Monday Madness!

I am starting my own tradition here with a Monday Madness! This week's Monday Madness post is a SURVEY! Those of you who know me, know how much I love filling out survey's...too bad I can't get paid to do it! LOL

So, here we go, drum roll please.....

1. What time did you get up this morning? 5:15. WAY too early. I laid in bed till 6:30 before finally giving up on falling back asleep!

2. How do you like your steak? medium rare is best!

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Hangover 2 with Jennie and Josh, I think...unless we saw one after that...which we might have, argh, what WAS it?!! LOL Sheesh, I can't remember!

4. What is your favorite TV show ? Sex and the City

5. If you could live anywhere, where would it be? Hawaii please!

6. What did you have for breakfast? Coffee + Bailey's= YUM!

7. What is your favorite food? ice cream

8. What foods do you dislike? Not many...oysters, blek!

9. Favorite Place to Eat? The Keg.

10. Favorite dressing? Ranch

11. What do you drive? Mercury Mountaineer and I love it!

12. What are your favorite clothes? my Silver jeans, zebra heels and a cute top!

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? Scotland, Ireland and England

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? always half full, unless it's a martini, then it's half empty and time for another! ;)

15. Where would you want to retire? somewhere tropical!

16. Favorite time of day? Night time

17. Where were you born? Renton

18. What is your favorite sport to watch? Football/UFC are about the only sports I watch!

19. Who do you think will not tag you back? not tagging anyone

20. Person you expect to tag you back first? No idea

21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this?

22. Bird watcher? um no

23. Are you a morning person or a night person? night

24. Do you have any pets? A 6-yr old Border Collie dog, Ellie May, and 2 cats (wow, am I really down to two?!!) Edgar who is 11 and Earl who's 9. Oh! And the BF's Pit, Deja.

25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? nope!

26. What did you want to be when you were little? so many things! Famous author, veterinarian, or 'secretary' even at one point...lol! Livin' the dream!

28. Are you a cat or dog person? both

29. Are you married? Not yet, someday!

30. Always wear your seat belt? Yes, always

31. Been in a car accident? Yes, which is why I now wear my seat belt!

32. Any pet peeves? DRAMA!

33. Favorite Pizza Toppings? white sauce, cheese, and whatever else I'm in the mood for! Love pizza!

34. Favorite Flower? Rose

35. Favorite ice cream? Jamoca or Fudge Brownie

36. Favorite fast food restaurant? Taco Bell

37. How many times did you fail your driver's test? Once. California Rolling Stop oops!

38. From whom did you get your last email? junk

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Victoria's Secret, Nordstrom or Buckle and Target!

40. Do anything spontaneous lately? nope not so much

41. Like your job? Love it!!

42. Like Broccoli? Yes

43. What was your favorite vacation? Mexxxico!!!!!

44. Last person you went out to dinner with? Jamie

45. What are you listening to right now? SILENCE, the house is quiet and I am lovin' it!

46. What is your favorite color? pink!

47. How many tattoos do you have? none

48. How many are you tagging for this quiz? none

49. What time did you finish this quiz? 1:25pm

50. Coffee Drinker? Yes!

Coffee...coffee, mmm!

Good morning! What'cha drinking today?? I'm having a lovely breakfast blend by Green Mountain Coffee made with my brand new Keurig Elite Brewing System! Delicious! Up until about 2 weeks ago, I had no idea what this fabulous coffee system was!! We were at Sharon's house setting up for our annual purse sale (we had for sale over 120 gently used/like new purses to sell!) and Sharon made us coffee with her Keurig. It was amazing!! And SO SO easy to use! But that's not all, the best part was, the Sweet Iced Tea that it brews from Celestial Seasonings! THE BEST EVER! I was hooked! I am normally not a big iced tea drinker, I will order one occasionally while out to eat if I don't feel like having a soda or water, but I just cant' get enough of this iced tea!! So with proceeds from the purse sale (up $200) and the sale of my junker Pontiac, I decided to splurge and purchase my own Keurig! I am enjoying my first cup of coffee, brewed in just seconds, which I flavored with a little bit of Bailey's Irish Cream Creamer! Delicious! And the iced tea is already calling my name! :)

What you can do with...Duct Tape??!

I grew up from a small town where duct tape fixes EVERYTHING!! Really, it does!! Always keep a roll in the house, in your car, who knows when you might need it!! But by far the coolest thing I have seen with Duct Tape is my new purse! I love it!!! And the girl who made it for me has over 40 different styles of Duct Tape! Who knew!!!

