Weight Watchers Cooking

I remember many years ago our daughter calling to ask me how to make deviled eggs. I told her to mash the yolks with a fork then stir in Miracle Whip until the texture looked right and add mustard until the color looked right. She didn’t appreciate those instructions but it’s how I’ve been making deviled eggs all my life.

Until now. Now I need to know how many Weight Watchers PointsPlus are in those deviled eggs and Weight Watchers doesn’t have a measure that says “looks right.” So, I measured. Sort of. I was using large eggs instead of the mediums we used to buy but I mashed the egg yolks with a fork as usual. Nowadays, I use Miracle Whip Light so I actually measured out a couple of tablespoon’s worth and stirred it in to the yolks. Didn’t look right. So I added another tablespoon’s worth; then one more. OK, four tablespoons of Miracle Whip Light for my four eggs. That’s a proportion I could remember. Then I added mustard until the color looked right. No, I didn’t measure it. Mustard has no points so I felt no need to measure it but I would guess it was between an 1/8 and 1/4 teaspoon. After filling the eggs I sprinkled then with paprika as I always have. No, I didn’t measure it either–no points, you see.

So, there you have it.

I had half the recipe of deviled eggs (5 points) with a chopped banana (zero points) and a half cup of unsweetened strawberries (zero points) stirred in with the banana for a total of five Weight Watchers PointPlus. A very satisfying breakfast which I will be able to repeat with the other half of the eggs. Yummy!

And now I know how much Miracle Whip I add to my deviled eggs. Probably should have measured the mustard, though, in case I need to teach someone else how to make deviled eggs. You never know when such an opportunity might arise.

TTYL,

Linda

ps. I gained weight this week after two weeks of losing a lot. So now I know for sure: a big bowl of micro popped popcorn drowned in butter is not a good supper for me. Guess I’ll need to find something else to snack on as we watch movies most evenings.

Upgrading Downsizing

My MacBook Pro laptop computer is a hand-me-down from Dave.

In April it will be five years old. In computer years, that is ancient. Recently it started showing signs of senility.

Sometimes it would remember we have DSL and connect to it automatically. Sometimes it would remember we have DSL but need prompting to connect. Sometimes it would totally forget we have DSL. Frustrating.

Sometimes it would recognize my Bluetooth mouse. Sometimes it would turn off Bluetooth without prompting. When my mouse stopped working I changed its batteries before finding out out my computer decided to turn off Bluetooth. Twice. Irritating.

None of this is life threatening, of course, but I couldn’t help but wonder what would decide to stop working next. And what would happen to my data if it decided that was what it should mess with now? Yes, I do backups. Weekly and monthly ones. With my luck it would decide to corrupt my data the day before a backup so I would lose a week’s worth of work then have to guess what all I’d done that week. Or worse, corrupt my data just before a backup without me noticing so I would create a corrupt backup.

I decided to be proactive rather than reactive. Time to buy a new computer.

You faithful readers know I am planning to buy a very small RV soon. With its small space and weight capacity. That made this a good time to downsize my computer. Right?

But I didn’t want to downsize capacity in any way. Just weight and size.

Behold my new BackBook Air!

Smaller in every dimension.

   

But big enough to let me see what I need to see

and type what I need to type.

And it finds our DSL every single time.

I am happy again.

So, two computers. What to do with the old one? Nextworth.com offered me $32 for it. Well, it IS nearly five years old.

So I asked our daughter if she wants it. She doesn’t have internet at home so its failure to connect automatically would not bother her. She uses a trackpad instead of a mouse so the Bluetooth flakiness would not be an issue for her. Its at least as reliable as the one she’s using now but is an upgrade for her. She said sure. So for $20 shipping my old computer is on it’s way to belonging to a third member of our family. And we’re all happy. As long as we remember to do our backups. Our daughter should maybe start doing hers daily.

TTYL,

Linda

ps. Down 34.8 pounds now.

No product

Every time I have my hair cut the stylist wants to know if I need any “product” today. No, I don’t. The reason used to be because I have allergies so I didn’t want to buy anything that sets them off. Now it’s because I no longer need those things because the following people convinced me to try doing without them.

