What happened to the weather?

We didn't go to the Oasis after all last night. For a few reasons. . . . when Jason came home from work early to take Kristen to meet Papa, he asked if I wanted to put off going to the Oasis until another time when it was sunny and we could watch the sunset. It had been cloudy all day and we knew the sun wouldn't break out like it had on other late afternoons this week. Not only that, but even though the forecast had said it would be 80 degrees, it had in fact turned pretty cool (read chilly) and was only about 59 degrees, and was drizzling slightly too! I had thought we might stay a while and listen to the live band there, but when I looked on the website it seems they don't start live performances (because they our outdoors I assume) until April.

So for all those reason, we canceled our plans to go to the Oasis and we went to Carrabbas for dinner instead. I had some yummy lobster ravioli and a nice Riesling to drink with it and Jason had Mr. and Mrs. C's Favorite! That was a pretty good choice for him because it was just protein and veggies, no stodgy pasta like mine ;-) We did indulge in dessert and shared some sort of brownie creation (it wasn't with icecream, but I don't know what it was called)

Jason had brought a cd out with him to put on in the car. As we were driving home I mentioned that the cd (by the group Live) reminded me of when we first started dating because we would play it all the time, and my sweet hubby looked over at me and said "I thought it would, that's why I brought it". Isn't that sweet?

So today while Kristen was still at Grandma's we went to Lowes and bought some plants for the front yard. We also bought some brick edging but when we got home we got a little disheartened when we realized the edging was not going to look very good because the yard slopes quite a lot. Basically we gave up trying to make it look right and I just turned the beds over so I can plant the plants out tomorrow. Jason is now having to do some work in the office downstairs, and Kristen is home now playing on her computer next to me. I'm gonna think about planning our meals for next week and writing out a shopping list.

The weather is making me feel kinda 'blah'. There's no sunshine and it seems it may storm again (speaking of which we had a huge thunder storm last night that woke me up around 1am!).

A Surprise!

Do any of you get this magazine? It's a free issue from Kraftfoods.com All you have to do to get one sent in the mail is sign up at their website. I've been getting this for a few months now and I love it. Also if you visit HERE you can see all the previous issues and click on them to see what recipes were includedin each magazine. I love the Kraft Food website too, they have great videos showing how quick and simple some meals can be. I especially like their easy grilled bruschetta chicken (see bbq videos on their site)

So anyway, this latest issue came in the mail sometime last week and in it was a recipe for taco salad. Now we'd just had this on our SB diet the previous week, but what I liked about the Kraft Food recipe was it served the salad in your own tortilla bowls. I figured I could use the low carb tortillas to make ours. There's only 7g carb in each one.

You scrunch up foil to make a 3" ball and drape the flour tortilla over it. Then you lightly spray with Pam, or any other oil spray you use and it says sprinkle with a little chili powder. I only added the chili powder to Jason's and on mine and Kristen's I sprinkled a little seasoned salt. To be honest I don't think you'd miss it if you didn't put anything on.

Here's the tortilla bowls out of the oven turned over ready to add the taco meat. I didn't follow the exact recipe for the meat. I like to add taco seasoning to ours, and I use ground turkey these days. I hardly ever buy ground beef now. Kraft recipes says to just add chili powder and salsa. I added the taco seasoning as usual and the salsa. Then it says to mix 2tbsp of mayo and 2tbsp of salsa together then toss that with lettuce and tomato. You add the lettuce mix to the bowl first, then the meat, then add shredded cheese.

I served this with a side salad too because there didn't seem much on the plate and I drizzled the mayo dressing on. Also added a spoonful of refried beans cos I already a tin open from giving some to Kristen the previous day. This was very yummy, I'd do it again. The only thing I wasn't impressed with was my tortilla bowl, it wasn't very crispy in the middle, but just on the outside edges. I don't think I could leave it in the oven any longer than I did as they were starting to turn brown. So there you have it from Den's Kitchen this week. . . . .

