Hi All! RUTH, that's FANTASTIC about your wt loss! CONGRATS!! LILION, so glad to hear the pup is already doing so much better! She'll do better still now that she's back home! ANGELA, yes my hours are normal again, thank goodness!! I'm finally getting over feeling GUILTY when I leave at 5. Good luck with the move! What a stressful period. Have a good visit with your mom in the meantime. HEATHER - Good luck with the container gardening. Even with the plot in the back yard, I'd like to do more container plants. DGRAMIE, I hope everything goes well for the daughter, the BF & the horse. What kind of horse is it? GEORGIA, Nice to 'meet' you. I love this site!
Looks like we've got quite a bunch of gardeners! I'll work on mine with a friend tonight, which makes it even more fun.
I joined TOPS last night. What a fun group, and it gives me motivation and a place to be accountable, which I desparately need. Not expensive, either. I wish I'd gone a long time ago!
Last edited by NoLifeWithoutHorses; 05-14-2009 at 01:36 PM.
I am back from a couple of days of hard work. And tomorrow I got pick up my older son for the weekend. Once the boys and I are completely settled in the house, I think I'm going to take a few personal days and not go anywhere!
DG - eggplant would grow more like the peppers. It's a bush sort of plant. And the cucumbers would very likely be vines.
So, what to do with eggplant...I'm not going to look up the recipes for you, but they're easily found via Google.
Eggplant Parmesan is slices of eggplant layered with a tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese. To cut back on the cheese, you can substitute part of the cheese with dried seasoned breadcrumbs.
Mousaka is a Greek dish similar to the Eggplant Parmesan, but there's ground lamb or beef (or turkey) with the tomato sauce, and the sauce is also flavored with cinnamon or nutmeg. Feta cheese and a bechamel sauce tops the dish.
Eggplant marries well with other foods from the nightshade family (tomatoes, potatoes and peppers). Aloo Baingan is a classic Indian dish that combines eggplant with potatoes. My Indian cook used to make it for me when we lived in Kuwait. It's spicy and fried and I remember going weak in the knees when she made it for me. I've never cooked it myself.
Eggplant can be easily added to tomato sauces for a richer vegetarian spaghetti sauce. One thing you have to be careful of with the eggplant, it loves to soak up the oil. So if you're sauteeing or frying it, you pick how much oil you want to use. In fact, what I do is just brush a little olive oil on each slice of eggplant and broil or grill them before layering them into the mousaka or other such dishes. That greatly lowers the fat content.
Something I dearly love is moutabel, or baba ganoush. Prick holes in three eggplant and bake at 400F until it's soft, about 30 to 45 minutes. Let them cool, then peel the skin off. Run the flesh in a food processor with some garlic, 1/3 cup tahini paste and 1/4 cup lemon juice, a little olive oil, salt and pepper to taste and a bit of chili powder. It makes a fabulous dip for vegetables or whole wheat pita bread. There are rarely leftovers of this at my house.
You can also take those roasted eggplants, slice them and combine with sliced roasted peppers on a platter, just drizzling them with olive oil and throwing a little torn basil over them. It makes a nice salad.
I loved eggplant baked as a kid.I remember my grandmother put cheese on it. Guess I will just wait and see what we like with it. I kinda expect that I will be the only one to like it. A neighbor said its good fried like green tomatoes...i do mine in the oven.
My cucumbers are starting to vine out already. I am so excited! My squash leaves are about the size of my hand now. We are having rain today and tommorow and then a week of sunshine and warmer temps. SO things should really start hopping then.
Well I tried jogging outside last night. My body isnt ready for it!! So for now the plan is to walk 2 blocks and then jog one. Its a start in the right direction.Im hoping if I do this on my whole walk maybe in a few weeks i will be able to increase it to jogging half of the walk.
Time for breakfast..eggs or yogurt and fruit..maybe both.
hugs
My favorite is a nice thick slice of eggplant sprayed with a little olive oil non-stick spray, sprinkled with garlic and sea salt and grilled. Making me hungry! I have also roasted it - yummy.
