Back On Track

I think I saw it on the Today Show that if you write down your plan and goals, you are much more likely to stick to it. It's part of the reason I have this blog... it holds me accountable.

So, here's my plan for the week. Now, mind you, I turn 30 on Tuesday, but I'm not going to indulge in any crazy way... I'm sticking to my plan. We'll go to Outback next Friday and I'll celebrate with a great steak and a sweet potato :-)


Meal Plan:
Breakfast: Oatmeal, Fat free Milk (10 oz), Coffee with Milk (3 oz)

Snack: ½ cup grapes, ½ oz almonds, 2 egg whites

Lunch: Tamale Pie, ½ cup olives, 1 cup okra and tomatoes, ½ cup grapes

Snack: 2 cheese sticks, edamame

Dinner: Roast Chicken – 4 oz, 1 cup green beans

It's been a while since I've been able to work out due to my ankle injury. I'm excited to get back to it!!!
Exercise Plan:
M/W/F: 20 min on the elliptical in the morning, and then circuit training at the gym at lunch
T/R: 20 mins on the elliptical in the morning, and then Zumba at lunch!
Sat: 20+ mins on the elliptical in the morning
Sunday: Off (Maybe a light walk with the dog)

Sour Cream Pancakes

I don't have pictures of this recipe. I am never awake enough in the morning to take them, and the pancakes are always gone before I can take any of the final product. Forgive me! But trust me, you'll want to make these.

I've rarely ever used (if ever) boxed pancake mix. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's just that these are my favorite. They have the perfect texture and taste in my opinion, and are so easy!!! We've recently figured out that they are actually very good as waffles! (That we found out on a lazy morning where it just seemed easier to make waffles instead of pancakes since it seems I gave away our flat griddle to the movers over a year ago... OOPS!)

At any rate, here's the recipe. Do let me know if you try it!

Sour Cream Pancakes
1 cup flour
2 eggs
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ cup sour cream
3 Tbsp. butter, melted
½ cup milk

Mix all ingredients together. Preheat electric frying pan or flat griddle(or just a pan) to medium high. Pour into pan and cook until bubbles form. Turn and cook on the other side.

**Add chocolate chips if you want to... it's a yummy treat when you do :-)

Standing Rib Roast

Oh... this is a favorite in our house. It's absolutely delicious and well, almost magical!!!! We have made it a tradition to make it at Christmas time. Partly because it's when Publix puts it on sale for about $5.49 a pound--at least that's what it was this year--and you can't go wrong with that!!!

Here's how we do it:

3-5 lb Standing Rib Roast
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Garlic Cloves, pressed/minced/crushed - one per pound of roast
Italian Seasoning (I use about 1/2 TBL per pound maybe more)
Salt
Pepper

Season Roast with salt and pepper. Combine garlic, italian seasoning, a little more salt and pepper, and some of the olive oil until it looks like a paste. Rub over the roast generously... and I do mean generously.

Heat oven to 450!

Place on a roasting pan with the fat side up. Cook at 450 for 20 mins and then drop the oven to 350(you don't have to take the roast out), and cook for about 18 mins per pound for medium rare.

You should *absolutely* use a meat thermometer for this because it can get too done sometimes even at the 18 mins per pound. If you do use a meat thermometer, take the meat out when it hits 127! Trust me on this. Every cookbook I've seen always says 145 or something crazy like that. If you let it go till then, you'll feel bad that you've just wasted your money. Unless of course you like your meat to taste like a leather boot...

Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 mins. Carve and serve.

I serve with both gravy and horseradish sauce. To make my horseradish sauce I use horseradish (a good 1-2 TBL), sour cream - double what I used of the horseradish, some dill(fresh or dried), salt, pepper, and lemon juice... Oh, so good!!!!

This is a wonderful wonderful glorious dish... trust me! (Even if I forgot to take pictures!)

Christmas in Pictures (Mostly)

We had a wonderful Christmas. We went to the Opryland with my family minus my sister and her husband/kids. We ate a lovely dinner at my house with my parents, opened presents that were situated under our very first Christmas tree, played Mexican train, watched my niece and nephew open gifts, helped aforementioned niece and nephew play with gifts, went to Kentucky to see Richie's family, had some awesome food there, opened more great gifts, and relaxed with family. We've since been to my nephew's 3rd birthday party, watched some football games, and donated about $1000 to Goodwill.


It was a wonderful holiday season! Here are some pictures to prove it!

Photos from the Opryland Hotel.

A gorgeous place to go for the holidays... or get married at like hubby and I did 6 years ago!

My niece dancing in the same spot where hubby and I said our vows :-)

The view from our room!

Our first Christmas tree... Finn sure liked it!

One of my favorite Christmas gifts... a handmade T-shirt quilt made from many of my Kappa shirts. My momma made it for me - that's here holding it up. Hi Mom! Thanks for such a special gift!


Watching my niece and nephew open and play with their Christmas gifts!

From my nephew's birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese! Happy Birthday sweet boy :-)

Cookie Exchange

My neighborhood Bunco group had a Cookie Exchange for our last Bunco event of the year. It was a great success as far as yummy cookies go... not so much for waist lines :-) The ladies in our neighborhood sure know how to cook!!!!

These are the cookies that I made. I was going to make these, but my inlaws came in town that weekend and it was our anniversary, and I just didn't have time! These were just as good - I promise! I got the recipe from this blog which is a great blog if you haven't visited it!

Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Adapted from the back of the Craisins Sweetened Dried Cranberries package
Makes approx. 2-1/2 dozen cookies
INGREDIENTS:
2/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar2 large eggs
½ tsp Vanilla
1-1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 6-ounce package sweetened dried cranberries
2/3 cup white chocolate chunks or chips (I used 1/2 whole bag of white chocolate chips because I like chocolate chips)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 375°F.*
Using an electric mixer, beat butter or margarine and sugar together in a medium mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, mixing well. Combine oats, flour, baking soda and salt in a separate mixing bowl. Add to butter mixture in several additions, mixing well after each addition. Stir in sweetened dried cranberries and white chocolate chunks.
Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack.

This is one of the recipes I got... My hubby tasted these and said they were better than mine, and his favorite so I made a batch for him! Thanks Dot!!!!

Melt Aways

1 cup butter (don't use margarine)

1/3 cup confectioners sugar

3/4 cup cornstarch

1 cup flour

1/8 tsp salt

Mix with mixer until batter is formed. Roll into small balls (flour hands if necessary). Put on buttered baking sheet or parchment paper(I used my silpat sheet). Press finger to make indentation. Preheat oven to 350. Bake only until lightly brown around edges. (about 10 mins but every oven is different)

Glaze:

1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

1/4 cup buttermilk

2 drops food coloring

Mix together. Put in sandwich bag. Cut small hold in the tip of a corner. Squeeze small amount into indentation. (TIP-make sure it's thick enough. If not, add extra sugar)

When it sets up, store in an air tight container.

This was my "loot".

There were the above mentioned Melt Aways, Cinnamon Chip cookies, Buckeyes, Sandies, Coconut Pecan Cookies, Pecan Nut Cups, Ginger Cookies, Chocolate Snowball Cookies, Sugar Cookies, and Chocolate Peppermint Cookies. I'll post some of the other recipes that I got for you all if you would like.

Things I Made Over the Holidays

The holidays aren't always a time for eating "lite"... and in our house I took the time to make some favorites before the new year settled in and we got back on track...



Here are some of the things I made:



From the Pioneer Woman
- Bacon Wrapped Jalapenos

- White Chicken Enchiladas (Oh my are these good... and I used a rotisserie chicken from Costco rather than making my own)

- Enchiladas with Red Sauce

- Mexican Rice

- Buttered Rosemary Rolls (I added chopped garlic to the butter)

- Cheese Muffins



From Our Own Kitchen:

- Standing Rib Roast (Oh so yummy, and it smelled and looked divine, but I forgot to take a picture... I'm sorry! I'll post a recipe though in a little while)

- Corn Pudding

- Toffee Tiramisu Torte

- Banana Pudding (My mother-in-law's secret family recipe that is wonderful)

- Sour Cream Pancakes (Recipe to be posted later)



It was a wonderful couple of weeks, but my pants are feeling tighter and therefore it is back to eating lite we go!!!!

Another Chance to Win...

So many bloggers get cool things to offer their blog readers... and some, like McMama just buy really cool things to give away to their readers... (Side note... why don't companies contact me for this stuff? Oh well - maybe one day - I certainly can't afford to buy my readers anything-Sorry!).

If you're interesting in getting some really awesome stuff to help you with photography, then check out MckMama's site. Check it out anyway because it's a great site, and she's just awesome. For another chance to win... head over to Grammie Mommy's site...

I'm blogging about this to get another chance to win these items, because I have a dream of being able to be a good photographer... and I think I need good editing software in order to do this... that makes sense, right???

Here's to hoping I win :-)

Okra and Tomatoes

Okra can be a strange thing, and some people are afraid of its slime... not me, I embrace it! Seriously though, I think it's a really yummy vegetable. My mom cooked it all the time growing up, either by using the recipe I'm about to give you(or something similar) or by frying... that's good to!!!!

If you've never tried okra, it's likely best to wait till summer when it is actually fresh (fresh tastes better), but in a pinch you can use frozen which is what I've been doing the last few weeks!

Okra and Tomatoes
1 bag of frozen okra(or 1 lb fresh) chopped
1 large (28oz) can tomatoes
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced, pressed... your choice
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp olive oil

Heat olive oil in skillet (use something that has a lid). Add onion and saute for a few minutes. Add in the garlic, and then the okra. If using frozen okra, allow to heat up just a minute or 2. Add the tomatoes, and salt and pepper to taste. Let simmer with the lid on for about 20 mins... Serve :-)

See... I told you it was easy!

If you are using fresh then put everything in the pot together after adding the onion and simmer.

What I've Been Eating This Week

The holidays are a difficult time to maintain a healthy lifestyle of any sort. Seriously, people bring all kinds of things into the office--I'm guilty of it too!!!! But, I make every effort to stay healthy.

Here's what I've been eating this week:

Breakfast: Oatmeal, Milk(fat-free), Coffee (with fat-free milk and sugar free vanilla syrup!)
S: Cheese Stick, Olives, Grapes (1/2c)
L: Quinoa and Black Beans, Garlicky Butternut Squash, Green beans
S: Cheese Stick, Grapes (1/2c)
D: Roast Chicken(from Costco b/c it's only $5!), Okra and Tomatoes(I realize this recipe isn't on my site -shame on me - so I'll post it soon)

This menu is flavorful and good for you so it helps keep me sane during this time of year!

Giveaways and Other Fun Sites

I've become a slight blog freak... ACK! It's relatively unfortunate, but I love them... it helps that we don't have cable right now and I can read them all to my hearts content because we don't get much on the 7 channels that come through :-)

Here's one of the blogs that I have started to follow, and really enjoy. If you need other recommendations, let me know :-)

Oh, and did I mention she's giving away a Kitchen Aid Mixer right now... my oh my, what a wonderful invention!!!!! Visit the link below if you want to enter...

She's Becoming Doughmesstic