Well, we made it to Friday. We are starting to defrost. I actually made it to work today and saw my car in the parking lot. I am pretty sure it said thank you for not trying to drive me and wreck me a few days ago as I walked by it on the way in. So, I am sure you are tired of seeing the southerners “winter” pictures this week. I decided to share something so much better today…..pictures of Gracie and Mac.

1. I enlisted Gracie to be my assistant since I had to work from home the last few days. Below is an account of her day.

Before lunch, I caught her watching TV.

Followed by some shenanigans with Mac, whom took TWO lunch breaks BEFORE lunch time.

Then they were found just plain laying down on the job.

Mac, you may not be aware but I can see you behind that ball. Your laziness is not fooling anyone. Though if I had two lunch breaks before lunch, I suppose I would be tired too.

2. Another picture of proof that these two are BFF’s forever. They can always be found sitting next to each other when they are outside, even though they have TONS of space to run around.

Mac would be the little white blob you see. Hehe 🙂

3. Not all dinners are winners. I found a Garlic Parmesan Meatball recipe on a blog last week. It sounded good. I made it last night. It was not good. It was so dry and bland. I heated up some pizza sauce for us to dip them in after we both took the first bite and looked at each other. Not every meal can be a winner. Chris did mention that most of my trials turn out great, so that made me feel better. He said “Not everything can be as good as Mexican Skillet Casserole.” True that.

4. This.

5. And this….

Linking up for the Friday Five! Have a great weekend everyone!

I had a post put together for today, but I am just not feeling it after everything the south east has been through the last two days. We are  no strangers to severe weather conditions, but we aren’t quite used to ice. Couple that with the terrain around the area, and it makes for just down right horrible conditions.

We finally made it back to our house yesterday afternoon! Our brother in law drove us to the point that no vehicles would make it any further, we then waited on his friend’s friend (got that) to come pick us up on their Razor and take us the rest of the way home. Gracie and Mac were SOOOO happy to see us! I am just so happy to be home and have them taken care of.

On our way home, we saw some scary stuff. The pictures below are of all the cars abandoned on the sides of the roads and in open fields.

The pictures below here are of the literally hundreds of cars abandoned. We saw several accidents that were just left, a mini van that had caught fire and was completely gone except for the frame, and we even saw a car slide down a hill and into a truck right in front of us. It was crazy! Certain areas just looked like war zones. I would be ok if I never saw something like this again!

Both of our cars are still downtown at our offices, we will have to make arrangements to go get them today or tomorrow. I am working from home again today. I am so thankful that I can actually do work from home so that I don’t have to use my personal or vacation days.

On a lighter note, look at Mac drinking out of my water glass. Like seriously, can he be any cuter?

I promise I will be back to regular scheduled programming tomorrow! Be safe. Stay warm.

I leave you with these:

This is for Kathy:

I am posting from my cell phone this morning so please excuse any weirdness or wonky placing.

Yesterday morning it started snowing. A rarity in Alabama, but not unheard of. It was pretty at first. The two pictures above were taken behind my office and on the walk to Jimmy Johns for lunch.

We were told we could work from home around 11:00 am. Awesome, I said to myself. Chris and my sister in law had attempted to leave work and were both unable to get anywhere and had to go back to their offices. Damn ice and people everywhere!

My brother in law and his co worker happened to be downtown for work and were nice enough to come get everyone from their prospective offices. It took them 3 hours to get from my sister in laws to Chris’s office to my office, all within a 2 mile radius.

Once they picked me up, we started taking 1st Ave to route ourselves around where we knew most of the traffic issues were. We then were able to get on I-59. At this point, we heard that all the roads leading to our house were closed, our destination became my sister in laws house.

We arrived at their neighborhood entrance several hours later and gladly left the car there and proceeded to walk the rest of the way to their house, as there is a very steep hill.

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Honestly, I am just glad to be somewhere safe and warm with food and water. There are so many people stranded and having to sleep in their cars over night. There were so many accidents and people who were hurt from the weather.

Today they are attempting to get my nephew from his day care. So many kids had to spend the night at their respective schools because of this.

My poor dogs are at home in their crates. No food. No water. 🙁 I don’t know when we will be able to get to them.

The weather was predicted to be “a light dusting with no travel issues.” Well, we measured 3 inches at my office yesterday. It might not sound like much, but the south IS NOT prepared to handle this kind of weather. No plow trucks, so salt or sand trucks. Nothing. And no one can really drive on ice safely regardless. So before people start making fun of the situation because they don’t understand, realize this shit is serious. Snow and ice down south is no joke.

My thoughts are with everyone who is still stranded. I just can’t imagine. I am thankful I didn’t have to sleep in a car or at my office last night like so many people did.

So you know me, always trying to “healthy up” a meal that I enjoy. A little confession, I didn’t have a sloppy joe until sometime in college. What? Crazy, right?! My mom didn’t like them, so she never made them. While I don’t love the mystery meat in a can version, I do love a good home made sloppy joe. This recipe I am about to share throws a little kick into it with some hot sauce. I make a lighter version of potato salad that is around 100 calories per serving to serve along with it! I start putting the potato salad together first because I prefer it cold. The original recipe actually calls for it to be served at room temp, but room temp potato salad does not appeal to me.

