Alexia Sea Salt & Pepper Sweet Potato Fries Review

I managed to stay in bed for 7 hours, not what I was going for. I did not sleep the entire time, but it's still probably more than I've had at one time lately. I had coffee for breakfast; half caf. I didn't get coffee right away this morning. I had run away dogs to search for. I let the dogs out while I went to the bathroom and when I came out, they were gone. The back gate was slightly open, which I couldn't see from the back door. Luckily they eventually came back. They hadn't had their breakfast yet. I guess they didn't find anything while they were out.

I made coffee and reheated leftover cinnamon pancakes from yesterday.

I used butter and lite syrup on my pancakes.

While making breakfast I noticed a couple of big ants in my kitchen. I've been seeing them here and there in the kitchen for the last few days. I saw on an infomercial that if you put bay leaves out, the ants don't like them and they stay away. I haven't seen anymore today. Hopefully it's working. Now if I could get rid of the spiders (naturally).

I had the last of my succotash for lunch......

....along with a few Clancy's vegetable chips.

I made coleslaw for dinner to go with my Gardein Chipotle Lime Crispy Fingers and Alexia Sweet Potato Fries with Sea Salt & Pepper. The fries were very good. I love sweet potato fries. I do like their julienne fries with Chipotle Seasoning a little better, but if you aren't into spicy foods, you should try these.

These fries were perfect with the Chipotle Crispy Finger. They were pretty spicy on their own. I'm giving the fries 4 stars. I also had a coupon for these which I found online.

 

Now, I hate to cut this short, but I've got to get to bed. Have a great night/day!!!

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! 

Just Peachy

Today I woke up with the song "Don't Worry, Be Happy" stuck in my head. Someone mentioned it the other day and I watched the video online. I really didn't think about it anymore, but this morning there it is. I slept so well, I dreamed, not necessarily a good dream, but I dreamed and I hardly ever sleep that deeply. I didn't really want to get up, but I started thinking about breakfast and that got me going. I got up and fixed myself a Peach Smoothie. 

I bought canned peaches just for this purpose. I bought the ones in 100% juice, no sweetened syrup. Yes, fresh is better, but I really hate peeling peaches, which is one reason, I love nectarines, no peeling involved, just eat, of course I could have used a nectarine for the smoothie, but then it wouldn't be a peach smoothie, right? I did add a tsp. of raw sugar, but it didn't necessarily need it, but it brought out the taste of the peach, a little more. I would have used honey, but I used up what I had and haven't bought more yet.

Today is Zumba day, but I'm not feeling motivated yet. I am getting a jump start on the blog though, so that I can finish up early tonight without being too tire to think. Also the sun is out today, I am hoping that will help. 

This is the salad I had for lunch. Lunch was late. Just about time for lunch, DH decided to go to. I went along. I wanted to get some more veggies for my salad. I got a red bell pepper and some mushrooms. I decided to go to Patterson's while we were out. I got 2 big hot house tomatoes and several pickling cucumbers. The tomatoes need to ripen a little more, they were just picked today.

 

What's in the bowl

Spinach

Romaine

Chickpeas/Garbanzo Beans

Mushrooms

Red Bell Pepper

Cucumber

Onion

Zesty Ranch Dressing

Super yummy salad, bulging out of the bowl.

 

Look what I found in the garden, more strawberries.

I had them for my pre-Zumba snack. I'd used part of a vanilla Chobani for my smoothie this morning. I had the rest with my strawberries and some Berry Yogurt Crunch cereal on top.

 I had a headache most of the day. It wasn't terrible. It sort of kept coming and going. I kept wishing it would just go. I went on to Zumba. At one point is was throbbing, then suddenly went away about midway through the class. I was glad.

The headache returned about the time I got home. I fixed another Gardein Chick'n Scallopini. I sprayed a little pam in a pan and browned both sides. I think they smell good when they start to brown. Lucas had fixed some spicy sweet potato fries and we'd made some slaw before I went to Zumba, so I had my patty on a toasted hamburger bun with slaw and extra slaw on the side with the fries. I normally like a little carrot and green pepper in my slaw, but DH was going to eat some and he doesn't care for it that way.

I managed to over do the fries when I reheated them, but they were still good. I love sweet potato fries. They are so much better than just plain fries.

I took an ibuprofen which didn't get rid of the headache. It finally went away, but it the ibuprofen is what did it, it took about 3 hours to work. I didn't really get this done a lot earlier like I'd hoped, between the headache and sitting in front of the tv, I'm finishing up about the same time as usual. Even though I had a headache, I still enjoyed going to Zumba. I do wish I'd felt better, but the workout was still great. Now I'm going to call it a day and get in a few stretches before bed.

The Best Part Of Monday Is The Food

It's MONDAY! ...... and it feels like. I wasn't anxious to get up this morning, because I didn't sleep well. My energy was totally zapped. I made myself an Apple Crisp Smoothie for breakfast in hopes that it would give me a boost. I followed the recipe exactly today. I put the dried cranberries and a little water in the microwave for a few seconds and let the sit while I put the rest of the smoothie together, then I added the cranberries plus the small amount of water they hadn't absorbed. They blended up perfectly this time. The smoothie seemed better than the first time I'd made it.

What's in the glass

Fresh Diced Apple

Dried Cranberries

Chopped Walnuts

Old Fashioned Oats

Cinnamon

Ground Flax

Dannon Vanilla Yogurt

Milk

Ice Cubes

I may have gotten a little extra cinnamon in. It was a little more brown this time, I think, but it was delicious.

