Unintentional Product Reviewer

March 8, 2010 by DanicasDaily · 16 Comments
Filed under: Fun, Open Sky, Product Reviews 

I hope you all are ready because some how I managed to make this post all about reviews and FUN finds when I wasn’t even trying too ~ oops! :)   I LOVE being able to share everything I find…the problem is I always want to try/share it all at one time :)

I LOVE that so many of you have shared your stories and questions for the Foam Roller.  I wasn’t sure if everyone was going to “get” why I paid $$ for this solid piece of hard foam and how it made my hip pain go away. 

I was going to attempt to take some pictures to show you all how it works, but, I think my fellow Open Sky ShopKeeper, Candace (a Personal Trainer) demonstrates how to use it perfectly.  Plus she looks AMAZING doing it too :D ….Me, not so much ~ I am pretty much making scary faces and cursing my way through my 2 minutes ;)

She only touches on a few ways to use it, but, you pretty much follow this process for any part of your body you want to “massage”. 

I am a TOTAL believer in my FOAM ROLLER and spent 15 minutes this morning using it on all my muscles and doing some deep stretching ~ ahhhh!  Might just leave me feeling more relaxed than Yoga (crazy, huh).

I bought mine at Sports Challet because I wanted it ASAP and paid $25.  However, you can get one for less than $20 in My Open Sky Shop and get 15% off too!

EATS

I have really been resisting opening this jar of Dry Roasted Cashew Butter that My Secret Valentine Bloggie (Thanks, Paula!) sent me because I have too many jars of nut butter open.  But, today was a day that just called for it.

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I went rummaging through the freezer this morning in search of something good I could use with my nut butter when I found two of the Homemade Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes that I froze a little while back. 

I reheated them for 30 seconds in the microwave to thaw and then toasted them.  Topped with this AMAZING cashew butter (I have to say I LOVE it more than the raw cashew butter).

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While my pancakes were “cooking”, I chopped up an apple, poured cinnamon all over it and added 1 teaspoon of this RAW Organic Agave Nectar I got at Trader Joe’s.

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I LOVE Agave Nectar because a little goes a long way and you rarely need more than a tsp.

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I cooked it for 1 minute to make  “MOCK” Baked Cinnamon Apples for 1 point!

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You know I ended up making a big ole cashew butter cinnamon apple PANCAKE-WICH for 7 points.  My hands were too messy to grab the camera so you have to use your imagination :)

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I was missing protein in my breakfast so I had a perfectly hard boiled egg ~ 2 points of Protein.  I was still hungry after this so I had a couple of cashews for 1 point and it did the trick.

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Since I was resting my hip for one more day, I ran to Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s today for lunch to get out.  I LOVE that they are right next to each other in Napa.

Lunch was some leftover Baked Cheesy Bacon Mac & Cheese (6 pts).

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Plus a Big Salad on the side with Annie’s Lite Balsamic Dressing (1 pt).

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I LOVE Marinated Mushrooms and that they are 0 points!

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Dessert was a new find for me ~ Trader Joe’s HONEY Plantain Chips.

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2 points a serving is AWESOME! 

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They are super crunchy, like banana chips, but the honey makes them taste CARAMELIZED! I had about 10 of these (I divided the bag into 3 servings and ate one) since I didn’t have my scale to weigh.

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Here are couple of other COOL FINDS I picked up while I was out today.

A NEW to me ChocoLOVE Flavor ~ DARK CHOCOLATE PEPPERMINT!

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Don’t worry, I didn’t keep it ~ I gave it to my friend who I now have hooked on ChocoLOVE :D

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Then, for my co-worker who is doing Weight Watchers and LOVES popcorn, these SniKiddy Pizza Puffs. (I bought these at Whole Foods ~ Love that they are Gluten Free!)

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I just find it CRAZY that 1/4 of this entire bag (it’s a chip sized bag) it only 2 points!

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That’s a whole lotta puff.  I tried two and they really do taste like pizza ~ COOL!