. . . . now about that surprise? Well Jason surprised both me AND Kristen on Wednesday night! First Kristen, when she asked if he would go to 'Donuts with Dad' at school on Thursday morning!!! It meant he had to get up when she did at 6.30am and go to school with her, because Donuts were served by the PTA at breakfast time in the cafeteria. OK, I know donuts aren't allowed on South Beach, but he could hardly sit there while everyone is eating donuts and not have one too. Poor Jason, he said it wasn't even that nice, and not worth the calories :-/ It was a little dry apparently, although Kristen seemed to enjoy hers, and she loved having her Daddy there with her.

And my surprise? Later that night Jason announced to me that he was taking me out to dinner on Friday night? Unbeknown to me he'd called his mom earlier that day to arrange for Kristen to go for a sleep over :-) He said he's taking me to The Oasis! I've mentioned this place before. There was a fire there a couple of years ago and a lot of the wooden decks were destroyed. They did re-open soon after the fire but a large part of the place was off limits until they got it all rebuilt. I've heard it's even better now.

It has fabulous views over Lake Travis and we've been a few times to have drinks and watch the sunset. Today is very cloudy though, so I doubt we'll see any sun, but I'm just tickled pink that my sweet hubby was so thoughtful to do all this without even asking me.

I just got back from having coffee with my friend Cindy. Did a little shopping at Target and I'll be heading out again in an hour to pick up Kristen. Then I'll be getting ready for my hot date tonight ;-)

Have a great weekend!

Did you miss me?

Let's play catch up! This week has gotten away from me, I can't believe it's already Thursday. I just couldn't get motivated to blog after Monday, the days as usual seemed to go too fast.

I'll share with you a couple of pictures I took last weekend. I think I mentioned that we did a little yard work before Easter. Jason and I wanted to try and clean out some of the veggie beds from last year. You'll remember what a disappointing time we had with the veg that never grew.... the 'crappy' soil etc! Jason was so disheartened that he just let it all go. The beds got over run with weeds and grass. Except one of them that I had tried to clear out at the end of last summer. That was the one we cleaned up this past weekend. We bought some manure to add to the soil in the hope it would help and we bought a couple of tomato plants and peppers and some herbs.

First I have to show you the parsley that is in one of the beds. This has been there all year and just keeps growing. Strange when nothing else seemed to grow in that stuff. Jason says it's because it's roots finally made it through the 'yuck' soil and in to our own good soil that is in the yard.

As you can see it seems to be thriving.

Above is a tomato plant I bought at the grocery store last week. It's still in it's own pot but it's sitting on top of a big planer I have on the patio. It's a patio tomato but right now I don't know whether to replant it (the soil in the planter is the yuck stuff too!) or just leave it in here for a while. It already has some little green tomatoes on it.

Here is the bed we cleaned out with the small tomato and pepper plants in it. There's also cilantro, flat leaf parsley, basil and mint planted in there.

And here's a larger view of the rest of the 'messy' beds. We have talked to a work crew in the neighborhood and they've agreed to come in and clear out the beds for us next weekend. Our neighbors were hiring them to do some planters in their back yard and they sent the guy over to talk to us cos I'd told them we needed stuff doing. It's hard for Jason to find the time (and of course he doesn't like doing it) when he's working two jobs.

So what else has been going on this week? Well it's week 2 on the beach for Jason. I'm happy to say last week he lost about 4lb, and that's with going to Chuy's midweek for lunch and having 2 or 3 beers on Easter Sunday, plus Easter dinner. This week is going ok, although he had Chuy's again yesterday, so I think it's gonna be a slow process :-/

I have some food pics to share with you but I'll leave that for tomorrow so this post doesn't get too long. I have to go out this morning for library duty. I just hope someone comes in to take out a book or I'll once again feel like I've wasted my time!

Hope you all have a great day.

More Easter Pics!

I hope you all had a lovely day yesterday. I know we did. We left for church at 10.30am and didn't come home until after 5pm! Grandma did a lovely Easter dinner with Ham, garlic potatoes, cheese and broccoli casserole, spinach salad and green jello salad. We had yummy apple and caramel cheesecake for dessert! The tulips to the left were the lovely center piece on the table.

