One of my favorite websites!

One of my fave websites... Shana Logic! This site totally rocks! I am madly in love with the Cupcake Love Ladies Tee. Check it out for yourself!

Tutu for Kylie Cakes

I made this fun easter pastel tutu for Kylie last night. It's made of shiny tulle in 5 different pastels...pink, white, blue, yellow and lavender with a purple satin bow.

Glamour Magazine

Glamour

I just saw on their website that they are
offering for a limited time a one year subscription
for $1.50. Expires March 15th.

Day 4

I am by no means trying to put myself into a little box as a low-carb or diet blog. I am a food fanatic so I am sure I will be sharing lots of recipes and they won't all be low-carb. For the time being, blogging about it is making me accountable. Even if you aren't low-carbing, these recipes are still really good. If you want to try low-carb, hopefully I can inspire you.

Day 4 ~ I have gotten over my immediate cravings..food isn't pulling me like a zombie to the kitchen the second I get out of bed. I can stare at a candy bar and have no desire to eat it. Also, very notable...my joint pain is GONE! I usually wake up in the morning and feel like I got run over by a bus. The last 2 days I woke up..feeling my age LOL! My skin hasn't been as dry (probably because I am drinking more water) and my mood swings have subsided. Now granted by the end of day 2, you would have thought I was in the midst of the worst PMS EVER! My head throbbed, my jaw ached, my hand shook...I was in essence detoxing myself. I had to go through withdraw no different than caffeine, alcohol or drugs. It was painful but once you get over the hump, it's all rainbows and unicorns on the other side. Yesterday I only ate some eggs in the morning, a salad for lunch and a small plate of my cheeseburger meal for dinner. I am not obsessively searching for loads of desserts to make. I am not counting my carbs because as long as I am eliminating starchy white foods and sugar..I feel good about what I am doing. Although Atkins Induction is 20 gms or less..I still know I will lose weight on less than 50 carbs. Not to mention, moving into next week will have my appetite lowered even more and I can focus on making better choices.

Warm weather weirdos and massively good cheeseburger

So I am driving with Kylie yesterday...sun is shining, it's warm and you can tell people are stirring. The car wash lines were insane and the kids were playing outside. The overweight man behind me in his car takes off his shirt..the whole thing, and then proceeds to pull his seat belt back over his hairy old chest and clips it. He rolls his window down and Kylie says "Mom, that man is NOT pretty!" Weirdo!!!!

Warm weather always brings out the weirdos.....

Speaking of warm weather I had a craving for a burger all day yesterday. I am huge fan of Uno's burgers but I didn't want to eat there by myself thus the massively large Pickley burger was born!!!

I created this for dinner....



I took ground beef and browned it, added cut onions and some 21 Seasoning Salute. Then I put it in a greased dish with a light layering of shredded cheese on the bottom. Next I made a thin layer of mustard and mayo..then shredded sharp cheese..then bacon. I put it in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes to melt the cheese. After it came out, I made another layering of mustard and mayo and topped it all off with sliced dill pickles. I would have added lettuces and tomatoes if I had had them. YUMMY~one of my favorite low carb dishes so far. I made fries to go along with it for the rest of the family.

Thrifting finds

A few small thrifting finds ~

I snagged Kylie some good deals today on clothing. I also found a copy of Dr. Wayne Dyer's book for children. You can check out the book here. I am so excited about this!!! It's a Scholastic book about teaching children to follow their own path, release anger and worries and to not be afraid of change. It rhymes too which is a plus..anything that rhymes rocks my world! I read this last night and am madly in love with it. It's one of those rare children's books that's really worth the cover price..and then gifting it with a personal signed note inside. I am a HUGE fan of Dr. Wayne Dyer's and I got to show Kylie that I am reading one of his big people books. Finding this book in a sea of shelves upon shelves of books..shows me I am on the right path. I love synchronicity :)

I also found this uber cute stuffed slice of cake....lub lub lub. Going in my room!

A Rockin' Party for Animals

Etsy goodies in the mail today!

Etsy goodies in the mail=smiles and grins

My two orders from etsy.com came today. I am soooo excited about them!

I got this awesome magnet from cakespy.com! I lub lub lub it and will be going back to get more soon!



I also got this totally cool light switch plate from 3zart. It's going in my new creativity room which is in the works.

Freschetta Pizza Hack!

My oh so lucky perfect wonderful (can you tell how happy I am about this!) family got to eat pizza and wings for dinner....my fave :( Luckily it wasn't ny style greasy pizza or I would have been too sad to even post this. Since there wasn't too much else to eat or at least that I was in the mood for, I hacked Freschetta and made my own damn pizza......screw it, the crust isn't my fave anyway.

