Tag: a day in the life

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Every Day

A Day In My Life

I now have 4 turkeys. One was left over from last year. I have gotten three this month. Yesterday I went to Top’s and picked up this 16 lb. one for $.48 a lb. I wasn’t going to get another one but Hubby thought it was too good a price to pass up. So it is now thawing in our refrigerator. It will be roasted on Thursday. Then all of the meat will be sliced or cubed and I will vacuum seal the packages in meal size portions and put them in the freezer. It takes up less room than a whole turkey. This turkey will be used in place of chicken. Buying under $1.00 a lb. turkey is a no brainer when chicken costs $ 1.99 and up a lb.

I purchased English muffins yesterday when I got the turkey. They were on sale for B1G2F. I have not made egg McMuffins in 21 months. So this morning, it was our breakfast of choice. I cooked up 2 sausages for each of us.

Then I cooked the eggs. But you know what they say about the best laid plans. When everything was ready, Hubby came and put his together and melted his cheese.

I started to put mine in the microwave to melt my cheese and got distracted. My egg flew off and hit the floor. What a mess! So I just had sausage with cheese on the muffin. So a few months from now, I will try again.

After cleaning up the egg mess, taking my shower, making our bed, and exercising, I decided to do all of the breakfast dishes, clean the stove top, clean the sinks, and clean and polish the counters. These are things that I do everyday in the morning. These are the three products that I use. I love Weiman products. I use the gas range cleaner, the stone cleaner and polisher, and the stainless steel cleaner when I do the fridge and dishwasher.

The stovetop is clean now.

Remember when you clean this to take it apart. A lot of gook gets trapped under the black part and if you don’t clean it, it will smell. I put the plug for the garbage disposal and my sponge in the dishwasher each time I run it. Since the virus came, I have been running the dishwasher only on the sanitizer cycle.

Now my sinks are nice and shiny., The vinegar gel does a great job. Notice the black line at the top of the right hand sink and where the stone meets behind the faucet. Hubby recaulked everything a couple of months ago and he forgot to get waterproof caulk so food is discoloring the caulk. It is driving me crazy so he is going to remove all of the caulk, get the waterproof one, and redo it.

Also I purchased this holder for my scrubber and sponge recently. I hate it because it gets in the way when we wash pots and pans. I want these two items handy but I don’t want them in the way. I refuse to have them just sit up near the faucet. Have any of you found a product or solution to this problem that works well for you?

I polished and cleaned the counters and my small appliances this morning.

Before I moved into the dining room, I threw a load of laundry into the washer. I also lit the candle on the kitchen breakfast bar. It smells so good. It is sugar cookie.

The dining room was my room to clean today. It is now all done. Then I tidied up the great room, the guest rooms and cleaned my bathroom sinks and toilets. It feels good when my house is neat and clean.

Hubby wanted some popcorn for lunch while he watched some boxing that he had recorded. So I obliged and made him a bowl and took a tiny bit for me to eat while I watched an episode of “Little House on the Prairie”. I only watched a couple of these shows when they first aired in 1974. Now that the series is on Amazon Prime, I am going to watch all of them. So I have been viewing a few a day.

After watching my show, I decided to bake some chocolate chip cookies. Hubby loves them and we have not had a sweet around here in a long time. We like big cookies. So one a day is plenty. The second pan just went in the oven. Hubby says they are delicious.

For dinner last night, I roasted two turkey tenderloins. We had 1/2 of one sliced up with turkey stuffing and homemade gravy. I also had some green beans.

We used the other 1/2 to slice up and have it with the leftover gravy and stuffing along with some cut up fresh tomatoes for dinner tonight. The other 1/2 of the cooked turkey tenderloin will be used to slice up on Chef’s salads tomorrow night. Then the last 1/2 will be used for club sandwiches on Wednesday for dinner. Four meals from two tenderloins that cost $6.99 is a great deal.

After doing all of the dishes and running the dishwasher, I wiped up the counters, wiped down my sinks again, put new kitchen towels out, and vacuumed the kitchen floor. I don’t have any meals to prep because of all the leftovers we have for the next couple of nights.

Tonight I will watch some You Tube shows and another episode of “Little House on the Prairie” while I fold the load of laundry that I did today. Hubby always watches Monday Night Football and will also watch the spaceship dock tonight at the space station.

