kids today . . .
You’ve heard it. Older people (older than ME, of course), talking about how undisciplined kids are today.
umm hmm.
In case you don’t feel like zooming in on the first photo, the 1953 library book plate reads:
“PUPILS MUST NOT WRITE ON OR MARK ANY PAGE OF THIS TEXTBOOK.“
And THIS is why it takes me so long to purge excess stuff from my house. I get a little distracted.
Years ago, I bought old books for decorating purposes. I didn’t really care about the title or author, I just wanted vintage books on the shelf. I’m over it. I’m purging. I kept the titles and authors which interest me, but this is one that didn’t. Well, it doesn’t NOW. I’m finished looking at it, so I’ll pass it on to someone else now. Along with all this stuff:
Except the cat. I’m keeping the cat.
Aunt Margie’s Cranberry Salad, with a pragmatic twist.
For years decades, we’ve made something special for my dad for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s his sister’s recipe for Cranberry Salad. I remember making it as a kid, as do my sisters, but since we grew up and moved out, my mother – who fondly calls this dish “cranberry crap” – took over the job again.
This year, since my mother is in Arkansas, my father asked me if I would make it. Actually, my mother also asked me if I would make it for him and offered to give me the recipe. My father thought it would be nice if I called his sister, my Aunt Margie and ask her for it. I hadn’t spoken or seen my Aunt Margie in over ten years – not because of any problems, just logistics and lack of effort. It was a great impetus for renewing my relationship with my Aunt.
We easily fell into a very nice conversation and as she gave the me ingredients and instructions, I realized. My mother had a different version of this recipe. We had not been making my Aunt Margie’s Cranberry Salad all these years. I’ll explain and show photos as I go through the recipe.
Ingredients:
2 bags of cranberries
2 apples (peeled and cored)
2 oranges
1 can of pineapple chunks (drained)
1 cup of sugar
walnuts to garnish
Instructions:
Wash the cranberries and discard stems and rotten berries.
Now here’s the pragmatic twist. My father delivered a hand grinder to me when he asked me to make this recipe. A hand. grinder. Serious flashback. I remember hand grinding the fruit and cranberries. Every. Year. What a mess. Cranberry juice everywhere. Seriously. A MESS. As soon as my sisters got old enough to use the grinder without losing a finger, I gladly passed the job to them. In their young naiveté, they thought it would be fun. By the time they realized it was a sticky and disgusting job, the cranberry crushing baton was completely out of my hands. When my mother took over again, I think she switched from hand grinder to blender. So over the years, the whole thing went from cranberry goo (in the grinder) to cranberry soup (in the blender).
Although resistant, I tested the grinder and my memory on the apples first. Yep. Just like old times. Applesauce anyone?
So I pulled out my handy dandy Oster chopper attachment.
And I tried again. MUCH better.
The red pieces in the applies are from the cranberries.
I chopped the cranberries, the apples and the pineapple using the “pulse” button on my chopper. Filling the container multiple times allowed me to chop in different . . . textures? Sizes? Basically, there are three different textures of cranberries and apples, ranging from finely chopped, medium chopped and barely chopped. I didn’t have to chop the pineapple very much since it started out in small chunks anyway.
That leaves the oranges. I made two changes which were a HUGE difference from how I made this as a kid. First, I zested the orange. We NEVER did that. NEVER. Didn’t even have a zester in the house growing up. I don’t own one now. I had to use a small grater. I got the sweetness and the taste, but not the texture. I’m buying a zester for next year.
The second difference with regard to the oranges? My Aunt Margie strongly emphasized removing the “white stuff” from the orange. It’s called the “pith” and while it is actually good for you, it tastes a little bitter. There are a few ways to remove the pith, but I just rolled the orange on the counter, peeled it and then cut away the white layer that remained. I also removed the inner white stuff – I’ve been calling it the “cartilage” of the orange. It’s hard and crunchy and bitter and it is THE reason I would never eat this cranberry salad. I hate that stuff. yuck.
Here’s the finished product sans the walnut garnish. I wasn’t serving any at the time of the photo and I didn’t want to waste the walnuts. I actually prefer pecans, myself. This can be made ahead and I’ve been told it freezes well too. Panara’s got nothing on my Aunt Margie.
