Progresso Homestyle Minestrone Review

This morning was a rushed morning. I wasn't very rested. I'd taken a Melatonin, but still couldn't sleep very well. After several hours of tossing and turning, I was finally able to get to sleep, but unfortunately, it wasn't long until time to get up. I gave myself an hour and half to get ready, but I needed 2. I had dogs to deal with, coffee to make, and a shower to take, not to mention several other things. I got my coffee and a cinnamon roll to go. I didn't take time for them until I got to Lindsay's.

Today we had a whiny baby. Mary was not a happy camper for some reason. I think she just wasn't feeling well, but we aren't sure why. Nothing was obviously wrong. Luckily Lexi was very good and was hardly any trouble. By the time I left, Mary seemed to be feeling a little better. She'd gotten in a couple of good naps, some Motrin, and a bath.

I had soup for lunch, Progresso's High Fiber Homestyle Minestrone.

I am very impressed with Progresso so far. I do wish they offered more vegetarian options, but at least the ones they offer are pretty good. It had a really good flavor and didn't have any Zucchini. I was surprised. It seems like 3/4 of all vegetarian products contain Zucchini. I know there are a lot of people who love zucchini, but I'm sorry to say, I am not one of them. This soup does have spinach, pasta, carrots, celery, garbanzo beans, & kidney beans though, which I like. Oh, and there is also some potato. I may have missed something, but that's most of it. I ate the whole can and enjoyed it. I'm giving this one 4 stars. It's very good, but I still think my minestrone is better.

I had a couple of wheat crackers with peanut butter after I had my soup. I had one more a little later.

I also munched on a handful of pretzel M&M's when I got home before heating some of the leftover egg noodles and mixed veggies.

I watched Rango for the heck of it, after dinner. There was nothing else on tv and I also ate the last of the Doritos while I uploaded photos and watched the movie. The movie was pretty good. It's animated of course and the main character is played by Johnny Depp, who's voice is quite different at times. For an animated film is was pretty good. I probably wouldn't have wanted my kids to see it, but then I didn't want them to see Shrek either. It really wasn't that bad. No bad words, just a suggestion here or there and you might not want your kids going around saying "Son of a", even though the last part was never actually said. I'm still giving it 4 stars.

Now I'm off to bed with no time for reading unfortunately. Have a great night/day!!!

Progresso Black Bean Jalapeno Soup Review

This morning wasn't as bad as I'd expected. After going to bed late, I assumed I'd feel pretty bad this morning. Waiting to get my shower when I got up helped, I think. I also got up a half hour earlier than I had before. It was a good thing I did, since I wasn't just having a bowl of cereal before leaving. I'd decided to boil a few eggs to make myself an egg salad sandwich. I also made myself a huge cup of coffee, mostly decaf though. A little goes a long way with me.

I boiled about 5 eggs, adding some mayo and just a little mustard.

I lightly toasted my bread to keep it from sticking to the roof of my mouth. I hardly ever eat bread without toasting it unless it's homemade. Homemade isn't so bad about getting stuck.

For years I was never sure how long to boil an egg. I'd heard of 3 minute eggs, but I like my egg hard boiled and boiling one for just 3 minutes was never enough, at least not until I found the right way of doing it. Now I can boil my eggs for 3 minutes and I get perfect hard boiled eggs. The trick is to boil them for 3 minutes, remove the pot from the heat, cover and let them stand in the hot water for 15 minutes, after that I just drain them and run them under cold water until they are cool enough to peel. It does take longer than 3 minutes, but it uses less electricity, etc. to cook them and you get perfect hard boiled eggs.

After breakfast I headed over to Lindsay's to help out with the grand babies. It was good that I went, I suppose. Mary & Lexi were not feeling well today. Mary had tummy trouble and Lexi had a fever. A little Motrin fixed Lexi up and Mary was improving as the day went on. She spent the day swapping laps and taking naps. Rachel did pretty much the same thing, but wasn't having any trouble. 

I had Progresso's Frijoles Negros y Jalapeno (Black Bean Jalapeno) soup.

I don't hardly find canned soup that I really like. I usually feel the need to tweak the ones I like. It's also very hard to find vegetarian soups, even the ones that seem to be, may not be. You have to read the labels. It would be nice if they'd just label them vegetarian or have some sort of symbol stating it. 

I really liked this soup, no tweaking needed. It wasn't too thin and it had a good flavor. It was a little spicy, but not too spicy. There was corn and chunks of tomato and they weren't too skimpy on the beans. I ate the whole can (2 bowls). If I'd eaten crackers, chips, or bread with it, I could have eaten twice out of one can. I'm giving it 5 stars.

