I Can See Clearly Now

I got to work yesterday on the glassware that I unearthed from my kitchen cabinets.  The icky part was that some of it was hidden on top of the cabinets behind that front piece and I didn’t even know it was there!  It was so dusty and dirty I couldn’t believe it.  Should have photographed it, but I wanted to take “positive” photos, of nice clean glassware.  So here goes! 🙂

Pretty, sparkly and CLEAN!!

It’s now living in the back seat of my car so that I can take it to Ele for the Rummage Sale!!

It makes me very happy!  It’s out of my house and it will help the church, so that’s exciting to me.  I still have a few more cabinets to clean out and then I’ll be finished.  I have to keep some things in there, since we still need to eat…we do?!? 😉

Dinner last night was very good and VERY filling!

Garlic, red bell pepper, Cremini mushrooms, cabbage and cannellini beans and grape tomatoes that are starting to wilt.  I had to use the cabbage.  I had bought it for another recipe that I didn’t get to, so I didn’t want it to go to waste.  I love cooked cabbage anyway and don’t always think of it as an addition to a stir fry.  It certainly is economical so it’s a good choice.  My lead in to St. Patrick’s Day perhaps!

The wonderful steaming bowl!  Served over brown rice.

So good and I didn’t need any snacks except a few clementines (Can you guess how many?  3!!)

My meditation practice is still going well.  Each day I feel a little more connected to it.  It is a wonderful way to start the day.  I have to find a way to give it more time.  We’ll see how that goes.

Now it’s Friday,  I feel I’ve had a good week regarding food and I’m looking forward to good results at Weight Watchers tomorrow.  We’ll see what happens, and I’ll share the news…good or bad…but I’ve voting for GOOD!

Happy Friday!

Fat Tuesday? I Think Not!

I did no celebrating in relation to Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday Eve.  I was proud of myself for that!  And oat bran for breakfast…I am obsessed!!

Found myself at In A Pickle for lunch again.  It’s a lovely place but I need a change of pace.  Ralph has it stuck in his mind to go there.  I need something new to inspire me.  Caesar Salad again with balsamic vinaigrette this time.  Trying very hard to stay on track with my food this week and eating out doesn’t help.  It was a business lunch and all I could think of was what I could be doing at home.  Ah, well, I got on track when I got home.

I started to clean out some other kitchen cabinets.  I have tons of glassware, dishes, platters, candy dishes, that I never use (as evidenced by the thick layer of dust on the ones stored on top of the cabinets!)  I got part of them out of the cabinets with more to be unearthed.  They need a good washing and then I’ll take a photo of them dazzling in the sunlight to prove my point.  They are destined for the next rummage sale so I can get them out of the house and give them to Ele.  The church needs the help and boy do I have contributions! 🙂

Dinner was sneaky simple again last night.

The last of the baby eggplants, a store brand sugar snap stir fry and some veggie broth.  Black pepper, Mrs. Dash, Bell’s seasonings Onion & Herb seasoning and crushed red pepper flakes.  Garlic, of course! 😉

Topped with my wonderful sale WW cheddar cheese blend and served over left over couscous.

Very tasty and filling.

I was very good and just had clementines for a snack while watching Glee.

I’ve been awake since 2:30am.  I hate it when that happens.  I tried to make use of my time.  I did my meditation practice.  I really feel like I’m starting to find my focus.  Maybe middle of the night is when I need to do my practice! 😉 It was very enjoyable this morning. 

I did my exercise bike and added about 10 minutes to it.  Reading on the bike helps to make the time go quickly and keeps me pumping!  It’s my favorite way to exercise.  Besides, I have to find out what happens to that Girl Who Played With Fire!  Wish I had a treadmill because I could read there too!  Maybe after our move!

When the sun came up, I saw this lovely sight.  Not as spectacular as some but appreciated none the less.

Sadly, sometimes the sunrises and sunsets don’t translate to my photos as they should.  Probably lack of operator experience, but I’m working on it.

Today promises to be fun.  Ralph and I are meeting our friends Ed and Tina at a really fun spot.  I’ll take lots of photos and share about it.  Ele will be jealous when she finds out.  Sorry… 😦

Then after lunch I have glass to wash and cabinets to finish clearing…gotta start with a plan!  Is it polite to say…Happy Ash Wednesday?  Well, Happy Wednesday, anyway!

She Did What She Said

I started Sunday morning with getting breakfast for Ralph and myself.  He got a regular breakfast sandwich that he loves.  I decided to try something different and to save some Points on breakfast since I didn’t know what the day held in terms of food.

I made myself a breakfast wrap.

I started by sauteing some red bell peppers.

Actually, I got distracted from my mission and they ended up being like roasted peppers with the black charring on them.  Made them tasty!

I added 2 eggs, ground black pepper and Mrs. Dash Fiesta Lime seasoning, one of my favorites.

I put it on an Ole Tomato Basil tortilla wrap.

After a big bite…

Very Good!  Not that hard either so I’ll do it again and it was very filling!

