Alexia Oven Reds Review

Alternate Title - Corny But In Good Humor

Alright, so I decided to just skip the last post. I spend too much time stressing over things I can't do anything about, to stress over things I can do something about....problem solved.

Today's breakfast was pretty much that same as yesterday's breakfast anyway. I had half caf with raw sugar and creamer, half an apple, and a Little Debbie Raisin Creme Pie. I suppose they call them creme pies because they are sort of like whoopie pies with raisins on top. When I have too many sweets in the house, I use some of them for breakfast, since a lot of breakfast foods are sweet, that's when I have my coffee, and sweets are better with coffee, right? Well, it sounded good in my head anyway.....

I went to Lindsay's to keep the girls today. I think they go better at their house. They are calmer, more settled, and don't get into as much. I guess I just have all the neat stuff that looks like it shouldn't be touched.

Mary and Lexi had sandwiches. Mary took a nap and I had Veggie Cuisine's Enchilada Rojo with Mexican Rice. I also had half an ear of corn.

It didn't look like much, which is why I also had the corn, but I was really stuffed after having eaten it all.

The girls had cheese & cracker snacks later with chocolate milk. I waited until I came home for my snack. Now you know why I was in such "Good Humor".

Lucas wanted to try these. I've had them before. I really like them. The flavor reminds me of strawberry jello or koolaid, but with creamy vanilla ice cream and soft cookie crumbs.

 It's awful to say and not much better to drink, but I reheat leftover coffee after my ice cream. I could hardly keep my eyes open and had a chill from eating the ice cream. I just added a little raw sugar and just drank about 2/3 of it.

I had chosen Alexia Oven Reds with Olive Oil, Parmesan, and Roasted Garlic. They take about 25 minutes (longer in my oven) to bake. They are very good. They get 5 stars. I also had leftover broccoli casserole, another half ear of corn, and some fresh broccoli with garlic Caesar dressing.

Now, thanks to the icky reheated coffee, I was able to complete this post, of course lack of sleep is the reason for the content. Sorry. I'm outa here. Have a great night/day!!!

Stayin' Up Too Late Lately

I was sleeping so good this morning until someone rudely came and woke me up to ask me an unnecessary question about 30 minutes before my alarm went off. I was not a happy camper, to say the least. I was in a deep dreaming sound sleep. I almost never sleep like that. I really hate when someone wakes me up when I'm sleeping that way. It's that rare time when I'm not aware that I'm in the world and I don't want it taken away from me. 

There was no going back to sleep though, so I got up. I had half an everything bagel with cream cheese again, while my coffee brewed.

I really needed coffee. DH had a little regular already made, so I just added some decaf to it.

I had the last of my coffee with one of Lucas' turtle cookies mid morning. It wasn't too bad, even though the cookie was cold. The hot coffee with just a little sugar made it perfect. The caramel spots were just a little chewy.

I didn't get a lot done today. The shelf  I needed out of the way, hung around longer than I had hoped, but luckily it is now gone. I'll have to see if I can finish up my rearrangement project tomorrow.  It won't be easy. I'll have to move my wardrobe from one end of the house to the other and there are obstacles between here and there.

I wasn't sure what to have for lunch, but then I remembered that Lucas and DH had had baked potatoes for dinner the day before. I'd had Lucas throw in an extra potato for me to have later. I cut it up and cooked it in the microwave with some fresh broccoli pieces.

I topped it with little chunks of velveeta cheese, a dab of butter, a pinch of salt and some cracked peper.

It turned out very good, but not nearly enough broccoli. I should have made more, but then I probably couldn't have eaten it all. A potato baked is probably one of my favorite ways to eat a potato. I love the skin.

My afternoon snack was a gala apple cut into quarters and eaten with 4 graham crackers spread with peanut butter, a very tasty snack.

I wasn't really in the mood for a heavy meal for dinner, so I fixed a salad.

