CatGenie Review

We adopted two kittens over the summer, bringing our cat total up to three.  The kittens were pooping and peeing machines.  I scooped both litter boxes at least once a day.  My husband noticed how straining it was on my back.  Prior to even knowing that the CatGenie 120 existed, my husband thought it would be a good idea to have a litter box that washed and flushed the litter.  He Google searched for something and found the CatGenie.  It was expensive and I didn't want to spend the money to get it.

In September, we went on a two week vacation and hired a pet sitter to look after our three cats while we were gone.  All the cats hid from her whenever she came over so I'm thinking she didn't come as often as I paid her to.  When we returned, the stench of cat urine could be smelled from outside our apartment door.  She scooped the poop but failed to dig deep enough to get the urine.  There was cat litter all over the floor.  I slaved over scooping out two weeks worth of heavy, urine-soaked litter.  Then proceeded to wash out both boxes.  My back was hurting.  My husband mentioned I wouldn't have had to do that if we had the CatGenie, how we might save money by not having to buy litter.  When he is out to sea I would only be able to buy the small boxes of litter from the store because I can't carry more than 15-20lbs.  I would be spending about $8 a week on litter, or about $350 a year.  The CatGenie was $329 and, on impulse, we bought the damn thing.  The CatGenie uses washable granules in place of litter.  We thought we would never have to buy granules again and would only need to purchase the cleaning cartridges.  We wouldn't be saving much money in the first year, but years beyond that we would.

We've had the CatGenie set up for just over two months.  My older cat is still very reluctant to use it.  She will only use it about every two days and she's always very wary about entering.  The kittens took to it really quick.  And after about two months, we're ready to call it quits and revert back to traditional litter.

The washable granules get everywhere.  They stick to the kitty paws, they stick to the bottom of our feet.  They get tracked everywhere.  A lot of the granules get flushed.  You have to always be replenishing the granules.  After the initial box to fill up the CatGenie, a box will last 1-3 months.  So much for saving money on litter/granules.  For the first month and a half I was bending over, straining my back, sweeping up every little granule trying to save.  It's not worth it.

The cleaning cartridges are supposed to last one to six months.  The fresh scent cartridge is way too perfumey.  We switched to the non-scented kind and it was better.  We're on our third in just over two months.  The first month we had the CatGenie set up so that it would only run when I started it.  For the second month we had it set to the cat activation mode.  This mode uses less of the cleaning solution and is supposed to last up to six months.  My cats go in the CatGenie but don't always use it.  The CatGenie will run an extra 3-5 unnecessary times a day, rewashing already cleaned granules.  Many times it's immediately after it finishes a drying cycle that the cats will go in to feel the warm granules.

The worst thing about the CatGenie is baked poop.  It would happen about once a week when I was manually starting it.  Ever since switching to the cat activation mode, it happens at least once a day...usually ends up being 2 to 4 times a day.  The scoop either squashes the poop or it misses it completely.  Then it gets washed and dried on high heat.  It's in the drying cycle that you will smell the stench of baked poop.  It's horrendous.  I'm actually smelling it right now.  You have to keep an eye on the scooping cycles and make sure it gets all the poop before the water fills the bowl.  Or just scoop the poop yourself with an extra scoop.

Yesterday one of the cats had the runs and that was the worst bit of poop soup turned baked poop ever.  We'll be moving in less than a month and I'm officially done with the CatGenie.  The only way I would ever use it again is if we had a second bathroom we could designate only for the CatGenie or an enclosed laundry room with a ventilation fan.  Just shut the door while it runs and that would help with the baked poop smell.

Maybe in a couple years they'll develop the CatGenie with a sensor that can remember where the cat pooped so the scoop doesn't squash or miss.  Also if they developed some way to separate the granules that get scooped so they are reused and not just flushed.

Unless you have a second bathroom or enclosed laundry room, I don't recommend it.  It's too late for us to return it.  My husband might try to play with the mechanism or maybe we'll just sell it...but I'd be sure to warn people about the baked poop!

DIY Mini Gift Bags

As promised, here's the tutorial for these DIY mini gift bags.

Source

The main things you'll need for this are card stock, ribbon, a hole puncher and scissors.  

If you want to make fancier bags then you'll need to find those pins in the photo (I have no idea what they're called), glue or tape, a ruler, cutting mat, an x-acto knife and other things to decorate the bags with (thank you's/for you's).

Click for Larger View

Step 1:  If your paper has one side white, place the white face up.  This will be the inside of the bag (pink on the outside).

Step 2:  Fold the edges towards the center.  This fold determines the length of the bottom of the bag.  If you want a longer bag, do not let the edges meet in the middle.

Step 3:  Open the fold.

Step 4:  Fold the bottom up 1.5 to 2 inches from the top.  This fold determines the width of the bottom of your bag.  If you want a wider bag, then don't fold it so close to the top.

Step 5:  Open the fold and rotate the paper 180 degrees, so the fold you just made is towards the bottom.

Step 6:  Fold the bottom up, repeating step 4, make sure the fold is the same size as in step 4.

Step 7:  Open the folds.  The rectangle in the middle is the center of your bag.  Fold one side of fold you made in Step 2.

Step 8:  This step is tricky.  Study the photo because this is hard to explain.  Grab the fold at the bottom fold line (from the fold made in Step 6).

Step 9:  You want to bring the edge of this fold to the edge of the paper.  Again, refer to the picture.

Step 10:  Repeat this fold on the other side of the paper.

Step 11:  Flip the paper around and repeat this fold on the two other sides.

Step 12:  This is what your paper should look like after you make these folds.

Step 13:  Bring the top and bottom together and you can see the bag!  You may have to slightly bend the smaller sides into the bag.

After this, it's up to you how you want to make the handles or decorate the bag.  In the finished examples in my tutorial I used some heavy duty scrapbooking paper.  I made those bags in less than 5 minutes each.  If you have time and want to make these look really good, make sure you crease the folds flat.  Also, this paper had some shiny surfaces and I used double-sided tape to try to keep some of the inner edges cleaner looking...but the tape just wouldn't stick to those shiny surfaces.  Glue would have worked better.  I tied the handles in two different ways because the white ribbon was too thin for the paper punch holes.  Both ended up working just fine and I like how cute the white ribbon handles look.  I love these bags.  Quick and easy.  They don't have to be perfect.  They were used at a co-ed baby shower so I imagine most of them got thrown out once the guys got home.  Would be great for party favors at any party.

