Merry Christmas 2008!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

I hope that everybody had a fantastic day! I know I sure did! Because I realize that today is a very busy day, I decided to make this post picture heavy and text light.I'm hoping this will make it easier to read through on this hectic day! Here we go!! :)

Starting off with the end of Christmas Eve....Santa always get Turtles and beer and carrots for the reindeer at our house. We figure that he's had enough cookies and milk by the time he gets to our place! :)


Every year Santa manages to leave a piece of his beard(AKA cotton ball) on the plate! The kids are always just thrilled by this!

Here's DS with his Santa present...Guelph Storm Hockey Camp...Santa brought him a team t-shirt and a letter explaining his gift to him.

DD with her much wanted Nintendo DS and fashion game....

By 7:30 the fun was over and I was hungry! I made a bowl of oat bran with a tbsp of cinnamon bun coffee mate and a sprinkle of cinnamon sprinkles.


We had the kids showered and were out the door by 9:30 to do presents and brunch at my parents house. Here's DS with my Mom...

And DD with my sister...

It's a Christmas tradition at my parents to have eggs, toast and fried homemade salami for brunch. My Dad makes his own salami, but it's not cured by Christmas, hence the frying. Well, in most recent years, Mom has taken to cooking it in the oven to try to healthy it up a bit! When cooked, it's deliciously salty and tastes wonderful with a hunk of bread! Here's my plate...

I also shared a Honey Crisp apple with Mom and my sis. Sorry, no pic!

When we got home, I put my turkey in the oven and hopped on the treadmill for a 5.5 mile run. Lovely to know I burned almost 500 calories before a big festive dinner! It makes me feel like I have a little leeway when dessert comes around!

After my run and a nice hot shower, I ate about a third cup of plain yogurt with the last of the cranberry sauce. I didn't want to be ravenous by dinner time! I put the finishing touches on the table and peeled the potatoes for the mashed taters, cleaned and halved the brussel sprouts and put the dessert out to come to room temperature.

Fast forward 7 hrs and here I am! Dinner was a success! My in laws came over and we all ate until our bellies were busting! It's almost 10:30 here and too late to post any dinner details so I'll leave all that for tomorrows post! Catch ya later!!

Bye for now!!

Cranberry Overload

Mr. Winter dumped another 15cm of snow on us through the night! My hubby had to get the snow blower fired up at 7am to dig me out!! Here’s what my van looked like before he got out there…


Sorry it's a little dark. My camera must not have been too happy with the cold! I wasn’t too concerned about the noise from the blower at that hour because most of our neighbors are retired and up early. The one house that might complain better not do so because they had their blower fired up at 11pm last night! Tit for tat, right?! Besides, I had to get out so I could go to work.

I ate my breakfast at the computer today because I wanted to check out the website for my work to make sure the office was actually open. And yes, it was.

-1 cup water
-1/2 cup flax seed porridge
-cinnamon
-cranberry sauce


I made the caramel pecan sauce for the cheesecake last night. OMG...it was all I could do not to eat the whole batch with a spoon. It's freaking out of this world good! I'll post the recipe, but it's not mine. I got it from my co-worker, D, who got it from I don't know where!

Caramel Pecan Sauce

-1 1/2 sticks unslated butter
-3/4 cup brown sugar
-1/2 cup heavy cream
-1/4 tsp salt
-2 cup pecans

*Pre heat oven to 350*
*melt the butter and brown sugar together, stirring until combined
*add heavy cream and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until thickened, about 3 minutes
*set aside to cool
*spread pecans on a cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes
*chop coarsley when cooled
*add pecan to caramel and refrigerate. Warm slightly before serving

This will keep in the fridge for up to 1 week.

Once I sat down last night I enjoyed a vanilla caramel truffle tea in my snowman mug!

Work was dead today. There were only 3 of us there. I did what I needed to do and hit the road at 12:30. Before I left, I ate a Z-Bar to tide me over until I git home because I had a few stops on the way.

When I got home I ate some Fage with cranberries. There’s only a spoonful left. This batch seemed to last me for-ever!

I also had chai tea with 2 homemade treats….a peanut butter cup and chocolate chip short bread cookie. This was consumed earlier in the morning while still at work.


Here's what I received from my co-worker for Christmas! She knows me so well!



Rachel Ray 365 No Repeats, bruschetta mix and a Starbuck's gift card! YEAH!

