Chocolate Banana Creamers

Calories: 74 calories

Ingredients: – 1 large (8-inch) ripe banana – 16 small wooden skewers (preferably two-prong design) – 3 ounces 72% dark bittersweet chocolate, chopped, or ¾ cup of dark chocolate chips

Preparation: Peel the banana and cut it crosswise into 16 slices; skewer each slice and place it on a waxed-paper-lined plate. Freeze for at least 1 hour Place the chocolate in a small saucepan. Cook over very low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the chocolate is almost completely melted. Remove the saucepan from the heat; stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Tip the saucepan to one side and dip each frozen banana slice in the chocolate so that it is completely covered. Scrape the bottom of the banana slice on the edge of the saucepan, letting the excess chocolate flow back into the saucepan. Place the chocolate-dipped banana slices back onto the waxed-paper-lined plate and freeze for at least 30 minutes before serving. Store in the freezer for up to 2 weeks. Note: This recipe requires time to freeze, but the delayed gratification is well worth the wait!

 

My Personality Type

I “stumbledupon” this and thought it was interesting as it fits me pretty close:

The Dreamer

MBTI Code: INFP

The Dreamer, INFP, personality type is one that is highly creative, artistic, and spiritual. They enjoy creating beautiful works of art. These works can be in different forms, such as paintings, music, or literature (to name a few).The Dreamer achieves much of their satisfaction when they are able to develop their artistic skills and abilities. The sense of accomplishment they feel from their creations are enough to make them feel content. They do not need to be famous or recognized by the masses to feel this sense of accomplishment. The act of creating in and of itself is enough to provide much enjoyment and allow the Dreamer to feel renewed and refreshed.
Many Dreamers focus a lot of their energy on their inner world, which is dominated by intense feeling and deeply held ethics. They desire for an external life that fits this same model and keeps with the same values as their inner world.
The INFP is loyal to the people and causes in their life that they feel are important. They are able to spot opportunities quickly in order to implement their ideas. They are curious of their environments and desire to understand those around them. They are accepting and flexible, but only if their values are not threatened.
Based on observations of behavior, notable INFPs may include Princess Diana, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Audrey Hepburn, Richard Gere, and Albert Schweitzer.

Find out what your personality type is:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1X7UDh/www.whatsmypersonality.com/

 

More Enlightenment

Someone is looking out for me! I kept getting a feeling to call and check on a client of mine who had cancer but is in remission.  It just came to me and I remembered to do it this morning. I called her up adn she began telling me about a procedure she’d had done (it had nothing to do with her cancer).  Turns out, I had the same situation and she advised me not to have it done the way my doctor was wanting to do it. Her doctor advised her against it adn she explained to me why and it made perfect sense NOT to have it done in that way.  I am researching another route.  I love the light feeling I get when the Great Mother shines on me like that.  

I had an “enlightenment” years ago and since then these little things happen to me quite often.  If you are in touch with your center it happens. 

When I feel frustrated with other ppl because they didn’t do their job (other businesses I have to call) I stop and think before being totally rude that I may have to ask that person for a job or I may end up working with that person one day.  This happened to me today.  It’s too easy to just be rude! I hate talking to ppl who are rude to me yet I find myself wanting to behave the same way!  That’s so….. human!  Anyway, it is part of my enlightenment. 

I am feeling more like myself these days and will be in a better blogging mood soon. I will be posting more good stuff and less blah blah about my life that no one cares about! 🙂

Goddess bless you reader.

 

Starting off with a Bang!

My DH and I have started back to the gym regularly again.  Well, I have. He slumped out on me so I went alone today. He asked me to pick up dinner and a few things from the grocers so yeah…at least I was useful.  I did discover that it is time to update my Ipod.

Two days ago my dryer stopped heating.  I now have towels and uniform pants hanging from strings tied between my dining room chairs drying. I did learn something tho! If you leave them slightly damp and put them in the dryer with no heat and some dryer sheets they don’t end up stiff like sand paper.  Good tip!  I gotta find out how to fix it cuz I can’t afford to take it for repars right now. Yeesh…I really dread it.  On the upside, my power bill should be a little lower!

I just had a salad for dinner that I picked up from McAlisters Deli. It was sooo good.  I was disappointed to find that it only had like 1.5 oz of chicken.  It also had cranberries, candied almonds and some sweet dressing.  Wish I hadn’t ordered it now. I ordered it sight unseen over the phone (I took the employees suggestion) and now I feel like my cardio session was blown because of all the sugar and the NO PROTEIN in that salad.  Well, it was tasty.  I really shouldn’t complain.

I’m excited about 2012. It’s going to be a great year.

 

 

A fun family game nite idea

I found this on stumbleupon.  We love a good spelling bee, my daughter and me.  We’re going to take turns calling these words out to each other and letting my husband be the judge/point-taker/referree whatever!  Try this with your family.

www.studygs.net/

(American) Common misspelled words

Words commonly misspelled, or spelled correctly but not used properly: Note: these are American spellings!

