Mr. Allan had a great point today.....

Like everyone else, we turn on the tv and you're bombarded with politic ads and commercials bashing the other candidates. I had a rare moment at home yesterday. Mr. Allan was able to work from home. Usually we're rushing around, ok, I'm rushing around, swearing like a sailor trying to get my butt out the door on time. Mr. Allan made some coffee, I was early, and we were able to enjoy a cup of coffee and watch the local news. Commerical break came and this came on. Watch it. I'll post Mr. Allan's excellent points and then you can watch it again and say to yourself...wow, Mr. Allan's got some good points.




So after taking a glimpse at this, you might say, wow, that Chafee is a jerk raising taxes. This poor single mom school teacher.

After we saw this, Mr. Allan grabbed the TIVO remote. He rewinded the TV and paused at certain spots.

1) first pause- He stopped when this poor woman took the milk out and poured it into the cereal bowls. I have thought how cool would it be to get local dairy milk delivered. This idea was shot down. Why, to save money. Mr. Allan has it trained into my mind that we can't afford dairy milk delivered. Our poor single mom here can, though.

2) second pause- Mr. Allan stopped the commercial when we got a great view of this spacious kitchen. We both noted the lovely black granite countertops and the custom white cabinets and beautiful double convection oven. All three are things I would LOVE to have in my kitchen. But, we're penny pinchers making do with my regular old oven and normal counters.

3)third pause- getting gas into your nice shiny white SUV. I drive a Toyota Corolla. Not the most fashionable car, but I drive it because it's not a huge gas guzzling SUV and it looks alot older than this lady's car.

It makes you wonder. I first saw this and thought, wow is this single mom going to get screwed by the other politicians tax on groceries? After Mr. Allan made his points, I thought, wow, she's doing ok with her SUV, nice countertops, double convection ovens (I'm very jealous of this one), nice backyard with a primo swingset, home delivered dairy milk, and shopping in one of our area's nicer grocery stores.

Just a disclaimer...I have no idea who I'm voting for yet. I also have no idea who this lady is. We're just having fun poking at all this political ads and what's really in them. I also love how everyone bellyaches with our bad economy and getting taxes raised yet so unwilling to change the lifestyles we've grown used to.

oh well...onto the election in November!

This has caught my eye...

I've heard about it. Oprah talked about it this week. Brian Williams mentioned it on the Nightly News as well. What am I talking about? The new documentary taking a look at public education. It's called Waiting for Superman.

Here's a peek at the trailer. As someone who went through American Public School and has parents as educators, I'm extremely interested to see what it's all about.

Here's a link to the trailer

http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/

I love my Garbage Bowl

I'm not a fan of Rachel Ray. She's a little too happy and giddy for me. I don't watch 30 minute meals and had to discontinue my subscription to her magazine. All the recipes are typically in the category of comfort food.

However, there's a couple things I do like about Rachel Ray.
1) her vegetarian chili recipe...so good
2) this

What is it you may ask? It's Rachel Ray's Garbage Bowl. it's so simple of an idea and kind of a gimmick but I love it. I pull this puppy out when I'm doing any type of prep work for dinner or baking. It's a pain when you cut a green pepper in half and have to stand over the sink or garbage can to cut the seeds out and not have a million on your kitchen floor. With the garbage bowl, I just shove all the trash in it and dump it when dinner is in the oven.

I know that I could easily use a regular bowl, but I just don't. I would never think to pull out one of my nice OXO bowls and shove peels, rinds, and seeds and who knows what in it. I'd stand over the trash can instead.

It's hard to explain why exactly I'm head over heels for my garbage bowl, but I use it at least 4-5 times a week and it's made getting stuff ready a little easier.

So, Rachel Ray, while I may not enjoy your grunts and cute little sayings as you prepare a 30 minute meal, I do applaud you for making this ever so obvious and I totally don't need you gimmick bowl that I now cannot live without!

I'm so proud of BJ's Wholesale Club

Here in RI, you're either a BJ's kind of person or a Sam's Club. We're team BJ's (get your mind out of the gutter!). Why? Simply because they're closer to home for us and there's one located near Mr. Allan's work when we need emergency runs there for cases of Vitamin Water Zero.

Sometimes, I wonder why we have a wholesale club membership. They tend to have lots of food items in bulk that aren't very healthy choices for you. Today, we took a trip to the BJ's in Coventry, RI. I was SO excited to see that they're ever so slowly expanding their grocery selections and each time I go, I see an item we frequently buy at such a great price. I know, little stupid things excite me more as I get older.

