Monthly Archives: September 2013

10 ways to make cottage cheese sexier.

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Yes, this is a random post.  It’s about cottage cheese.

I’m trying to eat better and cottage cheese is a food that is pretty high in calcium and protein and low in sugar and fat as long as you select the right variety.

However, cottage cheese can get pretty  boring in a hurry.

I’ve been looking for ways to make it more enticing as a go-to snack food instead of Lay’s Potato Chips which are the Devil when it comes to being healthy and fit (and my downfall).

Some people don’t like cottage cheese no matter what you add to it.   Clone doesn’t even like to be near cottage cheese.

For those of us who like it, here are some ways to make it more interesting:

1. Add chili sauce and stir.  (My current favorite.)

2. Add sprinkles of pepper and dill and throw in some baby tomatoes

3. Add slices of low sugar canned peaches or pineapples, or apples (reminds me of my Grandma)

4. Add chopped bell peppers

5. Add roasted peppers from jar

6. Add chopped olives (green or black)

7. Add Craisins or sliced almonds

8. Add pumpkin spice or cinnamon

9. Add salsa

10. Add low sugar apple sauce

There you have it.  Sexier cottage cheese.

15 things I’ve contemplated writing about but haven’t.

IMG_4785I’ve been in a slump.  I haven’t been able to write a decent post this last couple of weeks to save my life.  Lots of thoughts but I haven’t been able to get anything down. So, in no particular order, here are fifteen things that I have contemplated writing about but haven’t.

1. Sunrises in Colorado this time of year which are downright breathtaking.  (Clone the other day when he saw one out the back windows before school said “That’s some Lion King looking stuff going on out there.)

2. All that I’ve learned about supplements that can help with bruising.  I was going to call the post “Tips for my Bruising Bedfellows.”  (Since I get a new bruise every fifteen minutes.  Oh, and Arnica rocks.)

3.  The news on my Rice Krispy knees. (Doc says it’s arthritis in my knees which is common and the sound probably wont’ ever go away (YUK) but some exercising and supplements might help.)

4. The wild weather extremes we’ve had in Colorado with fires and flooding.  (Good thing global warming is totally a hoax.)

5. How much I have learned about ADD  these last few weeks and how brains in people with ADD are wired completely differently. (Found some experts and it has been eye opening. Oh, and it’s very genetic.)

6. My growing desire to quit my marketing career and work at the Container Store. (For real.  My gig is sucking the life out of me molecule by molecule.  I’m over it.)container

7. My new book idea about 25 Suburban Women I Want to Punch in the Face. (The Container Store would actually be a great place for gathering book material now that I think about it.)

8. How weird this weekend is going to be for me.  (Sunday is mom’s birthday and anniversary of my sister’s death (same day – yes that’s messed up)_ and the Alzheimer’s Walk is this weekend too.  It will be the type of weekend when I go from laughing hysterically to crying hysterically at the drop of a hat and frighten onlookers unaware of my tendencies.)

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9. The strangeness of celebrating my Mother’s birthday with her when she has no idea who I am, much less that it’s her birthday.   (Don’t make me go.  *&^%#@!! Ugh.)

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10. The fact that  I’ve been eating and drinking much better (most days) since I started working with a personal trainer. (We’ll see how much longer I can afford her but I’m starting to really notice a difference.  Luckily I hear Container Store pays well.)

11. How cool my new, free to-do app called Wunderlist is.  (It’s free and it saves me from rewriting all my lists 200 times a day.  Probably an ADD tendency.)

12. The intense waves of homesickness I still get sometimes even though I’ve lived away almost ten years. (Not sure that ever goes away completely.)

13. How weird women are. (Except for me of course.)

14. How bizarre it feels to have to kids in high school and to not be needed to drive them to and from school.  (Is there such a thing as post-middle school depression?)