A: absence, accidentally, accommodate/accommodation, according, ache, acquit/acquire, again, against, aisle, allegory, almost, always, although, ancient, airplane, aging, agonize, apologize

B: beautiful, beginning, believe, bellwether, body, build, business

C: calendar, consensus, cemetery, changeable, confidence, conscience/conscientious/conscious, coolly,  criticize

D: decided, defendant, describe, despair, difference, dilemma, disappear, disappoint, disguise, distance, divide, double, drunkenness, dumbbell

E: easiness, embarrass, exceed, exhilarate, existence

F: familiar, famous, finish, foreign, forest, from/form

G: gauge, government, grateful, guarantee, guardian, guest, guilty

H: halve, happened, harass, height, here/hear, high

I: illegible, imagine, immediately, independent, indispensable, information, inoculate, instead, interest, irresistible

J: jewelry, judgment, juice

K: kernel/colonel, knowledge

L: language, league, leisure, license, liquefy, a lot, listen

M: machine, maintenance, meant, measure, medieval, memorandum, merchandise, millennium, mischievous, misspell, month, mountain

N: necessary, neighbor, neither, nighttime, noticeable

O: occurrence, occasion/occasionally

P: paragraph, pastime, period, phrase, playwright, possible, precede, preferred, pressure, principal/principle, privilege, prominent, purchase, purpose, pursue

Q: quite, quiet, queue, questionnaire

R: receipt, receive, recommend, reference, referred, region, relevant, remember, rhyme, rhythm

S: says, separate, sergeant, several, similar, sincerely, soldier, sugar, sure,

T: temperature, theater, there/their/they’re, thousands, thorough, threshold, to/two/too, tomorrow, tournament, truly, tyranny

U: unanimous, unforgettable, unfortunately, until, usually

V: vacuum, variety, various, vary, vehicle, vicious, village, villain

W: wear/where/we’re, weird, weather/whether

X:

Y: yacht, yield

Z: zucchini

 

All better now….finally

I have had to be away due to 2 brief illnesses as well as the holidays.  Holidays are hard enough but battling illnesses at the same adds to the frustration.  I’m not completely well physically but I will be fine!

 

I have been clearing bookshelves in my off time.  I had forgotton much of what I had and I needed to dust anyway.  The majority of my books have been boxed up because I simply don’t have room for all of them.  I have two different categories of books 1) My books that I will NEVER give up and 2) books I have listed on www.paperbackswap.com .  If you have excessive books this is the way to go!  Check it out.

As I was going through my books I thought if something were to happen to me and my daughter had to go through all of this stuff what opinion would she form of me just based on what I read?  That’s an interesting thought, isn’t it?  I have poetry, humor and esteem-building/thought provoking books as well as my “secret” books that I dont’ really display.  They’re not adult in nature, not that kind of secret. Being a pagan I have things that are not mainstream. Divination, spirit communication, astrology, recipes for non-food helps in magic…  My daughter knows I follow a pagan path, but she doesn’t really understand it. I have introduced her to it but she’s 15 and able to make her own decisions about the path she wants to follow so I haven’t pushed my ideas on her.  I hope she will see that the lighter side of mom enjoyed a good laugh and was able to see the humor in most anything; and that the darker side wasn’t the frightening kind of dark but “good witch” kind of dark. I hope she will understand the reason that was kept private and that one of the main things in magic is to keep silent, Keep your practice under your hat and just KNOW yourself what you’ve done, see the result and smile on the inside.

 

Flat Iron Steak with Red Wine Sauce

From Giada on Food Network.  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/flat-iron-steak-with-red-wine-sauce-recipe/index.html

This is easy enough!  I am always looking for a new way to serve beef. 

Ingredients

• 2 (1-pound) flat iron steaks or tri-tip steaks
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for garnish
• 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 2 1/2 cups dry red wine

Directions

Prepare the grill or barbecue (medium-high heat). Sprinkle the steaks with salt and pepper and drizzle with the 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Grill to desired doneness, about 5 minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer the steaks to a cutting board. Tent with foil and let stand 10 minutes.

 

Meanwhile, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onions and saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Season with salt. Add the garlic and oregano and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Whisk in the wine. Simmer until the sauce reduces by half, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat. Strain the sauce into a small bowl, pressing on the solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard the solids in the strainer and return the sauce to the saucepan and bring back to a slow simmer. Cut the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter into small 1/2-inch chunks and whisk in the sauce a little at a time. Season the sauce, to taste, with salt and pepper.

 

Thinly slice the steaks across the grain. Divide the steak slices among 6 plates. Drizzle the sauce over the steak, drizzle a little more extra-virgin olive oil and serve.

