December 2009

Holy holidays, Batman! It’s been an extremely busy week. SO SORRY I haven’t done an update in awhile. Every time I started to do one, I was interrupted or toooo tired to do it before bed. Counting calories hasn’t even been on my radar in the past 2 weeks and there has been no formal exercise, but a LOT of NEAT. I think I’ve walked 10+ miles for the past 10 days, on top of my usual activity!! So I at least maintained my weight and possibly even lost a few, but I’m not stepping on the scale until after New Year’s. Well after New Year’s.

We got all of our shopping and errands done before Christmas Eve — YAY! No last minute dashes through the stores. Then, over the past week we have:

Made Christmas Cookies with my cousin, Tricia, and my mom…

Gingerbread cookies…

…and sugar cookies…

…and thumbprint cookies and butter cookies!

Dustin letting his creative juices flow in the form of gingerbread shaping

Some of them were overcooked, but still yummy. We had SO many, we didn’t miss the few dozen that didn’t turn out right LOL.

Our kitchen was almost all Italian cucina this week.

Homemade veggie pizza made with dough balls that we bought at the bakery. OMG, deeeeeeeelicious!

I preheated the oven to 450F, then threw on whatever veggies I could find. Mainly frozen ones. I used very little cheese and I didn’t miss it at all. It came out AWESOME!

With a side of steamed broccoli drizzled with Ken’s sodium-free ginger marinade

The crust came out perfectly crisp and soft in the middle. Aaah, heaven!

I also made a tray of almost vegan eggplant parmesan. Almost

I got this recipe from a vegan recipe site, but modified it with cheese.

1. Preheat oven to 425F
2. Slice eggplant lengthwise (I left the skin on my)
3. Drizzle liberally with extra virgin olive oil (salt + pepper, optional)
4. Bake in oven until soft; turn over halfway through
5. In a lasagana pan or any other baking pan, make layers of: tomato sauce, eggplant, slices of peasant or other hard bread, like ciabatta, (cheese optional), more sauce and repeat until you run out of layers. Top with slices of tomato (I forgot!)
6. Bake on 375F to 400F for 30-50 minutes depending on your oven and preferred crispiness.

Servings vary

I made a HUGE salad, which I ate all of throughout the day. I LOVE salad. LOVE it!

FANTASTIC! I loooooove the way the bread soaked up the sauce and expanded. It was amazing! So easy to make and leftovers were enjoyed for many days.

The next day I made another huge salad that I ate all of throughout the day, but loved it the most with my salmon that I marinated with Ken’s sodium-free ginger and then baked. Why does it get that white stuff (the fat?) on top?? Every time I cook salmon, it does that. I eat it anyway but I never see anyone else’s do that.

Served on one of my favorite holiday plates:

I <3 salmon!!!! I could eat it 3 times a day and never get sick of it. YUM!

I used my new crock pot for the first time the other day. I was going to make soup, but one ingredient leads to another and before you know it, I have tomato sauce with chicken sausage. hehe

Made with:

• 3 cans Del Monte no salt added diced tomatoes
• 2 medium onions, slices thinly
• 1 bag frozen zucchini slices
• 1 package Al Fresco roasted garlic chicken sausages, sliced in round bite size pieces

I let it cook overnight in my slow cooker on the lowest setting for about 10 hours. It turned out lovely! I LOVE using it. It literally took just 5 minutes to throw it all in there and then it does all the work for you. Brilliant!

I was going to serve it over rice, but chickened out at the last second and went with tri-color bowtie pasta.

I made some garlic bread with leftover peasant bread

HUGE plate of it, probably 2 servings of pasta, but I was STARVING after shopping and walking around for a good 6 hours+! Plus heavy cleaning, etc. It was well earned. So were the Nathan’s hot dogs Dustin and I indulged in at the mall 2 times this week LOL.

I’ve been trying to keep it simple the past few days with leftovers and nibbling because we have 2 back to back elaborate dinners planned and I want to enjoy them as much as possible.

