Coffee And Donuts

This morning my decision on what to have for breakfast was pretty much decided for me.....by my strawberries. They were starting to look pretty bad and they begged me to finish them off, so that they wouldn't suffer any longer and so I did. As a result of their selflessness, I was able to enjoy an icy cold strawberry smoothie.

 

All creamy, bubbly, and delicious.

 

I tried to do good for lunch today. I had a small piece of the leftover veggie lasagna with a medium salad. I did sprinkle a little extra Parmesan over the lasagna.

What's in the salad

Spring Mix Lettuce

Cucumber

Carrot

Tomato

Green Pepper

Italian Dressing

 

I guess it's a good thing I did so well at lunch, because the rest of the day was not so great. I enjoyed the food, but I may be paying for it later. I had a piece of the leftover lemon pie for dessert. It was just ok, not bad though. I think the coconut was better. The lemon wasn't candy sweet, but it wasn't really tart enough for me. Mary sure enjoyed it though. Chobani's Lemon yogurt has me spoiled. I could sprinkle on a few graham cracker crumbs and be in hog heaven. 

  

We went over to Mom & Lynda's this afternoon. Dale and Lucas manage to get the grass cut before the rain set in. We had dinner over there. They guys had Chalupas from Taco Bell. I had an Amy's Bowl. My favorite one, the tortilla casserole and black beans.

 

Mom and Lynda picked up donuts from Dunkin and Mom fixed some decaf coffee. It's been forever, since I had coffee and donuts. I can really suck down some coffee if I have a donut. I couldn't decide which kind of donut I wanted, so I fixed myself a sample plate with a piece of 3 different ones.

Chocolate w/ Coconut, Plain w/ Nuts, & Powdered Sugar Cinnamon. They were all great with the coffee, but today's favorite was the Chocolate w/ Coconut. I don't think the 3 pieces together were a whole donut or is that just wishful thinking. The scales will tell the story, lol. I just hope the story has a happy ending.

Today wasn't exactly sunny, but it did peep through the clouds a little and so the dogs were able to lay out on the back porch for a while. I think they needed some fresh air after being couped up in the house for several days. They always sleep better and are less restless after staying out side most of the day. I'm not sure what the difference is. They do the same things out there that they do in here basically. I love when they sleep better, because, I sleep better. I don't have carpet in the house and so when they pace, I hear, click, click, clicking toenails on the floor all night long. That may not bother some people, but it keeps me awake. I turned on my bubble bath classics cd last night and my fan so that I could sleep and I did, but I prefer quiet. It's pouring down the rain right now, so I guess it's good they went out while they could. Hopefully we'll all sleep good tonight. Wish me luck. Happy Tuesday!!

Salads And Dressing Recipes

I slept pretty good last night. What a difference a good night's sleep makes. I wish every night were like that and I hope tonight is as good. I got up earlier than usual, not a lot earlier, but earlier. I already had breakfast planned. I planned to finish up yesterday's egg salad, but I decided to have it on half a poppy seed bagel instead of the pumpernickel, like yesterday. I was hoping the poppy seed bagel would be better with the egg salad. I wasn't particularly thrilled with it either. I love the poppy seeds on the everything bagels and I love the poppy seed crackers, I've eaten, but the bagel just didn't wow me.

I had a snack later. I wasn't sure what I wanted and it took me a minute to decide, but I finally settled on having the last piece of apple cinnamon baked oatmeal. It definitely ranked right up there with the Cranberry Orange Pecan baked oatmeal, which was awesome.

I did a lot of mopping today. I mopped the kennel dining room and the living room before having lunch. All the nasty weather we've been having has created lots of muddy paw foot prints. I've been spot mopping daily, but it really needed a more thorough cleaning, of course, you won't be able to tell it tomorrow, but I will. I really hate mud, however, I love salad. Yesterday's salad started something. 

For lunch I had another salad.

Asian Salmon Salad

mixed baby greens
spinachcarrots
broccoli
red onion
Asian salmon patties  (sorry, a work in progress, I haven't gotten the recipe refined enough to post yet)
chow mein noodles
red pepper flakes
Asian salad dressing

The dressing is one that I threw together, which was a little different from the Oriental Salad dressing, I'd made a while back. The salad and dressing were very good. I'm not sure which dressing, I liked better though, the Oriental or the Asian, but the Asian was definitely good, even though it was very simple.

