Cobblers are THE BESTEST!

I posted about a pair of shoes that I was absolutely in love with, but was afraid I couldn’t wear b/c they were too narrow for my feet.  ENTER COBBLER who stretched them overnight and they were perfect the next day 🙂

So yes, I DID WEAR THESE to the Christmas party last month 🙂  They fit perfectly fine and looked FANTABULOUS!  Of course, I’m not used to walking in heels anymore, so after a couple of hours of standing/running around after Shrimpie, I was patting myself on the back for bringing my ballet flats 🙂

Let’s take a look again, shall we? Sole Society’s Margie T-strap Studded Beauties that are close to the Valentino’s seen around, but for a wee fraction of the price!  Now, if Sole Society no longer carries your size, try Nordstrom as they carry Sole Society as well 🙂  You’re welcome 🙂

Bake Fest 2012

For Christmas this year, I decided to dabble in baking a few treats…5, to be exact.  Usually, I just bake “Food for the gods” – a Filipino dessert.  This year, I made all 5 from scratch (except Red Velvet Cake Poppers.  I used boxed cake mix for that).  Clockwise from top left to right:  Cake Poppers, Sugar Cookies, Pecan Tarts, Dark Chocolate Mint Cookies and Food for the gods.

I have to say, they ALL came out prettttyyyy awesome.  I only made one batch of the Dark Choco Mint cookies so only a couple of people got those – pDaddy had a hard time sharing them…he loves his choco-mint.

This bake fest took about a week – baking one type of treat per day, but took OVER a week to ship out to my friends in NJ.  We did get hit w/a bit of a “blizzard”, afterall (and by blizzard, I mean we got crazy wind and a couple inches of snow in the span of a few hours, but nothing crazy like other parts of the country).  So, the goodies got to my friends AFTER Christmas, but still, it was enjoyed and I’m glad.  Look how pretty I packaged them too – with homemade tags and my “Kitchen of” seal.  Stuck these inside of boxes surrounded by those air bag type things and/bubble wrap (that pretty box below was reused…originally had my modcloth order – reduce, reuse, recycle y’all!).

I’m glad that I sent them out.  Having them here was too easy to eat and gain the calories.   I’m going to stick to probably just 2 next year and make a ton of both.  The girls LOVED helping me bake though, so that might change.

evil goodness

Another thing I made this year which I wish I never did?  Pumpkin Cheesecake.  Before this year, I never liked anything pumpkin.  Then, I saw pumpkin cheesecake at our grocery’s bakery aisle.  Now, everybody loves cheesecake – at least in my house they do.  So, I figured I’d give pumpkin cheesecake a try and I.LOVED.IT!  It was over $12 though so I thought I could try to make it myself and it will be cheaper.  Truth.  Now, why I decided to follow Paula Deen’s recipe of diabetic goodness, I have no idea, but it is good.  Just too sweet.  I made it a second time and lessened the sugar by 1/2 a cup and I’m thinking I could have probably lessened it by 3/4 of a cup.  I looked on myfitnesspal.com to see how many calories this baby had and I wish I looked it up sooner.  1/12 of the cake has 460 calories.  Now, I’m not sure if that’s some ready made one (does she do that?) or if it is based on following her recipe, but 460 calories?!?!?  Holy Cannoli, Batman! And to think, when I was in full-on holiday busy mode, I would sneak a bite here and there.  No wonder I gained weight so easily.  Needless to say, I won’t be making this again anytime soon.  It is too good to pass up, but too many calories and I really have to lose weight according to my doc.  Maybe by next Christmas Bake Fest, I will think about making this again.  But GASP!  Look:

(No, I didn’t have it for breakfast.  I just wanted to show you the #s breakdown).

4 Weeks Later

Pumpkin Cheesecake – aka evil goodness

First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR!  I do hope everyone had a great holiday season and a fantabulous New Year so far!  We had a great Christmas and New Year full of decorating, baking, cooking and wrapping/opening presents.  I am not ready to let go of Christmas yet.  I can’t bring myself to bring down our tree and decorations, but I just have to keep reminding myself that dust…dust is our enemy.  I am hoping to post recaps of the holidays soon, but today’s post is to update myself on my 4 Week Goal Accountability post.

4 Weeks Ago, I set these goals and by today, I was supposed to be able to say the following, confidently.  Unfortunately, it was a lot harder than I anticipated and our holiday baking and cooking frenzy was no help.  So the only things I have been able to accomplish are crossed out.

