Veni vidi vici

Well, maybe we didn't exactly vici, per se, but it was still pretty awesome.

You might not believe this. I'm still not sure I believe it. But Kathy and I RAN the entire 5K! No walking breaks! We ran!

in your best Forest Gump voice: We... were... running!

It took us a little over 39 minutes. So we were slow. But there were 65 people behind us, and I am just sooo super proud of us I could burst!

I'm really proud of Kathy. She clearly was better prepared than I was, and I think she couldve gone a little faster if I wasn't slowing her down! But she was a great cheerleader, and got me up some looong hills!

We did it. We really did!

Happy Halloween!!

Great Pumpkins

It is a tradition in our house that when the Charlie Brown Halloween and Christmas specials are on tv, we make cookies and stay up REALLY late (9:00) to watch. Tonight was one of those nights.

Now, I'm not a fan of sugar cookies. They're usually flat, crispy, half-burnt things that, it seems to me, have the sole purpose of giving small children something to decorate with all those fancy colored sugars. So for our first few Christmases with kids, I avoided them. But after hearing "Mommy, why can't we use the cookie cutters?" too many times, I decided to find a good recipe. And here it is.

May I present (insert fanfare here):

The Very Bestest Sugar Cookie Recipe In The Whole Wide World!

These are thick, cake-like, chewy and delicious. Oh, how I wish I was the one who came up with this recipe.

Now, I had to leave my comfort zone to let the kids help. I'm way too much of a control freak in the kitchen to really let them help much. But help, they did.

We don't have enough counter space, so we just have a big sticky mess right on the table

All nice and pretty on the cookie sheet

And, you know what? It was fun. (Mostly).

Ahh... those colored sugars! 

The finished product

These cookies are sooo good!  I'm talking  Tracy Morgan middle school good. Full disclosure: I ate three (and a half). I know that sounds bad, but hear me out. They're 109 calories each. And I had a really light, healthy breakfast & lunch, so by the time I factored in my evening run, I still came out under 1100 calories for the day. I know they weren't the healthiest calories, but I'm still pretty impressed with myself.

My children were especially impressed with this cookie:

A Great Pumpkin

As my four-year-old said, "It looks like something you'd see in a cookbook."

And, speaking of "Great Pumpkins," here is a bird eating out of one at the zoo

Mmmm... pumpkin brains!

My daughter trying to lift one

"I'm sure I can get it"

And Linus waiting for one

Hang in there, Big Guy!

Happy Great Pumpkin Day!

My Favorite C's

I'm really struggling right now. I'm still not sleeping at night (but baby slept till 4:30 this morning... I thought that was very Considerate of her). I'm Crazy tired, and whenever I get like this, I just want to eat C foods- Chocolate, Cookies, Chips, Cheese, Coke, Reeses. Whoops! Now how did THAT one sneak in there? I'm telling you, those Reeses are powerful!

Just no cauliflower, please!

I made myself a nice healthy turkey sandwich but the Cravings won't go away! I need junk food or a nap. I'm pretty sure either one will do.

I would now like to share a song called "My Favorite C's."

sing to the tune of "My Favorite Things"

Cookies and Chocolate and Crackers and Candy
Cake that has been doused in great-tasting brandy
Caramel Cupcakes, macaroni and Cheese
These are a few of my favorite C's.

Sweet Creme brûlée or a big bag of Corn Chips
Chips of potato dunked in sour Cream dip
Cups made of peanut butter made by Reeses
These are a few of my favorite C's.

Cream in my Coffee and Crisp apple streudel (why not?)
Cheeseburgers,  Corn dogs, and Chow mein with noodles
Chocolate ice Cream on a Cone, if you please
These are a few of my favorite C's.

When the stress hits, when I'm sleepy,
Or just feeling sad
I simply go find some of my Favorite C's
And then I don't feel so bad

(but that is only temporary before I feel fat, depressed, worthless, and sick)

Disclaimer: I never had a corn dog, but I'm fairly certain I would enjoy it. And I don't like chow mein, but it fit in the song.

Four More Days

I ran 20 minutes today. I know that won't get me through the race, but at least it's something!

