Dinner and a Contest

Well, all day I had a yucky feeling in my tummy and had to break down and drink a Coke to settle my stomach. 14 million burps later, it was feeling better but I was still uneasy about having anything major for dinner so I settled on something simple - breakfast for dinner! I scrambled a couple of eggs for Sean and myself and separately diced some potatoes, red and green peppers, and onions and sauteed those in a pan. The potatoes took about 20 minutes to cook but they were well worth the wait. It was a nice, comfy meal and hit my tummy just right!

Now, down to business. On my other blog, I'm having a contest. I love Pioneer Woman and, in honor of her, I'm giving away the first $25 I earned from the ads on that blog. Please journey over there tomorrow and enter yourself in the contest. I will put the $25 on a gift certificate to the store of your choosing and will mail it to you just in time for holiday shopping, if you so desire. So come on in and play! Not too many people read my blog so your odds of winning are pretty darn good!

I'll be back tomorrow with more good eats!

What I ate yesterday

Well, in an effort to "do better" eatswise, I got up yesterday and ate my favorite simple breakfast, a croissant and a small glass of milk. This breakfast is so good and so filling that I didn't eat again until much, much later. However, what I ate later was not a great choice, two of my favorite christmas cookies. They tasted delicious though!

For dinner, I decided to try Mama Podkayne's Turkey Tetrazzini recipe and it was delicious. The only thing I did differently was to add some parsley flakes, chopped mushroom, and italian style bread crumbs to the top. Follow the link and get her recipe, it was really quite good! I had a small serving of that along with a salad topped with a tsp of Caesar Dressing.

This morning I awoke with a killer sinus headache, and even after advil it's still bothering me. I feel dizzy and out of sorts, too. Really sucks. Anyway, I had another helping of the tetrazzini for breakfast and the advil makes it feel like it's jus sitting there. Eat first THEN take advil, not vice versa! Otherwise you'll have a lead balloon in your tummy. As a result of that I will be skipping lunch today! LOL

I will try to update later with the dinner meal.

Favorite Christmas Cookie

There's nothing remotely Christmasy looking about this cookie. The only reason I associate it with Christmas is because my mom made them every year during the holidays and I adore them. They have a decadent, buttery crust and then the top layer consists of brown sugar, sliced almonds and coconut. It is baked until it reaches a gorgeous golden brown color, not at all this:



Have I mentioned that my oven is 30 years old? It tends to cook a little hotter than I anticipate and I forget to check on this batch. They're not burnt at all, just browner than usual, but they still tasted chewy and buttery. So freakin' good.

I got on the scale today, after I promised myself that I wouldn't and damn it! I have put on 2 pounds. Now I'm all freaked out and want to lose 5 before Christmas. Am I crazy? Is it unreasonable to try and do that during the holidays? Not like I have tons of friends and am going to be inundated with party invitations so I don't have to worry about party food gluttony. I think I can do it and I'm going to give it a shot.

Anyway, I wanted to give you all the recipe for my favorite cookie. It's from a Betty Crocker book called, Cooky Book and it's chock full of other great cookie recipes. If you like baking cookies, then I highly recommend this book!

Here's the recipe:

Dream Bars, Sometimes called Toffee-Nut Bars

1/2 cup shortening (part butter or margerine) I use all butter
1/2 cup brown sugar packed
1 cup flour
Almond Coconut Topping (below)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix shortening and sugar thoroughly. Stir in flour. Press and flatten with hand to cover bottom of ungreased oblong pan (13x9.5x2"). Bake 10 minutes. Then spread with Topping. Return to oven and bake 25 min. more or until golden brown. Cool slightly then cut into bars. Makes about 2 1/2 dozen 3x1" bars.

***NOTE FROM EVIE*** My sister and I have found that we have to make a double batch of the crust to get this to turn out right but my mom says we're crazy. Take that for whatever it's worth.

Almond-Coconut Topping
2 eggs, well beaten
1 cup Brown sugar, packed
1 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup moist shredded coconut
1 cup slivered almonds, or other nuts (I used 2/3 cup sliced almonds)

Mix eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Mix with flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in coconut and almonds.

Unless you have a serious aversion to coconut I believe everyone will enjoy these cookies. I usually bake up a bunch of these and give them out to my neighbors!

Enjoy!

Pics of yesterday's feast

Here's a collage of yesterday's feast which was repeated at tonight's dinner. For breakfast I had some cornbread dressing, and for lunch I had a turkey sandwich and some green bean casserole. LOL Doesn't that sound elegant and delicious?



Gravy, cake in a box, green bean casserole, turkey, and dressing. In the center was my plate last night. Mmmmm good! Even two days in a row!