Baby Shower

I was co-host to my best friend's baby shower.  I was in charge of the decorations and prizes/gifts plus this awesome drawing we used for pin the sperm on the uterus game!  Gotta give credit to the co-host's 7 or 8 year old daughter for helping me color it!

For decorations, we decided on tissue paper pom-poms and this decorative ribbon cake stand/hangy thing.  Those didn't turn out so well.  I went to a local fabric store to find seam binding and all they had were dull fabrics in bright colors, nothing close to the greyish/green theme we were going for.  I ended up getting ribbon instead.  What I should have done is left the fabric store!  Instead, I bought ribbon by the yards...and it was expensive!  Silly me!  I could have gotten a whole spool of it, like 18 yards for a fraction of the cost...and we wouldn't have run out of ribbon!  We had to space out the ribbon on the cake stand and chandelier.  Didn't look as pretty as it could have but I bet most people at the co-ed shower didn't care about the decorations.

As for the pom-poms, I tried one and was just going from memory on the directions.  I tried pulling the individual pieces of tissue paper apart and it seemed impossible without tearing.  Then the co-host came up and just separated them with force...lol, it kind of worked but it was still in more of a bow shape than a circle.  We ended up tossing it on top of the litter box for decoration, lol.
I wanted to try it out without wasting so much tissue paper, so I cut some in half and tried to make a little one.  I was surprised that the first half of what I separated turned out to look nice, and I probably should have just stopped at the half.  Or maybe tried both sides at once because the other half ended up not opening as much.  It definitely wasn't the round shape it's supposed to be.

I also made a diaper bouquet.  Sadly, I have no proof of how it turned out as I forgot to take pictures.  It was pretty simple and turned out nicely for a first try, didn't take long at all either.  I found a vase and put some diapers on the bottom to fill it up because the foam ball I got was too fat to fit all the way down.  I stuffed a onesie, baby socks and washcloths all around the vase to hide the foam ball.  Then I wrapped diapers around wooden skewers secured with rubber bands (didn't find clear ones) and stuck those in the foam ball.  The diapers I got were Sesame Street ones (didn't do that on purpose) so the color on them added a nice touch (take my word for it).  Instead of tulle, I used tissue paper (because I got a crapload of it trying to find the right color).

I saw this pin for DIY foldy mini gift bags and wanted to give it a try for the gifts and favors.  Since the pin didn't give directions, I had to play around with folding the card stock and surprisingly got it to work pretty decently on my first shot.  I got fancy card stock for the baby shower bags and this stuff was way too hard to bend, but it still worked.  It gets pretty simple after you get it down.  One bag ended up taking about 5 minutes or less.  I didn't have any glue to keep the corners from sort of getting in the way (not needed so much in the one pictured as I did the ribbon/handles different for this one) and I loaded those babies up with double sided tape...which only lasted 5 minutes on the plasticy, thick card stock.  I didn't do any of the fancy trim or get those knobs for the handles.  A little ribbon did the trick.

I will definitely be creating another entry with directions on how to make these neat little gift bags!

Bug Juice?

When I went to Wisconsin in July to visit my family, I tried out my dad's juicer.  He asked me if I wanted one.  Hell yeah!  It arrived about two weeks ago and sat in the box for a week.  My husband was going on a run for his energy drinks so I asked him to pick up a few things that were on my list, which included "fruits and veggies."  He came back with oranges, apples and bananas.  He kind of missed the veggies.  The oranges didn't look good so I figured I'd try making some fresh orange juice.  The pitcher filled is about 10 large oranges (they had color added, that's why it's pink).  It tasted good fresh-squeezed but sadly the next morning it was clear the oranges were no good or perhaps one should not make so much at once?  Maybe fresh-juiced OJ goes bad quickly?

I should also mention the Bug-a-salt arrived last month!  We haven't had flies lately so we haven't had the chance to test it out.  It's hard for me to cock the gun, takes all my might, so I'll have to practice for fly season next year!

*Update 11/30/12:  I shot my first fly yesterday!  I got it on my very first shot too!  No maggots, yay!

Macaroni and Fail

I had saved this pin/recipe for microwaveable easy mac for a time when I felt lazy and didn't want to cook.  I have to be honest and say this happens a lot and I'd rather just grab something and eat right away then prepare or cook anything.  So the recipe calls for 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese.  I had block cheese and shredded it myself.  I think that was my mistake.

I can honestly say it didn't turn out.  The cheese just chunked up. I tried adding more milk and more microwave time, but it just didn't get creamy.  Does shredded block cheese not melt?  Would I have had the same results with store bought shredded cheese?

I had a bowl of it and the texture was just too weird.  I ended up tossing the leftovers.  I might try this again some day with actual shredded cheese.  Or I might as well just find a stove top recipe since I have to cook the noodles anyway!


I saw a pin for fruit pizza a while back and have been wanting to make it.  I had some at my cousin's birthday party in July but I wanted one with the kinds of fruit I like.  I finally got around to buying all the ingredients for an easy recipe (I didn't do the jelly topping) and remembered the hell I had beating the softened cream cheese the last time, so I smoothed it out with the back of a large spoon.  That seemed to do the trick.  I even had to add sugar and 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract and it mixed quite well with the back of the spoon.  Hooray!  It's pretty delicious.  The one thing I hate about making food is that my husband never eats it and half of it ends up going to waste because I can't eat that much.

September Wedding

I had the honor of being in my best friend's wedding as her only actual bridesmaid.  She had three other men stand with her.  What do you call them?  Bridesmen?

I had seen a pin for a bow necklace prior to her wedding and thought how cute it would be to try to create it to fit in with all the men wearing bow ties at the wedding.  I went to Michael's for the supplies and didn't find the shiny kind of leather.  It ended up being more felty-like.  With practice, I could have probably got the bow shape to work better but I (of course) did this last minute.  First image is me with big hair all ready to go and then the finished bow necklace (never mind the kitty claw holes in my table top).

The view from my friend's suite.  Hello Baltimore!

The wedding was beautiful and I'm so happy for my friend and her spouse!  I didn't dance enough because I wasn't sore the day after!  This was the first time I had the honor of being in a wedding.  I was in mine of course, but we just got married at the courthouse.  I was supposed to be in another best friends' wedding several years ago but could not afford plane tickets as she was to be married on New Years.  How many weddings have you been in?

