All posts in pure prattle

Health-Full® Nutty Grain Bread

by Erin on March 15, 2012 in bzzagent, food, pure prattle with 1 Comment

This is the BEST healthy, low cal bread I have had in a very long time. I love my carbs (unfortunately) and just can’t give up my bread. It seems though, that the good, hearty breads are always full of calories. So it’s hard to lose weight while not denying myself. There are low calorie breads but they are NOTHING compared to Arnold’s Health-full® Nutty Grain (the version I had—thanks to being a BzzAgent!).

This bread is thick and moist. And BIG! Not teeny little squares. True, we’re talking 80 calories a slice, but since most plain bread is about 120 for 2 slices, you’re only adding a teeny bit more calories into the mix, along with: whole grains, 5 grams of protein per slice, and protein—5 per slice for the Nutty Grain. And have I said this bread is thick? You see and taste the grains (and in my case, nuts). The bread is filling. And that is what you want. There’s nothing worse than eating a sandwich and being hungry 20 minutes later. Doesn’t happen with this bread!

Health-full® comes in 3 versions:

  • Nutty Grain
    • 5g of fiber per slice
    • 5g of protein per slice
    • 80 calories per slice
    • Baked with whole grains
    • No artificial colors, flavors or preservatives
  •  10 Grain
    • 5g of fiber per slice
    • 5g of protein per slice
    • 80 calories per slice
    • Baked with 10 whole grains
    • No artificial colors, flavors or preservatives
  •  Flax & Fiber
    • 4g fiber per slice
    • 5g of protein per slice
    • 80 calories per slice
    • Good source of Omega-3 ALA
    • No artificial colors, flavors or preservatives


Have you tried this bread yet? What were your thoughts? If you want to try it, Arnold’s website has some great recipes to try with it! (I mean, check out that Autumn Turkey Sandwich!)

Yum.

Tagged!

by Erin on February 16, 2012 in Challenge, pure prattle with 1 Comment

Shari from Rain into Rainbows tagged me in this little challenge. I think she’s just looking to get me blogging more frequently. ;)

Eleven random things about me. That’s what I’m supposed to write about. So that’s what I’ll do. Here it goes:

  1. I’ve decided to go back to school for a degree in something or other. Hoping for winter semester.
  2. I’m obsessed with pens and found a pen site—Jet Pens. Of course every pen I’ve wanted to order is out of stock. Maybe a sign?
  3. I was super nervous about having another baby, but wouldn’t trade her for a pen! (See what I did there?)
  4. I have absolutely no will power what-so-ever.
  5. I work from home 5 days a week, from 10am to 4pm. I’ve been at the same company for 8 years. The longest I’ve ever been anywhere.
  6. I have a serious addiction to potatoes. It’s actually harder for me to stop eating potatoes than it was to quit smoking. (Did that cold turkey.)
  7. I love purple. But blue purple not red purple.
  8. I want a new desktop and a new laptop. I’m greedy like that.
  9. I secretly (well I guess not anymore) love to watch Melissa & Joan reruns.
  10. I know this is one of Shari’s, but I want to bling up my blog too. Just have zero time.
  11. I love Twilight so much I think I’m going to cry at the end of BD part II.

And, Shari’s questions for me:

  • Do you have pets? If so how many and what kind? Yep. One dog, one cat. Two pains in the asses.
  • Are you a city gal or a country girl? Hmmmm… I’m definitely more city than country, but ultimately I’d have to go with suburban. ;)
  • What’s your favorite fruit? Strawberries!!
  • How many countries have you visited/lived in? One.
  • How many states have you visited/lived in? Visited: 8. Lived in: 2.
  • What’s your favorite color? Purple!
  • Do you WOH or WIH? (I’m not even gonna say SAH, because we all know just how much work *that* can be!) Work at home and couldn’t be more grateful.
  • Are you married? If so, for how long? Yep. May 2nd will be 12 years. (Together 16 in August.)
  • What trend from your teens makes you cringe when you look back? Diaper pants!!
  • What makes you feel great about yourself? My geekness.
  • What is your dream vehicle? Lamborghini.

    • Since the people I would tag have already been tagged, this ends with me. But if you’re reading and you feel so inclined, go ahead and take a stab at it. :)

    Tag Rules
    Post these rules on your blog
    You must post 11 random things about yourself.
    Answer the questions set for you in their post.
    Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
    Go to their blog and tell them that you’ve tagged them.
    No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this. You legitimately have to tag 11 people but if you don’t know 11 bloggers, tag as many as you can. (I have no clue what this means. I’m just copying & pasting. )

    Early Birthday Presents!

    by Erin on February 5, 2012 in Challenge, holidays, pure prattle with 1 Comment

    So, a photo of me, two years ago. That’s what this post is supposed to contain. So, there you go. Me, two years ago, in the photo to the right. ;) Not much has changed. Similar haircut though I have bangs now since the baby ripped the hair at the front hairline out. Wisps. That’s what I’ve freaking got now. And it’s red. I do wish my skin was nice like that. Pregnancy hormones read my skin the riot act and, well, it’s not nice.