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Dinner tonight was super easy and everything to make The Husband feel better ~ Poor him ~ he keeps going around saying “I Hate OAK (his nick name for Poison Oak), I never want to get it again!” 

His friend who helped him put the fence up has it too so ya – it has to be Jungle Ladies back yard…..booo!  I think I am cracking him up with my “all natural” products I keep busting out Aveeno, Tea Tree Oil and Technu :D   Fingers crossed it all works soon!

As you all know, I LOVE my whipped butter!

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You can get an entire Tablespoon for 2 points and the ingredient list is CLEAN/recognizable.  The only draw back is that it is higher in Saturated Fat, but, a little goes a long way.

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Awhile back the folks at I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter gave me a ring to say that they are no longer including Transfats in their spread.  I used to LOVE this stuff and the spray bottle, but, when I realized it included Transfats, I stopped using it.

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I like that they replaced their hydrogenated oils with soybean & canola oils ~ it really lowers the Saturated fat.  2 points per Tablespoon as well.

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It’s always a toss up to me which to use butter or margarine.  I am not sure that it 100% matters because I think you can make a valid case either way.  What matters is that whichever you use, you use it in moderation.  I like the consistency margarine lends in baking so I know this will be an awesome choice when I want to use 1/2 butter and 1/2 margarine to bake.

What do you all think ~ butter or margarine??

I wanted to give the new ICBINB a try and used 3 Tbsp’s with a little parmesan, sea salt and black pepper to make “buttered” noodles.  It’s not bad….I can tell “it’s not butter” :D but I like the flavor still.  (1 c for 4 pts)

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I grilled up a Tri Tip marinated in TJ’s Island Soyaki and measured out 3 oz for 3 pts.

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While the pasta and noodles cooled, I whipped up a quick baby Bok Choy stir fry in my fancy All Clad Pan.  Topped with garlic salt and freshly ground pepper.

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You all seriously need to try out All Clad Pans ~ this cooked up in 4 minutes (as long as it took me to slice the meat). (0 pts)

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All together with some super crunchy watermelon & cantaloupe for dessert (1 pt).

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MONDAY FUN!!!

Recently, I participated in the Monthly Morsels Question of the Month over at Recipelion.com.  The question was…

If you could live with only one utensil for the rest of your life, what would it be and why???

Click HERE to find out my answer and leave a comment below telling me what you all would pick….I want to know what you all eat with :D

Night all!

The Winchester Mystery House Surprise

February 15, 2010 by DanicasDaily · 17 Comments
Filed under: Fun, Restaurant Reviews 

I woke up bright and early this morning ready for my surprise trip with The Husband.  He actually told me we were going to The Winchester Mystery House before we left since we couldn’t go on my birthday so I guess it wasn’t so much of a surprise anymore LOL. :) …..He knew I was bummed that we couldn’t go when it was raining, but, today was a beautiful 70 degrees of sunshine!

This morning as I caught up on blogging I snacked on some Banana Chips (1 pt).

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Obviously my banana chips didn’t hold me over too long, so I snacked on some TJ’s Cashews on our drive (4 pts for the entire pack).

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When we arrived at the Winchester Mystery House we decided to head across the street for lunch before our tour.

I had a 7 pt Turkey and Ham sandwich with Swiss cheese, AVOCADO and ALL the veggies on 9-grain Honey Oat. I LOVE Jalapeño slices on my sandwich!

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They were all out of apples :( so I opted for some 2 pt Baked Lays for some crunch with my sandwich.

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After lunch, we walked across the street to The Husband’s Surprise Spot for us.

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We checked out the gift shop and museum while we waited for our tours to start.  Seriously ~ how cool is this gingerbread house?!

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Then again, how weird is it that it is 19 years old and still 100% together…kinda freaky.

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Fun gingerbread house facts.

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We signed up to do both the Mansion Tour and the Behind The Scenes Tour.  They don’t let you take pictures inside while you are on tour, but, you can check out some of the the pictures and such online in the photo gallery or video gallery.