I picked up some carrots today. I got organic since carrots are cheap and either way there's not much difference in the price. If I could afford to, I'd probably buy all organic.

My salad was made up of iceberg lettuce, spinach, cucumber, carrot, broccoli, bell pepper, onion, chopped walnuts, chow mein noodles, and light Asian toasted sesame dressing. I also added cracked black pepper and red pepper flakes to spice it up. It was really good. Mushrooms would have been nice in this one as well.

I have spent too much time this evening watching tv and surfin' the net.  Here I am up late again. I will just have to try and do better tomorrow. If I hurry I am a little earlier that usually. Just a little. Have a great night/day!!!

Broccoli Cheese Fries

This may be short and sweet, but with me you never know. I'm not feeling especially bloggy today. Is bloggy a word? Well maybe not, but I'd bet I'm not the first to use it. I've got the blah, blah blahs this morning. I'm hoping it will get better as the day goes on.

Yesterday's breakfast - peaches and a blueberry muffin with cream cheese. (I typed this 3 times. My brain is not functioning at all this morning.)

 

I'm eating out of the freezer this week.  Maybe that's what the problem is.

 

We went for another walk yesterday. It was 77 degrees, sunny and no breeze. We walked 3.34 miles according to Lucas' phone app. It was the same distance we walk every time, but it seems to come up slightly different each time. So much for phone apps. Our average speed was 16m 5s per mile, slower than last time, but we expected that. We were really sweating by the time we got back. Hot, hot, hot! After sitting down for a few minutes under the fan, I got up to get a shower, but first I grabbed a Ghirardelli Intense Dark Chocolate with a little peanut butter.

 

Just a little something until I got out of the shower. I have to say it was the best shower I've had in a while. It was extremely nice after feeling so hot and sticky from our walk.

 

I just wanted to sit a little bit after my shower. Mom & Lynda came by shortly and dropped off some things for me and the girls (Lexi & Mary). Lindsay was bringing them over yesterday.

I had lunch after Mom & Lynda went on their way. I had an Amy's bowl, the tortilla casserole. I haven't had one in a while.

I found another recipe for another tortilla casserole. We tried one once and it wasn't all that great, but maybe the new one I found will be better.

 

Mom & Lynda also brought more cake. I also found some in the freezer.

 

Lindsay & the girls came late and stayed for a little while. They'd gone to have lunch with Reese. The girls played and I had fun with them. I just remembered, I'd fixed a cup of tea just before they got here, totally forgot to get the picture. It was also my cinnamon honey water for the day. My camera battery was sort of dead anyway. I had to charge it before getting photos of dinner.

Dinner was late. I was starved. It came in two parts. I fixed one of the quickest things I had. Part one was the popcorn shrimp, which got done slightly quicker in the toaster oven. I had a little barbecue sauce on the side. My cocktail sauce had seen better days, so I tossed it.

The second part of dinner was the fries, but not just any fries, broccoli cheese fries. Way better than chili cheese fries. The fries topped with steamed broccoli and cheddar cheese were what made the meal. I could have had them as the entire meal and never missed the shrimp. You really ought to try them.

I've gotta go now. Dick Van Dyke is on Rachael Ray. I'd planned to change the title, but still haven't thought of anything better so broccoli cheese fries it is. Happy Friday!!

Dinner Makes The Day

Another sleepy morning, the cooler nights have been nice, I even managed to get to bed an hour early last night, but I still feel like I could have slept longer. My stomach is rumbling, so I'll be making this quick.

Yesterday I tried a new smoothie for breakfast, but I'm not sure it was worth a spot on my recipe page. I used blueberries and a nectarine. I was disappointed with the result. I'm not sure exactly what I didn't like about it, but it was nothing to brag about. I'd bought 3 nectarines and 2 were rotten in the middle with no sign on the outside that there was anything wrong with them, so maybe it was just the nectarines that spoiled the smoothie. It just didn't have enough flavor, so for now this smoothie gets the thumbs down.