15. How Steno pads and kitchen scissors scissorremind me of my Mom.  (And will probably randomly make me cry this weekend because they’ll make me think of my Mom, which will then make me think of my sister and how much I wish she could go visit Mom with me on Sunday.)

That’s all for now folks.

Happy Hump Day.

Snap. Crackle. Crap.

ImageSo I’ve gone to a personal trainer (I shall call her Firey Ginger) for two weeks now.  Twice last week, twice this week.  This is huge.  She’s been making me actually sweat and breathe heavily and work muscles that my body had almost forgotten how to use.

She is a cute, firey redhead who looks like she could kick my arse in a New York minute if I pissed her off.  And her tattoos make it even more believable.  Which is a good thing since i have the self discipline of Monkey Dog eyeing a slab of bacon.

So I’m feeling better about myself, eating fewer BBQ Lays and even trying to drink more water. (Now I understand how drinking more water helps you feel full.  Took me 30 years to believe that fact.  Better late than never.)

I’m even trying to be more aware of how many calories are in a glass of Chardonnay.  And I’ve realized the grapes really don’t count as fruits.    The potatoes in vodka aren’t veggies either.  For real.

Life is good, I’m feeling good, I’m on a roll.  (Insert sound of stopped record.)

So Firey Ginger says to me yesterday as I’m doing squats, “You know, you might want to have those knees checked out by a doctor or something.  Just in case. They’re pretty loud.”

Crap.  I’ve been noticing how much noise my  knees have been making but hadn’t stopped to realize that the hideous crunching noises have most likely increased since I’ve been working my tail off for an hour at a time with Firey Ginger.  Or it may be because I’m actually doing something physical and my body is in shock.  Either way, ick.

I came home and started doing enough research online to freak myself out.

Several references to crunchy knees had people comparing the sound to Rice Crispies.  Nice.

It seems that I have crepitus, which probably means I’ve lost some cartilage and now things are rubbing together the wrong way.  Could be caused by osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritus, or patellar dysfunction which means my kneecap doesn’t track properly.

Or my legs are going to fall off.  Or something like that.

Either way now I can’t stop hyper-focusing on the sound they make when I go up and down my stairs.  Luckily it doesn’t hurt.  FOR NOW….. BEWARE… all the websites say.  Lovely.

Apparently it’s important to have this checked out so that I do not injure my knees by doing the wrong exercises.

So I have a doctor’s appointment to have my Rice Crispy situation looked at later today.

I’ll bring along a little carton of milk and a spoon, just in case.

More on this at a later date.

Happy Friday.

Daily Prompt: Imagine all the People.

imagineToday’s WP daily prompt, Imagine all the People, was to observe people from a photo of a public place and imagine their lives.

I remember taking this photo my first afternoon in Madrid.  We were sitting at a table at a restaurant outside (you can see the chairs in the foreground). We found a quaint square which was much quieter than the other larger, more popular squares.  It felt like a little hideaway and a good place for our tired feet and hungry stomachs.

We were just getting into the routine of the whole tapas and late dinner timing, along with around the clock wine.  We were ready for dinner but it was the in-between time (I think it was around 7 pm) when most restaurants seemed to only have versions of ham (jamon) and bread plates available.

As we sat and drank our Albariño wine (lighter, white Spanish wine) and ate our jamon (think prosciutto) and bread, we loved watching these little boys play outside. Looking at this photo, I can hear them giggling and shouting now, and the way their voices bounced off of the walls of the square.  At one point their ball even landed in the middle of the tables, which caused even more contagious giggling.

I wondered if their parents were possibly eating at the same cafe?  Did these boys live in a nearby building?  Was this square their “backyard”?  Were any of them brothers? I also wondered about the little boy near the step — was he afraid to jump into the game perhaps because he didn’t know these boys? I could tell he really wanted to jump right in, but he was holding back.

I love this picture and it takes me right back to that exact moment.   Photos are marvelous little time machines.

What photo of yours comes to mind which makes you imagine all the people in it?