Here we are being cheesy with our super cool hard hats!  Friends shouldn’t let friends take corny pictures wearing hard hats at a tourist exhibit :)

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The Mansion

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I LOVE the “doors” and stairs to nowhere.  Along with the random designs of the Mansion.  Sarah Winchester was such an interesting woman and I LOVED hearing all the history.  The House is definitely designed in interesting ways with projects started, not finished, closed off or rooms just added on right next to each other.

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The crazy vine was grown after the 1906 Earthquake since Sarah didn’t want to restore any damage as a result of the earthquake.

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The flowers and gardens were AMAZING…..

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Cupid’s fountain

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I think this archway is really cool, but, I don’t think I’d want one because there would be spiders in it :D

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We had fun touring the Winchester Mystery House….although I am a little bummed it wasn’t “scary” like.  I think the mystery is more around “what was Sarah Winchester thinking” when she designed this or did that.  We think she just had so much $$ to burn that she had all these projects as a way to spend it :D  

On our way back, The Husband declared I should continue my trend of not cooking for the weekend since we’ve been gone all weekend.  Not one to object to that, we headed over to Panda Express because I was CRAVING vegetables. I sometimes think I need a salt block or something too because I crave the saltiness in Chinese food LOL :)   Here we go….even though you all have seen me order this a million times.

String Bean Chicken (3 pts)

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Fire Cracker Chicken (4 pts)

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Steamed veggies (1 pt)

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Alright all, off to finish watching The Scandalous Bachelor ~ it’s almost rose ceremony time and I am so proud of Jake for how he handled the “Ali call”!  You all will probably kill me for saying this, but, I sorta liked seeing the other side of Vienna that she showed tonight and now I am not so sure I am all too impressed with Gia.  She seemed sorta ditsy tonight.  I still like Tenley ~ how can you not – she is just so sweet.

Ok your turn…..tell me what you thought of The Scandalous Bachelor???

Recipe and catch up coming tomorrow ~ really!

Night all!

An Early Valentine’s Surprise

February 11, 2010 by DanicasDaily · 23 Comments
Filed under: Fun, Product Reviews, Work Fun 

Today has to start off with a little ChocoLOVE Confessions from last night.  The Husband was admiring our ChocoLOVE stack and really wanted to dig in.  I told him he could pick ANY bar he wanted and he picked the Toffee & Almonds in Milk Chocolate.

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Since it is Milk Chocolate it doesn’t have as good of stats, but, still not bad 1/3 of the bar is 4 points.

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Think I joined in ~ ummm….YA!!!! Especially when he was eating the entire bar :)   OMG this bar is AMAZING!!!  Seriously…it’s like a SKOR bar with roasted almonds, but, better ~ crunchy, melty, caramel crunch.  I was seriously in CHOCO-LOVE!!! :D (ya, I am dork like that!)

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This morning I woke up to an AWESOME Husband!  He seriously must be trying to get in his Valentine’s presents early.  He was listening to me ramble on about not really feeling any breakfast foods lately as I packed my lunch.  He offered to get us Starbuck’s and surprised me with this.

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A Dirty Latte (of course) for 3 points and then their Low-Fat Very Berry pastry that I pondered eating for a bit.  It was 7 points and well, 10 on breakfast is pretty steep.  So, what did I do??  I planned out my food for the entire day and realized I could totally fit it all in – woohoo!  It was awesome and surprisingly kept me going all morning. 

Well almost ~ I was STARVING after 5 hours of waiting for the work BBQ to start, so I caved and snacked on a few Trader Joe’s Pita Puffs (30 of them for 2 pts).

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I have to admit I was thoroughly impressed with our WORK BBQ!  Our head honchos were throwing a BBQ to make the rain go away which totally worked because it was BEAUTIFUL and SUNNY all day. 

They created 3 FANCY salads that used THREE NEW Annie’s Naturals Dressings.  I LOVE that Annie’s is now expanding their line of FAT FREE and LITE dressings and their sleek new labels look pretty cool too!  If only the picture would come out better ;)

source: Annie's, Inc.

