little known facts: I am a Peep Hater
I haven’t added to my “little known fact” list since January of 2011. It’s way overdue for some attention.
Here’s #30:
I would rather eat a Brussel sprout than a Peep. bleh. It’s like goo with glitter on it.
and again. bleh.
and #31:
I have absolutely no problem, however, purchasing Peeps for the sole purpose of blowing them up in the microwave. After seeing this on facebook, we’ll be new to “Peep Jousting” this year. As Larry the Cable Guy would say, “I don’t care who ya are, that’s funny right there.”
and a fitting end to a Peep in my opinion.
Like this:
I’m on a “reverse” diet.
That’s what FavoriteSon is calling it.
I’m trying to consume more calories on a daily basis. Sounds crazy. I know.
But the truth is, left on my own, I forget to eat. (CLICK HERE to read why.)
Case in point? I downloaded the “myfitnesspal” app and have been tracking my calorie intake since Wednesday, February 8th. On that day, my net intake was 820 calories.
820 calories?! I know. NOT good. I had no idea.
I say “net” intake because myfitnesspal calculates the calories expended and factors them in. Since my knee is better, I’m back to exercising every day. (My treadmill readouts actually indicate I’m burning more calories than myfitnesspal says I am, but I’m sticking with myfitnesspal or these numbers would be even worse.)
How did I even discover this? I walked 30 miles in 6 days and didn’t lose an OUNCE. Not ONE ounce.
myfitnesspal described it like this:
“Based on your total calories consumed for today, you are eating too few calories. Not only is it difficult to receive adequate nutrition at these calories levels, but you could also be putting your body into starvation mode. Starvation mode lowers your metabolism and makes weight loss more difficult. We suggest increasing your calorie consumption to 1200 calories per day minimum.”
After I injured my knee on December 2nd, I had to cut back on my exercise and I gained a few pounds. By the end of January, my knee was feeling much better so I set a challenging fitness goal for myself. I wanted to walk an average of a mile a day for the month of January. Problem is, since I didn’t set the goal until January 26th, that meant I had to walk 30 miles in 6 days.
When I didn’t lose even an OUNCE, I knew what my problem was. My brother-in-law,
a fitness trainer had already explained it to me. I just hadn’t been motivated to do anything about it.
Until I had to dig out my fat pants. I couldn’t fit comfortably in my clothes anymore and I had to move up a size in order to breathe when I sat down.
I set that freakish 30 mile goal to jumpstart a little weight loss.
THIRTY MILES and NOTHING? That just ticked me off.
So I downloaded myfitnesspal . . . and a new reminder app. I set multiple alarms on my phone and android tablet to remind me to eat. I already had an app, but its capabilities were too limited.
Here’s how my week played out:
Wednesday:
Goal Intake: 1200
Actual Intake: 1351
Exercise: -531 [Walked 3.5 (4.5% incline) miles]
Net Calories: 820
Thursday, I did better:
Goal Intake: 1200
Actual Intake: 1397
Exercise: -289 [Walked 2 (4.5% incline) miles]
Net Calories: 1108
And yes, I did notice that the reason I did better is because I exercised less. That’s not going to be my long term solution to this problem. I need to eat more.
Friday:
Goal Intake: 1200
Actual Intake: 1588
Exercise: -651 [1 Hour Yoga, Walked 3 (4.5% incline) miles]
Net Calories: 937
Saturday:
Goal Intake: 1200
Actual Intake: 1085
Exercise: -437 [Walked 3 incline miles (2 @ 4.5% incline 1 @ 5% incline]
Net Calories: 648
Sunday:
Goal Intake: 1200
Actual Intake: 1152
Exercise: -367 [Walked 2.5 (4.5% incline) miles]
Net Calories: 785
Monday:
Goal Intake: 1200
Actual Intake: 1439
Exercise: -123 [1 Hour Yoga]
Net Calories: 1316
Tuesday:
Goal Intake: 1200
Actual Intake: 1784
Exercise: -286 [Walked 2 (4.5% incline) miles]
Net Calories: 1498
Wednesday:
Goal Intake: 1200
Actual Intake: 1425
Exercise: -593 [1 Hour Yoga, Walked 3 (5% incline) miles]
Net Calories: 832
So how’s it working out? I started a week ago today and I’ve lost 3 pounds.
