Silver, the "breakfast casserole" is a solution to the problem of weekday mornings. Neither myself nor DS can function on cold cereal (how that became acceptable as a breakfast is beyond me - marketing brilliance, I guess). It's a layered potato, egg, meat, and cheese concoction with a million combinations. A 9x13" pan provides 15 servings, enough to get us through the week, at roughly 200-250 calories/serving. I will get it typed up today and posted in the Recipes thread. The beauty of it is that it can be thrown on a plate, microwaved for a little over a minute, sprinkled with a little hot sauce or salsa, and it's filling for at least 4 hours.
bargoo, DH will, and did, notice. Highly refined taste buds. Being a Bay City, MI native, he grew up around the best of the best German and Polish sausage recipes. We also have a little shop in Milford that makes premium andouille, Italian, and chorizo sausage. Turkey functions well in more complex recipes like chili, and I have gotten away with it there, but there is a mouthfeel and flavor to great sausage that can make or break a dish. The only acceptable strategy is to cut back the quantity. I can, and do, often use turkey ham in the breakfast casserole! Congrats on the 8.4 - that is outstanding!
Dagmar, (yup, I'm Becky) I commend you on keeping your head with the "dad stuff" going on. I haven't had that encroachment yet and I really don't know how I'll adapt. My mom knows me wayyyy too well and has already made arrangements for her own care, leaving me only to deal with the finances, thank goodness. I also have something else in common with you, in that I share my house with an often-maddening male. It would be nice if the partnership were designed to reduce the instead of making it worse!
losermom, planning is the only path to sanity. Even if we don't cook on the weekends, we at least have a brief meeting on who's going where each night and how many meals have to be procured.
Allison, I should find out if our specialty meat spot does their own turkey sausage. They do everything else well ... thanks for the idea!
midwife, I'll get it posted. Bat Country now?
Holding pattern for me too. No great surprise there.
That casserole sounds good! I make something similar but no potatoes--bread instead. It's called strata. And I make a southwest chicken crustless quiche that is to die for. And like midwife it is impossible to keep it to a single serving. (((sigh))) Another good one is a spinach and ricotta pie with the turkey Italian sausage (this one does have a crust). Another winner that I probably won't make for a long while.
Meanwhile, I'm going to post a recipe that I did a few weeks back that is incredibly easy and so yummy and fancy it'd work for a special dinner party. If I can't find the recipe right now, I'll have to wait until I get home, but it is so good.
I'm watching the Clinton Foundation health thing-y from our valley today (it's online). Former President Clinton is introducing the panelists: "Every woman wants to be her, every man is secretly terrified of her--Jillian Michaels." I thought that was hilarious!
I've been out in the cold and rain all day so I'm a little tired and cranky.
I find Jillian Michaels tiresome. I have been yelled at and hectored for most of my life (thanks dad ) so I have no use for that from anyone. I much prefer the guy - Bob? My trainer was very enthusiastic but she never berated or humiliated me. I don't get motivated by verbal or physical abuse and, to me, that's what Michaels seemed to use. I even recall an epi where she walked on one of the guy's backs while yelling at him. YUCK!
Hot food for brekkie is very nice but DH and I don't have time for it most days. Plus a bowl of cereal with half a banana sliced on to it is a portion. I suspect DH and I would eat the entire 9 x 13 pan of breakfast casserole.
Beowulf is, of course, the Old English heroic epic poem. It's a great story. Or is it, in this case?
Thanks for the breakfast casserole explanations. So very interesting. We sometimes have that kind of thing for tea (labelled as 'family supper ideas' in magazines). Not too expensive, filling and easy. Hot breakfasts here (porage and boiled eggs aside) are usually of the "full English*" fried kind. *substitute Scottish, Irish, Welsh, depending on which country you're in.
I could ramble on but I should turn out the light. Night, night.
lol, midwife i thought you had home invasion by bats
hi everyone...long time, no write....
update ensuing-
DH's dad passed peacefully in his sleep, just after admission to hospice care. We are driving upstate to take care of his apartment this Friday.
The mood in my house has lightened considerably. That heavy dark cloud sitting upon us- that pressure and tension and unbearable sadness of waiting for the inevitable, has passed. I feel like, wow, it's still so sad, but I'm glad we're on the other side of that horrible experience. DH now has no parents alive. He is, however, doing well - at his moment, anyway. As a colleague of mine said, he now has no buffer. Weird and sad thought.
I had an exciting prospect of being on tv. I work with new families and was asked to be on pregnant in heels- a bravo series. Very much stimulated a hollywood like shape up plan. But... the family I was asked to work with backed out, and now my fifteen minutes of fame are over...before they even began
But I lost 2.5 and kept them off beyond the weekend-- and, like becky, that hasn't happened for a long long time! I'm planning to keep up with my new discipline of counting and charting everything going into my mouth. And the exercising will continue!
I have been cooking- not breakfast casseroles necessarily, but awesome veggie soups and tons of grilled chicken and turkey meatloaf and turkey chili.
And re:good and easy food. Started eating fage/fruit single serves. they are great! and well priced, if you get them in a box of twelve from costco!
hoping everyone is holding steady or heading downward scalewise, or upward in peace of mind! will be checking in more frequently, as possible...
Last edited by kittycat40; 01-17-2012 at 09:03 PM.
kittycat, sorry for your loss, it is always sad to lose someone even though it might be expected.
Good work on losing the 2.5 .Looks like you have a good plan in place.
kitty, sympathies to you and your husband's family. Ditto glad to know that at least one source of pressure has lifted - may it carry some of the others away with it.
Still inching downward. My scale measures in .5#, and yesterday it fluttered between 156 and 156.5 before deciding on the lower one. Today, it was a good, solid 156. TOM is due this weekend, and I can feel the influence on my outlook and being drawn toward the foods I'm avoiding. This is the only time I ever have thoughts of deprivation and self-pity - neither of which is reality. Focus!!!
I like hot breakfast in the winter, but for me "hot breakfast" means oatmeal which only takes 5 mins in the microwave and doesn't involve any dirty dishes other than the one I eat out of. During summer I generally prefer cold breakfast cereal or yogurt or something like that.
Silver, your posts always make me wish I was British. I am trying to talk DH into taking a trip to the UK for our five year anniversary this year. We have wanted to go for a long time but haven't managed to do it (almost went for our honeymoon but decided we wanted warmer weather, and it was October). I'm thinking perhaps after the Olympics are done? Any advice? The only thing on our absolute must-see list is the British Museum.
My weight was down to 136.2 this morning. I can't really claim much of a loss though since according to my records I was 136.6 on Jan 1. How did I manage to gain weight AFTER the holidays? Huh. Next week I'm getting sent to Miami for a two-day business trip (including a big fancy business dinner) so I think it will be a maintenance week.
Being a Bay City, MI native, he grew up around the best of the best German and Polish sausage recipes. We also have a little shop in Milford that makes premium andouille, Italian, and chorizo sausage. Turkey functions well in more complex recipes like chili, and I have gotten away with it there, but there is a mouthfeel and flavor to great sausage that can make or break a dish. The only acceptable strategy is to cut back the quantity. 
instead of making it worse! 
cranky.
) so I have no use for that from anyone. I much prefer the guy - Bob? My trainer was very enthusiastic but she never berated or humiliated me. I don't get motivated by verbal or physical abuse and, to me, that's what Michaels seemed to use. I even recall an epi where she walked on one of the guy's backs while yelling at him. YUCK!