Swiss and cheddar cheese, Kashi crackers that taste like Triscuits, and 2 clementines made lunch yesterday:

A Hershey’s Kiss with almonds for dessert x about 20 this whole week Candy dish = NAUGHTY JENN! lol

After our final day of mad dashes through stores and hot dogs for lunch, I made a simple veggie + cheese omelet with a leftover boiled potato topped with Fage 0% yogurt on the side:

I scrambled 4 extra large eggs, then added butter + EVOO in a nonstick pan and added in whatever veggies we had (TJ’s frozen asparagus, tri-color bell pepper strips, red onion) and then poured in the eggs on top of it. Halfway through cooking I added in a mix of Swiss and cheddar cheese (full fat). I split the omelet 3 ways with hubby and mom.

Water in my cup from the Radio City Christmas show last year…

Omelet topped with a few banana pepper rings. SO GOOD!

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

Dustin and I had some ornaments made last year…

…and my adorable little Hello Kitty ornaments!!

Our beautiful blue spruce Christmas tree courtesy of Aunt Gina and Uncle Brian’s Christmas tree farm. <3

Right now I’m in the middle of cooking the Italian 7 fish Christmas Eve dinner. I will have TONS of pics to post of that but I better get going before I miss it! LOL Be back later tonight before Santa gets here!!!!! He’s going through NJ right now, heading to NYC and then upstate. YAY, GO SANTA!!

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Dustin and I decided to extend my birthday celebration just a little bit more by declaring last night “date night.” I’m a HUGE fan of the Twilight Saga, as many of you might know by now, but I didn’t want to see New Moon when it first came out for one reason: Hysterical 13 year old FANatics. I already read all 4 of the books, so I know what happens, and I didn’t want the movie experience to be ruined by chatty teenagers. So I patiently waited until the initial excitement wore off, then last night we decided that a 10:30PM Monday night showing was probably a good time, and it was! We almost had the entire theatre all to ourselves until a couple came in at the last minute and sat 2 seats away from us in the same row. WHY do some people do that?! There were 200+ other seats available, but they had to sit practically right next to us. I could understand if it was a little more crowded, but it was just the 4 of us. Le sigh!

Anyway, that tension went away as soon as the movie started. Edward Cullen makes me melt. Tall, pale, and cold? HELL YES! hehe The movie was awesome, just what I was expecting, but I maintain that the books are better than the movies. The movie versions are rather condensed and leave a lot of intricate details out that give you a better understanding of what is going on and why. So I highly recommend reading the books and then seeing the movies. If you’ve only seen the movies and enjoyed them, then read the books, too.

I totally overdid it with calories and sodium. Totally. The day started off innocently enough with a grilled gouda + tomato sandwich on peasant bread with a cup of Trader Joe’s no salt added minestrone soup (200 cal):

By the way, I used my old Sony CyberShot camera all day because I didn’t clear the memory card off from my full Nikon yet. So the pictures are pretty crappy! lol

1oz gouda cheese (100 cal) with tomato slices and 1/2 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (25 cal) on peasant bread grilled in 1/2 TBSP butter (50 cal) and 1 can Trader Joe’s minestrone soup (200 cal).

SO GOUDaaaaaaaaaa!

Yum, yum!

We decided to try a new place called The Park for dinner. It has a variety of cuisine, but mostly Japanese (sushi). We weren’t expecting it to be as nice as it was. There really aren’t that many decent restaurants within our 20 miles radius, but we were pleasantly surprised.

The $8 bottled water was a little pricey, but worth it after we tasted the house water. Blek!

We started with 2 appetizers: Artichoke dip with garlic bread and pork & vegetable Gyoza with sesame sauce — I forgot to request the steamed ones, oops! I’m not a fan of fried dumplings, but they were tasty.

Dustin had the filet mignon with gorgonzola, which was amazing! It was so tender and flavorful, LOVED it.

I had, for the first time, Pad Thai noodles with shrimp. OMG, DELICIOUS!!!!!!

Sweet, spicy, crunchy, and creamy all in one dish. I ate just 1/3 of it while we were there, but I ate the rest later on. This is definitely a new favorite. I can’t wait to have it again and I’m so glad that my first experience with this popular dish was a hit. YAY!

We had about an hour before the movie started, so we went to Target for some household items, like toilet paper and cat treats — romantic, I know!! LOL We had a little more time to waste, so we went to Macy’s to do a little window shopping. Then we headed over to the theatre to buy our tickets… and a LARGE popcorn… and Nestle Crunchies… and Twizzlers. I ate SO much popcorn and candy. Ugh! But at least my drink was a 10 calorie Vitamin Water. Sodium overload!! My ankles were swollen by the time we drove home. Totally worth it though!!!