I hope you all had a wonderful day!

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Every Day

This Week’s Grocery Haul Plus

I just came home from getting a haircut so I decided to do this week’s grocery haul. I have been trying to efficiently do what needs to be done because we have been very busy and will be very busy for the next two weeks.


My shopping this week was at Aldi’s for some things I will need in the next few months.

The almonds were needed for a recipe this week. I found something new which is this 90 second cauliflower rice. That will be handy in the next week or so. I got some more 90 second rice for Hubby too. The mushrooms are to replace the ones I used. I use them in my omelets once in a while. Hubby likes the dried cranberries in his chicken salads.

I desperately needed dairy. Hence the creamer, 2 dozen eggs that were already in the fridge when I took the picture, sour cream and vanilla yogurt.

The applesauce, parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, and cornstarch are staples in my kitchen pantry. The picnic pack of condiments were marked down so those were a good purchase.


The baking powder, baking soda, vanilla extract, and cornstarch were needed staples especially for baking for the holidays. The cookies were a treat for Hubby. The cranberry sauce is to go with a small turkey that I will be cooking soon. I opened a new plastic wrap up yesterday so this is to replace it. Lastly the macadamia nuts are for my treat.


This is my receipt. I spent $ 57.70.


Hubby’s birthday was this past weekend so we celebrated with my son and West with a nice breakfast  along with a birthday cake that I made. I planned a nice dinner of filet mignon and baked potatoes for his dinner. We were going to have broccoli with it but Hubby said don’t bother because it was already enough food. So we counted the chives as our vegetable spice. He loved it and so did I. We grilled 4 filet mignons and made 4 potatoes in the air fryer so we had the same dinner last night. Bonus!



Also, look what I recently found. They only had one but you can bet, I grabbed them. My stores have not had them in two months or more. 

I will try my best to push out a couple of more posts this week but don’t panic if you don’t see any. We are well. This is always an extremely busy time of year for us plus we are trying to fit in some extra appointments that we hadn’t planned on. 

I hope you all have a great day and a good week.

Did you get any or are planning on purchasing any good deals this week? If so, please share with all of us.  

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Every Day

A Little of This and A Little of That

 Yesterday was such a tiring day! I have to keep reminding myself that I am “not as young as I used to be”. I have a birthday coming up soon and I will be “very old”.  Time flies when you are having a great time!

My day started at 6AM yesterday. I was out the door at 9:10AM and didn’t get home until about 2:30PM. I had to drive to another town and get routine medical tests done at two different medical places. Then I had to go to another place for blood work.

By the time I got done with all of that, I still had to go to the bank for the next few months grocery money, spending money, and to cash some checks. I had plans to do some shopping while I was down there but it was too crowded, traffic was crazy, and I was beat. 

However, on the way home, I did stop at my produce store and got some much needed romaine lettuce and a couple of tomatoes. The romaine was local and had just been brought to the store. The head was huge but wet and dirty.

So as tired as I was when I got home, I washed every bit of it, put it all through the salad spinner and laid it on clean kitchen towels to dry. I had 4 huge towels worth. After a few hours, I turned the leaves all over to let the other side dry.

Now it resides in our lettuce keeper, so that I can make some delicious salads.

The very large head of romaine was only $1.49 lb. Since my son and his family have only one car at the moment, he has not been out here since he picked up West. He usually brings us tomatoes. So I was out and in need. These beautiful ones pictured at the top were only also only $ 1.49 a lb.

Then I had to read our meters and submit the readings to the power company so that they don’t send us an estimated bill which I hate. It looks like we should have a rather low bill this month. That would be nice for a change.

Then it was time to make dinner. I had thawed some turkey cutlets because this is what I made:

https://kalynskitchen.com/turkey-cutlets-with-dijon-sauce/

I made enough for two nights so that I won’t have to do anything but heat it up tonight.

It tasted so good but I was so tired. Hubby did the dishes and I went to bed and slept until 6AM this morning.

I have to learn to pace myself a little bit. But that is very hard for me. I am a multi tasker and I love to just keep doing and moving. Many people over the years have told me that I outpace most of the younger people that they know. So for me to have to slow down just annoys me to no end. It’s not going to happen!

