Beauty Blending Sponge

Have you heard about this new Beauty Blending Sponge?  It is fantastic.  My daughters got it for me for Christmas and I love it.  It is easy to hold and makes applying your foundation a breeze.  It gets into the hard to apply areas and your foundation goes on smooth with no lines.  You also use less foundation when you apply with this little beauty.  It's kinda expensive (on sale now at Amazon for $14.99), but you can rinse it out and use it over and over.    Check it out, you will love it. 

Game Day - Hot Dog Bar

 Hot Dog Bar via Hostess With the Mostess

 When I was thinking about what to make for the playoffs this weekend, a Hot Dog Bar came to mind.  A station where you could make your favorite hot dogs, everything right there where you need it.  Some choices and some recipes.  At my hot dog bar, I'm going to feature the Chicago Dog, the Chili Dog and the Martha Stewart Hot Dog.

What I like about the Hot Dog Bar above, is she has laid out all the ingredients needed and provided  recipes for certain types of hot dogs.

 I love a GOOD hot dog. To me, that means you have to start with a quality hot dog.  I've found that I love the Hebrew National Line.  

This is the supreme, flavor busting hot dog.  Hebrew National's Beef Knockwurst.  To die for.  My neighbor's little boy loves hot dogs and she was buying the regular brands for him and he liked them. Then one day she ran out and asked to borrow a hot dog.  I gave her one of these.  Her son went crazy.  BEST hot dog he's ever had!  WW 7pts.

Next in line for flavor is the Hebrew National Beef Franks.  These are the hot dogs they use at Costco.  They are delicious.  WW 4 pts.

If you are watching your weight like me, this will be your choice for your hot dog.  Very good and low in fat and WW points.  I will also be using a "Lite" bun.   My favorite way to cook these is either BBQ or fried.   I don't boil them.   WW 3 pts.

 So first up is your basic chili dog.

I use Bear Creek Chili Mix for my Chili.

Chili

Onions

Cheese

Jalepeños

Mustard

Bear Creek  Chili found in the soup section of the supermarket

My new favorite hot dog is the Chicago Dog

I had to search for Sport Peppers and ended up buying them on Amazon.  They are quite expensive, coming in at $16.00 a bottle!!!  They make the hot dog, so you have to have them.  Worth every penny. 

Kosher Pickle Spear

Dash of Celery Salt

Yellow Mustard

Sport Peppers

Hot Dog Relish

Onions 

Tomatoes

I purchased Vienna Sport Peppers from Amazon.  I heard a rumor that you could get sport peppers at Walmart, but I have not been in to confirm. 

One of my all time favorites is Pink's Martha Stewart Hot Dog.

Its Delicious! 

Relish

Onions

Bacon

Chopped Tomatoes

Sauerkraut

Sour Cream

To top everything off, serve the hot dogs with Baked Beans, Potato Salad and / or Chips.

Go Broncos!

Weight Watchesrs Italian Style Vegetable Soup

WW Italian Style Vegetable Soup

In my quest to lose some weight, I decided to give this soup a try. 

It is delicious and zero points.  I finally made this soup this week and I couldn't be happier.  I can eat it at 3:00 when I go on my usual snacking binge.  I can eat it before dinner, so I don't eat as much dinner.  I can eat it WHENEVER I WANT!!!  That's right, because its zero points and added benefit, full of vegetables.  I modified the recipe slightly.  I didn't use escarole or fennel and I added green beans and carrots.  Yum!  You can add parmesan cheese for an additional 1 pt.  if you feel like splurging.  It is a little labor intensive with all the chopping, but you will thank yourself the rest of the week. 

	2 cup(s) escarole, chopped
	2 clove(s) (medium) garlic clove(s), minced
	1 cup(s) uncooked onion(s), chopped
	2 cup(s) fresh spinach, baby leaves
	2 small uncooked zucchini, cubed
	1 medium sweet red pepper(s), chopped
	1 medium uncooked fennel bulb(s), thinly sliced
	6 cup(s) reduced sodium vegetable broth
	28 oz canned diced tomatoes, preferably fire-roasted
	1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
	2 tsp fresh thyme, fresh, finely chopped
	1 tsp fresh oregano, finely chopped
	3/4 tsp table salt
	1/4 tsp black pepper
	1/4 cup(s) fresh parsley, fresh, chopped
	1/4 cup(s) basil, fresh, leaves   1 handful of green beans 2 carrots

Instructions

• Put escarole, garlic, onions, spinach, zucchini, red pepper, fennel, vegetable broth, diced tomatoes, red pepper flakes, thyme and oregano into a large soup pot. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, and simmer, partly covered, for about 10 minutes.
  
• Stir in salt, black pepper, parsley and basil. Serve. Yields about 1 cup per serving.

Books I Read in 2013

I'm not going to list all the books I read in 2013, but I will share some that I really enjoyed. It was an up and down year as far as books. I hate/loath to start a book and not finish it, but I did that with three books this year.  One was the Witching Hour by Anne Rice.  I was going to New Orleans and wanted to read something with the feel of the city- it was just disgusting and vile, full of incest, I couldn't finish it.  I can't even remember the other two.

But on the other hand, there were some great books:

 This book was really interesting.  The story of a US Military Crew out for a sight seeing trip on a secluded, unexplored island, they crash into the side of a mountain and it recounts the survivors journey up to and including the rescue which, was very hard because of the terrain.  Not as riveting as Unbroken, but good and interesting.

