Lunch

An extra long cheese coney and a Rt 44 grape slush makes the perfect lunch. I think there may have been some french fries involved too. Now I have a pretty purple mouth to show the client I'm expecting in a few minutes.

I just hope the brain freeze does not effect my ability to interview this person.

Oh and I'm hiding the humongous, gigantic Rt 44 cup behind my desk.

Recipes

I need help. I usually plan meals before going to the grocery store and I’m in a rut. Lately I’ve been making the same things over and over. Frankly, I’m tired of it. I am making a lot of pasta or rice dishes. Nothing wrong with pasta and rice, but I really need something new and exciting. Actually, it doesn’t even have to be exciting, just new. As long as it tastes good and it’s easy, I’m all for it.

I would love to be able to share some of my favorite recipes with you guys. I’d love it even more if you could share some recipes with me!!

If you’ve got an easy weekdayd meal, please send it to me. Then I will share it with everyone.

Saucy

Hey, lady at the fast food place! Did you forget that I asked for ranch because you forgot to put it in my bag? I asked for ranch because I ordered the spicy chicken thingies. You can't eat spicy without the cool. But here I am eating my spicy chicken thingies minus the cooling ranch. How unenjoyable. (Cue flames shooting out my mouth!!)

It looked a lot like this, only I'm not wearing a cowboy hat. Oh and there were spicy chicken thigies sitting on my desk.

October Beans

Well, I finally know what October beans are.

Hubby’s mom (Terri) offered to cook dinner for us last night. A couple weeks ago we stopped by her house and she had Hubby’s brother’s family over for dinner. It wasn’t a big deal to us, but she was all to pieces over it. So last night was our night.

I asked Hubby on Wednesday night what she was making and he tells me October beans. Now I’m thinking he’s joking because I’ve never heard of them before and his dad is there laughing about pigs feet and all sorts of silly stuff. I didn’t take him seriously.

So, yesterday I ask Hubby again… What’s for dinner?

He says, I already told you. (I’m feeling nervous at this point.)

Again he says, October beans and corn on the cob and he’s not sure what else.

I’m not a huge bean fan. I like green beans, pintos, kidneys and that’s about it. Beans are weird. They are firm but mushy and taste like grass or dirt if not seasoned properly.

So at that point I’m thinking I need to eat a big lunch because I’m going to be served October beans for dinner. Notice I didn’t say I would be eating October beans for dinner. I’m sorry, but I’m not one to eat something just to be nice. Sorry!!! My insides can’t handle it.

I asked a couple of people at work and they’ve never heard of them either. What are these mysterious October beans? I guess I will see.

We get there and we have BBQ pork chops (maybe those are the pigs feet previously referred to???), corn on the cob, baked potato, macaroni and cheese, AND October beans!! (Can we say starch-fest? Oh well, a little starch never hurt anyone, right?)

They are brownish beans about the size of kidneys, seasoned with pork. (As not to taste like grass or dirt) They were pretty good.

I told Hubby’s mom that I’d never heard of them before and of course I end up being the big dork. What’s new?

So now I’m an expert on these infamous October beans. I know exactly what they are.

Hubby’s brother’s family showed up a bit later and Terri offers them some of our feast. So I pipe up to encourage them to enjoy my newly discovered beans.

Here’s me… Hey, do you want some Oklahoma beans? (Terri looks at me funny), Oh, I mean, California beans. (An even funnier look) I mean…

October beans, Terri says.

Yes, right, October beans.

Oh yes, October beans!!!

Red Velvet Trifle

Here's a picture of the red velvet trifle I made. You just bake a red velvet cake and I cut mine into small squares. Then mix up some cheesecake pudding and mix in some cream cheese. You layer the cake and pudding. I also put mini chocolate chips on top of the pudding layers. This gives it a little "crunch". I got lots of compliments on it. It's really good!!!

I'm Triflin'

Yes, I'm triflin'. I made a trifle this weekend. It was really good!!! I used granola cereal, mixed berries and low fat vanilla yogurt. It looked really pretty in the bowl and it tasted good too. I should have taken a picture. I got lots of oohs and aahs. That's what I like.

