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 :-).