Cooking it up!

I have been falling in the health trap that I knew would happen with school being here. I am tired and anxious - and that translates into stress eating and grabbing whatever I can find and stuffing it in my mouth. I was determined this weekend to cook some healthy food up to eat this week, so I didn't explode out of my jeans and have to live in sweat pants until the semester was over. 

Searches on the Internet found me some great Weight Watchers friendly recipes. I made a crock-pot of Skinny Slow Cooker Hearty Vegetable and Bean Soup which turned out just fabulous. I chopped up all the ingredients and threw them in the crock pot and just studied away while my dinner cooked. 9 hours later my brain was melted from all the studying, but I had an awesome dinner of hot homemade vegetable soup. The only alteration I made was to throw a little more ground pepper on it when I ate it and then I threw a small hand-full of oyster crackers in there when I ate it. I scooped the soup into two cup Rubbermade containers and had 7 servings left after a generous dinner. I froze half and put the rest in the fridge for lunch for the next few days. I love that I could put fresh veggies in the soup and I could control the salt an seasoning. It turned out just so good and it was really filling.

Then today, when I couldn't stand to study another minute, I made Make-ahead, Healthy Egg McMuffin Copycats. I found this recipe a couple of weeks ago and purchased the pan on Amazon along with the deli-quality wax paper sheets. (They were a splurge - but I wanted them and they will last forever!) My Amazon order arrived this week so I was just itching to make these, but school had to come first. So the pan and papers along with the recipe sat on my table for the last several days - taunting me. So today was the day and it actually went great! the eggs came out perfect and they taste great. I used a slice of lunch meat instead of turkey sausage, but otherwise I followed the directions (which were just Eggcelent!) and they turned out perfect. I tried one for my dinner, put one in the fridge for the morning, and the other 10 are in the freezer for the next two weeks breakfast.

Again - I love that I can control the ingredients and that I am not eating something processed and of questionable origins. I also love that it was easy, inexpensive, and I have a breakfast that I can nuke and take on the road. Win Win Win!

Sunshine Award!

The fabulous Meggy Moo from the blog all4meggymoo bestowed the Sunshine Award on me! How kind!

The Rules:
1. Thank the blogger that awarded you. (Thank you Meggy!)
2. Answer 10 questions about your favourite things. (see Below!)
3. Nominate 10 blogs & let them know. (See below below! And yeah -I sort of stink at rules...)

Questions
1. Favourite animal. I am pretty obsessed with my dog Emma and my cat Izzi. They both show up a lot in my blog and I love them like crazy.

2. Favourite number. 13. I have a soft spot for the number 3 and the number 4 as well - but 13 is the big winner.

3. Favourite non alcoholic drink. Venti Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte from Starbucks. It's like crack and it only counts for 3 points plus on Weight Watchers! WIN!

4. Facebook or Twitter. A big NO on those. Never did Twitter and I cancelled the crap out of my facebook account as it seems to be an excuse to be an ass for most of my "friends". (Although I miss Farmville often!)

5. My Passion.  Knitting. Yarn. And lately crochet has been creeping in! Love all things fiber yummmmmmm.

6. Getting or giving. Giving. Although getting a nice gift is pretty flipping awesome too!

7. Favourite Pattern(s). I have a few I make over and over:
22.5 degrees (shawlette) by Martina Behm pattern on Ravelry.
Baktus scarf by Strikkelise on Ravelry.
Handspun Beanie by Woolie Wormhead on Ravelry.
Easy Malabrigo Hat by Karen Grover on Ravelry.
Warmest Mittens by Kris Percival

8. Favourite day of the week. Friday! Coming home from work on Friday night I almost always have a smile. Surviving a work week. And Friday nights are usually lazy and often end with us piling in bed and watching Ghost Adventures. My hubby will do his family research on his computer and I will knit or hook the hours away until I fall off to sleep. And it's the only day I can really let myself sleep as long as I want - so Saturday's are often a really good second to Friday for Awesome. :)

9. Favourite Flower. Peony. I just love them. They are so pretty and the scent is amazing on them.

10. Favourite Country. USA. I haven't travelled to many other countries, and I don't think a couple hours in Canada, or a week's vacation in Mexico or Jamaica allow for really knowing the country. Since I have spent 40 years in the USA I have had the chance to crawl around on it's landscape a little bit and we have some amazing things here. And really, is there anything more wonderful than home? That being said - I hope to travel more some day. I would love to see New Zealand and pretty much all of Europe! I have barely touched Canada - so I would love to explore our Neighbor to the North more too.

My 10 Nominations
OK. I struggle with this because:
a) obviously I love all the blogs I follow.
b) And I love getting awards because it's so nice to have someone say "Hey - I think you rock!" but....
c) these awards sort of scream "chain letter" to me. And I kind of have that squirmy feeling when I nominate people. Like I am inviting them to a free steak dinner and then I try to sell them steak knives for two hours.

SO, I will say that the blogs I read are wonderful and I would happily nominate any of them for this award. If any of the bloggers whose blogs I read DO read this (huh?)- I would be more than honored by you claiming The Sunshine Award from me.  :)