What you need Potato Salad:

4 cups of red potatoes cut up into pieces

1/2 green pepper

1/4 cup of red onion, diced

3-4 geen onions, diced

1 tbsp. light mayo

1 tsp of Dijon mustard

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp of red wine vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

What you need Spicy Sloppy Joes:

1 lb of extra lean ground beef

Whole wheat buns

1/2 green pepper, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

2 tbsp ketchup

1 tsp worchestershire sauce

1/4 tsp hot sauce

8 ounces tomato sauce

2 tsp sugar

What you do:

Cut up the potatoes, boil them in water for about 10 minutes until soft. While this is going on, cut up all your veggies for both the potatoes and the sloppy joes.

Mix the peppers, red onion, mayo, Dijon mustard, olive oil and red wine vinegar in a bowl and season with salt and pepper and set in refrigerator to keep cool.

When the potatoes are done, place them in a bowl and stick them in the freezer for a few minutes so they are no longer steaming.

Mix together the potatoes and the mixture in the bowl and place in refrigerator (or freezer) to keep cooling.

Now add the ground beef, onion and green pepper to large pan for the sloppy joes. Cook until the ground beef is browned.

Now add the tomato sauce, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, vinegar and sugar to the mix.

Simmer on medium-low for about 10 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Remove your potato salad from the refrigerator and add the green onion.

I like to serve this on wheat buns with a side of pickles too!

The potato salad is 107 calories and the sloppy joes with the bun is around 280-310 calories depending on what type of buns you use.

On the menu this week:

Lunches: Salad with lite Catalina dressing, edamame and a piece of fruit.

Dinners:

Mexican Skillet Casserole

Kung Pao Chicken and Stir Fry Veggies

Turkey Meatballs and Green Beans

Anyone else have a case of the I soooooo did not want to get out of bed this morning?! Ugh!

It’s Monday, which means it is time for another weekend recap!

Friday – I met up with my three favorite lunch time partners in crime at Urban Cookhouse. I ordered the Down Home that comes with ham and pineapple, smoked turkey, hot cheddar pasta, broccoli salad and a little orange roll. It was delish as always! I love fitting in a lunch with the girls once a week, it is the one thing I look forward to during the week! (Well, besides 5:30 pm every night when I get to come home and lay on the couch with Chris and watch TV!)

Friday evening we went to dinner with a friend at Macaroni Grill, and then decided to walk around Toys R Us. They had some much clearance, it was awesome! I scored a bag to keep my 3DS in, and we got some Mario items for our basement. We got a Bowser wall decal to go with the Mario and Yoshi one that we already have. It was on super clearance, score!!

We were in the bargain hunting mood, so after we left there we headed to Target where we scored even more clearance items! I think we got like 8 things for $12. I love a good deal!

Saturday morning was deep clean the house time! Once I had everything sparkly and clean, we headed to the Outlets at Grand Rivers for some shopping. It was so cold last week that the back of the fountain was still frozen even though it was in the 50’s on Saturday! Crazy, right?!

While we were there, I picked up an anchor necklace that I have been wanting from Loft! Love love love it! We stopped by a few more places,  and then had lunch at La Bamba’s. Mexican….mmmmmmm.

On our way home we stopped by our friend’s house for a few minutes. While he went home to Pittsburgh for Christmas, he picked Chris and I up two bags of our favorite chips ever!!! Gosh I love me some Snyder of Berlin BBQ chips!!! It reminds me of my childhood and home. I grew up on these babies and you cant find them anywhere else that I have ever lived. So sad. Every time I go “home,” I pick up like 10 bags of these….and a few bags of nibble with gibble, and pepperoni cheese from Dellalo’s and chipped ham from Shop n Save. And now I am missing PA. Thank you Adam for thinking about us while you were home!

Sunday I did meal planning and grocery shopping. I made fruit dip for the week and then I made some coconut lip scrub. It turned out really well and I love it!!!

What you need:

2 tbsp of sugar

2 tsp of coconut oil

You just mix it up and keep it in a jar with a lid! So easy and so wonderful. How cute are these tiny mason jars I got from Target?

The scrub worked wonderfully and it smells so good!

Sunday evening we went to Chris’s parents house for dinner. They had pork fingers, mac and cheese, green beans and rolls. It was delicious and it was great getting together with everyone. Chris and I came back home and watched some Law and Order SVU last night and I stayed off Twitter. I got sick of all the Grammy tweets! It was the only thing in my Twitter feed. I simply do not care about the Grammy’s or any of those award shows anymore. They just aren’t what they used to be to me.

I tried the Cupcakes Angel Food wine this weekend. While it was good and I enjoyed it, it tastes NOTHING like Angel Food, so for that I was disappointed.

Have a great week!