Saturday Vittles

 

My daughter and I are trying to eat healthier, so I am sharing some of the dishes that we are eating each week. 

Baked Chicken, Sweet Potato and Black Bean bowl

We tried baked sweet potato for the first time with this dish. Neither me or my daughter liked it much. I doubt well be eating sweet potato again. 

In the bowls was:

1/2 cup of Baked Chicken

1/2 cup of black beans

spinach

1/2 cup of baked sweet potato 

You can use whatever seasoning you like on the chicken before baking it. 

This dinner was 300 calories and 30 carbs. 

Do you like sweet potato?

Freebie Friday!

 

Welcome to another weekly Freebie Friday post, where I tell you what free samples and full-sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a "Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things.  I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to great samples at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

This week I received: 

Perfume and cologne samples from Macy's. 

I like most of the scents. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Dark Cure by Cynthia Sax

 

Book Description

A warrior seeking forever faces a medic living in the moment.

Gisella, the Refuge’s medic, is dedicated to her role. She doesn’t have the space in her lifespan for love, a mate, or children. Healing is her entire focus.

But she’s also a female in her prime. She has needs, wants, cravings…especially for a scarred, long-haired barbarian warrior temporarily residing in the settlement. One fierce, soul-blasting, passion-filled encounter is all she is willing to give him before she returns to her duties.

Oghul, a Chamele Warlord’s Second-In-Command, has waited his entire lifespan to find his gerel, the being fated to be his. He’s thrilled to discover she wants him as savagely as he yearns for her.

His little human medic appeals to his primitive possessive side. Greatly. He wants to stamp his ownership all over her bountiful curves, take her back to his home planet, claim his fiery female permanently.

When Carinae E’s solitary sun rises, two determined beings with very different desires find their lifespans entwined. Their battle for emotional supremacy will span systems and alter destinies.

The universe will never be the same.

My Review

Gisela is the cities head medic. She's a tough woman and she has to be because she works around the very rough criminals. Gisela takes her job very seriously because she's doing what she loves, healing people. She has no time in her life for love or family right now. She doesn't want to end up like her mother. 

Oghul, the leader of the Chameles, comes to where Gisela works to see his brother, and the sparks fly between the two of them because Oghul knows right away that Gisela is his mate/gerel. Now he has to find a way to break through her tough outer shell and show her that things could be great between them if only she'll give him a chance. 

After an encounter in a bar like establishment where Oghul stands up for Gisela, she invited Oghul back to her quarters. She believes that a quick one night stand is all she's about to get because she knows Oghul is going back to his own planet soon. So this was meant to be a one time thing even though Oghul knows she's his mate and changes his plans about leaving when he finds her. But because she was impatient to be with him, he didn't have the time to explain to her what being together would mean that they were bonded forever. Only after their encounter did he try explaining what has just happened between them. 

To say that Gisela wasn't taking the news well, is an understatement. She didn't realize that their bonding was a forever thing for a little while, but she slowly came to realize that not only did she want to be around him, she actually wanted to compromise her strict rules about not finding someone to love because of him. 

He was able to slowly show her that being with someone was not an all or nothing type situation, that they could compromise on things and still do what made them happy. Oh and I love Oghul, what an alpha warrior he was. But underneath it all, he was a real marshmallow for her. 

I had so much fun reading this book and getting to know Oghul, his warriors and later on his family. 

The pace was rapid, and the tone is quite intense with so much fighting, killing and needing a medic to re-attach body parts. This has a very character driven storyline that has quite a few steamy scenes. The characters are very engaging and at times funny. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Falcor's Leg

 

Falcor likes to stretch his back legs out when he's out for a walk. He's not doing it in this picture, but I wanted to share this one because I liked it. lol 

But in these other pictures you can see him stretching out one back leg or another. He just stands there with a back leg stretched out. He's always done this.

He's a goofy dog for sure. lol 

I hope you enjoyed Falcor's Leg. lol 

Book Review: Watch Me Burn by V.E Huntley

 

Book Description

She opened her curtains. He opened his heart. Now nothing will ever be the same.

Damien Wolfe lives by three rules that have never failed him. But rules are made to be broken. And one smile from Dr. Luna Foster breaks them all. When she shatters everything he believes about control, Damien realizes he's lost more than just his rules—he's lost his soul to the one woman who sees his monster and calls him beautiful.

Luna thinks she understands predators—but when she becomes the obsession of a man who kills for a living, she discovers that terror and desire often share the same heartbeat. As she transforms from victim to willing participant in their twisted dance, Luna discovers that some stalkers’ violence is a form of worship. But can love survive when built on secrets, lies and blood?

