This Week at Nana's

Weather Update:

MARCH Ends - April Begins!

 This past week the weather was okay. We Burque's cant really complain about our weather when so many states are still covered in snow. Albuquerque people enjoyed, sunshine, a bit of overcast and a tiny bit of rainfall and wind. I still had to water the front and back yards but every little bit of rain is a blessing. In general, the weather was pleasant enough to leave the coat at home.


Outdoors Update:
The front lawn is still the same. Dirt and sand. The ivy I planted last year is growing and survived the winter. It will be a few years but I hope to cover the entire fence in ivy vines. The lilac tree in the front yard has bloomed and it smells heavenly. This week, Mrs. Pocheco was spotted on her front porch and that's a sign that winter is over. She must be about 90 years old now. It was nice to see her outside the house.

The dandelion patch near the back yard garden is taking off to a good start. I will be able to harvest some delicious 2014 Dandelion Tea.  There are a lot of little sticks all over the back yard because Albuquerque had a wind storm last night. 

I took a picture of the new portable fire pit. Get excited Grands because we are going to roast marsh mellows this summer! We will have to take it with us on a camp out. I just love that it folds up and its easy to put together. It looks small in the picture but its actually pretty big.

Pet Update:

I use to be able to pick Tuck up with one hand but now he has super sized and I need two hands to pick him up. I give him a tooth brush scrub down every other week to keep algae off his shell. He is very good about it, no fuss at all. He is going to be a big turtle. The female turtles get really big so Im glad Tuck is a male.

Lets see, Wednesday, Skinny Ding Dongs, AKA Pedro the cat came over to the house for a can of Tuna, of course Skinny shared it with Mean Missy. He played with all of Missy's toys, rolled in some cat nip and took off back to his home with the 2 Chihuahuas. Traitor. LOL.

Mauricio is doing great. He did have a mishap and accidentally jumped out of his house onto the tile. He meant to jump into the snack crate. Poor baby. He is okay with nothing injured but his pride. This has not detoured him from jumping into the snack crate. His favorite snack this week is lettuce. He is laying off the carrots and just nibbles on them. Today, I gave him a piece of banana and he is not having it at all. LOL.

Wheezy the Jail Bird

This former bad, noisy angry bird is now a sweetheart. Wheezy sings pretty and does not squawk unless Missy is near his house. No more time outs for loud nonstop squawking. LOL. He loves to hang out with me when Im goofing around on the computer and often I play his favorite song on the Internet so he can shake his tail feathers. 

Hear what song Wheezy loves.

 http://a.tumblr.com/tumblr_li8w4mikPB1qa5ejvo1.mp3

Wheezy Chillin at home.

Animals are AMAZING!

Check out these fabulous pets.

What Cats Do When Your Away

My Cat From Hell 

This week there has been some serious action in the kitchen. Knife action! Chopping lettuce, carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, onions and peppers. Yes, the healthy eating is still going on. Lots of salads.  Hooray for me.  This week, I cooked up Moroccan Chickpea Soup and Jalapeno Cream Potato Soup. Both were super delicious. Get it? Soup-er. LOL. I also made a batch of vegetable broth to have on hand since its going to be a soup and salad kind of month. I will definitely make some minestrone soup this week because that is my favorite. I also made a batch of Veggie Pattie Cakes and put them in the freezer for this coming week. I hope to have a couple of those veggie patties to break up the salad routine. I found a site with some interesting 300 calorie soups and I may try a couple of their recipes. Low Calorie Soups.

Local News in Albuquerque, New Mexico

KRQE News 13 Blog

Something about Nana

Sometimes, I watch the Shaytard's Videos on YouTube. I know its wrong. LOL. I cant help it.

This Week at Nana's

Weather Update:
ITS Still MARCH!

Sunny in Albuquerque, New Mexico. No snow or rain. Still windy. The mornings are very brisk and chilly, but by noon it warms up. I love to open the back doors and let the fresh air come in, along with leaves and dust. LOL. Its okay, I have a vacuum.

Nana does NOT like the wind it blows sand in her face and messes up her hair everyday. LOL.

Like the awesome Night Driving Glasses? Click Here.

You too can look like a 1970's aviator. LOL.

Outdoors Update:

Not much to mention in regards to the outside. Im still waiting for March to finish. Im looking forward to April showers. The wind has blown buckets of elm tree blossoms along the house.  Pollen is not my friend.

Ahhhhhhchewwwwwwwww! The sprouting plants are still doing well. I am working on controlling myself to NOT over water the plants. I poked a hole into the bottom of each plant cup and added another cup to catch the drain off of the excess water. Lately, I have been visiting online garden sites that promote home gardening and the idea of families growing vegetables. With so many families having difficulty feeding their families it just makes sense for families to grow their own produce at home in gardens or containers. This year, much of the vegetables that I grow will be given to neighbors and to the Albuquerque Mission and the Store House. As far as the Bonnie and Clyde bad doggies, I did some research and found that dogs do not like marigold flowers, vinegar and ammonia. I could spray vinegar around the plant areas. I think the vinegar would be a good option.There may be hope for the garden.

Pet Update:
The pets are all doing just fine. Mauricio, Wheezy, Tuck, Mr. Tubbs, Goldie, 
Mr. Poopers, Zander the Betta and Mean Missy are happy and loved. I have been putting water and cat chow in Skinny Ding Dong's bowls and leaving them on the porch.  During the day, Skinny AKA Pedro, has been seen cat napping in the brown comfy chair on the porch .

 

 Tuck having his daily walk.

Kids, Eat Your Veggies!!!

Sneaking vegetables into fun foods.

More sneaky vegetable tricks.

 

What Cats Do When Your Away

Animal Planet - Funny Pet Videos

 

Animals Can Be Jerks!