My dad said he could tell the difference before he even tasted it, just from the way it looked. So could I. I tasted it, my younger sister tasted it, our dinner guests tried it – all with positive reactions. None of the kids would touch it. Big chickens. My dad took most of it home. I understand it’s great with vanilla ice cream.
I’m wondering, if I retain some of the fruit juice, heat it up and thicken it with cornstarch and stir it into the fruit mixture – would it make a good pie? I may test it next year in a Pillsbury pastry.
As always, I’m providing a print friendly version – CLICK HERE.
Find great recipes and helpful kitchen tips at Kitchen Tip Tuesdays hosted by Tammy’s Recipes!
And click on over to check out the recipes at Tempt My Tummy Tuesday hosted by Lisa at Blessed With Grace
Then Sings My Soul Saturday – Hay Baby & The Greatest Gift
One of my favorite Christmas CDs is It Feels Like Christmas Again
One of the coolest songs is:
Hay Baby – you may need to register with imeem.com (free) to hear it.
Another one of my favorites is this one:
Merry Christmas everyone. My Christmas was late and I’m still celebrating. Just without the stress or the deadlines.
For more Saturday music, check out Then Sings My Soul Saturday every Saturday hosted by Amy at Signs, Miracles and Wonders.
wassail
CLICK HERE for an UPDATE to this recipe.
When I was in high school and college, I sang at a few madrigal dinners. If you’re unfamiliar with madrigal dinners, here’s a sampling. (and no, I’m not in this video).
One thing was a constant in every madrigal dinner – wassail. It’s a kind of warm cider drink my choral director would make every year. I’ve made it on Christmas Eve for years. It’s a family favorite and a longstanding tradition. And it only takes about 5 minutes to prepare!!!
Wassail
Needed:
1/2 gallon apple juice
2 cups pinapple juice
2 cups orange juice
2 cinnamon sticks
2 teaspoons whole cloves
Instructions:
Pour all juices in a pot or crockpot.
Float Cinnamon sticks.
Place cloves in a coffee filter and tie with a twist tie. CLICK HERE for an UPDATE to this recipe.
Simmer for AT LEAST 30 minutes or more
(when it the smell starts to waft, you know it’s gonna be GOOD)
Enjoy!
I know some would cover an entire orange with cloves and float it in the wassail. My hat is off to you, but I can’t find my thimble. Actually, I haven’t looked. But you go ahead. More power to ya.
The bonus is the way the house smells while it’s simmering.
For a print friendly version CLICK HERE.
Find great recipes and helpful kitchen tips at Kitchen Tip Tuesdays hosted by Tammy’s Recipes!
And click on over to check out the recipes at Tempt My Tummy Tuesday hosted by Lisa at Blessed With Grace
Shannon at Works for Me Wednesday is on a blogging break, but check out her past issues for more great tips, tricks and recipes.
pragmatic cookies
I’ve mentioned before that we make a boatload of cookies at Christmas time? Let me clarify. FirstHusband makes a boatload of cookies.
Last year, he was busy and it was up to me to make the cookies. So, I made a boatload of . . . cookie bars.
Cookie bars, while tasting the same as cookies, are much more pragmatic:
No scooping one cookie’s worth of dough at a time.
No more hours of switching cookie sheets out every 11 minutes.
No more removing cookies from a cookie sheet. one. by. one.
No more waiting for the cookies to cool on little tiny grates.
No more broken cookies.
No more!
I mixed up a batch of our cookie dough, slathered it on a cookie sheet that happened to have a short edge all the way around it, and baked it all in one shot. All the “cookies” are the same size and height for easy stacking and packing. This year, I’m perusing my collection of cookie cutters for some interesting shapes. I know that will leave cookie remnants, but we’ll just have to deal with it. Such a chore, gleaning the cookie chaff.
I’m baking tonight and tomorrow, so no photos yet, but check back! And I’m employing behaviors incompatible with eating cookies – while I’m baking cookies. I’m out of red wine, though. It will have to be Super Bubble.
I had to bake brownies for a party yesterday, so that’s the photo you get first. Oh, and one more pragmatic thing: I cut the brownies with a pizza cutter.
Find great recipes and helpful kitchen tips at Kitchen Tip Tuesdays hosted by Tammy’s Recipes!
