Tag: 19 years

Michelina’s are more affordable than Weight Watchers

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Exercise, Food, Health, Noom, Weight3 Comments

michelinas zap ems

I have lost a total of 70lbs over the last 6 months with Weight Watchers Smart Ones frozen dinners and Noom.  Money is tight and I can no longer afford the luxury of paying $2 for the WW meals, so instead I had to do some research and find some other cheaper alternative with the same calories, fat and sodium as the Weight Watchers.

My partner of 19 years told me that we should buy the Michelina’s because they were half the price, but I insisted on the Weight Watchers for several reasons.  The first reason is because the Weight Watchers has the name Weight Watchers.  It’s psychological.  If you see it is a product for losing weight, you put it in your mind that if you ate that or Lean Cuisine that you are doing good.  Another reason was because they weighed more than the Michelina’s, so naturally you want more food, even if it was only 1-2oz difference.  My final reason is that the Weight Watchers show up as green in the Noom app while the Michelina’s show up as yellow.  Although, the pizza snacks show up as red.

So since times are tough and we don’t have the luxury anymore, I decided to start buying the Michelina’s.  They are $1.49 at Albertson’s, but they are currently on sale for 10 for $10.  I could be paying .97 cents at Food Maxx, but what’s 3 cents?  I also have coupons for $1 off 5, so if I use 2 coupons then I am really getting 10 for $8.  Not bad.  Although, I printed the coupons and went to the store without them.  Ooops.

michelinas lean gourmet I wrote a post about how the Weight Watchers are better than the Michelina’s Lean Gourmet which I still stand by.  The reason I don’t like the Lean Gourmet is because the sodium is really high and the calories aren’t that much lower than the Zap ‘ems.  They have more flavors in the Lean Gourmet too like the meat and potatoes, which is what I miss from the Weight Watchers.  The Lean Gourmet meals are good, but I have a huge issue with the sodium content.  The Lean Gourmet also show up as yellow in the Noom app, so they aren’t any better than the Zap ‘ems in that regard.

Not all of the Zap ‘ems have vegetables in them so what I’ll do is I will buy some frozen vegetables and when I open the Zap ‘ems, I will pour 1 cup worth on the top and then microwave it for double the amount of time suggested to make sure the frozen vegetables will have time to cook.  My favorite is spinach.  I’ve added broccoli and brussel sprouts too.  I would like to also buy some carrots and put those in there.  It just makes it that much more healthier in my mind and it gives me more food.

I don’t have that much more weight to lose to get down to my goal weight of 170lbs.  Last night I weighed myself at 192.8lbs, but today it went back up to 195 for some odd reason.  Last week on my weigh in day I was 193.6 so I would love to be 191 or 192 tomorrow, but we will see how it goes.  I just hope the switch from Weight Watchers to Michelina’s hasn’t made much of a difference, but I will find out tomorrow.

I am trying to buy a bicycle so I can exercise to help me lose weight, but the only way I can is if people help me out by buying a keychain, my hemp choker or bracelet or some earrings on my Etsy store.  You can use the coupon code NODOMA for 25% off.  It would really help me.  The keychains are cheap at $2 and the earrings are also cheap (inexpensive, not cheap) at $5.  It’s only a couple bucks, and they literally take hours to make each and I’m not asking for much for them.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

My Homemade Pecan Butter Cookies

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Food, RecipesLeave a comment

pecan butter cookies

I have been slaving in the kitchen cracking pecans from our pecan tree so that I could make 2 things, pecan butter and pecan butter cookies.  I had collected almost 16oz of pecans.  It didn’t work out as I had planned, but I made it work, sort of.

I added the pecans to the food processor and just obliterated them until they were like sand, and it literally looked like sand on the beach.  I added the peanut oil and brown sugar and blended it some more, but it wouldn’t get soft like peanut butter.  I left it in there for quite a bit too.  I haven’t used our food processor in ages and it’s as old as our relationship is, if not older (which is going on 19 years if you don’t know).  It was starting to give an electrical smell so I was afraid of overdoing it.

The pecan butter didn’t want to become smooth at all.  I tried adding more peanut oil, but it didn’t seem to make a difference, so instead I just went on with the cookie ingredients.  Since it was enough to make 2 batches of cookies, I added 2 cups of sugar and 2 eggs and blended it until it was like dough and took it out.  I cut half of the dough and put half in the fridge wrapped in Saran Wrap and the other half I cut up into squares that I could roll like into balls to form the cookies.  I didn’t get 36 cookies, some were too big and some were too small.  I wish there were a mold that would cut the dough into 36 squares so I could get even cookie sizes lol.

The cookies came out really sweet, I mean too sweet.  They are good, just really sweet.  I didn’t expect that to happen.  I mean, the peanut butter cookies are sweet, but not that sweet.  Also, the dough was really dark, but the cookies came out a lot lighter.  Oh well.

Pecan cookies are certain not something I would ever try to do again, same with the pecan butter, so this was an experience that I will remember for as long as I live.  The lesson, leave the pecans for pie…

New iPod Touch

On By Michel McDonaldIn Gadgets, MusicLeave a comment

When I was 11 years old I got my first walk-man which played audio cassettes (and sometimes ate them). That was in 1981. In 1989 when I was 19 years old I bought my first CD player walk-man. It was big and bulkier than the cassette version but it was pretty darn cool and I was paranoid to let anyone see it for fear of it being snatched.

In the late 90′s I remember seeing the first mp3 player, I think it was the Rio(?).  It only stored a few cd’s which to me is bogus for the price but whatever. Then the iPod came out and that was pretty darn cool.

In 2005 I got the Dell DJ but I wish that I had gotten an iPod instead.

