Yum!

I love cheesecake.  I don't think there is a more perfect dessert in the entire world. I love the texture of a well made cheesecake, and the variety of flavors is almost endless.  My favorite is the turtle cheesecake. I mean, who doesn't love chocolate, caramel, and nuts. Yum!

My kids love cheesecake, too.  Kasi prefers a plain cheesecake, without any fruit on it or in it.  Sometimes I can get her to eat a piece of chocolate cheesecake, but if she was able to choose any kind, it would be a plain New York Cheesecake. Ryan will eat just about any type, but I think his favorite is a chocolate one.  Brandi loves strawberry cheesecake.  This means that whenever I think about buying cheesecake, a sampler pack (like the one above) is sure to please all the cheesecake lovers in my house.

I have attempted to make a home made, from scratch cheesecake in the past, and while it came out absolutely delicious, it didn't taste near as good as one I could buy, and it was a lot of work.  And pretty expensive.  Who knew that buying a ready to eat cheesecake would be cheaper (and yummier!) than making my own?

Chicken

We eat a lot of chicken around here.  In fact, I can't remember the last time I cooked beef.  I have several different chicken recipes, but my kids like my barbecue chicken with pineapple the best.  Tonight, I am cooking something we have never tried before. It's a boxed dinner kit from Velveeta called zesty barbecue chicken or something like that.  I'm hoping the kids like it, because it would be nice to add more variety to our chicken dinners.

I could save myself a lot of money if I raised my own chickens to eat.  I don't know much about operating a chicken hatchery, and I can only assume that it would require a lot of time and effort. I was reading an article recently about running a farm, and one of the things they were talking about was raising chickens.  I was laughing like crazy when the author started talking about how messy chickens are, and how they poop constantly.

I am sure hatcheries are not the cleanest places on earth, and to be honest, I'm not sure I could eat a chicken that I had raised from a baby.  I would hate to invest so much time incubating an egg, witnessing it hatch, watch it grow, and then have to chop of it's head to have dinner.  I prefer buying my chicken skinless and boneless, and faceless.

The same holds true for bacon and sausage.  I don't need to meet the pig before I eat it.

Eating

 I have been really bad about cooking dinner for the kids these days.  We have been eating out quite a bit, and there have been several days where they have just had to fend for themselves, eating whatever they could find in the house.  I blame work for my lack of energy in the evenings.  Even though I spend most of my day driving, it gets pretty stressful always having to be paying attention to the road and other drivers.  By the time I get home, the only thing I want to do is sit down and relax. 

We haven't been eating anywhere fancy, like the strand house. Mostly it has been subs, pizza, or Chinese food.  I love Chinese food.  I could probably eat it every day and never tire of it.  My favorite is chicken and broccoli, followed closely by sesame chicken.  Throw in egg rolls and cheese wontons, and I'm in heaven.

The kids would probably live on McDonald's if I let them.

I am going to make an effort to start cooking more, simply because I am trying to eat healthier.  I've started packing myself a lunch in the mornings to keep in the van, that way I can avoid the fast food trap when I get hungry on the road.  I have also stopped drinking so much diet pepsi.  I have one can in the morning for the caffeine (I'm not a coffee drinker), and for the rest of the day I drink water or juice.

I'm hoping these little changes will help me lose the rest of this weight.  I know I have to try and find the time and energy to exercise, too.  Maybe I can find a way to add a few more hours to my day.

I Want To Visit Silverlake Restaurants

I used to love bland food.  I was the girl who ate salami on white bread for lunch with no condiments. I did not even like mayonnaise until I was well into my teens.  I hated pizza as a child, and remember my mom making me a hot dog whenever the rest of the family enjoyed pizza.  I wouldn't even put sauce on my spaghetti.  Here is the weirdest thing, though.  I have never had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  I've had a peanut butter sandwich and a jelly sandwich, but never combined.  I know.  Weird.