Watch Me Burn is the second installment in the dark, sensual Watched in Darkness Series, where fear becomes desire when the right monster is watching.

This book concludes Luna and Damien's story. 

This is a dark romance containing mature themes, graphic violence, explicit sexual situations, and morally ambiguous characters. Intended for adult readers who enjoy psychologically complex relationships and anti-hero love interests.

Please see the author's website for a full list of trigger/content warnings.

My Review

This book picks up right where Watch Me Break ended. Luna thinks that her wolf (The masked man who comes to her at night) and Damien are two different people, and she's attracted to both of them for different reasons. 

This is a dark romance with a stalker who Luna starts to have feelings for when she realizes she's being watched and leaves the curtains open so he can watch her. Once he breaks into her home and pretty much seduces her, she craves this dark stalker who does things to her that she didn't know she would like. These books aren't for the faint of heart but a masked stalker who seduces you into wanting him? Who knew that this was the type of story I would love, and love it I do. 

Make no mistake, Damien is troubled. He's a serial killer, he's been killing bad people for more than 20 years, but he has a moral code to only kill bad people. He has a helper, Cade who disposes of the bodies and cleans up his mess, so he doesn't get caught. I wasn't sure about Cade because seriously, what kind of person is going to help a serial killer. But he turns out not to be a bad person but even Damien is a little skeptical of Cade being able to have a real relationship with a woman when he sets his sights on Maren, Luna's best friend. 

This story was so good. Yes, there are some very dark scenes and dark subject matter, but deep-down Damien isn't a bad guy. 

Their relationship is so complicated and when Luna finally realizes who Damien really is, she has to take time to figure out what she's going to do. Luna is a very strong woman to forgive all of his deceptions, lying and of course the stalking in order to get the future she thinks she wants. Damien was all out of sorts because of his feelings for Luna and because of that, he really dug himself a hole that was hard to climb out of. He knew that he had to finally come clean about who and what he was. 

Goodness, I loved this series so far. I'm so hooked and can't wait to see what happens between Maren and Cade. 

Disclosure: I was given an e-ARC of this book via NetGalley but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

*All pictures this week are courtesy of www.martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #403

 

This is a weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that have gone on in and around my apartment complex and in my neighborhood in the past 27 years that I've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 27 years here in a weekly blog post.

My daughter and her best friend and I had a little adventure on Monday night. We noticed Xavier's (missing guy)  apartment door open. So I grabbed my phone and tazer and headed over there and they went with me. I shouted into the apartment if anyone was in there, made sure no one was inside and then I locked the inside door but the security door you need a key to lock so I just locked the inside door and shut both of them. If the homeless had been inside I was going to tell them to leave or I was calling the police but it was empty, thankfully. *Hopefully the video plays for you guys*

You can hear my daughter's best friend who lives in my courtyard now, Say, "Oh this is nice." When she turns the bathroom light on. lol The apartment was completely redone, new paint, floors, appliances ect. 

When we got back in our apartment, my daughter joked that she had to go with me in case I got into a fight with someone. lol 

----

The garden is no more. 

Tuesday morning, maintenance started raking up all the rocks in the courtyard. I asked one of them what they were doing and he told me they were putting plastic sheeting under the rocks so that no more weeds would grow in the courtyards. Because as you can see, there's a lot of patches of green out there. I asked if my garden was ok and he said he was told to move it all to the garbage so if I wanted to keep any of it to bring it in. But when I started bringing stuff in, he stopped me and said that they wouldn't be getting to my section today so I had until tomorrow (Wednesday) to get it all done. He said we're allowed 1-2 small plants in pots but we can't plant anything directly in the courtyard and with the plastic sheeting being put under the rocks, nothing will grow anyway. 

They put all the rocks into piles so they could shovel them up easier to lay the plastic down.

Piles of rocks. 

I also told him that this courtyard floods during the rain and if there's plastic it's going to flood more. He said it shouldn't flood too bad and then just turned around and ignored me. The Hell? I guess we'll see next time it rains. 

This is what it used to look like. Now it's just rocks. 

----

Tuesday afternoon, I was walking Falcor past the pool courtyard and heard this woman upstairs screaming for help. I mean, she was screaming like she was being killed or something. So I called 911 and told them. She came out while I was on the phone with 911 and she was still screaming for help and the 911 operator on the phone could hear her. Then the woman started slamming her fists against the window and I'm really surprised they didn't break. 