Here's our little princess ready to go to church. I had thought to post a picture of her first easter, but I need to resize it, so I might do that later.

Here are some pictures of the egg hunt!

Above: Kristen had spied the basket the Easter Bunny left. It had a Kangaroo Webkinz in it, Diego color by numbers, Peter Rabbit chocolates, Pez candy and a few other goodies. Boo was on a mad dash to get to it before Kristen!

Kristen found another egg - Boo's wondering where it came from!

And Easter Bunny left a new umbrella too - perfect cos Kristen's other one had a few spokes broken and was really quite unusable. Thank You Easter Bunny, you sure made one little girl very happy :-)

He Is Risen!

The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you."
Matthew 28:5-7

Easter Bunny came to our house this morning:-)

We'll be off to church later this morning, to celebrate the real reason for this day. Jesus died for us, so that we may have eternal life and not be separated from God. I wish you all a blessed Easter Sonday.

Just a quick post. . . . . . .

It looks like I haven't posted since Wednesday, but I actually posted my last entry on Thursday, so I've only missed one day! I wrote some of Thursday's post on Wednesday night and saved it to draft. I guess it must still retain the date of when you first started the post? I know Sadie just mentioned something about setting the date when you pre-post - might have to ask her about that.

I just wanted to pop on here quickly (it's Saturday night and I'm about to put my feet up and watch a movie with Jason) and wish everyone a blessed Easter Sunday for tomorrow. I hope you have some lovely plans to spend time with your family, perhaps time at church, and just remember the real reason we celebrate this special time of year. It's not all about chocolate eggs and bunnies, as I keep reminding Kristen ;-) We will be going to church tomorrow then to my inlaws for dinner. I get a day off from cooking - yay! And because Jason and I have been so good this past week not having bread and potatoes etc, I'm looking forward to indulging just a little in some 'forbidden foods'!

We did some yard work today and planted out a few 'little guys'. I took some pictures and will share them tomorrow when I have more time to post.

Food for Thought!

My thanks to Sadie for sharing a lovely Easter graphic with us. Mmm, that choccy easter egg looks just like the ones I used to get when I was little at Easter time. Over here in the States Easter Eggs are slightly different. At Easter time in England all the big candy makers would create an egg to show off their specific candy bars. They were mounted in boxes. It's hard to explain really so I scoured the internet and found a few pictures.

Cadbury's is my favorite chocolate. And I always loved their easter eggs the best. Smarties and Flakes were my favorite. Smarties in the US are actually very different to the UK ones. The UK smarties are more like M&M's (but taste even better!) The smarties would be inside a large hollow chocolate egg. And the egg was always visible through the front of the box (as you can see in the Smartie egg box on the right).

This is the Flake egg box. They would look different every year, but you can see again in this one how the egg peaks through a window in the box. I miss buying these at this time of year. I'm happy to say I can still get a Cadbury's Creme Egg over here, which I indulge in once in a while around this time of year ;-)

OK, so enough about chocolate! I was trying to keep my food talk healthy, I just got carried away a little there. So dinner last night was Turkey Parmesan, once again from my little SB book. This one wasn't such a winner. It looks much nicer than it tasted. Not that it tasted awful, rather it just wasn't VERY tasteful. And I changed it slightly and used chicken, because believe it or not I couldn't find turkey cutlets in the store this week!

If you click on the picture of the recipe you might actually be able to read it all, should you want to give this a go (just excuse the water splashes on my page!). Remember I didn't say it tasted awful, just not as tasteful as I'd like it. Jason and I both agreed it was just OK, but I wouldn't bother to do it again.

It made for a pretty colorful plate though - don't you think?

Day 3. . . .

