Philadelphia Indulgence Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Spread Review

Whewww!!! What a mouth full, literally. This stuff is really good. It's smooth and creamy dark chocolate silk. I could eat it by the spoonful. For those who don't particularly care for cream cheese, there isn't a hint that it's in there, just yummy dark chocolate. It definitely gets 5 stars.

I had it on a whole grain bagel.

I wasn't so impressed with the two together, but it wasn't bad. Maybe on a different bagel, maybe on a biscuit. I'm not sure how it would be best, but on a spoon by itself is pretty yummy. I'll take suggestions. I still have nearly a whole container. Right now I'm thinking strawberries stuffed with it.

I had leftover chilly bean with cheese and rice for lunch. The soup from the chilly beans soaked into the rice. It was better than any frozen dinner and just as simple. Anytime we make rice, we make a little extra for deliberate leftovers. I like the cook once, eat twice rule.

I stayed with Mary & Rachel while Lexi went to register for school. She is very excited. They were all very good today. It's nice when things go smoothly. I came home and treated myself to the piece of chocolate peanut butter cake I had left from Sunday. I was pretty good, but had quite a bit of icing.

I didn't sleep very well last night. I just couldn't turn off my brain. I kept going over and working out things in my mind. I just couldn't shut it off. I tried to squeeze in a nap before dinner, but that didn't work out very well either. I managed a short nap, about 30 minutes and then like a light switch was flipped, my mind went on and began it's problem solving. I'm hoping tonight is more restful. 

I tried to lighten up my dinner with a salad and no bread. I had a MSF riblet with jalapeno pickle, onion, and a slice of cheese. I had shredded iceberg, cucumber, carrot, green pepper, onion, and a mixture of BBQ sauce and mayo for dressing, along with a few potato tots sprinkled with seasoned salt. It was a bit messy to eat, but very good.

Now I'm going to fall in the bed. I'm taking a Melatonin tonight. I try not to take them too often. Taking them 2 nights in a row, gives me a need to stretch feeling, that actually interferes with sleep, but one every once in a while makes for a very good night's sleep. The sound of the rain we're getting will also be nice for sleeping. Have a great night/day!!!

End

MorningStar Farms Meal Starters Chik'n Strips Review

I had an ice cold banana pudding smoothie for breakfast this morning. I remember to freeze a couple of sliced bananas. It also makes the smoothies really thick. Mine was like soft serve at first. By the time I got my glass and camera together the smoothie top had melted down. It was still cold and delicious by the time I drank it. 

I added a teaspoon of vanilla pudding mix and this time I didn't leave out the vanilla extract. The vanilla definitely makes the difference.

I had a few salty almonds and pecans I snagged from DH's can of deluxe mixed nuts while deciding what to have for lunch.

I had the other frozen French onion soup with a few pumpernickel croutons. This soup is so good. I know I'll be getting it again.

My back has been bothering me more today. I haven't taken the time to do my breathing exercises. I didn't do a lot around the house, but I can never totally do nothing. I think sitting on the couch is just as bad and anything else I do. I finally laid down for a while this afternoon, but that didn't help much either. I see ibuprofen in my future if it doesn't let up tonight. 

When I got up from my nap Lucas had made baked potatoes for dinner. He and DH were having buffalo wings with theirs. I decided to make buffalo style chicken strips using MorningStar Farms Chik'n Strips.

I've eaten these before and I'm sorry to say they are not my favorite. They are edible. I was hoping the buffalo treatment would improve them. I don't particularly care for the slightly rubbery texture. It is nothing like the Chik patties or nuggets they make. They are softer almost like scrambled egg. The flavor isn't all that great either. I basted them in a mixture of butter and Texas Pete and baked them in my toaster oven. It was better than eating them plain. The potato was the best part of the meal. I hadn't had one in a while. It's my favorite way to eat a potato. I eat skin and all. I drizzled the potato with leftover butter and Texas Pete. The side salad was made of iceberg, spinach, cucumber, carrot, and green onion. I used spicy ranch dressing. The chik'n strips still only got 3 stars. Gardeins Scallopini is so much tastier.

My dessert was 2 vanilla wafers and a few dried blueberries.

Well, I've stayed up long enough, too long really. I have an early day tomorrow and I also see coffee in my future. Have a great night/day!!!

The Best Way To Eat MorningStar Farms Grillers Recipe Crumbles

Dang, I'm cold this morning. I should have had a warm breakfast, but I didn't. I didn't have one yesterday either. Yesterday I had a fruit & yogurt cereal bowl with vanilla yogurt on the bottom, sprinkled with ground flax, cornflakes, cheerios, & Kellogg's Fiber Plus Berry Yogurt Crunch and topped with half an apple cut into chunks and a few dashes of cinnamon.