I realize my days have been pretty inconsistent, but I’m much more aware of my nutrition, so that’s progress! And although I HATE counting calories, myfitnesspal makes it pretty easy. FirstHusband joined too, so we’re tracking together. And the phone alarms are really helping. Hopefully, this new routine will develop into a habit and I won’t have to pay so much attention to all this.
I’m DETERMINED to be a good steward of this body God has blessed me with!
10am alarm just went off. I’m supposed to eat a snack now. bleh. I’ll do it, but bleh.
Like this:
blend until purple.
My daily addiction:
1 cup skim milk (90 calories)
1 cup fat free yogurt (any berry flavor) (100 calories)
2 fistfuls of frozen blueberries (1 cup = less than 85 calories)
6 frozen strawberries (about 5 calories each)
blend until purple.
An antioxidant, vitamin C loaded snack that tastes like dessert for around 300 calories!
I’ve spent decades of my life not eating fruit on a daily basis. I’ve gone weeks at a time without eating any fruit. Not because I don’t like it, because I really like most fruits. It just doesn’t occur to me to eat any. Multiple times per year, I make resolutions to eat just ONE fruit per day. Finally, I included it on my fitness log (see the sidebar to the right) to try and put myself in a situation where I have to be accountable.
I also have a problem getting enough calories, which causes my metabolism to drop. I tend to forget to eat.
Smoothies solve both problems. I’m actually consuming fruit on a daily basis for the first time in my life and making them is easy and takes less than 5 minutes, so eating doesn’t intrude on my day. It doesn’t hurt that I actually crave them now.
I stumbled upon the smoothie idea while trying to get PinkGirl to consume some sort of nourishment in the morning. Trying to get that girl to eat breakfast before school is a chore! A few friends suggested I try smoothies and since PinkGirl loves Planet Smoothie, I thought it might work. It only took about 3 or 4 months to finally hit on a recipe that I actually liked. (for ME, not her. She still wavers about what she likes. I don’t know if I’ll ever find a recipe she really likes.)
But I was having blender issues. If the Vitamix is the BMW of blenders, it seems my little Oster was the VW bug of blenders. It was either forming a little pocket of air at the bottom and doing nothing or it was spinning like crazy and only blending the bottom half of my smoothie. I had to add more and more milk to thin it out so the blender would actually blend the entire smoothie.
I put a new blender on my Christmas list.
Which really irritated me because I own an Oster Kitchen Center with nearly every possible attachment, similar to this one:
It transforms from a blender to a chopper to a slicer to a mixer to a juicer to a . . . it does everything but clean itself. We got one as a wedding present from my husband’s parents and about 10 years ago, it died and I replaced it at our church’s WHALE of a Sale. Since all Oster attachments are interchangeable with every Oster made, I even bought a newer countertop blender 
So I was not looking forward to having a different blender on my countertop. It was going to mess up my system.
FirstHusband surprised me with an early Christmas present: An Oster Milkshake blade for my blender!
My little Oster just got tricked out!
And THIS ONE
Like this:
poor jack.
I’ve murdered jack.
cut him up into small chunks.
Now, I’m boiling jack.
pureeing jack.
and freezing liquified jack.
soon I’m going to bake him in a few loaves of bread.
later this month, we might even turn him into soup.
poor jack.
(and his friend, Harry Potter.)
Check out the recipes – both with a print-friendly version in PDF:
Bread Recipe: jack-o-bread
Soup Recipe: Mom’s Pumpkin Soup
(After spending so much money on pumpkins, I can’t, in good conscience, just throw them away. Have you SEEN the price of canned pumpkin these days?) eek!
NOTE: If you BLEACHED your pumpkin to make it last longer – do NOT do this.
Like this:
anti-candy strategies.
