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Extra Cheesey Chaffle

This post may contain affiliate links, see my affiliate disclaimer for more info.

I decided to tweak the traditional chaffle recipe by adding in some cheddar cheese powder.

What you'll need:

Mini waffle maker. I have the Nostalgia Mini Waffle Maker (affiliate) but the keto folks are fans of the Dash Mini Waffle Maker (affiliate).

1 egg

1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Cheddar cheese powder. I use Hoosier Hill Farm Gourmet Cheddar Cheese Powder (affiliate).

What you'll do:

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and spoon half the mixture onto the waffle iron. This recipe makes 2 chaffles. After spooning the mixture on, close it for about 5 minutes and DO NOT open the lid, no matter how much you want to peek! It'll be done when steam is done coming out the sides of the waffle maker. Leave it longer to have a browner, crispier chaffle.

I used my chaffles like sandwich bread and added 2 oz of deli chicken breast. The whole thing was 265 calories.

1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese - 110 calories

1 large Eggland's Best egg - 60 calories

1 tablespoon cheddar cheese powder - 35 calories

2 ounces deli chicken breast - 60 calories

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Milk Frother

This post may contain affiliate links, see my affiliate disclaimer for more info.

Anyone that knows me knows that I’m obsessed with kitchen gadgets, and if it has to do with making or drinking coffee - even better!

Right now I’m obsessed with the Instant Milk Frother. (Affiliate link). I got it for Christmas and it made the most perfect foamy latte that I enjoyed by the tree for a few quiet moments before a day of busyness ensued!

It’s super easy to use and is brought to you by the Instant brand, the same brand that made your other favorite kitchen gadget, the Instant Pot! (Affiliate link).

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Bacon Cheeseburger Casserole

Recipe:

I used 2 small casserole dishes because I don’t know where my big one is. I watched a few versions on Tik Tok and sort of just made it up as I went along. I cooked my ground beef with onions and Worcestershire sauce (maybe 2 tablespoons), and whatever seasonings you want, onion powder, garlic powder, salt & pepper (do it all with your heart and to your taste). Drain your meat. Place in a casserole dish and I sort of patted it down. The receipt called for 1 cup of heavy whipping cream (because it’s keto) and anywhere from 3-5 eggs depending on the recipe. I skipped the heavy cream and made a cheese sauce with melted Velveeta and milk (maybe that’s not any healthier than heavy cream) and I did 3 eggs. Added some garlic powder, black pepper, didn’t add more salt because Velveeta is salty, then whisked all together. Then I poured the mixture over the ground beef evenly, give it a tip-tip and shake-shake so it settles in all the nooks and crannies. Then you drizzle some ketchup (keto calls for no sugar added ketchup, but who actually has that so I used regular), kind of zig zag it across, do the same with mustard and mayo. I also chopped up some dill pickle spears and sprinkled them on top. You could use sliced pickles or even sweet pickles or leave them out all together. Then I covered with cheddar and bacon bits. Baked in a preheated 375 oven for 20 mins or so. Depends on how brown you want the cheese.

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Monday’s Lunch

This post may contain affiliate links, see my affiliate disclaimer for more info.

Lunch and snack bento for work from a few days ago with my Bentgo container.

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Top 5 College Dorm Essentials

This post contains affiliate links, and I get comissions from purchases made through these links. See my affiliate disclaimer for more info.

Heading off to your first year of college? Or first time at an off-campus apartment?  Here’s some essentials any student heading back to campus needs.

This lamp is a must have for your desk or nightstand. It features a built in clock with day/date, as well as a wireless charger.

Need a convenient place to hold your phone while your charge it? This device has regular plugs as well as USB ports!

Dorm rooms can get stuffy. When you need a little air circulation this fan will give you the breeze you need and comes with color changing LED lights and a remote control.

If you've had a late night and an early class you'll need a hot cup of coffee to get you going for the day. Keurig makes this small brewer that's the perfect size for a dorm room.

Everyone knows that bed risers give you inches more of precious space under your bed. These risers have built in outlets and USB ports!

All images belong to their respective Amazon sellers.

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Mason jar taco salad for my lunch tomorrow!