September California Vacation

In August of this year, my husband and I had been married for a year and half.  I still hadn't met any of his family except for his father.  They all live in California and we didn't have the money to take a trip out there.  We wanted to go last Christmastime during his Holiday stand-down but plane tickets are ridiculously pricey. So we've been saving and in September, we finally took a trip out there.

Of course, whenever I fly, I run into flight delays.  Our flight out of Norfolk was delayed so bad that the plane was still in Texas at the time it was supposed to leave Norfolk.  We thought we would miss our connecting flight but that plane also had a delay.  It was delayed by about an hour and then once we were all boarded, they found electronic issues that needed attention.  After two hours of sitting on the plane, we were finally on our way to California.

It was great meeting my husband's family.  His grandmother is a gem.  She is a three-time cancer survivor and 80 years old!  She let us stay in her spare room on her gorgeous farm.  So many fruit trees, I loved it!  I tried persimmon for the first time (I had never heard of it before).  I also got to try out a Washlet Toto, which is as closest to a bidet as I'll probably ever get.  I was scared to try it out at first.  It's actually quite nice and wouldn't mind getting one myself if I ever own my own home.

During the first week, the hubby and I did some sight seeing at Whiskeytown Lake, Burney Falls, Lassen Volcanic National Park, and other places around Redding.  We also scored a free annual National Parks pass.  Active duty military should know that they can get one for free!  The sights were just amazing!

On the trail going down to the bottom of the falls, we were following a deer and two fawn.  We spent so much time at the falls that by the time we got to the Volcanic Nat'l Park it was getting close to sunset and we didn't get to walk any trails.  We did stop at the stinky sulfur works...because men are interested in things that produce stinky gas?

For our second week, we headed south to Morro Bay.  Sadly, this part of our journey was not very fun.  We made it down to Los Banos from Redding and got a hotel room.  The next morning I woke up with a stiff neck, a whirring sound in my left ear, a bit of vertigo, and a big fat sinus headache.  With all the driving my husband had to do and being warn out from the daily activities of our first week, we decided to stay another night.  When I woke up the next morning, I felt a million times worse.  The vertigo was so bad it was making me nauseous.  

TMI WARNING!  I do not vomit if I can help it because it goes up my nose/into my sinuses and it burns.  I do breathing exercises to keep it down and I can successfully go years without vomiting (unless given vicodin but I know now to instruct doctors to never give me that).  This was too much to keep down though.  It came up with a violent burp every time.  TMI?  I warned you!  I didn't have a lot in me so what came up was yellow and what I thought was a bunch of sinus fluid from over the night.  Between 7 and 9am I vomited the same stuff four times total.  Same yellow stuff, yet my stomach, aside from sipping water afterwards, was empty.  It burned too, so at this point I'm wondering if it was stomach acid and from what I've read online, could have been bile?  Anyway, we checked out and just a few miles down the road I threw up again (I brought a black plastic bag just in case).  We had a couple hours to go so I pretty much passed out the whole way.  When I woke up we were about an hour out and I vomit again.  It wasn't getting any better.  I felt no relief after I threw up each time.  As soon as we got to Morro Bay we said a quick hello to Lanny, my husband's friend/second father figure and then we were off to Urgent Care.  I was told I had some kind of infection and was given antibiotics, a shot for the nausea and a prescription of the same shot just in case the nausea came back.  Boy did that shot ever make me drowsy on top of already feeling tired from the sinus pressure.  We filled my prescriptions and I almost fell asleep standing up while we waited.

A friend of Lanny's let us stay in their guest apartment, cute little place.  The nausea stopped and I slept for a very long time.  I still felt sick and tired so we didn't do much sight-seeing.  We did go out one day that I felt better.  I got to see some of the houses Eric's father owns and we walked around San Luis Obispo a bit.  We saw Bubblegum Alley (it's disgusting) and ate at Eric's favorite restaurant.  He had some turkish coffee, which he was raving about ever since he finished boot camp in 2010.  I tried some baklava and creme brulee.  I also got some gorgeous pictures of Morro Rock.  As my husband would say, "Three stacks and a rock, yo."

                           

During our delays on the way out to Cali, a friend had mentioned to wait in the USO lounge.  Wish we had done it on the way out, but we definitely took advantage of it on the way back.  It was so nice.  That's definitely where I'll be waiting during future (inevitable) delays!

We had hired a pet sitter for our two week vacation.  Sadly, the kittens were scared of the sitter and never came out while she was here.  They hide in the cupboards or the back of the closet whenever someone knocks on the door.  They're so scared of strangers.  I paid her extra to come twice a day occasionally because she lived close but I doubt she came twice at any time.  The litter was definitely not scooped to my satisfaction.  She hadn't used any of the cat litter I left for her.  With three cats, you need to scoop every day or it gets stinky.  She didn't clean up all the litter that accumulated around the box like I had included in our contract and when we returned home, the bottoms were lined with clumps of urine because she didn't do a thorough job.  

I had to scrape the heavy piss clumps off the bottom of the boxes and wash them out completely.  It was so heavy and was killing my back.  The hubby had previously noted how painful it was for me to bend over to scoop every day for three cats, two of which are pooping and peeing machines.  All the piss and shit for one day weighs down a full garbage bag to the point that I can't even take it outside to the dumpster without dragging it.  Even when we just had one cat before we were married, the hubby noticed how bending down to scoop strained my back.  He mentioned there should be some kind of catbox that washes the litter and flushes it.  He did a google search and found the CatGenie.  It was really expensive and I always said we didn't need it.  Well, after coming home from our trip, that's the first thing I wanted!  Eric was on board and ordered it right away.  A review of that is in the works!

My Trip Home - July

In July, it had been a year since I moved to Virginia and I hadn't seen my family since.  A trip home was definitely in order.  I was flying into Milwaukee and it just so happened that the cab driver that took me to the airport was from Milwaukee!  Small world!

I rented a car from the airport and drove home (in the wrong gear) to Burlington.  Spent a couple days visiting my family there and then took my two nieces and their cousin on a road trip to Upper Michigan to visit my mother and other family there.  The youngest slept most of the 6 hour drive.

My Uncle lives in Texas and every summer he makes a trip with his two kids to Upper Michigan to visit.  My mom always throws the older cousin a birthday party because it happens to be during the summertime.
I painted the balloon toss trophy rock and helped fill up the water balloons for the toss.  This was the first time I attended my cousin's annual party.  I partnered with my mom in the balloon toss, we didn't win, but it was definitely fun.  Afterwards, we had a water balloon fight to get rid of all the extra balloons.  The rest of the party was fun, the food was yummy and I'm going to try to schedule an annual trip back there.  I definitely miss spending good quality time with my family!