How to make sure you actually still HAVE Halloween candy by the time Halloween rolls around:
1. Buy candy you hate.
2. Have your spouse take the candy to work until Halloween.
3. Have your spouse HIDE the candy somewhere in the house.
4. Buy replacement candy after you’ve vandalized your house looking for hidden candy.
Thankfully, at the present time, I’m closer to #3 than #4.
Cheddar Jack Cheez-its, you have no power over me. today.
Problem: I want a fistful of Cheddar Jack Cheez-its.
(Regular Cheez-its pose no threat to me. But . . . these are CHEDDAR JACK Cheez-its. They have Cheez-it SUPERPOWERS.)
Strategy: I’m going to get a nectarine. and if I still have room for Cheez-its, I’m getting a fistful of cherries.
(I may still want Cheez-its after that, but there won’t be room. That’s my theory anyway.)
Today, I’m going to be a good steward of this body God has blessed me with.
And I will not whine about it.
much.
nectarine gone. going to get a fistful of cherries now.
there’s no coming back from this.
NOOOOO! FirstHusband taught FavoriteSon how to make Ramen Noodles!!!
800mg of sodium a serving! It’s WRONG. wrong, I tell you!
It’s like a drug dealer – giving an unsuspecting innocent child a “free sample.”
It’s like Microsoft in the 80s – giving schools free copies of MS Office.
It’s like giving someone a single Lays potato chip.
I was coerced into trying them – about three noodles. That should do me. For life.
(I’ve been told they make a low sodium version, it’s my only hope.)
fine dining.
Made Cheater’s Chicken Parmesan tonight. Calls for chicken nuggets.
We used DINOSAUR shaped nuggets. Because we’re classy like that. (and because they were BOGO)
I may have thrown a little too much at our debt this pay period. We’ll be eating VERY frugally for the next week and a half. SUPER cheap recipes are hereby desperately solicited!!
Me to FirstHusband: “WHY did you buy Ramen noodles?”
FirstHusband: “It’s for me and the kids.”
Me: “You could have just gone to the Tack Shack and gotten a salt lick.”
FirstHusband: “It was only 17 cents!”
Me: “and worth every penny.”
I just can’t do it, even if they are only 17 cents a package. 800mg of sodium. PER SERVING. (2 servings per package.)
how to be the best mom EVER! (for a few minutes anyway)
Her children rise up and call her blessed…
Proverbs 31:28
…because she threw frozen chicken wings in a crock pot, smothered them with a bottle of barbecue sauce and cooked them on high for four hours selflessly dedicated four hours to cooking perfect, fall off the bone tender chicken wings dripping in finger-licking good sauce.
Prep/Work time? 5 minutes
End result? sticky fingers and happy kids
I’m ALWAYS on the lookout for “dump it in the crock pot and walk away” recipes, so if you have one, LINK UP or post it in a comment!!!
Click on over to check out the recipes at Tempt My Tummy Tuesday hosted by Lisa at Blessed With Grace MY past Tempt My Tummy posts can be found HERE.
Need more? Head over to Tasty Tuesday hosted by Jen at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam MY previous Tasty Tuesday posts are HERE. Tasty Tuesday posts prior to April of 2009 can be found at Forever . . . Wherever
baking is not my forte.
it’s a BOXED cake mix, for cryin out loud.
Attempt #1, which tasted like oil.
I was supposed to be baking a cake shaped like THIS for a children’s home:
My cake was so flat it would have looked like the bunny was roadkill. (sorry kids)
It was past midnight. I was leaning toward bailing on the bunny cake commitment.
Then FavoriteSon asked: Are you starting over?
Me: No. it’s too late to start over.
FavoriteSon, mocking me: “okay…but those kids can’t start over.”
fine.
So me and Betty Crocker, baking another cake at nearly one in the morning. The good news is that this cake didn’t taste like oil. It actually tasted like cake. Very dense cake, but cake. The bad news is that it was flat AGAIN. Like, pancake flat. Roadkill bunny flat.
So I switched gears and cut out the bunny cake shape in my Easter Bunny Cake blog post of 2009. The one that got over FIVE THOUSAND hits that day. My blog is getting insane traffic on this post and I had yet to make one of these cakes since my childhood.