And click on over to check out the recipes at Tempt My Tummy Tuesday hosted by Lisa at Blessed With Grace
Want to learn cool tips and tricks from lots of different people? Click on over to Works for Me Wednesday hosted by Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer!
Would You Like Chocolate With That? Disney Chocolate Carousel
We haven’t gone to see any of the Disney resorts this year, I’m not sure if we will, but this is always amazing. Supposedly, this ENTIRE thing is edible.
The video doesn’t even come CLOSE to showing the detail. It truly is an amazing work of art.
If you have anything chocolaty to share, post and link to Would You Like Chocolate With That? hosted by Lisa at Stop and Smell the Chocolate!
a christmas story.
My favorite Christmas movie was on the other night, and I had an epiphany.
It’s the department store window. That’s it. It marks the beginning of the materialistic Christmas. Evidenced first by all the little faces pressed “before a golden, tinkling display of mechanized, electronic . . . joy” and then in little Ralphie’s face at four and a half minutes into this clip.
Here’s the original trailer:
And I know, it’s mean to like this part, but . . . but . . . they didn’t really stick that kid’s tongue to the pole . . . it was done with suction . . . so it’s not really mean . . .
Need a few more chuckles today? Check out Friday Funnies hosted by Homesteaders Heart!
“. . . therefore I quote” Marjorie Holmes
I read, therefore I quote.
This week’s quote comes from a classic fictional account of the Christmas story. I know! Fiction! I’m quoting Fiction! With the shower repair and the subsequent unexpected “spring” cleaning to recover, I’m a little late into the Christmas season. Rather than lament that fact, I’ve decided to “reset my watch.” Or in this case, my calendar. I got the idea from a story I heard (or more probably, read).
An American sports coach got a job coaching a team in Italy. Their observance of time was not exactly similar to an American’s observance of time. The coach had a daily schedule, which begain at 8:00 a.m. The Italian players didn’t show up in time to begin every day at 8:00 a.m. They arrived . . . when they arrived. After a few frustrating days, the coach devised a plan. He waited until everyone showed up. And then he set his watch back to 8:00 a.m.
That’s what I’m doing. I’ve consciously decided to keep my tree and decorations up into January. I’m not going to allow a disruption to shorten my Christmas season. I’ve decided to observe “Three Kings Day” on January 6th. Feliz Navidad!
On Christmas Eve, I’m singing “Mary Did You Know” and Nicole Sponberg’s version of “Breath of Heaven.” So, I’m a little focused on Mary’s perspective right now. These fragmented quotes from Two From Galilee: The Story Of Mary And Joseph
“But it was not the priest, it was Joseph who bent near in love and reverence, telling her, ‘ I can see its little head. You must strive harder, beloved. Bear down, bear down.’
She obeyed, gratefully. There was a great ripping and flooding and burning, and he came forth out of her, out of Mary, his mother. Thus in blood and pain he came into the world, this son of God who was also man and the son of man.
And Joseph lifted him up for her to see. And they looked upon him together and marveled at him, his wholeness, infinitely small and red and perfectly formed. And when he squirmed in Joseph’s arms and uttered his first cry, the thrill of all mankind ran through both of them, for this was life, human life, and they knew that a miracle had been achieved . . .
. . . She smiled in her half-sleep and pressed the hot little bundle closer. Yet what bliss, to direct the nipple to the lips, to be the source of its sustenance. Ecstasy flooded her, the ecstasy of a new mother, who finds herself with the child safely cradled in her arms after the long ordeal. The only reality is this wonder, this sense of harmony and love so intense it is scarcely to be endured, and the tears escape the eyelids and roll foolishly down the cheeks.
And so Mary rested on this night that her child was born. And Joseph kept watch, near exhaustion himself, but too excited to sleep.”
I’ll continue quotes from this book through the holiday season.
“. . . therefore I quote” Thursday: If you have a quote to share from something you’ve read recently, feel free to comment and/or include a link to your own “quote” post.
Need help making your link look pretty in the comment? Copy and use this code.
it’s never a good idea . . .
. . . to be in a house alone with four little girls under 8 . . . for three hours . . .
. . . and completely run out of toilet paper.
Thankfully, I found a half-filled box of these:
can anybody teach me . . .