The rest of our trip consisted of playing croquet, swimming in my mother's inflatable pool, sidewalk chalk, a trip to Lake Superior, rock painting, s'mores, and other sightseeing.  I always sleep well when I'm visiting with my mom.  There's nothing like Mom's home cooking plus daily activities to wear you out!

We spent a week or so up there and then headed back down to Burlington.  I had a few days left before my plane was leaving.  I had planned on visiting with some friends in Illinois but plans fell through.  I sat around bored for two days.  Then on the evening before my plane left, my dad got an offer from a friend to go to a Brewer's game with some of the best seats in the house, in a founder's suite, right next to the manager's box! It was amazing, once in a lifetime seats (for us average folk).  This was the best Brewers game I had ever been to!

Kitchen area, bar, and there's a private bathroom back there too!

Seating area, flat screen tvs. 

Inside was air conditioned (it was HOT out), there were tables in front of the glass doors...yes, they did slide open completely.  Lots of leg room on the chairs plus that little table in front.  So nice!

The two monitors outside.  Manager's box on the other side of the railing with much nicer seating.

I headed to MKE the next day and experienced some major delays.  While waiting for my jumper from Baltimore to Norfolk, I saw a few things.  First, I saw a mouse.  Not the kind you use for a computer.  No one else seemed to notice it.  Then I noticed this family of three, a mother and two kids, stop a man, shake hands, get a picture and then autographs.  I have no idea who he is.  Do you?

I was anxious to get home after spending hours waiting in Baltimore's stinky and cold airport.  When I arrived home, it was anything but inviting.  It was a pig sty.  The kittens had gotten into everything and the hubby didn't clean up anything, not even after himself.  There was garbage, toilet paper (that the kitties got into), plastic bags, clothes, papers, everything scattered all over the floor.  It got worse as I ventured further into our apartment.  The litter boxes hadn't been scooped in two weeks.  The garbage was overflowing.  The dishes were dirty and the hubby had taken everything out of the cupboards looking for anything he could use that was clean, instead of washing the dishes.  He mistakenly thought we had a garbage disposal because the sink was clogged and disgusting.  I will spare you pictures.  It was very disheartening and stressful.  I had no idea where to begin.  I learned to never leave the hubby alone for more than a weekend.  If I ever leave for longer than that, I will hire someone to clean up and take care of the cats.

Chaotic

As I write this, I have less than 6 hours before a cab picks me up to bring me to the airport.  I'm going on a trip to visit my family.  There's still so much I have to do!  Here's a quick update on what's been going on.

Salmon dinner was a flop.  Threw that out and made the monte cristo crescent sandwiches again.

I made this ranch potato dinner recipe (below)...yummy.  I used sour cream instead of mayo and the consistency of the sauce isn't all that appealing, but it tasted good.  Didn't have corn flakes for the top, so I dug out a cup or two from the Raisin Bran box.  :)  Recipe also called for 5 red potatoes, but they had huge gashes in them at Kroger.  I opted for a small package of baby red potatoes and it worked out just fine.

Ranch Potatoes

5 red potatoes
Butter or cooking spray
2 packages Hidden Valley Ranch buttermilk ranch (ingredients needed milk and mayo or sour cream)
8 oz. Cheddar cheese
2 cups Corn Flakes
2 tablespoons butter

Make ahead: 2 packages Hidden Valley Ranch buttermilk ranch, follow directions.

Boil and drain potatoes.  Put on low heat for 5 minutes to remove water. Cool in 9 x 13 pan.
Butter pan, cube but don't peel the potatoes.  Pour dressing over potatoes.  Sprinkle with 8oz. cheddar cheese.  Bake 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Melt 2 tablespoons butter.  Combine melted butter with 2 cups Corn Flakes.  Spread over potatoes.
Bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Hiatus Explained

It's been over two weeks since I last posted.  I have fallen back into my old habits of eating poorly.  I've had Carnation Instant Breakfast just about every morning even though I was wanting to cut down on it.  I need to stop buying it and get into the habit of making breakfast in the morning.  The last two weeks of my online JavaScript class really wore me down and stressed me out.  On top of that, I adopted two kittens somewhat on the spur of the moment.

My husband and I have, for some time now, been wanting to adopt two kittens.  Why two?  I have an 8 year old cat, Shadow, who doesn't like other animals.  She has had kittens in the past so I thought she might like them better than an older cat.  I always feel terrible about leaving Shadow alone and thought she would eventually get used to the kittens and they could keep each other company.  We wanted two kittens just in case Shadow didn't get along with them so that they would keep each other company.

My vehicle registration and plates expired at the end of June.  I was out running errands after getting my vehicle safety inspection sticker.  I wanted to get a public library card and went to the nearest branch.  (Off on a tangent, I really miss the Palatine Public Library and Schaumburg Library from back in Illinois.  The branches out here do not compare.  There are too many branches and they are all very small.  They are closed on Sundays and they mentioned they will be closed on another day starting this month.)  Just outside of that library was a Petco.  Every time I'm near a Petco or a Petsmart, I have to check to see if they have kittens for adoption.  Before I found the adoption center, I wandered around the store and saw 3 people who had kittens in boxes!  Once I found the adoption place there were two kittens, two brothers.  I find out they are having a kitty-palooza...one kitten for $25 or two for $40!  Petsmart wanted $100 per cat!  This was too good of a deal to pass up.  The lady set up gates surrounding the adoption area and let me play with the kittens.  I was so torn between getting them or not...I was there for over an hour!  We had nothing prepared at home, but they were too cute and it was such a great deal.  I got them!  Meet Thor and Loki!

It's been about two weeks since we got them.  We kept them and Shadow separated for the most part during the first week.  Except at night, the kitties and Shadow now have free range of the whole apartment.  At first, Shadow was reluctant to leave my bedroom (where we have her food, water and litter since she spends most of the day sleeping on the bed or on our dresser anyway).  She hisses at the kittens when they get too close but they all sleep on my bed now during the day.  Shadow shows an interest in the kitties, but likes to observe them from a distance.  It's a good sign that she will get used to them.  I don't know if she'll ever be cuddle buds with the kittens, but I can hope!  They will at least keep each other occupied!