Then she started screaming cuss words. The police got here really fast. Another woman came out of the apartment and saw me standing there and said she's mentally challenged, well that got this woman screaming all over again. Anyway, the police got here, they can sort it all out.

----

Here's something funny for you. 

I took this broken egg out of the container and was surprised when the egg white was purple! It took a few minutes to figure out that...

The egg whites probably picked up some of the color from sitting in the egg crate foam or pulp stock the crate is made from. Since it's dyed a dark purple/blue that has to be where the color came from. Sure had me stumped for a moment though. 

----

The high this week was 60F/15C

The low this week was 36F/2C

So that's it for this week's Apartment Hell  Life! Be sure to come back next week for more.

Saturday Vittles

 

My daughter and I are trying to eat healthier, so I am sharing some of the dishes that we are eating each week. 

Girl Dinner Charcuterie board

My daughter saw "Girl Dinner" trending on Tiktok and thought we should do something like that too. This is her plate. My plate was the same except I didn't have the blueberry goat cheese or the mozzarella balls in oil. Mine was a little smaller in portions. 

On the boards was: 

sliced avocado

cherry tomatoes

green olives

slices of bell pepper

black berries

3 ounces of rib eye steak

3 thin slices of baguette

a few Cheez its crackers

3 crispy bread crackers

This meal was 540 calories and 200 carbs.

We had a small salad for lunch and saved some of our calories for this dinner. We were still able to keep it to 1200 calories for the day. 

Would you eat this?

Freebie Friday!

 

Welcome to another weekly Freebie Friday post, where I tell you what free samples and full-sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a "Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things.  I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to great samples at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

This week I received: 

I won a book box from Author Becky Muth from Midnight In The Garden Readers Group on FB. 

A Healthy Snack Box win from FB.

In the Healthy Snack Box was:

Skinny Pop white cheddar popcorn

Snyders pretzels

Emerald almonds

Motts fruit snacks

Sunmaid yogurt covered raisins

Annies Cheddar Bunnies crackers

Nurtigrain bar

Pirates Booty white cheddar puffs

In the book box was a pen, bookmarks, notepads, a quote of the day notebook, dog paw stickers, other stickers and 3 books. 

And I won the bookmark and stickers from author Heather Andrews in Abbie's Dangerously Dark Darlings FB group. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Legacy of Temptation by Larissa Ione

 

Book Description

The legacy continues…

It’s a gritty new world.

Three decades after the events of REAPER, the world is a different place. The secret is out. The existence of demons, vampires, shapeshifters, and angels has been revealed, and humans are struggling to adapt. Out of the chaos, The Aegis has risen to global power on the promise of containing or exterminating all underworlders, even if that means ushering in the End of Days.

Standing in their way is the next generation of warriors, the children of demons and angels and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

See how they become legends in their own right.

Legacy of Temptation

Eva Tennant, like everyone at The Aegis, hates demons. But she loves her job as Deputy Spokesperson for the global demon-slaying organization, and she’s excited to be in the running for Chief Spokesperson. All she has to do is not screw up the two-week exchange program with The Aegis’s rival agency, the Demon Activity Response Team. But things go horribly wrong when a murder turns her into a fugitive from justice and puts a demonic target on her back.

Logan, son of the Horseman of the Apocalypse known as Death, has dedicated his life to fighting demons alongside his colleagues at DART. He loves fighting, females, and his pet hellhound, Cujo. What he doesn’t love is The Aegis, whose leadership attempted to slaughter him at birth. Understandably, he balks when he’s ordered to protect an Aegis Guardian responsible for the deaths of his friends. Really, he’d rather feed her to Cujo.

But when an old enemy rises from the ashes, Eva and Logan find themselves giving into temptation even as they sacrifice the things…and people…they love the most.

My Review

Logan is the son of Thanatos, the Horseman of the Apocalypse known as Death. When The Aegis comes to do an exchange program for information with his agency, DART, he is asked to keep an Aegis guardian safe after tragedy strikes. Eva thinks that Logan is fully huma, she has no idea he's half demon or else she never would have trusted him. 

The Aegis is a global demon slaying agency but DART is responsible for policing demons and keeping them in line. There's a lot of action, tension and romance in this book. The sexual tension in this book is great because they've grown up hating each other's agencies and therefore each other. But they're very interested in each other too. 

I loved Cujo, Logan's Hellhound. 

There didn't seem to be enough grieving going on when an animal died and then friends died as well. Logan seemed more concerned about his interest in Eva than the fact that his friend died. 