. . . to French braid?
oh, never mind. It’s probably faster to just shave my legs anyway.
Have yourself a geeky little Christmas
FirstHusband is the head chef in this house on Christmas Day. He genuinely enjoys it! And he has a plan. It’s a serious plan. We all follow it. Wanna see last year’s plan? Click the link.
Did I mention he’s an engineer? We all just follow directions and the meal is always WONDERFUL and NOTHING is cold when it’s supposed to be warm or warm when it’s supposed to be cold. HE says the spreadsheet was necessitated after the year everything needed to be “plated” at the exact same time and we couldn’t pull it off. (I know he just wanted to build a spreadsheet.)
He literally FILLS the smoker with meat on Wednesday and gets up every 4 hours to tend to it Wednesday night. He comes back to bed smelling like mesquite and I could care less. It is SO worth it. He always smokes a turkey, but in past years he has also smoked pork loin, ribs, beef, lobster, prawns and brisket. This year, there’s a ham and a lamb shank in the freezer waiting their turn. It is going to be very, very good. He refers to it as “A Feast.” And he is correct.
So my contribution to Kitchen Tip Tuesday and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday? FirstHusband’s plan. And my contribution for Works for me Wednesday? Being married to a man who enjoys cooking. yep. That DEFINITELY works for me.
Find great recipes and helpful kitchen tips at Kitchen Tip Tuesdays hosted by Tammy’s Recipes!
And click on over to check out the recipes at Tempt My Tummy Tuesday hosted by Lisa at Blessed With Grace
Want to learn more from lots of different people? Click on over to Works for Me Wednesday hosted by Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer!
excuse me, you have glitter on your . . .
Although Tina has inspired this post, she has not inspired me to craft.
Crafts make me break out in clutter. And hives.
Last Wednesday, I took PinkGirl to the kid’s activities at church. They were making “Chrismons” and she took one look at the craft table and shot a wide-eyed, drop-jawed look at me. I shook my head, waved and mouthed, “It’s okay, go ahead.”
The mom standing next to her was confused until Pinkgirl told her:
“My mom says glitter is evil.”
Oh chillax, CraftyMoms. Nobody ever died from living a life without glitter.
And I let her make the Chrismons, after all. Then I said a huge thank you prayer to God that the kids were making Chrismons for delivery to a nursing home the following Wednesday – and NOT to bring home.
oh, and CraftyMom? you have a little piece of glitter on your face. oh, and on your shirt. and in your hair. and on your . . .
Then Sings My Soul Saturday (late) – Osborne Family Light Show
We went to Disney’s Hollywood Studios to see the Osborne Family Light show Saturday night. These 2007 videos are good, and they give you some idea of the number of lights and the work that goes into the light “choreography” alone, but there’s just NOTHING like standing in the middle of all those lights, surrounded by the music. It always gives me goose bumps.
Some find it too loud, but to them I say, plug your ears and complain somewhere else.
This is a video from this year, but the camera man tends to move around a little too much, so if you get motion sickness, be forewarned.
For more Saturday music, check out Then Sings My Soul Saturday every Saturday hosted by Amy at Signs, Miracles and Wonders.
“. . . therefore I quote.” Robinson & Staeheli
I read, therefore I quote.
Today’s quotes come from Unplug the Christmas Machine: A Complete Guide to Putting Love and Joy Back into the Season
“At first, some people have a hard time explaining exactly what’s wrong with Christmas because on the surface everything looks fine. But when they take a closer look, many of them realize that their celebrations lack depth and meaning. It’s not enough that Christmas be a family birthday party or the biggest social even of the year. They want to be moved by the celebration.
When they decorate, they want the result to be more than a beautiful house. They want to look around them and be filled with an air of expectancy . . .
. . . At Christmas, people want to reach down inside themselves and come up with feelings that are better, bigger, more joyful, more loving and more lasting than their everyday ones . . .
. . . But for most people, the real problem with Christmas isn’t that they’re spiritually bankrupt or that Christmas is devoid of meaning. It’s simply that they haven’t taken the time to define for themselves what’s most important about Christmas . . .
