Maintaining Momentum through the Holidays!

You're on Page 4 of 14
Go to
  • I just saw reference to this on another forum, anybody familiar with it ? Some great sounding recipes. It is from the Worlds Healthiest Foods website.
    www.whfoods.com
  • Quote: My first test of the holidays will be this afternoon, as my apartment complex is having its party from 4-6. I'll go because there are people with whom I enjoy chatting and I've met some delightful neighbors at past gatherings, whom I'd otherwise never see because of our working hours. I'm telling myself that I can get through two hours just fine, particularly with the timing of this gathering, which is pretty much the cocktail hour.

    I had a raging sore throat yesterday, which is still sore this morning. I'm not up to cooking. I'll bring a premade veggie tray and hummus from the grocery store. Two years ago, this went over quite well (though of course, people decimate the carrots and celery before the raw broccoli).
    Good luck! And if any of your neighbours are like me raw broccoli (and any other raw cruciferous veggies) causes quite the same reaction malitol does.

    Dagmar
  • The sore throat is continuing into its second day, which has kept me home from the Christmas party.

    I've made a huge pot of vegetable soup, like a minestone but without any pasta in it. Am hoping that having this at dinner with a piece of seared tuna will help me.
  • That pasta-less minestrone sounds yummy, saef. Perhaps because I, also, have a sore throat and am recovering from sniffles and all the other symptoms of the standard early winter cold. It does seem to help keep me away from the urge to nibble.
  • Yum. Soup. I "made" split pea yesterday for lunch and served it with tuna, artichoke and provolone paninis. Pretty yummy if I do say so myself.

    This week has tomato soup on the menu as well. Tomato is my all-time favorite soup.
  • I haven't felt well yesterday and today, today I have spent a good portion of the day lying on the couch, I had tomato soup for lunch.
  • Sorry you aren't feeling well, bargoo. Feel better tomorrow!

    I'm off to a Wine Women event. Once a month they get together for a gourmet meal and wine and part of the price ($75 per person) goes to a charity that they've chosen. This month it is Animal Samaritans where I adopted my Louie cat and my in-laws adopted their polydactyl cats. I also took the feral cat there for neutering (and because he was feral, he was half the cost). We usually donate to them yearly as well, but I liked being invited by two different people to do tonights event, so I decided to join!
  • Sounds like sick is going around - I've been hovering at the edge of under the weather myself for what seems like weeks now and spent most of yesterday on the couch.

    I hope everyone feels better soon! This is a terrible time to be sick.
  • I was tottering on my feet with tiredness by 7PM last night and so went to bed about an hour later. This feels like it was a good move, as I woke up this morning at my usual early time, without a sore throat, and made it to 6 AM spin class. My head is a little stuffed up. I'd like to take it a little easy on this, my work from home day, as I'll be spending time with a new hire for the rest of the week.

    No, this isn't a good time to get sick, because this is when people want to get together after work and on weekends. There's a gathering coming up on Friday night, and I'm hoping that by then I'll feel better.

    Not sure what my weight is, but Bill is right, the oncoming cold was a wonderful appetite suppressant yesterday. I did eat a lot of soup but had no craving at all for the marinated & seared tuna, which will make decent cold leftovers.
  • I'm enjoying the soup ideas! DH is experimenting with a 36-hour bone broth concoction that will become a heavy-duty venison/vegetable stew. It smells good! I hope that the soup/sleep combination gets everyone back on their feet quickly.

    7 days more of choir concert mania. 3 practices, and 4 performances ... and then a glorious 3 week break. The high side to the travel and chaos is that I've learned again that being hungry for a few hours won't kill me; I've done a pretty good job of avoiding the "grab something/anything" mindset.

    Calm mental seas at the moment. When I am busy, I am not self-destructive with my thoughts or eating. There is something about that sentence that seems like it really should resonate with me. It's as if I'm aware of it as a personal subconscious truth, but I don't want to linger on it too much or something about it will fly apart.
  • Becky, in what way is your DH cooking the bones? (I've heard simmering, crock pot and pressure cooker all work to get a good marrow broth.)

    The Wine Women event was really nice! Small portions of everything so not too much food, but very, very good. It started with a reception with sparkling white or rose wine and waiters were offering mushroom tartlets and cheese puffs (I had one cheese puff). Next was salad with yellow beets and a nice Sauvignon Blanc. (The wine was poured in about 2-3 ounce servings, but if you finished it they'd offer you more.) Dinner was a small (about 2 ounce) steak and another similar sized portion of another meat (pork?) with a heavy mushroom gravy some green beans and a crunchy potato cake. This was served with two different red wines, one Merlot, one Cabernet. I liked them both, but couldn't figure out which was which! Dessert was an individual pecan pie with caramel ice cream served with a Sauterne wine. Very good. I ate half the small pie, all the small dollop of ice cream and of course the wine--which I'd never had before. Very sweet, but not overly sweet. I'm not a fan of sweet wine, but this was good, although I can't see buying any. I bought raffle tickets and won a $100 gift certificate for a salon. I don't want to change hair dressers, so I'll have to see what they offer. A facial would be nice.
  • allison, your Wine Women event sounds like something I would really, really enjoy! DH is simmering the bones. I would have preferred he use the crockpot, but he's doing 20 qts! Good thing we cleaned out the freezer!
  • Quote: allison, your Wine Women event sounds like something I would really, really enjoy! DH is simmering the bones. I would have preferred he use the crockpot, but he's doing 20 qts! Good thing we cleaned out the freezer!
    How does one simmer bones for 36 hours?

    Dagmar
  • Massive tall stockpot, Dagmar, with a good lid so that everything doesn't cook down too much. We have a gas stove, and once it gets up to a slow simmer, we can hold it there for as long as it takes on a really low setting. I'm skeptical about the flavor benefit of doing this for so long - it will have to be big to offset the irritation/energy waste of running the stove that long.
  • Oh, dear, at moments like this, I'm glad I have the kind of palate that can be satisfied by a couple teaspoons of Better'n Boullion or cans of store-bought broth.

    Most definitely part of my maintenance plan is my decision to redirect much of the energy & creativity & time required for interesting meals into ... what? Mostly, for my job. And my hours clocked in the gym. Probably also into furnishing my apartment, but that project is coming to a close, thank goodness.

    Damn the standards for my class of woman: Cook like a professional chef; eat heartily enough to be companionable to your man; yet retain the swimsuit physique of an athletic female in her 20s. There are too many paradoxes there and I felt I had to give up a couple of these demands on myself to manage achieving just one of them competently.