I cut it out, iced it and PinkGirl decorated it this morning. Just so you can get a good understanding of the flatness of this cake, the mini-marshmallows littering the tray are taller than the cake.
and now there are sprinkles stuck to the bottom of my feet.
I suppose I should clean the kitchen floor, it appears cats don’t like sprinkles.
this is new. part 1.
Last week, as FavoriteSon and I were preparing to go to to a rehearsal before an evening church service, he said: “Mom. Get something to eat. I know you’re not hungry, but you don’t get hungry, so you need to eat something before you get a headache.”
He knows me.
I don’t get hungry these days. And it’s not that I don’t eat and then become ravenous and overeat later. I just don’t get hungry.
this is new.
Food used to be a driving force in my life. In the mornings I would wonder if I had the time or money to run through a McDonalds drive-thru for breakfast. Pancakes? A stack of three at least. Butter AND syrup. Chocolate chip pancakes? make it four. Eggs? They came with bacon, cheese grits and toast with butter. Bagels had two halves and the cream cheese was slathered. Then I would spend the morning thinking about what I would have for lunch. Standard drive through was McDonalds Quarter Pounder with Cheese, Fries and a Diet Coke – supersized or three tacos, nachos supreme and a burrito supreme from Taco Bell. Dinner was always big and I would eat out every chance I could get, whether I could afford it or not. Nachos. Burgers. Fried anything. Take home boxes? Never asked for one. Never needed one.
Food was my favorite hobby, a source of entertainment, a way to show love . . . a coping strategy.
now? not so much.
Now, my life is so full that I have to remind myself to eat. And when I say “full” I don’t mean busy. I don’t just fill my discretionary time with activity, I fill that time doing things I LOVE – and it doesn’t leave room for an eating hobby. Now, I set alarms on my phone and computer to prompt me to stop what I’m doing and eat lunch and snacks. Now, in my efforts to keep my metabolism somewhat stable, I’m trying to eat something every 3 hours or so, I carry snacks in my purse and my van.
and sometimes, my son reminds me to eat.
How did I get to this place? I have my theories, so check back for “this is new. part 2.”
Wassail. revised.
(I originally posted this back in December of 2008, but I’ve made a revision since then. I used to float cloves in a coffee filter, sealed with a twist tie. Not very Martha of me, I know. But I’m reformed. Check out the photo below.)
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. It only takes about 5 minutes to prepare, but allow it to simmer for a couple of hours in the pot if you really want the flavors to blend together.
Wassail
Needed:
1/2 gallon apple juice
2 cups pineapple juice
2 cups orange juice
2 cinnamon sticks
2 teaspoons whole cloves
1 orange (optional)
Instructions:
Pour all juices in a pot or crockpot.
Float Cinnamon sticks in the pot.
Here’s the update:
Take an awl and poke holes in an orange in any pattern that strikes you. Then insert the stems of whole cloves in the holes. Float the cloved orange in the pot while simmering.
When it the smell starts to waft, you know it’s gonna be GOOD.
Enjoy!
For a print friendly version CLICK HERE.
freezerburn soup.
So, what do you do with meat that’s gotten a little freezer burn because it’s been left in the freezer longer than it should have been? Don’t throw it away!
“Freezerburn Soup” is a favorite in this house. Here’s how it works:
Around the holidays, FirstHusband smokes an abundance of meat in the smoker because he can’t seem to use his smoker unless he completely FILLS his smoker. Then, for days after, we eat all the smoked meat we can eat . . . and freeze all the smoked meat we can’t eat.
Then, just before the holidays the next year, we realize we need to make room for this year’s abundance of meat, so we start pulling out what’s left over from the year before. Often, it’s on the edge (or over the edge) of freezerburn. Rather than throw it out, FirstHusband invented Freezerburn Soup.