I have no idea what to call this salad, but it's nearly the same as the one I made on Friday, with my Spicy Sweet Potatoes and black beans. What would you call it?

 

I got a shot without the cheese, so that you can sort of see what's in there.

What's in the bowl

Spring Mix Lettuce

Crushed Pineapple

Black Beans

Spicy Sweet Potatoes

Diced Green Bell Pepper

Taco Blend Shredded Cheese

For the dressing today, I used a tiny bit of pineapple juice, lime juice, raw sugar, & vegetable oil. Maybe I will post a recipe for this, just so I won't forget how to do it, lol. It sounds strange, but it's really very good.

My snack this evening was a cup of Chobani Greek Lemon yogurt.....

 

.....with a blueberry doughnut hole crumbled on top.

 

I did another salad for dinner. Salad have really been good, since we are having such warm weather the last few days. I put a little leftover pasta salad on my salad tonight and added a little light Caesar to it.

 

What's in the bowl

Spinach

Spring Mix Lettuce 

Roma Tomato

Bell Pepper

Pasta Salad

I added the dressing after the photos. I also added a few chunks of white cheddar as a last minute decision. It was yummy! BTW I lost that one pound again. Fingers crossed I'll keep it off after all this.

Normally I like Monday's, but this one wasn't the best. I didn't feel like getting up today, I was totally zapped for energy and I've been working on the blog all afternoon, which hasn't gone smoothly. I somehow lost the entire thing at one point and had to start over. I tried Windows Live Writer yesterday and wasn't impressed. Today I tried Scribefire, which I'd found a couple of years ago, but didn't really have a need for at the time. For me, Scribefire is better than WLW, but has some glitches, which after giving up, I found work arounds for, so I may give it another go tomorrow.  Wish me luck. I'd really love some comments. Let me know you're out there. Yippee, tomorrow is Zumba day!!!

Easter Dinner At Mom's

I had planned to be up early this morning, but that didn't work out. I'm just not cut out to be a morning person. Maybe one of these days I'll be able to work mornings into my lifestyle. I love being up early. I know that from staying up until daylight, lol.

Today we had plans to have Easter dinner at Mom's instead of Sunday. It's sort of made the day feel strange or at least tomorrow will. I already feel like today is Sunday. For breakfast this morning, I made an Apple Crisp Smoothie. I added a little extra cinnamon. It had a lot of texture. It wasn't chunky, but I think it could have been blended more. I was sort of in a hurry since I'd gotten up later than I'd planned. I have a somewhat long routine for mornings and added to this were several things I needed to do before leaving.

I still enjoyed my smoothie. Yummo! BTW I lost another pound for a total of 4. Go me!!!

 

 

What's in the glass

Fresh Diced Apple

Old Fashioned Oats

Dannon Vanilla Yogurt

Milk

Cinnamon

Ground Flax

Chopped Walnuts

Honey (I used honey instead of brown sugar this time)

Ice Cubes

I forgot about the dried cranberries, I wanted to try soaking them first to see if they'd blend up better, guess I'll try that next time.

 

 After rushing around getting ready to go, we headed over to my DD, Lindsay's house. She and the kids rode with us today, then we were off to Mom's. Here's what was on the Easter dinner menu:

Turkey Breast

 

Spiral Ham

 

Tilapia, for me.

Deviled Eggs

Pasta Salad

Sweet Potatoes

Mashed Potatoes

Green Beans

Broccoli

 

Corn on the cob

 

Salad

and Rolls

 

This is a shot of my plate. I had tilapia, pasta salad, corn, broccoli, green beans, and a roll. Everything was good and I was thoroughly stuffed.

 

We also had Grasshopper Fudge Cake for dessert.

After giving my food a chance to digest a little, I had a piece of the cake. It was pretty good. I would have probably gotten a larger piece, lol, if I hadn't been so full. I loved the little Andes Candy bits on top. I'm so blind, I couldn't tell that's what they were until I ate them, lol. It looked like pecans to me. I also liked the hot fudge sauce under the whipped topping. Yum! I should have gotten a shot from the side. It's a minty flavored white cake with light green swirls topped with hot fudge sauce, cool whip with mint & food coloring (I think) and Andes Candy bits.

I even splurged for a cup of coffee. I hope I haven't gained back the 4lbs I've lost. 

I was so full when I got home, I didn't bother with another meal. There was a lot of finger licking and tasting while packing up leftovers. We had a pretty good day. Tomorrow is suppose to be pretty nice also. I'm hoping I feel as good tomorrow as I did today. If I weigh in an haven't gained any in the morning, it will be a good start. 

I'm also working on trying out Windows Live Writer for blog posts. I didn't have a lot of time to play with it today, but I did use the SkyDrive for my photos. If you've tried Live Writer or have any tips on blogging, I'd sure appreciate your comments. I'd love to improve the blog. Until tomorrow.

Spicy Sweet Potatoes Recipe

 This is one of my favorite ways to eat sweet potatoes. They are slighty sweet, slightly spicy, and extremely good. This is the only way my DS, Lucas will eat sweet potatoes. I usually make them at Thanksgiving, but they are great any time.

Spicy Sweet Potatoes

55 min | 10 min prep
SERVES 8

• 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes (about 5 cups)
• 1 tablespoons olive oil or canola oil
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  

1. In a zip-top plastic bag, toss potatoes and oil.
2. Combine remaining ingredients; add to bag; toss to coat.
3. Transfer to a greased 11x7 inch baking dish.
4. Bake, uncovered, at 400 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until potatoes are tender, stirring every 15 minutes.