* LITE HERB BALSAMIC

* FAT FREE MANGO

* FAT FREE RASPBERRY BALSAMIC

I scooped up each of the 3 salads, a ton of veggies from the veggie tray, GUACAMOLE, Jalapeño Artichoke dip and a few Pita/Kettle Chips. (guesstimate 5-6 pts)

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Plus a Boca Burger with Annie’s Organic Ketchup & Organic Honey Mustard.  I LOVE Boca Burgers – I don’t know why I don’t eat them more for only ONE POINT EACH!!!

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All washed down with my FAVORITE 0 point Sobe POM Yumberry Life Water.  I am super proud that I resisted the HUGE cookies they had for dessert.

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The rest of my day dragged on, but, I had the COOLEST SURPRISE waiting for me when I got home.  The Husband is ALMOST finished with my Raised Garden Box….he was adding the finishing touches when I got home.

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LOVE HIM!!!!

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This might be my FAVORITE stone ever…..

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He did such a great job, now, I just have to figure out the what and when to plant ~ SO EXCITED!!!

So, since I know a bunch of your are Twilight Fans including our niece, I had to show you all the funny Edward Doll we bought her for her 9th birthday this weekend ~ Think it’s cool? How many of you want him the doll? ;)

I had a different dinner planned tonight using a super cool technique I’ve been wanting to try…but, honestly, I just wasn’t feeling it.  So, I pulled out these Cool Putney Pasta Whole Wheat Spinach/Cheese Ravioli’s from the freezer.

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6 pts a a serving, not bad.

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GASP ~ GOAT CHEESE!

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I LOVED their packaging and character ~ they are funny.

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I thought I’d whip up some Zesty Ravioli’s but I realized I didn’t have the ingredients ~ oops.  Instead, I just cooked the ravioli’s for 5 minutes in TJ’s Marinara, added some crushed red pepper and spinach, then, cooked for 2 minutes.

Topped with some freshly shaved parmesan.

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I LOVE how the ravioli’s actually had HUGE pieces of spinach that looked fresh.  The cheeses were super creamy and I LOVED the al dente texture.

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I had a 3 point slice of Texas Toast Garlic Bread on the side.

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What do you all think we should grow first in our Organic Garden?  I would LOVE any and all advice you would LOVE to share :)

I am off to indulge in some reading ~ I am so pumped for another 3-day weekend!!!  One more day to go……

Night all!

Delicious!

February 4, 2010 by DanicasDaily · 9 Comments
Filed under: Fun, Product Reviews 

Happy Friday Eve all!  You all seriously AMAZE me and I am so lucky to have such a great group of friends out there.  Thanks to all of you for your super sweet comments and emails based on my post last night.  It was really nice to know I am not alone and that others can completely relate.  Plus, you all know how to make a girl smile ~ sooooo, thank you a million times over.  I will stop with the mushy gushy-ness and get on with my day.

I was up early to get in my 3-4 mile run as much as I didn’t want to crawl out of bed.  I pushed through it doing 4:1 intervals and felt amazing after.   Seriously, I think that is WHY I exercise ~ for the way I FEEL AFTER :D Who needs caffeine?!

Breakfast was a better than Jamba Juice Smoothie!

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1/2 c fresh frozen blueberries and strawberries

1 Mango

1 Tbsp Ground Flax Seed

1/2 C TJ’s 0% Vanilla Greek Yogurt

Topped with a little Ginger Snap granola that my AWESOME FRIEND sent in my Christmas care package.

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I LOVE it when you freeze your fruit ~ it makes it like ice cream and well, I am all about ice cream for breakfast!  My smoothie was 4 points of deliciousness!

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Mid morning I snacked on my FAVORITE new thing ~ Honest Foods Bars!  I had the Cran Lemon Zest ~ crunchy, chewy, fruity – GOOD!

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I got it right this time ~ the entire BAR, not PLANK is worth 4 points and worth every one!