The past several years, however, my taste buds have changed.  I find that bland foods are, well, bland.  I discovered pesto, and out it on all my sandwiches.  I love whole grain breads, and eat every type of pizza imaginable.  I am no longer afraid to try new foods, and have found that things I swore I would never eat have become some of my favorite foods.

There is still one type of food that I have yet to try, and that is Indian food.  It's not that I don;t want to, it's just that their are not any Indian restaurants around where I live.  If I lived somewhere trendier, like the City Of Los Angeles, I might have better luck finding an Indian restaurant.  In fact, I discovered that there is a new blend of  modern-Indian cuisine by Chef Imram Ali Mookhi that is becoming quite popular.  There are two Silverlake Restaurants where he serves his creations, and I wish I lived close enough to go and try what he makes.  I have heard that Indian food is quite spicy, which sounds delicious to me new palate.  They have an appetizer on their menu called Sprout Street, and it's made with chick peas, potato, tortilla chips, sprout and sweetened yogurt.  How yummy does that sound?  Chick peas are one of my newest favorite foods, so I think I would enjoy this very much.

If I ever find myself in California, I am going to make it a point to check out these restaurants.  Until then, I will continue to search for an Indian restaurant close to me.

Cooking

 I love food.  I love eating it and preparing it, especially when I do it with the kids.  It's fun to teach them things and then see them do them on their own.  Of course, there are still tons of things that I, myself, do not know how to do.  When we had cable, I used to watch the food channels all the time.  I loved watching the chefs take the simplest of ingredients and make a beautiful meal out of them.

We eat a lot of chicken in my house, not only because it is good for us, but because we all love it.  I have a couple of different ways I prepare it, and the kids favorites are my Parmesan crusted chicken fillets and my barbecue chicken with pineapples.  Both are pretty simple to make, and don't take very long to cook.

On the weekends, I like to put a little effort into what I make, and I am always looking online for Free Recipes.  Presentation wise, my food never comes out looking like the pictures, but it tastes good, most of the time.  Ryan has shown an interest in cooking, and during the summer, he used to cook lunch for the girls every day.  Some days it was mac and cheese with peas and tuna (a personal favorite of theirs) and other days it was burgers and fries.  If he wasn't so set on becoming a mechanic when he graduates from college I would definitely suggest culinary school to him.  

For now, though, I'll stick to trying new recipes while he checks the oil in my car.  That is, if I remember to ask him to.

Yogurt

For the past week or so, I have been trying to eat better.  I am so close to being able to say that I have lost 100 pounds, but I have been stuck at my current weight for a while now.  It's very frustrating.  Then I realized that I have been eating a lot of fast food breakfasts, and that that could be my problem.  So instead of going to McDonald's in the morning for a bagel, I go to the supermarket and get a yogurt.

I was discussing this with my mother the other day, and she asked if I had ever tried Greek yogurt.  I had to ask her, What is Greek yogurt?  I have seen it in the grocery store, but never thought about trying it.  She said it is a lot creamier than regular yogurt, and that it's really good.  I told her I would try one if I could find some Greek yogurt coupons, and she said she had one in her fridge if I wanted to try that one.  The only problem was that it was blueberry, and I am not a big blueberry fan.

If I remember tomorrow morning, I am going to pick up a Greek yogurt, and a regular one.  That way, if I don't like the Greek one, I will still have something to eat for breakfast.

Sausage Balls

 The other day, Junior asked me to make sausage balls.  I have never made them before, but I know they are pretty simple to do.  I have all the ingredients, but I'm not sure about the ratio.  I searched online for Cooking Recipes, and found this recipe that looks beyond simple to use.  (the video of the guy making them was pretty funny, too)  It's just 2 cups of biscuit mix and 10 ounces of cheese for every pound of sausage.  Simple, right?  The only thing I will do differently is bake them in a dish with sides, just to make sure the grease from the sausage doesn't run over.

