2015 Reading Challenge - Black Like Me

For the 2015 Reading Challenge, the category "A book your mom liked" -  Well, when we asked mom what her favorite book was.... her response was that she didn't really read much, and the only book she could recall ever reading was "Black Like Me".  So, this will have to do for this category.

My thoughts. The book is a slow read....hard to get through at times...dry and slow.  But - I think the overall story behind it was interesting. Here's the summary on it from Wikipedia:

Black Like Me is a nonfiction book by journalist John Howard Griffin first published in 1961. Griffin was a white native of Dallas, Texas and the book describes his six-week experience travelling on Greyhound buses (occasionally hitchhiking) throughout the racially segregated states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia passing as a black man. Sepia Magazine financed the project in exchange for the right to print the account first as a series of articles.
Griffin kept a journal of his experiences; the 188-page diary was the genesis of the book.
At the time of the book's writing in 1959, race relations in America were particularly strained and Griffin aimed to explain the difficulties that black people faced in certain areas. Under the care of a doctor, Griffin artificially darkened his skin to pass as a black man.


One thing I found interesting...and would have enjoyed seeing worked into the book somehow, was towards the end of the book the author mentions having photos taken at some of the places he went. I would be neat to see those photos....but they weren't included in this book.

I think this book would be an interesting and informative read for anyone studying race relations and such. I certainly wonder how the experiment would be different in today's world.

New Recipe - Steak Roll Ups

Em and I tried steak pinwheels (steak, cheese, spinach rolled together) a while back ... that Kroger had available in their deli. They were really good....but... really expensive. Almost $11...for 2. WOW. 

So I've been rolling it around in my head, trying to figure out how to do these at home - cheaper, but just as yummy. I came across some thin sliced steaks the other day.... and thought they'd be the perfect size to try this. The cost of 6 thin sliced steaks...$3.

The next step was to figure out what kind of cheese was in the pinwheels. Last night when I was grocery shopping, I stopped by the meat case and there they were ... the $11 pinwheels. It would appear the cheese used is Parmesan. Interesting. From there I went to the cheese department -- to try and figure out if it was possible - financially sound - to purchase a chunk of Parmesan. It was.. less than $2. 

The spinach --- I had purchased a box of mixed salad greens for salads and such ---- so I picked out the spinach leaves.

So --- for less than $6 I had all the ingredients to attempt this. Quite a bit cheaper!

 

Sliced the cheese. The actual cheese I used was Parmentino - a blend of parmesan and sharp cheddar. It's a good cheese -- strong, but good.

 

Layered the cheese slice on top of the meat, then a layer of spinach leaves. Rolled them up tight and pinned them shut with a toothpick. (Soaked the toothpicks in water beforehand) They aren't "pinwheels" ... so we named them "roll ups".

 

Covered them in foil and baked them for 15-20 minutes at 350degrees. Uncovered and turned the heat up for about 5 more minutes. Done!

 

 

 

Served with Parmesan couscous and a side salad of mixed greens. I think this is a pretty healthy meal --- and it turned out GREAT!!!

 

My take: Yum! I'm comfortable to experiment with this idea again.

Ems take: "Really good -- better than I thought it was going to be. Maybe even better than the other ones from Kroger."

 





New Recipe - Chicken Fajita

Chicken Fajitas

We've tried several different "recipes" for fajitas.... and haven't been pleased with any of them yet. Until now. This was a freezer meal .... and I was "snowed in" today... so I decided to crock pot it this afternoon/evening for dinner. Em isn't here to enjoy it with me --- but, that's her loss, I suppose.

The flavor was spot on with this recipe --- not to spicy, not too ....chemical tasting... We've experienced that before with the packet fajita seasonings. The chicken cooked up tender - as it does so perfectly in the crock pot.  The only complaint I had --- the onions and bell peppers were a little... chewy, maybe? Their skin didn't "break down" so well .... so there was some chewing going on. Next time I'll see about cutting them differently. I chopped them in bigger pieces and strips because I figured they'd do better for fajitas. BUT --- I'll go smaller next time. I don't want to leave them out -- because, again, the flavor is good.

I wrapped these in wheat tortillas....sprinkled some shredded cheddar cheese and a dollop of sour cream. They were yum! And there's enough for lunch tomorrow.  We will be enjoying this one again!

New Recipes - Chicken Teriyaki and Honey Garlic Chicken

So this past week we tried two of our freezer meals --- Chicken Teriyaki and Honey Garlic Chicken.