 Classic Stephen King.  I loved it.  Not super scary, but scary and weird enough. 

 This was a good book.  I liked the story, but most of all, I like the way it depicted the lives of everyday poor Parisians in the 1800's.  Really good.

 Loved this book!  It takes place in the future but it has a lot of 80's trivia in it.  We all read it at our house and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I don't want to tell to much of the story line and give it away.

 This is an action thriller and I like those a lot.  I enjoyed this book.  

 I found this book fascinating and couldn't put it down.  

 This was a really good book, I learned a lot about the atmosphere and the political emotions of the time when Jesus lived.  It also gives you insight into some of the lives of the polititans and religious leaders of the day.  

This was a really good thriller, kind of scary book.  Loved it.  

Southwest Chicken salad

 I love McDonald's Southwest Chicken Salad.  In an effort to eat healthier, I decided to make it for dinner last night.  The only thing missing was that delicious Newman's Own Southwest Dressing, which I cannot find anywhere.  I added these Fresh Gourmet Crispy Red Peppers.  They are delicious in any salad.  A new product by Fresh Gourmet.

Fresh Gourmet Crispy Red Peppers can be found in the produce section with the croutons etc. (at least at my grocery store). 

I also topped off the salad with these Fresh Gourmet Tortilla Strips Santa Fe Style.  They also have just regular Tortilla Strips. 

Mezzetta Deli Sliced Peperoncini

I marinaded the chicken in Lawry's Santa Fe Chili Marinade.

Found in the produce section, refrigerated.

Found with the salad dressings

So to make a salad for four this is the recipe I used.

Salad

4 chicken breasts (marinaded in Lawry's Marinade) baked and cut into bite size pieces

1 bottle Lawry's Sante Fe  Chili

1 head romaine lettuce

1/2 can of corn

1/2 can of black beans

1/4 cup sliced peperoncinis

10 cherub tomatoes cut in half

8 slices cucumber

1/4 red onion sliced thin

1/2 cup Fresh Gourmet Crispy Red Peppers

1/2 cup Fresh Gourmet Tortilla Strips

Dressing

El Torito Cilantro Dressing

Litehouse Jalapeño Dressing

I actually mix both of these together on the salad. I know a lot of you can make your own dressing.  I'm not that ambitious yet.  

Enjoy!

I Gave Up Diet Coke

I was addicted to diet coke. I had to have a large diet coke everyday.  On my way to work or after dropping my kids off at school, I would drive through McDonalds or Del Taco for a large diet coke.  The morning server knew my name, I knew his.  I wouldn't drink just any diet coke, because they have different flavors you know.  No bottled or canned coke for me.  It had to be a fountain coke. Imagine my glee when McDonalds dropped the price of all their sodas to $1.00.  They had my immediate loyalty for my morning diet coke. (I didn't drink coffee at this point in my life). Now, I wouldn't just suck down the diet coke immediately, It would last half the day.  I would keep it in the refrigerator so the ice would not melt and water down the flavor.   If I didn't have to go to work or take the kids to school, I would make a special trip to get my diet coke. Addicted.

My children started to worry about me.  I drank too much diet coke and that meant too much artificial sweetener and chemicals were going into my body.  My oldest daughter, Alyssa, harassed me the most, sending my articles and asking me if I read them.  My family began to give me a hard time every time they saw a diet coke in my hand.  They would all talk about how bad it was for you.  So finally, in August, I decided to give it up.  It was hard, I replaced it with ice tea, but you could only drink so much of that. I tried drinking water in between meals and ice tea with my meals.  I needed some flavor.  That worked okay, but I still craved the diet coke.

Then I discovered Vitamin Water Zero.  I love this stuff.  I buy it buy the ton, it's a little cheaper than a diet coke and I Love It!  Did I tell you I love it?  I fill a large cup that has a lid and straw with ice and add this water and I take it everywhere with me.  It has done the trick.  I'm also getting all the water everyday that I need to drink. BONUS!!!  It's sweetened with Stevia, which according to my daughter is good.  I've had exactly 4 diet cokes since August and quite frankly, they just don't taste that good anymore! 

December Happenings

December was a busy month.  Besides all the Christmas activities, we celebrated two birthdays, a graduation and we did some fun stuff.  Here are couple of things I had my camera handy for and can share with you.

The dogs got hair cuts.  This was big!  People used to ooo and ah over their hair.  They had beautiful long flowing hair, but it was becoming harder to take care of in the wet weather.   So we did it, we cut their hair and then the temperature rose to 80 degrees.  Haha. 

We saw Michael Bublé in concert.  Fantastic concert!  Not only does he sing well, but he is hilarious. He really engages the crowd and makes you laugh along with enjoying his music.  People of all ages are there.  This guy can sing!

 During one of the songs heart confetti was dropped everywhere.  I got my fair share. Awesome.

 And now the best is saved for last:  Greg graduated from Pepperdine University with his EMBA.  First one with a Masters on both sides of the family.

 Our family:  Delaney, Katie, Greg, Alyssa, HH (Bob) and me.  

 Alyssa and Greg

It was a beautiful ceremony with bag pipes and the prayers were incredible.  The schools Christian roots were put out there for all to see.  

 Greg and his proud parents: Floyd and Barbara

We are so proud of you Greg!