Fat Yummy Meatballs

Meatballs:

1lb ground meat

3/4 c crushed croutons

1/4 c fresh chopped parsley

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 beaten egg (or just squished with your hand into the meat :)

1/4 c italian dressing

1/2 c crumbled feta

1/2 fresh shredded parmesean cheese

1 tbsp butter

olive oil

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Sauce:

Jar of Spaghetti sauce

1 can diced tomatoes

italian spice

garlic powder

onion powder

red pepper flakes

Mash all ingredients above line, except oil and butter together and form into racket ball sized balls. Drizzle olive oil and butter in sauce pan. Roll meatballs around pan for 15 minutes over medium heat.

Honestly I was kind of faking the meatballs and didnt think about the sauce, so I kind of threw it together while the meatballs were cooking. BUT it turned out pretty good. I added a jar of my fav spaghetti sauce and a can of diced tomatoes, garlic powder, italian spice, and onion powder, and red pepper flakes. Let it simmer with meatballs 5 more minutes, until it was warmed through. It was a very simple tomato sauce, but went really well with the meatballs. The red pepper flakes were a favorite ingredient of mine:) Serve over pasta and with fresh Parmesean cheese.

Find plants for your area

Cool website I found in a magazine that tells you which plants are best for your climate, among other fancy plant ideas.
http://www.stepables.com/default.asp

The new living room.

Here is the new sofa and loveseat we got to replace the other set. It is much more pet friendly and very comfy.

Cafe Mexicano

Saw mexican doffee recipe on the food network and had to try it out....low carbified, of course...
Black cup of coffee (any roast)
tbsp of reduced sugar oj
tbsp brown sugar substitute
shake or two of ground cinnamon
DRINK!
I am a big advocate of the latte, never drink coffee without cream...a LOT of cream, and yet this was very interesting. I think the orange juice was the kicker. I would normally say don't fruit the coffee, but it was really good.
This is the original link for the recipe, for those of you who eat sugar ;)
Cafe Mexicano (Spiced "cafe de olla" coffee)

SNOOOOOWWW!!!

Okay, the snow got a little more serious, so I braved the weather and went outside.

Greta cannot contain herself, and can't figure out what it is...but oh how she loves flying objects.

Go Gators!

He hit me once, and only once.

Below are the first pictures I took. Lame I realize, but the snow didn't get serious until later, and I wasnt willing to put shoes on pre-snowman snow levels.

Wordless Wednesday...

Almonds, YUM!

I am a Wasabi and Soy sauce kinda girl normally, but I just discovered these. These are very yummy, and they only have 4 carbs/24(ish) almonds. They taste like Cinnamon Life cereal. Es gooood.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Do the stanky leg...

You must watch this...Do the Stanky Leg!

The Neubert Boys Update

For those of you who grew to know "my boys" from Gainesville second hand, through my pictures and stories, here are some updated pics Inga sent me of them at the pumpkin patch this year. They are huge and old! THanks for the pics, Inga!

Jack
Petey Jack-5, Petey-3

Greta Donut

The temperatures have dropped drastically in the past few days here in Atlanta, and poor naked Greta was freezing her little weimaheiney off at night. We like to keep the heat at 60ish at night to create a frosty bedroom, so the poor animals were freezing to death-more than I knew. After consulting with my sewing elders, I decided on this fleece design. Since Greta sleeps on the couch anyway, she just needed a barricade around the sides to hold in some body heat. So I cut a fleece blanket in half ($5), and sewed two 60" tubes out of it. Then stuffed the two tubes with three king sized washable pillows ($12) and cut ties in the fleece at each end of the tubes and tied them off, to create this triangular snuggle donut. $17 dollars total. Beats the $150 dollar Ginat dog beds at the store.

She found it within seconds and hasn't gotten up all night.

Amelia, the cat likes to try to cuddle, but Greta does not approve.