. . . While they have planned the details of their celebrations right down to the kind of cranberry sauce to serve at Christmas dinner, they haven’t stopped to ask themselves the all-important question: Why am I celebrating Christmas? They rely on habit, other people’s priorities, commercial pressures, or random events to determine the quality of their celebrations. But this is rarely successful. People need to make conscious choices, because Christmas offers them so many possibilities. It’s a time to celebrate the birth of Christ, the pleasures of family life, the importance of friendship, the delight of creating a beautiful home environment, the need for world peace, the desire to be charitable, and a host of other important values. When people don’t sort out which of these ideas are most important to them, the celebration can seem fractured and superficial . . .
. . . When people haven’t resolved these larger issues, they find it hard to make the dozens of small decisions that confront them every day of the holiday season . . .
. . . we’ve been encouraged by how quickly and easily people can decide what’s most important to them. All they need to do is to become more aware of the need to make choices, have some sense of what those choices are, and set aside a little time to reflect on them. With just a few minutes of prayer, meditation or conscious decision-making, most people gain a much better sense of how Christmas should be.”
The authors included an exercise at the end of this chapter to help readers take a look at all the values competing for our attention at Christmas. For a print friendly version of this exercise in PDF, CLICK HERE.
“To complete the exercise, read through the following ten value statements . . . cross off those that have no importance to you and add any equally important ones that we have not included. Then decide which of the remaining values is most important to you. Put a 1 beside that sentence. Then find the one that is next important to you and put a 2 beside it. Continue in this manner until each statement has been assigned a different number. Even a value that has a low priority to you can still be important. Remember: 1 is the highest and 10 is the lowest.
Christmas is a time to be a peacemaker, within my family and the world at large.
Christmas is a time to enjoy being with my immediate family.
Christmas is a time to create a beautiful home environment.
Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of Christ.
Christmas is a time to exchange gifts with my family and friends.
Christmas is a time for parties, entertaining and visits with friends.
Christmas is a time to help those who are less fortunate.
Christmas is a time to strengthen bonds with my relatives.
Christmas is a time to strengthen my church community.
Christmas is a time to take a few days off from work and have a good time. “
I’m going to get FirstHusband to work this exercise with me. I’m also going to ask FavoriteSon and PinkGirl to do it too. I think it will be an interesting and helpful process. Hope it helps you too!
“. . . therefore I quote” Thursday: If you have a quote to share from something you’ve read recently, feel free to comment and/or include a link to your own “quote” post.
Need help making your link look pretty in the comment? Copy and use this code.
A Honda Odyssey meme
I’m inventing a Honda Odyssey meme for personal research and camaraderie.
If you own (or have owned) a Honda Odyssey, you are tagged! And if you DON’T own an Odyssey, but you have experience in these areas, please, join in!
What year is your Odyssey?
2000 (old and paid for)
What’s your mileage?
Approximately 147,500. The windshield sticker says I need an oil change.
How many times have you moved your perfectly adjusted seat on accident while exiting the vehicle because your leg hit the slider controls on the side of the seat?
Approximately 1,460 times. That’s every day for the entire time I’ve owned it.
How many of you can no longer adjust the volume of the radio using the knob and must instead use the volume up and down buttons on the steering wheel?
Been doing that for over a year.
How many of you have replaced the back door springs?
Yep. I think it was a recall.
How many of you got a new, free transmission under recall?
Yep.
How many of you, when using the breaks first thing in the morning after parking outside in the cold, make loud, echoing screech noises as “the dew on your break pads is burned off by the friction.” (That’s what they tell me anyway.)
Yep. My neighbors LOVE me.
And lastly, THE Honda Odyssey question that brings out the stories:
How many times have you had the automatic doors repaired?
Once already, but I need them repaired again. Our current multiple workarounds are holding, hopefully till after Christmas:
1. Approaching the car with all the doors locked, I unlock the car with the key fob . . .
Side note. “fob?” I’ve said that word many, many times before without thinking about it. I have never typed it before and doing so prompted a Google search. Wikipedia says “The word fob may be linked to the low German dialect for the word Fuppe, meaning “pocket”, however, the real origin of the word is unknown.” okay, then.
. . . and turn on the automatic doors. I open the driver’s side auto door with the driver’s door control inside the van.
2. To get the passenger side automatic door open, someone has to open the front passenger door, reach back and unlock the auto door, and THEN pull the auto door handle from the outside of the vehicle – really hard. The door will then “automatically” open.
