Saturday, October 15, 2011

Tragedy has struck my keyboard

Last night while drinking some water, an ice cube splashed water on my laptop.  Right on the left mousepad key.  I tried to dry it out but it didn't work.  So now the key doesn't work at all.  Do you know how hard it is to crop pictures without that key?!?

I'll try to move past it.  Or find a mouse to plug in to my computer.

So I caught some flack last night from Hubby because I didn't put our dessert on the blog.  Then I realized we ate it after I posted.  Either way, we enjoyed a piece of delicious chocolate cake that was made by his Grandma Lorena.  It had been in the freezer for awhile, but pop it in the microwave long enough and it tastes delicious.

Today I started off my morning with some pomegranate Chobani yogurt with some of the same Cascadian Farms Granola.  I know granola isn't the healthiest thing ever (usually lots of calories and fat), but I watch the portion size.  I just love that little crunch.  Sorry-no pic.

For lunch, I wanted to try something new.  Last night after cutting up the broccoli to steam it, I got out my veggie peeler and used up the stems of the broccoli stalks.  Today I made a ramen noodle salad out of them.  I'm sure you've seen this before, here's my version, saving some money by making your own broccoli slaw and not buying the packaged kind.

Ramen Salad


3 small stalks of broccoli, peeled in thin strips
1 c shredded carrot
1 package ramen noodles, any flavor (I used chicken)- uncooked
1/2 c sliced almonds
1 T butter
1/4 c sunflower seeds
1/3 c canola oil
3 T apple cider vinegar
1 T sugar
splash of soy sauce

Combine the broccoli and carrots.  In a skillet, melt butter over low heat and add dry ramen noodles and almonds (be sure to take out seasoning packet!).  Saute for a couple minutes until almonds are toasted.  Add the noodles and almonds to the veggies, along with the sunflower seeds.  Mix the canola oil, vinegar, sugar and soy sauce, along with 1/2 of the seasoning packet and add to salad.  Mix well and serve.



I accompanied this with a little smoked pulled pork and bbq sauce.



After working in the office all morning, I just relaxed for awhile this afternoon and played with Tyler.  He's getting so fun.  Lots of crawling, even pulling himself up a little.  He did this several times today, didn't know what to do and just fell backward.  We're so evil, we just laughed at him.  It's ok, he only cried once.

I did have a snack of cottage cheese and a handful of Cheezits for my snack this afternoon, since it took awhile to put together supper.

For supper, I wanted to use some gnocchi that I got from Target last weekend, just because it looked good and I've only had gnocchi once and it was awesome.  I used the tri-color gnocchi: potato, tomato and spinach.  I thought I took a close-up pic, but I didn't.  Instead you get one of Tyler playing with the gnocchi package.


I searched the web for recipes and decided on this cheesy gnocchi.  I adapted parts of it however, based on what I had on hand.

Since I can't exactly copy and paste right now due to my stupid keyboard problems, you'll have to just follow the link.  Here are my substitutions: I used whole wheat flour, skim milk, Swiss cheese instead of Gruyere.  Other than that I followed it to a T.  I might have used a little less butter.

It was pretty tasty, definitely not very healthy though.  When it was done, I tipped it a little and poured about 2 or 3 T of grease off it.  Must be the cheese.  Warning: it is also quite filling, so a little goes a long way.



Hubby and I agreed the cheese sauce would be excellent with pasta, so I guess we know how we're making our next batch of homemade mac and cheese.


Close-up of the gnocchi


Of course, we did not just have a meal of gnocchi.  Hubby grilled up some smart chicken marinated in Italian dressing.  You can really do no wrong grilling chicken breasts marinated in Italian dressing- it's always good.


I cut up my chicken and put it in with some spinach for a salad.  Used some red pepper/Vidalia onion dressing.


For dessert I threw together a quick apple crisp with the remaining honeycrisp apples I had.  I then had a bowl of it with some vanilla frozen yogurt.




Since I didn't exactly get as much stuff done today as I wanted, tomorrow better be a productive day.  Shouldn't be a problem since hubby is commanding all of the televisions for football.

Look for another recipe or two tomorrow!!

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