Simple Asian Salad Dressing

1 Tbsp. Lite Soy Sauce
2 tsp. Sesame Oil
2 tsp. Seasoned Rice Vinegar

Combine in a jar/bottle/etc and shake vigorously before adding to salad.

Note: The dressing is sort of a single serving recipe. It made a little more than I needed, but maybe not enough for another salad.

My evening snack was very kid friendly. Do you remember "ants on a log"? I don't remember eating it as a child, but as an adult, I love it. I don't think either of my kids eat it either. Who says adults can't have fun snacks? I used the raisins from my dried mixed fruit, which I had already robbed of cranberries and apples for 3 minute oatmeal cookies.

 

My evening meal was also a salad, a delicious fruity salad with a sweet tangy dressing. Salads with fruit are truly yummy.

 

Apple Cinnamon Salad

Spinach
Fuji Apple
red onion
carrot
raisins
pecans

Apple Cinnamon Salad Dressing

1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Combine in a jar/bottle/etc. Shake vigorously until sugar and salt are dissolved and before adding to salad.

Note: This dressing makes several servings. I'm not sure exactly how many, but I had quite a bit leftover.

I've missed my salads more than I've realized apparently. Another good thing about today, I received my free sample of Dove Hair Care Daily Moisture daily treatment/conditioner and a $1 coupon for any 1 Dove Hair Care product. With the dry heat, I have really been needing a good conditioner. I guess this is a reminder to look for more free samples. Have you gotten any free samples and/or coupons lately? Cya tomorrow.

Cookies, Shopping , & Hopefully Sleep

It doesn't hurt my feelings at all that Christmas is nearly over. This has not been the best year for me; luckily everyone is going to Mom's this year. I got up this morning feeling rather crappy. I didn't sleep any better last night than I have been lately, even though I went to bed early. I also seem to be coming down with some sort of head cold or something; how lovely, just what I wanted for Christmas.

Mom and my sister, Cathy were coming to pick me up today and since I wasn't sure what the plan was, I had a strawberry Chobani yogurt spinkled with some corn flakes and cheerios. The strawberry is very good, but so far the pineapple is my favorite.

We went to Captain D's for lunch. I almost forgot pictures....but I didn't ha, ha. I got the catfish feast, which was 3 pieces of fried breaded catfish, broccoli, baked potato and hushpuppies. I could make a meal of their hushpuppies. I couldn't eat it all, so I got the rest to go.

We got in a little last minute shopping or I should say, Mom did. The crowds are too much for me. I was ready to go before, I got there. I like doing my shopping online or early in the morning while the rest of the world sleeps. The problem with the latter is that lately, I too am asleep. When the kids were young, I would drop them off at school and run to get in a little shopping before all the stores were crowded. I've even been known to hit Walmart with the kids in tow before school, but it was usually some sort of last minute emergency.

We went back to Mom's and she made up Spritz cookie dough and we loaded the cookie gun and shot out a few dozen, sprinkled assorted shapes with colored sugar and cinnamon red hots. We taste tested a few of the broken one. You know those have to be eaten or throw away and we didn't want them to go to waste, lol. The ones with the little cinnamon candies on them were the best. We even did a few with peppermint sugar, but they weren't very peppermint-y.

Red & Yellow sugar sprinkles

Yellow sugar and red hots

Peppermint Sprinkles

Silver Bells

The Spritz cookies are a family tradition. We've had these every year as long as I can remember.

The wreaths were my favorite. The cinnamon candies melted and some looked sort of like bows.

We fixed the Christmas blend decaf, but I was a little disappointed. It wasn't as good as I had hoped. I seem to have gotten over the whole flavored coffee kick. It had sort of a carmel-ly flavor, which I am not a big fan of. I should have brought the peppermint cocoa mix, but I may have to fight Lucas for that. I can always make my own with the peppermint syrup. I've been wanting to make some cocoa from chocolate, but I haven't gotten around to getting a recipe for it yet.

