Day... Oh, I Give Up

Well, damn.

Unless I were to bombard you with posts between now and tomorrow, I'm pretty sure I'm not even going to make my modified NaBloPoMo goal of posting once per day in November. *sigh* Honestly, I'm not all that sad about it. In the grand scheme of life goals, posting in one's blog every day is probably not one I should beat myself up over not achieving.

Mad props go out to my friend Melody over at Present History for being two days away from meeting her NaBloPoMo goal, however... and I honestly think she's managed to pull out an interesting post every day. Three cheers for Melody!

And now, on with our "regularly scheduled" program...

I'm not a big fan of the whole Black Friday shopping thing. For one, I have a fiery hated of crowds and annoying people, and when they're crowds of annoying people that are impeding on my space bubble, I tend to get extra cranky. In years past I have participated in a bit of the madness with my mom, but this year not much caught our eye so we slept in and headed out later in the day to check things out. We must have had some kind of shopping guardian angels looking out for us on Friday, because when we went to Target there were precisely two of these little cuties left.



For $3. Yes, I said $3.

If you didn't happen to get one for $3 this weekend, don't dispair; the regular price is a reasonable $10. I'm just excited because for slightly less than the price of a Grande Starbuck's Latte, I got my hands on this adorable little slow cooker, which will be perfect for making dips and other small appetizers. I'm going to break it in today by making The CrockPot Lady's Spinach Artichoke dip. Yum yum yum. With some low-fat/fat-free dairy swaps, it's actually pretty reasonable and I'll probably eat mine with some low-fat crackers, pretzels, and carrot and celery sticks. Mmm. I'll post the recipe with my modifications later. :-)

And speaking of that over-priced Starbuck's coffee, this morning I made a delicious Peppermint Mocha swap that only came out to 2 Points for a nice-sized, rather satisfying cup. I managed to make it with stuff I have on hand, and it was SO SO GOOD. I absolutely insist that if you like Peppermint Mochas you should stop whatever you're doing and go make it NOW. Seriously.

"Diet" Peppermint Mocha

• 1 packet diet hot cocoa mix
• 1 shot espresso or two if you're feeling dangerous
• 1 tbsp liquid Peppermint Mocha coffee creamer
• 6 oz hot water
• optional: fat-free whipped cream, sprinkles, crushed candy cane bits

Dump the hot cocoa packet into a mug. Prepare the espresso* and pour it into the mug also. Using a fork or a small whisk, whip the cocoa and espresso together until smooth and a bit frothy. Add the creamer and whip together some more. Finally, add the hot water and give one final stir. I drank mine plain, but if you wanted to get really fancy, you could top the drink with some fat-free whipped cream and sprinkles or crushed candy cane bits. Yum!

*I used my awesome Tassimo machine to do this, but you could also use instant espresso. If you do instant, just combine it with the diet hot cocoa mix in the first step, then add the water and finally, the creamer.

A Breakthrough?

You may have noticed that I didn't post yesterday. Oops. I didn't completely forget, but I also chose not to worry too much about it when - in full-on snuggle mode, I might add - I passed out on the couch while watching Back to the Future II. I woke up in a mildly agitated state, demanded that Bryan blow out the candles in our new wall sconce immediately, and fell into bed where I promptly went back to sleep.

It was fantastic.

And so, I choose not to feel guilty about not meeting my goal of posting every day in November, although I still would like to have a post for every day... which means that at some point in the future I will probably post twice to make up for it. Yes, this justification completely mollifies the sense of guilt and shame I probably should be feeling for not making it through NaBloPoMo on the straight and narrow. Now that that's out of the way, let's get down to business!

Tonight Bryan and I did something mildly out of character for us: we made something for dinner, decided we didn't want it, and went out for something else. We hate wasting food, and since we're trying to eat healthy we also hate going off plan. It all worked out for the best though, and that's why I'm writing about it so cheerfully.

You see, we made chili. This amazingly delicious, yummy, healthy turkey chili with black beans and zucchini and fire-roasted tomatoes, and it sat in the slow cooker all day while we were out with my parents, who were in town for a visit. I made this chili with the intention of all of us eating it for dinner before they left, but they decided they weren't hungry and opted to leave before we sat down to eat. I was honestly a little disappointed by their early exit, an as soon as they left, I turned to Bryan and said, "I don't want this!"

