My (Birth) Day In Pictures

Interview With The Lurker

My 16 year old nephew, also known as my favorite lurker, recently complained that I hadn't written a post in a while. I decided to interview him and turn it into a post.

Here goes:

1. Have you started driving yet?

Not yet

2. What's your favorite subject in school?

American History

3. Who do you most admire?

No one in particular

4. If you could hang out with any one person, dead or alive, who would it be?

Tyler Seguin

5. What's the best part about having me for an aunt?

Good question

6. What's your favorite sport to watch? To play?

A tie between hockey and baseball

7. What college/university are you hoping to attend?

Boston College

8. What was the best day of your life?

When the Bruins won the Stanley Cup

9. What was the worst?

When I had to get glasses

10. Who do you like better, your brother or your sister?

Sister, by a sizable margin

Well, there you go. I'm not sure I like the answer to question number 5. I'll have to get to the bottom of that one.

Grammie's Broccoli Soup

This post was written by Kelly, a part-time contributor

My mother-in-law usually makes this for Thanksgiving. It's one of those special occasion soups. It's not very diet friendly, but it's so delicious.

Here's the recipe for Grammie's Broccoli Soup

6 cups chicken broth
Head of broccoli or frozen broccoli
3/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 cups shredded American cheese
1 1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
1 cup mozzarella cheese
2tsp salt
2tsp pepper
1tsp garlic powder
1/2Tsp basil
1cup light cream or more
3 cups half n half or more
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup flour
Juice of one lemon

Place broccoli In a large bowl and cover with cold water. Add lemon juice and let stand one hour.
Drain and chop broccoli. In large saucepan bring water to a boil add broccoli and onions. Boil till tender. Drain.
Large saucepan medium heat add chicken broth, broc.,onions,salt, pepper, basil, garlic powder. Mix well.
Still on medium heat add creams, stir well, add flour. Mix well.
Add cheese. DO NOT LET SOUP BOIL. Add more cheese and cream as needed.

Add the Mozzarella Cheese

Time to add the Swiss Cheese

Oh my! Look at all that cheesy goodness.

My tester for the day couldn't wait to try it.

"Yum! This tastes just like Grammies." Yay! success.

Trader Joe's Chocolate Croissants

Remember when I mentioned that I was going to start eating better? Yeah, me neither. How can I be expected to eat more fruits and veggies when there is so much delicious chocolate out there?

One of my favorite things are these babies:

Even the package looks good.

You just take one (or all four) out of the package before you go to bed and put them on a cookie sheet. They'll look like this:

They'll magically grow and puff up overnight. You'll be amazed when you see them!

Throw them in the oven for about 20 minutes and viola (that's French, ya know) you'll end up with this:

Flaky, yummy, melt-in-your-mouth chocolatey goodness.

Now, where did I put my cholesterol pills?

P.S. I cut them in half right out of the freezer. That way they're only a million calories instead of a billion.

Bon appetite!

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. Just a shout out to TJ's for making these delightful goodies.

Target Toy Clearance - January 2012

*This post was written by Kelly*

The Target toy clearance sale came a day earlier than I expected. Thanks to The Coupon Goddess I found out about the sale. I made some quick schedule changes and ran to Target right after work. I only had 30 minutes to shop. It's amazing what you can accomplish in 30 minutes! I was in such a rush, I forgot to get a picture of my carriage before I went to the register. I guess I did pretty well. I overheard a little boy say to his mom "Wow! that's a LOT of toys!"

This first picture is what I picked up for a friend who was stuck at work. She's hit the Target sale in the past and knows how quickly the shelves get cleared. I grabbed everything in the first picture below for her. The retail price was $486.00. Her price was $186! This included 3 Lego sets which were 50% off. Hopefully she's all set for birthdays for the year.

This cute little Strawberry Shortcake doll will make a nice Birthday gift.











Here's what I purchased for myself. I also got lots of Lego's. You can never have too many Lego's in this house. It's the one thing that my kids will spend hours playing with. I also picked up a few things for Toys for Tots for next Christmas. My heart broke reading about the low donations this year.

Alll of these toys will have a nice home in my attic awaiting birthdays and Christmas next year. Did you get to the sale? How did you make out?

TMI Tuesday

It's TMI Tuesday. I'm warning you now, it's not for the faint of heart. Don't blame me if you can't handle it. You've been warned.

This weeks TMI Tuesday is brought to you by a friend of mine, who recently said:

"I'm 2 Hershey Kisses away from Pajama Jeans."

Not Ready To Say Goodbye

One of my goals (no, not a resolution) for 2012 is to eat better. Healthier. You know, maybe don't have cookies for breakfast everyday. Cut it back to once or twice a week.

I'm not going to sit here and pronounce that I'm going to lose 20 lbs in two weeks because I'm going to work out for 6 hours a day and eat nothing but lettuce. That's not going to happen. You know and I know it.

What I'm going to do instead is to make better choices when it comes to food. I love veggies, I just need to eat more of them. And when I make a salad, I should probably make it a normal size and not one big enough to feed the whole town.

With all of this healthy eating that's going to be going on, I'm not sure about one thing. I don't think I can say goodbye to my friend:

Oh, how I love you! You make me so happy. Some nights when I'm driving home and I think of you waiting for me in my freezer, I get chills. I love having you in my home. I especially love when you're on sale. I hate it when you're not here.

Maybe we can still be friends? We'll just have to stop seeing so much of each other. Let's take a look at what you have to offer:

YIKES! 19 grams of fat per 1/2 cup. Hmm, I guess I'll just have to eat smaller amounts. But what's smaller than 1/2 a cup?! Jeez, you're making this really difficult. How about this: after dinner, I'll have 1 or 2, wait, make that 3 teaspoons. Well, better make it tablespoons. If I'm going to get up off the couch, I won't be doing it for 3 teaspoons.

How would that be? That would still be considered healthy, right?

Plus, my doctor told me that I need to have more calcium in my diet. Ice cream has calcium, right? Right?