I have a soft spot for certain things.

Such as things on sale. I can go through clearance racks with Jobean patience looking for the one thing that nobody else deemed buyable. It quite often works, especially at department stores.

This time, though, I walked into Charlotte Russe because I felt like I was 28 again. I so am not, by the way, but I like a lot of what they offer, so I might as well go look at nice stuff even though I might not find anything in my size. I was at the mall anyway, and I had one full hour to kill before my optician appointment.

I tried a bunch of sweaters that didn't really do it for me. The one I really like was abysmally short and I'd have to layer it with a type of clothing I don't think I even currently have - some long, oversized tee or other. Pity, it was loosely knit and baggy with a totally not frumpy neckline. Slightly annoyed, I put it back and decide to look at shoes.

Ooo! Studded clogs. Studded mule clogs. With high chunky heels. In tan. For.. 4.99? In an 8? You're so walking out with me it's not even funny. I don't even pretend to be current with fashion, not when I'm sheding a size per trimester anyway, so onward with those! To test the engineering of the shoe (read: the amount of steps I'd make w'out falling and eating carpet), I put them on and browse around the store for another 10 minutes. Without incident, I walk towards the jewelry section where I'm informed that certain jewelry is free with any purchase. Hmm.. I normally don't buy jewelry from clothing boutiques because I'm massively picky, but if I'm getting something for free I'll take another look.

The massive ring with the scarab-like blue stone totally sold me.  I really liked it, as opposed to "oh, well, it's free, so might as well" and then never see the light of the outside of my rings box ever.

So I paid 4.99 plus tax for a ring and a pair of shoes that actually look damn well together. That's victory. I'm already thinking of the clothes I already have with which they'll look good.

And then I walked into H&M and bought some mittens cause I lost my handmade pair in the supermarket of all places and no one ever returned them to me. So, I'm not gonna stay with sentimentally cold hands - it's frozen here and it'll only get worse.

Breakfast for lunch

This recipe was born like most of mine: By having to improvise with what is available. In this particular case, I had:

• 1 tsp canola or grapeseed oil
• 1 apple, cored, peeled if preferred (I like the peel) and thinly sliced 
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ginger
• 2 Weetabix biscuits
• 3 Tbs of sugar or sweetener equivalent
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Heat oil in medium-high fire (in a pan, obviously) while prepping the apple. Dump apple in pan, dust with cinnamon and ginger, toss around and cook to desired limpness. My preference is as soft as it gets.

Meanwhile, crumble the Weetabix in your serving bowl, add the sugar and vanilla and combine.

When the apple slices are cooked, drop into the Weetabix mix, toss and serve immediately. Makes one serving for a quite hungry person or two for moderately hungry ones. Since this was my lunch, I ate the whole thing. Glad I don't need seconds!

Now that I'm thinking of it, I wish I had toasted walnuts or almonds to top it with.

..and it's fall all over again

What I love about Chicagoland is the abundance of sunlight year-round. There can be days with really low temperatures during the fall and winter, but there's always the chance that it'll be served with a side of sunshine, just enough to lure me outside of the cozy confines of my apartment.

These last few days the weather has been decisively declining. I wasn't completely opposed to that as I was quite eager to get back to my sweaters, leggings and similar things with my new and improved physique - I have dropped almost 50 pounds since last spring, and there is a lot of older clothing I am reclaiming. Like this pair of pants, paired with my new and totally favorite boots:

Pants from Banana Republic from forever ago, boots are Rebel

They have even more buckles on the side.

I have a favorite walk path - it goes along a small pond and some rows of trees, leading to a hotel. I am almost certain that the path is actually hotel property, though all types of walkers, joggers and pet owners use it without any problem and there are no signs warning for trespassing. So, I take advantage of it. Not that humans are the only ones to do so.





If I keep walking, I can cross a side street (with traffic) and get to a strip mall with a grocery store, a department store and a music store among other things. Today, I decided I needed a new black handbag (not pictured), so between the strolling and the shopping I spent about two hours on my feet. Not bad at all!

Soup with what's available

I haven't blogged for a while but usually I end up wanting to do so when some mediocre idea turns into massive win - this soup somehow worked, though it was one of those cases of "there's barely anything in the fridge and pantry"

It all started by having an opened carton of vegetable broth that I wanted to use before it went bad. I looked around and realised that I had a bag of flounder fillets. So, naturally, I thought "soup"

I hoped the baby carrots were still okay. Upon inspecting bag, yay, they're still edible. Then I found out that there was a jar of peeled garlic and a bag of mostly-ok shallots looking whiningly at me, complaining why I hadn't used them all this time.

Fine, I said, soup it is. I heated the broth while peeling and cutting the shallots. Dumped everything (fish fillets, carrots, shallots, garlic) in the pot. Let it simmer till the fish was done. Removed the fish. Let it simmer some more till the carrots were tender yet a bit al dente.

Then added a bag of Vegetable Medley flavor Ready Rice and let it heat and eat up some of the liquid. Served with crushed lime tortilla chips on top.

Oh my god. I'm gonna end this post and go for seconds.