He fills the crockpot with the the frozen meat, covers it with vegetable stock (we freeze stock and store it flat in ziplock bags). He turns the crockpot on overnight and we wake to a great smelling kitchen. (And usually a counter of boiled over stock, but today wasn’t too much of a mess.) Then he removes the meat, lets it cool, de-bones it, puts it BACK in the crockpot with whatever veggies he can find.
By FirstHusband: “Add some earthy spices like coriander, sage, parsley sometimes even hickory smoked seasoning. The mix simmers in the crockpot all day making the house smell great.”
. . . and torturing FavoriteSon with the waiting.
That meat you thought was a goner has now been infused with stock for nearly 24 hours and is moist and tender!
Second to last step, a couple hours before serving, he adds wild rice. Then in the last 15 minutes, he adds 6-8 crushed bullion cubes. (I’ve put in a request to go easy on the bullion – the sodium is a little much for me.)
And then, if we’re lucky, we end up with this: half a crockpot of freezerburn soup. Unless we’re really hungry and eat the entire pot.
There’s not really a recipe for this, it turns out different every time because FirstHusband changes the spices each time. He’s also used pasta instead of rice before. I wonder what orzo would do for this soup? hmmm.
Find more helpful kitchen tips at Kitchen Tip Tuesdays hosted by Tammy’s Recipes! Check out MY past Kitchen Tip Tuesday posts HERE
Find more ideas over at Works for Me Wednesday, hosted by Kristen at We Are THAT Family. MY previous Works for Me Wednesday posts are HERE.
Works for Me Wednesday posts prior to February 2009 are archived at Rocks In My Dryer.
dear pineapple: you do not intimidate me. anymore.
For my entire life – until this week, pineapples either came in a can, on a buffet or on a plate a restaurant server placed in front of me. “Real” pineapples were impenetrable. I mean, look at it. In my mind, in might as well have been a coconut. Or a big rock.
Then, I watched a devotional video by Lysa Terkherst on youtube. She voiced my same reservations about pineapple, and then casually proceeded to cut one up without any trouble at all. Where’s my “easy” button? So, ever the “good idea stealer” I passed up the container of cut pineapple at Sam’s Club, priced at $6.98 and bought myself a “real” pineapple for $2.98.
I cut off the top and bottom. And I didn’t need a chainsaw or a hedge trimmer, just a knife:
Then, I cut along the core:
Then sliced off the outside:
Took five minutes, tops. That was Wednesday afternoon. By Thursday evening, we were out of pineapple. Same thing happened to the pineapple my dad brought over for lunch on Sunday. Gone by Monday evening.
Ready for a pun? How easy is it to get my family to eat fresh fruit? Easy as PIneapple.
Find more helpful kitchen tips at Kitchen Tip Tuesdays hosted by Tammy’s Recipes! Check out MY past Kitchen Tip Tuesday posts HERE
Find more ideas over at Works for Me Wednesday, hosted by Kristen at We Are THAT Family. MY previous Works for Me Wednesday posts are HERE.
Works for Me Wednesday posts prior to February 2009 are archived at Rocks In My Dryer.
1/8 cup of chocolate syrup helps the vitamin c and potassium go down.
It’s sometimes a daily challenge to get my kids to eat fruit. In my house, when a kid stands in front of the fridge with the door open, this is my “go to” snack. If I offer this up before they head over to the pantry, they don’t have time to choose carbs over fruit.
Sugar-free chocolate syrup (we don’t have problems with artificial sweeteners)
Banana sliced with my favorite banana slicer and
Strawberries (DO NOT use the banana slicer on the strawberries or you’ll need a new banana slicer)
This never fails to disappear in my house. And it’s just too easy. The kids can go through a pint of strawberries in the blink of an eye. But that’s kinda the goal.
Find more ideas over at Works for Me Wednesday, hosted by Kristen at We Are THAT Family. MY previous Works for Me Wednesday posts are HERE.
Works for Me Wednesday posts prior to February 2009 are archived at Rocks In My Dryer.
we collect black bananas. really.
We go through bananas pretty quick in this house, but occasionally, we find a few black, soft bananas on our little banana hanger. Before they start to grow hair and drip, we pop them in the freezer, skin and all. We collect bananas for a few months until we have enough to bake our favorite banana bread. Then they get ignored in the back of the freezer until I feel like baking. Let’s face it, by the time I feel like baking, I always have enough to make two…three…maybe four loaves of banana bread.
