Savoritz Roasted Vegetable Crackers Review

This morning I really wanted pancakes or rather, that's what I'd planned to have, but by the time I went though my morning routine, I was totally out of the mood, so I just had half an apple and a few Quaker Oat Squares with my half caf coffee; 2 cups actually. I also spread a little peanut butter on my apple for protein.

I had a quick bowl of leftover baked ravioli for lunch, before going to the grocery store.

It was a long trip, because we were going to Aldi first, then to the bread store and Walmart. I picked up a box of Savoritz Roasted Vegetable crackers at Aldi.

Their sort of a knock off of Ritz crackers. I had a few with cream cheese before dinner. They have a mild vegetable taste, but I wasn't all that impressed. I've had better vegetable cracker and I'm not sure they're exactly like Ritz either. There is a difference, but I'm not sure what it is. I will say that they weren't a oily as some Ritz type crackers I've eaten. While there was nothing spectacular about these crackers, they aren't bad, but I do prefer the larger vegetable crackers we've gotten at Walmart. I'm just giving these 3 stars.

I also bought some fresh spinach today. Everything else I had for dinner, I already had. I had a Veggie Patch Chick'n Cutlet from the freezer, sweet potato fries and a simple salad of spinach and onion with a dressing made from light mayo and barbecue sauce. I'd bought pizza dough from Walmart, which Lucas had told me about, to make pizza, but didn't realize it came frozen. I got it anyway, but will have to wait another day or so to make it.

It was a pretty good dinner, even though I sort of got more BBQ sauce in the dressing than I'd intended. It made a great dressing and since I'd made more than I'd meant to, I used some on the cutlet as well.

I had a cup of Ghirardelli Peppermint Cocoa after dinner. I always make mine with more milk/less cocoa than the directions call for. It is still plenty sweet and very good.

I also had some raisins and a few BBQ chips while I was working on this post. Now that I've got everything covered, I'm going to get ready for bed and maybe do a little reading. I'd decided to go ahead and finish this post tonight, so that I could sleep in tomorrow, besides if I didn't, I might forget to finish it, lol. Have a great night/day!!! 

Over Indulging

Today was an unexpected day of over indulging. I woke up this morning after a fitful night of sleep. I was still craving the Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs. Hoping to calm my cravings with something a little healthier and more filling, I made a chocolate peanut butter & banana smoothie that I'm calling a Chocolate Monkey Smoothie. It was creamy and chocolatey and very good, but I think it would have satisfied my craving better, if I'd left out the banana. It just wasn't enough like the Reese's PB egg.  I enjoyed it, but still would love to eat one of those eggs, lol.

 

What's in the glass

Fresh Banana Slices

Vanilla Yogurt

Milk

Old Fashioned Oats

Peanut Butter

Ground Flax

Cocoa Powder

Ice Cubes

It even looks chocolatey in the photo.

 

Just after drinking my chocolate monkey smoothie I got a call, an invitation to go with my Mom & Aunt Lynda. Well you know I love to go, so I couldn't turn it down. One of the first places we went was Starbucks. I had a Iced Decaf Peppermint Mocha Latte. After the first sip, I realized this was super sweet. I'm not used to drinking sweet drinks. I mostly drink water and sometimes juice which I water down 50/50. I love the taste of coffee, but I hardly drink it anymore, because of the caffeine. I think I may have to leave it alone entirely or learn to drink it black. I only managed to drink about half, even after letting the ice melt to water it down.

 We also went to Target & Michael's. I checked out the eyeglass frames at Target Optical. I'm hoping to get a new pair of specs in the near future. Right now, I'm shopping around. The man that works there, was very nice. He gave me a ball park figure of about how much my new glasses would cost. He also fixed the nose pieces on my current specs and cleaned them free of charge. I didn't even have to pay for the new nose pieces. Wasn't that nice? I also found some frames I liked.  I can't wait to get some new glasses.

After some shopping we went to Salsarita's. It's Mexican fast food set up sort of like Subway. You decide what you want then go down the line picking your ingredients. There's big variety of things to choose. I like that they offer vegetarian versions of everything. Last time I went, I had nachos, this time I had a Garden Taco Salad.

 

 What's in the salad

Shredded Iceburg Lettuce

Black Beans

Rice

Jalapenos

Black Olives

Grilled Veggies

Shredded Cheese

Mild Chunky Fresh Salsa

A Spicy Sour Cream Sauce

In A Fried Flour Tortilla Shell

It was yummy and I enjoyed it. I couldn't eat it all, though I did eat quite a bit of it. I didn't eat quite as healthy as I should have today and I am paying for it. We ate late this afternoon and I have been bloated and miserable all evening. I'm not sure what caused it. Maybe too much chocolate or maybe the cheese, but even after taking some GasX, I still feel terrible. I'm hoping to get some relief before bedtime, so that I can sleep. Now, I keep tasting peppermint mocha, so that must be the problem. Ugghh!

