Bacon. It's a Food Group.

 

 I've always been a lover of bacon. Thanks to social media, ALL of my friends know I have a big, fat love affair with it.  Take a look at a few of things that have been posted on my Facebook wall by my friends or me, just because they know about my insane infatuation with the duct tape of all food.

Being the resident recipe housewife, I must share a favorite recipe involving BACON! 

I make so many things with it, Pampered Chef Chopped Salad (it's the BEST), Bacon & Tomato Cups, Outback's Alice Springs' Chicken, Cooked Cabbage, Arkansas Green Beans, broccoli/cauliflower salad, pasta salad, BLT's, etc. But, the one that comes to mind right at this moment and that I would love to sink my chompers into is...

Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts! Mmmm!  

Click link to go to the original website -  

Oh So Delicioso

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds bacon

2 cans whole water chestnuts

1 cup barbecue sauce

1 cup honey

toothpicks

Directions

Cut your bacon in half. Wrap each water chestnut with bacon and secure it with a toothpick. Place in a 9"x13" cake pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray.

Combine barbecue sauce and honey and whisk to combine. Drizzle over water chestnuts.

Bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour, or until bacon begins to crisp.

Serve warm.

Dear, SWEET Mrs. Priss even got me my very own BaCoN necklace the other day. Isn't she so thoughtful?! 

Do you have a favorite recipe that includes bacon? If so, I'd be ever so grateful to have it. 

I shall leave you with one more little bacon tidbit....

~Mrs. Albright Putting bacon on my bacon, like a...

Always the Fool

It probably says a lot about our family when I tell you that April Fool's is considered an actual holiday in my house.  I'd like to blame the Doc, but that wouldn't be too honest.  This year, I forgot to really plan out some good tricks.

As a last minute lame attempt, I was going to show my kids the "road kill" I saw.
It was not the winner of the day.

Michael was a disappointment as well.  His best joke was the good old "your shoes are untied" standby.
No one falls for that anymore around here.

Doc had nuthin'.

Jacob was the winner.
Jacob came home with brownies that he made in art class.

Any of you who have read my blog in the past know that I am not overly thrilled with the art teacher at the elementary school.  She's often cranky with the kids and grades the artwork a little harshly.  If you want the back story, you'd have to go here. 
It's kind of funny if you ask me.

When Jacob announced he made brownies in art class and brought them home to me, I was filled with dread.  I think I started to break into a cold sweat.  I am soooooooo not kidding.  The germaphobe within me was having an absolute panic attack.

He was going to make me eat food made with a thousand little dirty nose-picking fingers.

I saw the foil and was completely grossed out by how flattened they were.
But... the joke was on me.

I had carefully unwrapped a bunch of BROWN E's.
I have never been so relieved in my entire life.
I even forgot to be embarrassed about being April Fooled.

Here is my clever little trickster.

I was so amazed that I told him his (typically cranky) art teacher was very clever and must have been in a good mood.

That's when I found out they had a sub that day.

Aha!

Did any of you get fooled this April 1st?

~ Mrs. Priss
Fooled by a 2nd grader like...

Holiday Humor

As a woman facing her 4th surgical procedure of the year next week, and it's not even for my knee that looks like a cantaloupe; I've needed to find humor lately.

I'd also like to thank the power of the Internets for online shopping and free shipping. Twenty seven boxes delivered is bliss, I tell you. Now I need a maid, organizer and chef on board. That's not too much to ask is it? That's what I thought. So my current fave is the Instagram parody you can see here. Oh-My-Funny. I am so glad that there are people who apparently have nothing better to do than to sit around and make videos so I can laugh. See also: these people. The parent rappers.
I also like to photoshop and face in hole...and of course Jib Jab.  Click right there and see us rock around the Christmas tree.

Faux Santa pics? No screaming kids!

My recent fashion shoot in Siberia.

MaryAnne and I, we were Rockettes. Did you know that?

Do you have any Holiday humor to share? Please do!! Meanwhile, I am on the lookout for a dragon to slay.

