Petunia Bloom

Sophie Picture

egillette — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:00:59 +0000

I haven’t posted Sophie pictures in awhile!

This is what Sophie does if she has done something bad. If we get home and she is laying on the floor like this instead of greeting us at the stairs…she has torn up a Kleenex. She just really can’t help herself when it comes to those Kleenexes. Poor Sophie…we don’t even have to punish her. She has a self-punishing command!

On a lighter note….here is Sophie with her hoodie:

She thinks she is really cool….

Actually, she thinks she has a really mean mommy for making her wear this….

It is ok as I long as she is getting her belly rubbed….

And remember…no Kleenexes for Sophie….

Starbucks Sin…

egillette — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 02:43:36 +0000

Tonight my hubby and I went for a cup of joe at Starbucks. I thought I would try something new, so I got a Tall Hazelnut Signature Hot Chocolate with a shot of espresso in it. When I got home I looked up on line the nutritional information:

For my tall drink made with non-fat milk and no whip:

Fat: 15
Calories: 360
Protein: 11
Sugar: 46

Oh my gosh!! How could this have so much fat it? I can understand the sugar, but 15 grams of fat!!!

I pulled that picture off of Starbucks.com. Doesn’t it look pretty?! Don’t be fooled!! They are sinful.
Next time, I will stick to my regular: Caffe Latte (Tall, non-fat, no whip, no foam)

Fat: 0
Calories: 100
Protein: 10
Sugar: 14

Coupon Find!

egillette — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:00:57 +0000

It is a rarity that I find a good coupon or deal on my own, but it happened last week! I got a Target magazine in the mail. As I was looking through it, I felt something on the back. Much to my delight, it was a coupon!! It was for $10 off $100 purchase. Because my purchases are usually less that $100, I used a whole bunch of coupons that I had been saving up and bought lots of household items. All together I used $20 worth of coupons.

If you get a Target Christmas magazine in the mail don’t throw it away! Get the coupon….and then recycle the magazine!

Blueberry Pound Cake

egillette — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:44:10 +0000

Go to PioneerWoman.com and print out the recipe for Blueberry Pound Cake. It was the most moist pound cake I have ever had! It had a dipping sauce to go with it. Normally, I would never make the sauce to go with a recipe but I was feeling happy and went ahead and made the sauce. Yum…Yum… It was worth it, and my guests loved the sauce! The secret ingrediant: 2 6oz cartons of yogurt

Before you make this recipe, go here and sign up to recieve a coupon for buy one, get one free of Rachel’s Yogurt. I am not sure why, but I received two of these coupons in the mail.

Go Green - Use Reusable Bags - Recycle Plastic Bags

egillette — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:24:54 +0000

Recently I decided to be more green and use reusable bags when doing my shopping. Originally my thoughts were that it was more green and so I should do it even it was inconvenient. Now, I feel inconvenienced if I forget my reusable bags. During a typical week I can fit all my groceries into 2-3 reusable bags from Whole Foods as opposed to 15-20 plastic bags. It is so much nicer carrying up 2-3 reusable bags that I don’t have to worry about tearing and that fit over my shoulder than 15-20 plastic bags.

Jazzercise put out some statistics:

14 plastic bags contain enough petroleum to drive a car one mile
380 billion plastic bags are thrown away in America per year (JUST AMERICA!!)
Paper bags don’t biodegrade in landfills due to lack of oxygen (So don’t feel good about using paper instead of plastic! It is just as bad)

Also, I have started refusing plastic bags at smaller stores, because I can normally carry everything out to my car without a bag. If I do get plastic bags, I pick up Sophie’s poop with them. That is my form of recycling plastic bags! :) Hey, I am sure my neighbors appreciate it!

As I said earlier, my favorite reusable bags are the ones from Whole Foods. Their bags are only $0.99. According to Whole Foods’ website:

It can take more than a thousand years for a disposable plastic bag to break down in a landfill. Most reusable bags can be used thousands of times and there are so many reusable bag options! Thousands of customers and Team Members support our Core Value to “care about our communities and the environment.”