I'm thinking of making a red velvet trifle for a Christmas party here at work. If it turns out, I'll take a picture.

Speaking of pictures, I still need to post pictures of my ornaments. I'm such a slacker!!!

Cake Ball Questions

Here are the answers to the questions I got about the cake pops.

Yes, you do bake the cake completely before forming into balls. Bake it, let it cool and then crumble into a bowl.

For 1 cake mix, add a little more than half a container of frosting. I would start with half and then add a little at a time. You shouldn’t need an entire container.

To clarify, once the cake has cooled, crumble it in a bowl and start adding the frosting. Mush it all together. Then you form it into balls.

You can melt chocolate or candy melts to dip the balls in. Just make sure you let them chill in the freezer for a while first. They are very moist otherwise.

You can use any cake/frosting combo you choose. I used a devils food cake and cream cheese icing. I dipped them in melted chocolate almond bark. Delicious!!! I have plans for some strawberry cake dipped in chocolate. Yummy!!! Maybe some red velvet cake dipped in pink candy melts. I also may attempt to melt some caramel to dip some more chocolate balls in and coat with nuts. I’ll post pics if I do.

Cake Pops

Here is a step by step on the cake pops I made today. They were really cute. I would make these again. And they tasted good to me.


Here is the cake baking in the oven. I had originally planned to use the cake out of the bowl to make a base to stick the pops in. In the end, the pops were a little to heavy for that.


Here are some chopped pecans.

Here is some shredded coconut

Here is the chocolate before I melted it.

I took the cake out of the oven and checked it for doneness with a toothpick. It came out clean!

I let the cake cool and then put it in a big bowl and started adding frosting. I basically just mushed it up with my hands. MESSY!!!

I rolled the mixture into balls and placed on a lined cookie sheet.

I melted the chocolate and then dipped the stick in it before sticking it in the cake balls.

Here are the balls with their sticks stuck in them. Now these are off to the freezer.

I didn't take pictures of dipping the pops in the melted chocolate or rolling them in the nuts and coconut. Sorry!! My hands were a mess and Michael was asleep on the couch. Here's the finished product. I got some floral foam to stick the stick in.

I had a basket big enough to hold all 3 foam blocks. You can see I did some plain chocolate too.

I put a little "hay" in the basket to cover the foam.

Here's an up close of the one rolled in nuts. These were my favorites.

I've got to say I'm really pleased with these. I got tons of compliments and questions. Yay!!!

This and That

I had something in mind this morning that I felt the need to write about. Now I can’t remember what it is. That makes me so mad!!! I have to write everything down or I just can’t remember. It probably helps that I love to make lists. I love lists. Lists for this and lists for that and lists of the lists I need to make. Lists of the things I’ve done and lists of the things I still need to do. Anyway, you get the idea.

Just as a side note, I am trying Harvest Cheddar Sun Chips for the first time. Delicious!!! These things are the bomb diggity!!! Yeah, I said bomb diggity!!! I do have one of the 100 calorie bags, which is probably a good thing because I think I could eat an entire full size bag!!!

I am going to Curves this afternoon. I went yesterday. I can’t tell if I’m losing or not. My eating is off and on, bad and good. I am going to stick with the Curves though. Even if I’m not eating great, going is better than not going. And it’s free!!!! Plus if I don’t go, I will feel like I’m wasting it even though I didn’t have to pay for it.

So I better get myself back to work. It’s almost time for lunch to be over. Poo!!

My Life Revolves Around Food...

We had a great weekend. We went to the Cougars football game on Friday night. Michael made some chili dogs for us to take to the game. He made the chili himself out of deer burger. It was surprisingly good. We grabbed some chips and had a nice little meal. And the Cougars won. Yay!!!

My sister in law’s (Red’s) mom made these cookies that were delicious!!! They had chocolate chips, nuts and coconut. Man, they were good!! Michael insisted that I get the recipe. So I asked and she tells me that she got a boxed oatmeal cookie mix and added some dark chocolate chips, chopped nuts and coconut. How easy is that?? And they taste great and it looks like you really whipped up something fancy. Fancy for cookies I guess.