My low-carb pizza (again very fattening, just warning ya!)

The line up~ again almost all from Aldi's. I had pizza sauce leftover from when my little sisters visited and we made mini-pizzas so I am using that. I am also using the cheese I have (Italian & Cheddar)..you can use any kind/amount and I am using Trader Joe's (my other fave store) 21 Seasoning Salute.



And let me remind you of what the freschetta looks like BEFORE we hack it!



I swear I did't eat that piece.Kylie did!

So take some pizza sauce and spread a thin layer on a small plate.



Then add some 21 Seasoning Salute or whatever seasonings you want..I would have added oregano but for some odd reason it must not have survived the move. Grocery list check!



Now add your cheese (s)...




At this point, you can add mushrooms, black olives, anything you want..I opted for cheese but you will see why shortly. Now put it in the microwave for 1-2 mins, enough to melt the cheese.



To top mine off, I hacked the freschetta pizza and stole the toppings right off...that's right, folks..I plan on telling SO that they just fell off. Slid right off when I tried to take the piece.



Now if only I could get to that damn chicken inside!!! My breaded hot chicken wings hack gone awry!

Kylie the Cowgirl

My daughter loves to dress herself....this morning she decided she would spice things up with a cowgirl hat. I told her this outfit totally rocks!!! Too bad she outgrew her Target pink cowgirl boots... :(

Thursday Tightwad Reports

Print out the form for $3 rebate on any Pyrex metal bakeware (11/30/09)

Print out a coupon for B1G1F Glade Sense & Spray, up to $10.

Get a free sample of Ziploc Fresh Shield bags. No Costco membership ID required.

Print a $5 rebate on Dummies books...I think a lot of these can be found at Ollie's though.

Print out the form for a $25 rebate on Hill's Prescription Diet and Science Diet for all you animal lovers out there!

Print out the form for five $1 coupons on Hungry-Man, Mrs. Pauls, Van de Kamp's, Duncan Hines Oven Ready, Aunt Jemima or Lenders Bagels. Must purchase 5 of these products between 3/1/09 - 3/31/09

Sign up for a coupon for a free can of Mighty Dog (up to $.99)

free caramel mocha drink at Bob Evans

I got this email from Ruby Tuesday's...looks like a good one. I haven't been going there that much and honestly, I am not sure who has so a coupon like this is long overdue....Ruby's BOGO COUPON

I will definitely be using this one~Buy an 8oz box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Crackers - Cheddar variety and get a refund up to $2.99.

Last chance for CVS 90% off. I found Valentines for 29 cents at my store and some leftover candy. Also had some cute love lotto tickets and a Care Bear singing toothbrush at 90% off. Got a basketful of stuff and my total was $1.73. Will be saving it all in my gift box for down the road.

Results of Day 1

Ok so I did find every loophole in the book...every stinkin' one!

I started out on a good foot...atkins ready-made shakes I had sitting the back of my fridge. Bought them at Walmart weeks ago with good intentions. I personally think the shakes that you make and shake on your own taste better, especially with ice but this was the wimpy route and I took it. So I drank my chalky chocolate-milk wannabe early in the morning and washed it down with a bottle of water.

11am..starting to get hungry and aggitated. Mostly because the box of donuts were staring me in the face~ all my convience foods were laughing at me. Everything that makes sense and saves time, all the sugar and carbs.....couldn't have any of it. That's when I broke down and made the meal of chicken, which was good but very filling.

However over the course of the rest of the day, I had:
several globs of peanut butter (hey it's lower in carbs0
olives
cream cheese..yup just straight up
cheese cubes
a piece of low carb cheese cake minus the crust

and for dinner I had bratwurst. I should not have had all the yucky stuff in between but I still must have been close to low carb cuz even at midnight last night, I had a pounding headache. That's always my first sign of too little carbs. Maybe I didn't do too bad after all.....

Lush Giveaway ~ Bath Bomb and Angel Soap!

Another LUSH giveaway for all you lushie lushes out there! These are two of my faves so I know you will enjoy them.

I am giving away a LUSH Christmas Party bath bomb and a small LUSH Angel Delight sparkling star soap to one lucky Kylie Ate Cake reader.

To enter, leave me a comment below telling me what your favorite post is in my blog thus far.

For additional entries worth 1 entry each:

~ follow me on blogger
~ subscribe by email (come back here and let me know you did so)
~ blog about this giveaway and post where I can find it
~ tweet about this giveaway

You can enter daily with a different post. Contest ends March 31 at 11:59pm. Make sure I have your email so I can contact you if you win. Winner is chosen at random by random.org. Winner then has 48 hours to claim their prize. Thanks and good luck everyone!

