If you are looking for stilletto recommendations, you are in the wrong place. I need to be able to run after my kids without falling on my face. Want to know your smartphone's metapix? Sorry. I only write about whether it can survive 5 minutes in the hands of my kids.
As you may know, I am in LOVE with my Ninja 3-n-1 Cooking System. You can see my video post about it here. So I’m always looking for any Ninja Cooking System Recipes to use.
What I love the most about it is that it makes cooking so much easier than having to use tons of pots and pans, waiting for the oven to heat, or the water to boil. When you cook something in the pot, it also becomes a great serving dish too. Which made me realize that it may be a fun to use it for a Super Bowl Party and make a warm, yummy dip.
So here is one of the Ninja Cooking System Recipes to consider, and it is no ordinary broccoli cheese dip! Sautéed onion provides a savory base, then broccoli, cheese and seasonings slow cook until the mixture is hot and the flavors are blended. A bit of sun-dried tomato pesto adds the perfect tasty twist. Divine, right?
No worries if you don’t have a Ninja System. Just use your stove and a basic slow cooker!
Let’s play some football!
Broccoli Cheese Dip
PREP: 10 min COOK: 2 hours, 10 minutes SERVE: 6
What you need:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cups chopped fresh broccoli
1 can (10¾ ounces) condensed broccoli cheese soup
½ cup milk
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon sun-dried tomato pesto sauce
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
Ground black pepper
(You can keep the calories low by using reduced fat milk, cheese and soup!)
What you need to do:
1. Pour oil into pot. Set to STOVETOP HIGH and heat oil.
2. Add onion to pot. Cook uncovered 5 minutes or until onion is tendercrisp, stirring occasionally.
3. Add broccoli to pot. Cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Stir soup, milk, Worcestershire sauce, pesto sauce, cheese, and black pepper into pot.
5. Set to SLOW COOK LOW for 2 hours. Cover and cook until broccoli is tender and cheese is melted.
6. Then serve!
It has been a week since my surgery and it has been….interesting.
The pain was to be expected, but there were other things that I didn’t expect.
First, I haven’t slept in a bed. While it may look comfortable, after the sixth night, it loses its appeal. So I am not sleeping well and I am uncomfortable, and that combo makes me really cranky.
Speaking of cranky, adding to my pain and sleepless nights, I’m swelled up like a balloon. I feel like I am nine months pregnant in the middle of a heat wave in July in Arizona.
Third, I cannot walk upright, as my son joyfully demonstrates. Which means, in addition to my abdominals, my back hurts. Trying to help my back, I started to squat-walk to take pressure off of it, which means my quads hurt. If you have followed that progression, my whole body is on fire.
Fourth, I try not to gag when taking my medications and vitamins, which I have to do five times a day.
Don’t get me wrong, I am happy to be where I am right now, but at the moment I am one cranky Mom. It will get better, I know. I can only dream about it as I watch informercials at 3am from my make shift chair, looking at my cankles, while gagging on my pain medication.
I had a tattoo. The word, “Had” being the correct verb. Due to my abdominal surgery, it went bye-bye.
It wasn’t a tramp stamp, people. Sorry to burst your bubble. It was the size of a nickel and was to the left of my right hip bone. I got it when I was completely sober and 32 years old. I wish there was more of a back story (Vegas, my 20s, a drunken party), but I’m rather boring. I even waited until I wrote the law that allowed tattoo parlors to be licensed in Massachusetts.
I got the tattoo for its meaning. It was of a pale yellow quarter moon and a purple star. I have always been fascinated with the cosmos. I could listen to Carl Sagan all day (he was a graduation speaker at my college.) I even took a class called Extraterrestrial Life my junior year and, as a project, created life on Mars…successfully. (Thank you very much.)
The moon was my symbol of feminine power. The star reminded me to “reach for the stars” in life with the light of the moon to guide the way. I loved that thing. It was tasteful, pretty, meaningful and powerful.
The incision area from my abdominal reconstructive surgery ran from hip bone to hip bone, so the tattoo was, at a minimum, going to be damaged from the surgery. Yet, once everything was stitched internally (umbilical hernia, ventral hernia, diastasis recti), I had excess skin, near the incision line, that the doctor removed. Hence, the loss of my beloved moon and star.
As I turn into my 40s, I realized that it was a symbol of my 30s. Perhaps, subconsciously, when I got the tattoo seven years ago, the moon and star were my hopes and dreams of my family. Now that they are here, the symbol has faded in favor of my real Moon and Star: my son and my daughter. It went from a two dimensional symbol to a three dimensional reality.
