Monday Makeover

Little people and crafts before breakfast(mine that is). Lexi and Mary had cheese toast, tangarines, and cheese grits for breakfast. I had 2 small children who kept me very busy. My breakfast took the back burner. 

We did sticker crafts, something both girls could do. They stuck glittered foam butterflies, dragon flies and flowers all over their papers. Mary was also coloring hers. When ever she sees the camera, she poses and says "cheese".

This is Mary's page, which Lexi wrote Mary's name on.

This is Lexi's page.

After our craft session, Mary took a nap, Lexi had strawberry yogurt w/ peppermint marshmallows, and I had breakfast. My breakfast was a cup of half caf. coffee, a piece of cinnamon toast and a cup of applesauce. Lexi did more crafts after we ate and while Mary slept. She glued everything that could possibly be glued.

For lunch I did a makeover on the "Meatless Loaf". I made sort of a vegetarian shepards pie by chopping red onion, green pepper, oyster mushrooms, and walnuts. I added a little oil and cooked them in the microwave. I chopped up the meatless loaf and mixed it with the walnuts and veggies. I added a little salt and a little Italian seasoning. I spread the mixture into the bottom of a small casserole dish. I topped it with a heated mixture of leftover mashed potatoes, light ranch dressing, sliced American cheese and margarine, then I baked it in the toaster oven for several minutes.

It turned out pretty good.

I had it with some fresh veggies. I ate about 3/4 of it. I was too full to eat the rest, but saved it. I still have plenty of meatless loaf leftovers. I wasn't sure I could pull off this makeover, but I was very pleased with it. The veggies gave it a totally different flavor and the walnuts added texture. The cheesy mashed potatoes went perfect with it. I didn't even need dip for the veggies.

The girls had chicken nuggets for lunch. Mary is a muncher. She had a chicken nugget, a cracker, a baby carrot & a couple of pieces of broccoli. Lexi had more yogurt. I also loaded them up with a little chocolate before sending them home. 

 I had a short nap after the girls left. I had another cup of coffee when I got up, which surprisingly did nothing for me, along with a piece of apple cake. I didn't sleep well last night and I will probably regret the coffee tonight.

I had the last of the Holy Haluski for dinner.

It was a pretty good day, a little chaotic at first, but all in all it went quite smoothly, just at a much faster pace than I'm use to. No melt downs, no break downs, & no hissy fits. Now I'm off to bed, if I can sleep. Have a great night/day!!!

Meatless Loaf

My Sunday breakfast, nothing spectacular, just a variety of cereal sprinkled with dried cranberries and chopped walnut, covered in Dannon strawberry yogurt. I used Life cereal, Cheerios and Cornflakes. Although it wasn't fancy, it was pretty darn good.

Feeling sort of dehydrated this morning, I skipped the coffee and went with Vitamin Water, Acai Blueberry Pomegranate. I love the taste of this one, but my favorite is their Power C dragonfruit flavor.

Dinner at Mom's today. Here's what was on the menu.

There was meatloaf...

fried chicken

There was also meatless loaf made with Boca crumbles.

Holy Haluski -  simple egg noodles, cabbage, carrots, & peas.

Mashed Potatoes

Homemade creamed corn. The best kind. None of the canned crap.

More fresh veggies, yah!!!

Angel biscuits.

On my plate you see, holy haluski, creamed corn, fresh veggies, and meatless loaf. Unfortunately the meatless loaf was a fail. The boca crumbles did not work so well for this. It gave it a weird taste. I will try to salvage the rest of it, but I'm not sure I can. I only ate a few bites of it.

For dessert I had a cup of coffee with a slice of apple cake. I also had a second cup. I probably should have skipped the second cup. It was half caf. at least.

A little later, I couldn't resist a little mini 3 musketeers mint.

I had another bowl of the haluski when I got home for dinner.

I also had a cup of Chobani's lemon yogurt.

This post is sort of short, because I have to get to bed early, so that I can be up earlier tomorrow and I'd like to get a little more reading in before bed. Have a great night/day!!!

Amy's Chunky Tomato Bisque Review

Sleeping in has become the norm lately, but it cannot stay that way. I like getting up early, some days I have to, and staying up late every night will not work for me. This morning (late morning) when I got up, I put some eyedrops in and made coffee. I made it mostly decaf since it was late. I had applesauce and the other half of my pumpkin muffin to go with my coffee.

 I guess you'd call it brunch, closer to lunch than breakfast. It was good. I really like having some sort of fruit for breakfast and coffee went well with the muffin.

Since breakfast was late, obviously I had a late lunch as well. I tried Amy's Chunky Tomato Bisque Soup.