It's so good you guys, but it just didn't sound like what I wanted. Do you ever have moments like that? We have them a lot, and they usually result in is re-arranging our weekly plan to have something another day... but since dinner was already finished it could have been a bit of a problem. The good news is that this chili - like most - reheats fantastically, and I like having leftovers in the freezer, so we packed it all up into individual serving-size containers for lunches.

Then we grabbed out coats and went out for Chinese.

Chinese food is one of those things that you think isn't that bad for you - it has vegetables! - but it really is. Even things that look harmless, like chicken and broccoli, can be full of nasty greasy sauces. Ordinarily I would have ordered one of these dishes, felt bad about it, and then vowed to get back on Plan the next day. And we did sort of order something bad, but we also ordered something GOOD and that's why I'm so optimistic right now.

What we ended up doing was getting an order of steamed shrimp and broccoli, and an order of sesame chicken. When we got home, we plated up 1/2 cup of rice each, split the shrimp and broccoli order, and each took a small scoop of the sesame chicken. I only ate half of what I portioned out of the "bad stuff" and I was satisfied with that. I honestly could have eaten more of the steamed dish, so we agreed that next time we'll just get one or two of those and use our own hot sauce and tamari to flavor things up. Both are 0 Points for a good sized glug - not bad!

It was honestly such a big take-out breakthrough for us, and for me personally, that I don't feel at all guilty about throwing caution to the wind. Restaurants are one of my biggest weaknesses when I'm trying to eat healthy and learning that the "healthy" option really is good was so liberating. Now I just need to find a way to rationalize away the goat cheese and walnut salad and the ham and pineapple pizza with smoked mozzarella and pine nuts that we split at brunch, and I'll be good to go. :-)

Nothing Post

Earlier this week I posted a nothing post, but it was sort of negative. Does it still count as posting every day if I post a nothing post and it's positive?

You see, I've had a lovely evening of doing virtually nothing that will culminate in enjoying a piece of the new Dove Peppermint Bark Dark Chocolate (1 Point!) before I drift off to sleep early. There are few things I love more than going to bed early. And yes, 9:45 pm does still count as "early" for me, although 9 on the dot would have been exceptionally delicious, like the chocolate. Seriously guys, dark chocolate may be one of the best flavors on earth.

So, who else is with me on the whole going to bed early thing? Isn't it amazing?

Well... We Caved.

I went a little off the reservation for this meal and friends, it was worth every single bite.

My cupcakes went over pretty well at the Thanksgiving Pitch-In today, although there were roughly six pumpkin pies in attendance and those seemed to be the more popular dessert choice. No matter, as I brought the rest home, and Bryan and I will be enjoying them for dessert for the next few nights. At 3 Points a pop, I think can afford to indulge.

Speaking of indulgence... the 3.5 weeks that I haven't eaten out at a restaurant finally caught up to me and tonight I basically demanded that we eat food at a restaurant. We started out genuinely trying to think of a place that served something healthy, then resigned ourselves to the fact that doing so would probably result in us eating something we weren't really wild about. Ultimately we decided to spend our calories on the good stuff, and so we went to Sweetgrass.

I totally splurged and got their fancied up shrimp and grits, and it was just as delicious as I remembered the last time. Yum yum yum. I'm so glad I splurged because it was worth every single delicious bite. Last time, however, we splurged and got an appetizer... and dinner... and drinks... and coffee... and a dessert to share. That's my favorite way to do a restaurant meal, but when you're going out on a weekday and watching calories, you've just got to cut back! I'm glad we did because when I got up from the table I was satisfied but not disgustingly full.

After dinner we ran some errands and I'm still happy to report that my feet are the only part of me that regrets any of the evening. I wore my cute heeled knee-boots which were not, in Nancy's words, "made for walkin'," and well... my dogs are barkin'.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Cuppity Cakes!

You have no idea how hard it is to be in a house with these cupcakes and only eat one. Well, 1.5. Technically 1.25 because the first didn't have frosting and we shared it. I'll shut up now...

The cupcakes featured in the photo above are my contribution to my company's annual Thanksgiving Pitch-In. For you less countrified folks, a "pitch-in" is apparently another term for a potluck, which means that everyone has to bring a "covered dish." In years past we had a sign up sheet for food that was split into a variety of helpful categories, but this year management has apparently decided to wing it because there was no sign up sheet.

