Gardein Chipotle Lime Crispy Fingers Review

I'm am so late getting this post done. I've not really been in the blogging mood lately. It seems like I have more I want to do than I have time to get done, not to mention that I am so easily sidetracked (Pinterest mostly). Well, if you know me or have been reading my blog, you have probably resigned yourself to this quirk of mine. I, however, have trouble excepting it, constantly trying to improve without any real change. Oh, well.

As for yesterday, I had coffee and what I refer to as an egg salad quesadilla, which is just egg salad that is spread onto a tortilla and then placed in the toaster oven to crisp it up a little. It was pretty good.

In case you haven't noticed, I've been on a coffee kick lately. It has been mostly decaf though, which kinda sorta sucks. I've still been using Melatonin off and on for sleep. I had a few FL Oreos with my second cup of the day.

Not only did I have 2 cups of coffee yesterday, I also had 2 quesadillas. My second was for lunch. It was a Tofurky and cheese quesadilla. I layered the Tofurky peppered deli slices with shredded colby and a slice of American cheese, which I'd broken up and distributed evenly over the deli slices. I topped everything with some red & green pepper and onion combined with oil, salt, garlic, & cumin, which I'd micro-waved until tender. Then I place another tortilla on top and toasted it in my toaster oven until it was all hot & melty.

I dipped the quesadilla wedges in some salsa. It wasn't quite as good with the salsa for some reason.

Lucas and I went to the grocery store before dinner to pick up a few things. He and I got us both a Sour Melon Powerade, our favorite flavor. I drank half and saved the rest for today.

I also picked up some Gardein Chipotle Lime Crispy Fingers.

 They look really good, except for the spots where the breading stuck to the pan. They are a little spicy, but not bad. I wasn't particularly crazy about these. The breading was crispy sort of. It had a kind of cornmeal crunch, but it was all crispy. There was more breading than I liked, of course the breading had all the flavor, which was mostly just the spice. I felt the need to eat each bite with the Mahatma yellow rice or the salad. I don't think I'd care to eat the crispy fingers alone. For that reason, I am only giving these 2 stars. The Gardein Chick'n Scallopini is so much better. They are my favorite.

The yellow rice and the salad were delicious. Lucas even ate one of the crispy fingers to try. He said it was better than he'd expected but was still not crazy about them either. He liked the texture. He said it was firmer than the cheap chicken nuggets the grand babies eat. Maybe I will get the plain Gardein Crispy Tenders next or their Mandarin Orange Crispy Chick'n. 

Now, I am going to see if I can do a few of things that delay my blog. Have a great day!!!

WW Smart Ones Santa Fe Style Rice & Beans Review

I'd slept pretty good last night, but I didn't get to sleep as late as I would have liked. I got up and fixed coffee ( mostly decaf) and breakfast was the last piece of birthday cake. I didn't bother turning on my computer. I tend to get more done that way. I got started on the house while my coffee was brewing. 

Breakfast was not very filling, so lunch was not far behind. I had two open faced egg salad sandwiches with a jalapeno dill spear.

I finished off the shortbread cookies. I was still working on my second cup of coffee. Coffee always takes me longer to drink when I'm cleaning. I keep setting it down and moving to another room, remembering it 30 minutes later. I finally just drank it as I found it, instead of reheating. It was too hot for hot coffee anyway. 

I made a WW Smart Ones meal for dinner. I had the Santa Fe Style Rice & Beans. I'm pretty sure I've eaten this before, but I don't remember if I've done a review or not. I searched the archives to find one, but I can't seem to find one. This dinner was pretty good. 

I cooked in 2 parts, cooking as directed, but the second part was a little delayed, because I got busy with laundry and forgot I was cooking it. It was still warm when I remembered. I finished cooking it and added some tortilla chips and a pinch of salt. 

I used the tortilla chips for dipping. It was pretty cheesy. It not spicy at all, but it does have a good flavor.  I'm giving it 4 stars.

I'd eaten dinner early. Afterward I went out and used my reel mower to mow some grass in the back yard. Unfortunately dinner didn't stick with me until bed time. I had a couple of handfuls of raisins, which wasn't enough, so I heated some of Lucas' leftover fried potatoes and added some shredded Colby and some salsa. 

Now it's late and I need to get to bed. Have a great night/day!!! 

