Baked Ruffles

Baked Ruffles Calories 110 Fat 3% Carbs 19g Fiber 2g Protein 2g
Vitamin c 6% maganese 4 phosphorus 4%
Ingredients:
dried potatoes corn starch corn oil sugar salt soy lecithin corn sugar


Well these are good and have less fat. They are only 30 calories though and soy lecithin isn't good for you, so in my humble opinion. Real chips are better!!!!

Nutrition Info on the Chips

Lays Garden Tomato and Basil
Calories 160 Fat 10g Fiber 1 Protein 2 Carbs 16g
and these natural chips actually have some vitamins - 6% Vitamin A, 10% Vitamin C, 4% Iron, 6% Vitamin E, 4% Niacin, 4% Magnesium, 4% Thiamin, 8% Vitamin B6 And they are all Natural

Original Ruffles with Ridges
Calories 160 Fat 10g Fiber 1 Protein 2 Carbs 15g
and they have some vitamins too - 10% Vitamin C, 2% Iron, 6% Vitamin E, 6% Niacin, 4% Magnesium, 4% Thiamin, 10% Vitamin B6, 2% Phosphorus, and 4% Magnesium And they are all Natural

Lays Barbeque Chips
Calories 160 Fat 10g Fiber 1 Protein 2 Carbs 15g
and they have less vitamins but are still natural - 6% Vitamin E, 2% Iron, 10% Vitamin C, 2% Magnesium

Now these new chips that rock my socks:
Food Should Taste Good All Natural Olive Tortilla Chips Yummy!
Calories 140 Fat 6 Fiber 3 Protein 2 Carbs 18g - for vitamins they have just 2% Calcium and 6% Iron

Vegetable Chips supermarket brand no weird ingredients or preservatives (I haven't tasted these yet): Calories 120, Fat 4g, Fiber 1g, Protein 3g, Carbs 18g, 2% Iron

And just for a fun comparison: Snyder's Pretzel Rods Calories 120 Fat 1g Fiber 1g Protein 3g Carbs 24g - 2% Iron too - Yummy too. Less fat but more carbs...

The Great Chip Taste Off

We are holding a Great Chip Taste Off in our house right now. We have purchased a bunch of chips and are narrowing them down bag by bag. So far plain Ruffles with ridges totally beats the new Garden Tomato with Basil by Lays. It was a shocking result really. The Garden Tomato and Basil does taste like tomato and basil and are good. Good for once and a while but not as you go to chip.

We are not testing any chip with ingredients in it that we don't know what they are however. We are trying to eat only foods we can pronounce!

I'll let you know tomorrow about the next rung on the climb to the best go to chip ever!

Dog Update

It's been a couple days since she's been home and I have to tell you - the first day she was aggressive. Now however she is fine. She is actually sweeter than she was before this happened, I think. Or I'm looking at her in a new way. PLUS we are running around the block everyday at 6 am. And I think that is quite an accomplishment, yesterday it was negative 7. I think my lungs were starting to freeze. And it's not easy to run in snowboots, coat, scarf, hat, gloves on the icy messy street. But whatever it is, it is better for both of us than nothing. I think it is helping bond us, so I am having my daughter do all the feeding so she can bond that way...

She is also not allowed to be on either floor of the apartment alone, hopefully soon she will stop chewing all sorts of plastic and other disgusting things, like pencils. Any ideas on how to get a puppy to stop chewing are appreciated. She does have a basket of toys but would rather chew garbage stuff.

Dogs and Vitamins Just Don't Mix

My dog seriously overdosed last night. Thank the Lord, animal poison control, and the emergency veterinarian that she is still alive. After work I plopped my purse, briefcase, and lunch bag on the kitchen floor intending to get back to them later. I went upstairs to work and my daughter and dog were downstairs. Later my girl comes up with vitamins in her hand and my days of the week plastic pill case from my purse. Apparently the dog got into my purse, how she unzipped it must have been tricky. It does have a big strap on the zipper. I imagine she stood on it and pulled on the big strap with her teeth and got it halfway open. Anyway, when she handed me both things I looked up my dog ate my vitamins on the internet. I found many incidents where dogs stole vitamins and were fine, so I didn’t worry. Three hours later she couldn’t walk, was completely aggressive wouldn’t let us near her, and was like wheezy and barking intermittently but a bark of pain, nothing I’ve ever hear before.

I called the emergency vet because it was late at night, they told me to call animal poison control. I called them back and said I couldn’t get through, so they said either way we had to call from there or from my house. Animal poison control charges $35 for the phone call. For my $35 they told me to go to the veterinarian and gave me a case number. After calling neighbors for help, because I wouldn’t get her in her kennel because she kept biting at me. We finally wrapped her gently in a blanket and got her in. Little did I know one of the main reasons she was so violent is because she was blind. When she got in her cage, I kept saying it’s like she can’t see. She was hallucinating barking at the walls of the kennel, barking at things that weren’t there. It was the saddest thing I’d ever heard or seen. My daughter was crying, to dog was just making noises I’ve never heard an animal make.