This book will make more sense if you've read some of the Demonica series or some of the Lords of Deliverance series. But this can be read by itself. This is a great start to a new series, and it was nice to see some of the characters from the other series that I've previously read. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Disclosure: I was given an e-ARC of this book via NetGalley but all thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

My grandson and Falcor having a cuddle.

I put Falcor's small bed beside the new futon and he was sleeping there but popped his head up when the picture was taken. He has a bigger bed in my room but he usually sleeps on the couch or my bed. 

My daughter put that white feather on his head and took the picture. lol 

My daughter bought Falcor this Dog Advent calendar for Christmas. He loves all the toys he got. 

Book Review: Watch Me Break: A Dark Stalker Romance by V.E Huntley

 

Book Description

He’s always watching. She’s starting to want him to.

What do you do if you have a raccoon with a boob fetish, dead bodies being dropped in your driveway, and a masked stalker who watches you, breaks into your bedroom at night, and takes your body to heights you didn’t know were possible?

If you’re Dr. Luna Foster, owner of Sage & Summit Wildlife Sanctuary, you seek out your new neighbor, Damien Wolfe, billionaire security mogul, and ask him to wire your property with security cameras.

But little do you know... He might just be the most dangerous predator of them all.

Damien

I have three rules: stay hidden, leave no traces, never let the target know. But Dr. Luna Foster's smile shatters every rule I've lived by. Now I want her to see me, to know what kind of monster is watching her. I’ve spent years in the dark, perfecting the art of hunting those who deserve death. Now I’ve found someone who makes me want to step into the light—even if it means she’ll see the blood on my hands.

Luna

The first time I feel someone watching, I'm terrified. The second time, I'm curious. By the third, I'm leaving my curtains open on purpose. But when I realize my stalker isn't the nightmare—he's the one who hunts them—I find myself craving his deadly attention. Slowly, the weight of his gaze starts to feel less like terror and more like a deadly promise I want him to keep. I'm drawn to a monster, but it feels like freedom.

This is a dark romance containing mature themes, graphic violence, explicit sexual situations, and morally ambiguous characters. Intended for adult readers who enjoy psychologically complex relationships and anti-hero love interests. Please see the author's website for a full list of trigger/content warnings.

My Review

Luna is the owner of a wildlife sanctuary doesn't like Damien when he literally runs into her at the post office. He almost knocks her down and doesn't even apologize. But she doesn't know that her smile made his mind go blank for a second and totally messed up his assertiveness. 

He's never had such a reaction to a woman before. When Luna finds out that he bought the house and property next to her, she's not sure what to think. It's right after that when her wolf, Shadow starts acting like a predator is watching her. She's scared at first knowing someone is watching her. Does she have a stalker?

Damien is more predator than human at this point. He's a serial killer but he only hunts and kills really bad people so there's some good in him. Damien sets his sights on Luna because he wants her more than he's ever wanted any other woman. He stalks her, at first he can tell she's scared and that just spurs him on. He likes to see fear in others. But when she starts to crave the stalker watching her and leaves the curtains open for him to watch her undress, he knows there's no way he'll be able to stay away from her now. 

The secondary characters, especially Maren and Cade are a lot of fun to watch and I really hope that we see more of them in the future. 

Do you like dark romance with a mask wearing stalker? I don't read a lot of dark romance because a lot of the time they are too dark, but this wasn't. This was dark romance perfection! But it does end on a cliffhanger which I'm not fond of at all. I loved the story, characters and of course Damien is wildly wonderful but the cliffhanger really ruined the ending of this book for me. This is the first book in the Watched in Darkness series, I'll probably read the next book because this story has me hooked.

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

"Just finishing the Christmas Present wrapping."

"Do you like my hat?"

"Hot chocolate, anyone?"

"The ornaments are almost as big as I am!"

*All pictures this week are courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #402

 

This is a weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that have gone on in and around my apartment complex and in my neighborhood in the past 27 years that I've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 27 years here in a weekly blog post.

I got a picture of the police helicopter as it was circling around my apartment complex and going right over the sound wall. No police showed up so I have no idea why he was circling around here.

I don't post a lot of the homeless people unless they do something worth posting about. The guy who has this grocery cart filled with stuff and the blankets hanging on the wall has been around here for a few weeks. I don't care that he has been hanging out around here, he always says hello to me. But one day this week he pulled his pants all the way down (nothing was hidden), he then backed up to the edge of the sidewalk, squatted over the street and went #2. Cars were driving by, people were out walking around like me and Falcor and he cared not. At least he didn't go on the sidewalk, I guess.