When we first got them, Loki was the friendly one and Thor was scared of us.  Now, Thor is my new shadow, so loving and very vocal.  Loki is still loving, but not as much as Thor is.  Loki is scared of the brightly colored cat toy I got for them (string on a stick) and Thor attacks that thing and never stops.  Thor does this weird meow and sometimes it sounds like he is a creaky door.  He also snores!  See the videos below!

I need to get back on track with eating healthier and preparing meals.  It's not going to be easy considering I am taking a two week vacation to visit my family soon (so yes, expect another two week hiatus!).  I'm excited but nervous about flying.

If you want to see what I've been eating, follow MyFitnessPal food diary.  I usually struggle to meet the full 1200+ calories each day and I always go over on my sugar intake.  Nothing new there I guess!

Summer Solstice

I got a decent night of sleep last night.  It's going to be another early night tonight.  I am hoping I have officially reset my circadian rhythm!  I am going to try out that zumba class tomorrow...so long as I don't back down. I'm pretty apprehensive about going to a new gym for the first time.  I take comfort in familiarity.  I need to just force myself to go...it will be fun!  And I need the exercise.

I attempted a Pillsbury Monte Cristo Sandwich recipe but didn't read the recipes when I grabbed a few things from the commissary last week.  It called for two Pillsbury crescent rolls and I only grabbed one.  So my sandwich is a little smaller.  I also didn't get ham because my husband won't eat it.  I make this food but he usually eats breakfast, lunch and dinner on the ship.  When he comes home, he's not hungry.  So I guess I need to start cooking for one.  That raspberry-lemon no-bake cheesecake I made a couple days ago still has two pieces left...I've been trying to eat it, but I just wish my husband would scarf down the rest.

I also hate my oven.  When directions call for 15-20 minutes of baking time, mine cooks in like 8-10 minutes.  The edges of this sandwich on the bottom are slightly burnt.  I checked it a minute before I took it out and it was still a light golden brown.  One minute later and it got pretty dark.  It was good. I really like the raspberry preserves on top.


I obviously haven't been doing well in terms of meal planning.  I need to go grocery shopping tomorrow but still don't have recipes in mind.  I'm getting tired and will probably get to it tomorrow morning.

June 19

I didn't sleep at all last night.  My husband had to wake up at 3am for an early day of work, so I figured I would stay up until he left...then I caught my fourth or fifth wind and somehow managed to stay up until 9:30am.  Napped for only 3 hours so that I would be tired and able to go to bed early again.

When I woke up, I found out from a friend that Sallie Mae has changed their policies on private student loan forbearance.  It used to be up to 2 years and now it's only 12 months.  So in the 10-30 years of repayment one has on their private loans, they only get 12 months of forbearance.  It's ridiculous!  She was told she had three months left of forbearances and now, because of the policy change, she has none left!  I was pretty enraged.  They can just change the terms and not notify borrowers until it's too late.  More borrowers will be forced to default.  Sallie Mae benefits more when people default, so I'm not surprised in their evil policy-changing tactics.  It just pisses me off!

June 18

It's a Pie Day

I watched Forks Over Knives on Netflix last night while trying to relax after stressing out over my difficult homework.  After having difficulty falling asleep, as usual, I watched Burzynski, followed by The Gerson Miracle.  I recommend all three of these videos to everyone.

Being a brain tumor survivor, the way the FDA and the Texas Medical Board were treating Burzynski really pissed me off.  The guy was saving lives and using a treatment that doesn't poison the cancer patients.  What is so wrong with using a better alternative?  Why is the government so resistant to change if they won't profit from it?  I couldn't sleep after Burzynski.  I especially couldn't sleep after spotting this guy crawling around my bedroom door and probably all over the sweaters I had hanging on the knob (I washed them before I wore them again).  Not sure if you can see him on top of the door to the right, but he was huge...over an inch long!  I really hate living here because of these damn roaches (they're so huge!).  I am hoping that we are able to afford to move to a nicer neighborhood that is roach free at the beginning of next year.

After watching all three of these videos, I have come to the conclusion that if I ever get cancer again, eating healthy would be my first attempt at treatment.  I am trying to eat healthy now, but after watching these videos, I realize that I don't need as much meat, egg, and dairy as I am getting each day.  I could eat a lot healthier.  I watched Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead a couple months ago and would love to try a juiced diet to see what kind of effects it would have on me.  Having a juicer would be helpful.  I have a blender, but it's still a pain in the butt.  If I still weren't better from just eating plant-based foods, I would try to seek out Burzynski's treatment.

I didn't do very well with sticking to my meal planning for today.  When I woke up, I was going to make eggs, but didn't feel like it.  I made some oatmeal and followed the directions on the package.  2/3 cup is A LOT!  It spilled over the edge of my bowl in the microwave and I still have a bunch left for breakfast tomorrow.

I didn't make a smoothie.  I have a tendency to skip eating when I'm busy.  I was busy doing laundry all day.  I found out that if I just add minutes to the dryer time, I can save about .50 per load.  In order to do that, I had to wash a load, and while that load was drying, wash another load, and while that load was drying, wash another load...I ended up saving $1.00 today.  It costs $1.25 each to wash/dry.  It's kind of time consuming, having to go back and forth to the laundry building and up and down the stairs.  In between I would either be folding clothes or doing dishes/preparing to make dinner.

When the laundry was done, I began preparing dinner.  I made the cheddary chicken pie.

I swear my oven is messed up.  The recipe called for 35 minutes of baking total.  I had this in for 20-25 minutes and it got pretty dark.  I had forgotten to get a pie pan when I went grocery shopping last week, so when Eric had to go to the NEX to get his hair cut on Friday, I quickly ran into the commissary to grab a tin one.  All they had was an 8 inch cake pan.  The recipe called for a 9 inch pie pan, so this has a bit of extra crust around the edges.  It's still good.  Should I make this again, I need a pie pan and one of those pie servers.  I would use less chicken (I like the veggies better), include potatoes, and have more gravy/creamy filling.  I bet I could use cream of chicken soup with this instead?  Maybe I will experiment sometime.  The cheese is nice in this and I liked it a lot.