Going forward, when I write a blog post, that is how I am going to reference them. My son being the Moon and my daughter being the Star. So, while I said goodbye to the tattoo’d moon and star, I now get to embrace the real thing.
The company, Vicks, has come up with a Cold & Flu Survival Guide. There are some very helpful tips in there. Plus, this winter, Vicks is also donating a Behind the Ear Thermometer and Vicks Starr Night Humidifer to Baby Buggy, a non-profit dedicated to providing U.S. families in need with essential items for their children.
The new year did not start off healthy for us. As of December 30th, my son had the flu. What clued us in? When he threw up at breakfast. And guess who got sick a week after that. Your truly. I always love when doctors tell me to wash my hands to make sure I don’t catch whatever germs my kids have. Do they not have kids themselves? I can wash my hands till the cows come home or until pigs fly. It does nothing to prevent germs when my kids sneeze in my face when I am changing their diapers.
Fabulous.
I also had a really interesting problem when my son got sick. As most of you know, he is three, which is a tricky age I found out, when it comes to taking his temperature. He is too old for the rectal thermometer, but he didn’t understand that the oral thermometer has to stay under his tongue. I tried the temporal artery thermometer (forehead), but he is three. Do you think he sits still, even when sick? And the thing makes tons of beeping noises so I can’t sneak a peak when he is sleeping. So I dug out the Vicks Behind the Ear thermometer I got last year (check out this post). When he was sleeping, I snuck in and got a reading. (Score for Mom!) Besides showing the temperature almost immediately, the back light is either green, yellow, or red, depending on the temperature. So in the semi-dark, you get the gist of what you are dealing with. We also pulled out the humidifier I have been toting with me since college. It works great and having the air more humid can prevent respiratory issues during the winter months.
We got the flu shots, we wash our hands, but I know there are other steps we can take.
As I mentioned above, Vicks is donating a Behind the Ear Thermometer and Vicks Starr Night Humidifer to Baby Buggy, a non-profit dedicated to providing U.S. families in need with essential items for their children. All you need to do is to go to the Cold & Flu Survival Guide and share their message by email, Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest so more families can get the items they need this flu season!
Easy peasy. Good cause. Rocks, right?
That said, how about winning either the Vicks Behind Ear thermometer or a Vicks Starry Night humidifier (winner’s choice) to help your family stay healthy this winter (and to give you the tools you need when they do get sick.) Can you imagine getting through cold/flu season without either?
Giveaway ends February 4th. Here are five ways you can enter. Do all five for the most entries!
Leave a comment letting me know which item you’d prefer to win! (How simple is that!)
Follow me on Twitter and leave a comment telling me you’ve done so (and what your Twitter handle is!). (I send funny tweets so it may be worth your time!)
“Like” the CharleneChronicles Page on Facebook and leave a comment telling me you’ve done so. (I know this is a hard one, but you’d get to see cool things, right?)
Go the the Vicks Cold & Flu Survival Guide and share their message so they donate to BabyBuggy (and leave me a comment telling me whether you did and how).
Tweet this message! and leave a comment with the tweet URL. (How to do so can be found here.)
Contest has ended. Congrats to Sharda who won the Thermometer!
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Rules: (Gotta have them)
+Leave a comment about this post; US entrants welcome. Include your name and email in the appropriate fields so I can contact you if you win. (Including just first name or first name + last initial is OK!). For your safety, please do not put your email in the actual comment. Anonymous or SPAM-like comments will be discarded. Entry period closes at 11:59PM ET, Monday, February 4, 2013.
++ One lucky winner (drawn randomly via “And the Winner is” WordPress plugin) will receive one of the prizes listed above per their choice. No substitutions and the winner will be notified directly via e-mail who has roughly 48 hours to respond and claim their prize. They then will be listed back at this post using first name only. A minimum of 5 people must enter in order for the Giveaway to occur. Winner must comply with all rules mentioned here, or a new winner will be selected. Charlene Chronicles has the final decision on the winner and is not responsible for wrong email addresses or notification being tagged as spam. The prize will be fulfilled by a Third Party and Charlene Chronicles is not responsible for the fulfillment. Any concerns about your prize should be directed to the company(s) mentioned in the post. By entering this giveaway, you have agreed to all these terms and have assumed such liability. Twitter or Facebook is no way affiliated with this giveaway. Full legal disclosures can be found here.
+++ To claim entries, please post one comment on this post per entry (include permalink, name, or tweet url if required). Good luck!
……………………………………………………………. Image Credit: Vicks Disclosure: I was not compensated for this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
As you may know, I am in LOVE with my Ninja 3-n-1 Cooking System. You can see my video post about it here. So I’m always looking for any Ninja Cooking System Recipes to use.