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This was a quick random little snack. I took some mini sweet peppers and stuffed them with string cheese and salami and microwaved until the cheese was all melty. The flavor of the sweet peppers with the salty of the cheese and salami was a nice contrast!

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Perfect Eggs... in Mason Jar Rings

Edit 8/20/2022 - This post has been updated with affiliate links. This means I may get a small commission per click or per sale at no additional charge to you.

Some of you that follow me (all three of you) will remember my post from about two weeks ago called Quick Breakfasts To Go. To recap; I used muffin tins to cook eggs in a big batch and a cookie sheet to cook a bunch of English muffins to make egg sandwiches.  Well, I got sick of scraping out that muffin tin, what a pain, so I knew there had to be an easier way, so I headed on over to Pinterest again.  I saw an idea for cooking perfectly round eggs using the ring from a mason jar lid. Seemed brilliant!  After I did one test egg I did the other four at once.

Step 1.) Using cooking spray, olive oil, butter... whatever your preferred grease to coat the inside of the Mason Jar (affiliate link) rings and then place them in your pan or on your flat top grill.

Step 2.) Pour your egg mixture evenly in each ring. Either my lid or my pan was warped and the ring in the upper left didn't sit flat and my egg leaked out.  If you've come looking for perfect bloggity-ness... you'll not find it here.  But you will find real trial and error. :)

Step 3.) After your eggs cook about halfway use tongs to pull the rings off, they should mostly keep their shape.  Then flip them over to cook the other side.

If you're lucky you'll end up with a nice perfectly round egg.

Fits nice on an English Muffin.

Not too shabby!

I can't wait to eat these for breakfast this week.  They're not too fancy, just egg, a half of a piece of cheese, and a piece of ham. Filling and not terrible on calories.

English Muffin: 120 calories

Egg: 72 calories

Half of a piece of cheese: 40 calories

One piece of ham: 30 calories

 Total: 262 calories

On that note, I'm headed to the medicine cabinet to get some pain reliever. I got a treadmill today from a friend and was so excited to use it. I setup my iPad and watched some TV shows and did a leisurely walk for about an hour and a half and MAN are my out-of-shape hips SORE! Getting up tomorrow should be interesting.

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Meal Plan

Edit 8/20/2022 - This post has been updated with affiliate links. This means I may get a small commission per click or per sale at no additional charge to you.

I got my work meals done earlier today after my grocery trip. I feel so accomplished! I made my quick breakfasts to go and salads in a jar using Mason Jars (affiliate link).

Since I didn't have any chicken this time I ended up cutting up some hard boiled egg in my salad as protein. I may need to pack a few little snacks to go with lunch as well as as little something to eat at the end of the day so I'm not ravenous when I get home... because that's usually when I head straight for the potato chips!

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Salad To Go... In A Jar

Edit 1/16/2018 - This post has been updated with affiliate links. This means I may get a small commission per click or per sale at no additional charge to you.

Wahoo, look at me being all crafty and Pinterest-y again this week!To

day's craft - err recipe is easy.  Salad In A Jar...is well, salad that's in a jar. Here I’ve used Mason Jars (affiliate link).  Basically you put your wetter ingredients like dressing on the bottom, ending with your lettuce on the top.  Pack it in tightly, you want to prevent too much movement so your lettuce doesn't touch the salad dressing and become wilty.  Pinterest says you can make these ahead and they should last in the fridge for 3-5 days.  Here I made two, one for tomorrow and one for Friday.

Don't look too close, I was a bit over zealous and excited and didn't realize I didn't put salad dressing in until I was layering the tomatoes... oops! So in theory the dressing would go in first. I have shredded Mexican chicken I made in my pressure cooker on Sunday, then cucumbers, cut up cherry tomatoes, shredded cheese, spinach, and lettuce mix from a bag.  These aren't as perfect looking as I've seen on Pinterest, but I'm sure they'll taste great!

In case you missed the last two posts, I did a PeroxiClear Review and Breakfast To Go.

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Quick Breakfast To Go

Here's a really easy idea for quick breakfast sandwiches.  Make them in batches and freeze.  Grab them in the morning on your way out the door and nuke in the microwave until thawed.

