Starting off the year right

I guess diets really do work after all. I have lost 6 pounds in a little over a week. I have the perfect snack food that you can eat as much as you want and keep losing weight. My personal favorite is peanuts. Just a little bit of salt does wonders.

You can buy them in bulk and they come in different colors but I like blue the best. I ordered something off of Ebay and received a bunch for FREE.

I did learn that my scale LIES. It told me that I had gained some of it back the other day. I think I will need to buy a new one now.

Now for something a little more serious. Have any of you ever fallen for purchased one of those amazing magical cooking solutions from the TV or the internet and then tried it and not been as impressed???  I did own a Ronco Dehydrator at one time.

Well, I was invited to a Pampered Chef party and I do like some of their products. During the presentation, the Pampered chef hostess was using of their stoneware cookwear line, the Deep Covered Baker pan. We watched this woman put in different vegetables and then raw chicken breasts on top, added some spices and then put the top on and in the microwave it went for 15 minutes. MICROWAVE??

We all know what happens when you put in any kind of meat into a microwave. It gets dry, rubbery and very tough.

Her chicken turned out very tender and flavorful-so good that I ended up buying one.  SO I bring it home, wash it and then try one of the many recipes that came with it (White Chicken Chili) and it had white and dark chicken in it. Wanna guess what happened???

IT WAS INCREDIBLE and only took about 15-20 minutes total.

It works both in the microwave and in the oven. I have made a total of 3 dinners and all in the microwave. I am going to try beef next.

Let me know if you have found anything that works much better or worse than advertised.