Thanksgiving..

It was great. Really great. But now I'm done with food. I know alot of us feel the same way.
My menu consisted of:
Rolls, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and apples with marshmallows, gravy, brussels sprouts roasted with pecans, cranberries (two kinds!), stuffing, turkey- (15 pounder), AND pumpkin pie with whipped cream.

I know its only once per year, but that is just too much food! We had two little old ladies over, me and the hubbs, and the kiddos. Truth be told, we don't really like turkey anyway. After a weekend of over-eating, and leftovers, I know its time to get serious and loose some weight.
I am not going to gain the American average of 11 lbs over this holiday season!

I am doing my research and am ready to commit to a plan. I will take my official "before" pictures, my weight, my measurements- and really get serious. The thing is that I'm not only looking for that "after" photo.. I would love an "after-after" photo. Get it? I've lost weight before on weight watchers, atkins, paleo etc. etc. but always gain it back. From the research I've done, this is explained in this way:

Almost all weight loss results in muscle loss. This means your metabolism slows down, and, when you gain back the weight, its all fat.
The program that Shaklee offers is based on Leucine. A patented protein that actually helps you maintain muscle mass during weight loss. A couple of reasons to choose Shaklee; always safe, always 100% guaranteed, no artificial anything, non GMO soy, and amazing results in the clinical trials.
Oh, and the products are SO GOOD! Currently their weight-loss program is called Cinch, but starting January 1, 2013, it will be called Shaklee 180. 90 days to loose the weight, 90 days to learn to keep it off. 180.

I can't wait to get a team together and get started!

Christmas Almonds- made in the Crock Pot!

I know, its only November, but I had to TRY the recipe before I make to for others, right?!
I mixed up a few recipes I've run across before, and came up with this devilishly tasty almond treat.

You will need:

3 cups raw almonds
1 1/2 cup brown sugar (light or dark!)
1 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons salt (sea salt is preferred if you have!)
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon cardamum
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 egg white
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon water

1/4 cup of water, or apple juice

Coconut oil

Powdered sugar

In a large bowl, mix up sugar and spice and everything nice. No, just kidding. Not the nice part.

In another bowl mix the egg white and the vanilla extract, and the 1 tablespoon water, until blended well.
Add the almonds to the egg white mix, and make sure they all get coated. Then combine with the sugar mixture.
Mix well, ensuring all almonds are well coated in sugar mixture.

Grease the crock pot bottom and walls with coconut oil, and put crock on low heat. Add the almond mixture, put the lid on.
If you can, try to come back and give it a stir ever so often. Let it cook about 3-4 hours on low, lid on.
At this point it should get really hot, and starting to melt the sugar slightly- add the liquid (water or apple juice). It should hiss and sputter a little bit- stir well!

Cook with lid on for another 30 minutes or so, stirring frequently! When it thickens alot, take them out with a spoon and spread over parchment paper. Once the cool off enough to touch- get in there with your fingers and separate them completely, and place them in a bowl. Before they completely cool, sift some powdered sugar over them, and mix well- coating all the little golden brown nuggets of goodness with a coating of "snow". Let dry completely (if they make it that long), put in a pretty jar- and gift to someone you really love.

What lurks under your sink?

Healthy Halloween

Oxymoron, right? I was assigned the task of bringing healthy snacks fro the kids school's Halloween party. Samples listed were, cheese, crackers, fruit, vegg etc.
Doesn't sound like alot of fun, so I put my thinking cap on and came up with the following:

Clementine Pumpkins

And, the one that required a Costco trip; Cantaloupe Pumpkins.
Found a great pumpkin cookie cutter, at ACE hardware of all places!! Next, I went to get the melons- and to get enough flat, cuttable surface, I needed quite a bit. Luckily Costco had the Tuscan Cantaloupe in store, and they are about twice the size of regular ones- hooray!
I still used 3 of these giants..
The first step was to really, really clean the melons on the outside. With all the listeria outbreaks related to melons lately, I take no chances. So, I filled the sink with warm water (not hot! don't want to cook the melons!). I added 1 tsp of Shaklee's Basic G, and a few drops of Basic H. The G is a germicide, and the H will clean any surface! I rolled the melons around in the solution and scrubbed them with my dish brush. The rinsed with cold water. I also made sure the knife, and cutting board were equally clean. I peeled the pumpkins with my filet knife, and voila!