So here's what I needs to happen for the race to be a good one:

1. Bring my iPod. My sister is totally right about that. It's too hard to pretend I'm awesome when I hear myself huffin & puffin.

2. Warm up. Gotta warm up.

3. Don't think about how much running sucks and don't think of a way to escape without my sister noticing. Just have fun, it's the day before Halloween!

4. Dress as Batgirl. Batgirl is good at running, and I must channel her powers.

5. Don't eat any (all) the Reeses the night before the race.

6. Just keep thinking: if it was easy, then everybody would do it.

We can do it!!!

No gym

No gym tonight. No pilates. Sigh. I'm so pathetic. My baby has been sick with a cold, and she's not sleeping at night, so I'm not sleeping at night, and I'm just so tired!

I should've gone, though, to burn off my ginormous lunch of kraft mac & cheese mixed with hot dogs & hot wing sauce. Oh, it was yummy, but it shouldn't have happened!

Dinner was orange chicken with rice & broccoli. It was good. Really good. My husband loved it, even though it had loads of ketchup in it and he hates ketchup (I did add more orange juice and brown sugar to disguise the ketchup flavor. My son said, "It's good. It tastes like chicken dipped in... stuff."

That's high praise, indeed, especially compared to the kid's usual critiques!

This Little Piggy

My daughter decided that her favorite beanie baby, Bridget the cat, needed a Halloween costume. So she took a cheap stuffed pig that she won at the boardwalk this summer, cut the back of the neck open and pulled out all of the stuffing, and then put her beanie baby inside the pig skin. I wasn't sure if I should be horrified or really impressed with her creativity. I'm pretty impressed, actually. She did a great job. Maybe next year she can make her own costume!

Bridget's Halloween costume

I'm hot... can I take this off now?

I did well today. I had a light breakfast & lunch, and pierogies with sauteed onions for dinner. What's the difference between sauteed onions and stir fried onions? I was trying to log it into my diet app, and I decided since I generally am not a fan of things stir-fried, my onions were sauteed. 

I haven't run in two weeks because of my shin splints, but I've been doing the elliptical machine to keep my cardio up. But I'm really going to stink up the joint at this race on Saturday. I can't believe it's Saturday! I remember when it was months away! Eeeek!! It's a good thing it's a Halloween race, because it will be pretty scary! 

I'm sad about the Phillies loss, but no fair-weather friend am I. They had an AWESOME season, and I'm really looking forward to next year! Good job, Phils!!!!!

I'm back in the game!

The reason I haven't been good about blogging is because I was too embarassed to say what I've been eating. I probably gained back all 9 pounds that I lost, but I'm afraid to look! Nah, I'm okay, my skinny jeans still fit :o)

But I'm back in business! So what if I have to replace some Halloween candy? (I blame Mr. Reese, by the way. I do not accept responsibility for my actions. If they didn't make peanut butter cups taste so good, I wouldn't be in this mess. Maybe I can get the government to ban Halloween candy, while the Democrats are still in charge).

Today is a new day! I'm back, baby!

Old Habits Die Hard

Trying to lose 10 lbs in 4 weeks was hard. By the fourth week I really started slipping. And now that the four weeks are up, I've lost my motivation. I need to get back on track. I did well yesterday... It was even Chick-fil-a night at my daughter's school, and I just had a salad and small chicken soup. And I love Chick-fil-a fried chicken sandwiches, so I consider this quite a feat. But then I had to go to a meeting, and when I got home, I was sitting on the couch watching the Phillies game, and I started eating. I won't say what I ate because it's too embarassing, but just know that it was a lot of calories.

Before, I had the goal of getting a new dress for the baptism. With the holidays coming up, I'm going to need something more than "9 lbs by Christmas." I need help!

:o(

I gained 3 pounds

Three Kisses Goodnight

I feel it is my duty to share this extremely important information. It would appear that there are three new Hershey Kisses flavors for fall. They are caramel apple, candy corn, and pumpkin spice. I will now review them.

1. Pumpkin spice. Tastes kind of like a wee morsel of pumpkin pie covered in white chocolate. Which just isn't my thing. But my husband gave it 2 enthusiastic thumbs up.

