Project: Love Storm

Storm, my BFF, relaxing in the park

For the past few months, Storm has been suffering from skin allergies. I brought her to the vet where they gave her meds and suggested feeding her salmon-based food, being that fish oil is good for the skin. We were already feeding her salmon dry dog food but mixing it her regular dry food. So we cut out her regular dry food, hoping that her rash would clear up.

No major luck, ugh! So now going on 3 weeks, I have been cooking for my BFF. She absolutely loves it, drives me a little crazy because I can’t enter the kitchen without her thinking I’m going to cook! It’s worse than my 13 year old son (her brother), who is an eating machine. I’m all for it though, especially when seeing the results of her skin allergies clearing up. *whew*

Well this Saturday after checking her belly rash, I noticed one of her nipples red and swollen. I immediately thought that she was scratching the area a little too hard and aggravated it. When I looked a little closer, I felt two lumps under her nipple. I dialed the vet to make an appointment to have her examined. The vet confirmed that the two lumps are tumors and need to be removed regardless if they are cancerous or not. Of course a list of questions overwhelmed my mind; whoever knows me personally knows I have questions for days! So I started asking away:

• Why is it necessary to have an x-ray done of the organs?
• Why is a biopsy done after they surgery?
• If it is cancer, are there any additional treatments after the surgery?
• How often do you perform surgery?
• What are the chances of post surgery infection?

Believe me, the above list is nowhere close to how many questions that I asked. Overwhelmed with all the information, surgery is the next step. All holiday shopping has come to a halt and even returning of items is taking place being that the cost of surgery is way out of our range. Being that her condition is now pre-existing she isn’t eligible for insurance. We are praying that the tumor is benign (noncancerous) and no additional treatment will be needed after surgery. I will keep you all updated.

Giving back to others this Thanksgiving Holiday

The Bellisima Delights family donated their yummy holiday sweet potato pies and volunteered their time with the less fortunate this Thanksgiving. The great people over at FP YOUTHOUTCRY organized their 2nd Annual Breaking Bread with You Ceremony at Military Park, downtown Newark, NJ.

We arrived with a Box of Joe for the early morning volunteers and some clothes for the winter clothing drive. Then we broke out into groups and headed to the streets to spread the word that beginning at 10 a.m. we would begin our Thanksgiving feast for all to enjoy. Before going back to Military Park we stopped by Covenant House, a shelter for homeless teens, and invited them to join us over at the park.

The tables were full and the food was being served throughout the morning with people able to get seconds. Many people left with warm coats and winter clothes before leaving with "take-home packages".

This Thanksgiving morning was great giving back to others. Thank you to all of the organizers and volunteers! Special thanks to Tiffany "The Budgetnista" for the FB invite! We look forward to being at next year's Annual Breaking Bread with You Ceremony.

How Could I Be SO 4getful!?!

So last night was Back to School night at my son's school and everyone was suppose to bring some type of goodies for pot luck desert. Please tell me HOW did I forget?!?! and even worse I wasn't even able to run home quick and bring the cupcakes that I made the other day because I remembered while walking into the school. (not to mention LATE)!!

Nothing really caught my eye except the swirled pound cake that looked ever so moist! I stayed away from it and grabbed a water and sat down.

Next time I will put a reminder on my calendar that alerts me 2 days ahead of time so I can plan it out.

Stormy Treats

I've been meaning to make homemade treats for Storm this whole summer, but who REALLY wants to turn that oven on?!?! Well my cousin Ali was taking a road trip to FL and making a stop at our cousins house in NC, and she has four doggies! Two of them are Boxers, Hailey Rose and Bud, they are the cutest and coziest. I spent some time with them in July. I love bully breeds! So, me being the thoughtful individual that I am, I decided to send Ali with some goodies.

Hailey Rose & Bud

Storm absolutley LOVES them and sits in front of the oven as they bake. She doesn't care to wait for them to cool either, sounds very familiar haha. She has a large container full, so I saved CASH MONEY and made her and the NC doggies happy with peanut butter chicken treats.

Dessert is Served

Well I had surgery 6 days ago on my leg and today was the first day that I finally felt better. So to celebrate I made dinner, a nice tomato and avocado salad and some wonderful cupcakes!

The cupcakes were made with whole wheat flour, brown sugar and applesauce instead of white flour, white sugar and oil. So my guilt while eating them wasn't as heavy! I'm not a big fan of frosting but my butter cream turned out just right.

Delicious cupcakes, bright yellow frosting with chocolate drizzle added the right touch to complete a wonderful day.

To Bake or Not To Bake?

THAT is the question on my birthday evening. I am thinking about perhaps baking some yummy cupcakes for work but more importantly for the teachers at my sons school. This week is Teachers Appreciation Week and they definately deserve some Bellisima Delights from yours truly. They put in extremely long and hours at North Star Academy, and are very dedicated to each of the students education.

I will keep you updated and let you know if they will get treats tomorrow or on Friday.

PS Sorry Mr P no sweet potato pie this time

UPDATE: I didn't make the cupcakes in time for Teachers Appreciation week since I had surgery later in the week. I did make 24 cupcake this week and sent them to school to show my appreciation even though they were late. Half were chocolate and the other half were vanialla stuffed with chocolate pudding. Hope they enjoyed the treats :)

Yummy Muffins!!

All I can say is YUM! Everyone in the house likes them, including Storm of course. I made two kind of muffins from my apple, spinach, parsley, carrot, celery juice that I made this morning for breakfast. The purple wrappers have banana, cranberries and walnuts added while the green wrappers have pineapples and raisins mixed in. The pineapple raisins weren't as "full" looking, I'm guessing from the added juice from the pineapple. Also I made two banana walnut mini loaves.