Saturday, January 22, 2011

FitTV & Oprah, American Idol, Laura Kaczor, and crock-pot cooking.....

 1/22/11

FitTV & Oprah: Don't you just HATE it when you find something you love, only to have it changed right after you discover it?   I recently discovered my love for FitTV.  It had many different exercise programs to choose from everyday!  You could Shimmy, Body Sculpt w/Gilad, do pilates or yoga.  There was All-Star workouts, In Shape w/Sharon Mann, even Belly Dancing!!  It also had great healthy cooking shows.  I mean, yes, I love me some Paula Deen, but if you're looking for healthy, you can't copy her recipes everyday!!  So, I found my favorite shows, set my DVR to start recording them each day and I was SET!  A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that my shows weren't recording anymore.  "Hmmmmm.... maybe I set my DVR wrong...", I thought.  Nope.  I started doing a little researching and found the problem.  It seems Oprah Winfrey STOLE my new favorite network!!!!!   OPRAH!  WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!?!?!   Apparently, the Discovery Health Network sold their network to Oprah, which is now the OWN network.  So, since Oprah has all her new programs on DHN now, they moved all DHN shows to FitTV, which makes it "Not so FitTV" now.  Bummer!!!  It's all a bunch of reality shows like "18 kids and counting", "Freaky Eaters", "Untold stories of the ER", and "Transgendered and Pregnant".  For REAL!?!?!  I'm heartbroken.  I tried to watch "Cristina Ferrare's Big Bowl of Love" on OWN, but it was unwatchable.  I miss "Sam, the cooking guy".   Seems there was enough of a viewer outrage that FitTV has now put some of their exercise shows back on, but they air from like 3:00am - 6:00am, so you better either have a DVR or be a VERY early riser to exercise with Gilad or Sharon anymore.  I sure hope DHN and Oprah will listen to the viewers and find a way to air some of the old programs.  Otherwise, they certainly don't need to call that channel "FitTV" anymore.  I don't think watching "Take Home Nanny" or "Pregnant Man" is going to help me get healthy.

American Idol: Did you watch American Idol this week?  I didn't get to see the Thursday night episode, but I tuned into the Wed. night 2-hr. premiere and I was pleasantly surprised!  I didn't miss Simon one bit!  I think I actually enjoyed the show MORE without him.  It really seemed like the last couple of seasons, the show had become all about Mr. Cowell and "what witty comeback" would he come up with each night.  It was less and less about the contestants, and Simon actually seemed bored out of his mind.   I think that's all about to change with the new line-up of judges.  Even the CONTENT of the show seems to be more about showing back-stories of truly talented people, so we can find someone to connect with and root for, rather than just featuring UN-talented people who make fools of themselves during the audition process.  So kuddos to the AI producers for seeing that they needed to make these changes.  I hope they stick with that.  It SHOULD be about the contestants.. not the judges.  So bye-bye Simon.  I think you did yourself AND the show a favor by bowing out when you did.  Everybody wins.

Laura Kaczor: Last Monday night, a wonderful new Christian artist named Laura Kaczor did a show at The Listening Room here in Nashville.  I got to sing bgv's for her and became a "fan" in the process.  She has an awesome new CD out called "Love Enough" and her new single "Invisible" has broken into the top 20 CCM charts!  Check out Laura and her music at: www.laurakaczor.com 

Crock-pot: Still enjoying my new crock-pot... I love that I can put something in first thing in the morning, and then after a long day of working, dinner is ready to eat!!  Here's my new favorite Beef Stroganoff recipe:

1 pkg. of beef stew meat
flour, salt & pepper
1 packet of beef stroganoff seasoning mix
I can beef broth
1 small container of sour cream
1 package of extra-wide egg noodles or rice

Put stew meat, (salt & peppered and dredged in a little flour) into the crock-pot with a little beef broth.  Sprinkle stroganoff seasoning on top.  Mix together. Cook on low for 6 hrs.  Right before serving, stir in sour cream.  You might need to add more beef broth or water at that point to make it the right consistency as well.  Serve over noodles or rice.... it's DE-lish!! 

Anyone got any great crock-pot recipes they are dying to share??  Please spread the love here!!

How was YOUR week?

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