The PC business is getting ready to kick off this week and I am so excited!!! I have several people that have offered to do parties in their homes or catalog shows. I am really hoping I can be successful. I don’t think I’m going to quitting my “real” job or anything. I would just like to be able to have some spending money or help with bills when we need it. Plus get a discount on PC stuff!! And Red’s mom offered to do a show for me. Yay!!

Grocery Adventure

I’m so proud of me!!! I made about 12 menus (some will repeat) based on my freezer items. I listed everything I would need to make those meals. Then I went through my cabinets to locate items I already had. I made my grocery list from what was left and added a few fruits for snack. My plan was to spend less than $100 for groceries to last at least 2 weeks. (If this sounds like nothing spectacular see previous post about how I just usually buy whatever I want from the store with not list)

As I said, I have about 12 different meals planned and a couple of them (steak, hotdogs) will probably be more like a once a week thing. That will stretch them out a bit. On Sundays we have lunch at Hubby’s parents’ house and then supper is usually just grabbing a snack, so that’s one day I don’t have to worry about. If we can keep ourselves at the house on Saturday, that will be the real test. I think if we plan to grill steaks that evening that will be a nice incentive to stay home.

Back to my plan… I thought about not buying any soda. I really love diet soda. It’s all I drink at home. Hubby has been on a water kick lately, but for some reason he still thinks I need to get soda. I like Kroger Big K diet cola with lime. Delicious!!!! And Hubby likes the diet citrus drop. They are pretty cheap, so I usually stick with those. I didn’t want to get everything at Kroger, so I knew 2 stops were in my future.

So off I went. I hit Wal Mart first and got everything on my list except produce, milk, soda and bread. My total was $71.83. That doesn’t leave a lot of room for my Kroger purchases. BUT I did purchase some new underwear that was about $9 and a huge water pitcher for Hubby that was about $6. That is $15 that I will subtract from my total because it wasn’t really groceries. That brings my total to $56.83.

Now I’m off to Kroger. And by this time I had to pee, so I’m rushing through the store. They say you shouldn’t go grocery shopping while you are hungry because you will make impulse purchases. What you should do it go to the store when you have to pee and those impulse purchases will be out the window!!

I digress… I had a coupon for .40 off frozen texas toast with garlic and cheese, but it was over $3 and I found a loaf of texas toast bread for $1.49. I got that and I will throw the stuff together my self!! I also steered away from my list and purchase some brown and serve rolls that were marked down to .69. Otherwise I stayed on track. My total at Kroger was $35.01. I even purchased 4 packages of key lime pie slices because I had 2 coupons. I love that stuff.

Anyhoo… that brings my grand total to $91.84. Yay!!! Mission accomplished. Now this may sound like a lot for some people, but I’m just getting going here. I plan to work more on this. And this should last about 3 weeks. Yay!!!

Meat

Now that my income has been reduced by about $513 a month, it’s time for me to buckle down. I pay certain bills each month and Hubby pays the others. I don’t have $500 leftover at the end of each month. Needless to say, I’m trying tweak my budget. One of my responsibilities is groceries and I’ve decided that I can cut back in that area.

In the past, I wrote down what I knew I needed and then went to the store. If I found other stuff I wanted, I bought it. It was not strange for me to spend $200 at the store. And I went to the store every 2 or 3 weeks. That’s $400 a month!! Then if I wasn’t planning a trip but I needed something, I would go get that and whatever else struck my fancy. That’s crazy. I’ve tried to watch it closer lately and I’ve been researching the weekly sales ads. My problem is I don’t get the newspaper and therefore none of those coupons. So I’m doing my best with the stuff I can find on the internet.

Just the other day, Hubby informed me that until I use all the deer meat in the freezer, I am not to buy anymore ground beef. I can handle the ground deer burger, but not the deer steaks. I think it’s psychological. If it’s mixed into spaghetti or tacos, I can’t tell the difference. Just eating a deer steak, I can’t handle it. But I’ve been given a directive, so I must follow it.