3. When I start the car, none of the dash lights indicate a door is open. When I put the car in gear, the buzzing begins. I can sometimes stop the buzzing by pressing the driver’s door control for that side to close the door. Lately, that has no effect and the buzzing continues.
4. So I turn off the automatic doors while the car is in gear. The buzzing stops and the doors won’t budge, even when I put the van in Park.
5. When we arrive at a destination, if anyone is sitting in the seat next to the passenger side auto door and wants to exit (Very rarely, these days. NObody wants to sit there.), the driver (me) must again turn on the auto doors with the driver control and sometimes the door can be opened from the inside. Sometimes not, requiring the passenger to climb out the driver’s side auto door or climb up to exit via the front passenger seat.
If the passenger doesn’t want to climb or if someone happens to be in the front passenger seat and has pity on them, they will get out of the van and pull the door handle hard from the outside, thus releasing the trapped passenger.
6. When everyone is to exit the vehicle, and the passengers have escaped using one of the above methods, the passenger auto door must be manually locked by reaching through the front passenger door.
Because this step is often forgotten, I have begun to turn off the auto doors, preventing movement.
7. Finally, I lock the van with the key fob and walk away.
Did I mentioned this van is paid for? That’s what makes it all worth it. I’m singing a little song to myself right now, to the tune of “nanny, nanny, boo, boo”
“I don’t have a car payment. I don’t have a car payment.”
And the back door isn’t broken. It’s just quirky. You have to unlock it 2 to three times with the key fob between trying to open it. Or, as FirstHusband has begun doing – use the key to manually unlock it.
“I don’t have a car payment. I don’t have a car payment.”
recipes and mini-vans and a shower, oh my.
I’m back! And I’m ramping up to meet the holiday scheduling “challenges” in our lives. It’s December 3rd!!!! There are currently only two advent calendars taunting me as they count down the days till Christmas in my house – with at least one more to be unpacked as we decorate for Christmas.
I mentioned a few weeks ago that my color coded calendar looked like a rainbow and I’m seriously focused on keeping things “normal” (whatever that means). We traveled to visit family in Georgia last week and I had to work Monday and Tuesday, so this is my first blog moment in nearly a week. I’ll be catching up on my blog visits in spurts. Oh. And while in Georgia, my windshield got whacked by a rock and now needs replaced because the crack is smack dab in front of the driver’s seat. I’m told that it will only take an hour and can be fixed in my own driveway. I REALLY hope that’s true.
But now it’s time for a little stress relieving stream of consciousness. oops. cold coffee. need to nuke (for the second time this morning and it’s only 9:13 a.m.)
Okay. Here goes.
Kitchen Tip Tuesday – LATE
If I’m not careful, we will eat out or grab takeout for the rest of the month. Monday, I had to work (thankfully, on Go To Meeting, and not on client site) and then I rushed to pick up PinkGirl from school at 3:00 p.m. (late) and then waited for FavoriteSon to saunter on over to the van at 3:36 – 6 minutes after 2nd grade bowling began (His punishment for being late was to ride past all his friends in my festive holiday “carstumed” van.)
I fed them snacks in the car to avoid buying food at the bowling alley, dropped PinkGirl off at bowling, took FavoriteSon home as he did homework in the car, changed from shorts and sleeveless because it was getting cold, put on some make up because I looked . . . asleep, took FavoriteSon – still doing homework in the car, back up to the bowling alley to pick up PinkGirl, drove to pick up FirstHusband at a nearby parking lot where he left his truck while we picked up dinner at Wendy’s (dropping my driver’s side Rudolph antler in the drive-thru) on the way to FavoriteSon’s first basketball game – across town – an hour before the game started because they had to hand out uniforms at the last minute. Got in the van to come home at 8:30 or so, drove 45 minutes home stopping for McDonalds for PinkGirl and at Checkers for FavoriteSon because they were “starving,” (again dropping my driver’s side Rudolph antler in the drive through) arrived home with PinkGirl asleep in the back seat . . . it’s December. See what I mean? And we only allow one extra curricular activity per kid at a time. I can’t imagine life with kids involved in multiple activities.
