Taking It Easy

Today was very laid back. I did a whole lot of nothing basically. Sleep was interrupted by my back & barking dogs....mine, ready to go out and then have their breakfast. I let them out, let them, fed them, and went back to bed. 

I got up a little later, my back is not bad, but it's still giving me trouble. I fixed myself a fruit & yogurt cereal bowl for breakfast. I used a mixture of cereal as usual, Dannon vanilla yogurt, half a pink lady apple, chopped walnuts and cinnamon.

This was so good, but I think, I like it drizzled with peanut butter even better. I'm also thinking maybe a little pancake syrup would be interesting to try.

I pretty much stuck to the couch today with my laptop of course. Sitting is not so good either, so I was up & down as needed. I had a bowl of my Parmesan Broccoli soup for lunch.

The bow ties were huge after soaking all night. I think they would be good in a lasagna type casserole. My soup was not quite as soupy, but just as good.

I had a handful of this caramel flavored candy corn after my soup. I get this strong craving for something sweet after a meal. I wish I was better at fighting the urge.

I continued to snack, snack, snack, all afternoon. I had a bag of Lay's Barbecued potato chips.

Then I had a variety of fresh veggies with a mixture of light ranch dressing and Kraft Mesquite barbecue sauce. This seemed to put an end to my munching until dinner.

I had a spinach omelette and a couple of vegetable egg rolls with a mixture of duck and soy sauce. I love the sweet & the salty mixture.

I used two eggs, a pinch or two of salt, black pepper, & shredded spinach for my omelette. This was a really good dinner.

After dinner I had that same craving for something sweet. I tried not to give into it. I did have something sweet, but I had a juicy seedless orange instead of more candy. I'm feeling pretty uncomfortable sitting here, so I'm calling it a night. I'm hoping I sleep better tonight than I did last night. Have a great night/day!!!!

A Great Use For Chocolate Covered Caramels

It was a busy morning, things got off on a rocky start. I didn't get breakfast before the girls arrived. I did get coffee started, a blessing. It was just as well, that I didn't get breakfast. I wasn't feeling much into breakfast this morning anyway.  I just had a couple of cups of half caf. with non dairy creamer and raw sugar.

I did have half a gala apple later as more of a brunch meal. 

I made soup for my actual lunch. It wasn't a quick fix, but I still wasn't feeling too food enthused. I used a can of diced tomatoes to make tomato soup. I used one can of tomatoes, one can of water, one or two teaspoons of cornstarch, and a little salt, onion powder, and basil. I let it all simmer for a while, until it was reduced by about half, then I blended it up with my hand blender and strained it through a wire sieve to remove seeds, etc.

One can for one bowl. I still wasn't feeling so great, so I just ate the soup by itself and passed on any crackers, etc. The soup turned out very well. It wasn't necessarily a quick meal, but it was pretty easy and just what I was in the mood for.

Later in the afternoon, I was getting a bit more of an appetite, but still not feeling great. I decided to have my slice of cheesecake. I didn't have any fruity topping, so I made a dark chocolate raspberry caramel sauce.

It was one of the simplest sauces ever. I used 1 dark chocolate caramel & 1 dark chocolate raspberry caramel from my Russel Stover Christmas candies. I added a dab of milk and microwaved it, stirring every 10-15 seconds until everything was melted and blended together. I let it cool a bit to thicken and drizzled it over my cheesecake. It was really yummy! I will have to remember this little trick. This was even better than putting them in my 3 minute oatmeal cookies.

For dinner, I went with something quick and simple, just some whole wheat spaghetti noodles with a jar of spaghetti sauce.

I wasn't crazy about the sauce. It was a sort of sweet sauce. I added a little salt, Parmesan and red pepper flakes. It was better, but I'm buying a different sauce next time. I normally get Aldi's Traditional Sauce, but I think they switched the brand, recipe, or something, anyway it's not the same anymore. It used to be very similar to Ragu's Traditional Sauce, but not anymore apparently.

I'm hoping I feel better tomorrow. I decided to post tonight and sleep in tomorrow. I think I'll do some reading and then I'm off to bed. I sure could use some subscribers. You can also follow me on twitter. It you do follow me on twitter and you don't see a post in the mornings please check out the blog for an early post. Thanks. Have a great night/day!!!

Pizza Pizza

Getting a late start this morning. This mornings breakfast took a little longer, more on that tomorrow. I am feeling a little better this morning, but didn't sleep all that great, due to stuffy head (sinus congestion).

Yesterday I woke up with a headache, stuffy head, really feeling pretty icky. I grabbed some decongestant, ibuprofen, coffee and the quickest breakfast available, a piece of chocolate cinnamon loaf. The coffee was half regular/half decaf. I gave it 5 stars. I really needed coffee.

