Heavenly Caesar Salad

We went out for dinner last night, and one of the courses I ordered was a Caesar salad. I was trying to keep my menu lighter than usual, and honestly a caesar didn't sound terribly interesting, but I trust the restaurant to make everything fabulous. I was not disappointed. In fact this was an amazing dish:


http://www.rosemarysrestaurant.com/recipes/Caesar_Salad.htm

Split Pea and Leek Soup

Dh made this a few days ago. It was so yummy! The leeks are a nice addition. He used frozen peas instead of fresh. He also didn't use the vitamin c, and the soup stayed nice and green without it. http://www.napastyle.com/recipe/reci...productId=2673

My Green Smoothie Recipe

We all know we should eat more raw veggies, and greens are supposed to be especially healthy. Here's an easy way to add more to your diet!

A green smoothie is simply a smoothie with greens in it, which sounds terrible but is actually quite nice. My basic recipe is
1 cup kefir (or yogurt),
1 fruit (usually half of two different fruits like half an apple, half a banana),
a few frozen berries or a spoon of jam,
greens: (i use half a head of romaine or 2 stalks of celery or some dark leaf lettuce or spinach...),
and sometimes the juice of half a lime.
Liquefy in blender. Drink.

mmmm a wonderful way to get more greens in your diet, and it can be adapted if you like more or less "green" taste. With the fruits I get very little green taste. If you wanted even less green taste, you could use half a cup of kefir and half a cup of fruit juice.

Christmas Day Menu

Christmas Breakfast
Cardamom Coffee Cake (we were going to have eggs but we forgot!)
Coffee

Christmas Lunch
Barbecue Pork Tenderloin with Black Beans and Rustic Bread

Christmas Dinner
Herb and Rosemary-Crusted Prime Rib
Pan Roasted Brussel Sprouts
Yorkshire Pudding
French Apple Tart

Seafood Chowder

My husband asked me what I wanted for Christmas Eve lunch and I said that what I wanted more than anything was Seafood Chowder like we had in Ireland. He found this recipe from the Ireland Sea Fisheries Board:
http://www.bim.ie/templates/recipes.asp?action=detail&recipe_id=221&node_id=346

It was heavenly!

French Women Don't Get Fat......RESULTS!

The author of French Women Don't Get Fat recommends using a "zipper test" to gauge success on an eating plan. When I began trying to follow the FWDGT lifestyle in early November, I chose a pair of jeans that I've had for months and hadn't been able to wear. I could barely zip them, and only for an instant -- way too tight. After the first week, I could zip them easier and I thought I could perhaps wear the pants for an hour or so -- but not too long. Over the next weeks, there didn't seem to be much change in how the jeans fit (I try them on once a week), and some weeks they seemed as tight as ever.

Today I tried them on --- and I'm still wearing them 6 hours later! I am ecstatic! So, only five pounds lost, but my shape is changing and I have an incentive to keep the portions small this Christmas season.

Books by the foot

This cracked me up. And then it made me sad.You can pay this bookstore to fill the shelves of your library with nice looking books. What a strange and sad way to fill a personal library. All about appearance rather than filling your shelves with books that have become your friends and favorites. (I can understand hiring someone to fill the bookshelves for the set of a play...but for your home???)
http://www.strandbooks.com/app/www/p/bbtfoot/

Crockpot Apple Oatmeal

Apple Oatmeal (crockpot version, adapted from Fix It and Forget IT)
2 cups milk
2 tbsp honey (or brown sugar to your taste, or agave nectar, or maple syrup or ....)
1 tbsp butter or coconut oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cardamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup old fashioned oats (don't use the quick cooking oats -- they get mushy
1 diced apple
1/2 cup dried cranberries (or other dried fruit; a tropical mix with mango is interesting)
chopped walnuts or pecans (optional, but they really add a lot in texture)

Spray slowcooker with pam(That's very important!)
.Mix all ingredients together in slow cooker. Don't worry about getting everything evenly distributed; you'll stir it up in the morning.Cover. Cook on low 5-6 hours.

You do not need to get up at 1 a.m. to turn this on. Go buy one of those little gadgets that can be used to turn a lamp on and off while you're on vacation (they're popular for turning holiday lights on and off too -- they should be plentiful this time of year and they're only $5 or so). Turn on your crockpot and plug it into the gadget. You'll wake up to a lovely fragrance!

