30 Days of Photos: Day 26

30 Days of Photos, Day 26: A picture of something that means a lot to you



When my ex and I separated, one of the first things I did was to redecorate my bedroom, turning it into a reflection of ME and my likes, tastes, desires. Even though I've been sharing it with a Special Someone for quite a few years now, it still looks pretty much the same, and I'm grateful he doesn't mind the girly-ness of it. *smile*

Still to Come...

27. A picture of yourself and a family member

28. A picture of something your afraid of

29. A picture that can always make you smile

30. A picture of someone you miss

Rapunzel~

On My Hearth: Cheesy Taco Supreme

Cheesy Taco Supreme

PointsPlus™ Value: 7
Servings: 6

Capture the flavors of a taco or enchilada with crunchy nacho chips, seasoned beef, and rich enchilada sauce. Serve with spicy salsa for an extra kick.




Ingredients
1 pound(s) raw extra lean ground beef
1/2 cup frozen chopped onions
1 1/4 oz reduced-sodium taco seasoning
8 oz Del Monte Tomato Sauce, No Salt Added
10 oz canned enchilada sauce
1 1/4 cup(s) Reduced Fat hredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese, divided
3 oz baked low-fat tortilla chips, crushed, (about 1 1/2 cups crushed)
Cooking spray

Instructions:

Cook beef and onion in large skillet over medium-high heat, stirring until beef crumbles and onion is tender; drain well.

Return meat mixture to pan; stir in taco seasoning, tomato sauce, and enchilada sauce. Layer half of meat mixture, half of cheese, and half of tortilla chips in an 11x7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Repeat layers with remaining meat mixture and cheese. Cover and chill up to 8 hours.

Preheat oven to 350.

Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 20 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with remaining chips, and bake an additional 9 minutes or until thoroughly heated.


Note: to make this vegetarian, I substituted Boca Crumbles for the beef, bringing the PointsPlus™ Value down to 6. I also added a tiny bit of fat-free sour cream and salsa to the top.

Per Serving (original recipe): Calories: 309; Carbohydrate: 20.3g; Fat 14.3g (saturated 6.3g); Fiber 1.7g; Protein 25.1g; Cholesterol 44mg; Sodium 815mg: Calcium 240mg; Iron 2.3mg.

Recipe courtesy of Weight Watchers Shortcut Cookbook

Enjoy!

Rapunzel~

Memorial Day Greetings

Is there anything better than waking up on a Monday morning and realizing that you don't have to go to work?! Ahh...so wonderful to sit here sipping coffee with nowhere to be, just catching up on my favorite blogs and planning the week ahead.

Beren and I are still in Ormond, plan to spend the day doing laundry, packing, and dog-sitting Lucy while Kali and J are in Disney World. I'm hoping to get in some exercise this evening, would love to take both doggies to the park if Beren will tag along 'cause I can't handle both of these monsters on my own!

In the meantime, here's my menu for the upcoming week:

Meatless (Memorial Day) Monday: Boca Burgers on light hamburger bun, Vegetarian Baked Beans, Steamed Veggies
Taco Tuesday: Cheesy Taco Supreme (recipe to come!)
Wok-y Wednesday: Thai-Style Shrimp (recipe to come!)
Thrifty Thursday: Sausage & Peppers Pizza (recipe to come!)
TGI Friday: Last Minute Chicken Fajitas (recipe to come!)
Social Saturday: Leftovers or out to eat
Slow Mo Sunday: Chili sin Carne with Cheesy Chili Breadsticks (recipes to come!)

Hope you're all having a lovely long weekend so far, Happy Memorial Day.

xoxoxoox
Rapunzel~

30 Days of Photos: Day 25

30 Days of Photos, Day 25: A picture of your day


Bambi & Loki at Flagler Beach

Still to Come...

26. A picture of something that means a lot to you

27. A picture of yourself and a family member

28. A picture of something your afraid of

29. A picture that can always make you smile

30. A picture of someone you miss

Rapunzel~

Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom: Mrs. B. Gets..... Religiously Persecuted

Re-posting this as in support of one of my favorite bloggers. The fact that there is still religious persecution of any kind in this day & age is diappointing to say the least. Whatever your faith, you deserve to practice it in peace. Isn't that one of the main reasons this country was founded in the first place?

Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom: Mrs. B. Gets..... Religiously Persecuted: "This is going to be a long one, folks!   Yesterday,  I was going about my business after a nice day with friends to find a message about my..."


Rapunzel~

30 Days of Photos: Day 23

Way behind on these but here goes..

30 Days of Photos, Day 24. A picture of something you wish you could change



Beren has been estranged from his girls since last summer, and it absolutely breaks my heart. I can't imagine going a couple of days without speaking to my girls, much less a year! I hope & pray that something will happen to cause a reconciliation...soon.

Footnote: Let me clarify: this situation is not Beren's decision, it is the girls'. It was a long-time coming and something he fought against, but he finally let them have their way. They do communicate on birthdays & holidays, but that's it. For now. Again, I'm hoping things change in the near future but the proverbial ball is in their court.

Still to Come...

25. A picture of your day

26. A picture of something that means a lot to you

27. A picture of yourself and a family member

28. A picture of something your afraid of

29. A picture that can always make you smile

30. A picture of someone you miss

Deal of the Day: Food Lion

We don't have any more Food Lion stores at home so when we come up to Ormond Beach, I check out the sales.

