion, cranberry orange relish and mayo on a toasted sub bun.

I also had some raw veggies with a little light ranch on the side. The sandwich was yummy and I can't wait to make other sandwiches using Tofurky deli slices.

After lunch we decided to ride over to see Mom & Lynda. Mom fixed decaf coffee and I had a peanut chew with mine.

They had just started a movie when we got there. We watched Cowboys and Aliens starring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, & Olivia Wilde, not your usual cowboy movie, but I thought it was pretty good. I liked the main characters in this movie, although, I wasn't sure I would at first. It also didn't have an ending you might expect, but I really like the movie, anyway. I do think this movie is either, one you won't like at all or one you will really like. Since I really liked it, I gave it 4 stars. Had the ending been a little better I would have given it 5 stars.

After the movie we rode out to visit with Uncle Bill at the nursing home and then picked up Chinese to bring back for dinner. We got fried cheese wontons (crab rangoons) and I got vegetable chow mein. At first they gave me the wrong order (pork chow mein, yuck!) and we had to make a trip back out to get the right thing. I wanted to get something different from my usual broccoli in garlic sauce. It was really good and I may have to see if I can find a recipe for this one to fix at home. The cheese wontons were not my favorite. These were a little sweet and I prefer the savory variety. They aren't bad, but are more like dessert.

I also had a piece of my dark chocolates when I got home. I think it was a maple nougat. Those are pretty good.

That was our Christmas day, quiet and enjoyable. How was yours, quiet or lots of family & presents & celebrating? Happy Tuesday!!!