The day before WI

Hi all!   I got my trip to the gym in early today and managed to add a bit to my usual routine of lifting.  Later I met Sharon & Mr. B and we stopped for lunch at a great little Italian bistro place in Alexandria before heading into DC.

We took a behind the scenes tour at the National Cathedral.  Then we drove to Arlington National Cemetery.  Here are some pix:

View from the South Crossing

Not a gargoyle (no gutter pipe) but a "grotesque."

Unbelievably beautiful fall leaves.

View from JFK's eternal flame back toward Washington

Me, beside my sweet mother's grave.  She would have been 90 yesterday.

We're eating so well--healthy, nutritious, and OP.  Tonight we had Tilapia, broccoli, & roasted butternut squash.  After dinner--Wii time!  Sharon and Mr. B were newbies to the Wii and we had a great time and laughed a lot while playing with the Wii fit and some of the basic sport games.  I think we may have gotten Mr. B hooked!  

Tomorrow we're off on our mini bike holiday.  Lots of biking.  I plan to go to my WI on the way out to our bike holiday headquarters.  Off to bed now so I can get in my Last Chance Run before the WI.  

Bye for now.

Terrific Tuesday

Two year old E, mixing her mom's birthday cake.

Well, today seemed almost as busy as yesterday!  I had promised E that she could help me make her mom's birthday cake. She takes her job seriously (note the blue polka dot apron).  When we've cooked before,"helping"  meant washing hands, wearing an apron and dumping things in a bowl after I'd measured them.  Well, I'm here to tell you that she wasn't having that.  No, she wanted to do the measuring.  She wanted to crack the eggs.  And she wanted to wield the electric mixer.  Did I mention this is a chocolate cake?  I gave her an extra reminder NOT to lift the mixer and stepped back to take her picture.  She was great!  And the cake turned out wonderfully well.  I had a very thin sliver (DH noted it was  about 4 crumbs thick!).               

And there were more sweets in my day, too.  Cupcakes with a Cherry on Top!  This one is a blogger award from Deb at Deb Will Be FREE.  Thank you Deb!  And there's no calorie expenditure for this sweet treat!  Even better.

The Rules for Eligibility are: 1. Answer the question, "If you had one chance to go back and change one thing in your life, would you and what would it be? 2. Pass on to six people and inform them of the award. 


I'm going to follow Deb's lead and do part 1 today and part 2 tomorrow.  So, what would I change?  At first I thought, duh, I'd learn these things I'm learning now soooo much earlier in my life, but then, no, I don't think so.  I've actually loved my life.  I've never been one to wish myself younger--I've lived a great life and had some wonderful relationships, friendships and experiences. I think all my experiences, through thick and thin, have worked together to make me who I am.   What I'd change is I'd let my young self know is that I was eventually going to get the hang of living at a healthy weight.  




I changed my plan from last night and decided to make two pans of lasagna--one traditional and one seafood (instead of the lasagna roll ups).  The traditional lasagna is one I've made for 30 years.  It's an old WW recipe and my family thinks it's the best lasagna ever.  I made it for some Italian friends when we lived in Rome and they asked for the recipe, too.  It was good, but the seafood lasagna was AWESOME!   DIL loves seafood and doesn't eat ground beef, so I made it for her, but everybody else liked it, too.  That's the one I ate.  It had a few more "extras" than I usually eat (cream cheese, 2% milk, parmesan cheese, and mozzarella)  but I had a small piece and it was certainly within my calorie target--<350 per serving.   I've linked to the recipe, it's from a Cooking Light cookbook, but most of their recipes are online, too.


I did my gym workout after dinner.  There were only three of us in the workout room (such a nice change from the crowd at the beginning of January!).  I listen to a book on my ipod while I work out.  It really passes the time nicely and has the added benefit of keeping me going to the gym, because I don't allow myself to listen to that book except when I'm at the gym.


I'm hoping to knock off some more sticks o' butter at my WI tomorrow.  I'm going to get up early to run and I have my first BSF (Bible Study Fellowship--an intensive, year long Bible study of the book of Isaiah) before my noon WI.  My BFF (Best Friend Forever!) and I will go out for lunch together and then shopping.   Another full (fun) day.

Mango Mania

I am loving mangos this summer. Did you know that they have been called the "fruit of the gods"?  Most of the mangos in the world are grown and eaten in India.  They also pack a powerful punch in the area of nutrition.    They have the largest amount of vitamin A of any fruit.  They are also good sources for vitamins C, B1, B2, and B6 and Potassium.  [my reference is The Fruit and Vegetable Stand:  The Complete Guide to the Selection, Preparation and Nutrition of Fresh Produce, by Barry Ballister--a book I go to quite a bit.  Don't forget I'm a librarian!]  Mangos are increasingly available in supermarkets here.  I never had one until about five years ago.  Now, I buy one or two every week.  I like the ones that get a nice reddish bloom with a bit of yellow and green.   Choose a mango that feels heavy for its size, that give slightly to a gentle pressure, and that has a tropical fruit scent. Don't store it below 45 degrees for more than a day or two.


The biggest issue about mangos is how to get at the fruit.  The mangos have a large flat oval seed that parallels the shape of the fruit.  If you don't know what you're doing, you're likely to get mangled fruit with too much left on the seed and rather ragged pieces.   I recently read someone's blog (Diane's?) where she asked about the best kitchen gadgets.  A few people commented that it was their mango seed gadget.  I bought one last week and used it for the first time tonight. I'm in love. It did a great job and I got so much more usable fruit for my salsa. The Oxo splitter to the left was the one I bought. There may be other brands that are similar, but I like how sturdy Oxo kitchen gadgets are and I'm getting quite a collection of them. I was curious about what would happen if the seed was bigger than the metal cutter part. My seed tonight was slightly bigger. It just cut down over it and there was a tiny bit of seed still attached to the fruit. I cut the fruit in long wedges and had no problem trimming off the little part of the seed that was still attached. This gadget is really a time saver and does something that is almost impossible to do as well by hand.

I used my mango in a mango, avocado, and tomato salsa.  I don't really use a recipe, just add 1 chopped mango, 1 diced avocado, some chopped cherry tomatoes, a bit of diced red onion, a generous bunch of chopped cilantro and lots of fresh lime juice.  I served this alongside my night-before-WI baked cod fish, whole wheat rotini pasta, and some leftover carrots and peas.  Very eye-appealing, very quick, and quite tasty.  


Tuesday is always a gym night and I had a good workout.  DH and I go together and each has a set routine.  It usually takes us about 50 minutes.  I do my routine while listening to a book on my ipod.  It really makes the time go faster.  Before I had the ipod, I often ended up counting the ceiling tiles!  Hearing a good book is much better. Right now I'm in the middle of Jean Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear.


Tomorrow is my WI.  As usual, I can't predict what will happen.  I have done well on my eating and on exercising this week and don't expect to gain, but the scale today was nearly the same as last week. We'll see what tomorrow brings.  


Tell me about your favorite kitchen gadget!  I love finding out about new, useful tools.