I think meat is a good place to cut back at the store, so I told Hubby of my plan to try to plan menus using what meat stuff we’ve got on hand. He decided that he would go and write down everything in the deep freezer to help me out. Thanks Hubby!! Plus he threw out some old stuff.

Here’s what he came up with:

3 packs wieners
14 rib eye steaks
3 bags cooked shrimp
1 bag pre-made hamburgers
9 packs deer burger
20 packs deer steak
2 bags cooked hotdogs on buns
3 packs country style ribs
1 pack split chicken breasts
1 Smithfield ham
1 pork roast
1 pack kielbasa
1 bag French fries
2 bags hamburger buns
2 bags hotdog buns
a few bags broccoli and cheese
Frozen pizzas popsicles

A “pack” is 1 store bought package or between 1 and 1 ½ pounds having been packaged at home. I have hotdogs on buns because they were extras from Hubby’s birthday. The buns are also an overage from that. There are also some random frozen meals and pot pies in there. What the heck? We could have steak once a week for 7 weeks before we use up the ones we’ve got on hand.

Think I can spend less than $100 for 2 weeks of groceries just buying sides to go with all the meat I’ve got in the freezer? I’ve been planning!!!

MSG

I went to a baby shower yesterday for Sweet Baby Girl. It was great. She got a lot of nice stuff. We had some snacks and cake. I sure do love cake. It wasn’t even chocolate and I still loved it. I am a sucker for frosting. I ate to much of it, I could feel that thick sugar floating through my veins.

Mommy Antics made some cheese slaw. For those of you that haven’t been blessed with this in your neck of the woods, it looks kind of like cole slaw but it’s actually shredded cheese. For mine, I use shredded swiss cheese, mayo, and a jar of jalapenos (finely chopped). Mix it up and you can add a little jalapeno juice to spice it up. You put it on crackers. It’s really good. I think Mommy may have used cheddar and swiss, mayo and onion. It was good too.

When everyone had their food and starting to eat, one girl asked who made the cheese slaw. When Mommy Antics claimed it, the girl asked her if there was any MSG in it. MSG? Isn’t that the stuff in Chinese food? Can you actually purchase MSG and put it in your food? And if you can, why would you? Isn’t it bad for you? Does it have a taste? Does MSG come in foods we eat every day? Apparently this girl is allergic to MSG and has to ask everywhere she goes. Oh my gosh, that’s like having to ask if there’s any salt in the food you are about to eat. Who knows?!?!?!?! I mean, probably hidden somewhere way down deep there is.

I think if I was allergic to something like MSG, I wouldn’t eat out anywhere. I would just stay home and cook my own MSG free food. This stuff could be anywhere at anytime and you would never know it. Heck, the people making the food probably don’t even know if it’s there. MSG should be banned in the United States.

OK, I’ve done a little research and this stuff IS like salt. And it IS in everything!!! It’s like a dang substitute for salt or something!!!! Be careful and make sure you aren’t allergic to this MSG. Heck, you could be eating it and not even know it. Then what?!?!?! You are sick and you don’t know why. You haven’t eaten any Chinese food, but that doesn’t matter, because it’s in everything. Remember all those chips you ate at the Mexican restaurant the other night? Bingo. MSG. Remember the wings you ate watching the big game the other night? More MSG. It’s in the sauce!!!

I wish I was still in the dark about this one. Now I’m going to have to do more extensive research to determine if this is affecting me!!!

Sunrise service was this morning at 7. The sun was coming up when we were leaving our house at 6:30, so we actually missed the sunrise. Oops. We had a potluck breakfast afterwards. My breakfast casserole was a hit. It makes me happy when I take something to a potluck and I don't take anything home. Then we had Sunday school and church at 10 and 11, respectively. Then dinner at MIL Terri's. Yummy!!! I won't even go into the details on that. It's always maxed out. And she even made a red velvet cake. And it was delicious.

We hung out there for a while and then went home and relaxed and then went to pick up Gavin. We played cards last night. I miss those days of playing cards. Hubby and I were addicted to those things when we first got married.

