Hi,
Well, I'm feeling better. Was able to exercise this morning after 4 days of not doing anything. It sure makes me feel better.
The cats are all starting to get along a little better and play now.

I see that the Somersize boards are now up again. Lynn and Sha, if you don't visit there, you should check it out sometime. They have lots of interesting recipes that the members share. You have to go to the discussion boards and then scroll down to about the middle of the page to find the recipe forums. Then, you have to look back around 100 days ago to find the recipes (maybe longer) cause that is how long the boards have been down. At least they didn't erase everything like they have in the past.

Has anyone bought Dana Carpender cookbook 500 Low-Carb Recipes? I hear really good things about it.
I also read that Blimpies will be coming out with a low carb menu soon.

Here is a recipe that I eat often for something different at breakfast or just for a snack. I don't know if anyone else has made this. It's pretty good, but it doesn't have a lot of eye appeal. I usually just make it just for myself. There are lots of variations

Mock Danish
1 egg
2 oz cream cheese
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbs splenda
1/2 tsp vanilla
Put the cream cheese in the microwave for a minute to soften, then add the remaining ingredients. Microwave for another 2-3 min. until it is set and there is no more liquid. You can top this with some sugar free jam, if you like.

My favorite variation-tastes like french toast (sort of )
1 egg
2 oz cream cheese
1 tbs splenda
1/2 tsp vanilla
cinnamon to taste (I sprinkle quite a bit on top)
Follow above instructions for cooking. You can add sugar free maple syrup to this afterwards or a few tbsp of cream.
You can substitute brown sugar twin for the splenda.

Some people increase the eggs to 2 and add 3 oz of cream cheese for a larger serving.

You can also take the original recipe, leave out the lemon and add cocoa. Or, 2 tbsp of pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice.

One more version- I haven't tried these yet.

Chocolate Danishes

8 oz cream cheese
4 extra large eggs
3 tbsp splenda
4 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp heavy cream
1 tbsp SF chocolate syrup (like davinci)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees, spray 12 cup muffin tin with cooking spray.
Add all ingredients to food processor and blend throughly. Ladle into muffin cups. Cups should be 3/4 full. Bake for 25-30 min or until edges of danishes start browning a little. Remove, cool completely. Store in plastic container in fridge for up to 5 days.

Anyway, it's something sweet and different for breakfast than the usual eggs and bacon.
Take care, Nikki

Good afternoon,
DH & I were out all morning running errands. Just got home a little while ago.
It's still awfully cold and windy. Needless to say I've just about had enough. It was brutal going in and out of stores.

nikki, thanks you for posting those recipes. I will copy and paste them. Glad that you're feeling better and you were able to get some exercise in. That's good news about the kitties starting to get along better. I'm sure the little one had to fight for everything before, and once he realizes the bigger cats aren't out to get him, he'll be fine. I see that SS website is up and running. She did mention something about it yesterday. Did you get a lot of snow in your most recent storm? They're saying that there doesn't seem to be any storms in sight for a while.

Hi ANNE, lynn, Sha, hope you are all having a great weekend.

Talk to you later.
Aleka

Nikkic.. Thanks for the tip, and the recipies...That is very sweet of you to think of us.

Aleka...Hope you had a wonderful weekend as well.. You are always thinking of others..

All... Good morning... I love coming to this board. I love hearing about your days, and your goals..

Good morning, hope your all doing well.
One little note about those recipes. Last night, I didn't have enough cream cheese, so I made the cinnamon one with 2 eggs and 1 oz of cream cheese and it turned out even better. Kind of like a little souffle for one.

Aleka, I don't know how much snow we've got, it's more than 2 feet on the ground, total. But this morning, I can tell it's warmer out and it's finally starting to melt. It's just been too cold for it to melt before. Last night, when I was going to get DD from work, the wind was really strong and blowing big drifts across the road. There were 2 cars off the road in front of our house. No one was hurt and they got a tow truck out there pretty quick. I bet everyone is real tired of this winter and ready for some spring. I know I am and I haven't even seen half of what you guys up north have. What I still don't understand is these kids I keep seeing running around in light jackets and sweatshirts. They must think it looks cool, but to me it just looks like their not smart enough to wear warm clothes. I guess they just run in and out of warm places and never give a thought to what would happen if they have car trouble.

