I woke up this morning to this view from my window:
Children’s swing set, for perspective:
It’s about 20 degrees out now, up from the 8 this morning. Brrrrrrrrrr.
I started us off with some cozy bowls of custard oatmeal with apples and bananas. Fruit, mid-chop:
Final product, topped with cinnamon and peanut butter:
Mine's the baby bowl in the middle!
Closer:
There is never a more perfect breakfast than oatmeal, but I think it is even more perfect on a snowy day!
Look at what is happening outside right now!
There are 6-8 inches forecasted today here in MA. I wonder if the same thing is going on in NY?
Dad picked me up this morning at 8:30 for another trip to the gym. I did a quick 20 minutes on the treadmill, a round of arms, some stretching/abs, and 10 minutes on Kath’s “squirrelliptical.” (I never noticed it before, but that machine does actually resemble a squirrel!)
Usually, I prefer to run outside, but not when it looks like the picture above! So I settled for the heated car ride to the Y and the treadmill. The treadmill is BORING. I try to break up the monotony by pressing lots of buttons. Pressing buttons is the most exciting thing that can happen to you when you’re on a treadmill (unless you fall off of it or get your towel stuck in the band and break the machine, both of which I’ve done). Since I hate messing around with the incline (and I mostly hate running uphill), I busy myself with the speed. I say things to myself like, “One more minute, and you get to go 1/10 of a mile per hour faster!” (It doesn’t take much to get me excited, clearly.) It seems small and silly, but it works. I spent the first 10 minutes increasing from 6.5 mph to 7.0 mph, the next five minutes at 7.0 mph, the last four minutes increasing from 7.0 mph to 7.4, and the last minute increasing another 1/10 every 10 seconds. I finished off with a cool-down brisk walk for a few minutes.
Given the frightful weather outside, I decided that summer food had no place on today’s menu. I set to work whipping up some Apple-Cranberry Eggnog Milletmeal! Have you ever heard of such a thing?
I started with six more little squares of leftover Hannukah party apple-cranberry pie and added a cup of light eggnog (this was to serve 3). All on the stove in a saucepan:
Getting mashed up:
It tasted delicious … but between the natural sweetness from the apples and the sugar from the eggnog, it was a little too sweet. I added about 3/4 cup of fat free plain yogurt to bring it down:
Sidenote: I do a lot of work with yogurt (which you’ll probably get a glimpse of sometime over the next week), and something to remember when heating it is that high temperatures can kill off all the live, active cultures that make yogurt so beneficial. I turned the burner off before adding the yogurt and hoped that the “milletmeal” was no hotter than 110 degrees so that the good bacteria could stick around.
My breakfast spread (with more Nutcracker Sweet tea):
And a close-up, with nutmeg liberally sprinkled on top:
I know it looks slimy, but I’m telling you that the amazing flavors made up for it!
I’m about to head to my dad’s house for the rest of the day and night (more on that later). I started to worry about all the food here at mom’s that might get forgotten and lost in the fridge without my direction (yes, a little crazy), so I’m leaving her this note to remind her what needs to get eaten while I am gone:
I’m still nervous, but I think mom will be able to manage without me :-).
For breakfast this morning, the leftover pineapple-ricotta-pie-turned-pumpkin-pie-pudding made yet another appearance! Mom and I decided that it might work well in oatmeal pancake form, so I added 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1/4 cup fat free cottage cheese, the rest of the candied ginger, a bit of baking powder, and an egg white. Lest you worry that the yolk went to waste, I fed it to the cats (my mom has 5!) for their breakfast dessert:
I used two cookie sheets with canola-sprayed foil and baked the pancakes at 400 for 30ish minutes. Here they are just out of the oven:
Set up on our plates with half an orange each and a ramekin of eggnog sauce (plain yogurt + splash of light eggnog + sprinkle of nutmeg) for topping:
My plate, sauced:
It was just too pretty, and I couldn’t stop taking pictures:
This food photography is addictive! There were about 6 pancakes left, so I bagged them (eating lots of “crumbs” along the way) and put them in the freezer to take back to Brooklyn with me this weekend. Expect to see these guys again sometime soon!
I woke up the morning after Christmas bright-eyed and ready to listen to my body’s hunger cues, yayyyy! I started with a mug of Celestial Seasonings Nutcracker Sweet tea (mmmm!) with skim.
My dad was planning to pick me up on his way to the gym around 11, so I just had a light snack when my stomach started to get a little rumbly:
grapes!
My mom and stepdad decided last minute to come along for the gym excursion. Here I am during the cardio portion of the workout with mom and dad:
Back at the house, my mom heated up some of her special oatmeal for brunch:
with yogurt and cinnamon on the side
She can never remember what’s in her oatmeal since she just throws in whatever she can get her hands on, but we’re pretty sure it contained the following: bananas (obviously), pears, oat groats, quinoa, millet, walnuts, cumin (try it!), pumpkin pie spice, turmeric, allspice, fresh cranberries, and an itty bit of masala curry powder. It was delicious!
There’s always such an abundance of produce when I’m visiting home, so I went back and refilled my bowl with some freshly cut pineapple:
We had big plans to go to my dad’s house for a very blended family dinner (dad, stepmom, dad’s sister Mary, mom, stepdad), so I just had a couple of snackies throughout the rest of the afternoon:
apples and cinnamon with a T of almond butter
fresh veggies with Hannukah well underway in the background
Next up: one crazy family dinner!
A digital camera and a blog — neither of which I quite know how to use yet! Please be patient with me during this period of experimental posting :-). Let’s begin with a sampling of treats from Christmas day, mmmmm …
Following family tradition, I stayed at my dad’s house Christmas Eve night, up in the guest room with my Aunt Mary. We woke up bright and early around 8:30am and chatted about the mysterious footsteps we heard in the middle of the night. Ghosts?? Sufficiently spooked, we headed downstairs to start poking around for breakfast.
I started with a steamy and festive mug of Earl Grey tea with skim:
I found out that my stepmom was planning to heat up a couple of quiches. Not being a quiche girl, I set to work making fruit salad for everyone (using fruit left over from dessert the night before!) and oatmeal for me.
My spread: oatmeal plus about 2 cups of fruit salad with nonfat vanilla yogurt
Obligatory zoom on the oats, made with fresh cranberries, 1/2 banana, more vanilla yogurt, a crumbled gingersnap thin, and a hidden spoonful of pb!
We got to opening presents, and somehow this tin appeared on my lap. I had one and quickly removed them from my sight!
Knowing we were headed for an enormous dinner at my stepmom’s family’s house, I tried to restrain myself for the rest of the morning/afternoon with probably 7 more mugs of tea and these:
Small handful of baby carrots (x5!!)
Tales of Expansion: Baby Butternut Edition 