 

All it needed was a few walnuts and it would have been perfect. I'll have to put walnuts on my list.

 I did soup and a sandwich for lunch. I heated up a bowl of leftover Campbell's Southwestern Style Vegetable with my add ins to go along with my tuna salad and potato chip sandwich. Have you ever had a tuna salad and potato chip sandwich? You really ought to try one. You just take your favorite chips and crush them up on top of the tuna before adding the second slice of bread. It's a little messy, but good and if you press the bread together slightly, it stays together a little better.

I didn't get but one chance for a photo of lunch. I didn't realize my camera battery was dying. Immediately after taking this shot, it died, luckily the shot wasn't too bad.

Later I had half a peanut butter and muscadine jelly sandwich as my afternoon snack. It was almost and off camera grazing, luckily I though about a photo, just as I'd taken the first bite.

I had the best dinner, I've had in a while. Most of time food is just a filler, but occasionally, I hit upon just the right thing. I have a hard time figuring out what will hit the spot, but I got it right yesterday. I had a MorningStar Farms Grillers Recipe Veggie Crumbles open faced sandwich on Neo Tuscan Artisan bread, topped with Monterey Jack cheese and a few battered onion rings on the side.

It was awesomely delicious. I fried some chopped onion and green bell pepper until the onion started to caramelize. I added about half of the crumbles then sprinkled in a little garlic powder and black pepper and continued cooking until the crumbles where hot. Once everything was hot, I spooned the crumbles mixture onto a piece of the Tuscan bread which I'd lightly toasted. I added some shredded Monterey Jack and melted it in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Now that I think about it, I should have had some ketchup with my onion rings, but I just ate them plain. This is the kind of sandwich you eat with a fork, but it is a great sandwich.

The best part about fixing the crumbles like this is that it is so easy to transform leftovers into something else. Add some beans, canned tomatoes and chili seasoning and serve on top a baked potato with cheese or canned tomatoes and Italian seasoning for a pasta topper. When it comes to leftovers you don't always have to eat the same thing twice, just start simple.

Here are a few shots of the bread. It's a firm dense bread, and very good toasted. It would probably make great homemade croutons, but I don't think it will last that long here.

Here's a shot of the veggie crumbles bag and below are the nutritional fact.

I managed to stay up a little to late last night. I'd remembered I needed to do a load of laundry and Lucas and I were discussing computer stuff. I did get to bed by 12 after reading a little. We are thinking of going walking today. We've been slacking a little since he started his classes and I've been doing blog posts a little later, but now that the weather is cooler we can go later in the day. We've chosen Saturday as the best day. We'll probably slack off again once it gets really cold, we are fair weather walkers. Now I'm off to do a few things I should have done before blogging so that we can do our walking. Happy Saturday!!!

MorningStar Farms Spicy Black Bean Burger Review

I'm chilly this morning. It's a cool 50 degrees this morning and the heat is going. I should have had a warm breakfast this morning(more on that tomorrow). A breakfast like yesterday's would have been a little better. I had an English muffin with butter toasted, applesauce with cinnamon and ground flax, and a few dry roasted almonds, at least the toast was warm. I think I would have warmed the applesauce too, if it had been cool yesterday.

 

For lunch I had open faced sandwiches made with Nature's Own whole wheat sandwich rounds.

 

The whole wheat rounds are good, but I think I prefer the multi grain rounds, for no particular reason.

 

I lightly toasted the rounds for my sandwiches and topped them first with cheese and slices of Veggie Patch veggie dog (my favorite).

 

On top of the cheese & veggie dog, I put hot leftover chili beans, onion, and mustard.

To top all that off, I added some of my leftover coleslaw sprinkled with a little black pepper, even better the second day. It was a really good lunch.

My evening snack was just a bowl of maple & brown sugar mini wheat with milk, simple and delicious. I have been known to have the same thing, for dinner.

....but not yesterday. Yesterday's dinner was courtesy of Lucas. He made a hash brown casserole. It was more or less thrown together without a recipe, but it turned out so good we plan to make it into one. He used hash browns of course, Campbell's condensed cheese soup, milk, egg, and hot fire roasted salsa and topped it with shredded cheddar. It was a spicy dish, but it was very good.

Along with the casserole, I had a MorningStar Farms Spicy Black Bean burger. I've eaten these many times before, but I've never done a review on them. These are one of my favorite MSF burgers, of course there are only a couple of their burgers, that I don't like. The black bean burger also has roasted corn, tomatoes, brown rice, and chili peppers. I don't think these are all that spicy, but I like things pretty spicy. They are still very good. I like them plain or as a burger. MSF burgers are sort of salty, not too salty, but they don't need any extra. I usually heat mine in the microwave, but they do fine in a skillet or on the grill. I give the spicy black bean burger 4 stars.

