Guilt Free Treats Are The Best

OK, so I have 1350 calories to “spend” each day and, I’m sorry, but I need a treat every night. Most of the time, I want some form of ice cream, so the Weight Watchers frozen ice cream treats are the best. So good! At between 90 to 150 calories a piece, I can usually “save” enough calories to get a treat. Usually I factor these things in when I plan out my day so I don’t over eat, thus giving up my treat.

If you haven’t tried them yet, you are missing out! My favorites are the Latte Bar, the Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich, and the Candy Bar (it’s like a Snickers Ice Cream bar and SO YUMMY!!!).

Microwave Cleaning Trick

I’m sure many people out there know the trick to cleaning microwaves, but I just recently learned it. Two words: vinegar and water. Our microwave was DISGUSTING. I am not sure how it got this way, all I know is I kept forgetting to clean it, or I kept putting it off and putting it off until one day I opened it and it looked like this. Eww. So today, as I am getting the house ready for my mom’s visit, it was imperative that I clean the microwave. I knew there was an easy way to clean it, but couldn’t for the life of me remember. Good thing google and I are such great pals. I looked it up and discovered all I needed was a glass bowl half full of water with a tablespoon of vinegar. I went ahead and added more like a 1/4 cup of vinegar just to make sure it did the trick. Then I put the bowl in the microwave on high for 5 minutes. The purpose of this step is to steam the baked on food particles so they loosen up their grip and you can, hopefully, wipe them right off.

So after 5 minutes, I opened the microwave, took out the bowl of water carefully and used dry paper towels to wipe off the door. Oh. My. Word. I was amazed at the ease of cleaning the door!!! I kept going and found it just as easy to clean the rest of the appliance. It was even easier when I went the paper towel with the vinegar/water solution. You have to be very careful when doing this step as well because the water is near boiling. I would just put a little corner of the towel in and then sort of fold it back on itself so it wasn’t touching any part of my hand.

Cleaning the microwave took literally 5 minutes (aside from the 5 minutes it took to boil the water). Now my appliance looks like this: If you have any cleaning tips, please leave me a comment so I can put them to use!

Soups, Soups, and More Soups

I am forming an addiction to soups. It started last winter. All I wanted for lunch was soup! Applebee’s has the best French Onion and Tomato Basil soups around. I have this problem, though, that for some reason soup coming from a restaurant tastes better than soup from a can or from my own home. Weird, isn’t it? Anyhow, so I would go to Kroger every day on my lunch break and get soup. The only problem with this is that it would take me 10-15 minutes to drive to Kroger, go in, get my soup, pay, and get back to Walgreens. And then there was always the possibility that they wouldn’t be serving a soup I liked. They tend to have Broccoli Cheese and Chicken Chili, two soups I’m not crazy about. Also, if it was rainy or snowy outside, I would not want to walk through the parking lot and get my pant legs wet just for some soup.

Taking these factors into consideration, I decided to try to find a replacement for the Applebee’s Tomato Basil. I had gotten Campbell’s Condensed Tomato a while back and did not like it at all. It tasted like the “broth” from Spaghettios. Ick. Then yesterday I spotted a new item at Kroger: Progresso High Fiber Tomato Basil. Worth a try I thought. So for dinner last night I heated it up on the stove and served it to Jeff and myself with a little grating of parmesan cheese. It was fan-tastic! So yummy!

I picked up some other soups from Kroger as well that I am going to try. I got another condensed soup: Chicken Won Ton. I had it for lunch today and was not super crazy about it. It really just tasted like condensed Chicken Noodle but in a different form. I wouldn’t write home about it, but I wouldn’t throw it out either. What are some of your favorite canned (or homemade) soups?

Fall Means Apples Right?

Fall to me means the coming of crispy, cool weather, bright colors of the autumn leaves, the Renaissance Festival, and of course peak season of one of my favorite fruits…apples. I have been longing for an Apple for years and I can’t seem to get one. Are you confused?

That’s because I’m talking about a Mac Apple! I want an Apple laptop more than anything right now…except maybe a trip to Hawaii. I have several loves in my life…my husband, my friends and family, Hawaii, and Mac computers.