“I haven’t used soap or shampoo anyplace on my body for six months, save hand washing in advance of food prep.” Richard posted on December 28th, 2009, on freetheanimal.com

“Having no water hook-ups, I bath in the ocean, fully clothe[d], without soap/etc, using the mineral rich sand to wash my skin and hair. I live on the beach, obviously.” Eelkat posted August 6, 2011, on rvnetwork.com

“I haven’t used shampoo in over four years…Going shampoo free allows us to just rinse or dampen our hair daily to pull a brush through it, and then do our no-poo routine [baking soda and apple cider vinegar] a few times a month.  With no bubbles to rinse out, I use very little water even on my washing days.” Cherie posted on Jan 19, 2012, on Technomadia.com

I’m preparing to move back into a very tiny motorhome. It has not a lot of space nor a lot of weight capacity. My new motto is: Every ounce counts.

So I’ve been experimenting with using no soap or shampoo. I simply get in the shower and scrub myself with a soaking wet washcloth from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. No need to rinse and no old soap buildup turning pink along the edges of the shower.

Here’s my picture shortly after my shower from day one of this experiment, January 20, 2012:

I felt clean and I think I looked clean.

And here’s one from today, February 17, 2012.

Still using no soap or shampoo nearly a month later. I still feel clean and think I look clean.

I do wash my hands with soap several times a day. No point in taking a chance on making myself sick. And I do still use deodorant. No point making my friends and family sick. 🙂

It turns out that body soap and shampoo are things marketers have taught us we need. In the future I will be saving money as well as space and weight in my RV.

And for those of you who noticed, yes, my hair is longer than I normally wear it. No, I haven’t decided to grow it out. I just haven’t decided to get it cut either. Which means no one has been pushing product at me for quite a while now.

Another advantage of not getting it cut is that I can now tuck it behind my ears.

Look how much skinnier that makes me look! 🙂

TTYL,

Linda

 

I Want Out!

February in Minnesota, as in other cold climates, is cabin fever time. While the drought we are experiencing this year means we have no snow to speak of, it is cold. Todays high is predicted to be 15°F. That’s colder than the lows we tried to avoid when we were living in our RVs.

So, what do we do to cope with this desire to run away? We go to:

That’s right. We went to the RV, Camping, and Vacation show at the Minneapolis Convention Center. We’ve been going to this show off and on since we were backpack campers. As our style of camping has changed, so has the show. It has a much higher percentage of RVs now than it did back in the 1970s. Which is good for me since what I was doing was window shopping for my next RV. You know, getting answers to some of those pesky questions.

Like how far out into the slider door area can you put furniture and still feel like you have good access?

And how comfortable can I be if I turn the passenger seat around for daytime use when my feet don’t actually rest on the floor?

And, would a 15″ high footstool let me be comfortable with my feet up?

And, how deep do I want my cupboards to be vs. how wide I want my aisle to be?

 

If the bathroom is this size and has a sink in one corner, I will have how much knee room?!

Plus, how much do I want some of the other goodies that didn’t used to be available on a conversion van.

Like a screen door:

Look, Steve, a Hydro Hot type system!

And this one has room behind the sofa bed for my Travel Scoot!

Yes, we had to remove that shelf but I don’t need the extension that turns the sofa into a king-sized bed. Then by removing the seat from the Scoot it fit right under the bed and even my big basket cleared the door!

But, the Great West Van Sprinter Legend ex that had those last three features only has a 10 gallon black tank. Can I go back to coping with the frequent dumping required by having one that small?

Fortunately, I don’t have to make that decision today. But, it was good to have a day of virtual travel to help me get through this long winter.

Now back to my other coping with cabin fever technique: planning my custom conversion on Sportsmobile’s Design Your Own website, http://sportsmobiledyo.com/dyo/Public/Frames.php?client_id=&body_id=8&layout_id=,  where I can get a 20 gallon black tank if I put the bathroom at the back of the van.

TTYL,

Linda