The cinnamon loaf on the other hand was not my favorite, receiving only 2 possibly 3 stars. First of all, I would have never guessed there was chocolate in it. You could kind of taste it a little near the top if you knew it was in there. The loaf itself was a little on the doughy side. I'm pretty sure it was cooked, it just had a sort of doughy texture that I didn't particularly care for. This was after lightly toasting it in my toaster oven. I think as a cinnamon roll it may have been better. I did love that it wasn't terribly sweet.

Having a scratchy throat all day was a pain. I kept eating and drinking trying to sooth it, eating small amounts here and there throughout the day. My sneezing by the way, is driving me crazing.

The first thing I ate after breakfast, which came around 6:30am, was a Red Baron deep dish 4 cheese single pizza. This one you could microwave or bake in the oven. I chose my toaster oven, which took about 10 minutes straight from the freezer.

This came out great. It was pretty good for frozen pizza.

The next thing I ate was a small bowl of leftover broccoli casserole.

Then two tuna salad crackers made with leftover tuna salad and saltines.

After that came the last slice of strawberry cake. It was a bit broken and crumbly, but just as good as the other pieces.

Finally I was so fed up with my scratchy throat. I searched the internet for a home remedy. I found that honey and lemon juice in water was recommended, so I decided to give it a try. There wasn't a real recipe or anything, so I just heated a cup of water in the microwave, stirred in one tablespoon of lemon juice and 2 spoonfuls of honey. It was pretty good and I drank every drop. This remedy gets 5 stars. I could not believe how much better my throat felt. My throat was slightly scratchy right after drinking it, but not irritating. It gradually felt better and better and the scratchiness finally went away completely. It was not even scratchy this morning when I woke up. Love this remedy!!

 

Dinner was pizza again, not exactly my choice, but I didn't have to cook it, so I ate it anyway. We got Dominos deep dish again (I think hand tossed would have been better). We got a medium cheese with peppers and onions. The guys got pepperoni and bacon, yuck!

I normally love Dominos pizza, but I think after having eaten pizza once already, it didn't exactly thrill me, of course that didn't stop me from eating 3 pieces. I do love their bold zesty sauce.

Two on camera, one off camera.

I think I've now had enough pizza. If Lucas doesn't eat the rest it's going in the freezer. I was not at all tired yesterday. I did get to bed by eleven. This seems to work for me, even though, stuffy head kept waking me up. I did keep right on dreaming as I dozed in and out of consciousness, so apparently I did get some sleep. Well, that was my day. Now I'm off to watch, Dr. Oz's Welcome To Your 40's. How appropriate? Happy Thursday!!

Do you have any home remedies you'd like to rave about?

A Cold Coming On

This morning has gotten off to a bad start, awake a couple of hours before my alarm went off. It seems that DH has manage to pass on his cold germs to me. I had started to feel it yesterday, but was hoping it was just allergies, but this morning it seems to be more like a cold, with sinus pressure, scratchy throat, and a headache.

I didn't feel great yesterday, but luckily, I didn't feel too bad either. I started off the day yesterday with another of my banana pudding smoothies with peanut butter and cinnamon. I really enjoyed this yesterday, but thoughts of it today do not seem as pleasant. All I can manage to do this morning is sneeze.

Yesterday I had one of Amy's bowls for lunch, the tortilla casserole with black beans. I was also drinking quite a bit of water yesterday due to my scratchy throat. I always drink water, but I think I drank more than usual yesterday.

 

 

This is my favorite of Amy's bowls. Have you tried it?

 

Another piece of strawberry birthday cake; a big strawberry with this one.

Before going to Zumba class, I had a tuna salad sandwich. The tuna salad was made with mayo, mustard and dill pickles. The bun was huge, so I didn't have anything else with it. 

 

Dale & Lucas bought the buns at the Walmart deli. They were impressed with them, raving about how good they were. I just love Walmart's breads, usually, but I was not as impressed with it as they were. It had a sort of sweet taste to it, which I didn't particularly care for. I will be leaving these buns for the guys.

Sweet is fine when it comes to candy, but I opt out for it when it comes to bread.

I had this sweet snack before Zumba as well.

We had a great night at Zumba. I was hoping that we'd be a bit cooler, since the outside temps have been more mild, but we still managed to work up a sweat. I had considered increasing my weights that we use during some of our songs, but decide that since I didn't do much exercise last week, I would stay with the same 3lb. weights I've been using. It was a wise decision. My arms were really feeling it during the workout. I'm so glad I was not feeling too bad to go to Zumba. I really missed going last week. 

After Zumba I had one of Millville's Get Balance granola bars with a few pecans.