Kittencal's Moist Cheddar-Garlic Oven-Fried Chicken Breast

I lub Recipezaar and have for quite some time. It's the rating and reviews that I adore! I like that people can go on and put their two cents in about how it turned it out. Kittencal is one of my favorite posters.... so in my search for something to do with thawed out chicken boobs..I found her recipe for
Kittencal's Moist Cheddar-Garlic Oven-Fried Chicken Breast
I had to lowcarbify it which was really easy..I just nixed the breadcrumbs. Overall this was really easy and pretty darn tasty. Even if you aren't watching carbs, you can stand to lose the breadcrumbs without it still tasting fantastic. This would be a great family dinner..however the pig I am made 4 boobs and ate 2 for lunch today and will prolly eat 2 tomorrow for lunch...hey it's my first low carb day..i am ravenous. I am including my version below and just so you know, I have a bad habit of never measuring anything.

Here's the line-up and yes, yes, these are all steals from ALDI'S.



My chicken breasts had been thawing in my fridge and are just the individually wrapped chicken breasts. Two of them were oven-roasted flavoring and the other two had some seasonings on them already. So naturally you can use any kind of boobie you want.

I melted some butter into a small bowl and in a another bowl, I combined Parmesan cheese, Italian shredded cheese, loads of garlic and some shredded cheddar and mixed that up.




This was my heavenly cheese and garlic kiss of death. Notice the lack of breadcrumbs..however if you want them, toss them in the swimming pool of fat.



Then you want to grease a pan for baking...pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.



Next we dip the chicken into the butter, then let it swan dive right into the cheese and garlic concoction.






Make sure they are good and covered in goo.





Then bake for 30-35 minutes in the oven uncovered.



Mine took a little longer than that..they were kinda thick so I did 40 mins. If you want to get them crispier on top, you put them under the broiler for a couple of mins.


and there ya go!


I lub recipezaar

Low-Carb Pre-jitters

Grrrr..I hate diets. Even the thought of depriving myself of grilled cheese sandwiches and cookies is making me cringe right now. I feel a part of me dying lol! So I am a little late jumping on my low-carb bandwagon. I had hoped to start on Sunday and it didn't happen. At any rate, NOW is the perfect time.

Here are my plans for tomorrow besides shooting myself:

drinking only water..with a straw..a purple one
breakfast ~eggs, bacon and ham
lunch ~ leftover taco meat with cheese and olives..i can see this not going well..by this point i will be starving..might have to make a chicken breast and eat that too
afternoon snack ~ cheese cubes
dinner..if i make it that far will be bratwurst with peppers and onions
dessert..yes damnit i said dessert..... will be......will be...awwww man no dessert

Now don't be afeared, I am not a stranger to the meat, eggs and cheese world. In 2002, which turned out to be a great year, I managed (lord knows how) to lose 65lbs on Atkins!!! Yes, it's true..together my friend and I lost a whole person. Doing something like a diet plan with a friend does make it easier and I also didn't have a boyfriend and a 4 year old to feed either. We lived eating out at restaurants mostly....oh and on straight up vodka. The first two or three weeks are the hardest but it it is amazing that after that point, your cravings literally are gone. This is why I continue to come back to the atkins diet and know that this is the best way for me to lose weight. I just don't have any self-discipline anymore. It's hard making 2 meals, one for you and one for your family...and I am lazy. Sure, I know people do it all the time...there are far worse things in the world than not eating mint chocolate chip cookies and making rainbow cakes....or so they tell me. So alas..I am starting my low carb diet and....

this is attempt 132.

Congratulations to the Lush Winner!

Congratulations to the winner ~ Zestywonderland! She has won the terrific prize of a lush bath bomb and pleasure dough soap.

Thanks to everyone who entered, blogged about it, signed up for my newsletters and signed up to follow. I appreciate your kindness and look forward to lavishing you with some pretty cool bloggie entries to read.

I have another contest running on my blog right now ~ the prize is an intuitive reading so if you have anything on your mind lately that you have been curious about~ step right up and enter.

Weekly Thought

Truth is the aphrodisiac that pulls us out of ourselves and into the Divine. It is all that matters. Nothing remains that has been built on lies. Truth and love vibrate at exactly the same frequency. When you are standing in your truth, it is then, that you will most feel your connection with Spirit.

Articulous Artichoke dip and Rosemary Bread

I am a massively huge fan of artichoke dip....so much that I have scoured the internet and tried just about every recipe there ever was...just when I thought I had found the best (recipe provided below), my sister and I discovered ~

COSTCO!!!!!