  

 

I had mine plain yesterday, with the hash brown casserole and a salad of spring mix, spinach, onion, cucumber.

With the spicy casserole and burger, I decided to go with buttermilk ranch dressing for the salad. It was a great dinner.

After dinner I got everything done and was able to get to bed early. I even got some reading in before hand. Unfortunately I only slept for an hour or so and then was wide awake. I finally took a melatonin and was able to get back to sleep once it kicked in. I try to take them only as a last resort. That was my day. Happy Saturday!!

WW Smart Ones Fiesta Quesadilla Review

Feeling sort of blah this morning, probably the melatonin I took last night when I couldn't get to sleep. I slept good after that. I also got a late start this morning due to the internet being down (again not happy). Luckily it wasn't down long.

Yesterday I couldn't bring myself to have another smoothie made from the Archer Farms artificially sweetened vanilla yogurt. Maybe I can use it in a recipe of some sort. Any suggestions? Instead of a smoothie I had a toasted English muffin with an apple. I forgot I had the English muffins this morning, dadgummit!

 

For lunch I had a MSF veggie burger (Grillers), spring mix, spinach, onion, sweet pickle cubes, mustard & mayo....on a sesame seed bun (think big mac song).

 

I haven't fixed one like this in a while. It was really good.

 

After getting a little cleaning done and having lunch, I gave in and took a nap. I knew I would never survive zumba without one. I had planned to get some reading done and upload photos before zumba, so that I could get to bed early, but it didn't happen. I ran out of time. The day was too short or so it seemed.

Before Zumba I fixed myself a WW Smart Ones Fiesta Quesadilla. These are suppose to be for a snack I think, since the serving size is just one, so I had a salad with mine.

 

Smart Ones Fiesta Quesadilla Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 113g - 1 quesadilla

Amount Per Serving
Calories 230
Calories from Fat 50

                                              % Daily Value *

Total Fat 5g                                      8%
Saturated Fat 2.5g                         14%
Monounsaturated Fat 1.5g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.5g
Cholesterol 10mg                              3%
Sodium 490mg                                26%
Total Carbohydrates 35g                 12%
Dietary Fiber 9g                              34%
Sugars 1g
Protein 10g
Vitamin A                                          6%
Calcium                                           15%
Iron                                                 10%

* The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA.

This is what they look like straight out of the freezer, not so appetizing.

Not as bad once it was cooked via microwave in a card stock sleeve. The inside still looked sort of the same, only hot and melted a little. It didn't spread out as I had assumed.

My salad was spring mix, spinach, cucumber, peppers, & onion, with a mixture of buttermilk ranch, taco sauce and taco seasoning.

The quesadilla was much better than I'd expected, pretty good actually. I'm giving it 4 stars. It had a good flavor with the corn, beans, cheese, etc. Together with the salad it was just the right amount for dinner.

I went to zumba after dinner. We didn't use our weights last night. I was sort of disappointed. I didn't work up a good sweat like we normally do. Hopefully we will use them on Thursday. 

My after zumba snack was a few dry roasted almonds and a strawberry cereal bar. I think cereal bars are too sweet, so the salty nuts were a good accompaniment.

 

I watched a little tv and also did a little reading before bed, of course I still didn't get to bed any earlier and I assume that because of the nap, I couldn't get to sleep even though I felt tired. Thankfully I had my melatonin to give me a nudge. It took a little while to kick in, but it did the job. Now I am going to fix myself a cup of tea to wake myself up. It's a vicious cycle. Happy Wednesday!!

Another Sleepless Night

Here it is 5am and I'm up, sleepless. I've been awake for a while. I finally decided that sleep wasn't going to happen, so I got up and then I figured I would go ahead and do this. I know there will be a nap in my future, especially since today is Zumba day.

Yesterday, I wasn't feeling very enthused about breakfast, so I just had a bowl of maple & brown sugar mini wheats. This is one of my favorite cereals and my favorite flavor of the mini wheats. I don't get them often. They are more of a treat.

Lunch was more leftovers, corn, macaroni salad, and broccoli cornbread.

 

I put some chipotle mayo on the corn.

I had hoped that I could eat a little lighter today, but I still have leftovers and there was still fruit and pound cake, which I had later in the afternoon. I didn't eat all of it. This slice was bigger and with the fruit and whipped topping, it was too much. The other donut went in the freezer.

I went lighter with a salad for dinner. A cheeseburger salad with iceberg lettuce, red bell pepper, tomato, cucumber, onion, shredded cheddar cheese and a MorningStar Farms griller with buttermilk ranch dressing.

I always feel better after a big salad than I do after a heavy meal.

I manage to get everything I had to do done by 10pm and after reading a while, I was in bed by 11. I slept for a while, but was restless. It feels hot in the house tonight/today, whatever. I'm hoping the day will be good and the night will be better. Happy Thursday!!