A Good Friday indeed

Today is unfortunately not a day I automatically get off. But, the court calendars were light and we've got a 5 hour drive to PA ahead if us later today...so I took a vacation day. I wish I could say I slept in this morning, but with 3 cats pawing at your head at 6am letting you know its breakfast time..its impossible to sleep in in this house. But, I decided to try and make the best of it!

Mr. Allan had to head into work, so he got a special breakfast treat....some French Toast Casserole.

The rest of the day will be spent in bed hanging out with this one before it's time to pack up, prepare the cats for a weekend alone and hit the road and hope for not too much traffic!

Happy Easter and enjoy the weekend!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

TGIW...Thank God It's Wednesday! Yesterday morning I woke up so tired. It was one of those mornings where I could've slept for another 2 hours and had to literally drag myself out of bed. The first thought that popped into my head, was ...Great! It's Thursday and tomorrow if Friday...then reality hit and I realized it was only Tuesday!!!! So...I'm happy it's now Wednesday and tomorrow is really Thursday and then Friday!!! It's been a long week!

So...what am I loving this Wednesday??

I know there are always food items on my list of what I'm loving! I'm always on the hunt for new snacks that aren't going to blow the calorie counting or full of horrible things like transfat etc. I'm not a huge ice cream person...we seldom get in the car and go out for ice cream and it's not in our house a lot..at all. The other day I wanted a cold snack...and splurged and bought a little pint of Stoneyfield's Organic Frozen Yogurt. At around 140 calories for 1/4 of the container..it wasn't too bad! I loved the Minty Chocolate Chip and will gladly get this as an occasional snack!

I ran out of this the other day..it wasn't until the tube was dead empty that I realized what an essential part of my morning get ready routine this is. I'm vigilant about wearing sun block every day..even though my moisturizer and make up have spf in them, I probably read in Health or InStyle that that's not enough and got in the habit of wearing sunscreen every day. My favorite since it's lightweight and doesn't mess with the 900 other products I put on my face....Clinique's City Block with SPF 40.

Last week I told you how much I loved this book...Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James..with the warning that it is a little racy and va va va voom....

Well, I breezed through the first book and loved the second book.....if you're one to love the bad boy...then Christian Grey will be right up your alley!

And I'm currently about a third of the way through the last book...I'm taking my time because I have a feel I'll be sad to leave Christian Grey behind once I finish the trilogy!

And lastly...I'm very excited that this show is back in full swing! Since I quit the Desperate Housewives a few years ago and the Walking Dead is over for the season...Sunday nights just got a lot better with Mad Men back!

Enjoy your Wednesday and be sure to check out What I'm Loving Wednesday at www.littledaisymay.blogspot.com!

Calico Baked Beans

or as we like to call them...Annabelle beans..after our cute little calico cat :)

yesterday morning I woke up and we did our usual lazy Sunday morning routine..Mr. Allan fed the cats and made himself some coffee...he then came back into our bedroom where we read the Sunday paper and watched the Today show. I started to organize the grocery list and plan our meals for the week. It just popped into my head that I wanted to make baked beans. I grew up with my Vava's baked bean recipe and decided I would tackle that this evening. After talking to my mom and learning that those beans literally take a day to cook, I needed a plan B. My mom told me to grab the family cookbook she compiled and told me about a recipe for Calico Beans...I took a peek...and Calico Baked Beans it was for dinner last night!

This recipe was super easy and a little short cut from having beans bake in your oven all day. We had some kielbasa links from our meat CSA that we buy from a local farm, and these beans make a great sidekick to the kielbasa!

Fresh out of the oven.... 

Calico Baked Beans

1 can kidney beans

1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas)

1 can of baked beans (any brand goes...I used regular Bush's Baked Beans)

1/2 cup of ketchup

1/4 cup of light brown sugar

2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 small onion (diced)

8oz ground beef or turkey*

Preheat over to 350. In a lightly oiled skillet, saute meat and onion until the meat is almost cooked through.

Open and drain the kidney and garbanzo beans. Add those as well as the can of baked beans (do not drain or rinse the baked beans). Then add the remaining ingredients- ketchup, sugar, and vinegar. Cook for 3 or4 minutes until all ingredients are combined.

