Musings from Mandy

Looking for something sweet, filling, and easy?  Or maybe just something to do with the past-its-prime banana on your counter?  These will check all those boxes. 1 cup of almond flour 1 cup of sour cream 1 egg 1/3 cup of dark chocolate.  You can get the chocolate chips or smash up a bar. 4 teaspoons of Stevia 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder According to the internet, they work out to be about 180 calories, 14 grams of fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, 10 carbs, 2 grams of fiber, 4 sugars with 4 grams of protein.

Kale and Sweet Potato Beef Stew Serves 4-6 Ingredients 1 pound of stew beef 2 cups of low sodium fat free beef broth 2 cups of water 1 cup of diced onion 1 tablespoon of coconut oil (or oil of your choice) 2 sweet potatoes washed and diced 2 cups of chopped kale ½ cup of corn 1 tablespoon of garlic powder 1 tablespoon of Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb 1 tablespoon of crushed red pepper (note, this gives it a kick. Use less if you’re not into spicy things) 1 tablespoon of dried basil In a large saucepan, add a cup of diced onion (frozen or fresh) with a tablespoon of coconut oil. Saute until onion is soft.  Add a pound of lean stew beef and garlic powder, Mrs. Dash, crushed red pepper, and dried basil.   Stir until the beef is mainly cooked on the outside.   Add two cups of beef broth and two cups of water.  Stir in vegetables.   I used fresh sweet potato, frozen kale, and canned corn....

This has been one of my absolute favorite quarantine recipes and so simple.  I mostly cook low sugar / low carb and this did not disappoint. 1.  Heat a little bit of your favorite oil on the stove top in a fry pan on medium heat.  Salt and pepper the short ribs.  Place the short ribs into the pan and sear the outside till brown. 2.  Cover with a tablespoon of garlic powder and onion powder / minced onion.  Cover with a large can of tomato paste and a cup of apple cider vinegar. 3.  Bake covered with foil for 3 1/2 hours at 250 degrees.  Check every hour.  If they seem like they don't have enough sauce you can add a cup of water or broth.  When they easily pull apart they are done.  If they are not pulling apart easy, they aren't ready.  I like mine a little crispy so I finish mine under the broiler for a few minutes. I served mine in a toasted tortilla with some extra sharp Cabot cheddar.

First, to clarify, I don't have any suggestions on how to overcome an online shopping addiction.  The purpose of this blog is to share my favorite ways to utilize my online shopping addiction. I spend some...time...surfing the internet.  Some might even say it's a little too much.  But I've come across a few fun websites in 2015 and wanted to share them on this poorly titled website. 1.   Stylit .  Stylit is a free website that sends you personalized outfits every Thursday.  They include everything from accessories to matching nail polish to shoes.  The whole kit and caboodle.  They send you 5 outfits and have a lot of fun sample outfits usually each week as well.  Here's an example of what it looks like. YES PLEASE.  The only problem is that sometimes you want to buy everything.  Please note they include a lot of items from www.boohoo.com and http://www.6pm.com/.  The dresses I bought from BooHoo were all fantas...

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More than country music and beer in mason jars. NOTHING. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

First off, Dierks Bentley's new CD is all kinds of awesome and if you like good music, I highly recommend you download the whole thing.  Also, there is an awesome 22 minute behind the scenes look at the making of Riser  that includes the birth of his son from the hospital on Fios On Demand under CMT.  Pretty adorable. However, if you only want a taste, I recommend you download the songs in this order: 1.  Say You Do Don't worry about the damage done Just let those words roll off your tongue Even if you're lyin' If you really don't mean it, I don't care If you need a little buzz to get you there Then baby I'm buyin' 2.  Hurt Somebody Girl, you're gonna hurt somebody Make somebody bleed Girl, you're gonna hurt somebody God, I hope it's me 3.  Damn These Dreams I remember hearin' Hank on the radio The first time it felt like fallin' in love Like seriously, how good is that lyric?  L...

ROLL TIDE

First, this is fun. I'm always House Stark even if I'm running out of Starks. Thoughts on the first episode of Season 4 (Spoiler Alert). I loved the Mountain and Arya in the book and I love them on the show.  Arya's murderous streak was fun to see.  She just had her mother and brother killed at the Twins so eventually a girl's going to snap. Every time they mention Robb's head sewn onto Grey Wind's body I have the same punched-in-the-gut reaction that I had when I read it in the book.  Although when I read it in the book, I threw the book across the room and refused to read it for a month. I love the change of Jamie from the beginning of the book as the "Kingslayer" to the rescuer of Brienne to the voice of reason in House Lannister. Tyrion was awesome as always and I was excited to finally meet Oberin from House Martell.  Oberyn has even more swagger than I thought he would.  He also has the best nickname, perhaps ever, with The Red Vip...