Mrs. Sinclair
on the hunt for giggles and dragons

Still Watching My Weight

Mrs. Albright here again. It's that time once more that I share with you my journey with getting healthier. Let me just say, it's a day-by-day process. I had a couple of days over the weekend that I just threw caution to the wind, so to speak, and ate and drank what I wanted. Did you know 3 margaritas is about 30 points? That's one point more than I get for my daily points. Ouch! Thank goodness for those extra weekly points AND activity points. 

I'll admit, it's pretty easy to become obsessed with the points on the Weight Watchers Points Plus. I tend to have a bit of an obsessive personality anyway. I'm sure I'm driving a few (or more) folks a little crazy on my Facebook page, and maybe even in person, with all my counting of points. However, I have heard from a few people that my posts have been encouraging to them to become healthier. I love that! I like posting about it because, to me, it helps me stay accountable when I put myself so out there. I mean, wouldn't it be embarassing to run into people, in person, and not look a little better? 
Last week I did really, really well at my Weight Watchers' weigh-in. I lost 4.4 pounds for a total of 16.2 pounds lost. Whoop! It made up for my gain the week before. I am seriously fighting my blood pressure medication. That is the only explanation for the gain the week before as I stayed under my points and had a lot of activity points. My Facebook friends told me to try eating more. What you say?! Yes, they told me I wasn't eating enough calories. I thought, what the heck! I ate more and I lost more. Whoop (again)! I'm all about eating a little more. I'm very close to hitting my 20% mark. I just need to lose 4 more pounds. I'm crossing my fingers that when I weigh in tomorrow I will have lost at least 1-2 pounds. I weighed at home tonight and I'm not sure it's going to happen. I'm hoping I sleep off a pound or three tonight. =) 

I want to share with you a very easy and healthy recipe. I've made it twice in one week. LOVE IT! I grew up eating cucumbers and onions in vinegar. My grandmother had it on the table and many of meals. She had a huge garden and we always had fresh veggies. I miss her and her garden. Anyway, I hadn't ever made this myself until this week. I saw a recipe on Pinterest and decided to give it a try. The first time it was good, but the second time it was even better. The recipe I used first called for a 1/2 cup of rice wine vinegar and a 1/2 cup of sugar. It also called for fresh parsley. Although none of it went to waste, I was pretty sure I would like it better without the parsley and with less sugar. 

2 large cucumbers - cubed

1 pint grape tomatoes - sliced in half

1/4 of a red onion - sliced

1/4 -1/2 cup rice vinegar ( I ran out of rice vinegar at 1/4 c. so I used apple cider vinegar to finish.) 

2-3 packets of Truvia

Combine all the ingredients and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Oh, my! It's so delicious! 

I mentioned in my previous posts that I have been doing an Ease into 5K. I'm still doing it, but I'm behind by a week and a half. I think I'm having a mental block as I know this next run is supposed to be 20 minutes without walking. HELLO! I'm skeered! But since I've missed over a week, I am going to re-run week 6 days 1 and 2 before I throw myself into the 20 minute run. Because I'm a wimp when it comes to 100+ degrees, I have been running on a treadmill. I sort of like running on the treadmill - in the air-conditioning. 

Even though I haven't ran in a week in a half, I have still been exercising. I've done lots of interval type workouts and some Pilates. I even did a class where I nicknamed the instructor, El Diablo. Oh. My. Gosh. My abs and gluts have hurt for three days. 

Do you hate crunches as much as I do? If so, here's a great exercise you can do with a stability ball that will really target those abs and help strengthen your lower back. If you really want to take it up a notch, while in this position, roll that ball out in front of you and then roll it back. Wowsers! How do I know it works? I just did this in Pilates and my abs are telling me it works! 

Have a new healthy recipe or weight-loss tip you'd like to share? What about a favorite website you use for recipes or motivation? If I burned calories "pinning" healthy recipes and exercise motivation, I would have lost enough weight by now to be a Weight Watchers' Lifetime Member by now. Feel free to follow my Pinterest boards - Dawn's Diversions.  


~Mrs. AlbrightWhittling my waist a pound at a time, like a....