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Lunch was honestly one of the best made up creations I’ve had in a LONG time.  I whipped up a layered up Leftover Turkey Meatloaf Sandwich.

I topped 1 toasted slice of TJ’s FF Multi-Grain bread with Made In Napa Valley Spicy Apple Mustard, TJ’s Organic Ketchup and 1 3 point slice of TJ’s Turkey Meatloaf sliced in half.

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The other half was topped with a Laughing Cow Lite Cheese Wedge and Spinach.

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All smooshed together and sliced ~ HOLY YUM!!! This sandwich was loaded with so much flavor and rocked coming in at 6 points!

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I REALLY wanted POP Chips, but, I stayed focused on my goal with a big pile of leftover greens for 0 points.

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Such a delicious lunch for 6 points ~ I totally want a do-over so I can have it again! :D

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I washed it all down with another flavor of Sobe Life Water ~ Pomegranate Cherry.  I LOVE this stuff!

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While I was chowing down, I drooled over this new magazine that Better Homes & Garden’s makes that my co-worker brought in….YUP, that would be a VANILLA BEAN filling in those cupcakes topped with a sour cream chocolate frosting *sigh*

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After lunch, I headed out to our company offsite meeting that took ALL afternoon.  I may or may not have had a couple of Dove Chocolates during the meeting. 

I pondered if I was going to have any appetizers after the meeting or not, but, they had a gorgeous spread of veggies, fruit and cheese.  I ate all the veggies, just taste tested the dip and had little tastes of the cheeses.  I wasn’t IN LOVE with them (weird) so I didn’t think they were worth the points.

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This PESTO stuffed Portobello mushroom was SO FLIPPING good.  It has HUGE nuts and chunks of garlic in it.  I couldn’t only eat about 2/3’s of it though because it was STRONG.

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For dessert, I was intrigued by this cracker ~ it was like a wasa bread with raisins, craisins, nuts, rock sugar.  It was fun to eat and ironically reminded me of cereal LOL.

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Plus a mini Cream thingy x’s 2….Everyone was raving about them so I had to try one, then another….Good thing they are SMALL.

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I avoided the FREE open bar and opted for Fizzy Water…I can never get enough bubbles :D

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When I got home, I had the MOST AMAZING PACKAGE EVER waiting for me.  Kristina of Nikes & Pony Tails and I decided to do another Trader Joe’s vs Colorado goodie swap.  WOW!!! She went crazy and I LOVED all the personal notes of EVERYTHING she bought.  How cute is that heart bowl?!  Thanks so much Kristina ~you are so incredibly thoughtful.   I LOVE it all and cannot wait to dig in :*

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She sent a year’s supply of my FAVORITE new Chocolove bars!!!!

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Seriously, check out all the chocolate we have going on that…I really think we have enough to last a year :)

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I managed to put all the chocolate away and work on dinner!  Tonight’s dinner was something I have been waiting ALL week to make.

CROCKPOT SPICY BBQ BRISKET WITH HEALTHY SLAW & BUTTERNUT SQUASH FRIES!!!

I prepped the crockpot this morning and when I walked in the house smelled like a total BBQ joint :D   This is such an EASY dinner to make and it is loaded with spicy sweet BBQ flavor.  It would definitely work with chicken for those who don’t eat beef.  I will post the recipes soon (hopefully tomorrow) since some of you may want to make this for SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!

I started off by topping half my bun with some shredded Spicy BBQ Brisket.

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Then topping it with a healthy ZERO point Asian Slaw I whipped up!

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Put your two buns together…

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DIG IN!

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I have been wanting Butternut Squash Fries ever since I saw Melissa make hers.  I followed her tip to cut them 1/4 inch thick, topped with a little olive oil & sea salt then baking at 450 flipping once half way through for 25 minutes.  YUM ~ these were just as TASTY as they looked.

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All together my Healthy BBQ and FRY dinner was only 7 points (estimated) ~ AWESOME!