The Chicken Teriyaki was really good. I dropped it in the crock pot on my lunch break and it was ready for dinner when I got home. We had this with plain white rice. It was my plan to pick up some broccoli - but forgot once I got home and settled. So - next time I'll make sure broccoli is on the list - it would've made a nice compliment to this meal.

 

It's nothing pretty to look at -- but it was good. The chicken was nice and tender, the sauce was great --- although we agreed, it could be thicker and saucier.   We both enjoyed this meal -- and will be fixing it again... next time adding more chicken to the bag (there was an excess of sauce).

 

Next was Honey Garlic Chicken. Same thing... I tossed this in the crock pot on lunch one day...and dinner was pretty much ready when I got home from work. The plan was to serve this meal with rice as well ----- but --- an odd thing....we were out of rice. Neither of us have any clue as to how this happened..... I don't recall using the last of the rice. And, we have a "rule" that whenever we're low or run out of something - we jot it down on a list....and.... well.... rice wasn't on the list.  It disappeared somehow.  But... I digress.... No rice... so we had to improvise a little. We had a little bit of mashed potato flakes remaining in the box...(no worries, they're on the list)... so I stirred them up and fixed up a quick box of mac n cheese. I know - carb overload - but, I was thrown off a bit with the disappearing rice....and...well... to be honest, I wasn't sure how this honey garlic chicken would turn out. But, I've got mac n cheese leftovers for lunch, so all is good.

This one turned out looking much prettier. And... it was good, too! Again, the sauce was really runny... Em and I agreed it needed to be thicker and saucier. There was a garlic-y twang too it --- almost a little too salty. We will have this one again....but I'm gonna check the recipe and if it calls for a pinch of salt or something along those lines, I'll adjust. Again the sauce was plentiful - so we'll add more chicken next time.

 



 

I think this makes us down to only 2 more freezer meals remaining..... bbq chicken and fajita chicken. I'll be browsing pinterest soon to see what we'll put together for the next go around. This has been an easy way to cook .... throwing the bags in the crockpot mid day and having dinner ready after work. Perfect for my busy schedule right now!



2 New Recipes.... Cilantro Lime Chicken and Alfredo Chicken

This past week we tried two different freezer meals.... Cilantro Lime Chicken and Alfredo Chicken.

The Cilantro Lime Chicken was pretty good. We shredded the chicken a bit and wrapped it up, along with the beans and corn mixture, a little shredded cheese and some sour cream, in a tortilla and had....wraps/burritos/tacos of sort. There was a little leftover so I nibbled on it for lunch the following day. I think we'll be doing this one again. Em enjoyed and so did I. I didn't get photos to share....but will make sure I do next time.


The Alfredo Chicken was pretty good as well. I boiled some penne pasta noodles and mixed them with the crock-pot mixture once I got home from work. I added a big spoonful of sour cream, to help add to the creamy-ness --- the mixture looked to be more runny than creamy Alfredo. Topped it with Parmesan cheese and called it dinner. Emily liked and so did I. We'll probably do this freezer meal again, but probably use a different brand of Alfredo sauce....and I'll probably add a touch of salt to it.

 

This recipe made plenty! There were plenty of leftovers.... so we may scale down the recipe next time around.

2015 Reading Challenge - Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang

Chelsea, Chelsea, Bang Bang....... by Chelsea Handler.

Eh.... I was a bit disappointed in this book. I love watching Chelsea on Chelsea Lately --- but this book fell flat to me.

I couldn't decide which category to put this under .... initially. I just knew I liked her ... this book was on my list to read...and it became available through BookMooch -- so I grabbed it.  It was a quick read.... it's basically a handful of short essay/stories compiled together and called a book. Again, I wasn't impressed.

So --- after reading it, I decided to use it for the category "A Book with Bad Reviews" ---- although I couldn't really find much of a bad review online.....4 stars on most websites.... but, I'm giving it a bad review! So.... I'm counting it. I did find the review below... and I think it pretty much sums up my thoughts on it as well.

"All in all, I wouldn’t go as far as recommending that you do not read this book, but if you are looking for purposeful and solid literature, this is probably the wrong place for it. If, on the other hand, you want something you can read to pass the time while your brain is completely shut off, then it will probably do. If you do decide to read it, I suggest doing it in short spurs when the mood is right; otherwise it may feel like a bit too much at once."

January Twenty Fifteen Recap

So... I'm one month into Twenty Fifteen. What has been accomplished thus far? What's been going on? Let's see....