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Every Day

A Day in My Life

I got up later than normal today at 7:15am. After many bad sleep nights, over the last few years, it feels good to get 8 hours sleep.

The first thing I did was strip our bed and throw the sheets in the washing machine, brush my teeth, and get dressed. I dressed in my workout clothes which is just a pair of yoga pants and a loose top.

I went down to the basement freezer to get a piece of salmon and a piece of haddock for our dinner.

Then I got a large glass of ice water and drank it all. After sleeping all night, I had to get hydrated. While I drank it, I quickly check my e-mail, replied to any comments on this blog, and checked facebook for any messages. I also checked my planner to see if there were any appointments or errands that need to be done or telephone calls to be made today.

I head to the basement and walk at a pretty good clip(for this septuagenarian) on the treadmill for a half hour. Pictured is the digital screen on the treadmill on my way to 30 minutes. I actually made it to 30:06. Then I rode the recumbent bike for a half hour while watching a You Tube video. I have also been researching more dance videos to use starting January 1. My light weights that I use for strength are in that box on the floor.


After my exercise, I jumped in the shower, brushed my hair dry, dressed in a pair of jeans and a top, and put on my makeup.  



It was my day to clean the guest rooms so I did that. They are easy since I keep up with them once a week. I like to have them ready at all times for company. I keep the drapes closed in these rooms so that I can keep the heat down in them over the winter.

Next was about 30 minutes spent getting my 2020 planner ready to use. I put all of my 2020 appointments in it and added everyone’s birthdays to it.

Tomorrow in the allotted 30 minutes that I give myself, I will start my menu planning from my stockpile for the month of January. I also need to change the toy line under Daily Clean and Organize, because we don’t have toys, to something else and add other chores that I do. There is also(for anyone that wants to know) 3 pages of debt payoff charts. I am going to change them to savings and investment charts since we have no debt. I will be using the notes section to keep track of daily spending. You don’t have to use your planner the way they intend. I change it to what I need.  

I am now starting to get hungry, so Hubby fixed a very late breakfast for us. Two egg omelets with sauteed onion and red pepper and 1/2 an avocado hit the spot. It was delicious! Hubby loves to cook so I give him every opportunity to do that.

While Hubby was cooking, I put the wash in the dryer.

I went to take a picture of my recumbent bike monitor after the 30 minutes that I did and my breakfast but my battery was dead. I went to get another battery to find that one wasn’t charged either. UGH! So both batteries needed charging.

Next I called Medicare and my drug store because of an issue with a drug solution for a machine. I have been trying to get a refill on this for over a week and getting stumped at every turn. It is the only drug that Medicare pays for. Fortunately my pharmacist is going above and beyond and trying to get this straightened out for me.


My dryer just went off so time to empty it and make our bed. 

Hubby is out snow blowing our driveway. So I am doing up our breakfast dishes. 


Hubby just brought in the mail. He surprised me with the above wireless earbuds. I have been wanting these so that I can have music when I am exercising or cleaning without turning a TV or radio on. They are charged and operational. So I tested them. They work in every room on the main floor and everywhere in the basement. I am loving that!


Right now I am listening to some Christmas music while I am cleaning a master bathroom cupboard.

Next I wanted to watch a movie. I didn’t know that the Buffalo Bulls are playing Charlotte in the Bahama Bowl today. So I watched that with Hubby. That took up the rest of our afternoon.

We cooked dinner together. I had salmon with broccoli. Hubby had fried haddock with a salad.

Hubby will watch more football tonight and I am going to watch “The Avengers” on Amazon Prime. 

I hope you all have a great weekend!

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Every Day

My Day on Tuesday

We woke up to 10.7 inches of snow yesterday morning. But it continued to snow. We ended up with 11.5 inches. Here is a quick picture I took through a screen on our breakfast room window.

Hubby started his day off snow blowing the driveway because we had our yearly cardiologist appointments at 8:40 am. Our cardiology office had moved and is quite a distance from us now- about a 28 mile round trip. The traffic was horrid. It took us 25 minutes to go a half mile after we turned out of our subdivision. It took us an hour to get to the doctor’s office. It was the doctor’s first day in the new office so it was a learning curve for him with the new computer system. He said we were his first patients. We never got home until 11:15am. We both had good appointments and don’t have to go back for a year. The doctor was thrilled with my 50 lb. weight loss and took me off a medication which really made my day.