 

It was drinkable just not enjoyable.

 

For lunch I had Lean Cuisine's Four Cheese Cannelloni. It wasn't great either. The cannelloni noodles were tough on the bottom and the filling wasn't great. It was sort of pasty. The sauce was the best part. These were also edible, but not enjoyable.

 

I had a salad with the cannelloni. I made the salad using iceberg lettuce and spinach, yellow bell pepper, cucumber, and a few cherry tomatoes from the garden. BTW my garden is sort of a flop this year. I think I will have to try something different. The only thing that seems to be doing well are the peppers.

 

Lucas had made some dip using a packet of the Hidden Valley Ranch Fiesta Dip mix. He used half plain yogurt instead of sour cream and half light mayo. The result was basically the same. We use the yogurt because it needed to be used. I put some of it on my salad.

 

The salad dressing didn't really go with the cannelloni, but it was very good and made up for the fact that the cannelloni wasn't.

 

I had a piece of the apple from the freezer, which I let thaw for a few minutes, still yummy!

 

Now this was the best meal of the day. We made Dilled Roasted Red Potatoes and I fixed a salad to go along with them. This salad had the iceberg and spinach as well but no cherry tomatoes. I used red & yellow bell for color and a few cucumber slices.

 

We made the dressing from my Garden Pasta Salad w/ Cream Dill Dressing recipe. It was great on the salad and went perfectly with the potatoes.

We never have a problem with these potatoes going to waste. There were hardly any leftovers, just enough to make you mad.

 

This meal was worth waiting for. Now looking at all this food is driving me nuts. My  stomach is having a fit, so I'm off to get something to put in it. Get ready for lots more photos tomorrow. You know today is Sunday and there always lots of food on Sunday. Have a great day and enjoy your Sunday dinner!  BTW What are you having?

A New Friend

It's Friday! ....with Thursday photos. It was a good day yesterday. I bought blueberries at Aldi. So my morning smoothie was not the usual Banana Pudding smoothie. It also wasn't a Chocolate Monkey smoothie and there wasn't any peanut butter involved. There was however a banana in there. Yes, it was my Blueberry Banana Smoothie and it was delicious. 

 

All purple, speckled, cold and creamy. Yummy!

 

This is our new friend. He has slowly adopted us. At first staying in our crawl space and sometimes in Dales shop when the door was left open. He seem to want to be friendly, but would never get close, that is until we started giving him scraps. He would get closer and closer each time. Now waits at the front door and meows/hisses if you don't stop and pet or give him food. I'm not sure why he hisses. It's like his is fussing at you. The whole time walking beside our feet, then stopping to look up every couple of steps. He now knows, "Here kitty, kitty".

He was very hard to get a picture of. Every time I would squat down he would try to get on my lap.

Yesterday was the last day for leftovers. I use to have a three day rule, but since I despise wasting food, I have stretched it to four. There are some leftovers that don't get stretched. It just depends on how they look. 

 I had leftover potatoes for lunch and a nice fresh salad on the side. The potatoes were just plain with a little butter, salt and pepper.

 

The salad was iceberg lettuce, spinach, yellow pepper, white cucumber, and a tiny little Roma from the garden.

 

There was also a last minute addition of shredded Mexican blend cheese & imitation bacon bits, then drizzled with light ranch dressing.

 

A little while later, I had the last piece of birthday cake with vanilla ice cream and dry roasted peanuts. The cake and ice cream still just seemed to need something. I wasn't sure what, but decided to add a few nuts. It was so much better with the nuts, just what it needed.

 

 

Thursday was Zumba day. We had another great workout, dancing with weights. The first 2 songs we did without weighs, I guess as a warm up. I was worried on Tuesday that having used 3lb. weights, that I might regret it by morning, but I wasn't the least bit sore, so I used the 3lb. weights again yesterday. We finished up without using weights for the last couple of songs, a nice cool down and stretch. I did sweat more yesterday than on Tuesday, my hair was soaked and I had to keep wiping the sweat out of my eyes. It was great. No soreness this morning either, but I do think I will stick with 3's, that is quite enough for now.