I found this idea while I was perusing Pinterest for some quick, healthy breakfast recipes.  Last week I had, what Oprah calls an "ah-ha moment".  My work pants were getting a little snug and I had a few days of feeling really uncomfortable in the shirts I had on.  I had to keep adjusting so they wouldn't cling to my stomach flab. C'mon, some of you know what I'm talking about!  So I was laying in bed yesterday morning and decided to get back on track with the healthy habits I had going last year... ya know, the good habits that seemed to disappear after I was in my friend's wedding at the end of August...

So anyway, to get to the point, here we go!

Things you'll need:

- An oven & timer (obviously)

- A cookie sheet

- Muffin tins

- Cooking spray

- English Muffins

- Eggs

- Vegetables, breakfast meats, cheese, and whatever else you'll want in your eggs

Step 1.) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Step 2.) While the oven is preheating cut your English muffins in half and place them on a cookie sheet.

Step 3.) Grab a muffin tin and spray it with cooking spray. Or if you're like me and don't have cooking spray, rub each well with olive oil using a paper towel.

Step 4.) Now this is the fun part, you get to add whatever you want to each muffin well.  Here I added some spinach, tomatoes, and deli ham. I only filled four wells since today is Monday evening and I only need four more for the rest of the week. I guess a fancy blog would have filled all six for the sake of the picture. :)

Step 5.) Crack an egg in each muffin well. I broke the yolk with the tip of a knife and gently stirred it around to make sure the egg 'settled' throughout all the nooks and crannies in each well.

Step 6.) Place the English Muffins and eggs 'muffins' into the oven at 350 for 30 minutes.  I'm wondering if I upped the oven temp if it would take less time?  How does that work?  I don't know... I'm just winging it here. So while you have a nice 30 minutes to wait you can throw some laundry in, go on Facebook, or maybe start a blog post?

Step 7.) Here's everything right out of the oven.  Check your eggs to make sure they're done in the middle, if not throw them back into the oven in 5 minute increments.

Step 8.) While I was waiting a minute or two for the egg cups to cool I put the cheese on my English Muffins.  I ripped the cheese diagonally and ended up only using a half of a piece of cheese on each muffin which is more than enough to cover it, so at least I cut the cheese calories in half and feel good about that.  And had I not dilly-dallied around taking the pictures the English Muffins would have still been hot enough to melt the cheese.  That's ok, the cheese will melt when I microwave them.

Step 9.) I circled around each egg cup with my knife and carefully pulled them out and put them on the English Muffins.  To make the egg fill out the English Muffin better I cut an X in each egg cup, but not quite all the way through, so it sort of 'bloomed' open.

Here's a close up of the finished product put together.

Step 10.) Wrap each sandwich up in the packaging of your choice.  If you use foil remember it can't go in the microwave! Haha, yes, some people don't know that.

Each one of these is filling and pretty healthy for under 300 calories.

1 English Muffin: 120 calories

1 egg: 72 calories

1 piece of deli ham: 30 calories

1/2 piece of cheese: 40 calories

1/8 cup spinach: 1 calorie

1 cherry tomato: 3 calories

Total: 266 Calories

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Contact lenses? You need this lens solution!

Do you have contacts?  Then you need to get Bausch & Lomb's PeroxiClear!  It was recommended to me by my sister in law a few months ago.  She had a spare coupon that she wouldn't need to use before it expired so I figured I'd give it a try.  Seriously this stuff is amazing, it makes my 2-week soft lenses feel brand new for just about a month.  Usually my brand new contacts feel great for two days, then they feel good for another few days, then by the time I'm halfway through the second week they start feeling dry, and blurry, and I have to keep doing that 'hard blink' thing (contact wearers you all know what I mean) and I usually end up with a headache after a few hours.  Since we're all trying to save a buck it's great knowing I was able to wear a single pair of contacts almost a full month while knowing they were still being properly disinfected.

The first thing you should know is that this is a peroxide solution - hence the name PeroxiClear - and that means you shouldn't put it directly in your eyes because it will burn! That being said, you also can't use it in a regular contact lens case.  The tip of the solution bottle is bright red along with a warning on the label itself so you shouldn't have an issue with accidentally using it incorrectly.