We did make a quick stop at CVS in another town on the way home. I was happy to get four large cans of the Abound Mixed nuts(no peanuts) for our Thanksgiving and Christmas party mix. They had the best price on these mixed nuts. They were $ 8.99 each for over a pound can.

We had not eaten breakfast before we left so we were both starving. I made us bacon, eggs, and some avocado for lunch. Hubby is now on my diet. I am giving away anything that he can’t eat. 


After doing the dishes, I went outside and shoveled the front porch which Hubby can’t do with the snowblower. It is bitter cold out and getting colder. Winter came in with a vengeance. 


In the afternoon, I did some cleaning, got the mail, and did some reading.


After getting a burst of energy, I organized my greeting cards. I used to keep them in file folders in a large file box. It was bulky, heavy, and I had to dig way down in to find anything. It just wasn’t working. 

So I purchased a greeting card box and organized it. 

It is going to be much easier to use. Everything is in there and there is room to expand. I am delighted with it. Little projects make me happy! So I will be doing a lot of them over the winter. 


Last night we watched some shows on TV which is something I have not done in months. Then it was early to bed since we got up so early. 


I hope you all had a good Tuesday.

Categories
Every Day

A Day In My Life

Rising at 6:15am always feels good knowing that I got a great night’s sleep(9 hours) and can get started on my busy day early. After my navy shower and letting my hair dry naturally, I made eggs and ham for Hubby and I for breakfast.

Hubby left to go to an appointment to have our snow tires put on the SUV for the winter. He booked the appointment for now because he is getting 50% off the price of the tire changeover.

After I did the dishes, I put a load of laundry in the HE with the laundry egg. Then it was time to have some pumpkin coffee and check my email, blog for comments, and check my do list for the day. Normally, I would now prep dinner. However, we are having fajita leftovers tonight. I made a big pan on Saturday night because I was craving Mexican food and we have been eating it ever since. Hubby has a wrap and I just have some on a plate of lettuce.
 
When Hubby got home, I grabbed my list of errands and went out the door with my second cup of coffee in my to go cup. 

First errand was to get the SUV washed. It had been raining most of the past week so I had to wait for a rain free day. Last week I cleaned the entire inside of the SUV, so now it needed a bath. I will be getting it washed frequently at the car wash over the fall and winter. We need to keep the salt and grime off of it. It was a huge investment of cash(more than my first house cost) so we like to keep it in great condition. It only costs $10. to get it washed and every 5th wash is free with the coupons they give you. I have 3 coupons right now, so after 2 more it will be a freebie. 

That done, it was time to do an Aldi’s shop for a few necessary items. I always keep a quarter in the center console so that I am ready to get my cart. I grabbed my recyclable bags and in I went. I only got what was on my list. I did not browse.

Last stop was at the hardware store to pick up another package of 60 watt LED bright light bulbs. My son changed out the bad ones yesterday and he said I needed more since I brought the bright. He said they should all match. I have 6 bulbs in 2 ceiling lights in my kitchen. Hubby changed the other ones out. What a difference the new bright bulbs make! I am very pleased. 

After putting my purchases away, I hung the laundry to dry. Then it was time to catch all the ironing up. I did that while I listened to some music. 

Next I picked up, dusted and vacuumed my entire home. Then I cleaned the bathrooms.

Down to the basement I went and spent 40 minutes on the treadmill while watching some more You Tube videos. 

That left me about 2 hours to do what I wanted. Hubby was not interested in watching a movie, so I  decided to read a book on my Kindle. I get a lot of free books because I have Amazon Prime.

When the mail came, I had a bill to pay and some  gifts to wrap. While I was wrapping, I decided to do another Christmas item that had come last week. Now all of Christmas items that I have so far are wrapped and my grandchildren won’t know what they are. 

Next it was time to eat the leftovers for dinner. One more thing in the refrigerator used up and not wasted. The media say that people waste 30% or more of the food they buy. Not in this house. I always check the fridge to see what needs to be eaten before it goes bad. If that means we have salad or leftovers for breakfast, we do it. 