I was teased with a Mac laptop when I was in college working for my university’s Marketing Department. I got to play with said laptop a couple hours out of every week and it was fan-freakin-tastic. Then, of course, I graduated thus ending my time with my precious computer. Back to boring PCs I went.

I currently own a Sony Vaio (thanks to my dear husband) and it has been a good computer aside from the cable used to charge the computer and the battery lifetime. The cable started “chirping” about a year after I had the computer and I had to get it replaced. Then, a year later, it started “chirping” again! I had to replace the cable again. Then the prongs on the one side of the cable messed up so we had to replace that part (luckily it was the cheaper end). Finally, just recently I caught the cable in the metal of my recliner and it cut a hole in the rubber, exposing the electric fibers of the cord so it doesn’t charge my computer anymore.

The cord not working wouldn’t be as big of a deal, but my computer holds a charge for literally 5 minutes. That is not an exaggeration. I unplug my computer, take it into the kitchen to log my food, and then after 5 minutes I have to go grab my cord. It is not fun.

Anyhow, I am going to get a new computer eventually, but I do not have the necessary funds at this point in time. If anyone wants to send me money or a computer, I would be willing to take it. It would be a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it right?

I do love fall though. It’s my absolute favorite time of the year. Yay FALL!

Foodie Finds

As you know, I’m on a mission to eat better, lose weight, and feel great! Part of this mission is to try new foods I have never tried before, or to try things I don’t like in new ways so I hopefully like them better.

1. New Foods

Couscous is talked about in many of the shows I watch on Food Network. The reason being because it is relatively nutritious and quick and easy to prepare. I bought a quick cooking version at Kroger and thought I would give it a try. It says to boil the grains in water, but since I am one to flavor every level of the dish (thanks, Giada!), I used chicken broth instead. All you do is bring your liquid to a boil, toss in your couscous, stir, cover it, and let it sit off the heat for 5 minutes. That’s it! The flavor of the couscous reminded me of cornbread. I thought it was good plain, but wikipedia says it is traditionally served under a meat or vegetable stew. I can see that. It would probably work well with chili also, since I typically think of chili with cornbread. Maybe that is something to try when it gets cooler out…well, even cooler than it is now!

I wanted to try quinoa because it is another grain often used on the healthy cooking shows. My bestie says it is pretty good, though there isn’t much she doesn’t like or hasn’t tried! I feel like every time I find something new I want to try she has already tried it several different ways! Maybe I have to go to Europe to find stuff she hasn’t tried. Ha ha. Anyhow, so I went to Trader Joe’s to look for quinoa because I couldn’t find it at Kroger and I dont’ have a Whole Foods near me. I found regular quinoa, but I also found a blend of grains called Trader Joe’s Harvest Grains. I made it later that night, but I think I cooked it wrong because it ended up being kind of hard in the middle. You know how rice gets when you either don’t put enough water in it or you don’t cook it long enough? It gets done on the outside but the inside is still kind of crunchy. That’s what it tasted like. I served it to both Jeff and myself and he couldn’t eat it. He told me it tasted like “bird food” which, after he said that, I had to agree. I’m going to try it again, but I can plan on only making enough for one!!!

Bulgar is something else I want to try, as well as wheatberry, but I am having a hard time locating both. I have yet to go to Health Foods Unlimited, though, so I’m not completely out of options yet. I know Whole Foods has them, but the closest one to me is in Cincinnati and I’m not making a special trip for grains! I’m going down there this Saturday, so maybe C and I can venture into one. She can point out all the good stuff she’s found there! 🙂

2. Old Food, New Ways

I am not a huge fan of fish. I never have been. I told myself a while back, though, that I was going to limit my intake of red meat. I love love love steak, but since red meat isn’t as good for you as chicken, fish, and pork I decided to try eating less steak and more of the trio. I love chicken and shrimp, like pork, and am getting better at eating fish. I’m also loving me some sushi lately(well, California Rolls and the shrimp sushi Carolyn got at the lake but you know). I decided to make fish the other day. I salt and peppered it and tossed it in the toaster oven to broil. Then I made a sauce out of chicken broth, soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, orange juice, and I think a little sweet-n-low. Mmm mmm mmm was it tasty. I let the sauce reduce and get all syrup-y and then poured it over the fish, added some brown rice, and I had a great meal! Yesterday I decided to try some Andy’s Fish Breading. C and I used to get this when we lived together in college. You just wet the fish, pat dry, and then coat with the breading mix. I did this with chicken as well for Jeff and threw them in a 400 degree oven. I put the chicken in first for 10 minutes and then added the fish to the pan for another 10 minutes. I was scared Jeff wouldn’t like it, but he said it was some of the moistest chicken he’s had in a while. I made a little ranch/hot sauce spread for him and it was like he was having healthy Buffalo Chicken! I will definitely be using the breading again.