Sha, how's things going with you? Are you still losing weight? I am very impressed with your weight loss so far and congratulations to you. My youngest DD gave me a box of SF valentines candy yesterday (early present). Between DH and I, we ate the whole thing. I warned him he would have some stomach problems from it, but he ate around 6 pieces anyway. He went to work last night, so bet he was sorry later. I was just as bad, but I guess I'm use to maltitol and it doesn't both me anymore. It's just as well, now the candy is gone and no longer tempting me.

I guess I better get my day going.
Anne, hope things go well for you at work today.
Lynn, I saw Oprah's birthday last week, what an extravagant celebration, huh? I never would have ever dreamed some of those things even existed. It was fun to see how the other half of society lives. People I know just have keg parties in garages for birthdays I really admire Oprah. She is such a lady and even when she was poor, she was pure class.

Nikki

Good morning,

Sha, thank you for the compliment. Glad you like coming to the board. This a great group.

nikki, we gave the same thing here with blowing snow. There are 2 places that I know of where the wind whips the snow from the lake across the roads, and sometimes it's a total white out. A few years ago a friend of mine was going to work through one of those white outs, down by the foot of the lake, and found herself drifting to the opposite side of the street. We really haven't had that much snow. It's just been soooo cold that most of the storms stayed well south of us. All that arctic weather we had kept the snow storms away. We did get about 5" on Fri. before it turned to freezing rain.

ANNE, hope things go well working with Tanya today.

Hi lynn, hope you enjoyed your weekend.

Have a wonderful day everyone!
Aleka

Aleka,
We thought it was too cold to snow here too, but it did. It was -10 and snowing. I thought it wouldn't do that. We were surprised and thouroughly disgusted.
But today, it's 30 degrees. The first time it's been this warm in a long time. DH went out and cleared some more snow from the driveway, so it would melt better. Gosh, I was running around without a coat, just like those silly teenage kids I was just talking about

nikki, it's about the same temp here as where you live. It's 27 deg. We live about 10 miles from a college town, and that's where we do our grocery shopping. I have seen them in the grocery store in the middle of winter with shorts on and sometimes sandals. I saw this one girl wearing shorts in late fall/early winter, and her legs were soooo red. I'm with you, I don't know how they can dress like that when it's cold out. I get cold just looking at them.

Good Afternoon Ladies: We lucked in here this weekend with the weather. Were able to get a lot of running around done, then I vegged with a good book and caught up with friends on the phone. Today is very windy and of coarse more snow is coming.Thanks for the recipes Nikki, I copied them for my file of recipes. Well 2 weeks now and I have exercised and not broken my diet. I am going to "reward" myself on Valentine's Day with a couple of glasses of wine. Last year I made Suzanne Somers Coq au Vin for V.D. It was delicious. Just heard on the news that Mcdonald's has introduced a low carb menu here in Canada. We are going to go down to visit with our family at the end of the month and I will be very interested in weighing myself, thats if I don't go out and buy a new scale myself LOL. I am in my medium jeans now so that makes me very happy. Watched a show on Saturday on elder abuse and found it very disturbing. You remember my mother has recently gone in a home. It appears a lot of the stuff that was taped was done on the night shift. The scary part is with nursing homes run like a business the staff are spread so thin and there is so much frustration. The provincial government is going to investigate, but that will take forever for them to get their acts together. I think my brother ( who owns a company that investigate fraud in the insurance industry) is going to put a hidden camera in our mother's room. She recently had a fall(?) that left her badly bruised and broke her glasses. It is sickening to think that these people that are so nice to are faces could be hurting my mother out of our sight. I hope the abuse isn't in her home. She keeps saying "you don'y know what goes on when you arn't around" This is the same woman that told the staff that my step-father had killed Trixie with the car on purpose. So obviously she is in lala land at least part of the time. My step father starts volenteering at the home this week so he can keep his eyes open. It is such a gorgeous place, brand new, beautifully furnished and the staff appear to be great. I wish we lived closer. Well enough of that of now. Hope all you ladies have a great day.