Transfer to a casserole dish and cook uncovered for approximately 30 minutes. (you can take a tiny taste of the beans and see if they're soft enough for your liking)

Just a note...the original recipe calls for 1lb of ground beef. I used some ground white turkey meat instead and used only about 1/2 lb to cut down on the calories a bit. As you can see from the picture above..I thought my beans were beefy enough with only half the meat!

Enjoy!

These are my crack. I'm not sure why I thought it would be a nice little treat to grab a bag of these and "share" them with my co workers. I think I've maybe given 6 eggs away. I'm looking forward to Easter next weekend..not because I want to eat ham, but because these won't be on the shelves anymore.

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

Come join in and see what everyone is loving on http://www.littledaisymay.blogspot.com/!

First up....

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James. Someone recommended this to me in passing..probably because I always have my Kindle on hand in case the action in the courtroom is moving super slow or if I have some down time or wait time for an appointment. All I can say is va va va voom! The main character, Christian Grey, is a mysterious, drop dead gorgeous, billionaire who sparks an interest in an ordinary college senior named Anastasia Steele. I loved the characters in this book...and even better..it's book 1 of a trilogy. I'm about half way through the second book and love it just as much as the first one. I will warn you ..there are some well, let's just say explicit scenes in this book When I got to one of the parts, I blushed and tried to remember who it was that recommended this to me! A quick awesome read!

Also...a staple in our house...Udi's Gluten free granola. I was a yogurt hiatus for a while. But, I've eased back into having my plain fat free Chobani once or twice a week. I hate flavored yogurt. I'm sure there are some better brands on the market that use natural flavoring, but I read an article called The Anatomy of a Flavored Yogurt and was really shocked at the amount of chemicals and additives that a tiny thing of yogurt can have! So, I stick to plain and flavor it myself. The choice of flavoring has been a couple tablespoons of Udi's Gluten Free Granola.

Up next...Frederick Fekkai Gloss Cream. I'm a huge fan of the shampoo and conditioner as well, but I will not lie..this stuff is expensive! Sometimes I'll splurge other times I feel guilty unloading that amount of money on hair products. But, I do love the glossing cream! I straighten the crap out of my hair on a daily basis. I was a huge fan of Moroccan Oil but my hair just got too used to it. I love how soft and silky Fekkai Glossing Cream leaves my hair and when I don't want to unload $50 on shampoo and conditioner, I just appease myself with a little tube of the gloss cream...a little bit of this stuff tends to go a long way too!

I've been dying for a trip to mall lately. I've been trying to be good and curtail the retail therapy as we have some home remodeling to do and Mr. Allan is slowly in a need a new set of wheels. One thing I've been absolutely longing to do is hit the LUSH store! My favorite product that I'm missing...the Buffy Bar! It feels like a bar of soap but is filled with tiny particles of rice and almond that help buff away your dead skin and it leaves my normally dry skin so soft and silky. I finished my last one off about a month ago and my showers just aren't the same..and neither are my dry arms and legs either!

Hope you enjoy your Wednesday and be sure to check out What I'm Loving Wednesday at www.littledaisymay.blogspot.com

Good Cheap Flats

My friend, L, totally gets the award for finding these shoes. I met my friends, L & L, for brunch a couple weeks ago. It was nice to enjoy a mid morning get together and then have the afternoon free to hit my stores...the Christmas Tree Shops, Walmart, Tj Maxx and Marshalls. On the list of things I needed ASAP...another pair of flats. I splurged on a pair of Tory Burch Reva Flats and I absolutely love them, but wanted another pair to kick around in so I didn't have to wear the TB ones every single day.

The 3 of us hit the Christmas Tree Shops together and I noticed a nice pair of patent leather flats that L had on. I went off the TJ Maxx and Marshalls without much success and then emailed her later on to ask where her flats were from. She divulged the secret and I'll now share it with you...Payless!

$16.99 and if you have a AAA membership..you get an additional 10% off! They took me a day to break in, are pretty comfortable, but most importantly...an absolute steal at that price!

A sign that it's almost Parade day in Newport!!

I don't think I've missed a St. Patrick's Day Parade in Newport since I met Mr. Allan. The amount of green in my wardrobe has grown quite a bit in the past years. We get so excited for the parade..from breakfast with friends, to irishing up our coffee, to standing on our friend's porch yelling at everything that passes by in the parade.

Last night the ingredients for Panettone French Toast casserole were purchased and the green garb for tomorrow is hanging in my closet in anticipation of one of our favorite days of the year! Happy St. Patrick's Day!