2. Candy corn. Again with the white chocolate? Tastes like you wish you just bought candy corn instead.

3. Caramel apple. Milk chocolate, melty apple-flavored caramel. Yummy. But if I'm going to be counting every calorie, these just aren't worth it.

So basically I wasted 67 calories. But I stand by my original statement that this was important, ground-breaking information. Use it wisely!

Update

My brother-in-law says that wings don't have calories if they're eaten during a playoff game. I'm so glad, because I'm not planning on counting the wings or beer that are being consumed during the Phillies game tonight!

I haven't blogged in a few days. I've been busy getting ready for my daughter's baptism & party. Which, incidentally, is how this all got started. About a month ago I decided I wanted to buy a new dress for the baptism, but I wanted it to be smaller! So I set a goal of losing 10 lbs in 4 weeks.

Well, I lost 9 lbs, which I'm very happy about. I went shopping Friday night and bought a (smaller) dress and a new pair of (smaller) jeans. And my mother-in-law told me I look skinnier, and she doesn't even know about this blog. So I'm happy!

My new goal: to lose 9 lbs by Christmas.

Okay, there is one food item that MUST be mentioned. I made buffalo wing soup the other night. Can I just say... I know now what they serve for the soup course in heaven. If you are reading this, stop. Go make this soup. You won't be sorry. I sprinkled some blue cheese on tortilla chips and broiled them to melt the cheese a bit, and crushed them on top of the soup. My sister makes this buffalo chicken dip, and this is like that, but a soup. Go make it!

Saltines & ginger ale

On the plus side, I have lost 8 pounds so far! Wooohoooo!!!!

On the down side, I've been sick the last two days with some yucky stomach thing. I've been eating only soup, saltines, & Ginger ale. Waaaah!

That's my update. And now I will bask in the soothing glow of television. Night-night!

Oy Gevalt

I have a hard time letting myself pay $100 for running shoes for myself, when there are just so many other things we need. So I just keep running in the same shoes, year after year (the little I run, anyway). And now, consequently, I have shin splints. Ouch! I came home from the gym tonight, practically in tears, and my loving husband responded with, "I TOLD you to get new shoes!" For the record, I did get new shoes today (only $60 at DSW, after my coupon), but apparently it was too late and the damage was already done. Now I can't run for awhile. How long? I don't know how long shin splints last. I still have a few weeks before the race. Oy gevalt! Let's talk about food.

I made a whole chicken in the crock pot today. It was sooo easy; way easier than roasting it. And my family agreed that it tasted better, too. Then I made broth in the crock pot from the carcass and tomorrow I will have matzo ball soup for lunch. Hmmm... Do I have to make my challah rolls if I'm having matzo ball soup? Have years of Jewish holidays conditioned me to think that they are inseparable?

I suppose there are worse things to be conditioned to think. Sigh. I'm going to watch Castle now. Bye-bye!

The Cake Incident

I am not going to blog about the cake. Let's just say that a very manipulative (yet tasty) piece of chocolate cake somehow managed to make it's way onto my plate and then connive it's way into my mouth. And leave it at that. After all, tomorrow is another cake day... I meant DAY!

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Today we did yard work in our much neglected backyard all day. Whew! Hard work deserves a reward! Like... some of those reese's peanut butter cups that I bought for Halloween, perhaps?

Just kidding! I had a five star diet day! Dinner was yummy- Jamaican Pumpkin Soup (another Stephanie O'Dea creation), which was FAB! And turkey & cheese sandwiches on homemade challah rolls, which are one of my top ten favorite things to make. I was going to skip the cheese, but since I burned a hundred million calories cleaning the yard today, I thought a slice of American cheese would do me no harm!

No gym today, but my 25-minute run (jog) on the treadmill last night went well. But I am soooo slow! I mean Heinz ketchup slow. But here are some uplifting "slow" quotes to sign off with tonight:

Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast.
William Shakespeare

Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.
Mae West

Oh! Do not attack me with your watch. A watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated by a watch.
Jane Austen

The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.
Moliere

I am a slow walker, but I never walk backwards.
Abraham Lincoln

and finally, in the midst of Phillies Phever:

Going around third base, I definitely slowed down a little bit, ... But it was still pretty exciting.
Chase Utley

Challenge!