I really like this site, and will use it the next time I need a recipe.  I wish I knew about it last year when I was searching for a Ginger Bread recipe.   The one I ended up using broke my mixer!

Taco Bell Fail

Imagine this:

You enter your local Taco Bell.

You order $20 worth of food, three of those items are taco salads.

You wait a good ten minutes for them to assemble your order, which is fine, because you like your salads a certain way, with things on the side, and you completely understand that it takes a little longer to have it made special.

During these ten minutes, there are no other customers in the store, but the drive thru is pretty busy.

Your meal is finally put on the counter, and the cashier looks at you and says,

"Oh, I forgot, we ran out of sporks on Christmas Eve."  And then she just stands there staring at you.

Um, okay.  So you ask, "how are we supposed to eat our taco salads?"

She walks away to ask the manager, who says she will send one of the crew to another store to get some.

Um, okay.  So what are you supposed to do?  Wait an hour while they run to another store?

No.  So you ask that the manager come to the front to speak to you, and when she walks up, she says that she will send a crew member to the grocery store across the street to get forks as soon as he is finished making the drive thru food.

Um, okay.  And in the meantime?  What are you supposed to do?

"You can have a seat with your food and we will send out forks as soon as he gets back."

Um, okay.  So you say, "you want us to sit and let our food get cold while you finish making orders, then run to the store to get forks so we can eat said food?"

She just looks at you. 

You ask for my money back, and she looked confused.  You tell her, very politely, that you already waited ten minutes for your food, which was plenty of time for her to have sent someone to the store across the street for forks.  OR, when you were ordering, the cashier should have mentioned that they had no forks, and you would have left to go somewhere else.

The manager does finally refund your money, but with no apologies.  In fact, she didn't say one word.  Talk about RUDE!

Now, had she said "have a seat, and as soon as we get some forks I'll remake your salads so they are hot for you", you probably would have sat and waited. 

Instead, you walk out, money in hand, shaking your head.  You go to a Taco Bell across town, and pay more because apparently this other Taco Bell is not owned by the same people, and they keep their prices higher.

This is a true story.  It took place around 1:37 pm on Sunday, December 26, 2010, at our local Taco Bell.  I wish I had noticed actual names, because I would have totally called them out. 

Healthy Eating Habits

 I have been dieting for most of my adult life.  So far, nothing has "stuck".  I can lose a little weight, but it always seems to find me again.  I am tired of doing the yo-yo thing and am looking for a way to change the way I eat for good.  I want to educate myself on making healthier choices, instead of dieting all the time.  I don't want to starve myself anymore.  I don't want to deny myself the foods I love.  I want to feel better about myself, on the inside as well as the outside.  I want to learn Healthy Eating Habits so that I can live long enough to hold my great-grandchildren.

I was browsing this site called http://www.EverydayHealthGirl.com and found Becki. She shares her story of healthy eating, and how to do so frugally. (If you sign up for the newsletter, you will get a free healthy eating guide) I think this is where I struggle the most.  It is so much cheaper to buy the bad for you foods than it is to buy the good for you ones.  For people like me, sometimes having pasta five nights a week is the only option.  Or so I thought.  If I can learn how to spend the same amount of money on better for me foods, well, I'm all for that.  I want my whole family to start eating better, because I know the example I set can mold how they look at food for the rest of their lives.

That's a pretty big responsibility, and up until now I think I might have been leading them down the wrong path.  But, I have learned that it is never too late to get on the right track.  And that is exactly what I intend to do.

The Perfect Lunch For Brandi

Brandi takes her lunch to school every day.  This isn't news to most of you.  I think I have complained once or twice before about having to pack up her lunch every morning.  It can get expensive buying juice boxes, snacks, sandwich meats, breads, yogurts, and all the things she likes to take.  There have been times when she has asked for me to buy her those pre-packages lunches, but to be honest, they never really looked like complete meals to me.