Not much going on today, but I thought I would do a quick post for anyone popping in. It's day 3 of Jason's SBD! But he'll be going to Chuy's today :-/ (pronounced Chewy's!, it's his fav mexican restaurant)

He announced yesterday that they would still probably go out once a week at work for lunch! Well, ok, hopefully this will still work. I'm a firm believer in not being too strict on a diet. If you give up everything you like you are more tempted to give in to temptation or 'fall off the wagon' so to speak. Jason weighed himself on Monday and he's already down about 4lb (it comes off a lot faster when you have more to lose - unlike for me, I've only lost about a pound in the past 2 weeks!)



As you can see from today's pictures, I made deviled eggs yesterday. They are a good quick snack for low carb diets. This is my own recipe where I just scoop out the egg yolks and mix them with a little mayo and French's mustard. And as unkeen (is that a word?) as I am about eggs, I even like to snack on one or two of these in between my meals.

Well, I can't sit here all day, I need to catch up with housework, I seem to be forever behind on it. I need to check out Flylady again just as a reminder on some things. I like how she does a 'weekly home blessing hour' each week. I think I will do that now, just run around quickly and straighten every room, vacuum and dust too. Laundry is already going.

From Den's Kitchen. . . .

Thought I would try another recipe from the little SB book yesterday. This Mexican Chicken Soup sounded easy enough. It started off with onions and garlic sauted with cumin, then you simply add in chicken broth and salsa, and of course chicken.

Here is mine simmering away in the pot. And it really was that simple. I changed a couple of things, firstly I just used some chopped up cooked chicken from a rotisserie chicken I got at the weekend, and it said to use fresh salsa, but I just used 2 cups from a jar (Pace Picante Sauce).

I served up a bowl for myself for lunch. This is SUPER tasty. I would highly recommend it. If you want to give it a try let me know in the comments or email me and I'll send you the right quantities. I know some of you have tried to find the book and have been unable to.

A little while ago Susan asked me what type of marinade I used for the chicken. The Teriyaki marinade is this one. . . . it's called Earth & Vine, and I found it in my local grocery store, but you might also see it in Central Market if you have one near you.
Also when I grill I often just use my outdoor grill, but if it's raining too hard or it's too windy I have an indoor electric grill/griddle (similar to THIS one) and I will put chicken or burgers on that. I also have a small George Foreman grill that I've used for chicken breasts in the past, but honestly it's so small it's hardly worth the effort to get out, especially when you can't detach the grill to wash it!

Jason's first day on SB went pretty well. He came home saying he hadn't been hungry and he liked what I'd prepared for his breakfast and lunch. I sent him to work with 2 pieces of quiche for breakfast and some beef fajita meat and 2 low carb tortillas for lunch. He's not exactly on the phase one as you can tell with the tortillas, but he's still cutting back a lot on what he normally has so I'm hoping a modified version of phase one will still work. For dinner last night I served him a small bowl of the Mexican chicken soup and a taco salad :-)

So from my kitchen to yours, I hope you enjoy your day, and eat wisely ;-)

Back to School!

Spring Break is over, it sure went fast. I've had a hard time adjusting to the time change this past week, partly because we didn't have to get up for school (and Jason was away so he didn't have to get up for work here). I was sleeping until 8.30am most mornings (my body still thinking it was only 7.30) so I thought I'd have a tough time this morning waking up at 6am.

Thankfully it wasn't that hard. Saturday night I didn't sleep much due to a certain someone snoring! So last night I sent sweet hubby to the guest room incase he kept me up all night again. Seriously, I couldnt' afford to be lying there awake from 2-5am listening to his gentle snores (like I had the previous night) when I had to be up at 6! I slept ALL night and woke at 5.40am needing to go to the bathroom! I forced myself to hang on until the alarm went off at 6. It was easy getting up, because I HAD to go P ;-)

Jason slept until nearly 8am, so we are both happy and refreshed. He's just gone out to work, and I'm headed to the shower. I hit the gym this morning after taking Kristen to school. I've sent Jason off to work with some healthy food and hope to have him on the SB diet this week ;-)

I'll try to keep sharing some photos of dinner this week, if you like to see them. I know it motivates some to eat better. It certainly helps me keep going.

Oh, and if anyone wants to leave just a 'quick hello' instead of leaving a comment, I've added a tag board to the left side.