This is what the bananas look like when we pull them out of the freezer:
I just put them all in a bowl and fill it full of warm water to thaw:
Then, we tear one end off of each banana:
And squeeze like toothpaste:
Add the remaining ingredients and mix!
I smell banana bread!!!
Find more helpful kitchen tips at Kitchen Tip Tuesdays hosted by Tammy’s Recipes! Check out MY past Kitchen Tip Tuesday posts HERE
Find more ideas over at Works for Me Wednesday, hosted by Kristen at We Are THAT Family. MY previous Works for Me Wednesday posts are HERE.
Works for Me Wednesday posts prior to February 2009 are archived at Rocks In My Dryer.
it’s easy to cook dinner. what’s difficult is to cook dinner EVERY DAY.
I’ve been cooking dinner. Every day. And I’m not talking frozen, microwavable meals.
this is a big deal people.
Yesterday, I made Pork Tenderloin Diane for the first time since I originally posted the recipe back in January.
It’s a fast, easy, cheap recipe with a light sauce made from deglazing a pan with lemon juice, Worcester sauce and Dijon mustard. Except I didn’t have any lemon juice. FirstHusband (a sauce man) said he would substitute Sprite, but that just seemed too sweet. I googled “substitute lemon juice” and found a suggestion to use vinegar – but half the needed amount. I was doubling the sauce for this recipe and it called for a total of four tablespoons of lemon juice so I used two tablespoons of vinegar.
PERFECT. The sauce tasted exactly as I remembered it and everyone liked it – even PinkGirl!
I’m definitely going to remember this because I probably won’t remember to buy lemon juice in the near future. I know me. But vinegar is a great substitute for lemon juice when used in small amounts.
And I wouldn’t substitute vinegar if I was making lemonade from scratch.
Me. make lemonade from scratch. yeah. that’ll happen.
Find more helpful kitchen tips at Kitchen Tip Tuesdays hosted by Tammy’s Recipes! Check out MY past Kitchen Tip Tuesday posts HERE
ahi and mahi
Loving our boat – and my husband and son – they caught a black fin tuna and 3 mahi-mahi on Saturday!
That translated to pan-seared Ahi on Saturday night, and baked mahi-mahi for lunch on Sunday, dinner on Sunday and dinner Tuesday – so far. Yum!
More mahi in the freezer – and we’re hoping to go fishing again this weekend! Thank you God for boats, good (and safe) fishing and cajun spices.
And thank you that this city girl doesn’t have to personally fillet these fish. ewww.
EASY Easter Bunny Cake
I originally blogged about this Easter Bunny Cake back in April 2009, but every year around Easter, it’s my most popular post. If you make it, post a link to a photo or comment and let me know how it turned out!
Growing up, my mom often made an Easter Bunny cake like this one for Easter. My favorite version of this cake is dark chocolate with white icing, covered in coconut!
Like a GIANT Mounds bar – but BETTER! (page down for more decorating ideas)
Bake a cake, any cake, in two round cake pans. (Mine will be dark chocolate, in case I neglected to mention that. There is no reason for me to eat cake unless it is chocolate.) Let it cool and then cut it like you see in the photo on the left, below. On the serving plate (my mom always used a piece of cardboard covered in aluminum foil), CAREFULLY arrange it like the photo on the right, below. I’ve also seen the cake arranged so that one of the bunny ears is lopsided. Very cute.
Then, frost and decorate! My mom always frosted it white and covered it with coconut shavings as a base. Dark chocolate cake with coconut – mmmm – just like a Mounds bar. But CAKE!
Here’s some more decorating ideas:
I really like the whiskers and mouth on this one to the left, but I think it’s because it reminds me of a cat – which makes me wonder if this is an easy convert to a black cat cake! DOUBLE DARK CHOCOLATE. (Although at that point, it would be so rich I wouldn’t be able to finish a piece.)