That all changed a couple of weeks ago when I was asked to review one of the new Lunchables selections.  I went into the grocery store with some preconceived reservations, and was pleasantly surprised when I saw the new varieties.  They are entire meals, complete with main entree, snacks, and drink.  I didn't have Brandi with me, but I knew she would love the chicken strips, so I got that one.

I was really impressed with what came in the meal.  The chicken strips came with two different dipping sauces; ranch and barbecue.  It also had two different snacks; mandarin oranges and a crispy rice treat.  I knew Brandi would love these, because I have been buying individual mandarin orange fruit cups for her since school started.  They are her favorite fruit.  The meal also came with a bottle of water, and a kool-aid partyin' punch fun fizz package to add to it. 

Brandi came home from school the day I put it in her lunchbox with a huge smile on her face.  She LOVED it!  At my local grocery store, these sell for around $3 each, which is pretty reasonable considering it is a complete meal.  I know I will be buying more for her in the months to come.  We might even try some of the other varieties.  I saw a turkey and cheddar sub on bread made with whole grain that I want to try.  That's another good thing about Lunchables...they are not just for kids!

"I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by  Mom Central on behalf of Lunchables and received the products necessary to  facilitate my review. In addition, I received a gift certificate to thank me  for taking the time to participate."

Making Lunchtime Yummytime!

Brandi takes her lunch to school every single day.  Like her older brother and sister, she qualifies for free lunch, but she refuses to eat what the school provides.  She is afraid that she will not like what they are offering, and that she won't have any lunch.  So, every morning, I pack her lunch.

Sometimes, she takes a yogurt, but most of the time it is a peanut butter sandwich.  No jelly.  She says it makes the bread soggy.  And most days she brings home half the sandwich.  This has put me on a mission to find something good, and healthy, that she can take for lunch that she will actually eat.

Enter Smucker's Uncrustables. When I was asked to review these round little sandwiches, I knew my daughter would be thrilled, and I was right. These yummy little sandwiches have made her a very happy little girl.  They have made my mornings run a little smoother, too, because all I have to do is throw the frozen sandwich into her lunch box, and by lunchtime, it is thawed out and ready to eat.  There is no soggyness, and Brandi can enjoy peanut butter and jelly again.  The added bonus, of course, is that there is no crust.  The only bad thing is that my husband loves them, too, so I have to hide them from him.

I also want to tell you about the new Snack'n Waffles.  I tried the chocolate chip ones, and they were delicious.  They come individually wrapped, which keeps them from getting freezer burn, and also makes them easy to grab and go.  They can be thawed out and eaten at room temperature, or they can be heated in the microwave.  I heated mine, and had to microwave it a little longer than the instructions said.

I will definitely be buying these products myself in the future.

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Smucker’s and received products necessary to facilitate my candid review. In addition, I received a gift certificate to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

Banquet Fruit Pies

Check out this picture.  I took it a couple of hours ago.  Doesn't it look like a professional shot?  Can't you just taste the yumminess of the pie just by looking at the picture?  Yeah, me too!

You might be surprised to find out that on that fork is a bite of Banquet's Apple Pie.  I know when I think of Banquet, I think of affordable "TV dinners" and pot pies.  These new pies are just as affordable as Banquet's other entrees.  I paid $.88 a piece for each pie that I bought at Walmart.  I also saw them in my local grocery stores for about the same price.  I bought all three flavors: apple, peach, and mixed berry.  Actually, I bought two of each because I wanted to do a little experiment.  On the box, it has both microwave and conventional oven directions, and I wanted to see if one way tasted better than the other.  I can honestly tell you, they tasted pretty much the same.  The one I cooked in the oven had a slightly crispier crust, but not enough so that I would prefer it over the microwaved one.
I was actually sent four coupons to try out these pies for free, but I didn't use them.  I bought the pies for myself so that I could pass along the free coupons to you!  I have four of them, so leave me a comment if you want to try these pies, and I'll send you one.  If more than four people comment, I will use random.org to pick who gets them.