Yesterday Beren and I stopped by our local store after Happy Hour ($5.00 martinis!)
and I scored some great deals:

Food Lion:

2 Breyers Ice Cream (BOGO)
3 Freschetta frozen pizzas
3 Birds Eye Steam Fresh vegetables
1 package Lenders Bagels
2 tubs Country Crock spread (BOGO)
2 bottles Heinz Ketchup (BOGO)
2 packages Kings Hawaiian sandwich buns
4 bottles Sweet Baby Ray’s bbq sauce (BOGO)
6 packages Knorr Side Dishes
2 jars Heinz Homestyle gravy
1 package Jet-Puffed marshmallows
1 box Honey Maid grahams
1 6-pack Hershey’s Milk chocolate bars (can you tell we're making S'mores?)
2 bags Lays potato chips (BOGO)
4 Banana Boat products (BOGO)
1 jar Pace Picante Sauce
1 can store-brand stewed tomatoes
2 boxes Steak-Umm beef patties (BOGO)
1 package fresh organ meats (for Loki)
1 dozen eggs
1 container store-brand cream cheese
1 24-pack Coors Light
1 12-pack Bud Light w/Lime
1 large bottle of Woodbridge Chardonnay



Amount saved with coupons: $83.40. Amount saved with MVP card: $63.90. Total spent after discounts: $117.13.

Yippee! Along with what I bought at Publix and Winn Dixie earlier in the week, I'm now fully stocked for the long weekend.

Hope everyone's having a great day so far; TGIF!

Rapunzel~

Deal of the Day!

I've always clipped coupons & shopped the sales, but lately I've become http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifven more serious about saving & stocking up. To the amusement of my family, my stockpile is growing and I'm loving it! When Kali & Jesus come over for dinner, I hand them bags and encourage them to "shop" from my pantry; in this way I feel like I'm helping them in a small way, making sure they have plenty of food on the table. *grin* It's a Mom thing!http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Anyway, I just have to share the deal I got at Publix this morning. Thanks to coupons from Kraft, Boca, Suave & Lipton along with store sales & coupons and some competitors coupons, I got all of this for $6.40! That's a savings of $51.83!



I want to mention a fabulous blogger who's recently inspired me in my quest to save dollars, Kimberly the Savvy Coupon Lady is the best! Since she's a Florida gal, she shares my dismay at the Sunshine State's "no double coupon" deals but still manages to save a ton of money while sharing her secrets with her many followers. Thank you, Kimberly!

Off to do some more coupon clipping, have a wonderful day!

xoxooxox

Rapunzel~

Sun-Day!

Hello, there! How's everyone's weekend so far? Beren and I have had a wonderful couple of days, good balance of work and play.

As I mentioned, Friday night we went to a local biker bar to celebrate their 36th Anniversary. We had a few drinks, did some people-watching, and enjoyed listening to the band.








Yesterday we met some friends at a restaurant/bar so that Beren could get his weekly dose of pool-playing; the man isn't happy if he's away from the table for too long! Last night we hung out at home, relaxing in the hot tub...ahhh....

Today we worked off some calories in the garden, I made sure to be right there supervising My Man while he was trimming the trees as he can get quite carried away with those power tools!



I've been doing quite a bit of cooking this weekend, both for myself and others. A workmate is going through a tough time, her 5 month old baby had open-heart surgery this week, so the women in the office did what women do when there's trouble. We cooked for her!

I made her some lasagna...



and cupcakes...



added a bagged salad kit and a loaf of bread, and delivered it to her door last evening. She was so appreciative, sent me a message on Facebook saying it was so good, they had it again for lunch today. For a girl who hates leftovers, this is high praise indeed!

Because there was no way I was gonna dip my fork into that delicious-but-fat-filled dish, I put together a lighter version for myself and my family today.

This is an old Weight Watcher recipe that I made years ago but hadn't saved, so happy that Gina posted it on her awesome website!

I had some baby portobella mushrooms on hand so I tossed them into the food processor and added them to the cheese/spinach mixture for more "meaty" taste and substance. I can't wait to dig into this tonight!



Spinach Lasagna Rolls
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 9 • Serving Size: 1 roll • Old Points: 4 pts • Points+: 6 ww pts
Calories: 224.9 • Fat: 5.1 g • Fiber: 3.4 g • Protein: 13.0 g • Carbs: 31.5

9 lasagna noodles, cooked
10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and completely drained
15 oz fat free ricotta cheese (I like Polly-o)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg
salt and fresh pepper
32 oz tomato sauce
9 tbsp (about 3 oz) part skim mozzarella cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine spinach, ricotta, Parmesan, egg, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Ladle about 1 cup sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 12 baking dish.

Place a piece of wax paper on the counter and lay out lasagna noodles. Make sure noodles are dry. Take 1/3 cup of ricotta mixture and spread evenly over noodle. Roll carefully and place seam side down onto the baking dish. Repeat with remaining noodles.

Ladle sauce over the noodles in the baking dish and top each one with 1 tbsp mozzarella cheese. Put foil over baking dish and bake for 40 minutes, or until cheese melts. Makes 9 rolls.

To serve, ladle a little sauce on the plate and top with lasagna roll.

Well, now that dinner's prepared and ready to pop into the oven later, I'm going to don my bathing suit and head out to the pool. It's a hot, sunny day here in the Sunshine State!

Have a Beauty-Full Day,

Rapunzel~

Happy Mothers Day

We miss you, Mom...Much Love,

Your Girls