    My birthday is in 2 days. The husband made the mistake of telling me he got my gifts (due to the Super Bowl, we’re celebrating next Sunday). I suggested, since he gets home late from work, that he give them to me today. :) So he did. I got a cute Willow Tree figurine (The Quilt), which I think was wink at how the baby is so attached to me. I also got a Pandora charm for my bracelet. Purple, well, amethyst. (I am so lucky that I love purple and my birthstone is purple!) It’s very pretty. And the other gift I got was this:


    Isn’t it adorable?! The blanket is really in water. It’s not fake ‘plastic’ water. It’s like a snow globe. :) It has a few meanings to me. One, we just got a new washer/dryer, front loading. That took forever and a day to get. Then, the whole patience thing. I’ll admit, I’ve got a short fuse and need to learn to be more patient. Also, the baby. It was 10 years of waiting to be ready to have another. And she was definitely worth the wait. :)

    I’m so ready to start the new week. I can’t wait to make my birthday cake. It’s going to be fabulous! ;)

     

    My Favorite Photo of my Best Friend

    by Erin on February 1, 2012 in Challenge, pure prattle with 4 Comments

    So let’s start off by saying, yes, I skipped quite a few days. But, I’m going to pick up where I left off as to not repeat and bore. ;) So on with day four: My favorite photo of my best friend.

    Since my bestie lives far away, here’s an oldie but goodie (and I smooshed out her face in case she didn’t want it posted):


    Ah, I miss you chica! (You can be her friend, too, and find her here.)

    Today is also the first day of my birth-month. LOL I celebrate ALL month long. Unfortunately thanks to the superbowl, we have to celebrate on the 12th instead of the 5th (my birthday is on the 7th). <pout>

    Now onto my first organizational attack (I’ve decided to grow up this year!): my desk. Until later!

    Diet Soda Cupcakes? Yep.

    by Erin on January 30, 2012 in food, pure prattle with 2 Comments

    I’ve been super obsessed with Pinterest as of late. Not surprising as the site feeds into my pack-rat mentality. Anyway, I’ve been determined to try out some of the things I keep pinning. (Notice how I’m doing a good job of not even mentioning that I stalled on day 3 of the challenge? More about that later.)

    So w/out further ado, here are my Diet Dr. Pepper Cherry Funfetti Cupcakes (w/frosting, because, what’s a cupcake—diet or not—without icing???).

    And here’s the recipe. Are you sitting down?

    1 box of whatever cake mix you like (though I’d stay away from the specialty ones like Angel Food or Devil’s Food)
    1 room temperature can of diet soda of choice

    Combine cake mix (in my case I used Valentine’s Day Funfetti) and can of soda (I used Diet Dr. Pepper Cherry) until it looks like regular cake batter. (It will bubble at first, it’s normal.) Then here’s what I did: poured batter into cupcake liners (regular old paper ones – actually mine were Halloween ones because I thought I had plain ones but I didn’t) 2/3 full and bake at 350 for approximately 20 minutes. I probably could have gone 22 but I didn’t want to push it and ruin it (only had one cake mix on hand). I got 19 cupcakes out of the mix in the end.

    You’re ‘supposed to’ eat them as is; no icing. I just can’t bring myself to do that. So I used Valentine’s Day Funfetti Icing.

    They taste yummy! Not exactly like a regular cupcake (the husband ate them, but he’s dieting and was willing to eat anything with the mere mention of  cake). But they will definitely do. I want to try a chocolate root beer with some kind of cream icing next.

    So on with my major blog challenge failure. I had the best intentions, but it all went to hell in a handbasket. The kiddo got sick, the baby is teething, I’m exhausted and my eyes are shot to hell.

    Apparently I’ve got two things going on: one being that I’m getting old. My eyesight is  not what it used to be thanks to internet usage. Well, really, I’ve worked on computers since day one, starting at the bank and those horrible command type screens (ours was yellow-gold on black) and worked my way up to what I’m on currently. And since I work from home 6 hours a day, it’s a fair assumption that that isn’t helping matters. Anyway, my eyes are not focusing properly thus I’m having a hard time seeing, especially at night after being on the computer all day. (This resulted in eyeglasses.) The second issue is that I have high eye pressure that needs to be rechecked in April. Not fun. This will result in daily eye drops. <don don donnnnn> So not a fan of eye drops. But hey, if it saves my eyesight, I’m all for it.

    So, between all this and just conking out at night, I’ve failed at the challenge. I’m thinking I’ll pick it up in a few days, so you’ll all have to forgive my ‘missing’ days. ;)

    Ok, I’m outta here. Things to do, people to avoid.

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