Is it Summer Already?

It was 92 degrees here yesterday! Certainly felt like Summer, and today it's mid 80's. Jason got home earlier than I thought yesterday, it was 3pm when he drove up. The afternoon and evening sped by and here we are today, a beautiful sunny day and poor Jason is in his office working :-(

I popped out earlier to get a few groceries and bought some plants for my window boxes. When I got home I saw Connor with his swimsuit on and there was Kristen jumping for joy to see me because she'd already asked her Daddy if she could go to the pool with Connor and he had said no. I don't like Kristen at the pool without my supervision yet (she's not a good swimmer yet) so I quickly put the groceries away while she put on her swim suit and I joined Steve (Connor's Dad) at the pool so the kids could play an hour. And yes as you can imagine, despite the heat outside, the pool was not warm at all. The kids were shivering in the water but they had fun splashing around - gotta love Texas ;-)

Kristen is out front playing now so I'm going to potter about on my front deck and plant my window boxes. Hope you're all having a lovely weekend.

I'd Put Rachel Ray To Shame!

Who needs 30 minutes to make a meal? This is what I made for dinner last night, and it took me all of 10 minutes :-)

Grilled teriyaki salmon, asparagus, and romaine and tomato salad. It was very quick and simple. I grilled the salmon for 5 minutes each side and the aspargus literally took 3 minutes, I just threw them in to some boiling water - sprinkled a little salt on them when they were done and spritzed a little "I can't believe it's not butter" spray on them.

While I was eating that. . . . this was in the oven - another crustless quiche. This one is just cheese and tomato with onion. The quiche was much nicer for breakfast this morning than scrambled eggs. That's why I made this one. I think I can stomach eggs for breakfast if I have them in the form of a quiche and they really do fill me up a lot more than cereal. When Jason gets back from Denver I'm wanting him to start eating better again too. I'm hoping he can take a couple of pieces of quiche to work for breakfast to have with his morning coffee when he gets there. He doesn't eat a breakfast at home!

After the quiche came out I threw these veggies in to roast. Onions, red peppers and asparagus. I will have them tomorrow with some grilled chicken I think.

And that's all from Den's Kitchen today ;-)

Tagine. . . . .it's what's for dinner!

Or to be exact, it's what WAS for dinner last night! And it was rather tasty. I've never heard of Chicken Tagine, I'm not even sure how you pronounce it, but I found it in the little South Beach book I bought in the grocery store the other day.

It has lemon and olives in it, cumin and coriander. The hint of lemon when eating it was very nice (to me anyway, I just love lemons!) Anyway, thought I would share the pictures with you cos there's not much else going on around here.

This is the little book I got. I've actually got another one just like this that I bought a few months ago. The reason I got another one is because there are actually different recipes in it. They both give the general overview of SB and how to start off the diet etc, but I like that they have pictures of new recipes.

And did you know there's a new South Beach Diet book due out next month? It's called South Beach Diet Super Charged. I'm not sure if it will be much different to the original, and I doubt I'll buy it, but I'll be interested to see what it's like when it hits the bookstores.

Today we're off to piano lesson. We usually go at 4 on Wednesday but due to spring break we are going at 9.30am this morning. After that I think we might do a little shopping. We have after all been stuck at home the past two days doing nothing. It will be nice to get out for an hour or so.

What not to eat. . . .

One thing I don't really enjoy while trying to follow the South Beach Diet (phase1) is the eggs for breakfast! I'm fussy when it comes to eggs and can only 'stomach' them a couple of ways. I don't really like them fried and I don't enjoy omelets. The two ways I can usually eat them is scrambled or in a quiche. If I'm honest a quiche is the 'gentlest' on my stomach, any other preparation makes me a little queasy, even the scrambled which I try to have on SB1. So after having scrambled eggs with bacon yesterday and not enjoying them at all, I decided to try a crustless quiche. Quick and simple, I just layered cheese, bacon and tomatoes in my glass quiche dish and poured over 3 eggs mixed with 1 cup of milk. Baked it in the oven for 50 mintues, and . . . . . . . voila!