Nutritional Facts
Serving Size: 1 cup
Servings Per Container: ~ 2
Serving Weight: 1 cup

Calories: 130     Calories from Fat: 30
Total Fat: 3.5g
      Saturated Fat: 2g
      Trans Fat: 0g    
Cholesterol: 10mg
Sodium: 680mg
Carbohydrates: 21g
      Fiber: 3g
      Sugars: 14g
Protein: 3g
Organic: 99%
Vitamin A: 20% • Vitamin C: 40%
Calcium: 8% • Iron: 6%

The soup was good, but it doesn't have anything on Panera's creamy tomato soup. Amy's tomato bisque is somewhat sweeter than Panera's. It wasn't bad, but I prefer a less sweet version. Amy's is thick and chunky, which I liked, but I added a pinch or two of salt, so that is didn't seem as sweet. I liked the soup, but I would probably choose a different brand if given a choice, so I'm just giving it 3 stars.

I also had fresh broccoli, carrots, cucumber, snow peas, bell pepper and grape tomatoes, with garlic Caesar dressing on the side and a piece of crusty Parmesan garlic toast.

This was the biggest meal of the day, but it was made up of things that aren't terribly filling or at least not the kind of things that take forever to digest. I didn't want to eat anything that would be too filling, so that I wouldn't have to eat a late dinner as well.

I managed to pick the right thing, I guess. I had to have a few Cheetos while waiting for dinner to cook. 

I just made 2 vegetable eggrolls for dinner. I made a mixture of duck sauce and soy sauce to dip them in. I actually added an extra packet of duck sauce. These are Tai Pei brand with whole grain wrappers. I love the wrappers. They are very crispy.

I had a few peppermint mini marshmallows while I was doing the blog. The peppermint flavor is very subtle. You have to put several in your mouth at once to really taste it. I haven't tried them in cocoa yet.

That is it for food today. The longer I'm up the more I want to munch. So I'm off to bed. Fingers crossed that I can get my crazy schedule worked out. Have a great night/day!!!

Healthy Choice Herb Crusted Fish Review

I think I was getting more sleep, when I was blogging in the morning; more sleep, but less house work done. I'm not sure I'm getting either done now, because I'm too tired. This morning I could hardly get my eyes open. Having dry eye doesn't help. I've gone through some eye drops lately.  

I decided to have the apple I'd gotten at Panera with lunch and the pumpkin muffin which came from Panera's as well.

I just had half the muffin, all the apple, and a great big cup of coffee which was mostly decaf.

In case you noticed, the reason my breakfast is on a different plate is because, for some reason, on the camera screen, the apple and muffin didn't look right. The photo seemed very dark, so I switched to a lighter plate, but after seeing the first photos I'd taken, the blue plate actually looked better. Unfortunately, I only had a couple of photos on that plate. Maybe next time I will do a full set and then decide after seeing them on the computer. Having poor lighting does not help.

After starting off late, fooling around on the computer, and then cleaning my bathroom, I finally got around to lunch. I had a huge hickory smoked tofurky sandwich on pumpernickel, with spinach, Havarti cheese, red onion, cucumber, and light ranch dressing.

I also had some leftover fries and onion rings and a few Kalamata olives. This was a really good sandwich. I managed to eat all but the fries.

Lucas and I watched a Netflix movie early this evening. I'd added the movie, "Hanna" to our queue recently and it arrived today. I wasn't sure if this was a movie, I would want to see, but the story line seem very interesting. The bloody parts weren't as bad as I had feared. I don't normally do gore, but I do like action films. I actually laughed throughout this movie. There were several scenes that I found very funny. Although, some of it was sort of a dark humor. The movie was rather unusual. I am sort of torn between 3 & 4 stars. I'm not sure everyone would agree with the 4 star rating. Some may not even give it 3 stars, but I like it. It wasn't the best movie I've ever seen, but it also wasn't the worst. I think I will play it safe and go with  3 stars. Have you seen it? What's your rating?

I had a really late dinner as well. I fixed a Healthy Choice frozen dinner. It was their herb crusted fish dinner with carrots, green beans and whole grain pasta in a tomato basil sauce. 