It's wonderful to hear all the veggies growing here. The pups like to harvest everything for me so no more veg planting here. I may try a couple of container tomatoes on a high retaining wall though. Especially with Gracie on her weight loss journey she is looking for any extra edibles - green tomatoes and jalapenos would be a great snack for her.
After a week off from exercise I was back at it last night - felt great but also amazed at my stamina reduction in just a week away. I will have to push to reach my goal this month but I will do it!
I'm very glad it's Friday. It's been a long but rewarding week. Unfortunately, lots of weekend grading is on tap. But at least it's a different pace than my week has been.
I survived **** week at work. Our boss from Omaha was here from Tuesday on. Her boss, the US CFO, was here on Thursday and other folks from Chicago were here on Friday. It was a very hectic week planning for their visit and then sitting through all day meetings for two days. On Thursday, we met the new CFO to introduce ourselves, tell our backgrounds, what we're working on now and basically educate him about our finance department. It was a grueling day as we didn't end until 7 pm. Friday, we did the same for the other folks but we started at 7 am and finished at almost 4 pm. Sitting trapped in a conference room. OMG. My back is so stoved up today as my DH would say. Its over and they have all returned home hopefully with enough knowledge to stop wanting to RIF (reduction in force) us.
So, food was good Monday through Wednesday. I haven't tried to figure out calories for Thursday and Friday as food was catered in for us. I admit, I ate a couple of cookies and a brownie between the two days. And I got practically no exercise for those two days. But the scale is down today from the beginning of the week so I'm okay with where I'm at.
I was hoping to jump into a bunch of physical activity around the place this weekend as it looks like the rains have once again moved through. Although, right now, I'm kind of feeling like I've been run over by a truck.
Spanky and I are to go take our lesson at noon.
Val - Its great to see you back.
Lilion - I'm so glad to see that Suzie is okay and back home.
I'm going to post this now and just say to everyone. Sitting here is not too comfy so I think I'll go lay back on the big green ball and see if that helps.
P.S. It is my challenge this weekend to log food and keep my calorie range between 1400 and 1600. Weekends are tough because I get lazy about the food plus DH thinks we only need to eat twice a day and I overeat to compensate. Now to figure that out is my challenge.
My reward if I do that will be to get a manicure next week. I haven't had one of those in such a long time.
Valerie: I'm glad that TOPS seems like a good place for you. And glad to see you around regularly here.
Terri: Glad you survived the week! Hope you and Spanky had fun. Good luck with your challenge. It's hard to eat on a different schedule than the people you live with, but I think it's worth trying.
The day didn't exactly go as planned. After posting here, we got a call from BIL that DH's mother went to the hospital last night and was still there this morning. We skipped the horse lesson to go to see what was going on. She's fine and will be going home tomorrow. She's 89 and has had skin cancer removed and gotten an infection. Instead of telling her sons what was going on, she called 911 at 11:30 pm because of being in pain.
On the way home, we stopped at a large nursery and I just about lost my mind. I told DH as we were going in that his only job was to be the voice of reason and say when we need to pay and get out. We got herbs, an eggplant, couple of cuke plants, watermelon plant, clematis, and two shrub roses. DH could see the wheels spinning in my mind and my eyes glazing over so we stopped with that. I have wanted an archway covered with purple clematis ever since I spied one on my walks with Bear several years ago. I've tried to get one started here but planted little scraggly starts that just haven't taken off. I planted instead honeysuckle and I've just about got that killed off because that was a bad idea. This is a pretty good sized clematis so we'll have the purple flowers that I love. We got one yellow shrub rose and one that is a gorgeous mix of orange, red, yellow and pink. I'll have to post pictures when it blooms.
This afternoon I got all the additional garden stuff planted. I have several clay pots that have been doing nothing in the garage for a while so I think I'll get more herbs this next week and fill up the pots.
Lots of healthy eating planned!
We did some mowing tonight so that has been activity. Not so great for my allergies but it was something physical that I was doing so guess that's the tradeoff.
I think I am going to go watch the end of Grey's Anatomy again. I was so blown away the first time.