Scroll down and check out a retro, kid friendly how-to video from ZOOM, a PBS show I used to watch as a kid! A Zooma Zooma Zooma Zoom!
The one on the left below looks the most like what we made when I was a kid, and I really like the ears on the one on the right. Are those red hot candies?
This next one on the left has GREAT eyes! And they don’t look too difficult. Love the strong Red Twist outline of the bow tie on the one to the right. I think I would take my favorite parts of each of these guys and put them all together on one cake. Dark chocolate, of course.
pragmatic tips?
Perusing the book 1,628 Country Shortcuts
1. yeah . . . I don’t think so.
2. hmmm. I might just try that.
3. Hey, I already do that!
4. City girl say WHAT?
5. uh huh. I’ll get right on that.
and finally,
6. What the heck is rhubarb?
Here’s what I mean:
1. yeah . . . I don’t think so. Here’s an idea I will never feel compelled to try:
“To ensure great moisture and texture in a chocolate cake, add a can of sauerkraut (well drained) to your mix.”
Sauerkraut in chocolate cake? This is just wrong.
2. hmmm. I might just try that.
“Try this twist on grilled cheese sandwiches. Rather than buttering the outside of the bread, use mayonnaise (not salad dressing). It gives the sandwich a different texture and makes it less greasy.”
Anyone ever try this one? I only have Smart Balance mayo in the house. I wonder if that has enough fat in it. hmmm.
3. Hey, I already do that! This one actually works:
“To clean your microwave, place a wet paper towel in the oven and microwave for 4 minutes. The oven will easily wipe clean with the towel after a minute or two.”
Just BE CAREFUL because the paper towel is HOT. Let it sit for that “minute or two.” Although I use more than one paper towel and I only nuke it for a minute or two. Four minutes seems like overkill. I’m thinking microwaves are more powerful than when this book was published in . . . let me check . . . 1995? Really? 1995? Some of these ideas seem MUCH more dated than that.
4. City girl say WHAT?
“Anyone who has ever run after chickens and ducks out in the yard knows they’re not easy to corner. I finally bought a big fishing net. No more wild chases!”
I can just picture me chasing chickens in my yard with a giant fishing net. Not.
5. uh huh. I’ll get right on that.
“Slipcover a yardstick with fabric and use for cleaning hard-to-reach places, particularly underneath appliances. Then just remove the fabric to wash or shake out the dust.”
bwahahahaha!!! Me. Clean under the refrigerator. bwahahahaha!!!
6. What the heck is rhubarb?
“To take out any “bitter” taste in rhubarb before using it, cover it with boiling water, put lid on pan and let stand for 30 to 60 minutes.”
Good to know. In case I ever buy rhubarb. And cook it before it goes bad in the fridge. If I’m even supposed to store in the fridge. Which I’m probably not. Not that I know this. I’m Googling rhubarb now.
Got any “pragmatic tips” to share? Anything that might fall into one of my six categories? Link up or comment!
Find more helpful kitchen tips at Kitchen Tip Tuesdays hosted by Tammy’s Recipes! Check out MY past Kitchen Tip Tuesday posts HERE
Welcome! If you have time, peruse my topics & my “little known facts” page to see if we have anything in common, or find out what I do for fun & work by viewing my singing and speaking samples.
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Most Recent 10- everything matters.
- fragments of a Mother’s Day weekend.
- the foundation of my work ethic. “Would you like fries with that?”
- I don’t want to sing a solo.
- “Discovery Day” is right.
- Jesus said turn the other cheek. He didn’t say I had to stand within smack radius.
- Mythbusters question: Who packs a car better, a man or a woman?
- you see the big hat too . . . right?
- I’m going to stop being discouraged and be awesome instead. True Story.
- five minutes of crazy.
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Fitness Log: May
May Totals as of 5/21
HIIT Incline Miles: 4.5
HIIT Incline Minutes: 90
Strength Training/Yoga Days: 1
2 Min., 10 Sec. Planks: 3
Days Supplements Taken: 2
Fruit Servings: 2-
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Where Ya’ll From?
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