---

I have a neighbor, I'll be referring to her as Streaker from now on because I've now seen this lady naked or half naked at least 4 times now. She answers the door with no clothes on all the time. One of those times I had my daughter's best friend with me and she turned around and walked the other way. lol So streaker saw me walking Falcor the other day and called me over, she wasn't wearing anything but was tryin and failing to hide behind her door. She told me she had a Christmas present for me and to holler at her when I got back from the walk. So I did and she answered the door in her underwear, nothing else on. Handed me my present and said Merry Christmas. I said thank you and went back to my door. lol

--- 

The high this week was 60F/15C

The low this week was 41F/5C

So that's it for this week's Apartment Hell  Life! Be sure to come back next week for more.

Saturday Vittles

 

My daughter and I are back on the low carb, low calorie diet again so I'll be sharing some more recipes we try out. 

Parmesan Garlic Whole Edamame

What You Need: 

12 oz whole Edamame

1 TBSP Butter

2 Cloves of crushed garlic

2 TBSP grated Parmesan cheese

Salt and Pepper to taste

What to do: 

Bring a pot of water with 3 cups of water to a boil. Add Edamame and boil for 6 minutes, covered.

Drain the Edamame and set aside. 

In a small sauce pan, melt the butter. Add the crushed garlic, salt and pepper. Sauté for 1 minute, add Edamame. Sauté in the butter garlic sauce for 2-3 minutes and add the parmesan cheese. Toss well and remove from heat. 

You only eat the Edamame seeds inside the pod. Just scrape your teeth along the pod to get the seeds out and some of the flavor on the pods. This was my daughter's idea. Next time I think I'll remove the seeds from the pods and eat them that way. You can also remove the seeds and cook this the same way if you don't want to scrape the seeds out with your teeth. 

This dish serves 2 people and has 130 calories per serving and 10 grams of carbs. 

Have you eaten Edamame like this before?

Everyone Has A Story, Here's One of Mine

 

I've been thinking of writing an autobiography or memoir but it just never comes together for me but I figured if I write one story at a time and post it on my blog maybe once a month, I can do that. Maybe one day I'll pull all the stories together and put them in a book but for now I'll just share some stories with you about my childhood and into adulthood. Some of the stories will be happy, some sad and some horrific because that was my childhood. But they will all be real, things that actually happened. If it seems like something that people enjoy reading maybe I'll keep it going. These stories will not be in any kind of order, I'll just write them as they come to me.

High School Computer Class

When I was in high school, I was also babysitting and cleaning houses for a couple of people for some extra money because my mom didn't have a lot of money. So, I had to buy myself the stuff I wanted. I used to go to school at least an hour early just to get out of the house and away from my mom's boyfriends and be able to talk with my friends. 

The principal and computer teacher always saw me at school early and one day they came up to me and asked if I would like to be in a new pilot program computer class before school. It wasn't graded but the students who showed up each day would get points towards gift cards, coupons and cash. I said absolutely yes. So, for 3 months I showed up each morning to this class that only had 10 students in it. All we had to do was read a story on the computer and answer questions about the short story. It was really just reading comprehension. The more stories we read and got all the questions right, the more points we racked up. 

The class lasted for 3 months and on the last day we got to know who racked up the most points and what we won. There was one girl who had more points than I did, she won $100 cash and a $100 gift voucher to some restaurant. 

I won $50 cash and a $100 gift voucher to an Italian Restaurant. I don't remember the name of the restaurant, but it was one that I had never been to. When I got home, I told my mom, and she was so proud of me which made me feel really good. I told her that I wanted to treat her to dinner that day but just her and me, not her boyfriend. She agreed and we went to find the place. When we got there, it was a lot nicer than either of us had known it would be. When I told the waitress that I had a gift voucher and wanted to make sure I could use it, she went to make sure and came back with the owner. He came to tell me that he personally made the gift vouchers for my school, so he knew exactly what it was for and he congratulated me. He then told me that dessert was on him after our meal. It was probably the best day of my life up to that point. I was only 16 years old, so it was a big deal for me. 

My mom and I ate dinner and had our dessert, there was about $20 left over on the gift voucher and I asked the waitress if I could give that to her as a tip. She was surprised and happy but wanted to make sure that's what I really wanted to do. I said that this was my happy day and I wanted to share the happiness with someone else as well. She smiled and said thank you. I had never been able to do anything like that before and figured I shouldn't be the only happy one that day. 

Once my mom and I got back out to her car, she admitted to me that she had felt a bit underdressed being in such a nice restaurant and having the owner come over and talk to us, but she felt so thankful that I had thought of her when I won the gift voucher. It was one of the best days that my mom and I had when I was a teenager. 

Links to past stories

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