Today....I found the large bag of Stacy's Pita Chip for $4.99...a whole dollar less than my local grocers sell them for. I LOVE Stacy's Pita Chips. Here in the Allan household, we keep it simple and only buy the Simply Naked. They're all natural and don't have tons of chemicals and crap added to them. My favorite snack of the summer is a serving of Stacy's Pita Chips and Whole Food's Roasted Red Pepper Hummus. Now, if the Cranston, RI Whole Foods would only make sure they have my hummus every time I come, I'd be all set!

Hardwood Floor Cleaner Rave...

Our whole upstairs is hardwood floors. God Bless the previous owners of this house. They knocked down walls and ripped up this terrible cobalt blue carpeting that covered our, now, living room and dining room area. I love hardwoods floors. The pet hair forms tumbleweeds that are easy to sweep up, messes don't sink in, and they give the rooms a nice polished look. The hardwoods are in our kitchen as well, which has proven to be more of a challenge.

I've tried so many products to clean them. I started with my regular ole all purpose cleaner, Mr. Clean. It left them dull and they barely looked clean. I took a trip to my local Walmart to buy some Pledge hardwood floor cleaner. Hey, Pledge should know their wood products since that's what the cleaner is designed for. But, it didn't cut it. I went through some Old English hardwood floor cleaner and then tried my new go-to all purpose cleaner, Mrs. Meyers. All either left a tacky residue, didn't do anything, or left a film.

While visiting my dad and step-mother, they mentioned a product they found, that was environmentally friendly and they were very pleased with. They introduced me to BONA. I, honestly, had never heard of this cleaner. I looked for it at Target, Walmart, and my local grocery stores. Mr. Allan found it at Home Depot and my parents buy it at Bed, Bath, and Beyond (don't forget your 20% off coupons!!)

We gave it a whirl yesterday and I am impressed. I vacuumed all our floors and got down on my hand and knees with the spray bottle. I used a rag to wash the floors, but apparently there's a whole polishing kit swiffer like tool that goes with it.

This left the floors clean, polished looked and no residue behind. Sorry Mrs. Meyers, I'm normally a fan, but Bona is better! There's also a hard wood floor polish. After washing the floors, I haven't gone down the polish road yet..mostly because my cats were interested in what I was doing and all over me.....so Bona polish reviews in the near future!

Here's more info and a coupon (ughh...I hate to pay full price where there's a coupon floating around...next time!)

http://www.mybonahome.com/home.html

There are no words....

for how smoking hot Jon Hamm is.

My new favorite salsa

I love salsa. I wasn't always a tomato lover, but there's something about a really nice fresh tasting salsa that I LOVE! Not to mention--salsa is a great snack...low calorie and healthy...just watch what you dip in it!

My new favorite salsa....

It's Sisters Salsa. This is a company based out of Blue Hill, ME. I find my Sister's Salsa at my local Whole Foods. They have a mild and this is my favorite...the Twice the Spice. It's perfect for those of you that might not like it hot hot hot, but like a tiny bit of spice!

check out their cool website...

http://www.salsafy.com/index.html

It's fresh, tasty and I feel like I'm eating homemade salsa when I polish off a container, yes, I sometimes eat the whole container. I guess I rationalize that it's better than polishing off a bag of salt and vinegar chips!!!

Here are my two favorite chips to dip in Sisters Salsa...I try and eat food that doesn't have a lot of preservatives, isn't processed too heavily, and doesn't have a million ingredients.

My sister, Heidi, the Whole Foods guru, turned me onto these. I like them because they're all natural and have 4 ingredients. Does that mean I can eat the bag, absolutely not. It just means I'm choosing a healthier chip and still need to watch the portion sizes...so just pile alot of salsa on your Tortilla Strips.

and...Tostitos gets a shout out too...I do like their all natural Blue Tortilla Chips. One downfall--they're a little flimsy if you're doing some heavy dipping!

Bring on Earl

We're bracing for Hurricane Earl. Previously a catergory 4, he's downsized down to a 2. They're predicting heavy winds and rain Friday evening into early Saturday morning. My co worker is getting married tomorrow! Boo Early...get your butt out of here!

The lawn furniture is tied down, the pool toys were brought in, my hanging flower baskets are in the shed, my  deck flower boxes are underneath and I ran to Walmart and fought the crazies to buy some candles. We're about 15 minutes from the coast of RI, yet we live in a woody area. Somehow I'm thinking this isn't the best mix for heavy winds, surf, and rain. I have alot of shows on my DVR to catch up on, so we better not lose electricity...not to mention the whole well water...we lose power, we can't flush toilets or use our faucets...fun Friday night in store for us!