Now I have to go plan my menu for the rest of the week, work on the Christmas Eve and Christmas menu, plan Christmas shopping which we haven’t even begun yet, and a zillion other things. I better hop to it. *giggles*

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Happy 30th birthday, to me!!

(12/12/79)

I was too exhausted to go through 600+ pictures by the end of the night, so pretend it’s still my birthday, even though it was yesterday. LOL My camera’s memory card actually ran out of space. That’s the first time that ever happened. We were snapping pics like craaaaaaaaaazzzzzzzzzy, but unfortunately, Dustin isn’t as good with the camera as I am. lol

We started the day with a super calorific breakfast of eggs over hard, cinnamon toast with butta, and a VERY tall cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream made by Dustin <3

Yummy!! I drank ALL of the hot chocolate, too. I think it was the equivalent of Starbucks’ Grande. It was made with water and not milk though, so that saves a bunch of cals. Not that it matters on my birrrrrrrrrfday!

My party was starting at 4:00PM. Dustin decorated the dining room all by himself! Isn’t he the sweetest ever?

I decided to printed out place cards at the last minute, which came out totally cool. If I had thought of them earlier I would have made them more festive. hehe

The birthday menu: Beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, green beans, tossed salad with gouda, and crusty Italian bread

Pictures of Dustin and me…

Bathroom mirror pics. hehe

Hello Kitty cake time! To be honest, I was a little disappointed with the cake that we ordered from our favorite bakery in Kingston; it wasn’t nearly as pretty as last year’s! It was rather plain looking, so I added a little to it by sprinkling purple sprinkles on it. Seemed to help! But you know what they say, it’s not that outside that matters, only the inside.

14″ vanilla and chocolate layered cake with cannoli + chocolate chip and chocolate custard filling and real whipped cream on the outside. DELICIOUS!!

I had a WONDERFUL birthday and got a bunch of awesome presents!! Including:

• Bose headphones for my iPod
• Cookie cutters <3
• Wii games
• New Moon and Hello Kitty calendars!!
• Egg Genie
• Sims 3
• Bose iPod dock

Plus other fantastic stuff. Dustin took pictures of the presents and they didn’t come out so hot, lol. Love it all, though!

So, I’m officially in my 30s! I don’t feel any different. lol I feel exactly the same as I did when I was 10 with the exception of physically feeling VERY old and worn down sometimes. But my inner child will always keep me young at heart.

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We decided to sell a bunch of things on Craig’s List that were taking up room in our garage to the point that its hard to walk in there. So far we sold our bicycles, which we hardly used and my treadmill, which was also barely touched. No one wanted to take it apart and bring it upstairs to my gym, so we sold it. Actually, my husband’s exact words were, “I’d rather just buy a new one than take it apart and bring it all the way up there.” Whatever you want, sweetie pie!!

When I placed the ads on Craig’s List, I browsed the “Wanted” category to see if anyone was looking for anything we were selling, and that’s when I saw an ad for a mother with 4 children that needed dishes. I had been setting aside a pile of mine that I decided I no longer use or want, so I contacted them and offered the ones I had. They accepted and picked the box up the next day. I didn’t know anyone else that wanted them, so I was glad to find a home for them instead of throwing them out. I highly recommend that you check out Craig’s List or other local classified ads where people look for things they want or need. You know the saying, “One person’s trash is another person’s treasure!” So true. I prefer donating tangible items or physically doing something more than just blindly handing over money to a charity. This week we’re making our usual toy contribution to Toys for Tots and dropping off cat and dog food to the local ASPCA. I try to be charitable all year long, but especially so during the holiday season. Even if you don’t have any money or time to spare, perhaps you have coats, clothes, pots and pans, and other household products that you no longer use that would make someone’s day. Instead of throwing out unopened canned and boxed food, consider donating it to your local food bank or church. Keep it local and simple.