While dinner was cooking, I gathered all the ingredients I would need for this no-bake raspberry-lemon cheesecake.  While it cooled, I began preparing it.  If I ever make real cheesecake, I need to get a hand mixer!  My arm will probably be sore tomorrow from mixing up the ingredients!  I didn't want to wait 3 hours for this to cool, so I definitely licked up any remaining batter before I rinsed the bowl out and the spatula off.  It was very yummy!  It's very creamy, not like normal cheesecake, but I guess that's to be expected as it's a no-bake.  It has fresh raspberries in it and I like it.

I drank over 5 cups of water today.  Good for me, as I've been averaging four.  Five is what I should be getting in a day, at minimum.  Since I skipped out on lunch (I did eat half an Atkins bar), I'm pretty short on my calorie intake.  No wonder I was so tired and exhausted all day!  Only 29g of sugar for today...not bad.  Oh crap, I forgot to log that I had added brown sugar and honey to my oatmeal.  I'm sure it's waay over that, lol.

Tomorrow (is today)'s meal planning...leftovers!  Leftover oatmeal for breakfast, leftover cheddary chicken pie for lunch and dinner, leftover cheesecake for a snack/dessert and hopefully I will have energy to throw in a smoothie somewhere!

Meal Planning

Based on my height, weight and age, I should be consuming daily 5 ounces of grains and things from the protein group.  I should be consuming 2 cups of veggies, 1.5 cups of fruit and 3 cups of dairy each day.  I figure once I can do this on a daily basis, I can up the ante to the recommended food pyramid guide.  1 ounce of grains is one serving.  A piece of bread is one ounce, so is 1/2 cup of rice or pasta.  I've been counting 1 cup of pasta as one serving, oops!  3 ounces of meat is about the size of the palm of my hand.  2 tablespoons of peanut butter is one serving of the protein group.  I took all this information and tried to do some meal planning for today.  After a while of trying to figure out where I can add things to get the RDA, I was starving and opted for a quick fix of carnation breakfast essentials...the stuff I'm trying to cut out of my diet.

I figure I really need to start having a real breakfast in the morning.  Not just carnation or just a smoothie.  I need to make eggs or pancakes or french toast; something to get more grains and proteins in.  Smoothies are my best option for getting my fruit intake since I don't eat a lot of fruits.  I snack too much on chocolatey things throughout the day and it would be nice to eventually snack on fruits instead.  I should try making smoothies as a mid-day snack.  Especially if when I start working out, it'd be a good boost to have afterwards.

Here's what I should be striving for when meal planning:

Breakfast:  1 serving proteins, 1 serving grains, 1 serving dairy.
Lunch:  1 serving veggies, 1-2 serving grains, 1 serving protein, 1 serving dairy
Snack (post-workout smoothie):  All the fruit I need in a day, 1 serving dairy, 1-2 servings protein
Dinner:  Remainder of proteins, veggies and grains (should be about 1-2 servings each)

With that in mind, here's what I hope to eat tomorrow:

Breakfast:  2 scrambled eggs with cheese  (I really need a toaster, and some bread...not sure how else to throw grains in here for now)
Lunch:  1/2 to 1 cup of creamy garlic pasta (whatever is leftover from today's leftovers), 1 cup mixed veggies with some grilled chicken.
Snack:  Smoothie, be sure to add 2 tbsp peanut butter (or snack on a handful of nuts)
Dinner:  One piece of cheddary chicken pie (with veggies)
Dessert:  One piece no bake raspberry-lemon cheesecake

I am missing about one serving of grains.  I really do need to get a toaster.  Having some toast with the eggs for breakfast would be nice.  Maybe I can try throwing some oatmeal into my smoothie.  My blender doesn't grind it up very well but I guess I'll let it run for a few minutes before I add any other ingredients.

update:  Ate horribly today.  I spent most of my day finishing up a chapter for an online JavaScript class I'm taking.  I tried to follow along with the book example but it just wouldn't work for me.  I truly want to understand what I'm doing, so I went back and tried it two more times and it still wouldn't work.  So I continued ahead with the homework assignments.  I get two case projects to do; usually have to make a mock website and it ends up taking over 3 hours to do one of the case projects.  Of course the ones my instructor assigns are ones that the book doesn't really cover.  Like in this first one that I'm still stuck on, it requires you to validate a check box (user has to select a check box before they can press the enter site button).  Well, the book says that since the example they use is optional, they skip over the validation code...the code that I need to complete this project!  It was really stressing me out yesterday.  I searched google and finally found one code that works but I spent hours trying to understand why it worked and got no where (the code is more advanced and doesn't reflect what I should know so far in the book).  It's frustrating.  I think I am just going to stop stressing over this homework so much and just find code that works and use it.  Since I'm learning entirely from the book, I will go back when the course is over and try again from the beginning.  JavaScript just hasn't clicked for me yet.

I didn't eat much yesterday, but what I did, was crap.  :/

No Mas Pimiento!

It's 6:30pm and I'm typing this while I'm eating the sauteed chicken with olives, capers and roasted lemon dinner I made.  Yeah, I'm supposed to be fasting right now.  I needed parchment paper for the recipe I cooked and had to wait for Eric to get home from work before I could go to the store.  It was already 5:30pm when I started cooking.  Oh well, I still hope I can go to sleep somewhat earlier this evening, maybe around 8pm.  Anyway, here's my dinner.

It's missing the spinach.  I only have a tiny and medium sauce pan (my one skillet would be used for the chicken) to use for the spinach.  I filled it as full as I could with the baby spinach so that I could still toss it to mix it up.  Holy moley does that stuff reduce once it starts to cook!  By the time it was done, I had about a cup of spinach.  I messed it up by burning the breadcrumbs because I confused the kitchen timer for the time I needed to cook the chicken, when it was meant for the lemons roasting in the oven.  I had to spend time trying to flip the chicken breasts when I caught the time error and left the breadcrumbs to burn on accident.  Need to invest in tongs.  Trying to flip chicken breasts with a cheap, flimsy spatula is too time consuming.  I also added waaay too many breadcrumbs.  So when I mixed the breadcrumbs with the spinach, it was more like having spinach with my breadcrumbs instead of the other way around.  Add to that burnt breadcrumbs...it wasn't good.  I will have to give the spinach another go.

As for the rest of the meal...well, I was supposed to add the chicken stock, capers and olives long before I actually did.  The olives are rather over-powering.  I used slightly more than the recipe suggested.  Maybe if it got to simmer long enough it would have lessened the effect?  Will definitely stick to recommended amount next time!  I also didn't realize the olives were stuffed with pimiento.  Maybe that is what is over-powering?