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My entire day was completely delicious and healthy ~ I LOVE it when that happens.

Did you all see the new US Magazine that came out this week?  I HAD to make a special trip to pick this up ~ it’s JUICY!

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Have an awesome Friday all!  The weekend is almost here – yahoo!!!!!!

Don’t FORGET TO GET YOUR FREE KIND BAR mini samples at Starbucks tomorrow!

Home & Garden Show=New Gadgets ~ FUN!

January 31, 2010 by DanicasDaily · 8 Comments
Filed under: Fun, Product Reviews, Restaurant Reviews 

Hiya all! I am soooooo SAD that my long weekend is over, but, it was definitely a FUN weekend.  I think sometimes I need to just plan a break from myself – give myself ONE day of nothingness because somehow I almost always manage to fill every minute.  This weekend was no different. 

We had a blast on Saturday meeting my parents for lunch, then, at the Home & Garden Show then dinner.  I honestly think The Husband is turning into my parents because well, he LOVES those shows, just like them.  I have to admit though, it was interesting for probably the first time in my life :)

Sunday was supposed to be my relaxation day, but, I managed to fill my day with grocery shopping, Home Depot trip with The Husband, NEW RUNNING SHOES for me (well, they had to be ordered, out of stock :( ) and lots of food prep.  I cannot wait to try out and share the WW CROCK POT recipes I whipped up today.

Now, it’s time to get down to business, catch you all up and hopefully leave myself a little bit of relaxation time :)

SATURDAY

I had really good intentions of actually DRINKING the Tall Latte we picked up for breakfast, but, I forgot about it as we chatted on our drive up to meet my parents ~ oops.

So, my day basically began with lunch at Dos Coyotes!  I LOVE this place ~ it is probably one of the places I miss the most since moving.

I hit up the salsa bar to start……

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Sipped on my Tropical Ice Tea ~ LOVED this tea!

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Then, the salad I’ve been dreaming of all week long appear and it was BIGGER THAN MY HEAD!  The YucaTan Chicken Salad is filled with awesomeness!

“Charbroiled chicken breast on green leaf lettuce, red onion, carrot, sweet peppers, cabbage & corn in Southwest vinaigrette served on a flour tortilla with fruit salsa and chipotle cream.”

It’s 10 pts for the salad w/o the tortilla (14 with).  You could possibly save on points by not getting the chipotle cream or the tortilla strips.  I managed to get through about 2/3’s of my salad with a few bites of the tortilla – SO GOOD!

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HOME & GARDEN SHOW HIGHLIGHTS

This is what my Garden Box is going to look like when it’s all done and flourishing with what I grow :D

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Crazy Magic Beans that actually grow with writing on them.

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How weird is that?! They say they are edible but I’d be scared :)

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Fun signs….I totally wanted these two for FUN!

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I had total VITA-MIX envy when I saw them whip up smoothies, soup and ice cream.  OMG – I TOTALLY WANT ONE NOW!!! :D   I think I NEED to review one! LOL…ok, well, a girl can always dream….I still LOVE My Magic bullet though :)

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I NEVER knew that you could be WHOLE FRUIT in there CORE and all.

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I sampled the fruit smoothie concoction and it rocked!

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Plus some Mock Pina Colada Cheesecake Ice Cream ~ I couldn’t get paste the ingredients he used (they had transfats, high fructose corn syrup, etc) so I gave it to The Husband because well he eats anything :)

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I bought some fun new sauces to play with and The Husband’s FAVORITE marinated mushrooms.

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He paid it forward by picking me up this super cool Blogging Heros book for only $5 – SCORE!

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I think this is what I am MOST excited about.  These little ceramic dishes are made in Spain and imported. 

This is a spice mill – you can finely ground or course grind any dried herb or fresh rosemary or time.  Ohhhh they also used it for crushed red pepper flakes too!

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This is probably the COOLEST grater I’ve ever seen ~ first because you can’t grate your hands up and second because it grates everything EASILY.  Parmesan, chocolate, garlic, ginger, nuts….EVERYTHING!

