Got my xmas groove going on!

Yea, day after T-day, which is kinda sad, since they had xmas stuff out since before Halloween, poor Turkey day gets shafted!

Anyway, we keep adding to the front yard, so know I have a tree, Rhino, Pug, new this year Penguins and a LLama, plus some snowmen heads on the hill.

Plus we have little cactusy things that are growing and look like little xmas trees, so I bought some little lights, and BOOM, merry xmas to me, looks like a wonderland now.

was great since my Son and his girlfriend are here, plush hubby, had it done in a few hours.

Now to the inside…..

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So they are doing the XMAS shopping

at the school again.  Last year they said they were going to bring in items from a manufacture for them.  Obviously that didn’t go well because they were looking for vendors this year.

However, I got rid of a lot of my display items, I didn’t buy anything during the year, and I didn’t have anything made….aaauuuuggghhh.

Luckily or not, I was trying to make candles to sell, but online, being in glass, they cost a bunch to mail because of the weight, so I was like YES, I can get rid of most of my stuff and make back my money, just looking to break even as the items can’t be over 7 dollars.

I did have to get some display items, but I did have a bunch of charms and stuff to make earrings, bracelets and necklaces.

Plus I am learning to sew, so I am making some zipper pouches and cell phone pillows.

If I make all my money back I will be happy…then next year, I should do better.

Cat is not happy again….duh…

Stupid cat, she doesn’t like to be pet and she HATES to be brushed, but she gets knots, so I took her in and she got shaved on her tummy, under her tail, and under her neck.  She is not amused, but hey, at least I didn’t do the Lion Cut!

We figured even though the cat is about 8, we have only had her 2 years, as the first 6 she spent in the garage at our other home, seriously, we hardly ever saw her, (except when she decided to get in my stuff) which was fine with the rest of the family…since the move however, she is out and about, hanging with us in the living room, going in the other rooms, it is like a new cat….so weird.

House smells like turkey and NOT it a good way

so after T-day, which this time we cooked it on the TREAGER, it was freaking good and only took 2 hours, no messy kitchen, booyah!

So anywho, I had a left over carcass (yea what else should I call it???) so I thought, hey, I will put it in a pot like the ham bone and let it cook down with carrots and celery.

So my recommendation…USE THE FREAKING GOOGLE THING TO REMIND YOURSELF TURN IT OFF….I guess you can imagine what happened right?

I started it about 7, we went to bed around 11, I woke up at 3AM,  OMG….the Turkey!!!

Lucky it was on low, but it was starting to burn, I must have smelt it, cause I jumped out of bed and went downstairs, I just turned off the burner, then I put it outside, just in case.

Next am went out and threw it away…sigh…trying the hambone tonight, gonna get Google in on the ACT, don’t want a repeat of the turkey fiasco!

Technology is nice and all….

but it can also be destructive and intrusive.  Especially in MY kitchen, stupid microwave will beep when done, normal right, then it KEEPS beeping at me until I come over and open it up or hit clear….sheesh…..

We put the stair light on google, this way when I am carrying up a 25lb dog, I can tell it to turn on, since trying to turn it on with my hands full does’t work well.

It is also frustrating though, when you think you have something set up and it doesn’t work, like google when it will turn on the stair light for me, some times it does, other times I get an error….aaauuuuggghh

We got the Google levnovo Screen, it helps to see what I am telling it to do for lists, reminders ect.  This should help since I can’t remember what I did last night half the time (just kidding, somewhat).

aauugghh…sorry…..got a bit busy!

so let’s see, what has happened so far this month, it has been WARM here, unseasonably warm, we are NOT Florida, CA usually cools down in Nov until Feb or so, but NO, warm, and unfortunately fires.

We weren’t effected, but we know people who have been, so many homes and lives lost.

We are thankful for those that are ok, and all those who are sending items and money for those who have lost it all.

Healthy Kitchen MashUp!

So on one of my last posts I mentioned eating healthy while not going broke,  … so here we are

I was making a soup for my mom, using here “prepper” food, when I thought, hmmmm, cornbread muffins would be good with this!