 Thankful it's finally Friday? What's your weekend plan? Tomorrow, I'm planning to visit with the grand babies, then dinner at Mom's on Sunday. I'm hoping for good weather.

Chocolate Monkey Smoothie Recipe

The is a super chocolatey smoothie with banana and peanut butter. I decided to make this smoothie because I was craving Reese's Peanut Butter eggs. I added the banana because it just didn't seem healthy enough without fruit, but I think the craving would have been better satisfied without it. It was good, but it wasn't a Reese's Peanut Butter egg, lol.

Ingredients
3/4 C. Fresh Sliced Banana (I think frozen would be better, but I used fresh)
1/3 C. Old Fashioned Oats
1/2 C. Vanilla Yogurt
1/2 C. Milk 2%
2 1/2 tsp. Cocoa Powder
2 T. Creamy Peanut Butter
2 tsp. Ground Flax
3-4 Ice Cubes

Directions
Throw everything in your blender and blend until smooth. Enjoy!

Lots Of Food & Nobody To Eat It

Surprise!!!......No smoothie. Now here's a breakfast you can look at, that will look back. I didn't do that intentionally. I noticed it after the first shot. I guess eggs can be scary. I decided to have a salty sweet breakfast, just to change things up a little. I had a MSF veggie sausage patty with honey on a biscuit and a boiled egg on the side. I won the fresh egg lottery (Dale's Dad has chickens) and so I have a couple of dozen to use and when I boiled one for my salad yesterday, I boiled another one with it. It kind of seems like a waste of electricity to cook just one of anything at a time of course I reheated it, but that didn't take as long.

 

It's getting to be that time of year when eggs are popular. Easter eggs, deviled eggs, pickled eggs, and lots of other egg recipes. Do you have a favorite egg recipe?

Well, as you may or may not know, today is the day we have a big dinner at Mom's. She usually has a big buffet of food and lots of people to eat it. Today there was only four of us eating, but still lots of food. We even recruited Dale and his Dad and we still had lots of leftovers. Here is the menu for the day.

Baked Chicken

Country Fried Cube Steak

Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms

Baked Ziti -My favorite of the day

Toasted Buns. There was also biscuits which I missed.

Baked Beans (Vegetarian)

Potato Salad 

Steak Fries

Cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, slaw and carrots which I also missed.

My plate - Toast, baked ziti, potato salad, baked beans, slaw,  & 1/2 a stuffed mushroom.

 

We had fruit salad/ambrosia for dessert.

 

I had some of that too + a couple of pieces of Easter candy which didn't last long enough to get a shot of.

On top of everything I'd already eaten, I had a cup of hot chocolate when I got home. All I want to do lately is eat and not everything is good for me, especially the amounts.

 

I did have just a light salad for dinner with light buttermilk ranch dressing & imitation bacon bits.

 

Lettuce, spinach, bell pepper, carrot, & tomato. I forgot the broccoli, just realized it, oops.

 

It was very good.

Afterwards, I just kept craving peanut butter for some reason, so I had a little on a spoon. I really could use a detox. I feel terrible after eating so much. I've got to stop doing that. Do you have trouble eating just a little when there's lots to choose? What's your solution?

Pre Workout Smoothie Before A Butt Kickin' Workout

I didn't sleep well last night. We had a big storm and it was very hot in the house even with my fan blowing. The wind blowing against the house and the crash of thunder jarred me out of bed once, luckily it didn't last too long. We didn't suffer any damage here, but lots of trees were down all over and school was canceled, due to power outages. People are still without power. I am so glad we still have ours. I got up this morning, wishing I could just sleep the day away. I tried to fix myself another Pear Berry Smoothie for breakfast, but there was a wasp still lurking in my kitchen this morning. He dived at my head before I realized it, but he didn't get me. I am terrified of flying or hoping insects, especially ones with stingers. I had Dale take care of him, then I could make and enjoy my smoothie.

 

What's in the glass

Fresh Pear

Fresh Strawberries

Vanilla Yogurt

Milk

Old Fashioned Oats

Ground Flax

Honey

Ice Cubes

 

The rain was gone this morning by the time I got up, but the storm had brought cold air along with the rain. I will be so glad when summer is finally here, even if I have to fight the wasps.

