Silver Sneakers VS Blingy Sandals

As most of you oldies, but goodies, out there know, there is an exercise program made just for us senior citizens. A few years back I wrote a blog about the ONE day I actually attended one of the Silver Sneaker classes. Besides me being the youngest one there (there was only 3 or us there as the others had called saying their hips were not healed enough to be exercising yet from hip surgery, shoulder or knee replacement surgery or they had turned their ankle while getting up to get a new tube of Ben Gay, etc), there was truly not much exercising going on. We really never got out of the chairs. The only exercise going on was from a sitting position of raising a leg or seeing if we could make circles with our arms. So today, as I continued to get an alert on my phone regarding the Silver Sneakers classes going on in our area, I begin to think about starting my own class. I think I would call it Blingy Sandals for Seniors. Besides us looking so much cuter than the ladies in their silver tennis shoes, we would at least look like we had more fun than attend a class where all they talked about was post surgeries, future surgeries and surgeries that they needed but just wasn’t quite ready to commit to. We would be in the next classroom discussing where the best sales were for cute shoes, what restaurant we would be going to to celebrate that we really did some exercises, and what new hairdo we would be brave enough to try. When I thought about the exercise we would be doing, they would be based on the exercises I do at home. These are just some of the ones I do daily:

1. not holding on to a cabinet or chair or wall, try to put on a pair of undies, balancing on one foot while putting the other foot in the pant leg, and not fall.
2. getting your arms behind you to hook your bra without getting your shoulder out of socket.
3. tiptoeing across the just mopped floor without doing a spread eagle.
4. lifting up your arms high enough to put your contacts in the first time you try. (which reminds me of the last appt at the optometrist. When I ask if there was an age I needed to quit wearing contacts, he told me as long as i could raise my arms that high to put them in my eye there was no reason to quit)
5. lifting up a king mattress to put the clean sheets on the bed without using your knee to support the mattress.
6. bending down to clean the lowest drawer in the fridge or deweeding the flower beds without getting stuck and not being able to get back up.
7. running around the house trying to kill a fly before company arrives and sees the fly landing on the food they are about to eat.
8. bringing in 10 bags of groceries to save trips back out to the car.
9. Curling my hair every morning with the curling iron without dropping it on my neck and getting 2nd degree burns.
10. arranging furniture when I get in the mood without throwing out my back, quitting halfway through and end up putting it back where it was.

As I think about it, I think the above schedule gives me enough exercise that I will skip any class and just go celebrate with a hot fudge sundae that I did most of the above and it’s not even noon yet. AND…all the while, I wore some pretty cute blingy sandals.

Am making some soup today to take to a friend who is not feeling well! What better food to take than chicken soup? But since her husband will be having some of this for dinner so she doesn’t have to cook I wanted it to have a little more substance to it than just chicken broth! Looking in my pantry I found a can of Cream of Chicken With Herbs. This will work perfectly adding just a little more flavor plus texture than just chicken broth. Delivering this with a small coconut pound cake and corn bread might just do the trick of helping her feel better! After all, we all know Chicken Soup for the Soul and the tummy works so well!

2 cups cut up rotisserie chicken (I use the Costco chicken)

1/2 diced white or yellow onion

1 cup diced celery (when making any sauce or soup that calls for celery try to use the inside ones with the green leafy stalks, adds so much flavor)

1 cup or 2 large carrots, cut into small diced pieces

1 14 oz can of chicken broth

2 cups water

1 (10 1/2 oz) can of cream of chicken soup with Herbs

1 package wide noodles, cooked and drained (12 oz package)

2 tables butter (salted or unsalted)

Garlic Powder, Pepper to taste

Cook and drain the noodles according to package directions. Drain and add 2 tables butter and 2 tables of the chicken soup with herbs. Stir until all noodles are coated. You might not need all the noodles but this will keep them from sticking together and give them flavor before adding to the soup. Set aside