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Banquet and received free coupons to facilitate my candid review. Mom Central also sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

What A View

We ate at a fish camp a couple of weeks ago, and this was the view outside the window we were sitting next to.  Pretty, right?  We haven't eaten at this particular restaurant in years, and the food has gotten a lot yummier.  I don't eat fish, so I judge these fish camps by their chicken, and this place's chicken was the best I have had in a while.  We will definitely be going back.

I Got My Free Chicken, And Then Some More

Last Friday, we headed to Chick-fil-A with our coupons to try their new spicy chicken sandwich.  After we ordered, we were each handed an envelope.  Inside was a thank you card, with three more coupons for free spicy chicken sandwiches.  That means I now have 12 coupons for free chicken sandwiches.  My first thought was to give some of them to you all, my dear readers.  But, they can only be used at my local Chick-fil-A, so they would be useless to you. 

I guess we'll be eating free chicken for a while now.

The Yummiest Pizza Ever Made

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Freschetta. All opinions are 100% mine.
 I have to start this post by saying that I do not like thin crust pizza.  I believe that the thicker the crust, the better.  Or should I say I used to believe that.  Do you want to know what changed my mind?

Freschetta FlatBread Pizza.

There are a few things I want to talk about.  First, when I opened the pizza to put it in the oven, it was wrapped in cellophane.  On the cellophane was this sticker, which I absolutely loved.

Second, I want to talk about one of the two flat bread pizzas that we tried. It was the Zesty Italian.  This pizza is "topped with pepperoni, sausage, Genoa salami, mozzarella and asiago cheeses, with a zesty red sauce just right for a great Italian taste".  I was a little disappointed that my pizza didn't have very many toppings on it.  It could have just been that specific pizza, but I was really looking forward to the salami (which is my favorite lunch meat) and the pizza I cooked had three pieces of salami.  That's it, on the entire pizza.  I even think they skimped on the sausage and pepperoni.

Toppings issue aside, it was a pretty good pizza.


The third thing I want to talk about is the other pizza we tried.  Technically, it is called the Roasted Garlic and Spinach Pizza, but I think it should be called The Yummiest Pizza Ever Made.  I'm not kidding.  It was so good!  It had "roasted garlic, spinach, mozzarella and parmesan cheeses with a delightfully creamy garlic sauce on a thin and crispy crust".  My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

I know that after reading this, you can not wait to try this for yourself. I found these pizzas at Walmart for a little over $5, which is pretty reasonable for a frozen pizza.  (I was lucky enough to have gotten mine for free to do this review)  You can go here to get a dollar off coupon.  I recommend the Roasted Garlic and Spinach Pizza, but feel free to try them all.

I Have A New Blog!

I am really excited about this one, too.  Thanks to Anna, I have an awesome template, and it was so easy to do.  In fact, it was so easy that I also redid my journey blog, and am thinking about redoing this one again.

Anyway, my new blog is all about food.  What I make, what I love to eat, the deals I find at the grocery stores...all kinds of neat things.  You can check it out here.  Feel free to follow once you get there ;P

BFF's

Chocolate and peanut butter.

Two perfect foods who were made to be together.

Consider them BFF's, if you will.

Now that Easter is right around the corner, my favorite Reese's have been in the stores, and I can not get enough. See those little eggs over there in that picture? I could eat an entire bag of them and still want more. Yes, to me they are that good!

So imagine my delight when I saw this bad boy in the grocery store the other day! That's right, it is a huge peanut butter filled chocolate egg.

I had to have it...but it was $5. I can not, and will not, spend $5 on one piece of chocolate, no matter how big it is. I will, however, pay $2.50, and that is exactly what I did the other night when I found them BOGO free. I can not tell you how much I was looking forward to sinking my teeth into this bad boy.

Now, if you look on the box, it shows a thin layer of chocolate, and lots of peanut butter. In reality, it was a really thick layer of chocolate with a lot of peanut butter.