After dinner, I watched a live You tube video. Then Hubby and I watched the Sabres Hockey game. It was a very full day and I will sleep soundly, I hope.

I meant to post this earlier and for some reason I forgot to post it.

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Every Day

Bare Bones: Make Every Penny Count

Remember to make every penny count! Those pennies become dollars. When you are living on a bare bones budget, it is important to scrutinize every expense. Don’t just look at it once, do it twice, or even three times to make sure that you are getting value for those pennies and dollars you are spending.

If your income has been drastically reduced, pay the basics to keep yourself afloat. Here is a video by Dave Ramsey who gives great advice on what to pay if your income has been reduced or you have been laid off from your job: Dave Ramsey


He has many more You Tube videos out there that you can google if you want to learn more.

My goal is to live Bare Bones so I can pay some large bills the rest of the year without touching savings and investments.


So I will show you what we are doing in a day to help with that goal. I need bread for Hubby and West this weekend. It was not on my grocery list this week because I can pay $1.00 to $4.00 for a loaf or I can pay about $.35 to $.50 to make a loaf. Bread is baking in the bread maker as I write this. 

It is daylight as I write this so no lights are turned on in this house.

Our A/C is now off because the temps have cooled off a bit. We are hoping to be able to keep it off until Tuesday. If I had a loss of income, I would turn it off and use a fan in the room or rooms we are in.

Here was my grocery list this week. As you can see, I crossed many, many things off. I have produce that needs to be used up so no produce purchased. The Tostito chips are to use with salsa we already have for a snack or lunch. We will need mayonnaise soon and Hubby will only eat Hellman’s. The mayo is necessary to make sandwiches. The ice cream is because West will be here this weekend and I promised him I would get his favorite kind which is cookies and cream. I purchased it at Walmart because it is a whole lot cheaper there than Top’s. These two stores are 1 block apart.  I shopped on Tuesday to take advantage of the 6% off senior discount at Top’s.

Hubby is installing wire shelves on the wall in the garage to house items that are on the floor and in a cabinet that we will sell to get them off the floor. He did a pick up order from Lowe’s and paid for $200. of the order with gift cards that I purchased almost two years ago at a discount. I got cash back for this order from Rakuten.

He is putting in enough shelves to house my very large appliances. I keep them on a roll around rack in the garage. Now I can use that rack in the basement for my stockpile. 

We had homemade cold cuts to use for dinner last night. I cooked a ham that I purchased at $.89 a lb. last Thanksgiving and we sliced it up on our meat slicer so that we could have ham sandwiches over the next few months. The homemade bread will be used for Hubby’s and mine will be in a lettuce wrap. 


When I drive I am still starting up from a light or stop sign under 2 x 1000 rpms to save on gasoline. No jack rabbit starts which eat gasoline. 

I washed our SUV in the driveway. I vacuumed it out with the handheld vacuum. I washed the windows with homemade “windex”. I rarely use the car wash unless it is the middle of winter. 


I have planned out our menu for this weekend while West is staying with us. He requested my homemade spaghetti and meatballs so I will take a precooked bag of it out of our freezer to thaw for dinner tonight. The bread I am baking today will be used to make parmesan garlic bread and sandwiches. I will keep it fresh in a reused bread bag.

Breakfasts will be homemade muffins, cereal and fruit, or scrambled eggs and bacon. Tomorrow night, I will use some frozen pizza which is in my freezer. His lunches will be cold cut sandwiches with cut up carrot sticks or PB&J which he loves. I also have some Annie’s mac and cheese if he prefers that. Snacks will be fruit or some of the ice cream. 

Entertainment this weekend will be walks, tablet time, playing some Pokemon Monopoly, etc. He also loves watching sports with his Grandpa.

 We did no impulse buying. The shelving was a planned purchase.

I managed to slice open a finger while I was helping with the shelving. It took a long time to stop bleeding but now it has a bandage on it and I didn’t have to go to Urgent Care. That was not the way I wanted to start my Friday. 


I hope you all have a safe and fun weekend.