Like I mentioned you can't use it in a regular contact lens case, so they provide you with the special case.  The main part has a screw top, two flip out baskets where you place your lenses, and a platinum "disk" (the gear-looking thing) that neutralizes the peroxide, converting it to regular saline solution.  After four hours (at least four hours for full neutralization, I just do it overnight) you can put them directly from the container into your eyes with no rinsing.  Here is the top upside down with the baskets flipped open.

Put your lenses on the rounded parts of the basket and flip closed.  I usually wet each side before I put my contacts on there.

Fill the bottom part of the case with PeroxiClear solution up to the line that's marked and screw the basket part on.  Immediately you'll start to see bubbles forming as the solution is neutralized.  On the top there is vent holes for the gas to escape. Sometimes if I overfill it a little it will bubble out the top, so bear that in mind that it's a possibility when storing. (Been there, done that!)  Since the top is not sealed you'll have to be careful where you store it, away from kids and pets, and you can't travel with the case full.  Use a regular case with regular solution (or I guess travel with your contacts in your eyes) and just bring the PeroxiClear stuff separately.

A random piece of info; after more than four hours, overnight, you may see bubbles in the case in the morning, but don't worry it's done being neutralized and won't burn your eyes.  I was skeptical at first but it's really fine.

Bottom line, I love this stuff and totally recommend it!

*I was not compensated for doing this review. All opinions are my own. I basically had nothing better to do on a Monday night at 11pm. :) *

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Lunch 11-14-14

This was today's lunch.  Chili cheese fries with sour cream.

In case you missed it, here's the last two posts:

Bento #28 | Sunday Morning

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Sunday Morning

Just enjoying a nice Sunday morning with some coffee out of my husband's mug from The Goldenrod in York Beach, Maine.

It makes me miss the carefree days of our vacation there this passed August with The Hubs' family.

The Nubble Lighthouse.  It was so sunny and beautiful the day we went!

While we were there I got some cool pictures of the waves crashing on the rocks.  I set my camera shutter speed to the fastest it could go to get that "freeze-frame" look with no motion blur.  This is just one of many cool pics.

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Bento #28

Today's Lock & Lock lunch was pretty colorful.

First container: Cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, strawberry slices, and baby carrots.  The next container was the same as yesterday's lunch.  A half of a pita with deli turkey, cheese, and lettuce.

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Bento #27

Edit 8/20/2022 - This post has been updated with affiliate links. This means I may get a small commission per click or per sale at no additional charge to you.  

Finally another bento. I didn't feel like taking a picture last night when I made so I took a quick pic before I ate it at work.

I used my Bentgo (affiliate link) container to pack my lunch and snacks for today.

Soooo what do we have here?

Top tier:

Baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, and cucumber slices.

Bottom Tier:

Half of a pita with deli turkey and lettuce and a string cheese.

The small container has a little bit of cottage cheese. And I had an apple that's not pictured.

In case you missed the last few bentos, you can check them out: Bento #25 and Bento #26.

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Random Rumblings - Sept. 18, 2014

Here's a few confessions and random things that have popped up in my head over the last day or two.

1.) I just turned 30 and I'm not sure how I feel about it yet.

2.) My neighbor's dog is barking/howling right now. They let him do this at all hours of the day and night for anywhere from 10-30 minutes at a rip.  They let him out in their back yard, he does his business, then goes to the back door and doesn't shut up.  It annoys me two doors down, how can it not annoy them??

3.) I've been needing a haircut for foreverrrrr.  I'm so frumpy and boring.

4.) I'm watching the E! True Hollywood Story of Joan and Melissa Rivers and I can't believe Joan is gone!  She was so funny! :(

5.) I'm in denial that summer is over.  Even though it's September and the nights and mornings are chilly, and the sun sets earlier. From inside I see the sunshine during the day and pretend it's still hot out.

6.) That being said, I refuse to have Pumpkin Spice anything until October. Although I did try Saranac's Pumpkin Ale and it was quite delicious!

(I took that in front of my pool to further my denial that summer is over.  Pool open = summer.)

7.) Did you know the word LASER is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation?

8.) I took that Saranac picture on Sunday, and Tuesday we closed the pool.  :(

9.) I watch Nickoledeon's Nick at Nite. Don't judge, who doesn't like Friends and Full House re-runs?

10.) The light bulb in my bedside table has been out for months and I just haven't bothered to replace it.