I've read a lot about toughness over the past few days in the wake of Rich Peverley's scary incident on Monday night.  Many have lauded Peverley for his toughness of asking to leave the ambulance and return to the game.  You've probably seen this: Personally, I'm a huge fan of anything that makes fun of Lebron so I did giggle when I saw this, but I also really liked Bruce Arthur's take on toughness in sports ( Found here ).  He brings up that while Peverley was asking to go back in, rookie line mate Alex Chaisson stayed home in Dallas as well, too shaken up from seeing Peverley's incident to travel with the team.  In the wake of the Game 6 seventeen second loss, it was almost comforting in a way to hear about Bergeron playing through his myriad of injuries.  A way to know through the disappointment, the players we root for want it as bad as we do.  Should players be playing with injuries that require multiple nerve blocking injections be taking the ic...

This is from earlier in the night....All the teams did tweet some #thoughtsandprayers

So last night Josh and I were watching the Wire: Season 1 (which, I'm slowly starting to get into) and saw on Twitter that Rich Peverley had collapsed on the bench in Dallas.  We switched to Center Ice and watched the eerie silence from the fans and the announcing while we waited for an update.  I was, like most, relieved to hear he was conscious, especially after it looked like you could see what looked like them doing chest compressions in the hallway and knowing that he had issues earlier that year. What happened next is I think the best and worst of twitter.  First, we get a tweet from the CBJ's rink side reporter tweet that Coach Lindy Ruff said he was going to be okay.  Then, you have the plethora of #prayersforpeverley which I just find tacky.  First, I don't think Peverley is going to be checking twitter from the back of the ambulance.  Second, how many of these people are actually dropping to their knees to actually offer up a prayer. As more t...

F for the fact that my Jefferson Memorial pencil sharpeners doesn't sharpen pencils. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

We're a few days into the Olympics and I'm loving every minute.  I'm super excited for the men's hockey to start tomorrow.  Here are my rambling thoughts. *I thought that the opening ceremonies were great.  I also thought that NBC's color commentary was disgraceful.  The Russian history section glossed over the gulag?  You don't say.  I'm sure that when USA hosts the Olympics again we will skip over the less than stellar moments of our history as well.  Every country has flaws.  The goal of the Olympics should be to put aside embargoes, treaties, and old hatred to come together as one community on the world stage. *I haven't watched nearly enough events but the ones I have seen have been awesome.  My favorite so far has been the moguls.  Mainly because NBC made me fall in love with Alex Bilodeau shortly before he competed (an won gold).  Alex Bilodeau and Brother *I would kindly like every reporter that has complained about th...

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- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone Location: Main St,Winchester,United States

I got this beauty from Walmart. If I had an astrophysicist friend it may have been properly assembled. I did not and it may collapse at any moment but it looks nice and holds my stuff for now. My work of art and my mini space heater that loves to blow the fuses on the right side of the house. My favorites! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Had the pleasure to check out, "Stars with Guitars" last week featuring Dustin Lynch, Craig Campbell, Jerrod Neimann and Tim Nicholas. It was an interesting set up. All 4 came out at the beginning and they sat on 4 stools and sang / played along to each others songs. It was at the Sinclair. It's really cool venue in Harvard Square with exposed brick, pipes, etc. All 4 guys were a lot of fun and it was cute to see how shy (Dustin Lynch) some were and how not (Craig Campbell) the others were. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone Location: The Sinclair

Finally got around to printing some recent pictures (pirate time!) while keeping a few classics (Viva Las Vegas!). Next up is getting my new POS Wal-Mart desk organized. Getting it assembled was a task and despite a few hiccups it is in one piece and has an almost functional drawer. Really excited about the newest addition to my shelf: my "Will You be my bridesmaid?" wine bottle from Erin! Already sad that I'll probably drink it some night when we are out of wine and not a special occasion! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

1. July - No work, favorite holiday (4th of July). 2. August - No work, Outerbanks 3. June - Minimal work, summer begins. 4. May - Almost done with work, Memorial Day kicks off the summer. 5. April - April vacation.  Weather starts to suck less. 6. September - Nice weather, fresh start with a new class. 7. November - Favorite holiday - Thanksgiving. 8. February - A week off and usually some fun celebrating Erin and my birthday.  Also George and Abe's birthday. 9. March - longest school month of the year is offset slightly by the glory of St. Patrick's Day. 10. December - Good length vacation but you're usually busy and hungover throughout the month. 11. October - I don't like Halloween. 12. January - You start hungover and it's all down hill from there.