I had leftover Digiorno spinach, mushroom and garlic pizza for lunch along with some fresh broccoli and carrots. It was a yummy lunch.

 

 

Since today was Zumba day. I decided to have myself a pre-workout smoothie. I experimented with a different combo, but it was a fail. It was drinkable, but I wouldn't want another one. I'm not sure what I didn't like about it, but it sort of made me wanna hurl. Luckily it didn't make as much as I usually make for breakfast.

 

What's in the glass

Banana

Milk

Vegan Chocolate Protein Powder

Cocoa

Honey

Ground Flax

I drank it, but I didn't love it. Yuck!!

 

 The whole evening all I could taste was banana. I like banana, but it doesn't like me. We really got a workout tonight at Zumba. The class I normally go to on Tuesday was canceled because of the storm, I guess power outage, so I went to the place where I go for Zumba on Thurs. They also have a Tuesday class. The class we go to on Tuesday normally is actually Zumba Gold. Thursday's class is regular Zumba. There has been a sub filling in for the regular instructor on Thursday's but we had the regular instructor tonight. She is a ball of fire. It was still fun, but I should be able to sleep tonight. 

When I got home, I was starving. I fixed a big plate of nachos again. This batch was a little different, but just as good.

 

What's on the plate

Tostitos Fire Roasted Chipotle Tortilla Chips

Salsa Con Queso

Black Beans

Kidney Beans

Boca Crumbles w/ Taco Seasoning

Shredded Iceberg Lettuce

Mushroom

Bell Pepper

Southwestern Salsa Cheese from Yoder's Amish Market

Chunky Salsa

 I had a good day and a great evening (except for the choco banana smoothie). I haven't ever enjoyed getting my butt kicked until today. Zumba is like playing hard. Do you remember as a kid, getting together with other kids and playing until you were completely worn out, but knowing you had so much fun you would gladly do it again? Well, that is Zumba. Now I think I'll take my kicked butt to bed. I'll let you know how I feel tomorrow, lol.

How To Kick Up Some Canned Soup

 

This morning, the first thing I did when I got up was grab a Smart Water, the calorie free way to re-hydrate. A cheaper way is to use Elete electrolyte add in. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm thinking about it, since it's a lot cheaper. 

I slept surprisingly well, considering I pulled a muscle in my back and I haven't been sleeping so well anyway. I had a repeat of yesterday's breakfast. I just love cinnamon. The combo of apple, walnuts and a mixture of cereal over yogurt, just works. I'm also trying to remember to use my ground flax more.

 

For lunch I had soup and tortilla chips. I used Campbell's Select Harvest Light Southwestern-Style Vegetable Soup. The soup is light on calories at 50 per serving, but also light on flavor. It's mostly broth with very little vegetables and tastes like regular vegetable soup, nothing southwestern about it. I decided to tweak it and added some flavor as well as calories of course. This was very good and I had an extra ladle of the soup.

Soup add-ins:

2 large spoonfuls each corn and rice

4 large spoonfuls black beans 

About 1/3 cup Pace Chunky salsa

2 pinches Mexican oregano

1 pinch Cilantro

uncertain amounts of (I just spinkled in a little of each)

garlic powder

cumin

chili powder

chipotle or smoked jalapeno powder

a sprinkle of Mexican blend cheese

You could use taco seasoning instead of the separate spices. I was just out and haven't gotten around to making more.

 

After lunch we watched "The Social Network", the movie about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. It was sort of interesting to see how it all came together, but the movie itself was not all that great for me. Some parts were even considered annoying, like trying to filter conversation within the movie, through loud and I mean loud, bar music.

Later in the afternoon I wanted something hot to drink. I had a Land O Lakes French Vanilla hot cocoa. I am not a big fan of the French Vanilla. I think the Arctic White was my favorite. I had a terrible sinus headache and was hoping something hot would help. It did a little, but I still haven't shaken it completely.

 

I had an omelet wrap and salad for dinner. I made a spinach and sundried tomato omelet and wrapped it in a warm flour tortilla spread with cream cheese. The salad was just Romaine, spinach, red & yellow bell, and onion with light ranch dressing. The sundried tomatoes came from Yoder's. I would have used shredded mozzarella if I'd had it and maybe some Italian seasoning if, I'd thought about it. It was not bad, but could have been better.

 If you'd like to check out some of the movies I've seen, just click on the movie label at the bottom of the post and you can see all the posts about movies. Well, that's all folks. Now for some shut eye. Cya tomorrow.