By January 10, 2013, I will be able to proudly say I:

• have worked out at least 4-6x/wk (Turbo/Gym)  – only 2-3x/week.
• lost 10 lbs – actually gained 4lbs, but it feels like 10.  my cheeks feel chubbier…my belly and thighs feel humungo! 😦
• am able to do 10 push-ups with no knees  YEAH BOSS!  BIG CHECK on this one!
• am able to do 10 tricep push-ups  – nope…only about 3.
• lost 2″ from my waist – scared to check, but I probably added 2”.
• drank 80 oz of water daily By far, the easiest since I love water.
• can run 1 mile straight – haven’t even tried.
• can finish CORE 20* (floor work) without stopping – haven’t tried either.
• limited bad carb in-take – baked goodies messed me up,  big time!
• increased fruits and veggies – my body looks for salad…love it!
  
• made daily TO DO lists and prioritized  Big CHECK on this…though my “priorities” don’t always get done did.   I need to work on that now.

So, there you have it.  2 steps forward, 200 steps back.  I wish I never tasted good pumpkin cheesecake (until this past Thanksgiving, I didn’t like anything pumpkin).  Once I tasted the (expensive) pumpkin cheesecake,  I decided to try to save money and make one myself and darn it, it turned out great!  I didn’t realize it was so crazy high in calories!  I mean, I knew it was high, I didn’t think 1/12th of a cheesecake could be over 400 calories!

Anyway, I am keeping at this this and if I don’t do some kind of “reset”, by February 7 I will need to cross more things off this list.  I really need to focus and make a change.  My cholesterol needs to go down. I do not want to go on medication if I can help it.  I repeat, I DO NOT want to go on medication.

So, I’ve started to take steps and log my food in myfitnesspal.com and am going to try to burn at least 600 calories at the gym tonight…

 

 

WW: Thanksgiving 2012

I know, I know…everyone’s on full on Christmas/Holiday mode we are too.  However, I cannot let this Thanksgiving go unnoticed (I’ll probably also do catch up entries on birthdays and Jamaica).

This was our 1st Thanksgiving in our new house.  The rest of our family is in NJ and so it was just us 5 celebrating together this year.  I decided to try to make it “formal” and that way our girls could learn and get familiar with table settings and the proper ways to do things with grace, elegance and proper manners.  Besides, they’re always playing Princess Dress-Up, might as well learn etiquette too.  – side note – I wish they had some type of etiquette / manners courses in schools…how to set the table properly and know which fork does what, etc.  I know we, as parents can teach them, but sometimes it’s received differently when taught by a school teacher.

In any case, pDaddy and I agreed upon what we wanted to eat and so off I went doing groceries (almost everyday for a week, it seemed).  Everything was homemade with the exception of Shrimp Cocktail and Dessert.  I guess I could have  made desserts too, but that’s ok.  Turkey was marinated overnight and everything was ready and prepped for the next day.

I woke up early on Thanksgiving – I think I was just really excited to cook for my family.  I haven’t cooked a Thanksgiving Dinner since ’08 / ’09 and I remember being half-assed about it.  I woke up too early so I decided, to add to the formality of the luncheon, to make some menus.  I found a template on line I liked and I cut and glued and punched away.  I had to cut the papers by hand because my paper cutter was missing it’s blades (I hid them from the baby and I guess I hid them well b/c I still can’t find them).   I wanted to make place cards as well, but I decided not to…no place card holders and I didn’t feel like cutting by hand anymore (spoiled, I know).

So, after that, I got breakfast going and got to cooking our luncheon.  Here’s our Thanksgiving Day feast (no, we don’t do stuffing…I just never had it growing up).   I hope you all had a great one 🙂

butternut squash bisque

main course

my loves

my view

shrimp cocktail and menu

table setting

appetizers and first course

menu

turkey

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for more wordful wednesday entries and to join in on the fun, linky linky on angie’s (http://sevenclowncircus.com/) and/ amanda’s blog – http://parentingbydummies.com/

                                           

Holiday Party Dress – 2012 #1

I think this dress may be the winner…IF it gets here on time and fits.  I got my original order and it was too small so I ordered it again w/rush shipping.  Should be here tomorrow and I need to hope it fits bc I loved it!

So, which shoes?

 hmmm…long cardi, short cardi or blazer?

Accessories?  I need to go through and unpack my fashion jewelry now, I guess.

Windy City Dress in Forest – ModCloth.com

shoes from top left counter clockwise

Sole Society – “Stephanie” in black  | ModCloth – “Surprise and Shine Heel” in Gold  | Sole Society – “Stephanie” in Platino|  Sole Society – “Julianne”  |  Sole Society – “Margie” via Nordstrom