Lynn.. That is so scary... To wonder if the place that is being paid to care for the ones we love is hurting them, is just unbeleivable... I will keep her in my prayers.

Nikkic... I am down 2 more pounds. So that is good.. I have never been one to check the scale everyday, but have been doing that. I have to stop.. ha ha two days ago it said I was up two pounds than today down 4.. SO I will just take the 2 and try to stay off the scale for a week.. You are so sweet to ask..

Aleka...You are always so supportive.. What a sweetie...

Is there anyone but me out there doing the Cad diet??? I keep thinking it has to stop working, but than the scale is still going down. to funny..

I would like to ask if anyone of you have any ideas.. I get sick when I fly. I found if I have a peppermint in my mouth the whole time I do good. but they are all full of carbs.. ALso I just eat a lot when flying. Than I feel fine.. Any ideas would be great.. We are going to FL. Our son is there . He is in the Air Force.. And will be leaving to go over seas in a few weeks. So we are going to see him and spend some time with him. I just just so worried on how much I am going to gain. And I don't want to be sick any of our time together..

Good Morning Everyone:
Sorry I can't help with flying Sha in my 46 years I have never been on a
plane.

Hope Everyone is doing good. I feel asleep really early last night (A Monday
thing, stressed out to the max)

Weather is pretty good Lynn isn't it I will go for a walk outside on my
lunch hour today for sure.

Nikki, recipes look great thank you. Hows the new kitty?

Hi Aleka, how is WW going? I am back with Sommercizing for now.

I better go before comes in.
Talk to you tonight.
Anne.

Hi there..

ANNE, sorry you were stressed out Monday night. How is Tanya working out? WW isn't going very well, I seem to be hungry all the time and when I missed my 2nd week, all my motivation went. Luckily it only cost me a meeting fee instead of the usual registration fee + meeting fee. I am trying SS again, because this past weekend she was on HSN selling a lot of her foods. She was making waffles when a caller asked her if she could put Suzanne's jam on the waffles. Suzanne said yes and that she could treat berries as a free food. So, I figured that I could put blueberries on my cereal instead of eating them 20 min. beforehand. I am sure she only told the caller that so she would buy the pancake/waffle mix and the jams.

Sha, congratulations on your weight loss! Sorry, but I don't have any ideas that would help you with flying. I have only been on a plane a few times in my life. I'm not a big fan of flying.
DH & I go to FL a lot, my IL's rent a condo in Ft Myers every winter and we go down to visit them. When will you be flying down there?

lynn, that nursing home story is scary, and we have the same concerns here too. One time my late aunt broke her hip and had to stay in a nursing home for a few weeks for PT. She said the same thing to me as your mother said to you about not knowing what went on there during the night.

nikki, have you lost anymore snow? Our snow is just about the same, except it is falling off our roof and scares the dog half to death...us too for that matter.

Hope you all have a great day.
Aleka

Goodmorning Ladies: How true Anne I can't remember the last time we could say the weather is good! Thanks Sha for your concern as for flying I always have gum, do you have a sugarless one down there that you could chew. I hate flying and do it as seldom as possible. I havn't flown since 9/11 and don't plan on it since there are always reports on how sloppy our airport security is. Aleka found a fairly big site for WW recipes. Go to www.angelfire.com/journal/wwrecipes. How are you Nikki? I will check back later. You all have a great day

Hi,
I went to the Dr early today for a physical and return in the morning for blood work. Nothing out of the ordinary, just a routine check up. Went to DD #1's for lunch, came home, made some homemade summer sausage and soup for supper. Took DD #2 to the store and DD#1 to work. DH and I went out to eat then spent some quality time together watching tv. Finally, got to sit down and look through my emails, had around 50 of them, so it's been a process trying to weed though it all. Mostly just junk. I will get my high speed internet in 2 days, can't wait!

