Alton Brown's Superfood list

The other day Josh recommended I watch the Dr. Oz show because it was going to be about "Why women are so exhausted." Of course that explains me perfectly! I'm always so tired and never have energy so I figured I'd give the old Doc a shot. In this show he talks about how none of us eat right, shocker!!! lol!

Halfway through the program Alton Brown comes on and introduces the way he lost weight and kept it off by eating healthy foods. He explained exactly what foods we should have daily and what foods to completely avoid. It was very interesting!!!

We've been giving his little lists a shot and I'm feeling better about my food choices. Here they are below:





His presentation was quite intriguing. Check it out for yourself. He also gives a recipe for a low cal chocolate pie....mmmmm!

Juice head...the good kind ;)

So I got a really cool Christmas gift from my honey. :) I'm so excited to use it!!!! As you can see he also bought me the BIG BOOK OF JUICES to help me out with recipes. I'll post recipes as I make them and let you guys know how they taste. Here are just a few of the ones I can't wait to try!

I'm back....with a great cookie recipe!

But I can't take all the credit.... A Tasty Kitchen posted this on her blog first. :)


There's only 4 ingredients in this recipe which I love love love!!!

1 cup Nutella
½ cups Sugar
1 cup All-purpose Flour
1 whole Egg

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Blend all ingedients together well. Form into 1″ balls. Place on a cookie sheet. Press down firmly with the bottom of a glass. Bake 7-8 minutes or until set. Cool. Don't overcook!

These cookies come out tasting like the edge of a brownie crust with the inside chewy. MMMMMMmmmmm....

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I've been organizing my sewing supplies and will be posting some more blogs soon!

Lemon Creme Bars

A wonderful Betty Crocker recipe that I made for Easter. So yummy!!!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup cold butter
1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® oatmeal cookie mix
1 egg
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1/4 cup lemon juice


Heat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom of 8-inch square pan with cooking spray.

In large bowl, cut butter into cookie mix, using fork or pastry blender. Stir in egg until mixture is crumbly. Press half of cookie mixture into bottom of pan; bake 15 minutes.

In small bowl, stir condensed milk, lemon peel and lemon juice until thick. Spread over baked crust. Crumble remaining cookie mixture over top. Bake about 25 minutes longer or until light golden brown. Refrigerate 30 minutes or until set. For bars, cut into 5 rows by 5 rows. Store covered in refrigerator.

Tips:
You'll need 2 medium lemons to get 1/4 cup juice.

Cut bars into bite-size squares and serve in mini paper cups.

Use fresh lemon juice for the best lemon flavor

Allergies....i'm sick of you. Go away!

I have the worst allergies!!! Living in South Louisiana this time of year is a nightmare for me. :( I've tried everything...benedryl, Allegra, Zyrtec, nose sprays, Chlortabs, neti pots (which help a ton), and any other allergy medicine you can think of. The only thing I have not done is have allergy testing but that's definitely in my future! Neti pots have been a great relief except that when I use them too often I get ear congestion so I can't use this method daily.

I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to tree pollen......especially Ligustrums! Thanks to every Tom, Dick and Harry for planting these in your yard...almost every allergy sufferer is allergic to these trees!



We went to Drug Emporium yesterday and found this stuff:


I decided that for $9 it was worth a try and so far it's worked like a charm...for the past 28 hours. It's a sublingual drop that tastes like vodka (check out the alcohol content on the label) but not half as bad as swallowing Nyquil. I haven't had any side effects like I do with every other allergy medication and especially NO DROWSINESS!!!! yay! I'm crossing my fingers that this little bottle continues its magic! I sneezed once today instead of 40 times like usual. I even checked the pollen count and saw that for the next 4 days it'll be in the "very high" range. The next few days will prove if it works or not. I'll update later! I hope this post can help others with allergies. Maybe this product can help you too. :)

My favorite dress of the night...Oscars 2011

worn by Scarlett Johansson.

What a great color choice!!! So nice to see something other than beige and black and red....




how fabulous right????

Oven Chicken Stew

Thanks to Kay Campbell, I've been using this recipe for quite a while! It's quick, easy and tastes so good.

Here's the recipe:

1 fryer, cut up (or a bag of chicken thighs or breasts)
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 can water
1 stalk celery chopped
1 bell pepper chopped
1 tablespoon kitchen bouquet (I use more because I LOVE the flavor and the dark gravy!)
chopped onion tops (handful)
chopped parsley (handful)
optional: onions...i love love love onions so i added 2 small chopped ones to this recipe!

Heat oven @ 350 degrees. Spray 9 x 13 baking pan with nonstick spray, place chicken in single layer. Season to taste (if you like things spicy, this is the time to add a little cayenne!). Combine remaining ingredients together in a bowl and pour over chicken. Bake for about an hour and 15 minutes covered. Serve over rice or mashed potatoes and Enjoy!

My first sewing project: Mccall's Pattern M5544; Dog hoodie

I picked this pattern up at Hobby Lobby one day while the McCall's patterns were on sale for 99 cents. The paw printed fleece was in the clearance bin for $3. I've been wanting to get in to sewing for quite some time and knew this might be the perfect starter pattern. It is really hard to find dog patterns for a 50 pound pup! I could have used an extra inch or two but it still fits him. With my wonderful (experienced) mom helping to guide me, I finished this today!!! It is much cuter than I imagined and am going to tinker with the pattern and materials on the next hoodie now that I know what i'm doing.

Don't be fooled, Koda is quite thrilled....really.

Funny Video of the day, Aussies are silly!

Koda is always obsessed with water (except for when he gets a bath, go figure!). This is what he does in his water bowls and why we get the "no spill" kind for him! I literally had tears from laughing so hard at this guy's Aussie pup. Thank God mine hasn't figured this out...yet.

Homemade Peanut Butter dog biscuits

Since I am all about trying new recipes I decided it was time to make one for the dogs. It turned out really well and is Koda approved! The round biscuit was just for kicks since it wasn't enough dough to make a bone.


2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 cup peanut butter (chunky or smooth...i used smooth this time)
1 cup milk (i used soy since dogs are sensitive to cow's milk)
bone shaped cookie cutter


Preheat oven to 375'F. In a bowl, combine flour and baking powder. In another bowl, mix peanut butter and milk, then add to dry ingredients and mix well. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and knead. Roll dough to 1/4 inch thickness and use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes. Bake for 15-20 minutes (I baked for 16 minutes using the convection feature on my new Smart Oven) on a greased baking sheet until lightly brown. Cool, then store in an airtight container.



Hope your dogs enjoy as much as mine did! :)