another delicacy

Any household with children

is hectic in the morning.

Throw in a diet menu

and you could have total chaos

or simple abandonment of your resolve.

Unless you find delicious recipes

you can make in advance,

that are only 1.7 grams of carbs

and reheat in 15 to 20 seconds.

What could be better to start your day

but an egg, sausage, onion and cheese muffin?

They are cheesy and moist,

flavorful and quick.

One is enough to get you to lunch

without looking for something to tide you over.

And the nicest part of them

is spending time in the kitchen

with your daughter.

She helped, I think, so she won't feel guilty

for eating my "diet" breakfast

every morning.

Being able to find something

healthy and filling to feed

my girls before they go to school

makes me smile..................

A good day for baking

The snow finally came.
Overnight and early morning,
we ended up with 3"-4".

Nothing's more beautiful
than a field of pristine snow,
especially viewed from the warmth of your home.
Feeling a little snowbound,
Emily decided to make dessert.

She made delicious ginger cookies
topped with milk chocolate chips.
A recipe she found on her calendar.
Their fragrance permeated throughout the house.
Kayla, on the other hand,
had a Spanish project to finish for Monday.
Each student must cook something "Spanish"
and share it with the class.
Kayla found a recipe for "Fried Milk".

The milk is mixed with corn starch,
nutmeg and sugar.
After it thickens, it is refrigerated
for over 3 hours to "set",
then dredged thru eggs and bread crumbs,
fried and dusted with powdered sugar mixed with cinnamon.

As strange as it sounds,
it tasted pretty good.
Ashley helped with dinner
making a wonderful salad.
Watching my daughters
enjoying spending time in the kitchen,
experimenting with new recipes,
always makes me smile...................

Delicious Colours

It has been so gray and wet

and dreary and depressing and cold.

Today, everyone was gearing up

for the big snow storm

they have been forecasting

and reporting on.

I had to stop by the grocery store

and as soon as I came in and turned to my left

I was welcomed by an explosion of colour

from a display of bell peppers

in various colours.

What a sight!

The colours were warm, like some Caribbean vacation resort.

It made you happy just looking at them.

Because they were on sale,

they had them in different places in the store.

Several times, as we were shopping, we would turn a corner

and there they were.

Bright and inviting.

Each time, it made me smile.........................

Is that howling I hear?

The moon will be full in a couple of days.

When I first saw it today,

it was as wispy as a cloud.

It was big and low in the sky.

Not wanting to offend the witches again,

I looked up the date of the full moon in January.

It is indeed not tonight

but on January 30th.

This is when I learned an interesting fact:

The first full moon of January

is called the wolf moon.

I had never heard of that.

Learning something new

always makes me smile....................

What's that strange yellow light?

The big story today

was that the sun came out.

It had been so long since we saw it,

I wasn't entirely sure

what that strange yellow light was,

that was behind our neighbor's house

when I came back from

taking the girls to school!

As the day wore on

I marveled at how blue the sky was

outside my window.

I guess there is something to be said

for bone chilling cold weather.

The thermometer kept climbing.

By lunch we had broken the freezing mark.

It climbed all the way up to nearly 40.

At this hour, the clouds have moved back in.

But it was sure great while it lasted.

Seeing the sun today

Lifted my spirits and

made me smile.................

the taste of summer

During the summer

I cook a lot on the bar-b que.

One of our favorite meal

is flat iron steak.

I serve it with homemade cilantro sauce.

It is garlicky and a little spicy

fresh and flavorful.

We hadn't had it for a while.

So tonight I made flat iron steak with cilantro sauce

accompanied by cheesy mashed cauliflower.

DELICIOUS.

The best part, it's all very low carb.

But the part I loved the most

was the compliments from my daughters,

who all love the cilantro sauce.

That makes me smile................

A new breed of rabbit

Yesterday my computer was undergoing MORE maintenance.

But I'm back (not sure for how long)

Last October we got a rabbit.

Well, Kayla got a rabbit,

presumably for her SAE for her FFA project.

Her name is Mel.

Miss Elie appointed herself " bunny-sitter"

from the day Mel got home.

Their coloring is very much the same.

We think Miss Elie sees her as her child.

This weekend Miss Elie was napping

in her favorite spot, on top of the couch.

We put Mel next to her.
After a lot of sniffing and licking

Miss Elie turned around....

Which created a new breed of rabbit.....

If it were possible to enter a picture

instead of the animal

Kayla would surely win a prize

for breeding such an unusual looking pet

A rabbit with a big fluffy tail.

It actually looked pretty good.

and it made us all smile..............