Complete Meals - Herb Crusted Fish

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 1 meal (312g)
Servings Per Container 1
Amount Per Serving
Calories 270 Calories from Fat 45
	% Daily Value*
Total Fat 5g		8%
	Saturated Fat 1.5g	8%
	Trans Fat 0g
	Polyunsaturated Fat 1.5g
	Monounsaturated Fat 2.5g
Cholesterol 25mg		8%
Sodium 350mg		15%
Potassium 590mg		17%
Total Carbohydrate 39g		13%
	Dietary Fiber 5g	20%
	Sugars 8g
Protein 16g

Vitamin A 25%	Vitamin C 6%
Calcium 8%	Iron 10%
Thiamine 8%	Riboflavin 8%
Folic Acid 50%	Vitamin B12 20%
Phosphorus 25%	Magnesium 20%
Selenium 45%	Manganese 45%
Diet Exchanges Per Serving**:
Lean Meat (2)	Starch (2)
Vegetable (1)
Contains: egg, fish (pollock), milk, soy, wheat

I'm sorry to say that although this dinner had potential, it was seriously lacking flavor. There was no seasoning at all on the veggies and the pasta was just about as flavorless. The fish was the best part and it wasn't all that great. I was very disappointed because as it cooked in the microwave, it really did smell good, and then when I tasted it and there was hardly any flavor. It was such a let down. I added a little salt to the carrots & green beans and a squirt of Caesar dressing to the pasta because it was all but dry. The dressing wasn't the best idea. I did eat everything, but I didn't enjoy it, so I am giving it 2 stars. Healthy does not have to be flavorless. Skip the soggy breading on the fish and splurge on some seasoning. More tomatoes & basil would have helped the pasta.

Sorry to cut this short but, it's even later than usual and I'm going to bed. Have a great night/day!!!

Lunch At Panera's

I had a lot planned for today, but when I woke up the skies were gray and it looked so dreary. I wasn't really feeling the enthusiasm, I'd felt when I was making my plans. I'd fixed myself a bowl of cereal with yogurt. I used some Kellogg's fiber plus yogurt berry crunch, Cheerios, cornflakes & Dannon strawberry yogurt.

It would have been better with some real strawberries or even some apple chunks, but I'd eat my last apple with girls the other day and I need to restock my fruit supply. It was still pretty good.

After breakfast I got a call from Lynda & Mom inviting me for another GDO and of course, since I wasn't feeling too enthused with house cleaning, I said yes without giving it a thought. I probably should have stayed at home and not neglected my plans, but which would you have picked, cleaning or shopping?

I grabbed a pack of Lance crackers for a snack to tide me over until lunch. I had the sharp cheddar cheese on Lance's whole grain crackers. These were so much better than the store brand, we'd gotten at Food Lion before. Well, duh, right? The FL brand has a bit of a sweet taste to their crackers. They are fine in a pinch. It's not like they're bad, but they don't have the saltiness that the Lance brand has. That may be a good thing nutritionally. I haven't compared the labels, but either way, I prefer the Lance.

The first place we went was too Panera's to pick up bagels, then on to Starbucks which was right there in the same shopping center. I had a White Chocolate Mocha frappuccino. It was pretty sweet for me, but it was very good. I probably should have went with decaf, but I didn't. I did have half caf. however. We asked for light (no whip topping), but it was on there. Oh, well. 

We also went to Ollies and then back to Panera for lunch. I had half of a Mediterranean Veggie sandwich with zesty peppadew peppers and a bowl of their creamy tomato soup. I got an apple on the side instead of chips and a bottled water for my drink.

I love the sweet spiciness of the sandwich, which also has cilantro hummus and feta cheese on it. Stacked with lots of veggies, it's very much like a sandwich I would fix for myself. I saved my apple for later. The soup and sandwich were plenty. It was a super yummy lunch. I do wish they had a few more vegetarian options, but love that they tell you which soups are vegetarian.

Well headed to Walmart and picked up a few things, then home so that I could get to Zumba class. I had a Lean Cuisine dinner before going. It was small, quick to fix, and I wasn't all that hungry. I'd had this a long time ago. I'd nearly forgotten. I had sort of rated it. It was not bad, but not great. It just didn't have the flavor I had hoped for. I would give it 3 stars. 

It doesn't look nearly as good as it does on the package, but we all know that's not unusual for food products.

It would be kind of hard to sell with a picture like this on the package, huh? Actually it doesn't look that bad. I've seen worse. I just wish it tasted better.

I had a pretty good Zumba class as usual. I wasn't feeling terribly energetic, so I skipped the weights tonight. We barely made it home before the rain poured down. We had just gotten in the door when the bottom fell out. Since it was dark, we never even realized the rain was coming. 

I had the last piece of leftover carrot cake for my after Zumba snack. It wasn't the best thing to have, but since I hadn't frozen it and I didn't want it to go to waste, I ate it.

As badly as I hate it, I suppose I'm off to bed without reading. The end of my book(The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest) is getting very close. I hate that I'm so tired. You can see my Goodreads Updates on the right. I also post updates on Twitter. Feel free to follow or subscribe to the blog. Your comments are also welcome. I suppose that all for now. Have a great night/day!!!