Here's a few more picture's of Pepper. I promise not to overload ya'll with kitty picture's! He's just too cute! He slept really well last night. We put him in his own room for now and he only cried for 10 minutes before passing out. I went to let him out at 6:30am and he was still asleep! What a good baby! :)



I had full intentions of hitting the treadmill when I got home, but by the time I walked through the door, I was beat! I made a big cup of tea, sat on the couch with a warm blanket and looked through my new cook book. I was so relaxed that I even caught a 20 minute cat nap. I must have needed it because I rarely nap throughout the day.

I finally got off the couch at dinner time. We had BBQ'd pork tenderloin, sweet potato pancakes and salad.

Such a good meal! I had a piece of my carrot cake baked oatmeal for my sweet end.

My parents are coming over a little later so I'm sure I'll be eating a few more nibbles here and there. For now though, I'm off to set the table for tomorrow, and get my stuffing started so it's ready to go when I need it!

I'll probably be posting tomorrow although I don't know when. Until then, I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas Eve and a magical Christmas Day! HAPPY HOLIDAYS, blog friends!!

Bye for now!!

Introducing.....

Even though I fell prey to downloading music last night for MUCH longer than I had intended, I managed to bake my Christmas Day cheesecake. It took me a little longer to do because 1) I thought I had graham cracker crumbs, but they were actual crackers, so I had to grind them down and 2) my blender blew up months ago, which I forgot about so I had to pull out my food processor and 3) I was pretty busy boogieing to my new tunes! It all worked out in the end, though!!

I made a really tasty bowl of oats this morning! Well, they’re ALL tasty, but this one seemed to have some UMPF to it!

-1 cup water
-1/2 McCann’s Irish oats
-1 Tbsp pumpkin spice coffee powder
-cinnamon
-3 pecan halves, crumbled (I think this was the UMPF!)

I don’t normally have pecans around the house, but I bought some last night for the cheesecake topping so I figured…what the heck! They are one expensive nut, though!!!

Work was pretty uneventful today. There were even less people in than yesterday. Looking forward to being done at 2pm tomorrow!! Here’s my morning snack….

TAZO Refresh tea and another piece of carrot cake baked oatmeal.

DD and I watched videos today while I was on the treadmill. Seeing as I felt so energetic running yesterday, I bumped up the speed and managed 3.5 miles in my usual time frame. Not bad….for me, anyways!!

Lunch will look familiar to you…..

It’s last night’s dinner leftovers! Imagine that, eh?! I’m loving the edamame! I’ve had it before, but never made it myself. I didn’t realize how simple it was t prepare. You’ll be seeing more of this, for sure!

Mid afternoon I smuggled a cookie or 2…..they disappeared so fast that my camera didn’t stand a chance! Once my mouth got a taste of that sugar, it started truing to rule my brain so I quickly ate this apple to solve the problem!

Ah…nothing like natural sugar!

I was excited for work to be done today because I had a special trip to make before I went home. If you’re curious, you can skip ahead over dinner to see what (or who) I’m talking about!! :)

So yes, dinner...well, it was a quick one because I arrived home later than usual! I made spaghetti and meatballs (store bought) for the fam and whipped up a third cup of egg whites for me. I put them on an Arnold Thin with Sabra hummus & whipped cottage cheese. A small salad with the last of the hummus went on the side.

I ate 2 chocolate bells for my sweet end, but my camera was being used so no pic!

On to the BIG announcement!! After much begging and pleading and groveling on my part, my hubby finally gave in and let me adopt another kitten!! WAHOO!!! So, with further ado, I introduce you to Pepper...

I had thought to call him Cinnamon, but when I picked him up they told me his name was Pepper and I decided that it suit him perfectly!

He was born Sept 15 and his whole litter was surrendered to the Humane Society. Out of 6 of them, there was still one left.

He's a spunky little man and I do believe that he will be the perfect match for my other two boys. Right now, Charlie and Octavius are sulking in the rec room, but they'll come around!

I hope you enjoyed the picture's of Pepper. I'm sure there will be more to come! As for me, I'm off to play with him a bit, get a few more things ready for Christmas Day and wrap the last of the presents. Enjoy the night!

Bye for now!!

Tips and a Recipe

Getting out of bed this morning with everyone else still sleeping didn’t end up being as hard as I’d thought! Seeing as I just had myself to get ready, I was able to catch an extra half hour of zzz’s myself!! I woke up pretty darn hungry, too! There was a half of a banana in the fridge from my hubby’s after hockey smoothie last night, so I used it up!


