Dinner, Biggest Loser Style

Since the whole family is now obsessed with the show, I went out and bought the Biggest Loser Family Cookbook. It appears to be a nice assortment of not-so-bad-for-you foods prepared in appealing and healthful ways--not too gourmet, but also not totally fat-, salt-, sugar- or taste-free.

For our inaugural meal, I made "Contemporary Peppered Chopped Steak". Not only did it look remarkably like the photo in the book, but James, Madeline and I all thought it tasted GREAT (and Yes, we had green stuff with it, too, in addition to the brown rice on the plate).


I'm notorious for altering recipes even as I try them out for the first time, but I managed to keep myself in check this time. My only substitution was to use cranberry-pommegranate juice instead of grape. It's what we've been drinking lately, and I think it was brilliant.

Meanwhile, Alan had a regular burger and made a miniature one for Jeremy (that's not really a lot of ketchup, it's just a very tiny patty and a trimmed-down slice of cheese!)...



...which he apparently loved looking at so much that he hardly ate any of it.
He's been sick, though, so I'll give him a break.

Countdown to MDI

Most of you have heard by now, but here's the official announcement:

ALAN AND I ARE REGISTERED TO RUN THE MDI HALF MARATHON!!

We have a countdown timer on the blog (hopefully it's working) and one on the desktop pc at home [246 days and counting], and I have clever little motivational posters at work and at home that read:

Less than

[36]

WEEKS

until we run the

MDI Half Marathon

I'll switch to days once it's below 100.

I added photos, but didn't have anything remotely athletic looking of myself so I used these:

Nancy's Brave Plan

I don't feel very brave as I type this, but since Alan let the cat out of the bag by telling Jenn our ambitious running plans I'm feeling pressured to finally write this post, which I've had percolating for several weeks now. So here's my plan:

Goal 1: Become a "runner", specifically, someone who can run 1.5 miles 3 times per week by April.
Method: Hal Higdon's 30/30 plan
Additional tools: HH's Beginner Runner's Guide (arrived in yesterday's mail), new sneakers (Alan and I bought them for each other for Christmas), new sports watch (birthday gift from Alan)...do you sense a theme here?

Goal 2: Run a 5K Memorial Day Weekend (or thereabouts--still looking for a local race around then, or maybe Alan and I will just set a date to run that distance by ourselves and let our weekend house guests baby-sit/cheer us on).
Method: Hal Higdon 5K training plan, beginning April 4th (which is why I need to be able to do goal #1...).

Goal 3: Run and/or walk the MDI HALF MARATHON in September (I can't believe I'm actually saying this! I'm anxious for the online registration to become available so I can't back out!)
Method: Hal Higdon Half Marathon training plan starting in late June; run the Fourth of July 3K as part of training.
Additional tools: Alan, Emilie, Jenn, everyone supporting me along the way...right guys?!?

Goal 4: Run the Turkey Trek on Thanksgiving Day.
Method: Try not to be in an air-cast, and get my baking done ahead of time!

And it's not just talk and buying stuff: I did the 30/30 Monday, Wednesday and Friday last week and I'm actually excited to clean off the bulletin board and post my training calendar!

Well, that's it folks: my first ever training plan and my first ever blog about running.

Yikes.

What Do You Love About Your Family?

On December 26th, we had "potluck take-out" at our house with the family. Ten people graced our table for the third day in a row, but unlike Christmas Eve or Christmas Breakfast, this meal was unhurried, and less fussy--no good silver, take-out boxes, and several people already in jammies--so, I sort of invented our own version of one of the Dinner Games.

I asked James to pick up his napkin ring and say one thing he loves, or is proud of, about himself. Then the napkin ring was passed around the table and everyone else had to say something they love about James.

Then it was the next person's turn. By the end, everyone's napkin ring had made a complete circuit around the table and many wonderful and funny and loving things were said about everyone.

The most memorable part, though, was very polite, 2 1/2 year-old Sam's contributions. When asked "can you say something nice about cousin James?" her unhesitating reply was "thank you!".

We laughed and continued on.

For everyone, she had the same nice thing to say with varying degrees of enthusiasm based on how engrossed she was in her toys or how much reaction she was getting from the crowd.

By the time we made it to the last participant (yours truly), I think she was a little keyed up, because my "thank you" turned into a general, wordless, gleeful exclamation: "aaaaaiiiiiiyyyyaaaaaah!"



I love that about me, too, Sam!

Christmas in 20 pictures

1. Everyone was ready for Santa, even Fin.

2. We enjoyed Christmas Breakfast Casserole,

3. Breakfast Bread (a loaf each of brown sugar & pecan, and chocolate),

4. and fresh pears. Mmmmmmm.

5. There were light-up cups from Great Aunt Betty for Samantha...

6. Jeremy...

7. James...

8. and Madeline.

9. James got an electronic drum set (percussion with volume control--Santa's a genius!).

10. Samantha enjoyed monkey pajamas...

11. and tickles from her dad.

12. There were action figures for Jeremy,

13. a hand-knit scarf for Betty,

14. two santas in the house,

15. and four cousins!

16. Samantha watched old home movies with "the Gumps".

17. Helen and Mum reviewed pix while Rich waited patiently.

18. Thee was a staring contest,

19. cuteness,

20. and relaxation.

Creche: December 24

Christmas Eve BABY JESUS and WHY WE CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS

And here's our complete nativity scene:

Creche: December 23

1 Day to Christmas THE NIGHT WATCHMAN

Creche: December 22

2 Days to Christmas THE HEDGEHOG and THE CHRISTMAS ROSE

Creche: December 21

3 Days to Christmas THE DOVE

Creche: December 20

4 Days to Christmas THE LAMB

Creche: December 19

5 Days to Christmas THE INNKEEPER'S WIFE

Holiday Baking

It was about a year ago now that I started this little blog with a heavy emphasis on tasty foods. We posted lots of pictures of our baking adventures and since that is a family tradition, we simply have to blog about it again, too.

Here, once again, are our (Martha Stewart) Icebox Cookies.

For obvious reasons, we like to call them "Sushi Cookies":

We made several other variety of cookies (well...mostly I did) and much fun--and green sugar--was had by all:

Creche: December 18

6 Days To Christmas THE LITTLE GIRL

Creche: December 17

7 Days To Christmas THE SAD SHEPHERD

Creche: December 16

8 Days To Christmas THE YOUNG SHEPHERD

Creche: December 15

9 Days To Christmas THE OLD SHEPHERD