 

Post Halloween Party

So DH and I attended a super halloween party last night.  It was great.  There were so many awesome costumes!  We went as WWE superstars Randy Orton and Beth Phoenix.  We both got so many compliments!  The costume I remember most was Ozzy Osbourne.  This guy was SERIOUS.  He was screaming all night and sounded exactly like the  man himself … he was so real that the DJ played crazy train  in his honor.  LOL:, it was fabulous.  There was another great pimp-daddy one that really put on a great show. Top hat, rose colored glasses, tricked out suit and all the bling.  Couldn’t stop looking at this dude. He was fab.

There were 15 women dressed as nurses! PPL, come on! The theme was to dress as a celebrity.  I know, we’re all adults and we don’t have to follow that rule exactly….no one is uninvited just because they didn’t make an effort but it’s halloween! It’s not like it is a surprise and you didn’t know you were going to need to come up with a costume!  Still tho, we got a laugh out of it!   There were two couples dressed as Bonny & Clyde, one guy dressed as Mimi from the Drew Carey show (OMG.  more than I wanted to see), a husband and wife dressed as a cowboy and an indian, a chic dressed in lady gaga’s teal outfit with the 80’s shoulder pads and a long blonde wig and sunglasses (she was a little hottie and she could dance!) and several “flapper” girls.  We met some really great people.  Had a super time.

I made that drink I mentioned earlier, the dirty pirate.  AMAZING!  It almost tasted chocolatey. That was probably because I over poured the kahlua.  Hey..what?!? you can’t put too much kahlua !!  I didn’t drink too much but I did eat too much (some candy corn M&M stuff that was like freakin CRACK! I couldn’t stop eating it!)

I woke up feeling great (no hangovers, I was proud!) with more great memories!  My costume is in the closet now but, boy was that fun!

 

Hanger Steak with Mushrooms & Red Wine Sauce

 

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 12 ounces assorted mushrooms, torn or cut into large pieces
• Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, divided
• 1 1/2-pound hanger steak, trimmed, pounded to 1/2″ thickness
• Coarsely cracked black pepper
• 3 garlic cloves, lightly crushed
• 1 6″ sprig rosemary
• 1 cup dry red wine
• 3/4 cup low-salt chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon

Preparation

• Heat 2 Tbsp. oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms; cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden, about 7 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to a bowl; set aside.
• Melt 1 Tbsp. butter with remaining 1 Tbsp. oil in same skillet over medium heat. Season steak with salt and cracked pepper. Add steak, garlic, and rosemary to skillet. Cook about 3 minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer to a cutting board. Let rest while preparing sauce.
• Discard garlic and rosemary from skillet. Pour off all but 1 Tbsp. fat. Add wine; cook, stirring up bits, until reduced to 3/4 cup, about 3 minutes. Strain; return liquid to skillet. Stir in stock; bring to a boil. Simmer until reduced to 1/2 cup, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat; Whisk in 3 Tbsp. butter. Stir in mushrooms and 1 Tbsp. tarragon. Season with salt and pepper.
• Spoon mushroom mixture onto plates. Thinly slice steak; serve over mushrooms. Garnish with remaining 1 Tbsp. tarragon.

Hungry for More? If you have a question about this recipe, contact our Test Kitchen at askba@bonappetit.com. To see more recipes like this one, check out our Steak Recipes Slideshow.

• nutritional information

  One serving contains:
  Calories (kcal) 511.9
  %Calories from Fat 72.7
  Fat (g) 41.4
  Saturated Fat (g) 16.6
  Cholesterol (mg) 97.8
  Carbohydrates (g) 3.9
  Dietary Fiber (g) 0.9
  Total Sugars (g) 1.9
  Net Carbs (g) 3.0
  Protein (g) 30.3
  Sodium (mg) 135.5

FOUND AT THE LINK BELOW. NOT MY RECIPE!

Read More http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/quick-recipes/2011/10/hanger-steak-with-mushrooms-and-red-wine-sauce#ixzz1c0Tt37BG

 

Quest for the Best Side: Loaded Potato Casserole

THIS WAS FOUND AT : http://www.plainchicken.com/2011/01/crack-potatoes.html. I DON’T MAKE CASSEROLES ANYMORE BUT THIS ONE IS DIFFERENT.  THERE IS NO CREAM SOUP!

 

My husband can eat it with his diet so i’ll give it a shot. It would also be good for holidays.

 

Crack Potatoes or Loaded Potato Casserole

 

2 (16oz) containers sour cream

2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded

2 (3oz) bags real bacon bits

2 packages Ranch Dip mix

1 large (28 – 30oz) bag frozen hash brown potatoes – shredded kind

Combine first 4 ingredients, mix in hash browns.  Spread into a 9×13 pan.  Bake at 400 for 45-60 minutes.  

*I divided the potatoes into 3 small 7×7 disposable foil pans and froze them.  I wrapped them with plastic wrap and then foil.*