Today's revelation

Baked potato chips are not as good as the regular, artery clogging FRIED potato chips.

Lent: Day 1

I'm off the fried foods, y'all.

That means I can't eat the left-over paczki sitting at home. Because it's FRIED. For the next 40 days, I shall abstain from Chili's boneless buffalo wings, chocolate-covered fry cakes from the bakery, FRENCH FRIES. POTATO CHIPS that aren't baked. Hell. You get the picture.

If it's fried, I'm not eating it*.

I totally pigged out yesterday: I had a fish sandwich with cheese, large french fries, and ginormous unsweetened iced tea from Wendy's**. I have to say that I've pretty much been fried-food free since February 1 because of the whole "no eating out" experiment S and I are doing - so after eating that sandwich and those french fries? I felt like shit. I felt like I weighed about a thousand pounds and that my skin was really greasy. I was tired and crabby and just...blah.

Here's hoping my Lenten sacrifice will take hold like last year's did***.

*This does not include, however, chicken & pork chops & things like that that I do up in olive oil at home. Because I can control the type and how much oil is used.

**This was the one exception to our No Eating Out month - Fat Tuesday lunch would see me cramming as much fast-food fried foods into my pie hole as I could fit. I had planned on eating out last night, too, but because I felt like shit after lunch, I made dinner at home instead. Yay me.

***I've said it a hundred times on here before: I gave up red meat and I never went back to it.

Weekend Update

This past weekend was very relaxing.

I spent all day Saturday at home. I went outside once - to take the trash out. S came over Saturday afternoon and I made us dinner -- blackened salmon, green beans, baked potato.

Part of my Saturday was spent cutting out pieces for another tote bag.

The green scroll is the outside of the tote.

The pink is the lining and, if I can figure out how to do it, it will be decorative trim on the outside.

(I just realized - this is the second green & pink bag I've made. I'm not a huge fan of pink so I don't know WHY I chose these fabrics. Unless it was because of the green. I love the green!)

I'll post photos when it's done.

Sunday I realized I hadn't bought enough of the pink fabric so back to JoAnn I went. Then I stopped a S's house for a couple of minutes and finally made my way out to my folk's house for a visit. I really need to make time to go visit them more often. Mom and I played a game and dad watched poker on TV. (Why? Why are men so obsessed with watching poker on TV? I find it about as stimulating as watching paint dry.)

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S's dog had ACL surgery last week. Even with her bandage, she tussels with her stuffed pheasant and makes her needs known. "Hey Lady! Gimme a biscuit," she barks as soon as I walk in the door. She's getting to the point now where she's ready for the bandage to come off.

Speaking of her bandage, it's pink with purple hearts. Not exactly what we would've picked for S's little athlete. See for yourself...

This was taken the day she got home from the vet (Tuesday, 2/17). It also just so happened to be her 11th birthday.

I Need a Hero

This is me! As a Super Hero.

Bad ass, huh?

I followed a link from Heather. You can make yours here.

Fruit bread

I'm a bit obsessed with the fruit bread!

It started with banana bread, morphed into blueberry bread and was capped off with pineapple bread. I'm wanting to try apple-cinnamon or cranberry-walnut next.

Seriously. I need to be stopped. Or you all need to offer suggestions as to what type of fruit I should try. No citrus though.

This is the recipe I used (when I made the blueberry and the pineapple bread, I increased the butter to 1/2 cup):

Banana Bread Recipe

Ingredients

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Method

No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

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S and I continue to do very well with our No Eating Out Month. The only rule-breaker will be me: I'm giving up fried foods for Lent - so Fat Tuesday I'm buying french fries somewhere. Maybe a couple of places. Because I LOVE me some fried foods.

Friday Morning Breakfast

A mug of Twining's English Breakfast with cream and a generous slice of the banana bread I made last night.

Wordless Wednesday: Inside Havasu

Havasu Canyon, AZ. September, 2007.

No eating out month continues

One week down, 3 to go.

We've had a lot of success with our No Eating Out Month. I've made several things from the Real Simple website. Their meals are quick and easy. Which I like. And in one week, I've saved a TON of money. S and I went grocery shopping and split the bill.

S and I have a new favorite to add to our list of faves: McCormick's White Chicken Chili. I use ground chicken instead of cubed up chicken breasts. But then! But then Eurolush linked to this recipe for chicken chili - and I'm going to have to try it now. The McCormick's seasoning mix is easy but E's found recipe sounds yummier.

We're going to be having Asian short ribs on Wednesday. At some point we'll have black bean burgers with sweet potato fries (served with a sour cream & horseradish dipping sauce).

Since I gave up the red meat, we're eating a lot of chicken and veggie meals this month. It's times like this when I miss the cow. And the lamb.

Oooh! Fish. We could have fish.

People, please send recipes!!! (No red meat, please...pork is fine.)

In other news, one of my Facebook friends-of-a-friend pointed out that there are only 76 days until graduation. Yippee!

Finally, I'm four books into my 30 books for the year.

Good things

Nothing but good things came in the mail today, people. Nothin' but good things.

Good thing 1: I signed up for Netflix again recently and got my first movie today. S has a crush on Julia Ormond so I rented Varian's War. I hope he hasn't seen it. (I went the Netflix route because Hollywood Video charges $4.49 for new releases. $4.49! For ONE movie! Their "library" movies are a bit better at $2.99/movie but oh my gah - those rental rates suck!)

Good thing 2: I Capture The Castle arrived because of a PaperBack Swap order. Eurolush suggeted I add it to my '30 Books in 2009' list. So I did!

Good thing 3: My 'new' cell phone arrived. I squirreled away some money and ordered myself a used PDA/Smartphone thingie. This is what it looks like, except mine has some scratches and doesn't say Sprint:

(If any of you out there have one of these, please! Let me know what you love and/or hate about it. It's a Palm Treo 700WX.)

Good thing 4, and this is the BEST thing that my mailbox gave me today: the letter from Eastern Michigan University stating that my audit has been done and that if I satisfactorily complete the two classes I'm currently taking then I'm eligible for GRADUATION in APRIL! I'm positively GIDDY. The light at the end of the tunnel is blinding me, people. Blinding me!

February, 2009 - the "No Eating Out Month"

S and I have decided that we're going to try to go the whole month of February without eating out.

This morning we went to the grocery store and loaded up on groceries.

I've stocked up on delicious sounding recipes that aren't supposed to be too challenging.

Wish us luck!

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Today was sunny and warm - about 37! We took the dogs for a walk and I was quite comfy in my sweatshirt and down vest. But had the sun not been shining so brightly, I woulda froze my ass off.

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I think I might've caught either Badger's or Eurolush's cold. But I hope the nap I'm going to take as soon as I push "publish post" will help nip it in the bud.

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Am really enjoying The Hour I First Believed. I'm hoping to make a large dent in it tonight during the Super Bowl - I ignore the game by reading and stop reading to watch the ads.

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If the nap doesn't help, hopefully the game-time whiskey will.