I bow to the Costco artichoke Gods~ they make me fat and happy!~!!! To top it all off, they sell this amazing bread called Rosemary and Olive Oil....heat it up in the oven to warm it and heat the dip...together~ it's orgasmic..i kid you not.

Next time you are at Costco, I beg you....grab the dip in the refrigerated back bins and the bread from the bakery section. You will NOT be disappointed. I will no longer make artichoke dip...this is my new mantra.

Now prior to this...the best dip recipe I had found for artichoke dip is actually an artichoke and spinach dip. I have rec'd rave reviews on it at many a potlucks and family get-togethers. However, it is pretty pricey to make and takes a little time. Very good though. I am posting the recipe below so you can try it too :)

Serves: 12 Prep. Time: 0:40 2 cloves garlic - minced 2 Tbls. minced onion 1/4 cup real butter 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 2 cups heavy cream 1/4 cup chicken broth 2/3 cup fresh-grated Pecorino Romano cheese 2 tsp. fresh-squeezed lemon juice 1/2 tsp. hot sauce 1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 cup sour cream (2) 10 oz. boxes frozen chopped spinach - thawed, squeezed dry 12 oz. jar artichoke hearts - drained, coarsely chopped 1/2 cup shredded white cheddar cheese -In a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat, sauté garlic and onion in butter until golden, about 3 - 5 minutes. -Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute. -Slowly whisk in cream and broth and continue cooking until boiling. -Once boiling, stir in Romano, lemon juice, hot sauce, and salt; stir until cheese has melted; remove from heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes. -Stir sour cream into pan, then fold in dry spinach and artichoke hearts. -Fold the mixture into a microwave-safe serving dish, or into several serving-size dishes. -Sprinkle cheddar evenly over top(s). -At this point, the dip can be refrigerated until ready to serve, if desired. -Microwave dip on 50% power just until cheese has melted. Notes: Serve with tortilla chips for dipping

More from Aldi's

I have been experimenting more and more with my Aldi's selections. So far I have only been unhappy with the canned mushrooms and the East Asia family Chinese dinner. The canned mushrooms..I mean as far as canned mushrooms go, had a pretty bad taste. I only use canned mushrooms for adding to spaghehtti. These were pretty weird tasting so I ended up tossing them out.

The East Asia beef Chinese dinner was strong with a very nice lemongrass flavor but the beef was not too good, not to mention, there might have only been 4 pieces of strange looking "beef" in the whole thing. Next time, I would just buy that and use it as a starter..then add your own beef on top. The rice and the flavor was kinda worth it.

The fig newtons have a cake like taste to them which is refreshingly nice. Inside was the same damn gooey fig that I so adore.

We also tried these banging cheddar cheese and jalapeno chips...well I mean my SO did. I managed to get one chip from him and the rest of the bag "magically" disappeared!!!

Still impressed overall...this week they are sorta doing an Italian thing. Lots of pastas, sauces, pizza and more featured. You can go online and check out their specials. I really wish my store sold liquor..not that I have much time to drink these days LOL.

How to get free food

Found this awesome blog entry that was posted by Erin Gifford, owner of CouponCravings.com.
Lots of tips and tricks here if you eat out alot.

Get Free Food Tonight

Hertz Rent a Car for the Weekend FREE promo ~ Ends March 31

Hertz Promo

If you have any trouble, call customer service and let them know you are interested in using the promo. Apparently people are getting upgrades for calling....I am going to call and see if I can get an SUV or Truck for the promo. Would be a cheap way to rent a truck for the weekend to buy furniture with. Only problem is that the nearest Hertz location to me is about 25 minutes away so be sure to check your nearest locations first.

Hurry~CVS Perfume Gift Sets 90%

CVS perfume gift sets are ringing up at 90% off making them 1.99 each. I always grab a bunch to have on hand for gifts, contests and birthdays. Get them while you can...among the many I know Tommy, Curve and White Diamonds are ringing up.

Free 2 years to Family Fun Magazine

Free 2 years subscription to Family Fun! I love this magazine....I save all my back issues for reference for kids party ideas, recipes, crafts and more. The magazine has fun stuff for kids of all ages and the instructions are really easyily laid out. In my personal opinion, it's right up there with Martha Stewart Kids. Anyway, I have a subscription and adore it...found this and wanted to tell you all to sign up. I have used Rewards Gold for numerous free mag subscriptions and they are safe. The magazines come within 6-8 weeks or so..I have always gotten the magazines I request. Does require to you fill out short survey. Once you are finished, it will tell you about other free magazine specials..the have Womans Day, Body & Soul, Elle Decor and more!

Hurry before it ends!

Free 2 year family fun magazine!~