For lunch I tried another batch of that creamy garlic pasta, only I improvised a bit.  I know the grated parmesan cheese I have is loaded with sodium.  It's the stuff you buy dried that you shake on spaghetti.  I figure I would try just one serving of that (2 tbsp) and make up the rest of the cheese with mozzarella.  Didn't turn out too well.  It turned into a gooey, sticky ball of pasta.  I need to try that recipe again with a block of grated parmesan.

I started logging my food using the food diary on myfitnesspal when I couldn't sleep early this morning (see previous post).  I had a cup of carnation breakfast essentials then and once more for real breakfast this morning (after sleeping).  I'm already way over on sugar, I know.  I will update later with today's totals.

I did work on some homework today, but not much.  I slept until about 8:40am.  When I woke up, I saw the maintenance men heading over to fix the air conditioner.  Yikes!  I had sleep wrinkles on my face and was wearing my bright pink Betty Boop pajamas when I let them in.  My eyes were puffy from just waking up, but I at least had time to comb my bed head.  They had to keep turning the power on/off, so I couldn't use my computer while they worked.

Sometimes, when we turn the AC off from the thermostat, it continues to run and has to be shut off by flipping the breaker switch.  The maintenance men ran into this problem quite a bit today.  The first time, the unit outside even ran for over 5 minutes after they switched the circuit breaker.  What is up with that, I'm not sure...but I'm wondering if that's one of the reasons why the AC likes to randomly stop working.  They fixed the freon gauge and the AC is working again.  Hopefully it lasts the rest of summer!

 

My numbers for today are decent.  Fiber is low, as usual as is sugar very high.  No real fruit, except the juices of the lemons and less than one serving of veggies.  Four servings of fruit.  One serving meat and grains.

Insomniac

I haven't been able to sleep.  It's nearly 3:30am.  I am so tired but I was hungry and it was keeping me awake.  My middle of the night snack was carnation and while I was drinking it, I figured I would start today with logging my food over at myfitnesspal.com.  They only give you the option to track six things, so since I figure my fat and cholesterol are always low since I began logging, I will track calories, carbs, sugar, fiber, protein and sodium.  Myfitnesspal's recommended daily intake of each thing I'll be tracking:

Cups of water: 8 (Based on my petite size, I'm going to stick with aiming for 5)
Calories: 1280  (in the mid-range of what I was logging before)
Carbs: 126g (on the low end of what I had)
Sugar: 26g (I was aiming for less than 40g and that was hard...this will be impossible!)
Fiber: 15g (I was aiming for 20-35g)
Protein: 48g (lower/mid range of what I had)
Sodium:  2500mg!!

I don't know where I was getting my <1,100mg figure from.  I just looked it up again and they say it was once at 2500 but they lowered it to 1500.  Now they say the maximum intake is 2300 but it's not recommended to exceed 1500.  I will shoot for 1500.  Myfitnesspal subtracts the goal amount from your total amount to let you know how many are remaining for you to meet your goal.  I'll just have to consciously try to pick out low sodium things when I go shopping from now on.

I really need to attempt to reset my sleep schedule.  I read a while back that the easiest way to do that is by fasting 12-16 hours before the desired time you want to wake up.  I want to wake up at 6am, so tomorrow (it's really later today, I just say tomorrow because I haven't slept yet), I should stop eating between 2pm and 6pm.  My stomach usually growls and gets very gassy when I don't eat, so we'll see how this goes!

I think it's time to try this sleep thing.  I imagine the maintenance men will be here not long after 8am to fix my AC, so I better try to get what little sleep I can!  Tomorrow's goal:  HOMEWORK, HOMEWORK, HOMEWORK, HOMEWORK.  NO PINTEREST!

Crafty

I took Eric to that far away base again today and was able to browse around a couple stores and not buy anything...until I made it to Michael's again.  I went back with a list of things I needed for certain projects I wanted to try.  Mostly projects that include making jewelry to match my bridesmaid dress and my friend's wedding colors.  I am going to attempt to make a ribbon bracelet (may turn it into a necklace), a corded necklace (that is much like the friendship bracelets I used to make when I was a kid), and this cute bowtie necklace.  I also picked up a $2 clearance box that I can use for photo storage (or something else).  I was disappointed when I came home and found these upcycled cardboard boxes on Pinterest.  Oh well, $2.  Will  have to remember to upcycle boxes like that in the future!

So here's what I've bought from Michael's this week.  I have got so many more creative ideas pinned on pinterest, but this stuff should last me a while!  I bought the 4 tshirts (the royal blue one is missing...can you tell my favorite color is blue?).  I plan on doing some tutorials I found to gather fabric at the neckline and at the sides to make these large tshirts fitted and more my style.  I am also going to learn how to knit, with the ultimate goal of being able to knit several things: scarf, blanket, sweater, slippers, long fingerless gloves, and a winter hat.  Gotta get working on those bracelets and necklace sooner than later.  I also bought one bottle of airbrush paint.

About two years ago, my father bought me an airbrush because the one I had used while in high school no longer worked, and because he wanted me to be able to make money at street fairs and festivals in Wisconsin by doing these types of airbrushing, lol!  I never got the new one to work properly, couldn't even get water to run through it.  Hopefully the hubby can help me get it working, because I am inspired again to create all sorts of art.

I know I didn't do too well with meals today.  It was mostly grab and go...pinterest, again.  I also had to clean up the living and dining areas because the AC is broken again.  Can't have maintenance see the state the living area was in...that is, hubby came home from work and dumped his bag out on the floor.  Clothes, papers and miscellaneous stuff he had in his locker on the ship, all over the floor.  It had also been a while since I dusted and swept.  I would love to do a good thorough cleaning job on the whole apartment and then stick to a daily cleaning schedule...I just have to get caught up on the homework before I can do that, or before I can start any of these craft projects!

Daily Consumption

Servings of grains:  1
Servings of meats:  2
Servings of dairy:  3
Servings of fruit:  <1
Servings of vegetables: 2-3

(Red = Bad, Need to Improve!  Pink/purple = OK, Room for Improvement  Green = Good!)