Progresso Black Bean Jalapeno Soup Review

This morning wasn't as bad as I'd expected. After going to bed late, I assumed I'd feel pretty bad this morning. Waiting to get my shower when I got up helped, I think. I also got up a half hour earlier than I had before. It was a good thing I did, since I wasn't just having a bowl of cereal before leaving. I'd decided to boil a few eggs to make myself an egg salad sandwich. I also made myself a huge cup of coffee, mostly decaf though. A little goes a long way with me.

I boiled about 5 eggs, adding some mayo and just a little mustard.

I lightly toasted my bread to keep it from sticking to the roof of my mouth. I hardly ever eat bread without toasting it unless it's homemade. Homemade isn't so bad about getting stuck.

For years I was never sure how long to boil an egg. I'd heard of 3 minute eggs, but I like my egg hard boiled and boiling one for just 3 minutes was never enough, at least not until I found the right way of doing it. Now I can boil my eggs for 3 minutes and I get perfect hard boiled eggs. The trick is to boil them for 3 minutes, remove the pot from the heat, cover and let them stand in the hot water for 15 minutes, after that I just drain them and run them under cold water until they are cool enough to peel. It does take longer than 3 minutes, but it uses less electricity, etc. to cook them and you get perfect hard boiled eggs.

After breakfast I headed over to Lindsay's to help out with the grand babies. It was good that I went, I suppose. Mary & Lexi were not feeling well today. Mary had tummy trouble and Lexi had a fever. A little Motrin fixed Lexi up and Mary was improving as the day went on. She spent the day swapping laps and taking naps. Rachel did pretty much the same thing, but wasn't having any trouble. 

I had Progresso's Frijoles Negros y Jalapeno (Black Bean Jalapeno) soup.

I don't hardly find canned soup that I really like. I usually feel the need to tweak the ones I like. It's also very hard to find vegetarian soups, even the ones that seem to be, may not be. You have to read the labels. It would be nice if they'd just label them vegetarian or have some sort of symbol stating it. 

I really liked this soup, no tweaking needed. It wasn't too thin and it had a good flavor. It was a little spicy, but not too spicy. There was corn and chunks of tomato and they weren't too skimpy on the beans. I ate the whole can (2 bowls). If I'd eaten crackers, chips, or bread with it, I could have eaten twice out of one can. I'm giving it 5 stars.

I had a few shortbread cookies for a snack.

For dinner I made a tofurky sandwich with peppered tofurky deli slices, colby cheese, iceberg lettuce, red & green pepper slices, onion, mayo & fire roasted salsa on toasted white bread.

I had a jalapeno pickle spear with my very messy, but delious sandwich.

I also had a couple of handfuls of raisins later. This post has seemed to take forever. I'd considered waiting until morning, but forced myself to getting it over with tonight. Now it's very late and I'm going to bed. I may just sleep through tomorrow. Have a great night/day!!!

Pop Secret 100 Calorie Pop Review

This morning I had a couple of big cups of mostly decaf coffee to start me off. I'd slept pretty well, but wasn't quite as awake as I expected to be. It may have been a side effect of the Melatonin, I'm not sure. I do know that if I wake up during the night after taking one, I feel sort of groggy. 

After drinking my first cup of coffee, I heated a couple of leftover angel biscuits and had them with butter and Lingonberries. 

For lunch I had WW Smart Ones fettucini alfredo with broccoli. I added some extra broccoli, parmesan cheese and black pepper. 

There were two parts to my afternoon snack; sweet & salt. The sweet was a few FL brand chocolate sandwich cookies.

The salty, but not so salty part was Pop Secret 100 Calorie microwave popcorn.

This popcorn is just alright. This was the butter flavored, which isn't very butter flavored. I burned the first bag and nearly the second. I usually go by the pops. When it's just about stops popping and you stop hearing one pop right after the other. Well by then it's burnt. I did the second bag for 1min. 45 sec. which was less than the 2 minutes it took to burn the other bag. With quite a few kernels left and smoke rising out of the bag I poured the popcorn into the bowl. Luckily it was only the side of the bag that was burned with a few dark kernels. We had to take the first bag out of the house. It was really smokin'. Due to the lack of flavor and the difficulty to pop successfully, I am generously giving the Pop Secret 3 stars. 

For dinner I had a colby pepper jack grilled cheese sandwich with a salad of iceberg, red bell peppers, broccoli, onion, and ranch dressing. I should have had a jalapeno dill spear with it, but I didn't think about it until I'd sat down to eat and I was too lazy to get up and get it. 

Now I'm sorry to be rushing through this post, but I've fooled around too long this evening and I was late getting starting on the blog. I also need to get to bed, because I have an early day tomorrow. I just can't seem to make myself get an early start. Have a great night!!!