I have decided to try my vegetables over and over until I find a way to eat them that I like. For example, I HATE broccoli. Ick. I have found most people either love it or hate it. Well…I hate it. I think it’s all those Chicken Broccoli casseroles from years past, Mom! I am going to buy a stalk of broccoli and try it in several different ways until I find one I like. I’m going to steam it using chicken broth instead of water, put parmesan cheese over it, and also try baking it in the oven. We’ll see what works. I read about some lady slicing an eggplant really fine, adding salt and pepper, and baking them in the oven until they formed chips. I’m going to try that too. Yum!

Finally, this is not a new thing, just something I found yesterday. My favorite peanut butter is Skippy Natural. My Kroger only carries the creamy version so when I was at Wal-mart yesterday and saw Skippy Natural Extra Crunchy kind I had to have it! I’m sure it’s been out for a long time, but I had never seen it. I got some Thomas Whole Grains Whole Wheat english muffins and had myself a good breakfast this morning! Yum yum yum.

**Why is it I can’t write just a short little blog? All my blogs are like books! Hope y’all like to read! That also reminds me…I hate when people spell y’all ya’ll. It’s not ya all, it’s you all. Y(ou)’all! Come on poeple! Ok. Rant over.

My Hair Saga

**Disclaimer: I apologize for the spacing in advance. Blogger is being stupid.**
Part One: My Curly Haired Mop I Call Hair

I have had hair issues for as long as I could remember. They have changed over the years, but there have been issues nontheless. When I was in high school, I had this horrible curly/straight thing going on before my sister taught me how to blowdry my hair and I was introduced to a straightening iron. I remember when I found the iron I thought it was going to change my life forever and my hair problems would be O.V.E.R. I was half right.

I have tried multiple irons over the years thinking they all worked fine. Then one day, I was at my friend, Jennifer’s, house and she let me use her roommates Chi. I was in love. I got one a couple months later for Christmas. A-mazing.

OK, so my straightening issues were taken care of…or so I thought. My friend, Chrissy, always had beautifully straight hair and I did not know how she did it. Finally, for my bachelorette party in Nashville, she showed me how she did it. YAY! Now my issues were over for good.

Part Two: Hilitin’ Addict

For my wedding, my sister offered to get me a HUGE discount on getting my hair hilited. I was so excited because I had never gotten my hair professionally colored ever. After he got through I was in shock because my hair was so light! I have had dark brown hair forever and he put almost blonde hilites in my hair. For a while I did not like it. It was SO different! But after I colored it back to my dull, dark brown, I looked at wedding/honeymoon pictures and realized I really liked the color!

Now what was I gonna do? I didn’t really have the money to spend on getting my hair done professionally again, so I found a boxed hair color/hilite at Walgreens and tried my hand at doing my own hair. I had dyed my hair with a single color before so I figured if all else fails I’d just buy another box of color if the hilites looked really bad.

They looked great if I do say so myself! So for years I did my own hilites. Every 4-6 weeks, I would reapply and everyone always told me how much they liked my hair. When I told them I did it myself they were amazed! I was pretty proud of myself.

The only bad part about doing my own hair was that I would slack on getting my hair cut. Since I have long hair, I don’t notice I need to get it cut very often. Whenever I would think about getting it cut, I would usually be at work or some other place that didn’t allow me to leave right then and get it cut, so I would forget. For years I went to Supercuts because it was cheap and I was just getting a trim so it wasn’t uber important I go to someone with tons of cutting experience. So months and months…and months…would go by without me getting my hair cut. I think my record was like 11 months or something.
Finally, after such a long time, I decided that I needed to start going to a salon instead of a Supercuts so I could have a decent hair cut and then book my appointments that same day. This would give me no excuse for not getting my hair cut. I went it and boy almighty was I damaging my hair by putting that boxed color on it! My stylist said that if I hadn’t come in when I did, she would have had to cut a lot more hair off than she did. She only had to trim it, luckily, but she told me to stop using the boxed color immediately. I knew it wasn’t that good for you, but the way I was putting the hilites on my hair was exceptionally bad. I would put them on the same hairs over and over again, basically killing the hair and making it very brittle.