Lynn, setting up a camera to see what is going on and how your mom is being treated is a very good idea. My parents were both in nursing homes before they died and my mom was definitely abused. She had advanced alzhiemers, so she couldn't tell me what was going on, but it was very bad. I found her restraint tied into her skin once. She "fell" out of bed while they were changing her bedding and there was a deep wound in her skull. The Dr said it looked like someone had hit her with a hammer, her skull was pushing in on her brain. Since she was so debilitated, they couldn't do surgery on her without it killing her, most likely, so she had to just live like that. It just makes me sick to think about it. Even the best places don't have the staff and the staff they hire aren't always the best. It's hard work and there are easier, better paying jobs for most people. I hope I haven't made you feel worse, but it's very, very important for your family to take an active role in your mom's care. Having people visit often is so important. Interacting with the staff often, bringing up any concerns you have about her care and her condition and make sure that the higher ups in the nursing home know about your concerns too. It is true, the squeeky wheel gets the grease, sadly so. Having said all that, there are actually some very good nursing homes too, that have excellent staffs. They are not all bad, but you are on the right track to question what is going on with your mom, especially since she's saying things aren't right (even if she is doesn't always know what is going on) and she is showing evidence of some kind of trauma, whether it is from abuse or from an actual fall, it's important to check it out. If there is nothing going on, then you at least can be reassured. And, having worked in nursing home care for about 10 years at one point in my life, I know elderly people do fall often and that could very well be what happened.

Sha, where will your son be going? I guess sometimes they don't tell that, do they? I hope you have a good visit. Do you get motion sickness on planes? Have you ever tried that medicine for that? They sell it over the counter now, I can't remember the name off the top of my head, but any pharmacy could tell you. Also, have you tried something like those little strips that are like dried out mouth wash? Listerine makes them and also, Walmart has their own brand and they come in a variety of flavors and arent as wicked as Listerine. Don't wait to try them though, if you haven't tried them before. They might not be what you want to use for an upset tummy. But, they do give your mouth some flavor with no sugar, if that's what you want.

Anne, the kitties are all getting along very well now. Stripe and Boots now play like they are litter mates. We are one big happy family again.

Aleka, I went to the store today and found all kinds of Carb Option products. Sha, do you have HyVee's out there? That's where I found them. I got Italian and Ranch salad dressing-0 carbs, made by Wishbone. BBQ sauce-1 carb from Lawrys and also steak sauce from them. I haven't tried them yet, but I was so excited to see them. I carefully check now, and make sure there are no sugar alcohols in my food, I just dont want to eat it. Here are some good sites to read up on carbs and food-
www.carbaware.org
www.betafoods.com/netcarblabeling.htm
I got to run, take care, Nikki

I heard on the news last night, another Atkins controversy. There were reports from the medical examiners office that Dr. Atkins was obese, his heart showed he had a heart attack at some time, and he had artery blockage. His widow has said that the reason he was obese was fluid retention from being in intensive care, and that he had never had a heart attack. I guess this is more fuel for the naysayers. The other night on the news the orange growers are up in arms because their orange juice sales have gone way down because of the low carb diets. They said they were going to sue somebody, but I can't remember who they said. (senior/blonde moment).

nikki, hope you had a nice lunch with DD#1. Where did you and your DH go out to eat? Glad you enjoyed yourself. I am so sorry about your mother being abused while in a nursing home. It must have been heartbreaking for you to see your mother being treated that way. SS website is back up and running. I've been occasionally lurking in there. One of the SS oldtimers posted the ingredients of Ruby Tuesday's mashed cauliflower. I don't think I will ever get it again. They put oleo in it with hydroginated fats and a lot of other things I can't pronounce. The gist of the posts were, even though it may say low carb, you really have to be careful.

Sha, after reading nikki's post about medicine for motion sickness, I thought of those wrist bands you can buy that puts pressure someplace on your wrist to curb motion sickness. I believe they work well.

lynn, thank you for the website. There are a lot of good recipies in it. I added it to my favorites.

ANNE, how did you day go yesterday? Are you still having nice weather? Yesterday was gorgeous here I actually went outside for a little while without a coat!

Hope you all have a good day.
Aleka

nikki, I went into those two sites you posted and added them to my favorites. There is a lot of informative reading in those sites. I made the mistake of going by "net" carbs thinking I was eating low carb bread when the label said 3g. or 4 g. net carbs, when actually I wasn't eating low carb bread at all and paying $4.00 for that loaf of bread. I also do the same thing with protein bars. Thank you!

Aleka