I have mentioned a time or two before that I was really close with my Grandma Jerry. She was such an amazing woman and my time with her was cut far too short. I can literally picture every room of her house in my head to this day. What color her couches were, the way she had her dining room laid out, her vanity in her master bedroom, the canning cabinets in her cellar downstairs, and the bread drawer in the kitchen where she kept all of my favorite candy and chips for me when I came to visit. When she passed away, my mom had put aside several items of hers for me to have when I had my own place.

I had collected and brought with me all of those items when I got my first apartment on my own in Atlanta without roommates. I cherished every time I got out one of her mixing bowls to use, and any candy I bought had to be displayed in the two beautiful white candy bowls that she always had displayed in her house. All of these items sit in my kitchen cabinets today.

When we moved into our house last year, my mom came to visit me one day. She handed me a bag and said, “I want you to have this. It was your grandma’s.” I opened the bag and there sat a wooden bowl. I smiled as I pulled it out of the bag and walked right into my kitchen because I knew it already had a home. It was to sit on top of my refrigerator to hold all of my coupons and other random things in the kitchen…..just as it had in Grandma Jerry’s house.

We went on with our planned shopping trip and I didn’t think much about it again until I got home. I grabbed a few of the random things I had in a drawer, and grabbed the bowl down to place them in. I looked in the bowl, and there was a white recipe card. I immediately recognized it. My grandma made amazing Spanish rice. I cant tell you what is so special about it, but EVERYONE who tries it just loves it. When I was little she used to call me her tester or rice expert. She would always make me a sample plate and ask me how much more salt and pepper to add. I remember standing in the kitchen one day as my grandma wrote the recipe down for my mom to make at home for me.

I looked at the recipe card, and at the bottom of the card in her handwriting  it said “Deenie can tell you if it needs anything. She’s the rice expert.”

Deenie is what she always called me. She is the only person I ever let call me anything other than Nadine. I remember holding back the tears as I placed the recipe card back in the bottom of the bowl, then placed my other odds and ends on top of it. It still resides in that bowl today.

Today I will share with you the recipe.

Grandma Jerry’s Spanish Rice

What you need:

1 tbsp oil

1 tbsp or a little more of fresh diced onion

1 large can of tomatoes (28 ounce can)

1 cup of regular rice (not minute rice) My grandma cooked this with white rice, but it tastes just as good with brown rice…that is what my mom uses

1 can of chicken broth plus extra

salt

pepper

What you do:

Heat the oil in the skillet, then saute the onion.

Add the can of tomatoes and rice.

Add a can of chicken broth.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Continue cooking for about around an hour (sometimes it takes longer if you use brown rice) on low heat. You want to keep adding chicken broth randomly and stir so it doesn’t stick.

Insert obligatory complaint about it being Monday already here.

Friday – I was like uhhh what did we do Friday? Then I remembered it was Valentine’s Day. Ha! After work I came home and made our traditional Valentine’s Day lasagna, full fat, full cheese with homemade spaghetti sauce. It was delicious! We just hung around and watched TV. I love nights like that!

Saturday – We had Wild South Brewfest on Saturday. Chris invited our friends from Huntsville down for the day. We met up at Slice at noon for some lunch before we headed on over for our day of trying beers! There were 13 Alabama breweries there and 6 North Carolina ones. I think they said there were 36 different beers you could sample. They also had small plates because well….soak up the alcohol, duh!

It was pretty crowded, but not so much that you couldn’t walk around. They must have only allowed so many people into the event. The ticket proceeds went to Wild South, which is a great cause and what better way to celebrate the wilderness than with some beer?!

They had two bands play. One was a zydeco band and they were pretty good.Very upbeat and entertaining. Not normally music that I would purposefully seek out to hear live, but I certainly enjoyed it! The other band was not as good. It was sort of a buzz kill almost. The music was slower and they just weren’t as lively. It sort of worked out that they came on second though to start to filter out and slow down the drinking I suppose!

After brewest, we headed over to Fuego to have dinner. Funny, as we were just there last weekend. They seriously have the best taco salads ever! We were walking back to the car and the guys begged us to stop by World of Beer for just one more beer. We said FINE! Haha. I didn’t partake in the beer drinking there, I had enough for the day! I sampled several beers, but in total I probably had the equivalent of maybe two beers the entire day.

