What I Have Been Doing Instead of My Blog and Calling all Cooks' Yummy Carrot Salad

My goodness!!  I thought that when Food Police finally "launched", I would have so much more time in my day.  Ummmmm NO!!  Add three pets, a husband who starts a new business and works 7 days a week to my demanding job, you get less time in the day than ever.  I would sit down to write my blog and something would pull me away from the computer.  Let's start with Holland the Wonder Dog and his ACL surgery.  He was supposed to be on house arrest for three weeks.  We made it for a week and a half.  That week and a half was eventful to put it mildly.  He developed intestinal upset on more than one occasion from his antibiotic regimen .  Because this is a food blog, I am not going to go into details.  However, I will say that I have now classified this event as a "Horror of Horrors".  We literally begged the vet from our knees to let him go back outside where he honestly belongs.  He allowed Husband Fred to make an outside "Compound" for him that confined his movement. (not Husband Fred's movement but Holland the Wonder Dog's!!!)  Finally last week, he was able to come off bedrest and could roam freely in his kingdom that is the backyard.   Mercy!!  Now I remember why I am beginning to lean toward preferring the feline!!

The other waking hours have been spent at school or taking down Christmas decorations.  Oh yes!!  We are approaching April, and they are still not all down.  This has become extremely embarassing to the family name and the event may have to be classified as a "Horror of Horrors"!  I have two crepe myrtle trees that still have lights in them, and those are coming down today!!  I have reindeer and a Christmas mailbox on the carport.  Throw in one thousand extension cords that trip me everytime they can, and I have had enough.  I spent one day putting up my inside Snow Village town.  I hate those little people in March!!  They look so happy and smug with their Christmas presents, poinsettias, and their cars packed headed on a little vacation.  There is snow on the ground in their world.  They are having fun snow skiing and ice skating, and I am sweating from the most recent "internal summer" and the fact that we are having summer temperatures in March!  Finally, they are all tucked in their boxes with visions of sugar plums dancing in their little miniature people's heads. 

Finally, I must also add that I was in a period of mourning after Peyton Manning did not choose my Titans as his team.  I could barely get out of bed to go to work much less write my blog.  That is all I am going to say about that!!

Now on to the recipe.  I chose Calling all Cooks as my next cookbook!  This cookbook was written by the Alabama Chapter of the Telephone Pioneers of America.  I have no idea what a telephone pioneer is!!!  Anyway, they write a great cookbook.  I was told by a friend that every new bride needs this cookbook.   I see why!  The Eeny Meeny Game chose Yummy Carrot Salad for the first recipe.  I love Chic-Fil-A's Carrot Salad but Food Police never lets me order it because she said there is a lot of mayonnaise in it.  Food Police is NO fun!!  Blah!!

It is one of those cookbooks that you can tell was done on a typewriter!!

You will need carrots, crushed pineapple, mayo, raisins and sugar!!

Grate your carrots until they look like this.  Watch your fingers!!

Add the rest of the ingredients!

Mix it all together and put in the refrigerator.

I had Friend-in-Law and Food Police over for lunch.  I copied the concept of a "Quad Salad" from one of my favorite restaurants here in town called Cyn Shea's.  I made a Chicken Salad, the Carrot Salad, a Pasta Broccoli Slaw Salad, and a Mandarin Orange salad.  It was so good.  You could do a thousand different variations of this idea. 

The Carrot Salad was delicious and tasted I believe better than Chic-Fil-A's.  Plus I made it with low-fat mayo.  If I had had Splenda, I would have subbed that for the sugar, and it would have been even more healthy!!  It would work real well for Easter Lunch too.  Yum!!

Here is the recipe....

Yummy Carrot Salad

Calling All Cooks 

4-5 large carrots, scraped and washed

1 (8 oz) can crushed pineapple, drained

4 T sugar

1/2 C raisins

1/3 C mayonnaise - I used Low Fat

Use fine grater and grate carrots.  Put into bowl and add the sugar, pineapple, raisins and mayonnaise;  toss well.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.  Bananas and apples may be added as well.

Now go have a great day......

A Hodge Podge and Hungry Girl's Breakfast Goodies

I thought I would bring you up to speed on a few things going on in the Eeny Meeny Miny Mo Cook's world.  First, Holland the Wonder Dog had his ACL surgery Thursday, and he is now home.  When I say home, I mean recovering in the house for 3 weeks.  This is not a little dog, and this is not an inside dog.  This is a 50 pound furry dog with a big bandage on his leg.  Can I just tell you that this has messed up the felines' world.  They are beside themselves.  They look at Holland the Wonder Dog like he is some alien intruder, arch their back, hiss and run off and hide.  Actually everyone is in an uproar.  We had to turn the thermostat down in the house to 60 degrees because Holland the Wonder Dog is burning up inside.  We have to remember to take him outside to use the bathroom.  We had to fix up the laundry room as his dorm room.  We have to remember to put the cat food up because he eats it in one big gobble, and the felines get irritable when they cannot eat on demand.  Oh my goodness but it is okay.  We love Holland the Wonder Dog.  Excuse me while I take him outside.