This week, Nana was very good and focused on exercising and eating healthy. Mainly just eating soups and salads with only vegetables for snacks. No bread or tortillas. It was a boring cooking week for Nana. This weeks soups cooked in my kitchen were, minestrone, low cal potato corn chowder, vegetable barley, and hot and sour soup. The hot and sour soup was accompanied by baked egg rolls with sweet and sour sauce and hot mustard. 

See Nana's Top Recipes for the sweet and sour sauce recipe.

Easy Baked Egg Roll Recipe

I used this recipe,  Healthy Vegetarian Egg Rolls from Skinny Kitchen. 

I omitted the broccoli slaw and snap peas and these babies turned out to be delicious. This is a perfect healthy light lunch or dinner. I made one mistake while cooking the hot and sour soup. I rubbed my eye after dicing a jalapeno. Yes, it burned and blinded me immediately. What fixed this? A cotton ball soaked in milk. My advice is to not rub your eye after dicing a jalapeno. 

This Week - My Pick for Amazing Person in Video Land

150 Pounds Before and After Weight Loss

https://www.youtube.com/user/DivaSlimsDown

Motherly Advice :

"When your mother asks, 'Do you want a piece of advice?' it is a mere formality. It doesn't matter if you answer yes or no. You're going to get it anyway."

— Erma Bombeck

This Week at Nana's

Weather Update:
ITS Still MARCH!

Saturday, there was a large fog that set upon the city. It was very freaky to drive in it. So, that was some exciting weather. Mostly this week during the day, the sun shined. In the evening the dark clouds rolled in and Albuquerque did get a tiny bit of rain showers. Just enough to put the large puddle in front of the back doors. 

Im very excited for Spring to arrive. 

Outdoors Update:

 Just waiting for the end of March to finish. Albuquerque normally gets a late March frost. Its too early to plant. Once April arrives I will start the outside planting. Also, I will harden the indoor plants which means to set them in the sun a few hours a day to toughen up for their move to the garden. Good news the wild flower seeds have begun to grow. There is hope for pretty flowers in the front yard. The bad news is that the evil gardener Jowanda showed up Saturday and took out all of that green ground coverage. So, now the front yard is dirt again. LOL.

The squash and pumpkin plants are growing very well. I know the squash plants will grow some giant gourds this year but I have never been able to get a pumpkin to grow. These are special seeds from a great pumpkin grower and I am hopeful for pumpkins! We will just have to wait and see.

Problem in Garden-Ville!

Im not sure what to do but lately the "famous escaping giant dogs" AKA Bonnie and Clyde, have been roaming from their owners home and hanging out in the yard. The two giant dogs live one street over from me. The dogs make a big mess, pulling up anything that is rooted and chasing after the Ferrel Cats while tearing up the hedges. These two dogs are very not friendly to anyone. Many of the neighbors have chased them off with sticks and stones. I chase them off with the Old Lady Trick...the water hose. They do not like water. The hard part is quickly turning on the water spout then finding the end of the hose before they get me. Its been close a few times. Also, they are skinny enough to fit through the bars on the front porch. I do not think a scarecrow will deter them. Im not sure how I will keep these two crazy dogs out of the yard. I have until April to get that problem solved. 

Bad enough I will have Skinny Ding Dongs-AKA Pedro trying to roll over the spinach this year. 

Pet Update:

Tucks Favorite Stone

 I cleaned Tucks tank on Monday morning. I had rearranged his stones from bigger to smaller, thinking it would be more comfortable for him. Monday afternoon, Tuck was very busy putting the stones back to the way he likes it. At times, I had to reach in and pick the stone up for him and move it because it was too big for him to push, roll or move. By the end of the night all the stones were put in order for him. He has a favorite rock that looks like a white egg and he loves to roll it, and roll it and roll it. Today, he is enjoying some fresh parley, meal worms and green turtle floaty sticks. Nana does not feed Tuck gold fish but has lots of variety snacks for him. He also enjoys green leafy lettuce. I have not tried to give him freeze dried crickets yet but may try that if I cant find freeze dried meal worms. 

Wheezy the Jail Bird

You would not believe how good Wheezy has been since his training. He is no longer squawking mad in the mornings. He is just a happy bird. Still shy but happy and not making crazy bird theatrics. Currently, I am just working to get him to rest on my hand and take a snack. He is very shy. He is okay with his feet on my finger.  

How to tame your budgie! 

What Cats Do When Your Away

Silly Pet Tricks

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/kids/weird-wacky-kids/funny-videos-kids/pet-tricks-kids/

Whats Cooking?

I did make a batch of Mozzarella cheese. I had not made it for a while but missed fresh mozzarella and decided to get into the kitchen and make it. This cheese turned out pretty good. 1 gallon of whole milk makes one block of cheese. I will use this cheese to make lasagna this coming week. 

Fresh mozzarella. :)

Try making cheese at home.

Cheese making videos

Great Vegetable Low Calorie Meals

Skinny Vegetarian Recipes (Meatless Mondays) 

Baked mozzarella cheese sticks.

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2007/07/vegetarian-recipes.html

Delicious White Cake

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 cup milk at room temperature
• 6 large egg whites at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons almond extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened but still cool 

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 8-inch cake pans.
2. Make sure milk and eggs are room temperature.
3. Pour milk (I used skim) , egg whites, and extracts into medium bowl and mix with fork until blended.
4. Mix cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of electric mixer at slow speed. Add butter, cut into cubes and continue beating on low for about 1-2 minutes.
5. Add all but 1/2 cup of milk mixture to flour mixture and beat at medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes. Add remaining 1/2 cup of milk mixture and beat for about 1 minute.
6. Pour batter evenly between two prepared cake pans.
7. Bake until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 27 to 30 minutes.
8. Allow cake to cool to room temperature.