When we were at World of Beer, there was a homeless lady in there harassing people. That is the one pitfall of that place, it seems almost every time we are there we have to deal with a homeless person that is completely out of line. I am fine if one comes up and asks for money or says hello or whatever….but don’t be vulgar or cause a scene or do something that makes every one feel uncomfortable. They had to kick her out because she was making everyone uncomfortable and saying completely inappropriate things.

Sunday – I did meal planning and grocery shopping then we pretty much spent the rest of the day watching reruns of The Big Bang Theory and a Law and Order SVU marathon. I wanted to get some cleaning done and give the dogs a bath and cut Mac’s fur but I just didn’t feel like it. Oops. Sorry not sorry!

1. What are your favorite things to do on a lazy day?

Wear a tshirt and nike shorts, lay around on the couch watching TV, snuggling with my husband and/or dogs and then when I have had enough TV, play some video games. Eat yummy foods. Never do my hair or make up. Yup. Perfect day!

I received a box of Fiber One Protein Cranberry Almond Cereal and a box of Fiber One Protein Maple Brown Sugar Cereal from General Mills in my BzzAgent kit free for review. All of these opinions and thoughts are of my own.

I was excited when I received my Fiber One Protein cereal boxes in the mail! I am an avid breakfast person. I truly believe that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It is what get’s you up and going, and sets the tone for your day. My favorite way to start breakfast is with protein and fiber. Something that fills me up and gives me energy! I find it difficult to find any cereal that offers up BOTH fiber and protein AND tastes good. I thought it just didn’t exist. Enter Fiber One Protein Cereal!

I first tried the Cranberry Almond flavor,  a masterful mix of crunchy almonds, delicious cranberry pieces and sweetened granola. It tasted great and had a little bit of a sweet side with the cranberries. My favorite part about the cereal is that it stays crispy and crunchy the entire way through, down to the last bite. I think my favorite way to eat this cereal is with yogurt. It tastes delicious mixed in some plain or vanilla yogurt!

Next up I tried the Maple Brown Sugar, a bountiful blend of sweetened granola and crunchy pecans topped with the taste of maple brown sugar. Now, I am going to be very honest with you. I was very skeptical about trying this flavor. I had a feeling it was going to be too sweet. I am not fan of the maple brown sugar oatmeal for that reason. I waited two weeks after receiving the boxes to even try it and had a back up breakfast ready to go.

With all that being said, I actually was very pleasantly surprised!!! The cereal wasn’t overly sweet and it had the same great crunch factor that the cranberry almond flavor offered. The crunch factor is the most important thing for me in cereals, I am a textures person and nothing makes me sadder than soggy cereal. Out of the two flavors I tried, I am surprised to say that the maple brown sugar is my favorite! I have a bowl of Fiber One cereal and a side of berries in the morning and it holds me over well into the lunch hour. Something else that is very important to me!

With 10 grams of protein and 20% of your daily fiber in just one bowl, you really cant go wrong! It makes being healthy quite easy! Might I recommend giving Fiber One Protein Cereal a try?!

1. SnOMG

That’s right folks. the deeps south received some more snow Wednesday night. I really enjoyed it because this time I was snowed in, not out! It was the beautiful kind of snow that falls down in big fat flakes and covers the ground immediately! We had so much fun playing in it! The dogs, well mainly Gracie, loved it too!!! You just don’t get beautiful white covered scenery often in the south, so we had to snap about a million pictures!!! Chris took some with his fancy camera, but these are a few of my iPhone pictures.

2. Sweet dogs. After playing in the snow early yesterday morning, I think someone was tired.

3. Sisters. Keeping it classy since the 80’s!!!

Before we took this picture, I was joking about how everyone always thinks I am the “younger” sister, even though I am five years older. Hehe. Tracy said she always thought that was awesome when we were younger, but now she doesn’t like that very much! I really enjoyed getting to spend some quality time with Tracy last weekend! I don’t get to see her nearly enough.

4. Wild South Brewfest – The Wild South Brewfest will be at Iron City tomorrow. Chris mentioned that he wanted to go, and invited some friends from Huntsville down to hang out with us. I am really excited. There will be several local Alabama breweries in attendance, along with some North Carolina ones. All the proceeds go to a good cause too!

5. Happy Valentine’s Day bitches!