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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