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Aside from pizza, Mexican food is my favorite!! And one of my favorite dishes is Chicken Enchilada Casserole! Yummmy! But think about how many carbs, calories and grams of fat the average Chicken Enchilada Casserole is! Ew! So I was SUPER excited when I came across the Hungry Girl version in the Hungry Girl 1-2-3 book I am borrowing from my friend Nikki! :) Tried it out, and it was delicious!! A couple of things I will change next time, depending on how much it alters the calories...I will use REAL chicken breast, add cilantro, (because to me, I can't have a Mexican dish without it!!), and maybe a dollop of sour cream! ;) Fat Free, of course!! But for 260 calories for 1/4 of the casserole, this recipe was AmaZING as-is! Especially for the amount of time it took to prepare (under 10 minutes!) and the clean up (SUPER EASY!)!

Ingredients:
1 - 9.75oz (or 10oz) can 98% fat-free chunk white chicken breast in water, drained and flaked.
1 - 10.75oz can 98% fat-free cream of celery condensed soup
2/3 cup - frozen mixed vegetables
1/2 cup - salsa
6 - Six inch corn tortillas
1 - cup shredded fat-free cheddar cheese, divided
Optional: salt, pepper (I added garlic salt)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine chicken, soup, veggies, and salsa. If you like, add salt and pepper. Mix well and set aside.

Spray an 8x8 baking dish with nonstick spray. Break tortillas into pieces about the size of tortilla chips. Lay half of the tortilla pieces along the bottom of the baking dish.

Evenly layer half of the chicken mixture over the tortilla pieces. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup cheese. Lay remaining tortilla pieces over the cheese. Top evenly with the rest of the chicken mixture, followed by the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese.

Bake in the over for 35 minutes, or until edges are brown and crispy.

Allow to cool or about 5 minutes, until sauce thickens. Eat up!

Makes 4 servings

Per Serving: (1/4 of casserole): 260 calories, 4g fat, 1,166mg sodium, 27g carbs, 4g fiber, 3g sugars, 27.5g protein

Wordless Wednesday

Berry-licious Lemon Drop

Ingredients:
2 Strawberries, thawed from frozen (I used 4 raspberries instead)
Half a 2-serving packet (about 1/2tsp) sugar-free lemonade powdered drink mix
1-1/2oz vodka (I used Absolute Raspberry)
3oz water
1/2oz lemon juice

Directions:
On a small plate, mash berries with a fork and set aside.

Combine powdered drink mix with 30z water in a glass and stir to dissolve. Transfer to a shaker filled with ice.

Add mashed berries, vodka, and lemon juice to the shaker and shake vigorously. Strain into martini glass.

The best part?! It's only 113 calories!!! So enjoy!! Cheers!

More Hungry Girl

I am SOOOOO excited! It came, it came, it FINALLY came!!! What has me so excited, you might ask? New jeans? No. New shoes? Nope. A new purse? Nahhhh. Almost just as good as all those though! It's a new book!! Hungry Girl Happy Hour! As soon as I saw this one I KNEW I had to have it!! I have become OBSESSED with the Hungry Girl books, shows, recipes and now COCKTAILS! Woohoo! I found this one on Half.com for $5.99+S&H. And of course it shipped media mail, so I had to wait very impatiently for it to get here from the East Coast. But it's well worth the wait! I've already tried the Hungry Girl Berry-licious Lemon Drop and LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! I can't wait to try more decadently delicious and delightfully low-calorie cocktails!

Livin'-on-the-Wedge Salad

Last night I made one of the best salads ever! No kidding! And of course, it's a Hungry Girl recipe! Let me tell you how much I LOVE her recipes! They are delicious!! And don't taste like low-calorie meals at all!! :) The servings are also usually really filling! The best part? The bf LOVES them too!! He usually just ends up eating more than a serving! ;)

So here's the recipe. It was 155 calories for the whole wedge. I added a half of hard boiled egg (about 35 calories) and 6 croutons (30 calories). I think the next time I make this I would like to add nuts of some sort, either sunflower seeds, pecans, or walnuts--whichever happens to be the lowest in calories!

I hope you will enjoy this one as much as I have! I can't wait to make it again!!

Welcome!

Welcome to my new home in Blog-land! I'm rather new to this, so please bear with me as I ramble and babble, type and tweak until I get the hang of this! I decided to start this blog with the purpose of having a place to share pictures, recipes, thoughts and ideas and just to post random stuff...much like conversations that you might expect to have in the local coffee shop, sipping mocha's, or at happy hour over martini's, with your best girlfriends.

So if you're up for it, grab a cup-o-Joe, (or your favorite martini, hey it's 5:00 somewhere!) get comfy, and come join the madness as I explore all kinds of new possibilities in the Blog World!