It looked yummy, and it tasted yummy. Admittedly the 'puffiness' went out of it as usual once it was out of the oven for a few minutes, so it looks kinda flat, but it was still tasty. I had a couple of pieces for dinner last night and didn't even need a salad with it! My intention is to have a slice for breakfast every other day with some V8 and coffee (I think I'll alternate and have cereal on the other days).

Now, rather like that show on the Style Network 'What Not To Wear" - here's What Not To Eat (especially while on the SBD!)

I made these (delicious) potato skins on Saturday night when Jason asked a few friends over to play Rockband. But I won't be eating anything like this any time soon.

Vroom Vroom!

Well today is the start of Spring Break - unfortunately someone didn't tell the weather! I woke up this morning at 6.30am to the sound of thunder! Actually it was really 7.30am but my bedside clock was still set to pre-time change! I so didn't want to get up, so I turned over and snoozed for another half hour. When I finally got up, Kristen was already awake and playing on the Wii in the game room!

What she won't be playing with today is this. . . . . . . .

This is her new toy. . . Monster Truck Powerwheels by Fisher Price. She bought it with her own money! This was the money she had kept from her birthday and Christmas gifts from both sides of our family! As you can imagine she's having a blast driving it around the cul-de-sac each day with Connor or Emily.

Looks to me like someone needs a ponytail in her hair! I usually tie Kristen's hair back when she's out playing, but Daddy had just put this thing together and she wanted to get in it asap!

Jason just left this morning to fly to Denver for another week! He should be back Friday. Kristen and I will be having a quiet break at home this week, just pottering around. Tomorrow I'm hoping the weather is dryer. I had plans to start tidying up the front garden and planting spring flowers. I hope I get the chance to. Other than that I'll just be knitting and keeping up with housework while Kristen plays with Connor. Emily isn't usually around during the week, whether it's school break or not. Her parents both work so she spends the days with her grandparents.

This week I need to get back on track with some healthy eating. My healthy diet has gotten off track these past few weeks and the pounds are starting to creep back on! Today I'm going to try and stick to the South Beach Diet again. I've had eggs and bacon for breakfast with some V8 veggie juice and coffee. It will be a salad for lunch and some fish or chicken for dinner :-) I can't do fish very often when Jason is home because he doesn't even like the smell of it!

I shall try to update more often this week, not that we'll have much news if we're not going anywhere!

BSE - Monthly Reminder!

Ladies, I just want to take a few minutes to remind you about BSE day! I think I missed last month and here we are already at the end of the first week of March! Take just 2 mintues sometime today (right after you read this post if you can!) to do a BSE. It's worth it!

You can click HERE to see the 5 steps of a BSE. Take the time to take care of YOU.
I'll be back later with an updated post! Have a wonderful day.

And on that farm he had . . . . . . .

. . . a tractor! This is what we took our tour on around the grounds at Summers Mill.

At the entrance to the grounds there was this fence - it made me smile every time I saw it.

Here's a close up of it. They were all different bikes, but had been sprayed white. You can probably click on the pictures to enlarge them.

So let's go see some animals. . . . here's mamma donkey and her baby. The little guy was trying to hide under his mommy's belly, but she wasn't so shy and came right up to the fence to see us.

This might be Daddy Donkey?

These two beautiful guys were in a pen with the goats, and seemed rather curious as we drove by.

Mr. Ostrich didn't even want to say hello.

This is a reindeer! We were told he'd just lost his antlers. Apparently reindeer lose their antlers every year, then they grow back again. I've never heard of this, and I don't know how long it takes to grow them back? I might have to search on the web for more info on that.

This is a young reindeer (I think - he was in the same field as the big guy, so I don't think he's a deer). Looks like he hasn't even grown his first set of antlers?

There were a few other animals like llamas, goats and little shetland ponies, but the tractor had to speed up a bit as we were getting late for our afternoon conference to start (he'd already taken one group on the tour) so some of my pictures were a little too blurry to show.

I hope you enjoyed the tour! :-)