Highlights from the past few days eats:

Kashi Honey Puffs 7 grain cereal (120 cal) mixed with 55g Nature’s Path Flax Plus Pumpkin Raisin Crunch cereal (210 cal) and 1 cup skim milk (90 cal)

Aww, cuuuuuuuuuute gingerbread man bowl! hehe

Meh, not my favorite way to consume 420 calories, but I was craving a bowl of cold cereal. I realized that I do NOT like raisins in cereal, at least the ones that cereal. They are so hard and hurt to chew. I think that’s why I never cared for raisin bran, too hard on my teeth. I like just the bran flakes, though.

Health Valley no salt added split pea soup with 1 Pepperidge Farms sourdough roll (140 cal) and a lovely blue salad drizzled with Bragg’s Healthy Vinaigrette + red wine vinegar

WAAAAAAAAAAAAY too much at once. I ended up eating all of the salad, the roll and less than half of the soup. The soup is a little bland on its own, but I added in a few splashes of Tabasco and a very light sprinkling of potassium chloride (salt substitute) and it perked it right up. YUM!

I’ve been trying to find AlsoSalt, a salt substitute, but haven’t been able to find it. It’s used in Heinz no salt added ketchup and tastes great, so I’d like to try it now and then, but not too much. I tread very lightly with salt substitutes, though, being on prescription diuretics, I can use more potassium in my diet, but I still use it as sparingly as possible; not even close the the full serving size in a week, much less all at once. If I can find AlsoSalt, I’ll post my review.

I did find a sodium-free Asian marinade made by Ken’s Steakhouse that tastes awesome:

Serving size: 1 TBSP, 30 calories — and the list of ingredients is pretty decent, too, for something that’s store-bought. I used 1 TBSP (30 cal) on a 3.5oz salmon filet (105 cal) that I baked in the oven on 425F for just 9 minutes and nearly burned! I figured it would take 12 minutes and it ended up being well-done in just 9 minutes. Geesh, good thing I checked!

While the salmon baked, I boiled 2oz spaghetti (210 cal) and steamed Trader Joe’s frozen asparagus in the microwave. When the salmon and pasta were done, I tossed in the asparagus and mixed it with another TBSP of Ken’s Sesame Ginger sauce (30 cal), then placed the salmon top.

SO GOOD!! It came to just 400 filling-and-flavorful-calories. Yum!

Today I woke up craving tuna salad and A LOT of it. So, I mixed a whole can of Trader Joe’s no salt added Tongol tuna (~120 cal) with 2 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (100 cal), then put it atop of a bed of mixed greens that I tossed in red wine vinegar and 2 TBSP Bragg’s Healthy Vinaigrette (90 cal) on my Snoopy and Woodstock platter:

Toppings: grape tomatoes, red onions, 14g reduced fat blue cheese crumbles (40 cal)

Deeeeeeelish! I love, love, LOVE salads!! <3 I was feeling pretty full, but had a smallish Granny Smith apple and a Kashi fruit + nut bar (120 cal) right after this to round out the meal a little more. But would you believe that after ALL of that I was HUNGRY 2 hours later?! My appetite has been insatiable ALL week! I've been good about watching my sodium intake, so I am dropping some water weight, but I think my increased hunger is due to all the activity I've had this week; we've been shopping, I've been walking an hour a day in my homemade obstacle course around my living room/kitchen, AND doing 45-60 minutes of recumbent biking, 15-16 miles everyday. No wonder why I'm so hungry! And I'm actually going to be even busier tomorrow. We have to pick up my cake (OMG, wait until you see this year's!! I think it's going to be AWESOME), I have cleaning to do, exercise, shopping, work, planning my birthday party and dinner for Saturday, going out to eat Friday night, and then after my party we are going to a comedy club with my cousin and her boyfriend. Meanwhile, we haven't even started Christmas shopping yet! Well, actually I bought a few things, but I haven't even scratched the surface yet. It's going to be a looooooooooooooong, but FUN month. I love December, it's such a go, go, go time. I complain, but I really do enjoy it. We're also practicing being more time-efficient and might even dodge Christmas Eve last-minute shopping. We'll see I guess! lol

Well, I've been fighting my hunger for the past 2 hours, I think 4 hours is enough time to have passed before I eat again. I usually don't fight my hunger, if I'm hungry, I eat, but I mean come on, that meal had it all; veggies, fiber, protein, fats, DESSERT, and flavor. I thought it would hold me for a long time. Nope! Ugh. Off to eat!

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