Had a great day! DD(with honors) and sil graduate from college today. Graduation was outside and the rain stopped and the sky cleared just in time. We had redlobster for lunch and I did great there. Helped daughter plant her flowerboxes and watched sil work on mulching everything.
Came home and hubby had picked up pulled pork sandwiches for us and had that for dinner and now my tummy hurts. TO much rich food in one day maybe.Calories are high but not bad considering. Now dd gets to start studying for the CPA. Our next project is going to be getting her office set up at home so she has some place to study.
hugs to all Im heading to bed.
Terri - your DH is so brave to go to the nursery with you. I've not had luck with clematis either and I can grow about anything. Cant wait to see the pics of the multi-colored roses - sounds magnificent. I need to finish my color pots today - I think the last trip to Lowes I picked up enough plants to fill the remainder of the pots - if not I'm sure I can find more.
Its going to be a gorgeous day and it looks like several coming ahead. Yay!!!
I'm doing some billwork here in the early morning before getting DH up for breakfast and get started on all the outside work.
More mowing is planned. Plant the clematis and roses. Trim shrubs. Chemicals in pool and offically open the pool. Laundry. And I'd really like to hit the fitness center for the first time in a very long time. Oh yeah, work the horses and saddle up Spanky. A very busy and active day ahead. But I'm sure I can find time for a nap in there somewhere.
Debi - for the college graduates!
Carol - I think I'm going purple when I get to the flower pots. I love purple. I'm kinda think of buying just a couple of the mixed pots already put together this year instead of doing it myself. Haven't fully decided until after I see what our budget looks like. I do need to add a budget item for "gardening".
On that note, I'm off to work on the budget and bills.
to all and enjoy a fabulous, fun-filled, healthy Sunday!
Well, ladies, I'm still here, but not for much longer. Maybe by Tuesday we'll be ready to leave. Maybe. Two weeks, roughly, I'll be there. In some ways, though I'd rather be spending my days on other things, I'm glad I have the extra work to do before leaving. It's hard to stay on track there.
But I'm going to pick up carrot and celery sticks, for my own use. And every time I go into town I'll take a short walk. And I'll say no to dessert every time. "No thanks, I'm not hungry." And eat reasonable portions of whatever we're eating.
Well I'm filling up mom's pill containers for the week. Then it's off to work in my bedroom again--getting the place ready to be shown is mostly about getting my bedroom presentable. In a year and a half, I never finished unpacking my own bedroom! Next move, I'm going to do nothing but unpack until all the unpacking's done.
Hi, I'm new here.
I'm 41 and my last weigh-in I was 261. I need to lose 136lbs.. is this where I should go or is there another sub-forum that is for me?
Annette
Hi Gals! Sorry for the disappearing act. Everything is great...just busy. My days are non-stop with work, the kids, the gym, the not-so-helpful husband, etc. The scale has been pretty stuck for the past month or so. I've been fussing with the same few pounds over and over. I'm a little frustrated, but I know I can be. I just have to keep pushing. Food has been a little challenging lately with my trip last weekend and some emotional munchies. Exercise is great. I'm loving the biking. Today I biked to the gym for a little workout. We have friends coming in town next weekend for a few days so I'll spend most of my free time this week getting cleaned and organized. Anyway. Enough babbling from me. How are you all doing? I hope everyone had a fun and healthy weekend!!!
Annette - WELCOME!!! You've come to just the right place. Jump on in and join us!
As for the rest of you...I'll catch up with you more soon.
to everyone. Sitting here is not too comfy so I think I'll go lay back on the big green ball and see if that helps. 
We got herbs, an eggplant, couple of cuke plants, watermelon plant, clematis, and two shrub roses. DH could see the wheels spinning in my mind and my eyes glazing over so we stopped with that. I have wanted an archway covered with purple clematis ever since I spied one on my walks with Bear several years ago. I've tried to get one started here but planted little scraggly starts that just haven't taken off. I planted instead honeysuckle and I've just about got that killed off because that was a 
for the college graduates! 
We have friends coming in town next weekend for a few days so I'll spend most of my free time this week getting cleaned and organized. Anyway. Enough babbling from me. How are you all doing? I hope everyone had a fun and healthy weekend!!! 