Remember, today is Easter!!! The day we celebrate Jesus' resurrection!! He died on the cross and then rose on the 3rd day. We serve a risen Savior!!!

Dinner with the Girls (and Hubbies)

Tonight the girls finally got together for dinner to exchange Christmas gifts. Only a few weeks AFTER Christmas. We went to our favorite Japanese restaurant. Yea!! They come to your table to cook. We usually get stuck with the “white guy” for our chef. A white guy working at a Japanese restaurant does nothing for the atmosphere. But not this time. We had a great chef. The meal was delicious!!! I ate so much rice!!!

Now listen to this. Hubby picked up the gift bags when we left the house. There should have been 3 bags. One for Pink Polo and 2 for Sweet Baby Girl. He only picked up 2 of them. PP got her gift but SBG only got the ornament I bought for her. How embarrassing. But she was so good about it. She opened the ornament and said thanks as if that’s all I got her. Then I told her there was more, but she couldn’t find it. So I took the bag and searched through it like some sort of mad woman. I actually stuck my head under the table looking in case it had fallen out. But alas, it was in the bag at home. Duh!!!

And as I told PP when I first noticed her purple cowboy boots, I must comment on them. At first I thought they were some sort of purple Doc Martens, so I told her to pull up her pant leg. (Keep in mind that me ordering her to lift up the pant leg is taking place as we get up from the table in the middle of the restaurant.) They are purple and cream colored cowboy boots. They remind me of the ones below, only cream instead of black. PP, of all my friends, only you could wear these. I could not pull it off. And like you said, if you could have found them in pink, you certainly would be rocking them too!! So I thought I would include a picture of some pink ones to make you jealous!!! I expect to see you in the these soon!!!

Glory x 2

Glory #1
Church was great. Pastor preached on repenting. We all must repent and turn back toward God. I mean, look around you. This world is going down deeper and deeper each and every day. There was a day when it seems like everyone we knew went to church and now most people don’t. People’s morals and values have really changed, and it’s sad. Even people that claim to be Christians or go to church don’t behave the way God wants us to. I know I have a lot to work on to live the way God wants me to and be a good example to others.

Glory #2
So we all know I’m trying to eat better. I’ve been eating low fat popcorn for my evening snack. I usually use the no calorie spray butter along with some Morton’s hot salt (salt that’s hot) for flavor. So I thought to myself, if I am going to continue this popcorn snacking, I need to come up with some different flavors for myself. So here’s what I came up with

Morton’s hot salt and garlic powder. Wow!! This is good. It’s spicy and hot and yummy!!!

And…

Cinnamon and Splenda. This tastes like cinnamon toast. For anyone not familiar with this el cheapo breakfast treat, here goes… Spread butter on a slice of bread and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Toast it in the oven. You can’t beat it. And that’s what my popcorn tasted like!! Yummy!!!

And yes, I did get my praise on.

What I Love About Sunday

Sundays are great. Even though they are pretty busy, I just love Sundays. This morning we got up early and went to a Sunday School breakfast at 9. There was some yummy stuff!! You just can’t beat sausage gravy over soft biscuits. Mmmmmm!!! Then Sunday School at 10 and church at 11. We were there til about 12:30. We had a baptism this morning. Praise the Lord.

We usually have lunch at Hubby’s parents’ house. His brother’s family comes too. Terri’s Country Kitchen always serves up something good. But this Sunday she didn’t cook since she cooked at the Sunday School breakfast. I don’t blame her. So we went home and grabbed some cold fried chicken out of the fridge for lunch. Then I took a nap. I woke up in time to freshen up and head off for evening service.

A nap always refreshes me and I can stay up a little later at night. Oh, who am I kidding? I can still go to bed at my regular time even if I do take a nap. Hee hee Hubby says I’m a dead beat and if I would quit “laying around smelling my own farts” I wouldn’t be so tired. Well, first off, ladies don’t fart. Duh!! And a lady needs her beauty rest, so no amount of rest can be enough. We must be beautiful!! Right?