My Opossum Encounter

egillette — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:00:30 +0000

We have been having the prettiest days this Fall so far. The prayer gardens at Oral Roberts University are just beautiful. To get a little quiet time, I went out to the prayer gardens recently to sit and relax. I heard something behind me, so I turned around and there was a little animal walking around behind me. At first, I thought it was a rat because of its long tail. After closer observation, I decided it must be a baby opossum.

Do you see it?? My i-phone doesn’t zoom, so this is the best picture I could get… :( I sure wish my i-phone had a zoom. On the other hand, this is a great picture considereing it was snapped from a phone.

Doesn’t it have a long tail??

D’Novo Lean Gourmet - New Tulsa Treat

egillette — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:00:49 +0000

My husband and I went to a new restaurant in Tulsa called D’Novo Lean Gourmet. The whole point of the restaurant is to provide gourmet food without the calories. Each meal is supposed to be under 500 calories, which isn’t too bad considering some of the smoothies sold at Jamba Juice have over 1,000 calories.

The restaurant is located at 61st and Yale where The Market used to be. It is a nice shopping center, and D’Novo seemed to have an excellent image. To get inside the restaurant one has to walk through the outside eating area, which is beautiful. Check it out below…

Now that I look back at them, my pictures don’t really do it justice. You all can just use these and then imagine.

In the entrance to the restaurant is a waterfall on the left which is very pretty. The whole restaurant is white it seems. The booths are white; the walls are white, like I said everything is white. I don’t know how they are going to maintain the white booths or the white walls. It seems like they would get dirty so fast. Well, that is their problem to worry about. On to the food.

I ordered chicken with ratatouille pasta. The chicken was wonderful. I thought it would be too dry, but to my amazement it wasn’t. It was great. It was served with whole wheat pasta which definitely needed some more vegetables added it to it for the price tag.

My husband ordered a sirloin burger which was served as a wrap. His meal came with a salad.

Next time we go, I will have the Sirloin Burger as well. It was very very good.

Overall, I was pleased with the atmosphere and food at D’Nono. The man who took our order wasn’t the most friendly crayon in the box, but he seemed efficient enough. I was surprised at how quickly our food was delivered to our table. My husband and I will definitely go back to D’Nono and I would recommend it.

The restaurant is filled with chandeliers. My phone didn’t do a good job at capturing their brilliance, but you get the idea.

My sister

egillette — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:00:47 +0000

Last weekend I went to a high-school football game to watch my sister cheer. It was the most beautiful night. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera so I could zoom in on my sister. This picture was the best I could do with my trusty i-phone.

Pumpkin Bread

egillette — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 17:00:38 +0000

Last year I found the best Pumpkin bread recipe. It was supposed to taste just like the Pumpkin loaf sold at Starbucks, and it did. It is wonderful. I made it last year and again this year. You can find the recipe here.

I took several pieces to Jazzercise this morning to give away and it was a big hit.

Amaranth

egillette — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:06:15 +0000

A new food for you to try: Amaranth. It is a grain that is extremely high in fiber and protein. One of my friends eats it every morning for breakfast in class and it always smells so good, so I asked her how to make it. First off, I had to go to Whole Foods and buy 1 cup of Amaranth grain. It wasn’t expensive at all. To cook Amaranth. Boil 1 cup of Amaranth with 2.5 cups of water and several shakes of cinnamon for 18 mins and then let sit in the pan. The Amaranth will absorb all of the water, so you will end up with more than three cups of Amaranth. Usually I let the Amaranth cool, then I put it into a large container to use throughout the week. To warm up for breakfast: I scoop out three large spoonfuls, add one large spoonful of Organic Almond Butter, and one cut up banana. Oh my goodness, it is so good. It has 14grams of Fiber, 15 grams of protein, and no sugar except for the natural sugar of the banana. My husband eats this up. We both really like it.