Capturing December-Photo-A-Day challenge

12/2 Favorite holiday movie. 

No question. 

I'll never grow tired of this one. 

LIVE @ Santa Claus Village - Arctic Circle - Rovaniemi - Lapland Finland (YouTube)

Time to travel without leaving the comforts of home. 

Live from Santa Claus Village, Arctic Circle, Lapland, Finland.

Music to live by

 Funny how over time our views change. Last month I discovered an Indie channel, Alex Rainbird Music, on YouTube. Never was into Indie music but I'm loving this! 

I have it playing in the background when I'm crafting and I honestly believe it enhances my creative flow. 

Alex Rainbird music-December 2021

And here we have December

Dear December,  I don't want any trouble from you. Just come in, sit down, don't touch anything and keep your mouth shut! 

 

12/1 - My view today

Another dose of irony

Woke. It's apparently something new according to DC and the media. They've had a revelation and must educate the world to make things right. Push, push, push.

Isn't it ironic? 

Meanwhile, back here in the real world, we the people practice mindfulness every day. Nothing new, it's been around for centuries. Mindfulness: being present without judgement in every moment. 

We've stood by them through so much, if only they would stop, pause, breathe and check-in with us. That's all it takes, all we ask. Connect. Practice, don't preach. 

Health Highlight: Diabetes prevention

Small steps, big difference. 

November is national diabetes month.

One in three U.S. adults is prediabetic! Could that one be you? Learn ways to prevent diabetes and take a short 1-minute risk assessment.

How did we ever...

Every now and then, an invention comes along and if we are one of the adventurous type that take the plunge to acquire said invention we may find ourselves struck by the revelation "How did we ever get along without _____."

For the past two years I've heard people talking about their new insta-pot; recipes filled my social media feeds every day of all the yummy food prepared in a fraction of the time. When our oldest daughter Amy purchased a Ninja Foodi Pressure Cooker, Sam and I contemplated purchasing one, but never acted on it. We felt it didn't fit our needs--it just wasn't what we wanted.

Then came along the Ninja Foodi Smart Grill. And this past August we took the plunge. Would this be yet another high-priced gadget that we use a few times, and then lose interest when the newness wears off? Nope. Not this time. Holy moley game changer! We were gob-smacked. To say the Smart Grill is amazing is an understatement. After the first two uses we found ourselves asking How did we ever get along without one? 

Our Ninja Foodi Smart Grill

Forget to take something out of the freezer for dinner. No problem. It cooks frozen food, thoroughly, in a matter of minutes.

Want to grill a steak but it's cold, windy and rainy outside? No problem. The Smart Grill can take care of that without any smoke inside your house.

It even tells you when to turn the food over. O-M-G! It air frys, it grills, it roasts, it bakes, it dehydrates. It handles dinner in a snap when you've had a long, exhausting day at work and you just don't feel like cooking for 45 minutes to an hour. We haven't tried the baking or dehydrating feature yet, but I'm sure we will.

Fried chicken, our first meal with the new Foodi Smart Grill.

Fried chicken breast for a summer salad with apples, pecans and parmesean cheese.

Steak on the smart grill.

We've cooked salmon cakes, fish 'n chips, steak, port loin, chicken, hash browns, roasts. We even made jojo's (an Idaho thing...potatoes cut into spears and then fried in oil) in the air fryer without having to worry about the oil, and they turned out better than anything cooked in oil. 

More air fried chicken.

Salmon cakes.

Pork loin.

Frozen hash brown patties, fried to a crisp in under 20 minutes.

If there is one draw back to the Ninja Foodi Smart Grill, it is this: you do need to keep the screen in the lid clean. In our home, we accomplish this by removing the screen (it just snaps out for removal) and placing it in the dishwasher every time we run a load of dishes.

I truly can't sing the praises of this machine enough. We use it practically every night. Having the ability to fry food to a crisp without the use of oil or grease is a blessing for our health. Being able to cook dinner if we forgot to thaw something in advance makes meals a breeze, especially when you find a recipe during the day that you have everything on hand for, but one item is still in the freezer. 

Every time I walk into the kitchen and see my smart grill on the counter, I smile and ask myself that question again...how did we ever get along without you?