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Every Day

I Was a “Busy Beaver” Today

I was up before the crack of dawn today. So after showering and eating some protein for breakfast, I checked my to do list for the day. Besides writing to you, I had a lot to get done.

I spent last Friday and part of the weekend trying all of my clothes on and making piles of way too big(three sizes too big) clothing. I have done summer clothing. I took it all to Goodwill today. It will help someone else. Now I need to carve out some time to do the same with my winter clothes. Hubby took a look at the few new things I have left to wear and said it is not enough. So I ordered some more from Amazon.

Prior to going there, I did my grocery shopping. I just had a small list but more about that tomorrow. I love shopping when hardly anybody is in the store yet. It’s so quiet and relaxing and I can get in and out fast by following my list.

After I was done with the clothing, the sun had finally come out. So I decided to wash our SUV out in the driveway. That led to giving the inside a really good cleaning.

Besides cooking dinner tonight, I think I will watch some You Tube channels and prepare my to do list for tomorrow. All in all it is turning out to be a very productive day.

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Every Day

A Day In The Life

After getting up really early and getting that one cup of coffee and an egg for breakfast, I got ready to go to the dentist for an 8AM appointment. I just loved dealing with rush hour traffic especially when it had been snowing since Saturday night. Another expensive trip($330.) for cleaning and X rays but the good news is that I had no cavities.

Next it was a trip to the bank to get cash out for April’s groceries and eating out. After tracking spending on healthy food last month, I decided to get $500. for the month. My trial run in March was $800. which got us some items that will last more than a month or two plus let Hubby buy some goodies for himself. I had $ 77.90 left from March to roll into April. So after doing my withdrawal, I had a running balance of $577.90. I will be taking any monies that are left each month and just rolling it into the next month. That way I can build up a balance so that if I find a great meat sale, I can stock.

It will also allow me to build up some monies for a nice dinner out. We are cooking all of our meals right now but I am sure after a month or so, we will want to go out. I have looked at most of the menus for the restaurants we frequent and I believe it will be pretty easy for me to stay on South Beach while eating out. 

Easter has been on my mind since family is coming for dinner. I have a spiral sliced ham and a large turkey in my freezer that I purchased at rock bottom during the holidays in 2018. However, Hubby wants a leg of lamb. Lamb usually goes on sale closer to Easter. I will be keeping my eyes open for that perfect sale price. If it is really good, then I will buy one for Easter and a spare for the Fall.

But I did start getting things for an Easter basket for West. I had a $3.00 ECB and a $2.00 ECB that CVS just gave to me. So on the way home from the dentist I stopped and got some candy to start it. Free was terrific! I am doing something different for my granddaughter. 

Next I went to Niagara Produce to pick up some produce. We are going through a lot of produce these days. I also picked up some cold cuts and free au jus for Hubby. And I shopped at Walmart. Jelly beans are more for West’s basket and some for Hubby too. Hubby wanted wraps to go with his cold cuts. 


I started with $ 577.90 in my budget and after deducting the Walmart and Niagara Produce shop I have a balance of $531.00. I will most likely do a Top’s shop tomorrow since it is Senior Citizen Discount Day(6% off).


I am beat after all of the shopping and the dentist. So I will most likely settle down with a book and my lemon water for a while. Hubby needs to go outside and rake up the glass from our table on the patio. It broke during the wind storm a few weeks ago and he hasn’t gotten to it yet. He started one day but he said it was too cold. So we will be replacing it with a new patio dining set soon. 


The other surprise we got today was a notice from our town that our assessment on the house went up $33,000. for 2019. They nailed everyone in here most likely because the houses were selling the end of last year for 28-40% more than they had been. I expect we will get hit again next year because they are extending our neighborhood behind us. So lots of new homes will be for sale. They started selling them about two weeks ago and have sold 6 so far. I will be happy to have a large home behind us to break up the wind. 


Now that I am losing so much weight, I was afraid I would lose my wedding ring. I almost lost it last weekend. So I stopped and got a ring guard. That will work until I am down to the weight I want to be and can get it made smaller. 

Tonight I will be making a South Beach recipe for gingered chicken and steaming some asparagus. I will make some rice in the rice cooker if Hubby wants some.   


I hope you are having a great day! Have you gotten any great deals lately? Please feel free to tell us all about them in comments.