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It comes as a set with a cute little brush and a garlic clove skin remover.

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After all that walking, we worked up an appetite :)   We ended up going to the Buggy Whip for dinner.  I LOVE the name ~ it makes me think it’s all old fashioned and such.

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I LOVE that they put lights up all year round too!

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You get a TON of food for your moolah!  I started off with a slice of wheat bread.

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Then, we had the second course of a  delicious minestrone soup.  I think I could’ve made a meal of just this soup.

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Third course ~ salad with ranch on the side.  I was craving Ranch so I went with it…I used my fork and dipped to eat it with each bite.   By doing that I ate only 1/3 of the container.

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Fourth Course ~ steak &  scampi with a baked potato.  I actually ordered the combo to give The Husband my steak (I just wanted the SHRIMP).  I did have about 2 oz of steak too.  It was all pretty tasty.

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SUNDAY

I woke up today wanting something for breakfast but not really knowing what to eat.  Do you all ever get like that?  What is your quick goto I don’t know what to eat thing?

I finally decided to whip up a MOCK CINNAMON ROLL!!!

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1 Earth Grains Whole Wheat Thin

1 Laughing Cow Lite Wedge

Freshly Ground Cinnamon Chips

ORGANIC RAW Agave Nectar

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This was SO AWESOME and totally a random breakfast of everything that sounded good….Not too bad for 2 pts :D

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I added a Perfectly Hard Boiled Egg for 2 pts of protein.

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Mid morning I snacked on a 1 pt low fat Colby cheese square.

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Working on my MISSION TO CLEAR THE FREEZER, I whipped up an AWESOME VEGETABLE GYOZA WITH EDAMAME SOYCATASH for 5 pts a serving!  This recipe is a FAST and EASY favorite that I tried during my Vegan Adventures.  It is from Vegetarian Times Mag and it only takes like 10-15 minutes from start to finish – I LOVE recipes like that.  You can click HERE for the recipe.

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I had a Blood Orange on the side that my mom brought us from my grandma’s tree.  So fun to eat since they are so vibrant….sweet like an orange, tart like a grapefruit.

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Afternoon snack was MY FAVORITE Milk Chocolate ~ DOVE Caramel filled Milk Chocolates.  (4 pts)

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I couldn’t wait to break out my two new sauces so dinner tonight was built around them.  I used the Chipotle Apple Brandy Marinade (like a spicy Jack Daniels sauce) on Chicken.

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Then, I used the Whisky Pepper Steak Sauce (like a sweet & spicy A-1) on Tri Tip Steaks.

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I will be the first to admit, some things in life you just LOVE!  Pasta Roni is one thing I grew up on and I LOVE it.  I do not really buy it as an adult since it has transfats :( however, I was excited to see that they have come out with a Nature’s Way version that has REAL ingredients and isn’t all processed with NO Transfats!!.

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6 pts a serving, not bad!

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SO GOOD!  I LOVE doughy, gooey pasta….I think i could’ve eaten the whole box :D

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2 pts of Tri Tip Steak deliciousness!

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I burned my chicken :(   I think I should’ve used the pan method to grill it *sigh* next time! 2 pts

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Southern Greens sautéed with a little EVOO, garlic, sea salt and pepper.  Then, steamed in chicken broth ~ YUM! 0 pts

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Dinner was awesome, but, I was STILL hungry after.  I hate spending 10 pts on a meal and still being hungry.

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So…I whipped up a COCONUT CARAMEL BANANA SUNDAE for 2 pts!

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1 small banana sliced

1 Tbsp Mrs. Richardson’s Caramel, heated and drizzled

Sprinkle of Unsweetened Organic Coconut

FF Whipped Cream

Sprinkles

I LOVED this….I definitely need to make “banana ice cream” next time to do this with, but, it worked fantastic when you wanted something sweet.  I may or may not have licked the plate clean :D

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend too.  I am off to relax before the busy work week starts!

Night all!



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