I think Amelia had a plan. But she did eventually get kicked out and was given the extra fleece blanket (purchased, but not used) and has been snuggled up inside since. THe poor animals were freezing to death it seems.

Wintery Drinks

I am bubbling over with fall festiveness as the weather begins to cool. though it's only a fraction of what I wish. I want to wear my booooots, and scarf, and hat. Though I am not looking forward to scraping ice off my car and sliding down hills while in my car. Anyway...I am getting my research done for that fateful day that is to come when I need to snuggle in a blanket and drink warm stuff. While in search, I came across this article about warm sugar-free drink ideas-since we must be low-carb to fit into our nice sweaters. This is the link.
Top 5 Low-carb beverages

The link above includes DaVinci syrups, of which I am well stocked in all my favorite flavors already (you can find them at World Market and often TJMaxx. However, it informed me that they also carry tea concentrates which I didn't know about.
The other thing that was cool was the Big Train Mocha No Sugar Added Blended Ice Coffee. It's a pack of 25 individually wrapped mocha blended iced coffee mix packets for $24.35 at Amazon.

Visitors!

The parents and niece and nephew came to visit:

And Caris found a friend in Greta

(she is between princess dresses at the moment)

We tried to go pet the animals at Yellow River,

but when we got there it was closed for flooding.

So, we fed the deer our crackers and carrots through the fence,

as did everyone else that showed up,

and went and played at the playground for a minute or two.

...which it appears was flooded last week.

Some parts looked better than others.

How to toilet train your cat!

Well, you can buy the Litter Kwitter system for $60

Which gives you the fancy removable rings that you take out one by one from the middle out, so that eventually you are left with just the toilet. Or you can rig it the $10 way, like I did, with a mixing bowl and a party tray. I am very non-commital when it comes to investing in cat waste, because, well, I have better things to invest in. Hense my $30 craigslist automatic cat litter box that retails for $130, which proves my point, because that thing was the biggest pain in the butt EVER. I would have been beside myself if I had actually spent that much on one. Anyway, this is the video I found.

Toilet train your cat

I went to walmart after sketching the rim of the toilet and found a mixing bowl that fit PERFECTLY. There is about a half and inch gap in the front of the toilet that I can cover. And then bought a plastic party tray for the platform to cut away. BTW this chick is trying to win an emmy for this performance I think. She is a bit ridiculous.

This is Awesome-Click the link

Break Dance

It's done some more!

Okay, so I wasn't completely happy with the haircut I got yesterday, because I was holding back a bit with the length-'cause I was chicken. So I went again today and got it chopped again! This chick didn't do as good as the girl the other day. It was great clips, though, so my hopes weren't high. I had to come home and fix it a bit. I like it much better though! Yay! And I checked for a license this time, Tina.

It's done!

So after much research and salon review, I found a place in what appeared to be Little Korea that had good reviews and didn't cost $150/haircut. She didn't speak English, but she sure could cut hair. Good thing I took a picture. Came out cute.

Before

After

Here's what I'm thinkin...

I've only wanted to wedge my hair since I was 11, but was always too chicken to go so short-kudos to niece, Julia.I'm still too chicken.

However, I found this style that would be a happy compromise with length and cuteness. I want something shorter that will take less time in the morning to blow dry and/or style, since I will be waking up much earlier than I am accustomed. I have given it a jazzy new name for my own amusement.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Atlanta Home

We have been enjoying our little unemployment vacation since the move, and have managed to unpack most everything...though not everything has grown feet and walked to its proper place just yet. We love Ikea and have taken selveral trips already. Within two minutes of the house is downtown Decatur (which is an adorable little town), bank of America, Walmart, Aldi, Kroger, Zaxby's, movie theater. We like.

All the furballs have adjusted beautifully. They are most thankful for their giant lookout window in the living room where they can watch all the neighborhood action-country pets move to the big city and all. I start work this coming week, so I'm leaving Josh to finish up-wink wink. He still has a little while before classes start. Here are some before and after shots of what we've done so far.

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