I don't go all out for company ;0)

 I forgot to tent it with foil, so it go a little dry...

But, it took me exactly the time it took the oven to preheat to put this dinner for 6 together and only about 45 minutes to cook.

You guessed it - a Boar's Head roast Beef from the deli, I sliced it into thick pieces and then dumped a bag of frozen "Stew" vegetables in.  There are small potatoes, onions, celery and carrots in the mix.  It was really good!

Weekly Gluten Free Menu Plan

Spicy Avocado on parm "toast"

Black Bean Chili

Baked Salmon packets

Wild Rice Hot Dish

Tuna Salad with Pickles!!

GF isn't always pretty but it tastes good

Yesh, this was supper the other night. Handful of walnuts and raisins, cooked pepperoni and black olives with slices of mozzerella and leftover Cheesecake flavored instant pudding. I also ran out of clean dishes so that pizza "crust" you see is, in fact, a couple paper plates.

What can I say? Some nights are just like that!

Just had to share the worst sunburn

This is what happens when I sit outside for 2 hours at 9000 ft elevation. Painful!

DANGER PUDDING!!

 I made Danger Pudding...in the Crock Pot...so I'm not sure if you can call it Danger Pudding anymore.

But, have you heard of the Sweet Potato Queens' Book of love? If not - go get it. I have lots of books but none loved so much as that and Gone With the Wind.

So, there are recipes in this book full of everything you need to know. Not so many gluten free but, Danger Pudding is one of them!

Jill says to boil your can of sweetened condensed milk on the stove to make Danger Pudding...but it's dangerous. So much so, that the manufacturer puts a warning on the label...duh.

So, one dreary evening I was scouting Pinterest and found a recipe for making "Homemade Caramel" in the Crock Pot. I didn't repin it -sorry. 

Honestly, I kept thinking it cooked for 2 hours so I started it at 8 PM and then thought better to check the instructions again and after an hour of searching my Internet history found it and it said cook 8 HOURS, cool 2 hours in the fridge. It is apparently crucial to cool it. I cannot vouch for that personally as I haven't done much experimenting. But, guess who had to set her alarm clock for 4 am?

Was it worth it? 4 am wake up call? No.  But, start it in the morning and have it for dessert? Yes.

P.S. the water looks gross in the crock because the can rusted a little during the cooking. Weird, no?

Weekly Menu - Sept 13

Vegetable Soup (Frozen Italian veggies and canned vegetable broth), possibly with minute rice

Boars Head Cajun Beef Roast and veggies

Crock Pot Potato soup

Eggs and Hash browns

Amy's GF cheese pizza with added Hormel Pepperoni Slices and black olives

Review - WEN Pomegranate - My hair never looked worse

I've been hearing about WEN for years and never tried it because...well it's only on infomercials and we all know that 90% of infomercial products are huge let downs. Then one day, I was watching the commercials and they showed the curly haired girls. They had perfectly formed, lustrous curls "without using any other product". With a full money back guaranty, how could I lose?

First off, they only have 1 scent that is gluten free - ALL of the other scents have bonafide Wheat Gluten in them (WHY? WHY?).  The Pomegranate uses a soy base.  Here are the ingredients and directions:

I know, at first I was like "16 pumps!?!? Whoa!" But, seriously, you do need that much to saturate your hair.

Then I was like, "Whoa, I have to leave it on a long time"...then I realized I was leaving on my regular conditioner that long anyway.

But...the 12 ounce bottle I ordered directly from WEN "A 30 day supply", for $30 + S&H, lasted just over 1 week because I had to bump it up to the 16- 24 pumps, since I have thick, long hair.  The 8-16 pumps must be for seriously short hair, no longer than ear length.  So, I ordered a 32 ounce bottle off QVC so I could give it a real shot, for another $60.

I watched the video on QVC after I ordered and they were saying that you should see a 70% improvement in hair after 1 use. I'd been using it for a week and all it was doing was giving me frizz and random spots of goopy build up if I didn't saturate and soak long enough.  But I was determined to use it a full 30 days before requesting my refund. Also, I was hanging on to the hope that "The more you use it, the better it gets." from the commercials.

Here's what I ended up with after 30 days:

This is what I had "before":

You can see before, my curls weren't perfect, but they were manageable and even looked pretty much ok.  After using WEN they got frizzy and snarly and I lost any shine.  I do not recommend this product at all.

Also, did you notice I spent $90 for only 1 month's worth. SERIOUSLY! I went through 44 ounces of this cleansing conditioner in 30 days, not even washing every day! That is $2 per ounce. TWO DOLLARS!!

So, if you're considering trying out WEN, I'd suggest using QVC because when I emailed them to let them know I wanted a refund, they didn't even make me send the bottle back since it's a potential leaky goopy package and I got the credit within 48 hours.

I still wonder about all the great reviews they get and the fact that they've been in business for years (I remember seeing Alyssa Milano schlepping it in the 90's) so maybe it's just not formulated for my hair!

On a side note, for $90 per month, I think I could get wigs and extensions, if I was that determined to have "perfect" hair. But, I'm back to my $3 bottles of whatever smells good that last for a couple months and back to having happy shiny curls again. Yay!

Right now, I'm using Tresseme Flawless Curls shampoo and Conditioner ($2.25 each for 32 ounces).