Mischief Monday – A few bad digits

Hi everyone it’s Millie here. I’m filling in for my mom to tell you about some mischief she got into a couple of days ago. You see a few days ago she started putting her treadmill back together. In order to move it to the basement a couple of years ago she and dad had to take it apart to make the parts light enough to carry. She wants to start using it again since this winter has been so crappy and we can’t get out for walks. Well she was almost done when part of the frame came crashing down and squished her fingers into a gap in the base.

Bottom finger is the swollen one

Some loud HBO words came out of her mouth, but she was sure it wasn’t broken just squished. How did she know it wasn’t broken you ask? Well years ago our mom was a klutz and broke two fingers (at different times) so she said she knows what a broken finger feels like. Luckily it is her left hand, but even if you are right handed you do use your left more than you like when it hurts.

Circle shows bruised area

She put lots of ice on it the first day and it is already feeling much better. It is still a bit stiff and gets sore if she uses it too much. Our mom wanted all of you to know that to help her hand heal quicker she is not commenting on any blogs for a few days. We are keeping up and reading all your blogs, but we just can’t leave any comments.

We think maybe we should ship our mom off to France to recuperate with  Easy’s dad who chopped off a piece of his finger a few days ago. Maybe together they can use two hands.

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Baking in July?

Yes, that is what I did this weekend.  Usually you would expect it to be too hot to do any baking during the month of July, but this year has proved otherwise.  The weather this summer has been unusually below average in temperature and it doesn’t look like that trend is going to change any time soon.  We have been saving money on our electricity bill this summer by not having to run the air conditioning very much.  I have also taken advantage of the cool weather by baking and cooking like crazy the past couple of weeks.  Over the July 4th holiday long weekend, I cooked 4 dinners with plenty of left overs so for the next few weeks dinner is as simple as picking out what to have and heating it up.

Muffin Top Pan

As part of my weight maintenance program I like to have healthy snacks with  me at work so I don’t indulge in something I shouldn’t.  For my birthday recently, I ask for and received some baking mixes and muffin top pans from Vitalicious (Thanks Colleen!).  I had also re-arranged some things in the kitchen cupboards and discovered some muffin mixes I had for a long time and never used.  Normally these mixes call for whole milk, oil and eggs.  By substituting skim milk, apple sauce for the oil, and Egg Beaters egg substitute for the eggs I cut out all of the added fat the instructions normally call for.  To add a bit of fiber to the mixes without adding a lot of calories I added oatmeal to one of the mixes and crushed Fiber One cereal (original flavor) to another.  This didn’t effect the consistency of the mix or baking time at all.

In addition to the muffin tops I also tried a new brand of fat free brownie mix called Krusteaz I found at Wegmans. Charlie prefers “real brownies” over the chocolate Vitalicious Muffin Tops, but I refuse to make a full-fat variety.  The Krusteaz brownies are a big hit.  These brownies came out very fudgy with a great consistency.  I tried the No Pudge Fat Free brownie mix previously.  While very tasty, they are so gooey that they are almost impossible to cut into squares.

Brownies and Muffin Tops

Baking is usually thought of as a winter activity, but I enjoyed being able to do some in the middle of July!  Now I have a good stock of muffin tops and brownies to last for quite a few weeks.  That way if Summer does come back I won’t have to worry about heating up the house when we are trying to cool it down with the air conditioning.

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Simple and Delicious!

I love finding new recipes that are simple and delicious and make my husband, Charlie, rave every time he has it.  Not that I cook just to satisfy him, but it sure gives the ego a boost when something so simple can make anyone so happy!

Recently we purchased a frozen pizza with a Mexican flavor from Kashi and loved the combination of ingredients.  The crust was so thin it was as if it was made on a large tortilla.  Having recently scoured the Hungry Girl Recipe book, I remembered a recipe from the book that used a tortilla as the base for a pizza.  With a bit of creativity, both mine and Charlies, and a little help from Hungry Girl, we came up with this Personal Taco Pizza recipe.  It doesn’t take much time to whip this up and with a large cookie sheet we can bake 2 at a time.  Perfect for a quick dinner after a day at work.  Using the high fiber tortilla and beans keeps you feeling satisfied all evening so no desire for late night snacking!

Try it for yourself.  You won’t be disappointed.  It is also vegetarian!

Download a copy of the recipe for your own recipe collection.

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