It's 4:30 in the Morning

I've been up for the last two and a half-hours. "Up" as in not-in-bed. If we want to consider "up" as in awake - tack on an extra hour. I've been reading, catching up on blog entries I've missed this week, searching the internet, checking out Facebook updates, and generally feeling pretty fed-up with this. I really just want to be in bed sleeping. But I can't stand being in bed not sleeping so I figured I might as well be up, not sleeping. I think all the coughing may have caused a hernia . Is it normal to have a localized spot of intense pain in my belly every time I cough or blow my nose? Kind of like my muscles are being ripped apart? I didn't think so.

Chicken Stuffed Shells

Dinner today was another experiment. I found a recipe in one of my books and tweaked it a bit. It wasn't too bad. Nothing to do cartwheels over, but not bad.

Ingredients:
16 jumbo pasta shells (cooked al dente)
2 cups prepared stuffing
2 cups cooked chopped chicken
1/4 cup Miracle Whip (I used light)
1 can cream of chicken soup (I used 98% fat free)
1/2 cup sour cream (I used fat free)
Shredded cheese (I used mozzarella)

Directions:
Mix prepared stuffing, chicken and Miracle Whip.
Stuff into shells and place in a 9x9 baking dish.
Mix soup, sour cream and enough water (about a half a can) to thin the mixture.
Pour soup mixture over shells and sprinkle with cheese.
Bake for 30 minutes at 350.

This recipe, like I said was decent. And it was pretty easy. I would have used homemade cream of chicken soup, but we didn't have milk. I think it would have been good with any kind of cheese too (swiss, cheddar, colby jack etc).

On being pregnant

For the most part, after the first 14 weeks or so, being pregnant hasn't been that bad. Even the first trimester really wasn't that bad - I had it pretty easy, I know. The occassional discomfort pops-up here and there, but nothing that's been constant. Probably the hardest thing for me is just having to slow down.

"My Perspective"

"Not valid with any other offer"

What exactly does that mean? I had three coupons for one small Arby's curly fry each. The coupon stated:

Free Small Curly Fries. Limit 1 with this coupon at participating Arby's restaurants. Not valid with any other offer, and not transferable. Valid through 3/31/2010.

No more. No less. I tried to get three free small curly fries, but the guy taking my money said I could only get one because the coupon says "Not valid with any other offer."

If I had used the curly fry coupon with a different coupon for a different product (say, buy one get one free beef & cheddar) what do you think they would have done then?

Usually coupons will say something like "limit one per visit per customer" if they don't want you to use multiple of the same coupon, but this one simply said "Limit 1 with this coupon." How does that limit how many coupons I can use?

We got two of these coupons in the mail on the same day which we gave away. The others were in the Daily Universe along with other Arby's coupons. The Daily Universe is the free campus newspaper which can be found all over campus including in the bathrooms, left on classroom desks, left on chairs, and left on the floor by students. Why did they send out thousands of these coupons to hungry students without more explicit wording, if they didn't intend to allow use of multiple coupons per person?

I want your opinion.

Here are the different possible meanings I came up with for "Not valid with any other offer"

1. Multiple coupons and/or discounts cannot be taken for the same product (in an attempt to get an even lower price than using just one), but multiple coupons or discounts can be used in the same purchase for different products; e.g. a coupon for 10% off and a coupon for $1.00 off cannot be used for the same gallon of milk, but the 10% off coupon could be used for the gallon of milk, and the $1.00 off coupon could be used for a can of peanuts.

2. Multiple coupons and/or discounts cannot be used in the same purchase; e.g., if a 10% off coupon is used for any item in a purchase, no other coupons can be used in that purchase, period.

Please comment and say which one you think it is. If you think it's number one, how does that apply to my situation with multiple valid coupons, each for one free small curly fry?

My Conversion Story

Growing up I was anti. I didn't want anything to do with mushrooms. The very mention of them made me shudder. On my mission I was forced to get better aquainted with several varieties of the foul fungus. Our relationship became one of a tolerable co-existance, but I still wasn't sure if I wanted them to be a part of my life permanently. Then one day, my life changed forever. I was introduced to my cousin Renee's famous stuffed mushrooms and that's when it happened - I saw the light and became converted; I haven't regretted it.

(this isn't my picture - I forgot to take one, so I barrowed this from the internet.
but it's pretty much true to what they look like)

Ingredients
1 1/2 - 2 lbs fresh large mushrooms
2/3 lb sage sausage, Jimmy Dean
1/3 lb hot sausage, Jimmy Dean
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup parsley
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
Optional topping: grated parmesan cheese, parsley, paprika

Directions
1. Wash, dry and de-stem mushrooms.
2. Combine oil and vinegar and toss with mushrooms. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes (or no more than 2 hours).
3. Meanwhile, brown the meat together.
4. Add cream cheese, parmesan and parsley to cooked meat.
5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
6. Place mushrooms in a baking dish (with sides) hole up. Stuff each mushroom hole with a mound of sausage and cream cheese mixture.
7. Sprinkle parmesan, parsley and paprika on top (if you want).
8. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes.
9. Then broil for 5 min until tops are golden.

Enjoy!