I am back.  The second thing that I have been doing this weekend, besides being a Dog Nurse, is taking down the Christmas lights.  You heard right.  I am taking down the Christmas lights.  Do you know how embarassing it is to be doing this in March?  The last time we were late was the year we went to London after Christmas and contracted the most horrible flu known to man.  We were sick as dogs.  So it was February before we even thought about the lights.  When we finally got to it, Husband Fred was in the attic putting up the last few strands when I heard the most deafening crash in the world.  I looked up and saw his legs dangling down into the kitchen.  Somehow he had managed to step off the attic beam and through the kitchen ceiling.   He let out the most guttural scream I have ever heard, and I really thought that he was hurt badly.  I knew I could not climb up those rickety stairs into the attic to check on him because I am deathly afraid of that attic.  One time he was up there and threw a fake rat down at me and that was all it took.  I told him I was never going up in that horrid place.  I asked him if I needed to call 911.  He responded no and said very gingerly that he just needed to sit there for a moment because he was lightheaded and about to pass out from straddling the beam.  Oh my goodness!!  So from that experience, we made a promise that we would never wait that long to take down the lights again.  Hmmm...Fast forward to the present.  Every person that walked or drove or rode their bicycles by the house today looked at us with disdain and disgust and pity.  They tried to say cute things like "Oh you must be getting a headstart on the lights this year!"  I answer back  through gritted teeth "No fool we are just trying to get them down before Easter!"  I really don't say fool but I am thinking that.  Then to make matters worse, Husband Fred has the audacity to ask me if I can possibly remember what order I strung the lights.  He said "It sure would make my job of getting them off the trees and shrubs a lot easier and quicker if you could remember the order you put them up in!"  I answered back sarcastically through gritted teeth "No fool I don't remember the order.  I put up over 50,000 lights on 7 trees and 20 plus shrubs last October and November .  Let me stand here and think a minute and MAYBE I can recall this information!"  I stood there for one second and went (actually stomped) back in the house before I said something unkind.  Holland the Wonder Dog got mad too and followed me into the house.

Now on to the recipe.  I am still cooking out of  Lisa Lillien's Hungry Girl Cookbook.  The Game picked a breakfast recipe.  I love breakfast.  I believe it is my favorite meal.  I love to eat breakfast for dinner.  That makes me happy.  I decided I would do 2 breakfast recipes since I had to buy a carton of those "fake" eggs, and I didn't want to waste them.  So here we go.

For the first recipe which is called "Yumtastic Breakfast Burrito", you will need the low calorie flour tortillas, turkey bacon, fat free Singles and the liquid egg substitute.  Publix calls it "Eggstirs".

Cook the turkey bacon.  I hate to say it but this stuff looks so fake.  Who likes fake bacon???  Food Police and Hungry Girl.  I will be honest.  It is not too bad but it sure doesn't taste like that Applewood smoked slab bacon!!

Spritz your pan with cooking spray and scramble the egg substitute over medium heat.

Tear your cheese slice in half and lay it on your warmed tortilla.

Place the eggs on top of the cheese.

Put the fake -whoops- turkey bacon on top of the eggs.

Roll it up and cut in two.  I must say it was rather good and only 239 calories.

For the second recipe which is called "Eggamuffin 101", you will need English muffins, the liquid egg substitute, Canadian bacon and the cheese singles.

Place your cheese on the toasted English muffin.

Then add the Canadian bacon that you first microwave.

Add the cooked egg.  I love jalapenos so I added that too.  This tasted as good or better than a McDonald's Egg McMuffin, and it is only 184 calories.

Here are the recipes......

Eggamuffin 101

Hungry Girl

Lisa Lillien

1 light English muffin

1 slice Canadian Bacon

1 slice fat-free American cheese

1/2 c fat-free liquid egg substitute

Toast English muffin.  Cook egg substitute over medium-high heat in a pan sprayed with nonstick spray.  Place cheese on the bottom half of the muffine, followed by the egg, ham, and then the other muffin top.

Yumtastic Breakfast Burrito

Hungry Girl

Lisa Lillien

1 low-fat flour tortilla about 110 calories

2 slices turkey bacon

1/2 c fat-free liquid egg substitute

1 slice American fat-free cheese

Cook bacon according to directions.  Pour egg substitute into a pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray and scramble over medium heat.  Heat tortilla in the microwave until warm.  Place cheese in the center of the tortilla.  Top with eggs and bacon.  Roll the tortilla up and then heat in the microwave for an addition 15 to 20 seconds.

Now go have a great day................