I had a few shortbread cookies for a snack.

For dinner I made a tofurky sandwich with peppered tofurky deli slices, colby cheese, iceberg lettuce, red & green pepper slices, onion, mayo & fire roasted salsa on toasted white bread.

I had a jalapeno pickle spear with my very messy, but delious sandwich.

I also had a couple of handfuls of raisins later. This post has seemed to take forever. I'd considered waiting until morning, but forced myself to getting it over with tonight. Now it's very late and I'm going to bed. I may just sleep through tomorrow. Have a great night/day!!!

Cornbread And Soup

Today I stayed at home to do a few things around the house. I slept in this morning. I got up, let the dogs out, and decided on breakfast. I went with a leftover pancake, slathered with peanut butter and topped with Lingonberries. I also had half a gala apple. 

This was a nice breakfast. I used a slice of the apple to clean up my butter knife, which had warm gooey peanut butter all over it. 

I had to finish up my post for yesterday this morning. Just as I went to upload photos last night, I noticed my internet was down. I waited a while for it to come back, but it didn't. I finally decided to just go to bed and finish in the morning. Luckily it was back up this morning.

After I finished my post and did a little around the house (the usual, laundry, dishes, vacuuming), I had the other half of my gala apple. 

 I had a late lunch. There was leftover linguine noodles in the frig along with a little of the spaghetti sauce, so I decided of finish them off. 

I topped my linguine with some Parmesan cheese and a shake or two of red pepper flakes. 

I ate the last piece of chocolate cake from the freezer. It was a pretty big slice.  It was too much. I felt sort of sick from all the sugar. I didn't eat all the icing. That is the bad thing about layer cakes, you have icing on top, in the middle and all the way around and the thicker part tends to have more icing than cake. I think a sheet cake has a better icing to cake ratio.

I made cornbread for dinner. I tried a little different recipe, using the one on the bag of cornmeal mix. It called for 1 1/2 c. of mix &  1 cup of  AP flour.  It also called for 1/4 c. of sugar, but I just did 1 Tbsp. and they also used 2 eggs instead of one, of course, I've always used 2 eggs, even in the ones that just call for one. The batter was thicker and I think I prefer my soft cornbread recipe.

I'd thought about having a grilled cheese sandwich with my potato soup, but decided to go with the cornbread. I like yellow cornbread. I did sprinkled some shredded cheese into my soup.

I was really craving the cornbread. I crumbled it into my soup. It was really good, better than I expected. I think maybe I should have been doing this all along.  DH just like his cornbread in milk. He doesn't want is contaminated with soup or chili. He also doesn't want onion, corn, sugar, or any other add-ins. He didn't noticed the tablespoon in this version. I didn't really notice it either. How do you like your cornbread?

I had a few jelly belly beans after my soup. My favorite flavors are juicy pear and buttered popcorn. There's also a bright red one I like. I think it's apple or something. I'm not sure. It sort of sour. What's your favorite flavor? 

Well that's it. I'm sleeping in again tomorrow, but I'll be seeing my girls later in the day. Have a great night/day!!!

Shiitake Mushroom Soup

It was a really nice day today. I woke up without being rushed. I made myself a banana pudding smoothie. I still haven't managed to use up all the instant pudding mix, so I also added a tsp. to the smoothie. It just added to the whole pudding theme. 

For lunch I had a salad with a Veggie Patch chik'n cutlet over butter lettuce, red & green bell pepper, & onion with light ranch dressing. 

I cut the cutlet into strips after heating it in the toaster oven until it was crispy on the outside. It was a nice salad. I originally wanted honey mustard dressing, but went with the ranch. I think both are good for this salad. I also considered a french dressing.

After my salad I was feeling a little sleepy, so I had a cup of lemon ginseng green tea, actually half mangosteen and peach. I had a few shortbread cookies with my tea.

Apparently the salad wasn't sticking with me. I just kept wanting to munch all afternoon. I went outside for a bit and cut my Liriope grass back. I do this because it will usually die off in the winter and start sprouting up again in the spring. It did look bad, but wasn't completely dead. I cut it back anyway.  When I came back inside, I was still feeling the munchies. I wanted something salty. I had some tortilla chips with salsa. These chips were Food Lion brand and they were definitely salty, too salty really. They did cure my salt craving. 

I made a stew/soup for dinner, using a potato, a carrot, half an onion, half a green pepper, some shiitake mushrooms, a tablespoon of soy sauce, water, vegetable sea salt, garlic, and a couple of teaspoons of cornstarch to thicken the broth. 