Being a woman of my word, or at least trying to be… 😉 I got to work on my stated project from yesterday morning.  I went through the fridge removing all of the jars stuck WAY in the back that I knew were there and also knew they were turning into science experiments.  I won’t show you the disgusting bits, but here is the evidence after washing…

Yikes!  I’m going to use most of the jars to store things that I’ve been storing in plastic containers, chia seeds, flax seeds etc.  When we get to New Mexico, I’ll probably be using my antique Mason jars, but for now…this will do…and they’re FREE!!  I still need to actually clean the fridge and rearrange what’s in there so that I can actually find things.  That’s today’s project.

I had a head of steam going so I decided to tackle the cabinet that holds my spices and apparently a lot of other things that I didn’t realize were in there.  Past date things went out…how many bottles of Tamari does a girl need, especially when it looks like tar in the bottle!  This is what my sink looked like after all of the dumping…

All the bottles and old spice jars went to the recycling and the plastic containers got cleaned up.

This is what the cabinet looked like after…

It made me feel so good to have accomplished this!

When I was finished, Ralph suggested we go to Picasso’s for lunch/dinner.  We called my sister Ele and asked her to go with us.

I was hungry, but didn’t want anything too heavy, still trying to stay on track.  What did I decide on…a blast from the past that I didn’t realize they made there…Pepper and Egg sandwiches.! 🙂 When we were young and we’d go to the beach, that’s what Mom would always pack for lunch.  Pepper and egg sandwiches with American cheese on white bread wrapped in tin foil.  By the time we got to eat them, they were totally soggy but they tasted as good as anything I’ve ever eaten.

This was good and plentiful…

I was impressed with how much pepper and eggs were in it.  I forgot to ask for the cheese, but I found Parmesan cheese and added it which helped.  I think that will be my go to sandwich there.  Ok, weird that I had basically the same thing for breakfast and dinner.  I didn’t even think about it until I started eating the sandwich.

After a stop at Ele’s to see a project she had been working on, we came home to relax.  I decided to watch the Grammy Awards…not a thrill and some of it annoyed me so much that it drove me into the arms of my Valentine candy that I had successfully avoided for several days.  The good thing is that it’s almost gone and it can’t hurt me much more.

So, Happy Valentine’s Day!!  I’m off to make Ralph a special breakfast treat.  Let’s see how it works out! 😉

Sunrise, Sunset

What started with a beautiful sunrise yesterday…

Finished with a beautiful sunset…

Unfortunately, we were driving at the time and the photo didn’t turn out as pretty as the actual sunset.  I will get better at this!

We were rushing at the time to meet our friends Debbie and Kristen to car pool to a benefit for one of our WW family members, Barb.  Ralph hadn’t met Debbie before and they got along really well.  He’s already a big fan of Kristen so it was overall a fun evening.  We were disappointed that our friend Pat couldn’t be with us for various reasons.  We spent the evening texting her and reading from The Snark Handbook.  I believe this was the book we had.  It was so much fun reading all of the clever ways to insult someone.  I won’t go into why we were doing it, but it was great fun.

After my loss at WW, I was on a mission to be good.  I had oatmeal with raisins, chia seeds, ground flax and cinnamon with Almond Breeze for breakfast.  Tasty and filling as always.

I had 2 clementines for “lunch!”  I just needed something to hold me over before the benefit.  I thought I was good at the benefit…I had a mid-sized portion of  baked ziti and a large portion of a lovely salad with unidentified dressing.  I drank water and then coffee with 2 cookies.  I won’t tell you how many Ralph ate!!

I’ve decided that to accomplish the things I need to do, I should get a game plan…yikes, I’m just discovering that?!?  I’m not going to get too carried away so I’m going to plan a day ahead and make myself stick to it. 

Today’s project is cleaning out the fridge and all of the jars filled with little bits of “stuff” that is all probably past date -you remember how good I am with that! 😉  I’ll try to get to the freezer as well.  If time works for me, I’ll try to get to my pantry cabinet in the hallway.  I planned this yesterday ( see I was thinking ahead!) and I’m going to stick to it. 

Tomorrow I have something special planned to do for Ralph, so we’ll see what else I can accomplish.  If I do have time, I’m going to go through all of my kitchen cabinets to look at what’s there, what I can get rid of, what I want to keep but don’t use often so that I can pack.  I think I’ll work first on the cabinet that houses all of my spices and other such goodies.  This will keep me busy for the next few days and as I go through things, I’ll pitch and pack.  I like that!

So time to get breakfast started. I want to be finished so that I can listen to my friends Valerie and Mark Andruss do their Foolkiller Folk show on KKFI 90.1 FM in Kansas City.  It is just so very exciting to me that I can listen to them with them in Missouri and me in New Jersey.  My only problem is that I always mix up the time difference.  Not so this morning, Val posted a reminder on Facebook ( I think she does that just for me!) so I know this is the week to listen. 

So everyone have a lovely Sunday.  I’ll say Happy Valentine’s Day today to start you day tomorrow.  Ralph’s going to be happy…he’s getting peanut M&M’s for breakfast for Valentine’s Day! Well, he’s getting something else too…but I have to bake it first!!  Onward!