Finally we get to the veterinarian, who I’d spoken to by now two times on the phone. When we get there they leave her in her kennel for a while. My neighbor, daughter and I confirm that she can’t see. Now the veterinarian who is supposed to know what to do, I’m thinking, doesn’t. So they have to call poison control and talk to them. They tell them what to do to help the dog. One of my vitamins is 5HTP which is tryptophan, like in turkeys. Apparently the dog had overdosed on serotonin. The vitamin B12 and multivitamin which were the other pills she ate she would eventually eliminate. They poison control told the veterinarian what to do, so they finally took her out back to help her. They came back out with an estimate that I could not pay. I explained that to them and they did the bare minimum for her, which was the medicine the poison control suggested and a medicine to calm her down. They had gotten her calm, so they didn’t want to give her fluids which is what I thought they should do. But what do I know. I figured because when I did get her outside when she was just kinda sleepy before she got really bad she was licking snow, but she wouldn’t drink water. She wouldn’t eat anything either, which is what I thought would help her absorb some of the vitamins she took.

We got out of the veterinarians about a little after midnight, and they did want to keep her because she was still hallucinating at that time. I called the vet at 6:30 am because I couldn’t sleep anyway. I was sick with worry. I didn’t want my daughter to lose her best buddy. Even if her best buddy won’t stop eating things she shouldn’t. At 6:30 am they said that she could see! The neurological effects of the pills she ate had gone away between the medicine they gave and the time she spent there. They said though that she was throwing herself against her kennel whenever someone walked by and was so aggressive they couldn’t do anything with her. I took that as a sign she was better. Since we were in the middle of a blizzard at that time of the morning, at around 9:30 my neighbor who said she loves to drive in the snow and drove us down to get her. They kept taking about her aggression and I was worried that she had permanent brain damage, and she would stay aggressive like she’d been the night before. When they brought her out in her kennel, my daughter and I opened the door, and out came our dog, normal, a bit sedate however, with tail wagging and tongue licking hello. Thank goodness. They are going to recommend a trainer for her, and we’ll see about that, but for now thank goodness she is home, she slept on a pillow most of the day. We gave her water right away and fed her some brown rice. She is lying down again and I think everything is alright. My daughter is ecstatic that she didn’t lose her best friend. Me I didn’t think I cared that much, until I saw her last night. No animal should ever suffer that way. Please be more careful with your purse or your vitamins than I was. She is only 35 pounds and she ate five days of my vitamins, and I am well we’ll just say well over 35 pounds.

Dogs and vitamins just don’t mix.

This week we volunteered at the food bank to distribute food baskets to people who need a little help. It was a good experience. One thing touched me more than anything else. I wonder if it because I’m Jewish and not used to hearing, “G-d bless you.” But then of course I am, every time I sneeze invariably someone blesses me. This “G-d bless you” though that a woman gave me and the two guys carrying her boxes, moved me in an unusual way. It was the way she said it I guess; it carried such meaning and thanks. No matter which faith she was, it is the same G-d. I think people forget that. If terrorists and haters would remember that, we’d all be better off. Maybe it was moving saying, “G-d bless you too.” I don’t usually say that. Well that’s not true; I surely do every time someone sneezes. Of course I hadn’t done anything to be blessed, I just showed up. The people who should be blessed are the people who organize these huge efforts to feed thousands of people. Reflecting on the experience, I guess the difference is that unlike when someone sneezes and it is said out of habit, this time when it was said she meant it and when I said it back, I surely did mean it too.

Happy Holiday Season!

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A giant step in the right direction...

Attaching the President's email in case you didn't get it! Yay Operation Iraqi Freedom is over! Thank you to all of our service people past and present, those on their way home and those still there. God bless.
Now Afghanistan...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Tonight marks the end of the American combat mission in Iraq.

As a candidate for this office, I pledged to end this war responsibly. And, as President, that is what I am doing.

Since I became Commander-in-Chief, we've brought home nearly 100,000 U.S. troops. We've closed or turned over to Iraq hundreds of our bases.

As Operation Iraqi Freedom ends, our commitment to a sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq continues. Under Operation New Dawn, a transitional force of U.S. troops will remain to advise and assist Iraqi forces, protect our civilians on the ground, and pursue targeted counterterrorism efforts.

By the end of next year, consistent with our agreement with the Iraqi government, these men and women, too, will come home.

Ending this war is not only in Iraq's interest -- it is in our own. Our nation has paid a huge price to put Iraq's future in the hands of its people. We have sent our men and women in uniform to make enormous sacrifices. We have spent vast resources abroad in the face of several years of recession at home.

We have met our responsibility through the courage and resolve of our women and men in uniform.

In seven years, they confronted a mission as challenging and as complex as any our military has ever been asked to face.

Nearly 1.5 million Americans put their lives on the line. Many returned for multiple tours of duty, far from their loved ones who bore a heroic burden of their own. And most painfully, more than 4,400 Americans have given their lives, fighting for people they never knew, for values that have defined our people for more than two centuries.

What their country asked of them was not small. And what they sacrificed was not easy.

For that, each and every American owes them our heartfelt thanks.

Our promise to them -- to each woman or man who has donned our colors -- is that our country will serve them as faithfully as they have served us. We have already made the largest increase in funding for veterans in decades. So long as I am President, I will do whatever it takes to fulfill that sacred trust.

Tonight, we mark a milestone in our nation's history. Even at a time of great uncertainty for so many Americans, this day and our brave troops remind us that our future is in our own hands and that our best days lie ahead.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama