The holidays were great! Lots of time with family, which can be tough for an introvert like myself. Don’t get me wrong. I love being with my loved ones, but I get grumpy when I don’t get enough alone time to recharge.
This year was one of the busiest holiday seasons I can remember. There were family or other social events every day, and of course I started out the season already far behind in shopping, cooking, cleaning.
Since I’m so behind in my posts, I need to catch up in small increments. First installment: Christmas weekend! As always, in reverse chronological order.
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Sunday, December 27, 2009
I woke up today feeling rotten, and not from all the alcohol. I had caught a cold!! Very tired, very grumpy, and a very runny / stuffy nose! Again, I felt totally out of control of my eating, and it got even worse from trying to comfort my ill self with food.
- Breakfast: DanActive, toast with Earth Balance
- Snacks: dried fruit, bowl of cereal with almond milk, chocolate truffles (gift from xmas)
- Lunch: Panera half cobb & half black bean soup with whole grain baguette
- Dinner: Farro & White Bean soup
- More snacks: wheat crackers & cheese spread
- Dessert: cheesecake
Estimated Calories: 2681
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Saturday, December 26, 2009
Today was the last day my mom was in town, so we all met for breakfast at a cool local place to say farewell. I was feeling a little out of control because the food-fest showed no signs of stopping, even after a couple consecutive days of crazy eating.
- Breakfast: (Chow in Lafayette, CA) Eggs, homefried potatoes, coffee with cream, toast with butter, and fruit salad
- Snacks: dried fruit, DanActive
- Lunch: Garden harvest soup
- Dinner: (Party @ my brother’s house) lots of wine, champagne; crackers & brie; cookies, cookies and more cookies; candy; chips & salsa; and a slice of Bakesale Betty apple pie
Estimated Calories: 2820
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Friday, December 25, 2009 – Christmas
This morning we had the strata that I made the night before, and finished up the cooking that I started last night.
- Breakfast: baked Strata (bread, eggs, sausage, cheese, veggies), DanActive
- Snacks/ Appetizers: marinated artichoke hearts, bread, cookies
- Dinner: home made farro soup with white beans, white wine
- Dessert: mini pumpkin cheesecake(s), fudge
Estimated Calories: 2969
Pics & Recipes….
Some of the goodies from our Christmas dinner & dessert…
These were soooo good!! Ginger cookie sandwiches with tasty icing and peppermint candy
Recipe: Sunday Sausage Strata
Yield: 12 servings
Source: Eating Well
- 1/2 pound turkey breakfast sausage – (four 2-ounce links), casing removed
- 2 medium onions, chopped – (2 cups)
- 1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and diced – (1 1/2 cups)
- 12 large eggs
- 4 cups 1% milk
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
- Freshly ground pepper to taste
- 6 cups whole-wheat country bread (about 7 slices, crusts removed) cubed
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 1/2 cups grated Swiss cheese – (4 ounces)
Directions
- Coat a 9-by-13-inch baking dish (or similar shallow 3-quart baking dish) with cooking spray.
- Cook sausage in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, crumbling with a wooden spoon, until lightly browned, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to drain. Add onions and bell pepper to the pan and cook, stirring often, until softened, 3 to 4 minutes
- Whisk eggs, milk, salt and pepper in a large bowl until blended.
- Spread bread in the prepared baking dish. Scatter the sausage and the onion mixture evenly over the bread. Brush with mustard. Sprinkle with cheese. Pour in the egg mixture.
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight. (Note, I accidentally skipped this step and they still turned out great!)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the strata, uncovered, until puffed, lightly browned and set in the center, 55 to 65 minutes. Let cool for about 5 minutes before serving hot.
I only snapped a couple of pics of the cooking process for the soup (here they are!):
Farro (uncooked):
Farro & White Bean Soup (the finished product!)
These were my awesome gifts from the hubs…
Alicia Klein frame wallet (love it!)
New bike! This one went back to the store, but we got another one (a cadillac comfort bike):
The highlight of my Christmas was the look on my 2-year old nephew’s face when he opened his new “Elmo” doll and “Elmo Hands”!!
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Thursday, December 24, 2009 – Christmas Eve
Today I did a lot of cooking in preparation for the Christmas festivities. I pre-made a strata for breakfast to have Christmas morning, and I made 36 mini-pumpkin-cheesecakes (recipe from my clean eating magazine) to bring for dessert for our family Christmas night dinner.
I also made a homemade soup. It was a Farro & White Bean soup (recipe from Mark Bittman’s How to Make Everything Vegetarian), which I made entirely from scratch (soaked the beans and farro overnight, and used all fresh vegetables).
- Breakfast: Morning O’s cereal with Vanilla Milk and Danactive
- Snacks / Appetizers: shrimp, salmon, peppers
- Dinner: Lasagna; glass of white wine; Salad with lettuce, tomatoes, black olives, corn, peppers, beets, cucumbers, and vinaigrette salad dressing
- Dessert: mini pumpkin cheesecake
Calories: 1746
Pics of Christmas Eve dinner (lasagna & salad) at my dad’s house…
Here are some pics and recipes of my cooking adventures.
Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes
Yield: 18 servings
Source: Clean Eating Magazine
- 1 cup crushed pecans
- 1/4 cup real maple syrup
- 3 tbsp whole-wheat flour
- 3 8-oz pkg low-fat cream cheese softened
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup organic pumpkin purée
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch ground cloves
1 pinch ground nutmeg
INSTRUCTIONS:
ONE: Crust: Preheat oven to 375°F. Mix all crust ingredients until well blended. Press firmly into muffin tins lined with cupcake liners. Bake for 8 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely. I recommend foil muffin liners (ungreased). Here is a picture of the crusts.
TWO: Filling: Preheat oven to 325°F. In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, honey and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Blend in eggs one at a time. Remove 1 cup of batter and spread on bottom of crusts. Set aside.
THREE: Add pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg to the remaining batter and stir gently until well blended. Carefully spread over the batter on crusts.
FOUR: Bake in a preheated oven for 14 to 16 minutes or until centers are almost set. Let cool, then refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.
