The Best Recipe I've Found for a Long Time!

As many of you know, I am a lifetime member of Weight Watchers. This is because I need to keep food in a proper perspective in order to stay in my clothes. This week I went to weigh in after Thanksgiving to keep me on track during the holidays. The leader handed out this really simple, low-fat recipe that is so great for working people and busy moms, I just had to pass it along! It doesn't have a name, so call it whatever you like!

1 pound ground beef or turkey
Crumble it in a skillet and cook it.
Add a small, chopped onion if you like (I do)
Drain off the fat when it's brown if you need to.

Add to the skillet:
1/2 cup salsa
1/2 cup water
1 can of tomato soup
Salt & Pepper if desired.

Stir everything together and simmer until "smushed together" (my terminology). I do it about 10 minutes.

You are now finished and can serve this in a ba-zillion ways including:
Over pasta
In a wrap with cheese (fat free, of course) and sour cream (again, fat free)
Eat it like sloppy Joe on a bun.
Put it on a salad with stuff to make a "Taco Salad"
You get the idea . . . make some up yourself.

The recipe says you can add chili beans if you want. I stuck with the basics but might try this.

If you are counting WW points, the whole recipe is 6 servings and is 18-1/2 points total. Each serving is only 3 points!!!! I made mine with ground turkey, and it was awesome.

It's a Gray, Snowy Sunday in Pittsburgh

Today started off kind of damp; the newspaper delivery person kind of missed with the plastic bag. Our newspaper was soaked this morning, and Greg had to get the fan and spread the paper out on the floor in sections to dry it. He had to start reading the thin sections first at breakfast over our usual Cream of Wheat.

After church, we ate lunch at our new favorite restaurant, Passport Cafe, in the Pine Tree Plaza. They have a wonderful brunch menu with unusual dishes with an international flair; and they use the freshest ingredients from local producers of meats, dairy and vegetables. Today Greg had the mussels and I had roast quail with polenta. Both dishes were wonderful, reasonably priced, and beautifully presented. The menu changes frequently based on what is available, and there is always something interesting in addition to crepes and french toast and eggs Benedict if you are less adventurous. On the way home, we stopped at Staples to get an EASY button and Rite Aid for a couple of items. Then it was home to finish up the new coat I have been sewing for about 6 or 8 weeks.


Voila! What do you think? The coat is made of a wonderful, soft wool and cashmere fabric from Sawyer Brook that is just like a warm blanket. With the lining, it is so toasty warm. I didn't realize that my coat was such an unusual color until I tried to find a scarf and gloves to wear with it. But I settled on some dove grey gloves and a scarf that is a houndtooth check with pink and grey and ivory. I finished it just in time to wear for the holidays! My "good" black coat was purchased at Lazarus at the Dayton Mall when I worked for Lexis-Nexis. Those of you from the Dayton area know that it was a WHILE ago that you could get anything at Lazarus since they changed to Macy's. And I have lived in Pittsburgh for seven years, so that alone tells you something.


My next sewing project is a dress and a jacket that I bought fabric for a few weeks ago when Sawyer Brook sent me a mailing. Maybe I will cut that out over the holiday weekend.

I don't have any sewing patterns for little boy clothes except a couple of things with sweat pants and tee shirts for either a boy or a girl. I guess sewing is another area of expansion for me with the arrival of little David Richard. Better stock up on fabric with trains and dinosaurs after the green outfit is finished! I also have a pattern to make Greg some workout shirts that are long sleeved and long enough to meet his workout pants. We haven't been able to come up with many "talls" in the athletic wear section. I guess basketball players never wear long sleeves. Go figure . . . .

It's a BOY!!!!!

You have to check out the ultrasound pictures on Katydid! Although I really don't see that nose and lips thing, Emily!

Ohhh, the shopping!!! I've never had a chance to buy boy clothes and toys except very recently for my grand-nephew (is that the right name?), Gabe! Now I can DOUBLE my pleasure.

Off to Babies 'R Us and Toys 'R Us . . . . . . . Doo Dah . . . Doo Dah . . . (greg is gonna kill me) . . . Doo Dah!!

Six Things I Like about You . . . Katy! (Grandchildren in general.)

There are a lot of things I don't like about being OLD enough to be a grandmother; but these things have not deterred me from being really crazy about Katy and little newbie baby Mowery and any other grandbabies that come along. The me-me that Jen and Emily did last was too long and painful for me, so I am starting my own. It is the top six things I like about children . . . and especially about the cutest child on the planet (for the time being), Katy.

1) Katy eats what she likes and spits out the rest. As an adult, this is something I would like to try. To top that, I feel guilty if all I have for lunch is fish crackers and milk. Katy is amazingly free from the knowledge of a healthy diet. Her food choices are simple.

2) Life is interesting when you are a kid. Things like light switches and cardboard boxes are hours of entertainment for Katy. It is so cheap to have fun when a chair that swivels around is an amusement park as long as you have an Opa or other adult willing to spin you in a circle.

3) Katy is the ultimate "I'm okay, you're okay" representative. The grumpiest store clear will smile at Katy. Maybe its because she always smiles back or something. Do you think maybe all our ambassadors to other countries should be aged four and under?

4) When a kid gets tired, you can pick them up and put them to bed. This would be a really handy feature for some adults who seem to have trouble getting enough rest and end up inflicting themselves on the rest of us. Not only that, but a crib is a safe place to take a break from the world if it gets to be too much! Sometimes I could use a crib myself.

5) Katy has no plans. She lives totally in the present. This is what "one day at a time" is all about. Plans and regrets clutter up your life. I need to remember this!

6) Katy looks cute in anything she wears. Except for a few specialty shops, you can pretty much buy her a whole outfit for under $20 anywhere. In an age where a pair of pantyhose costs $7 or $8, it is still amazing that you can buy an outfit for ANYBODY for so little. Maybe this is why it is so much fun to shop for the kiddo . . . because it feels like you are getting so much.

I'm sure there are other lessons to be learned from toddlers, but it is getting late. In the interest of not being a grumpy adult tomorrow, I'm turning in. Ni-night, Katy!

GREG'S NEW SCRAPER!!!


Greg has not had an ice scraper for a while because he somehow lost his last winter. At the time, the stores had started to stock shamrocks and Easter baskets and all that spring merchandise we all need in spite of the fact that there is an inch of ice on our cars every evening when we leave to come home from work.

Today we went to TSC to buy bird seed and to check on a heated bird bath that my dad wants to dis-assemble to make something for the heat pump and such. And they had ICE SCRAPERS!

The ice scrapers started at 89 cents and went up to $18. Greg really took a liking to this extensible, ice chipping, show brushing, frost removing model that adjusts to three angles for the perfect leverage. Even though this was one of the more expensive models, we decided it was the one he needed. Isn't it impressive?

I told Greg that he would be the envy of all the other guys with this scraper. It won't matter that he wears lavender shirts and bow ties. Everyone now knows that he is a manly man with an ice scraper like that!!! Of course, I already knew he was a manly man. He respects my girlie qualities, and I certainly respect his manly ones.

Once again, the bold blue text of this post is to commemorate the manliness of Greg's new ice scraper which incidentally came only in blue. For some reason there weren't any pink ones . . . I don't understand it . . . .