- ¾ cup unsweetened chocolate almond breeze
-1/4 cup water
-1/2 Quaker oats
-1/2 a banana, mashed up


I just love the combination of chocolate and banana. Actually I love chocolate with almost anything!! **Please excuse the messy bowl! I didn't realize it looked like that until I downloaded the picture!

The office was pretty bare this morning which makes the atmosphere a lot more relaxing! The radio was a little louder and we were all dressed more casual than usual. Still lots of work to do, though!! Mid morning I had this cup of TAZO tea with a piece of my carrot cake baked oatmeal from last nights BSI entry. It’s even better today!!


The crew was home went I arrived for my lunch run so I had some company while sweating it up! I ran a nice, smooth 3.28 miles. The only bummer is it was one of those days where I just wanted to keep going, but I had to stop and go back to work. Oh, the unfairness of it all!! :)

I scrambled a bit this morning where my lunch was concerned. I could have sworn that I still had a Lean Cuisine Panini in the freezer, but could not find it! I ended up throwing together an Arnold Thin with almond butter and cinnamon plum tea jam. Here’s my tower of grown up PB & J!!

A little later in the day I tried my first Oikos yogurt.


I absolutely LOVED it! In all honesty, I couldn’t tell the difference between this and Fage. It was thick, creamy and tangy! I put it in my mug and topped it with black berries and pumpkin granola for my afternoon snackie! YUM-O!! :)


As promised in yesterday’s post, here are a few “did you know” tidbits courtesy of Family Circle magazine. I hope you enjoy them! I found them rather interesting!

-a non flowering green plant, like bamboo, can purify the air in a 10 x 10 room in 24hrs

-chapped lips? Smear a little Vaseline on a toothbrush, then use to exfoliate

-Store freshly baked cookies in a container with a few pieces of bread. The moisture in the bread is absorbed into the cookies helping them stay fresh longer

-Keep your shelves tidier by rolling towel, t-shirts, sweaters and sweat shirts instead of folding them.

-Use leftover twist ties to tame the tangle of TV, computer and cell phone wires.

And there you have it! I love reading about little time savers and such. A few of you mentioned in my comments Friday that you would like the recipe for the dessert my co-worker brought in. She graciously gave it to me!

Stained Glass Windows

1 pkg cherry jello
1 pkg lime jello
1 pkg orange jello

Make each pkg individually as follows: pour pkg of jello in 1 cup boiling water, stir until crystals are dissolved, add 1/4 cup of cold water and let set in fridge until firm - I use pie plates to set the jello - should be wiggly like jello jigglers

1 pkg lemon jello
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup cold water

Add sugar and pineapple juice together and bring to a boil. Once brought to a boil, turn off heat and add lemon jello. Dissolve all crystals and add 1/2 cup cold water. Let this completely cool - will become a little thick (like a creamy soup).

1 pint whipping cream

Whip whipping cream and fold in cooled lemon jello mixture. Fold until mixture turns yellow - should not have any pure white areas.

Cut the coloured jello into cubs and add to whipping cream mixture.

Crust

1 sleeve of graham wafers - crushed
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter

Mix together and spread at the bottom of baking dish - keep about 1/4 cup of crumbs for topping - pour whipped cream jello mixture on top of graham wafer crumbs and sprinkle with remaining crumbs - refrigerate overnight or minimum of 6-8 hours.

Here’s a “reminder” picture of the dessert! Hope everyone that makes it enjoys it!



I had to run a few errands after work so my hubby got dinner going. He made up some chicken with tomato sauce and melted cheese on top. I served my portion with some steamed edamame and butternut squash.

A very satisfying meal...especially since I didn't cook most of it! For my sweet end I ate my last 2 dark chocolate Ferraro Rochers.

I plan on making my cheesecake for Christmas Day tonight so it's ready to go when I need it. I also bought the ingredients for the caramel pecan sauce (oh, yeah!!), but I think I forgot the recipe at work so that might have to wait. Other than that, I think I'll watch a few Christmas shows with the kids. I got a couple magazine's in the mail this week so once the kids are dreaming of sugar plums, I think I'll just chill out with them until bedtime. Stay warm, if need be, where ever you are and enjoy the night!

Bye for now!!

BSI: Carrots!

Hello all! Hope you've all had a good weekend so far! I was wide awake at 6am this morning. I haven't the foggiest idea why, but there was no way I was getting out of my warm bed at that hour so I just stayed put and relaxed until 7:15. While relaxing, I realized that for the first time in a long while, I didn't feel like oats! I know! Anyways, I decided on English muffin French toast with cranberry sauce, of course!

