Great Way to Begin the Day...

With a joke or cartoon so here is your laugh for the day:
I love this one!

For those of you who peek in and like to cook, you have to make this recipe. It is really delicious. You can serve it over noodles or rice or even mashed potatoes. It is low in fat and calories and super yummy. I am planning on putting a can of chinese vegetables in it next time and making chop suey. It tastes just like the beef gravy in the canned chop suey mix from Chun King.

Braised Sirloin Tips (I used sirloin kabobs, but if you can't find either, a cut up sirloin steak would work just as well)

1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp meat tenderizer
2 lbs beef tips, lean
2 cloves garlic minced
1/2 c finely chopped onion
1 1/4 c beef broth (I use low sodium canned)
1/3 red wine (I used burgundy and I imagine this could be omitted if you prefer)
1 TBL light soy sauce
2 TBL cornstarch
1/4 c water

Using a skillet with a lid, prepare pan by spraying with Pam over medium high heat. sprinkle meat with tenderizer and pepper (I just put the meat in a ziploc bag and sprinkled stuff over it and mixed it that way,) brown in pan than add garlic and onions and cook until onions are transparent, mix beef broth, wine, and soy sauce together than pour over meat. Bring up to boil, reduce to simmer and cook 1 1/2 hours or until meat is fork tender. Mix cornstarch with water, stir into sauce and thicken. Serve over rice. Serves 8
177 calories, 5 g fat, no fiber 4 WW pts per 4 oz serving

Tonight is a treat for us even if it is lower fat. I am making sloppy joes and hash browns. It fits fine into our points and is something a little out of the ordinary dinner fare I guess.

Jack did what he called his "half week weigh in" and has lost 4 lbs so he is all jazzed about it. I am glad he lost as he will stay on it that way. I told him not to stress if he didn't lose as it happens sometimes. He has his cardiology appt the end of February and so I hope he is about 8 lbs or so down, which will make the cardiologist happy. He doesn't say a word to Jack about his weight (Jack is about 30 lbs overweight and carries it all in his belly area) but he probably would if Jack got to be much heavier. I will let my weight loss be a surprise. Check in on Saturday as my weigh in is on Friday.

We get to have Thomas the WHOLE day on Saturday. I am so excited. They are dropping him off at around 7:30 and picking him up around 4 PM. We rarely get him at all let alone the whole day. I hope this can continue because I love it and we have a lot of fun. I think I am going out and buying a kid's Scrabble game for us to play here at the house. He is such a smart little boy and he loves to play board games. I have checkers, dominoes and such here at the house, but not too many board games to play. Jack likes scrabble so he would participate in it too I think.

It is cold again this morning so I think I will stick to my regular walking route. It is tough to hit the hill right off the bat, but then I go downhill for a city block so it makes up for it. I get too cold to walk the mile when the weather is like this and end up having to go pee before I get home so for now I am going to keep at the .8 routine.

I am finally at the arm decreases for my dd's sweater. In all the things I have made, I have never done a ssk and boy is that tricky for me. I imagine it is for a lot of knitters since they basically are knitting with the opposite hand, but I have to do some crazy stuff to do it properly. Glad no one sees!!! I am still on track with the blanket. I did my 6 rows yesterday though the last row last night was tough. I have arthritis in my hands and it flared up in my left pinky (my yarn holding hand) and when it does, my pinky doesn't want to bend so keeping the yarn around it is tough.

I guess I better get the ole New Balance on, hat, gloves and my Glenn Miller CD and get out and get the walk in.

Go out and make this a great day!

Donna