A brief summary of how it all came together..... I boiled the potato and carrot in the water and sauteed the onion, pepper, & mushrooms, seasoning them with the vegetable sea salt. I added them to the pot of carrots & potatoes. I mixed the cornstarch with the soy sauce and a tbsp of water and added it to the pot along with everything else letting it boil for a few minutes until the broth thickened a little. 

I toasted a piece of bread and broke it over my bowl of soup. I added another ladle or two to the bowl after eating about half. It was yummy. BTW, the mushrooms came from our friend John Herron, who raises gourmet mushrooms. You can find his site here or on Facebook. Thanks John!

After dinner I munched some more, having a handful of raisins and another handful of dry roasted peanuts. Sweet & salty, I can't help it. Have a great night/day!!!

Coffee Maker Mishap

It was definitely Monday. My day started off around 7:30. My alarm went off. I wasn't happy to hear it. I hit the snooze button twice, but I knew I needed to be up a little before the girls arrived so that I could start a pot of coffee and do some last minute baby proofing. 

I barely got my cup of coffee. I prepped the coffee maker  while doing several other things. I put in the coffee, the water and hit the brew button. I went to the living room to check for any baby hazzards, then I heard a strange hissing sound. It was coming from the kitchen. I went to see what it was. It was my coffee maker.....running coffee onto the burner, across the countertop and down behind the cabinet. I had totally forgotten to put the coffee pot on the burner. I grabbed the coffee pot and manage to salvage one large cup of coffee after straining it threw another filter to separate the coffee grounds from the coffee. It was a major mess, but at least I got one cup of coffee. It was mostly decaf anyway, but it was nice have a hot cup with my cinnamon roll.

It was one chaotic morning. Lindsay was running late, which was luck for me or I probably would have never gotten coffee at all. After reheating it twice and finally drinking it luke warm, I had breakfast. The girls at part of a cinnamon roll, but wound up eating cereal and cheese toast. They were being sort of picking about food today, more so than usual. I was happy that Lucas was home today to help out, but I let him sleep in until 10:30. My back and I were both glad when he got up. That's when I actually got to sit down and eat my breakfast.

By lunch time, things had calmed down a little. Mary was happy to sit in the high chair with Lucas beside her fastening the buckle over and over after having Lucas open it again and again. She also dropped clothes pins from her seat into a plastic mayo jar on the floor, but lost interest when she decided it was too easy. Lexi hid Easter eggs, while I made mashed potato soup from leftover mashed potatoes. I added milk, onion powder, salt, pepper, and butter. I had a few saltine crackers on the side. Lexi wasn't interested in soup and Mary fell asleep on Lucas' lap.

After fixing grits for Lexi. We had a few cookies. Lexi had milk with hers I had Lemon Ginseng green tea with mine.

I tweaked the soup again for dinner, adding frozen broccoli florets, pepper, and cream cheese for a broccoli potato soup. I had my piece of leftover broccoli cornbread with my soup. I have really been craving soup a lot lately. I hardly ever eat too much when having soup.

I had a little more TFM Men's Omega3 Energy Mix with the last of my dried blueberries for my evening snack.

I also had a cup of Blackberry Pomegranate Green Tea. Thankfully I survived the day and manage to get a cup of coffee. I am taking full advantage of my peaceful evening my hitting the sack early. Have a great night/day!!!

Monday's Come Early

Morning came early today and bedtime is going to be late. Monday's always come early, right? I normally get up around 7:30am when I have to keep the girls early, but I decided to sleep until 8am and even that seemed way too early today. I went with the most simple breakfast possible that would include coffee. I knew I would definitely need coffee. I still just had half caff. coffee (2 cups) and I chose a store bought cinnamon roll to go with my coffee. We bought a box of 6 from Aldi. We've been getting these for years. They are quite good, even though they seem smaller than when we first started buying them. I had one and the girls split one. Mary also had cheese grits and Lexi had a bowl of Life cereal, she also finished off Mary's grits.

The girls were undoubtedly feeling as tired as I was this morning, both were moving kind of slow compared to usual. We watched Tangled and a cartoon version of Puss in Boots. After watching some tv, Mary took a nap.

I took the opportunity to fix myself some lunch and Lexi decided to have some as well. I had a Lean Cuisine Sante Fe Style Rice & Beans and Lexi had macaroni and cheese.

I mixed up my rice and beans once it was done. I added taco seasoning to it as well as some shredded Mexican blend cheese.

I had some Clancy's Tortilla Chips and used them for dipping my rice & beans. No these aren't quite as good as Dorito's, but they aren't bad and they served the purpose.

After lunch Mary was still sleeping away, so Lexi & I did crafts.