I mixed together about a 1/3 cup of egg beaters with lots of cinnamon and about 1 tsp of vanilla. I soaked an English muffin and the bum end of some WW bread in the mixture for a few minutes and then cooked them until they were nice and gold in colour.

Once on the plate I topped them with some heated cranberry sauce and a sprinkle of maple flakes. Oh, so good!

After breakie, we drove out to the farm for a quick visit as DS had a b-day party from 12-1:30 today. My MIL has been busy baking cookies and put some out for us to eat.

I had one chocolate chip and 2 of the peanut butter oat ones. Delish! These guys were quite busy trying on their "But I'm starving" faces in hopes of some sweets. I'm sure they weren't crazy about our decision not to share!


After dropping DS off at his party, we came back home for some lunch. I wasn't too hungry because of the cookies so I decided to break out one of the Kozy Shack porridge bowls that I bought at Wegman's. The stats on these are not too bad....3PTS if you follow Weight Watchers.

I was skeptical at first because at first glance it looked just like a bowl of goo. I heated it up in the microwave and gave it a try.

I must say, not bad!! It was the Maple & brown sugar one which I found a bit on the sweet side, but I haven't put sugar in my oats for eons so I guess that was to be expected. The consistency was pudding like with a little bit of chew.


Overall, I would have to say that I enjoyed this product. At 7oz a bowl, the serving was smaller than I am use to, but did a good job of filling me up today. I would by them again, but probably the plain kind instead of a sweetened one.

Shortly after we ate, we went to get DS from the party and went straight to his hockey game. DD and I dropped the boys off and hightailed it to the mall to grab a few last gift for my hubby. We made it back in time to see the last 25 minutes of the game. Thank goodness the mall is just around the corner from the rink!! I munched on an apple (no pic) while at the game. While it was good, it was a bit cool of a snack for an arena!

I started on my BSI recipe when we got home. There are SO many things you can do with carrots, but I knew that sweet was the way to go in my household! Here's what I came up with!

Carrot Cake Baked Oatmeal

-1 cup Unsweetened Almond Breeze
-1/2 cup Egg Beaters (or 2 eggs)
-1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
-1/4 cup sugar
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-1 ½ tsp baking powder
-1 Tbsp cinnamon
-2 cup oats
-1 tsp salt
-1 cup shredded carrots
-1/2 cup raisins

*preheat oven to 350*
*Combine wet ingredients in a large bowl
*Add all dry ingredients to the wet mixture
*Gently fold in first the carrots and then the raisins
*Pour into a greased 8 X 8 baking dish and bake for 40 minutes

Let cool completely before cutting into 12 squares.

This recipe was VERY easy to do....it came together before the oven was done preheating! Its fabulous as a snack or even a grab n'go breakfast. Drizzle a little white chocolate on top with a sprinkle of icing sugar and serve for dessert!' Or crumble it over ice cream....the possibilities are endless!

Here are the nutritional stats according to Spark People...

Nutrition Facts
12 Servings

Calories 113.6
Total Fat 1.5 g
Saturated Fat 0.3 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.5 g
Monounsaturated Fat 0.4 g
Cholesterol 0.5 mg
Sodium 291.4 mg
Potassium 160.6 mg
Total Carbohydrate 22.3 g
Dietary Fiber 2.3 g
Sugars 6.1 g
Protein 4.0 g

Thanks to Catherine @ Stevia and Spice for choosing the ingredient this week! If you haven't stopped by her blog, you should do so....once you're done reading here! :)

While my creation was baking up, I got started on a simple pork and rice dinner. I cooked up some fast fry pork chops then added 1.5 cups of water and half a cup of salsa to the pan. Once that was bubbling, I stirred in a 1/2 cup of brown rice, covered it up and let cook until the water was gone, about 20 minutes. The last step was to sprinkle about a 1/2 cup of grated jalapeño Havarti on top to melt. I also had some of my leftover soup from last night on the side.

And that's my day! Another busy, fun filled adventure! My hubby is on vacay for the next 2 weeks, but I have to work for the next 3 days. It'll be tough getting out of bed in the morning while he's still snuggled in! Ah, well...I'm sure I'll survive! Speaking of work, I brought some home with me that I need to get started on. I know, it sucks, but I'll be glad to have it out of the way tomorrow so that I can leave work on time (I hope!). Tune in for tomorrow's post. I found some neat around the house tips that I'll be sharing with you!

Bye for now!!