Lowfat Yogurt and Granola - Yummy..licious

Just layer granola and lowfat yogurt like a parfait into a clear bowl - set it on a cake stand and Whoo-Hoo fancy food and low calorie too! It tastes so much better when it's pretty.

I served peach yogurt. My husband likes his yogurt plain, but not me--I'm a fancy food fiend.

Plus, I could have pulled out my pastry bags to pipe the yogurt into the bowl but I just used a ziploc baggy and cut off the tip - EZ, cheap, and food fast.

This is a fun way to serve food on a weekend when you have guests - like during the holidays. I had this on Thanksgiving weekend.

Christmas Tabletoppers and Show Stoppers

It's "sew" EZ to go to a fabric store, pick out some pretty fabric and make your own green-velvet or red cotton tablecloth. Then take a few ornaments put them in a clear-glass bowl and string some garland around the table: WAH-LAH a Happily Homemade Christmas

Plus, I'm lucky to have a couple holly trees in my yard and a cedar too. So all it takes is a walk around the house, to gather the goods for my centerpiece. But you could gather other items and probably come up with something more creative than me. Just take a walk around your house and see what you come up with.

And for another angle:

Edible Snowmen-EAT Without the Fear of Yellow Snow

Yumilicious Little Men Made from Meringue

Okay maybe they look more like ghosts than snowmen but it was my first attempt - so at least I have a fancy food idea for next Halloween.

All it takes is three egg whites and 1 and 1/2 cups of sugar. You heat the sugar and egg whites over low heat until the sugar dissolves.

And then you whip it until it forms little peaks (about 3-5 minutes).

Then you plop dollops onto a parchment paper covered cookie sheet.

And bake at 175 for one hour and thirty minutes. WAH-LAH! Little snowmen you can stack together and decorate with cranraisins - if you want red little ghosty eyes, or chocolate chips if you want snowmen. I also added a little almond extract to my mixture - for some added flavoring, but you could add lemon, orange or peppermint-whatever suits you.

If you want to find more fun reading, hop over here.

A Very Danish Christmas - Advent and All

Just starting to load up the calendars with the 24 days of Christmas...presents!





You can find some more crafty ideas here

IT HAS BEGUN

Just getting started

Turkey Trot - I DID IT - That Turkey is Cooked, Over, Fineto

I guess I was hoping that running in that 32 degree chill would create some sort of thrill.

NOT at this Turkey Trot. Well, I did get a few chills and I saw a few spills.

They call it a “trot” but I think they got the lettering a little mixed up. It should have been called a tort…ure. Some of those hills were sooooo steep I felt like I should have been rappelling off of them.

This little 4 mile run was more like a masochistic maneuver mile(s) or at least not what I was expecting.

I can run 7.5 miles, so 4 miles should have been a “piece of cake” but it was more like a piece of humble pie that I was eating one agonizing footfall after another, on that icy path. Perfect for Thanksgiving…right? Maybe not for the two guys I saw slip and sliding next to me. One of them even went down. Some of us footfesting freaks even slowed our pace to make sure he was okay. He said he was so we ran on. Call us crazy—‘cuz me and my aching feet sure do.

Well, it did help me burn about 600 calories and help keep from packing more pounds on those already overburdened thighs of mine, as I ate another piece of pie—this time it was peach :) Plus, we (my husband, sister and I) helped raise some money for a few good causes...the Oregon Food Bank and the Oregon Zoo.



For any runners out there, check out this elevation map of the "trot"- just in case you want to run with me next year.

Movie Review Monday - Harry Potter - No Spoilers

I love going to see holiday films with the fam. Every year on Thanksgiving we've gone to see a "family" show. This year we had to go a little early because Kara had surgery and wouldn't be able to go with us on Thanksgiving.

Anyway, we went to see HP. There were lots of good "moments" with superior graphics and even a few thrills and chills but...

Overall, I'd say it was slow and disappointing. It appeared that the producers were stretching the book out just in order to make two movies out of the story. It went on-and-on, when I turned to my husband and said, "these 'kids' are wizards and witches with amazing abilities, so why don't they simply transport themselves to another place when they need to get out of a jam now?"

The question goes unanswered except to say that without conflict there is NO story.

But, my biggest disappointment was the ending. There was no resolution to anything in this portion of the story. It was apparently meant to be a prequeal to the real story, or the second part of the book-which I hope will be so amazing it will make up for the money I feel I wasted on this show.

Anyway, that's just my opinion. If you see or have seen the show, let me know what you think.