Category Archives: cranberry sauce

The feast!

Happy, happy Thanksgiving everyone!  What a wonderful day!  Got an early start on work before going to my gym, where I did 5 miles on the treadmill.  It was actually very crowded today!  I was surprised at how many people were there.  None of them I recognized, though, which was interesting.  I set the treadmill at 5.5 mph and went at it.  For the last 1/2 mile, I did 6 mph.  It felt great!   I came home and had brekkie.  I won’t bother showing you Cream of Wheat, since there are too many other good food photos today!  We left a little early so I could kickstart the day with a small eggnog latte!  I made myself wait until Thanksgiving to have one.  It was sooo good.  I ask them to make it with half skim and half eggnog.

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The sun came out and made for a beautiful afternoon!  Someone was ready to eat – cheers!:

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My other niece made us all little place cards.  Mine:

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My nemesis was here:

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Cashews *and* mini PB cups!  I had some, but not a horrible amount.

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The gathering!  Pretend that seltzer bottle is me (that’s my seat).

The giant 23-pound local turkey:

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Brined a la Alton Brown (so delicous!!).

My mom’s cranberry bread (the best):

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Alaskan moose from one of Colleen’s coworkers:

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Pom seeds!!

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My plate with some turkey, potatoes, stuffing, moose, green beans:

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With my side plate of breads and POM seeds and cranberry sauce:

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I had a little more stuffing and one more small piece of cranberry bread.  Love that stuff.  I was pleased at not gorging at dinner!

The dogs really wanted to come in for some turkey:

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I worked for a little while while others went hunting or football watching.  Then it was dessert time!  My dad made a pumpkin pie, and John made a sweet potato cheesecake with a gingersnap crust.

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My sister made a point that everyone drink their coffee out of the special china cups, so I told her that I would put a picture of it here:

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A little elf might have slipped some eggnog into my coffee here…..

I decided to forego the pumpkin pie and just have a tiny slice of cheesecake.  I drizzled on a little bit of cranberry sauce.

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Plus some praline pecan sauce John made.  It was so decadent and delicious.  I could have eaten 3 pieces!

Overall, I am pleased at how I ate today.  I really, really enjoyed all the food I ate and did not over eat.  Plus I got to spend time with family, and now my work week is done!

More thanks and my camera is back!

Hope you are all having a great holiday week so far!  I woke up and noticed the temp was around 40, so I went out for a quick 3.2 mile jog.  I normally do not jog 2 days in a row, but tomorrow will be a rest day in case I run the Turkey Trot on Thursday.  It might rain Thursday, and if so, I will run at my gym.  Odd that my gym was closed on Columbus Day, but will be open for Thursday morning. ❓   Try to figure that one out….

Had a beautiful crepe this morning, only used Aunt Jemimah wheat pancake mix instead of Bisquick.

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Topped (and filled) with blueberry sauce with a tablespoon of ricotta cheese on top.  Yum!

My camera arrived right before lunch.  Olympus is fast!  The camera left my hands last Wednesday, and it is back in my hands today.  Now that is customer service!  (All under warranty, too 😀  )

You know you want to see the macro:

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More things I am thankful for:

  • John (did I already say that?? I will again!)
  • That I live in an area with 4 seasons
  • I am so thankful for all of you blog readers, both lurkers and non!
  • That I have the ability to move around every day
  • That I have been able to maintain a 100 pound weight loss for almost a year and a half.

Snack of homemade granola bar:

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Delicious!  Pixie could not care less about the excitement of having my camera back:

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She was sleeping next to me while I was working. 🙂  Our nickname (one of many) for her is Pixie Peanut Butter because it looks like someone wiped peanut butter on her nose.

We were having trouble with the router for our internet connection today.  I work via the internet, so that was really frustrating – but I am so thankful (another thankful!) that it was just the router and not the laptop, which is what I thought it was.   Funny how I realized while I couldn’t get on the internet that you can actually use the computer for other things….