One of these things is not like the others,  

One of these things just doesn't belong,  

Can you tell which thing is not like the others  

By the time I finish my song?

 This is the crafts that Lexi and I worked on today. We didn't quite get finish, but this is what we have so far. In case you can't tell by now, we decided to make Sesame Street character puppets. So far we have Oscar, Grover, and, of course Elmo. We are planning to make two of each, so both girls have a set. We ran out of time to work on our puppets. We also ran out of popsicle sticks.

Mary woke up right before Lindsay came to pick up the girls. She had mac & cheese before leaving & both girls had there usual piece of dark chocolate. They are still working on valentine candy.

After the girls left, I had half a cinnamon raisin bagel with peanut butter and topped with some of TFM's Men's Omega3 Energy Mix.

I was glad I had the half bagel. Dinner was late. It took a while to make. I made vegetable soup with a potato, a can of diced tomatoes, a carrot, a stalk of celery, half a can of pinto beans, some diced green pepper, frozen peas, frozen corn, water, onion powder (out of onion), garlic powder, basil, bay leaf, parsley, and vegetable sea salt.

The potatoes cooked up fairly quick, but the carrots took a while. It was worth the wait. I had 2 bowls and a few saltines on the side. The best soup is homemade soup.

Well, it's later than usual, so I'd better cut this short and get to bed. Caffeine is sure doing it's job. Have a great night/day!!!

Bremer Selects French Onion Soup Review

This morning I didn't get up much earlier than yesterday, but it was around 2am before I went to bed. I also didn't sleep very well. It was a little too warm for me. I sleep so much better when it's cool. One good thing about being unable to sleep is that breakfast is usually well planned. I had already decided what to have well before time to get up. I had planned to make myself a Banana Pudding Smoothie. I even added a teaspoon of the instant vanilla pudding mix to it instead of the vanilla extract. I may keep the vanilla in the next one just to see how it is. I loved how creamy and smooth the pudding made it. I used the last of the Chobani and my banana wasn't frozen. I do prefer the banana frozen, but it was still really good.

For lunch I tried Bremer Selects French Onion Soup. Love that is says Vegetarian, right on the front of the package. I still read the label. I can't help it. I'm a label reader. Are you? I like having an idea of what's in my food, even if it's something that's hard to pronounce.

Nutrition Facts
Bremer Selects (Aldi) - French Onion Soup

Calories     220     Sodium     1290 mg
Total Fat     11 g     Potassium     0 mg
Saturated     6 g     Total Carbs     18 g
Polyunsaturated     0 g     Dietary Fiber     2 g
Monounsaturated     0 g     Sugars     7 g
Trans     0 g     Protein     13 g
Cholesterol     30 mg          
Vitamin A     8%     Calcium     35%
Vitamin C     10%     Iron     4%

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

This is how the soup looks straight out of the freezer. There are two per package.

I had one. The soup comes with cheese and croutons already on top of the soup, but I made some extra croutons from a piece of pumpernickel bread. The soup is a little salty, but it is very good. The croutons included are quite soggy by the time the soup is cooked, but it's expected.

I would have preferred the cheese and croutons packaged separately, to be added at the end of cooking, but I really liked this soup regardless. If you don't like soggy bread, you probably won't care for it, but it's not that noticeable. There are lots of onions and it's cheesier than I'd expected.

It you throw in a few extra crispy croutons, you definitely won't think much about the soggy ones. I could have eaten the other serving, but one was enough to fill me up. I'm giving the soup 4 stars. It they start packaging the croutons & cheese separately, I'll up my rating. I do plan to buy this again.

We went out to Walmart this evening to pick up dogfood. I also picked up some more vanilla yogurt, Dannon this time. I eat a lot of yogurt, but I like it. We also got chips & dip to go with burgers. The guys had those "narsty" ones made with meat, while I had a MorningStar Farms Griller. I put some shredded iceberg on a bun, I carmelized some onion in the microwave with butter and put them on top of my burger that had melted muenster cheese over it.

We bought Heluva Good Fiesta Salsa Dip to go with our chips. I used some of the dip on my burger and added dill pickle slices last minute. The dip also gets 4 stars. It has little bits of veggies in it and a really nice flavor. Even kids would love it. It's not hot.

Since it's Friday, I treated myself to the Russell Stover Dark Chocolate Coconut Cream Egg I had in the freezer. I ate it while it was still frozen. It was pretty good that way. I also had a few raisins while uploaded photos.

Well, I'm not getting to bed any earlier tonight. Luckily I don't have to be up early in the morning, but I suppose I will have to be eventually, so I need to get this straightened out. Wish me luck. Have a great night/day!!!