I cannot even begin to tell you the kind of panic not having this simple little bit of organization has thrown me into. First I agonized over what the definition of a covered dish actually is. Is it literally a hot side dish with a lid? Can the definition be expanded to baked goods and salads as well? Then I agonized over whether bringing a dessert would potentially leave us with too many desserts. Everyone brings a pie to this sort of thing, so what if we had like, twelve pies? Then I agonized over the possibility of a Thanksgiving event without green bean casserole, which is what I usually bring but pretty quickly decided against this year. In the past it's never been that popular, plus it's kind of a pain to make it in the morning, only to have to refrigerate it and reheat it and mess with the texture of the topping.

It was a very ridiculous process that culminated in me consulting at least half a dozen different people on what I should bring, only to choose something completely different: Cider Cupcakes.

I wish I could say that I made one of the many fancy-pants versions that's currently saturating the web, with a mix of cake flour and whole grain pastry flour, with butter from my own cows and cider from my own apple orchard and cider mill, but alas... I cannot. No, I used a Duncan Hines mix with some of my own swaps, and it turned out really freaking awesome. The cupcakes on their own are amazingly delicious, but with the Whipped Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting on top they're absolutely divine.

Best of all, I managed to make utterly decadent and delicious cupcakes that are 3 Points each - which is pretty dang good when you consider the facts, which are presented below. Enjoy!

Cider Cupcakes
1 box Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Butter Recipe Cake Mix
2/3 cup apple cider
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) light butter
1/4 - 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce (I used one of those little single-serving cups)
3/4 cup egg substitute
2/3 tub Betty Crocker Whipped! Cream Cheese Frosting (18 to 20 tbsp worth)
2 tsp ground cinnamon, plus more for garnish

Combine cake mix with the cider, butter, applesauce and egg substitute. Mix and bake per package directions. While cupcakes are cooling, mix frosting with cinnamon. When cupcakes are completely cool, lightly top each one with just over 2 tsp of frosting. Sprinkle on additional cinnamon, if desired. Store cupcakes in an airtight container, out of sight and mind. :-)

P.S. If you're not a fan of frosting, these little gems are only 2 Points without it. I bet they'd be delicious with a little fat-free whipped topping and some fresh berries... Yum.

Looks Like Someone Has a Case of the Mondays...

Today was going pretty well. Then I burnt my hand while making dinner. After dinner, Bryan and Hope (the cat) and I were having some post-dinner snuggle time, and she suddenly decided it was time to play, which meant that it was time to scratch the hell out of my right forearm.

It still hurts. Like, a lot.

So, since I'm currently clutching my arm and alternately running my hand under cold water and the DVR is full of cooking shows, and I'm a week behind on Gossip Girl, I'm going to bury my head in the sand and possibly also some ice cream for tonight.

I'll promise that I'll return with my regularly-scheduled Weight Watchers musings tomorrow.

Sunday Sunday SUNDAY!

Lately I feel like I've been making some controversial confessions, like about how I just want it to be cold already, and that I like Rachael Ray and such... but what I'm about to tell you probably isn't all that controversial or confessional.

I hate Sundays.

I really do. For me, Sunday is the anti-Friday. Sunday night from about 5 PM until bedtime is probably the worst 5ish hours of the entire weekend, because I usually spend them a) not wanting to do anything at all, 2) lamenting the fact that also I did nothing all weekend, and d) thinking of all the things I would do to make up for it if I had Mondays off. It's torture. Mondays are pretty bad, but at least by the time I've woken up on Monday morning I've resigned myself to the fact that it's time to go to work, things haven't gotten done, and nothing I do is going to change that.

Today has been a little different, though. Today I was up bright and early and after a nice breakfast and some snuggle/computer time, Bryan and I basically went our separate ways to get our various household chores finished. I cleaned the bathroom and wiped down mirrors throughout the house, then started on laundry and just generally organized and picked up things. Bryan worked on finishing the jamb and trims on our windows so that we can put up the new shades tonight or tomorrow. I put together dinner (which is all ready to go when we're ready to eat) and worked on some Christmas afghans, and now we're relaxing before dinner. It's nice.

I'm still kind of dreading the end of the day, but after getting a TON of laundry done and cleaning and just generally getting things TOGETHER around here, I feel slightly less annoyed about this whole Sunday thing. I'm sure I could come up with my usual list of things to do, but for right now I think I'll have a glass of wine and just chill out about it. :-)

What do you all do to get organized before the start of your week? Any tips to pass along?