For dinner, I had some brussel sprouts with scrambled eggs and feta cheese.  Simple stuff, but delicious!  Plus a little Forelle pear.  Isn’t it the cutest thing?

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For those that don’t know – I work as a medical transcriptionist from home.  That’s why I am working on Thanksgiving.  Even though I don’t work actually in the hospitals, they are open 24/7 – and the medical files for every visit need to be done within 24 hours.   I work Sun – Thurs, so Thanksgiving falls on one of my regular work days (although we get paid extra).  Lucky for me, Christmas and New Years fall on my days off this year!

Agenda for tonight: I will be making my special cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving to bring to dinner.

Question:  Do you have a dish that only you can make for special occasions?

5-miler and more crepes!

Gorgeous fall day today.  I wanted to do a run outside and it was in the mid 40s.  Perfect for running.  I wanted to do 5 miles, so I set out for that and fueled up with some POM nectarine that the Pom Wonderful people sent me.  This is really good!  I am not a big juice drinker, even though I really like juice.  As I have said before, I don’t like to drink my calories.  This was for prerun fuel and is tasty.  Much sweeter than regular POM juice – it almost tastes peachy!

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I was going on the 2nd loop of running and almost thought about doing 6 miles instead of  5, but my thighs were complaining a little.  It really can take a while to fully recover from big events, I guess.

Had a fabulous bowl of cream of wheat this morning after I got back inside:

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With pumpkin butter, cranberry sauce, cinnamon and white chocolate chips!

Busy with work again.  They weren’t kidding when they told us October is a busy month.  It’s nice to have work.  It was a little sad today, though.  One file was a very long one where the doctors were having discussions with the parents about removing life support on their 11 year old son, and they did not want to do it.  Sometimes the job is tough at times.

I am in waffle sandwich mode again.  This time it was chicken with cheddar cheese, apples and cranberry sauce.

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Warm and toasty!  I am liking the waffles for bread.

John made some scrumptious bars yesterday from Megan’s Munchies:

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Only he used white chocolate chips instead of regular (hence why they made their presence in my breakfast!)  This made a good snack with my afternoon latte.

So, now I am done with the duathlon, and the season of outdoor fitness events is winding down.  It sort of leaves me at loose ends, as I do like to have some sort of goal in mind.  I do have NROLW to finish by the end of the year and then it will have to be more indoor gym stuff.  I do run outside in winter when the sidewalks are clear of snow, but I do have limits 😀

I’m thinking I might try to be serious about knocking off at least 5 more pounds (10 would be super).  I am just not really sure if I want to do the work it will take to do that.  Know what I mean?  I have become pretty complacent here, and with my activity goals I have been pursuing since March – weight loss has not been a primary focus (and was not as feasible with hard training, even though that seems like it would help).  We have just booked a cruise for the beginning of February, and maybe that would be a good goal.

Pink item of the day!

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(This is soap colorant, btw).

I won the football picks last weekend (Yeah!!) – so it was my choice for dinner.  A new crepe place opened up in Glens Falls just last week, so I wanted to go there.  It’s a very tiny place, and tucked out of the way.  Everything is made from scratch.

I chose a fall-inspired crepe:

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Pork tenderloin with mashed sweet potatoes and a blackberry sauce.  It was a little on the sweet side, but quite good.

John had the mexican crepe with black beans, cheese, and chicken.

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We split a dessert crepe, since the meals were light.  This had whipped cream, praline nuts and cranberry sauce:

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Thumbs up for this place, and quite affordable.  Okay, I have had cranberries at 3 meals today :O   Somebody smack me LOL!

We are totally inspired to try to make crepes at home.  Maybe this weekend!

Jeez – this post was all over the place, sorry about that!  I swear my mind feels like this right now.  I really have to focus!

NROLW and bagel day!

Back to the gym today!  It was dark when I got up, so I put a reflective band on my leg for biking.  Then I realized that I forgot to put my bag rack back on my bike after the race on Sunday.  D’oh!  So, by the time I got done fumbling that on, it was much lighter out. 😀

I have missed my lifting!  I am backing up into stage 6 a little since I took a week off.  Workout A:

  • Negative chin ups:  3 sets of 1  (still just dangling there).
  • Lat pull down:  10 sets of 2 at 60 pounds (slow release)
  • Barbell split squats:  2 sets of 10 at 65 pounds
  • Pushups (the real way!):  2 sets of 10.