I started the year with big plans to try new recipes. I'd say things are going good with this. I prepared 7 freezer meals - all new recipes. So far we've tried two. We had orange chicken the other night and it wasn't very good. Tonight we tried Cilantro Lime Chicken. It was pretty good. I was a little unsure on how to eat this --- the recipe ended up making quite a bit of the corn, black bean, onion mix --- so, we weren't sure if we were supposed to eat this over rice or wrapped in a tortilla or what. What'd we do? We shredded it a bit and wrapped it up in a tortilla...with rice. It was good. We'll have it again. And, for the most part, I think it's a meal that's good for you. All fresh ingredients....veggies, and chicken.... Other than the freezer meals, we've tried a few other recipes -- kale chips, which are DE-LISH right out of the oven.... but the following day, they've lost their crisp and are a bit soggy. So -- that's a recipe we'll have again.... but with plans to have no leftovers - because they don't keep well.  We also tried ranch pork chops and a few other chicken dishes. Those were all successes. We did have another FAIL - cheeseburger soup. It just wasn't as good as it appeared to be. So... trying new recipes is going well. I got my Pinterest board organized and that helped TREMENDOUSLY!! Em seems somewhat excited - and interested - that we're trying new recipes. I'm glad she's enjoying this new adventure.

My other big plan was to participate in a Reading Challenge that I came across. It's a total of 52 books - to read throughout the year. I chatted with my sis and with a friend of ours, Jen.... and we decided on New Years Eve to do this!! Jen created a facebook page for the challenge. .... and we've actually got a few other folks joining us on this challenge. How am I doing on it so far? I've completed 6 books. And I'm currently in the middle of 4 other ones. I'm impressed that I've been able to stick with this one. I enjoy reading but hardly ever have time, it seems. But - sticking to this challenge, I've had to get creative (audio books) and pay attention to my "free" time and utilize it the best I can.... reading when I'm waiting for class to start, etc... and I've made it a point to go to bed at a decent time so I'll have a few minutes to read before I drift off to sleep. I've found though, that audiobooks at bedtime doesn't work well. I fall asleep and the audiobook continues --- so I have to find my place again the next day.

I chose a "word" for the year --- REDUCE. How's that going? Well.... the ONE thing I wanted to really focus on reducing ...was my commute to work. Of course, when I chose my word -- I didn't make a huge deal about that focus .... because I didn't want folks I work with to know I was looking for something in Conway. BUT --- a great thing happened. A position became available in the Conway office -- and so I jumped on it. I started in the Conway office this week. I'm now driving 3 miles to work....instead of 30. REDUCE, I did!!  This will in turn reduce my spending ... on gas...and on food. I'm close enough now to come home for lunch - which will eliminate the many days I ate out for lunch...which is expensive.   What else have I reduced? I've reduced my soda intake....drinking water during the day at work and I figured out how to make tea, so Em and I have tea in the evenings with dinner. I've reduced my weight ... somehow....  maybe by watching what I eat?? I've reduced my food intake ... not going back for seconds as I used to, not fixing a big plate of food, etc.  I've also reduced my "idle" time. I disconnected my cable tv... which also reduced my spending by $45 a month... but, I'm limited to 4-5 channels, so I don't spend my idle time watching hours of Food Network anymore. If nothing is on tv.... news, BigBang, SharkTank.... then Pandora music is on and I'm busy doing something else or all is quiet and I'm reading (textbooks and books for the reading challenge).

Oh...and one more "thing" I started for this year... was the 52 weeks savings plan. I've been able to stick with this so far. The only problem I have .... is that I don't carry cash on me. So, "saving" the money each week... tucking it away in my piggy bank... has been a bit of a chore, to go to the bank and get the cash... but... they don't call it a challenge for nothing, right?

Spring semester started....we're 3 weeks in. This semester I'm taking online Gender Studies, hybrid (part online and part lab in class) Biology, and also one evening a week of Criminal Justice. So far things are shaping up well. The Gender Studies class is super simple.... reading articles and participating in online discussions. The Criminal Justice class...is....well... so far... a JOKE. I'm not impressed. That's another story for another post. But, let's just say ...it's not stressful or taxing. And then we come to Biology... Ehhh Gads!  I'm covered up with this class. The textbook reading is over my head, the online work (quizzes, powerpoints, lecture notes) are over my head....but I'm muddling through it. The labs in class on Saturday mornings aren't too bad. I'm not overly impressed with my teacher. But... we're only 3 weeks in --- maybe things will smooth out soon!

So... I'm feeling like this year is off to a good start. I'm organized... I'm paying attention to my spending...and my eating... and ready for a good productive year. I came across a quote the other day.... and it sums up my thoughts for this year. Happy Twenty Fifteen!!