I looked up a couple of low carb recipes and they call for all sorts of expensive flours, which I don’t have.

Soooo, I went to my pantry, pulled out my oats, and blended 1 cup of them.  Then I pulled up a standard recipes for Corn Muffins….

• 1 Cup flour = 3/4 of my standard flour mix (right now consists of mostly white and wheat with a little soy) and 1/4 cup of my just blended oat flour
• 1 Cup Corn Meal = 3/4 corn meal 1/4 just blended oat flour
• 2 tblsp Flax meal = need those fibers to lower the carb count
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt = couple grinds (to much salt is not good for you)
• 1/4 cup oil = 1 blended apple (peel and all)
• 1 egg –
• 1 cup milk = had non-fat in fridge that is what I used
• I had some corn on the cob left over from a BBQ so I cut off the kernels and added them 🙂
• Pour in muffin pan
• Cook 400 11-17 minutes

Well, Yummy, they aren’t to sweet (next time I may add some honey) but they are good with a nice texture and you can eat 2 for 6 WW points…because really, who eats just 1???

So a nice healthy muffin without spending a fortune!

Eating Healthy on a budget….

Why does it seem it costs more to eat healthy?  I am “frugal” I want to eat healthy but without going broke.

So I have some hacks I use, cooking with flour is cheap and easy, other “flours” can be expensive, so I will pick up a small bag of soy or almond flour when it is on sale and mix it with my regular and wheat flour in a canister in my pantry.  I have yet to have an item come out I can’t eat because of the mix.  Also, I have oats in my pantry, if I need to I will blend them to a “flour”and use.  (I do this because I love carbs and carbs love my butt and belly so much they never want to leave 🙂

I replace much of the oil called for in recipes with applesauce, and not store bought, because we can’t eat it before it goes all yucky and it has things besides apples in it (jeez really companies!!)

So I always have apples in the fridge, I just cut 1 up (peel and all, keep all the good vitamins and minerals peeps!) blend it and use it instead.  1 apple tend to give me 1/4 to 1/2 cup of apple sauce.

I always cut down and/or replace the white sugar that is shown in recipes, we have way to much sugar already in all our foods, so if you are starting out, just slowly reduce, this way your family won’t notice.  Recipe calls for 1 cup, use 3/4, then 1/2, then 1/4.   If you want replace part of it with Honey or Agave.  So I cup sugar, if you cut it to 1/2 then add 1 tablespoon of honey or agave.

FARMERS MARKETS – to there, great buys of fresh fruits and veggies, plus I think I mentioned this before, look to see if there is an “ugly” fruit bin, I get most of my fruit there when they have it, for $1 lb apples, pears, ect.  And at the end of the day they don’t want to take it back, they give it away at a discount.

Now, what if you can’t eat it all?  Freeze it for later, or can it ( I am going to learn how to do that soon).

Here is what I don’t understand about

“nature people” the government and do gooders that say we can’t interfere with the animals to save them.

As an example, the sea turtles, you see all the time the shows where the little turtles are trying to make it to the water and get eaten by crabs and seagulls.

However, they won’t step in and help them because it is nature…NO….the CRAB eat them because they are going the WRONG way because MAN has created so much light they get confused and go the wrong way.

WE created this problem, WE SHOULD then step up and take them to the water and make sure they survive…we created the problem.

This happens with lots of other animals, if humans have created the problem, we SHOULD step in and help.

The cat was PISSED ……

So we were having our electric panel upgraded, so I told my husband when he left in the AM to let the cat in the room and shut the door.

She hangs out by the door trying to get us to either turn on the water in the sink or give her a snack…sigh…(want a cat???)

So she was NOT happy I wouldn’t let her out, every 20 min or so she is clawing my bed!

Once they go here, since I had to open the garage, I locked her cat door so she couldn’t get out there….yea, that did NOT go over well.  She also couldn’t go outside because they had the gate open.

So when they left, I let her out, she went and ate some grass then horked it up on my patio as a FU!

OMG…..she is such a CAT!!!