Tuesday, March 26

Woke up at 6:30, but didn't get up until 7:30. Did stair stepping, resistance bands, and weights exercises after breakfast. Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house around 9 a.m., and she finished her jigsaw puzzle. I found another one for her to begin, and then I got ready for the day.

Didn't accomplish much for the rest of the morning, except to strain my brain trying to think of what to have for supper. It's a real chore trying decide on meals every week. Finally decided to have Spanish chicken, so Hubbie fetched a package of chicken out of the freezer to be thawed. Then I spent forever looking for the recipe. Went through two three-ring binders of collected recipes, with no luck, before I remembered that I'd pulled that one a few weeks ago and put it in the calendar for easy access, and then for some reason didn't use it at that time.

Mid-morning, we decided to watch last night's episode of "Dancing With the Stars," that I'd recorded on DVR last night. By the time that was over, it was near noon, so I fixed Ramen noodle soup for Mother, and scrambled egg substitute with sauteed green onions and canned spinach for Hubbie and me. We had the last of the orange muffins with it. I had intended to use the zest from a remaining orange to make more muffins, but Hubbie had the thing quartered and served before I could do it. Oh, well.

After lunch, Mother went back to her puzzle. But she was having trouble putting the border together, so I helped her. And then I did this and that, including calling the beauty shop to make haircut appointments for Mother and me next week, doing this week's word search puzzle contest from the local newspaper, reading my novel, reading the local newspaper, and playing on my laptop and e-reader tablet.

Later, I fixed the Spanish chicken...recipe: four chicken breasts coated with 1 tsp. garlic powder, 1 tsp. crushed basil, 1 tsp. pepper, 1 tsp. paprika, 1 tsp. parsely, plus I added no-salt seasoning. Put the spices in a bag, add chicken, and shake. Place coated chicken in dutch oven, along with a cup of chopped onions, and 1/4 cup water. Cover tightly and cook over medium heat 10 minutes. Turn chicken and cook 10 more minutes. Add two 8-oz. cans tomato sauce. Cover tightly and cook until chicken is tender. Serve with noodles or rice. We had rice.

As the chicken cooked, the lid on the dutch oven rattled a little, and Hubbie, being ever so "helpful", tilted it. His "helpfulness" very nearly caused the chicken to lose the liquied and burn. It would be nice if he would ask before he does "helpful" things in the kitchen.

After supper, Hubbie accompanied Mother to her house, and then we watched TV, including a 2002 movie called, "Pavement." An Alaskan tracker goes to San Francisco to help find his sister's murderer, who was found in her bed with dozens of syringe needles sticking in her. More murders occur. Authorities think it is a serial killer, but the tracker and a female investigator have other ideas.