Down On The Farm

Yesterday after a quick breakfast of cinnamon roll mini wheats & milk, I headed over to the farm, where my daughter and her family live.

I've been helping her out some since the new baby arrived. I'd also made myself a large cup of half caf to take along, but somehow left behind. I really did need that coffee, after only having gotten about 5 1/2 hours sleep. I just kept moving, which helped for a while. After lunch, it became increasingly more difficult. I had some leftover pasta salad which was quite filling.

Reese also brought me some jalapeno poppers filled with cheddar from Bucko's. They were really good. I haven't had poppers in quite a while. Lexi helped me eat the last of the pasta salad. I was glad because along with the poppers, I was feeling pretty stuffed.

I got a shot of Lexi modeling her super cute new outfit. 

Luckily since I was feeling so sleepy, it wasn't long before I went home. It was too late for a nap so I opted for a smaller cup of half caf along with a slice of birthday cake. I always crave carbs when I'm tired.

I managed to stay awake until after dinner. I had the last of my leftover succotash, a veggie patch cutlet and a small salad.  

The salad was made up of broccoli, cucumber, and green onion, over a bit of romaine bagged salad with some spicy ranch dressing. I thought about adding some shredded cheese to the salad, but decided to skip it.

The cutlet was really good with the tomatoes, butter peas, & corn. I also remembered to freeze the other two cutlets, so that I don't have to eat them everyday. Lucas says they look better than real chicken, ha, ha! They really taste good too.

I decided that since I'd had very little sleep, after dinner I would go to bed and finish doing my post in the morning. The internet helped make the decision, since it was being extremely slow and cutting out occasionally. The coffee sort of interfered with my ability to close my eyes, so I took a Melatonin, started my new book, "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett, and waited on the Melatonin to kick in. Thirty minutes later, I was ready to close my eyes, sleeping straight through until morning. I still wasn't anxious to get up this morning though, but now that I am, I'm feeling pretty well rested. Now I think I'll go and see what I can accomplish. Have a great day!!! 

March Birthday Dinner

This morning I was awakened by the ringing of the phone. I didn't get to it in time to answer. I was in such a deep sleep. I went back to bed and slept another hour. I slept very good, so good that even the thunderstorm we had during the night didn't wake me. I was told about it after getting up. I haven't slept that good in quite a while. Surprisingly I felt sort of tired after being up a couple of hours. I think I didn't get enough of an energy boost from breakfast. I just had a piece of buttered toast with Lingonberries.

After breakfast we got ready and headed to the Flea Market on our way to Mom's for dinner. Today we were celebrating both Mary's & Lynda's birthday. Here is what was on the birthday dinner menu.

Barbecue Chicken

Two big Meatloaves.

Mac & Cheese

Rustic Mashed Potatoes

Pasta Salad

Peas

Asparagus, Mushrooms & Peppers. I could eat a whole pan of mushrooms fixed like this. They were the best part.

Salad

More veggies for the salad. I loved the little cucumbers.

Angel Biscuits

I had mashed potatoes, asparagus, peas and salad with cucumber, & broccoli. I used balsamic vinaigrette for dressing and I also had an Angel biscuit.

Mary was one of the birthday girls. This is her camera face. She thinks this is the face everyone makes when the camera in pointed at them. In my family, it actually is, but it's more like "Dadgummit, there a camera pointed at me!"

This is the other birthday girl trying very hard, not to make the camera face. I did not take this picture (notice it's not blurry enough to be mine), but I am posting it. You'll have to blame it on the one who took it.

Here is the birthday cake. It was a marble cake with whipped chocolate frosting. It was a very cute cake. The girls loved the little ice cream cones. The icing tasted like chocolate ice cream. How to you like the birthday candle? Cool huh? Ya use whatcha got, right? You can see Lexi waiting no so patiently nearby for the song to be sung and the candle to be lit. She enjoys everyone's birthday.

I had a cup of coffee with my piece. It was a pretty big piece but it was very light and the coffee helped wash down all the frosting.

For dinner, I had a Veggie Patch Chick'n cutlet with shredded colby, leftover succotash and some Doritos. 

I added a Mt. Olive Jalapeno Dill Spear, last minute. Yummy!

As if I hadn't eaten enough sweets, I had a Nutty Bar after dinner. 

Well, now I need to go to bed and see if I can rack up some more ZZZ's, like I did last night. It is really awesome to sleep so well. People who do this every night, really should be thankful. How do you sleep? Have a great night/day!!!