John arrived just as I was finishing the pushups and off we biked to bagels!  Oh how I missed my bagel. Haven’t had one since last Wednesday!

Come to momma!

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And le cafe.

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Really nice day for biking.  I wasn’t sure if my legs were a little twingy from the workout or a little leftover duathloning, but it was so great to be back on the bike!  My favorite sport.

Spied my pink item while at the cafe:

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I love Wednesday mornings.  I don’t have to start work until 10, although sometimes I start early – but not on Wednesdays! I enjoy the time with my hubby and relaxing.

I decided on something way different for lunch:

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Microwaved sweet potato topped with pan sauteed broccoli and chick peas with a wedge of laughing cow (plus some cumin seeds thrown into the saute pan).  I give this a thumb’s up and it was very different for me.  I never used to like sweet potatoes.

I was having so much fun playing with food today that I decided to carry that on for dinner!  We had cooked chicken and I had made the cranberry sauce last night. Well, in the spirit of fall, I made a sandwich panini style!  I used an Arnold sandwich thin, sliced chicken breast, cranberry sauce, and Cabot light cheddar cheese and smashed between 2 hot pans:

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All that was missing was some stuffing and it would have been totally perfect!

And you know a girl needs her chocolate! Love those Attunes!

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Question:  Are you a meal inventor, or do you follow recipes?

Tuesday musings and waffle sandwich!

Went to bed a little later last night after watching the Broncos top the Chargers – WooHoo!!  6-0 baby!  I actually fell asleep during part of the game because I was so tired.  What a fan LOL!  I woke up this morning and nixed the gym because my thighs were still feeling sore.  One more day and I’ll hit the gym Wednesday morning.  I miss my weight lifting.

Yummy protein pancakes with banana/maple topping for breakfast.  We got a ton of bananas at the store the other day.  The over ripe ones were on sale, so I peeled and froze probably about 10 bananas for future use.

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Still waiting on the cord for my computer.  It’s so hard to get used to a different one and work efficiently.  It’s like being plopped into a new office and not knowing where anything is, but being expected to hit the ground running.  But at least I am functional!

I was wanting waffles for lunch, and decided to use them as bread for an egg sandwich!  This was sooooo good.  2 waffles are 120 calories, which is less than 2 slices of bread.  With an egg and some laughing cow cheese. And a pear on the side.

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We have a winner!  Loved it.

Trying hard to keep calories down today, since I overate yesterday and am not moving around much.   I have to remember to rest  – the duathlon was a big deal to my body and I need to pamper it.

A few years ago this woman:

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never would have thought she would become this woman:

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There was definitely some radiance to be found at the finish line 😀  It still feels weird to think that I have done a triathlon and a duathlon (and a few 5Ks) this year.  Who is this lady?  I also know that there is plenty of room for improvement and challenging myself, and it is pretty exciting to see what is in store for next year!

Pink item of the day!

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Cranberries are in the store and I finally got around to making the world’s best cranberry sauce.  Served along side chicken and some pan sauteed brussel sprouts.  Delicious!

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Tomorrow is bagel day and hopefully biking!  The weather is supposed to be warmer overnight for a change.  The break has been fun, but I do like being back in routine.

The bestest snack!!

I made the yummiest snack!

1/2 cup Greek yogurt (I happen to have fat free)
2 tablespoons of homemade cranberry sauce
sprinkle of granola


It is sooooo good! Not to boast, but I make the best cranberry sauce ever LOL!

Recipe:
1 bag of cranberries
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup sugar
1/2 of a vanilla bean (split and scraped)
1 cinnamon stick.

Combine all over medium heat and cook until the cranberries pop. Mash to desired thickness and let cool. Remove vanilla bean and cinnamon stick.