Unscathed!

WOO! I made it! I didn't overdo it this Thanksgiving holiday and that feels like a real accomplishment. Many times holidays are an excuse for me to overindulge but for some reason, this year was different. Perhaps it is the permission I grant myself on a daily basis to eat whatever I choose thereby defeating any associations with denial. Denial always sets me up for a binge. Also, we didn't spend exorbitant amounts of time with my sister which also seems to be a binge trigger. She and I are not good for each other that way. We each enable the other to give in to our baser desires for food. Perhaps it's a subconscious wish to see the other fail in our respective quests for weight loss. Damn, sibling rivalry is rough!

Thursday, I got up and had a croissant for breakfast. It was a low-key morning because we were heading over to my sister's for Thanksgiving lunch. There, I was quite good about putting a TASTE of each item on my plate and not heaps of food. As a result, I didn't overeat and suffer needlessly. Later, we went to Sean's mom's house and thankfully I was still content from our late lunch so I didn't eat anything there. I did eat something when we got home but I don't remember it being much of anything. The rest of the weekend is a blur eatswise but there weren't any calorically crazy meals. Today, I did actually roast a turkey breast, make cornbread dressing and green bean casserole. We have leftovers but not a ton so it will not be Gorgefest around here.

I feel really good about how I handled eating this week. We did eat out once but I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich. I feel like things are finally under control and like I'm really ready to face this challenge head-on.

Here's to a new week of good eats!



Food at my sister's house.



All my boys on Turkey Day. Don't they look handsome?!

Recent Eats

Alrighty then! Let me try and run down my grub-a-dubs since Saturday for you. Saturday night, I cooked a gorgeous New Zealand rack of lamb, along with some mashed potatoes and tiny green peas. We spent the rest of the evening on our patio, sitting in front of our new fire pit. It was really, really nice.

Sunday morning, I got up and had this for breakfast:



Remember this? It's my version of the Panera Souffle that I love so much. Then, for lunch I had an egg salad sandwich on whole wheat bread. Dinner was a little less healthy, a sub from Jersey Mike's and I was regretting eating that almost immediately.

Monday, I got up and had one of these glorious things for breakfast with some cherry preserves:



I can't remember what I had for lunch but, for dinner I made Shrimp and Grits. Yumm-O!



Today for breakfast I had another croissant. Sooo good. Then for lunch I had leftover shrimp and grits. Dinner was fairly substantial. See, I have taken on the mantle of cooking Christmas dinner for my family and we traditionally have a rib-roast. Well, that's not exactly something I cook all the time or ever so I felt a need to practice before the big show. Last year my mom helped me but she got drunk and gave me some very bad instructions so this year I'm doing it alone. Luckily, the grocery store had roasts on sale this week so here goes.

Here is the roast totally naked. It's okay, I'm not exploiting anyone here, we're all consenting adults...



I placed it rib side down in a roasting pan and then slathered it with olive oil, herbs de provence, salt and pepper. Then I surrounded the meat with some root veggies (carrots and onions) and covered those with olive oil. Here, take a look for yourself:



Then, I put the pan in a preheated 350 degree oven and cooked the roast until the internal temp reached 125 degrees. I took it out of the oven to rest for 20 minutes.



While it was resting, I prepared some mashed potatoes and some baby broccoli. It was fabulous! The roast was so incredibly tender and juicy! I'm not scared to cook it at Christmas at all.

This week, I have really gotten back on "plan" and, with the exception of the Jersey Mike's incident, I haven't eaten any junky food. I'm feeling good about getting through the holidays without going crazy.

Tomorrow's food won't be terribly exciting, it'll just be more leftovers but I'll fill you in all the same. Have a great night!

Fooling Myself

Friends, I have been in deep denial. I somehow have been able to rationalize eating unhealthy food, which I haven't documented here. Frozen Pizzas, hot dogs, and McDonalds are not great choices and once in a very long while, it's ok to eat something like that. However, I have been eating like that a lot during the week and have been cooking less and less. My weight is back at 192, after having lost 3lbs by following the principles set forth by Dr. Clower in The Fat Fallacy so now is the time for me to get a grip. The holidays can be such a difficult time for dieters but for people who eat whole foods, not processed foods, it can be a cornucopia of delights. Eating whole foods in the proper portion sizes is my goal, along with banning all junk food through the end of the year. Not only is it bad for my waistline but it's bad for my wallet as well. You will begin to see more posts from me again regarding what I'm eating because it's gotten to the point of ridiculousness here. It is possible to lose weight eating good food. One just has to make the conscious choice to do it.

Thanks for sticking around and hopefully, you'll find the site a little more interesting once I get back on track.