After a shower and a little reading, it was off to bed, just a little after eleven. Score! I'd really expected to have another late night, but managed to do quite well. Go me!! Have you had a "Go Me" moment lately? Tell me about it. Happy Wednesday!!

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Dinner Canceled Due To Heartburn

I was sleeping good this morning when my alarm went off and although I got to bed by 11pm, I still wasn't anxious to get up. I took a few deep breaths and got up anyway. I do think the extra sleep did me good. I just need a few more days of it.

Yesterday I had a strawberry pineapple smoothie in a jar. I save salsa jars for storage containers. This one was the perfect size for my smoothie. They're also perfect storage for nuts, raisins, and mac & cheese. I love jars for food storage. You can see at a glance what you're looking for and you can get them for free from foods you already purchase. I like to save any wide mouth jars for storage etc. and I also save small jars. Plastic storage containers have become so expensive, why bother if you don't need to. Glass looks much nicer.

 

I had the rest of my sweet & sour vegetables for lunch. I was looking forward to it and I had lunch early because of it.

 

 

I love this dish and it goes so well with brown rice.

 

I had a cup of peach mango green tea with honey & cinnamon, just before Lindsay arrived with the girls. They were coming to stay with their Mimi for a little while.

The girls were a handful yesterday. I think both were in need of a nap. We still had a pretty good time. I fixed them both a late lunch and then made vanilla pudding for them. Lexi had chocolate pudding in her Kid Cuisine meal, but she still had a few bites of the vanilla. Mary really liked the vanilla pudding. I got a few blurred pictures of them. Taking pictures of people is not my thing. For some reason they almost never turn out good.

A little before the girls went home, I got a case of heartburn. It got worse as the evening went on. I took several antacids, but nothing seemed to help. I'm not sure what the problem was, but it lasted for hours. When the heartburn finally settled I still didn't want anything to eat, for fear of it coming back. I did give in and have a few baked potato chips before going to bed, but only a handful. The good thing was that I got to bed early. Hopefully the heartburn won't return today. Happy Saturday

No Energy

This morning I'm up about 25 minutes early. I'm trying to get up early enough that I can fix breakfast before doing the days post. So far, so good.

Yesterday I had another tropical smoothie. It was mostly just pineapple and coconut, because I'd already used most of my frozen banana slices and just had a few left. I also used the last of my yogurt.

 

I doubt you can tell the difference, but this smoothie also has no ice. I completely for to add the ice, of course with the first sip I realized it. It wasn't warm, but it wasn't icy cold either, so I put it back in my blender cup with a few ice cubes and blended it again. Ahhh, much better!

8:00am

 

After breakfast and once I'd finished up yesterday's post, Lucas and I went for a walk. It was already almost 80 degrees, so we'd decided not to do the full 5 miles that we used to do. I am very thankful that we didn't. I am so out of shape in the walking department. I didn't realize. All together we walked 3.37 miles. My feet were killing me. I was wearing the same shoes I'd always walked in, but this time it felt like blisters were forming on the bottom of my feet right behind my toes. I was so ready to sit down when we got back. I can also feeling it my legs this morning. Today I'll have Zumba this evening, so I'm not sure I'll be walking this morning. 

I was even more sweaty after walking than I am after Zumba. My shirt was soaked through, so I jumped in the shower. My feet were still sore when I got out, but by evening they were fine again thankfully.

I had lunch a little before 12pm. I had an Amy's spinach enchilada with beans and rice.

 

 

It took a little longer to heat this time for some reason and the beans were a little thinner, I think, but it tasted just as good as it always does.

 

After lunch, I got super sleepy. I got up and tried to do some cleaning to get my blood pumping and try to wake up a little, but no matter what I did, I was still so sleepy. I finally gave in and took a nap. I slept for over 2 hours, completely missed snack time. I got a little salsa trail mix since I was starved, but decided to just wait for dinner since it was nearly time anyway.

 

I had dinner a little after 5pm. I probably would have waited until six if I hadn't slept through my snack time, but I was starved. I had a bowl of MSF chili beans. I am not sure what it is about their dinners, but they don't agree with me. I was eating chili long after I had finished it. I didn't really finish it all, but it haunted me all evening. It also made me feel bloated. I have no problem with their burgers, but everything I've tried otherwise is either not good or just doesn't agree with me. The chili was very good either, but it was alright I guess. It seemed to have quite a bit of chili powder or at least that's all I could taste. What's your opinion on the MSF product? How about Amy's? Do you have any favorites?

 

After dinner we went to Mom's to check on her a/c which has been giving them trouble. They are hoping to get a new unit soon, but until then, they are roasting. The old unit runs for little while, then freezes up, and they are without until it thaws, so the house never really gets that cool. Luckily it works a little or they would definitely be hot. Well, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it. Happy Thursday!