She told me to wait for 6 weeks and then she could put color on my hair if I wanted. Six LONG weeks went by (you could clearly see my roots for like 3 of the weeks) and then I joyfully went to get my hair professionally colored. Yay! I liked the color she did, but it wasn’t light enough for me. She also put some red in it, which I thought was pretty, but Jeff was not a fan. I decided the next time I went, I would get it much lighter and without the red. I like being “blonde” now I guess! ;o)

Yesterday I went to get my hair done. I took a few pictures of hilites I had given myself in the past to let her know exactly what I wanted. Chunkier and lighter is what we came up with. She colored me and then put a toner on my hair to give it more “brightness” or so she said. After I was all done, she chopped a couple inches off my hair and I was on my way. I. Love. It. It is a little bright right now because I just got it done yesterday, but I am much happier with this hair color!

Paula’s a Thief!

Paula Dean stole my recipe. Thief. I happened to turn on Paula’s Home Cooking tonight and the episode that recorded was her “Sweet Endings” episode. And what was Mrs. Paula making tonight? Eclair Cake. She “tweaked” it a little…added an extra row of graham crackers and made her own chocolate topping instead of using the prepared frosting, but it was the same thing. Now everyone will know my go to dessert recipe secret. Oh well. Guess I may as well share my version of this recipe here. See? I told you I would post some recipes!

Eclair Cake

2 small boxes (or 1 big box) french vanilla pudding
3 cups milk
graham crackers
1 small tub whipped topping, thawed
1 container chocolate frosting

Line a 13×9 pan with a layer of graham crackers. Mix pudding and milk together and stir well to combine. Mix in the whipped topping. Pour over graham crackers. Add a second layer of graham crackers. Melt chocolate frosting in microwave until just melted. Pour in an even layer over the crackers. Put in the refrigerator to set. I think the best way to make this is to do it the night before so it gives the crackers a chance to soak up the extra milk from the pudding.

Tips: I tend to make this dish to take to parties, but usually do not want to leave my 13×9 pan. I buy the foil pans and “line” my glass dish with the pan. This way, the pan will be sturdy enough to take to the party without worrying about messing up the dessert, but you can easily remove the foil pan later that night and take the glass dish with you.

Also, this recipe is available on allrecipes.com and one poster suggested dipping the graham crackers in milk briefly so you wouldn’t have to wait overnight for them to get all nice and mushy. That sounds gross, but I promise it’s good.

I have never tried to change the recipe up, but you could do so many things with this recipe. You could make a banana cream eclair cake, you could do some sort of version using the cinnamon grahams, the list goes on and on.

Coffee and Ice Cream

I. Love. Coffee. Plain and simple. I don’t know how I got so addicted to this yummy beverage, but I could drink coffee any time of day. I really don’t drink it so much for the caffeine, but for the taste of it. I really hate that I have to use creamer though. It is the one drink I drink that has calories. I don’t drink alcohol often if ever. I don’t drink juice, smoothies, or milkshakes unless it’s a treat. All my beverages are calorie free (water, diet soda, etc). This is the one beverage I have to count in my calorie king total. It irritates me to no end. But what are you gonna do? I save around 100 calories for the early morning for coffee and another 100 calories for evening for my treat.

I have to have some sort of treat at night after dinner. I love ice cream too. Well, let’s be honest. I love all dessert…cookies, cakes, brownies (mmmm), ice cream, pudding. I find though that ice cream is the most satisfying. I like the Weight Watchers ice cream bars (especially the latte bars) and they are around 100 calories each so that works out perfectly. I am starting to “invent” new recipes for desserts around 100 calories so I will have more choices. Whatever I come up with I will be sure to post the recipes here.