Today is going to be a challenge. My one-year-old was up all night with a fever. Usually when I'm up all night with a kid, I think, "aw, the heck with it, I'm eating chocolate," and I search out every last chocolate chip in the house. But not today! I must be strong!!!

Also my sister and I are doing this "couch to 5K" thing. We're going to run a race on October 30. So today's workout is to run for 25 minutes without stopping! Eeeek!!!

But in yummy food news, below is last night's dinner, which was tasty. My 6-year-old said it was too spicy but ate it all anyway. My 8-year-old picked out all the zucchini, and my four-year-old spent dinner time crying in his room because I wouldn't make him something different!
But don't take their word for it! My husband said it was the best vegetable chili he ever had (and me standing over him with a rolling pin in striking position had nothing to do with it)!


Slow Cooker Vegetable Chili

28-oz can diced tomatoes
8-oz can tomato sauce
15-oz can pinto beans
1 green pepper, chopped
1 medium zucchini, chopped
1 cup chopped carrots
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 cup frozen corn
1 shallot bulb, diced
1/2 tbsp chipolte pepper in adobo sauce
1 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tbsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Throw everything into the slow cooker & cook on low 6-8 hours or high 3-4 hours.

I'll check in later to report on the gym experience!

Go Phillies!!!!

Pumpkin Spice Lattes

It's true I have an unhealthy obsession with food. I think about it day and night. When I'm not eating, I think about what and when I get to eat again. Do you know what I'm thinking about right now? Pumpkin spice lattes. These are sooo yummy, and since I'm not going to the gym tonight, I have to figure out if there's any way at all I can justify fitting those calories into my day. Unfortunately, I think not. It'll have to wait.

But check out the website anyway. I try recipes from this site once or twice a week, and they're always super easy and yummy, too!

Note to Self

Dear Self,

It's late. I'm tired. And I have some things to discuss with you.

First. I understand that you're hungry in the morning. We cut out the bedtime gorge snack. You think, hmmm... pilates tonight, let's have pasta and a breadstick (or two). But do you know what happens after eating a plate of pasta with (mmmm) meat sauce and two (and a half) breadsticks? The body doesn't want to do pilates, it wants to sleep.

However, I applaud you for going. Really, great job. So while the rest of the world was watching Roy Halladay pitch the second no-hitter in post-season history, we got to spend an hour doing side planks and rollovers and picking our arms up off the floor when they fell off.

So next time, dear Self, that many calories are consumed in one meal, do the logical thing, and put the kids to bed, lie down on the couch, put the tv on, and let those calories convert to fat cells like they so desperately want to.

Now go to bed!

Love,
Me

P.S. Yes, Roy Halladay DOES totally rock :-)

Pants

This morning I put on track suit pants that last winter didn't fit me. Well, I could get them on, but couldn't wear them in public. But this morning I proudly wore them to the bus stop. Woohoo!!!

Is it sad that it's 9 am and I'm already thinking about dinner? I decided that since I have pilates tonight, and a run (jog) on the treadmill, I can live on the edge and have spaghetti with meat sauce tonight! Mmmmmm... meat! I made the sauce already in the crockpot. I adore my crockpot! I used this recipe:

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/07/super-easy-crockpot-spaghetti-sauce.html

but I tweaked it a little based on what I had in stock. And I did add onion and garlic, because my husband is Italian, and that's just the way it's done. And I passed on the mushrooms because I just think mushrooms are icky.

I can't wait for dinner! Did I say "mmmmmm... meat" yet? I did? Well, it's worth repeating!

Slimming Down

I am going to lose 43 pounds. And this blog will help me.

I'm actually two weeks into my weight loss plan, and I've lost 5 pounds already. I have been counting calories, training for a 5K, and doing pilates. I'm tired. And hungry. But it's okay, it will get better, I know it will!

Tonight for dinner I made chicken tostados from Rachael Ray's yum-o cookbook, and black bean soup in the crock pot (the tostados were indeed yum-o, but the soup needed something... Not sure what). I kept the cheese & sour cream to a minimum, and I think ended up with a low-calorie dinner.

So... When's breakfast?