You can do this with steel cut oats too. http://busycooks.about.com/od/meatle.../cpoatmeal.htm (Notice this uses a bit more liquid) Somewhere I have a recipe that uses dried apples. And you make a mix of the dry ingredients and just add milk. Sooooo easy.

The Blogging Mom (as I call her when I quote her to my husband) has a funny story today:

http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html

If you're reading this after November 27, you'll need to go to the November archive.

Thanksgiving Menu

Thanksgiving Menu

Profriterole (little bites of pastry stuffed with blue cheese and apple and butternut and onion, etc)

Roasted Chestnut Soup

Butternut Risotto

Haricot Vert (green beans) with almonds

Roast Turkey

Cranberries

Praline Pumpkin Pie

(all cooked by dh, of course)

The Praline Pumpkin Pie is an adaptation of the Hazelnut Pumpkin Pie in the book French Women Don't Get Fat.

Sweet Songs

As a mom of three girls, I find this sort of thing so sweet:
Stealing Cinderella http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtOy8R01fTA

and then there's this one:
I Loved Her First http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXhJ3oCg3K8

A New Approach to Dieting

I joined this forum last week: www.frenchwomendon'tgetfat.com, and I've been reading the book of the same name. The author of the book is active on the forum.

I don't have the eating plan all figured out, but I am encouraged by my first week. I only lost two pounds; on any other diet I would feel like that wasn't enough. But the French Women Don't Get Fat book is written in such a positive manner, it encourages me to think positively and to see the successes rather than the failures.

And I can see that I have actually made a huge change -- I'm not snacking in the afternoon! My lunches are big enough that I don't have to! Sometimes, I admit, I've saved my fruit from lunch and eaten it an hour or two later, but I'm not adding extra food in the afternoon. Or the morning either, now that I think about it.

I tried on some jeans that were terribly uncomfortable last week ... and this week I feel like I could actually wear them for an hour or two if I wanted to.

I love the fact that the book encourages you to make changes gradually. This seems healthier and more sensible than the "start Phase 1 tomorrow and eat this really strict diet for 2 weeks" idea of other plans I've looked at or tried.

Paisley Pashmina shawls

I bought four pashmina shawls on ebay yesterday!
(Here's one: (http://cgi.ebay.com/Stunning-70-Pash...QQcmdZViewItem).
I bought a silver one, a black one, a denim-blue one, and a green and black one. All have a bit of a paisley pattern. Now I just have to figure out how to wear them when they arrive! I think they'll be really practical for our moderate weather here in Vegas. And I'll feel like a regency era heroine (they were always wrapping themselves in pasmina shawls...).

Theme Songs from Favorite TV Shows

I had fun today looking for favorite theme songs on youtube.

I haven't watched this show in years, but in the mid-90s I loved the reruns -- and the song:
Mary Tyler Moore http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql8G0Ikko5I

This was our favorite show until we discovered Britcoms. I still love the song:
Gilmore Girls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1Rgbg02LPU

My very favorite show -- and it has a great theme song:
As Time Goes By http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn9JQANyCQE

and my next-to-favorite britcom (with a slideshow of characters)Last of the Summer Wine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC9MtXKM1NK

Halloween at our house

My dh loves costumes. He doesn't get a chance to be in dramatic productions right now, so he goes all out for Halloween at his job.

Two years ago, he was Captain Jack Sparrow. He dressed up for school, for dd's birthday, and for a church party. I lived with "Johnny Depp" for three days.

Last year, he was Weird Al in White and Nerdy. I told him this was a downward trend. From Johnny Depp to Weird Al. Sigh.


This year, he was John Travolta in Hairspray. (Here's John: )

I was not wild about my dh dressing as a woman but when he mentioned he'd have to shave off his beard, I gave in.

The girls were all princesses for Halloween this year. With dh wearing a sequined dress and the kids wearing lace and crowns, there was just too much foofiness happening, so I wore dh's hat, a leather jacket, and a mustache.

We're thinking about Gone with the Wind for next year. Dh could be Scarlett O'Hara and I could be Rhett Butler.

And now y'all think we're reallllly weird.....