Brown the chopped onion, celery and carrot in about 1 tables oil until veggies begin to soften! Add the chicken broth, the water and the rest of the can of cream of chicken soup with herbs. Stir until well combined. Add the chopped chicken and cover the pan and place in preheated 350 degree oven. Bake until veggies are thoroughly cooked (about an hr). Remove from oven and add enough noodles to get it to the right proportion of noodles to broth. If you like a more broth than noodle/veggie combo, add less noodles, if you like less broth than veggies, add more noodles. You can’t go wrong. Just adjust to your liking. You notice I didn’t add salt. Be sure to taste the soup before serving because with the cans of soup in it, it will require less salt.

Last Friday night we had friends over for dinner. About 4 AM I woke up and decided to change the menu for that evening. As Randy and I were discussing about 8 AM about me waking up at 4 and deciding to change what I had planned for dinner, he suggested that I make fried chicken. That sounded good, but I didn’t want to be frying as they arrived and I don’t like cold fried chicken so I came up with this idea. AND I have to tell you that it really turned out great and we all ate until it was gone. Well, not me, you know me, I had one little piece to keep me in my fighting weight of under 200. But as the dinner was coming to a close for us to move from the table to the couch and visit over Key Lime Pie, I began to think of really how simple the dinner was to make and decided that it needed to be shared via Chocolate Castles. So here it is folks. A simply but oh so yummy comfort dinner for those evenings when you don’t want to serve another pot roast or meatloaf to company.

Serves 4

3 large chicken breasts, cut up into large chunks

1 cup of buttermilk

Pepper and Garlic powder to taste

One envelop of Pioneer Country Gravy Mix

1 (10 1/2 oz) can Cream of Mushroom soup

1/2 cup milk or cream

1 1/2 cups of either all purpose flour or self-rising flour

1 egg, beaten

Oil to fry in skillet

(If you have ever purchased Paula Deen Fried Chicken Coating Mix, I used this in the flour mixture) but if not, just use a little (about 1/2 cup) bread crumbs with the flour for dipping the chicken in )

Soak your cut up chicken breasts chunks in the buttermilk for at least 1 hour. Combine the flour and either the bread crumbs or Paula Deens Fried Chicken Coating in a bowl. Dip each piece of chicken in the flour mixture and set on a plate or paper towel while you heat the oil in a skillet. (I actually use a zip lock bag to coat the chicken with the flour mixture. Makes clean up a lot easier and you can then just throw the bag away after you have coated all the chicken in it.

Turn heat onto medium and heat the oil, when oil is starting to sizzle, place chicken chunks in hot oil and fry each piece until both sides are brown. Try not to turn the chicken pieces over but once to brown, allowing them to cook until done. When done, place the chicken pieces into a pyrex baking dish that has been sprayed with Pam. After you have finished cooking all the chicken and they have been placed in the baking dish, set them aside. At this point, you can always set them in fridge (covered) until about an hour before you wish to serve them. But if you are going to be serving them in the next hour after frying them, just leave out of the fridge. Meanwhile, in a sauce pan, combine 1 and 1/2 cups of water and bring this to a boil. Mix the contents of the gravy mix with 1/2 cup of cold water and stir until dissolved. Stir this gravy mixture into the 1 1/2 cups of water in the saucepan. Then stir in the can of mushroom soup and the 1/2 cup milk/cream. Heat this thoroughly and add some pepper to the gravy. Pour about 2 cups (use your discretion as to how much chicken is in the baking dish. You want to cover the chicken but not drown it)

Place gravy covered chicken in a preheated 350 oven and bake for about 20-30 minutes or until gravy is bubbling. Sprinkle some parsley flakes over it and serve the chicken with either mashed potatoes or rice pilaf. We had rice pilaf and baked asparagus to complete the meal. And Of course, you can’t forget to serve Sister Schubert rolls along with this to complete this southern comfort meal. It really turned out delicious and it is not one of our new favorite dinners to serve.