For dinner I had a chili cheese dog made with a veggie patch veggie dog, a slice of American cheese, mustard, & vegetarian chili with beans. The mustard doesn't seem to go too well with this chili. I normally use mustard with homemade chili, which goes well with it, but I'm thinking I should lose the mustard when using canned. 

I also had onion rings, baked in the oven, the ones with the whole onion, which I prefer. Lucas still like the minced version better. He has just recently started eating onion and hasn't graduated to the whole version yet. Onion rings are one of the few things I eat ketchup with. I am normally not a fan of ketchup, but I started out eating onion rings with ketchup and mostly that's how I eat them.

BTW, I registered for an account with WordPress and I'm seriously thinking of switching to WordPress. Right now I am just playing around with it, to see if I like it. I will keep you updated and possible post a link to it soon, just so you can check it out and possibly tell me what you think. I suppose that's it for today. Happy Friday everyone! Enjoy your day. Comments are encouraged.

Missing My Banana Pudding Smoothie

It's chilly in the house this morning. My blood isn't moving yet. I was sleeping good when my alarm went off. I have an actual alarm now. I use to go to bed and several hours later I would just wake up, usually around 8 or 9 am. Now I have a hard time getting to sleep(except during the day) and a hard time waking up. My alarm is set for 7am, which is the best sleeping time for me. I am hoping my internal clock will get reset eventually. I do feel much better about blogging in the morning. I do some of it at night and finish when I get up. Before my eyes were always going together as I typed and the next day, I had no idea what I'd written.

Yesterday I had a peach smoothie for breakfast (after finishing my post). I added about a fourth of a tsp. of cinnamon to this one. It was yummy, but I am missing my banana pudding smoothie.

 

What's in the glass?

Canned Sliced Peaches

Vanilla Yogurt

Milk

Old Fashioned Oats

Ground Flax

Cinnamon

Ice Cubes

I had a different combination of leftovers for lunch. I try to mix things up differently so it doesn't get boring.

 

Au Gratin Potatoes, Green Beans w/ Peppers, & Pinto Beans

 

 

This afternoon we went to Mom's. The guys mowed the grass and DH worked on the bathroom. The walls are looking much better. I always hated the part of filling and sanding sheet rock. I don't even do that part and I hate it. I can understand why people put up wallpaper. 

Mom & I took Lucas to JCPenney so he could get him a pair of pants for work, with a coupon Mom had. All we could find were shorts. He went ahead and got a pair of shorts since the coupon was for $10. He also wanted some Sesame Chicken for the Chinese place in the Mall. We got it to go, along with some spring rolls for me and egg rolls for DH. I had planned to get a couple of veggie egg rolls, but they were out. Springs rolls are too small, not enough filling, but I got them anyway.

 

I ate 3 of the spring rolls while I was reheating some sweet potato tots Mom had fixed. These are very good and would be great with the seasoning I put on my spicy sweet potatoes.

 

We also stopped and got blizzards on the way home from JCP. I got the Banana Pudding Blizzard. I told you I was missing my banana pudding smoothie. It was good, but my smoothie is better. I just ate half of the blizzard and was miserable for a while. Ice cream kind of blows me up.

Yesterday evening was not the best for food, nutritionally speaking, but I do that occasionally. The worse part is, I also had a bite size peanut butter snickers bar and a handful of potato chips at Moms and also 5 or 6 peanut butter pretzels at home after the blizzard wore off. We'll call this off camera grazing. This is what gets me into trouble. Once I start doing that, I just eat junk.

That was yesterday, today, I may be going out with Mom & Lynda so, I'd better get something done around the house, in case they call. Happy Wednesday!