Cups of Water (5 cups) :   4
Total Calorie Intake (1000-1500):   1125
Total Fat Intake (<30% of TCI):  33g  about 2.9% of TCI
Total Carbohydrates (125-230g):  187.5g
Total Carbs from Sugars (<40g):  92.5g
Total Carbs from Dietary Fiber (20-35g):  18g
Total Cholesterol (<300mg):  49mg
Total Protein (44-60g):  53.5g
Total Sodium (<1,100mg):  2313mg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Breakfast:  Ensure - 350 calories, 11g fat, 10mg cholesterol, 230mg sodium, 49g carbohydrates, 1g dietary fiber, 18g sugar, 13g protein
Snack:  1/2 cup beans - 170 calories, .5g fat, 480mg sodium, 35g carbohydrates, 6g fiber, 15g sugar, 7g protein
Lunch:  2 cups of spinach salad (cheese, croutons, blackberries, bacon bits) - 163.5 calories, 15.5g fat, 24.5mg carbohydrates, 10.5g sugar, 5g dietary fiber, 35mg cholesterol, 13.5g protein, 828mg sodium
Snack:  Three petite sweet pickles - 20 calories, 5mg carbohydrates, 4g sugar, 85mg sodium
Dinner:   1/2 cup beans - 170 calories, .5g fat, 480mg sodium, 35g carbohydrates, 6g fiber, 15g sugar, 7g protein
Snack:  Carnation with a cup of 2% milk - 250 calories, 5.5g fat, 39mg carbohydrates, 30g sugar, 4mg cholesterol, 13g protein, 210mg sodium

Too Thymey

A couple days ago, I had joined the Atkins community to get some healthy recipes and got a free quick start kit for joining.  It came in the mail today.  I tried out the caramel nut chew bar...it's exactly like a snickers!  I want more!  It only has 1g of sugar!  I  noticed that I really need to cut back on my sugar intake.  My usual carnation breakfast has 30g of sugar...that's 75% of my daily intake right there!  Sadly, I should really try to cut carnation out of my diet completely.  That's hard for me, as I've been drinking the stuff for over 5 years almost every day for breakfast.  I also need to not buy those fruit flavored yogurts for smoothies...too much sugar, 26g sugar...over half my daily intake right there!

I recently signed up for the MyFitnessPal website.  It has a food diary that I am hoping I can utilize and it will make calculating all this nutritional information a little bit easier.  It also has an exercise calculator, which I am hoping will help me get my butt moving because I need the exercise.  I especially need to build muscle.  I am no where near as in shape as I was a couple years ago.  I want to get in on that zumba class that is on Thursdays but I guess it will have to wait another week.  I am going to drive the hubby to work again tomorrow as he has to go to that base that is far away.  It's nice to get out of the house and I have a few more crafty things I want to shop for at Michael's.

I am pretty disappointed with how I spent most of my day today.  I did change the catbox, take out the garbage, unload/load the dishwasher, and make dinner, but aside from those few things, I've pretty much been on the computer all day.  I've been spending a  lot of my time these past few months promoting and helping members in the ForgiveStudentLoanDebt.com group on FB.  A petition that was started just 3 months ago in support of H.R.4170 - Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012 surpassed one million signatures late last night.  There was an influx of new members asking to join the group so I spent a lot of time this morning adding members, bumping important posts and answering questions.  The rest of my day was spent calculating past days' nutritional intake, but mostly on Pinterest and a random tutorial generator.  I should have been catching up on homework for my online javascript class.  I fell behind on the weekly homework assignments while I had my gallbladder removed a month ago.  I get two problems, usually having to create some sort of mock website for each.  It ends up taking me anywhere from 4-10 hours to complete.  I've been working on last week's homework but I still need to finish this week's homework by Sunday or I'll still be a week behind.  I really need to devote one entire day to just doing homework to catch up.  Could have happened today, but it didn't, sadly.  Won't happen tomorrow, but hopefully I can force myself to at least do a few hours when I get back from my day-long adventure out in Virginia Beach.   Really need to get my butt in gear though!  There is so much I want to do and need to get done, but I waste so much time online!  Damn you Pinterest!

For dinner, I attempted this oven crisp chicken recipe.  Mine didn't turn out so well.  I used a ranch vinaigrette dressing that I had at home already and the cracker crumbs just didn't stick to the chicken very well.  Most of the crumbs fell off while it was in the oven.  Also, I checked the chicken after 25 minutes and the tips were starting to burn.  I stuck my meat thermometer in one of the breasts and it only reached 130 degrees.  I put the chicken back in for 5 minutes and checked the temperature again and it was the same.  Maybe I need a new meat thermometer, but isn't chicken supposed to get up to 165 or so?  I cut one of them open and it looked thoroughly cooked.  It wasn't too bad, but it was too thymey, I accidentally spilled a bit extra in the cracker crumbs.  It was edible though.  May try it again with real ranch dressing and different crackers.

Daily Consumption

Servings of grains:  1-2
Servings of meats:  2
Servings of dairy:  1
Servings of fruit:  2
Servings of vegetables:  1

(Red = Bad, Need to Improve!  Pink/purple = OK, Room for Improvement  Green = Good!)

Cups of Water (5 cups) :   4
Total Calorie Intake (1000-1500):   1003
Total Fat Intake (<30% of TCI):  30g  about 3% of daily caloric intake
Total Carbs from Sugars (<40g):  80g
Total Carbs from Dietary Fiber (20-35g):  14.5g
Total Cholesterol (<300mg):  92mg
Total Protein (44-60g):  48.5g
Total Sodium (<1,100mg):  1369.5mg
Total Carbohydrates (125-230g):  155g 


Breakfast: Banana, berry smoothie - 333 calories, 2g fat, 74g carbohydrates, 9g fiber, 49g sugar, 10mg cholesterol, 7.5g protein, 87mg sodium
Lunch: Spinach salad - 80 calories, 6g fat, 11g carbohydrates, 4g sugar, 2g dietary fiber, 15mg cholesterol, 5g protein, 410mg sodium
Snack: Atkins Caramel Nut Chew Bar - 130 calories, 8g fat, 4.5mg cholesterol, 70mg sodium, 17g carbohydrates, 6g dietary fiber, 1g sugar, 5g protein
Dinner: Chicken breast, beans - 365 calories, 7.5g fat, 41.5g carbohydrates, 17.5g sugar, 6g fiber, 60mg cholesterol, 29.5g protein, 795mg sodium
Snack: 2 pieces orange chocolate - 95 Calories, 6.5g Fat, 2.5mg Cholesterol, 7.5mg Sodium, 11.5g Carbohydrates, <1g dietary fiber, 8.5g Sugar, 1.5g protein