Oh, and it seems I stepped off the bleachers a little too vigorously after the game. I felt my neck “jar” as my foot hit the ground, so, while I’ve not suffered a complete setback, I did take a few steps backward on the road to ruptured disk recovery. I’m going to schedule another massage for Friday afternoon after a few more traction and inversion sessions. We are taking PinkGirl and three friends to Magic Kingdom on Saturday for her birthday and I’ll have to be standing on hard surfaces all day, so I’m going to be a little proactive. I’m also going to be good and NOT ride any roller coasters either. Bummer.
So . . . those are a few of our recent scheduling challenges. I said this was stream of consciousness.
I need some serious meal planning, which is what I’m doing today. Yesterday I went for a tried and true favorite, Cream Cheese Chicken. Today, we have leftovers and for tomorrow, I’ve already pulled out my “easy” cookbook.
I know Cambell’s soups aren’t the healthiest ingredients in a meal, but they’re a whole lot better than Wendy’s. Or McDonalds. Or Checkers. So, here’s the crinkliest page in this book:
Chicken-Broccoli Divan (click here for a printable PDF version)
Ingredients:
4 cups cooked broccoli florets
1 1/2 cups cubed cooked chicken
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell’s® Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup (Regular or 98% Fat Free)
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
2 tbsp. dry bread crumbs
1 tbsp. butter, melted
Directions:
Place the broccoli and chicken into a 9-inch pie plate. (I use an oval Corningware casserole dish.)
Stir the soup and milk in a small bowl. Pour the soup mixture over the broccoli and chicken. Sprinkle with the cheese. Stir the bread crumbs and butter in a small bowl. Sprinkle the bread crumbs over the cheese.
Bake at 450°F. for 20 minutes or until the chicken mixture is hot and bubbling.
It’s fast, it’s easy, and the kids like it too! In a bind, I can use frozen broccoli florets and a large can of cooked chicken breast. I use lowfat or low sodium soup, skim milk, lowfat cheese, and Smart Balance margarine. So . . . not SO bad for us.
This morning, I forgot to eat breakfast, so three hours later I just made:
5 minute Oatmeal.
One cup water, 1/2 cup old fashioned oats (not quick or 1 minute oats).
Nuke on 50% power for 5 minutes (I put a paper plate underneath because there can be boil over).
See?
Fast and easy.
Okay – I stepped away from the computer for just a minute – and it’s 4:40 p.m. Again. It’s December.
I saw a termite swarm in the back yard and our “termite guy” stopped by to check it out. There’s nothing near the house, thank goodness and while he was telling me how many termite colonies there are per acre in Florida and how the ones who fly are just looking for a girlfriend and not eating anything important, I got a client call and had to work for a while.
And if anyone remembers reading “With layers, I can choose to blow my hair out straight if I want, but I still have the option of wave or curls.” I’ll just tell you now. I did NOT blow my hair out straight today. I needed the 10 or so minutes for something else. I just don’t remember what the something else is right now. I’m going to have wavy hair for most of the rest of the year.
In other news, our new shower is almost done. I understand the only thing left to do is buff the floor. Check out our “broken” shower photos HERE. And now, our new shower:
Next, I paint.
But first, I take PinkGirl to children’s Christmas choir practice (we broke the one activity rule for this one), walk for an hour with a friend, attend my own Christmas choir rehearsal and then come home.
At the moment, there’s nothing on my calendar tomorrow. Maybe it’s a catch up day? I love catch up days.
New to Compendium? Peruse my topics & my “little known facts” page to see if we have anything in common, watch a short video of my testimony or check out my website, vocal samples or speaking samples.
Feel free to steal my ideas, ponder my musings, disagree with my rants, jump on my bandwagon, read my favorite books, comment, email me, or just lurk. Whatever works for you.
Fitness Log: April
April Totals as of 4/3
HIIT Incline Days: 2
HIIT Incline Miles: 7.5
HIIT Incline Hours: 2.5
Strength Training/Yoga Days: 1
Forearm Planks: 2Recent Comments
Julie Stiles Mills on my flesh may fail. Sarah on how you doin?… Sarah on my flesh may fail. Heidi on Holy Veruca Salt, Batman. Jessie Cruz on reading. thinking. cleaning. p… -
Where Ya’ll From?
-