What a long way we have come that we now have an mp3 player that not only plays music but also video games, records HD video, views websites and now has a new thing called FaceTime which allows you to have a live video streaming phone call with someone. And it’s not even an iPhone either, it’s an iPod, a music player. The walk-man of the 21st century if you will.

Amazing!  What will they come up with next?

Steve Wilkos Show

On By Michel McDonaldIn TVLeave a comment

The episode of Steve Wilkos show called “He beat me in my sleep” was just on and it was about this young, very young couple who are 18 and 19 years old with a 1-year-old baby.  The boyfriend admitted to beating his girlfriend in her sleep because he was mad at her.  What?  What the hell was he mad at for?  Did she pull the covers off of him?  Did she snore too loud?  What could possibly make this guy beat his girlfriend while she slept?  She ended up going to the hospital with a black eye, split lip, concussion, bruises all over.  And yet she didn’t leave him.

At the beginning of the episode, the girlfriend told a story of how he beats their 1-year-old son.  One morning the 1-year-old threw the hair brush into the toilet and he got beat for that.  He’s a frickin’ 1 year old douche bag!  That’s what 1 year old’s do, they throw things.  They don’t even know they are doing it.

He said that he beats his baby or spanks his baby to teach him but a 1-year-old isn’t going to remember any lesson about anything because he’s ONE!

In the first segment, the girlfriend was asked by Steve, if he doesn’t pass his lie detector test are you going to leave him and she said I suppose I have to but then at the very end of their half of the show he gave her a choice.  Either walk through the door that her abusive boyfriend walked through or go through this other door and have a lifetime of friendship and help with me and she walked through the door to go to her boyfriend.  What the hell did she even go on the show for?  What a complete waste of time for Steve, for the audience, for me…  And what lesson is being learned here?  Because I’ll bet you anything that as soon as they left and went back to the hotel or wherever, he beat her for bringing him on the show.’

You know, this guy totally reminds me of my step-dad when I was a baby.  He met my mom when I was 18 months old and basically moved in right away, they didn’t even know each other and he moved in.  He assumed the role of dad to me and my sister and of course with the dad role that meant child beater role too.  He would beat me in front of my aunts, uncles and grandparents to show dominance.  To show who the alpha male was.  He was trying to show them how tough he was and all he showed was how much of a coward he was.  And these times he would beat me in front of other people, my aunt told me that I was just sitting there, not doing anything.  I totally didn’t deserve that but he did it anyway to me.

I am so sick of coward men beating women and children but what I’m mostly sick of are women who stay with these men because they are not just hurting themselves, they are also hurting their young children who don’t deserve to be involved in that abuse.  That is when I say that not only is that guy a coward but that girl is a coward as well and their child should be taken away from them and put into foster care.  He would be better off with another family.

Christmas Tree

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

We are supposedly going to go to Sears and buy a pre-lit fake christmas tree. The last time I had a Christmas tree I was 19 years old and my neighbors in the apartment building who were all gang members asked me to give them my tree with all decorations and I said no and they threatened me and so what else could I do? I gave it to them. So this will be my first tree in 18 years. I had no idea when I was 19 years old that I’d have to wait 18 years to get another tree. I can’t wait to get it. We have some old decorations from our friend Meg from when she passed away, nobody wanted her Christmas ornaments so we took them. Also Opal has some decorations and ornaments which we can dust off and use. I’m just afraid that they are too fragile. I’m also going to be crocheting some snowflakes for the tree so all is not lost. I want to also make those little mini christmas stockings to hang on the tree branches with little mini candy canes inside them. That should be cute. I will have to put those instructions in my crafts section here.

Box of Buttons

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

When I was 19 years old I asked my mom for a button and she went into her sewing kit and pulled out a little clear box with a pink lid filled with many different types of buttons that she has collected over her lifetime and she handed it to me. I dumped it out onto the table and looked for the button I needed and put it all back and she told me to keep it because you never know when you are going to need a button. So I took it and I had it for many years.

When we lived in Hollywood we had this neighbor named Meg and one day between 1994 and 1999 I don’t remember when, Darrin gave this box to her without my permission. He didn’t realize that this box of buttons, as insignificant as it may seem, meant a lot to me because it was my moms box of buttons. I felt like I couldn’t ask for it back because I don’t ask for a gift back after it was given. So basically, I lost it forever. Meg passed away in 2000 soon after we moved to Bakersfield and when we went to her house it had been ransacked and I never saw the box again.

Today we left Butch and June’s house (we came to visit early before Thanksgiving and came home today) and just before we left I went upstairs to see their tenant’s room that they are renting and as I was going down the stairs after looking at it I noticed this little box sitting on a shelf by the door. I went over to Darrin and asked him if he gave my box of buttons to June and he said no and I said I just saw my box and so I walked over to the door and opened it and grabbed the box and opened it to find it was filled with buttons. Darrin asked June where she got it and she said that she got it from the motel (they own some motels in San Diego as well as all over the United States). What that means to me is that the “friends” of Meg’s who ransacked her house when she died took my box of buttons and one day they were in San Diego and just so happened to have stayed at Butch and June’s motel and accidentally left the box and it ended up in the lost and found and June just so happened to take it home.

The box found me! After all these years it found me. I firmly believe it too. What are the chances that I would ever see this box again? Here is a picture of the box. By the way, before Darrin gave it to Meg I was bored one day and I had this sticky foil paper that you put over a book, it’s book covers in the mid 90’s and it is the type that when you look at the silver part it has colors and they printed it black with the silver flower outlines.  The top piece didn’t stick so I glued it on and the sides didn’t stick so I used clear packing tape and sure enough this has all that on it.  It is in fact my box that Darrin gave to Meg.