After I got home, I finished off my lunch time leftovers. I had a couple of the pieces of catfish, the rest of the potato, a couple of hushpuppies and some spinach and salad mix with Italian dressing. I saved a couple of the hushpuppies for Lucas. We love their hushpuppies. They are better fresh, but still good reheated in the oven. Microwaving fried foods is a big no-no as far as I'm concerned.

I bought me some Cold Eze which, I am a firm believer in, to head off this cold or whatever and I also got some Melatonin to see if that will help me sleep. I just got the 1mg version of the Melatonin to start out. It also has B6, which the others didn't have. I will let you know how that goes. I am always so tired when I go to bed and then after about an hour or two, I am wide awake, I toss and turn all night, dozing in and out until 5 of  6am. I sleep deeply after that waking every hour until I finally get up. I would love to sleep like I use too. I use to lay down, close my eyes and die until morning. That was when I was doing yoga, I really need to start doing it again.

Well, now I am going to get ready for bed, I am soooo ready for some sleep. In the spirit of Christmas, here's the link to Sunday's Singing Christmas Tree for those who haven't seen it or for those who'd like to see  it again. Merry Christmas and sweet dreams! Cya tomorrow.

BTW I got my sample of Folger's Special Roast in the mail today, or should I say Dale's sample, since I'm no longer doing the caffeine.

Feeling Good,

Oh yes, today was a good one. I woke up feeling great; must have slept good (NOT) I did feel great, I did not sleep well. I woke up off and on all night trying to think of ways to make my posts better and also thinking of everything I needed to get done. The last time I woke up, I felt good, like I'd slept enough and I jumped up and started planning the day. I started putting my breakfast together. I had more of the cranberry orange pecan oatmeal and vanilla yogurt and today I cut up half a Gala apple to go with it and sprinkled with the extra cinnamon.

Just as I began taking some shots of my breakfast......my camera battery died. I had undoubtedly forgot to turn it off after uploading yesterday pics. What was I thinking? Not that I wanted a dead battery for breakfast. Luckily the shots weren't terrible, they weren't great, but I think you can tell what I was going eat. If you think my shots are crappy, lol, you should see the ones, I delete.

After breakfast, I immediately began work on my living room. It has been somewhat neglected lately. I have an over crowded tiny living room and I had a tree last year, but somehow there was no room for one this year. I dusted, vacuumed, mopped and rearranged things. My living room was really upside down for a while. Sadly I am still not completely finished, but I have made a big improvement. The most time consuming part of it was figuring out what to do things. Hopefully tomorrow, I can get it back together and maybe even get my tree put up. I don't know about decorated, but at least put up.

I worked for a long time and finally stopped to put some lunch together. I had laid out some lasagna from the freezer yesterday and all I had to do was heat it. I fixed some frozen broccoli with a little Parmesan and a couple more of the brown and serve rolls. Normally I don't eat a lot of bread, but I was trying to keep it from going to waste. I have really had an appetite today.

I really felt good about today. I accomplished so much and I could see I'd made a difference. Sometimes you clean and a couple of hours later, it looks the same as before, especially when you have kids, but even if you don't. Sometimes even adults can be pretty messy. I live with 2 of them.

I did so good today, I rewarded myself with 4 little creme puffs topped with melted dark chocolate chips and crushed dry roasted peanuts. I couldn't help it, they fell out when I got my broccoli earlier. They were calling my name.

 Eat a creme puff!

For dinner I had breaded buffalo shrimp with green beans aka squeaky beans and fried corn. What, you say, the devil is fried corn? I said the same thing. It's basically creamed corn, but it looks more like homemade instead of that sweet soup you get in a can. It also had black pepper in it. I can make my own, cheaper probably, but it was good and I would buy it again for times when I don't feel like making my own. It comes frozen in a tube sort of like sausage or hamburger. You can fix it on the stove top or in the microwave. I would recommended thawing it before cooking on the stove top or putting it on simmer and covering with a lid until thawed. I may try the microwave next time.

I also got a free sample in the mail today, woohoo! It was Tom's Wicked fresh toothpaste in cool peppermint flavor. I will let you know how it is. I'm not a big fan of peppermint. I like milder mint flavors better. Have you tried Tom's toothpaste? What did you think? Be sure and check my other posts, if you like free samples or coupons, but let me know if they're no longer available so I can delete them. Thanks.

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