Sunday, December 16, 2007

Changes are a coming........

Come the new year, I'm going full force on the diet front again.

I've done Weight Watchers in the past, and I lost 30 pounds doing it. Unfortunately I've put those pounds back on and my own "self" efforts have at least kept me at the same weight, but not helped take any off.

So, come the new year, after I have a replacement for my now-dead Palm that I use for tracking (I'm not a joiner-type-person, I did my original WW stint doing online only and there are some great tools to use on a Palm that do the same thing while feeding no money to a huge corporate machine) I'm starting over. And it'll be interesting this time, since I'm also commited to go "eat out" every day for lunch since my current employer has a rule about no eating at your desk.

As an additional tool, I'm going to be posting about some of the diet efforts. For now, I imagine it's going to be general rules about HOW you can eat out and still loose weight. Take that, Morgan Spurlock!!

In other Hausfrau news......

We got more snow this weekend. Great. Fantastic. It was coming down so hard on Saturday that I didn't make it to my work's holiday party.

Today was brunch for my mother in law's birthday. It's a place we've been to eat many, many times, and we do brunch there pretty frequently. Pappadeauxs. Yeah, it's a chain, but it's always good. At least when they're not out of oysters.

We went over to the in-laws for awhile after, just to hang out. Then it was home again to our sadly plowed driveway (the plow service for the townhouse association always does a HORRIBLE job on our little section) and I headed out to hit the grocery stores. Wooo.

The reorganized my regular store and everything is in a different place. That makes for worlds of not fun.

Got home, chilled a little, didn't make dinner since I'm still full from brunch. I did also make up some of Ina Garten's Outrageous Brownies for the hubby to take to work this week for some work party. Man, those things are awesome. I usually make them without nuts, but otherwise follow the recipe. Provided you have the half-sheet pan, a HUGE bowl to mix it all up in, totally foil line your pan to make them easier to deal with and don't mind getting chocolate and butter all over yourself in the process, it's super easy. And lord, people gush over them.

Which brings me to another rambling point that hit my brain as I was looking over the Food Network reviews of the recipe to recall what changes I make (use less coffee) -- what the hell is with people who "won't tell" someone else's recipe?? I understand if it's some award-winning, passed-down family recipe... but why wouldn't you pass on some massively available recipe in hopes it will inspire someone else? Someone mentioned that they passed off the recipe as "their own".... well, it's not! Why not tell people? When I make a recipe like that, I'm always more than happy to gush about how great a recipe was or how easy it was to make, since that love will be passed on to others. Why wouldn't you want to spread that love???

2 comments:

Marilyn said...

Good luck on the weight loss. My husband's aunt uses part of her lunch hour to walk around downtown where she works. And I do think it is good for the employees to make them leave their desks for lunch (wish my husband's place did that!).

I understand your pet peeve about the secret keepers. My great aunt was a fantastic baker, but she absolutely refused to let anyone learn her recipes. Too bad. Her recipes will die with her.

The Country Mouse said...

I don't understand the secret recipes, either. I make two things in particular that are family recipes: "pot pie" (really a kind of chicken noodle concoction) and sugar cookies to die for. I'll give anyone the recipes that wants them. Both things are a pain to make, and I figure if they make the effort, more power to them.

Besides, you know how I got both those recipes? Someone gave them to me! They share with me, and it seems quite stingy not to share with someone else.