I know, you are asking yourself, "why is this chick complaining about the thickness of the chocolate?". Well, because the reason I like the little eggs is because the chocolate melts away in my mouth, without having to be chewed. This bad boy needed to be gnawed, and I wasn't feeling it. Plus, as you can imagine, it was very rich! I'm glad I cut it in half to begin with, and it still took me a couple of days to eat the whole thing.

Would I buy another? probably not. Am I glad I got it on sale? Absolutely. I would have been really upset if I spent $5 just to be disappointed.

Now, if I could just get the pop tart people to make a chocolate peanut butter pop tart, the world would be a perfect place!

My Weekly Embarrassing Moment

Wednesday was food shopping day. We shop once a month, so the groceries I get have to last for a few weeks. Shopping this way has made me quite a thrifty shopper. I only buy what is on sale, or discontinued. In fact, except for staples like bread and milk, I hardly ever pay full price for anything.

Our first stop on Wednesday was Food Lion. We usually go to Food Lion, Ingles, BiLo, and Walmart...they are all conveniently located close together, so it's not a waste of gas to do this...I shop the sales at each store. Anyway, I spent $155 at Food Lion, and that was using a bunch of coupons too. The cashier was great. She scanned store coupons for things we didn't buy, and they went through, so that was cool. Before she handed me the receipt she checked how much we had saved, because it is printed on the receipt.

We saved $102. Not bad, right? The cashier was so impressed that she felt the need to announce it to the entire store over her little microphone thingy. Now, if you know me at all, you know that I prefer to blend in with the scenery, and not stand out in any way, shape, or form. By the time we walked out of that store, my face was as red as a beet. People decided to congratulate us on our savings. I could have died.

Turns out, that $102 was just the beginning. By the time we finished shopping, we had saved almost $300. The fun part was trying to find somewhere to put everything once we got it home.

Worst Cooks In America

I love Food Network. As much as I enjoy their cooking shows, I absolutely love their reality competitions. Iron Chef, Challenge, Next Food Network Star, Next Iron Chef, and now Worst Cooks In America.

This has been airing on Sundays all through January, and tomorrow night is the finale. I have watched as Chef Anne and Chef beau have tried to teach some pretty sorry cooks how to make a decent meal. From the beginning, one of my favorites has been Jenny Cross, and I was super excited tonight when she made it to the finale. There is not a doubt in my mind that she can't bury Rachel who, in my opinion, should be nowhere near the finale. If Chef Beau hadn't stolen Jenny from Chef Anne a couple of weeks ago, it would probably be her going against Jen. That would have been an even fight.

I guess we'll see how they both do tomorrow night.

Tuna Is Good For Babies Brains

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of HealthyTuna.com. All opinions are 100% mine.

I have three kids, which means I have been pregnant three times. During each pregnancy, I tired to eat the right foods to stay healthy. I developed gestational diabetes during my second pregnancy, and was borderline with both Ryan and Brandi, although I didn't become borderline with Brandi until my 35th week. It was because of the diabetes that I had to learn what was good for me, and what was bad.

One of the things I remember most was being told not to eat too much fish that contained mercury. I assumed that this included tuna, which was not true. Eating healthy tuna during pregnancy can actually help the child's development. One study showed that women who ate 2 ounces of fish a day had children who had higher developmental scores than those whose mothers ate less fish. Did you follow that? Simply put, eating the right fish during pregnancy can actually benefit your baby.

Of course, you should stay away from shark and swordfish, because these fish are high in mercury, and that is not good for the baby. I didn't eat any fish during my pregnancy, but that was only because I don't like fish. There was a study that found that women who stopped eating fish during pregnancy had a higher risk of depression. I wasn't depressed, but I never ate fish before getting pregnant, so my body wasn't missing anything. At least that is the way I see it.

You can check out these studies for yourself here. They are really interesting, and if I were to ever get pregnant again, I will try and include some tuna in my diet.