Feelin' Good :)

Things I've learned this week:

Fat-free cottage cheese is a delicious snack.

Individually wrapped healthy snacks are awesome. (ie string cheese and prunes)

Applesauce is a surprisingly satisfying dessert.

Soup is great. Make a big batch at the beginning of the week and I always know what's for dinner.

I'm starting p90 next week. Gonna get fit!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

It's time for a lifestyle change.

I love baking. I love sweets. I love eating. But unfortunately, I can't continue to ignore my body's hatred for all things dairy and gluten. This doesn't mean I'm going to cut them from my diet completely, but I can't eat madeleines and ice cream all the time.

It's time to get healthy. And I'm going to try my best to stick with it. That means I need to find ways to make this an easy change that I can get used to. I've spent the past few days looking at blogs and recipes (and eating pasta and fried chicken to have my last hurrah) and I think I've found some stuff to use.

The thing is, I really do love fruits and vegetables. I have no problem eating all that good stuff. But cookies will always trump them. So I really just need to stick with the good stuff, and also find a way to make those sweet delicious treats in a healthy way.

Wish me luck.

I hate the cold.

It happens every year. I always know it's coming. And I always dread it. Winter.

I love Halloween, and Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's Day, St. Patty's Day. I looove the holidays. And I'm thoroughly convinced that all of these wonderful fun times are in the cold part of the year to help people get through it without packing up and moving to a warm island in the Caribbean. Because that's what I'm about to do.

This morning, the wind chill was 6°. That's in Fahrenheit. Not Celsius. That's not okay. Yesterday, I was scraping snow and ice off my car at 5:30 in the morning before I left for work. There's a reason I live in the South. It's not supposed to be cold. I'm sure all of my friends up north are laughing at me while they're trekking through a foot of snow. You know what? Joke's on you guys. I'll complain my way through winter, but it will end. I'll be able to enjoy my 100° sunshiny weather again. You can keep your cold. Until then, I'm changing my backgrounds to pictures of the beach and desert and drinking 30 cups of hot tea everyday until I feel warm enough to pretend it's not grey and miserable outside.

This is my cousin and her friends, at Appalachian State University.

Pretty much the textbook definition of insane.

Back to Reality

I went from sleeping in and spending my days walking on the beach and baking to waking up at 5:15 in the morning to drive a school bus full of brats. Reality check, eh? Children were almost dropkicked.

The holiday break was wonderful. I spent a week doing nothing at home, and then a week in a condo with my family, doing nothing. We went to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina with my uncle and his family. There was a lot of eating, drinking, more drinking, upsetting waiters, irritating other vacationers, shopping, and hanging out on the beach. We went to Savannah for a day and found an amazing candy shop, and then had lunch at Paula Deen's restaurant. Afterward, I was full of butter and remorse, but it was a delicious trip.

My arteries are retreating in fear

It was a long drive each way, but the week with the family was worth it. And I got a lot of wonderful cooking and baking goodies for Christmas. My most-used gifts so far have been my KitchenAid stand mixer (YES!!!) and a madeleine pan from my dearest Hannah. When you combine the two, you get...

Madeleines!

This will be my new thing for as long as it takes for my boyfriend to start hating them, and then I'll continue to make them by myself until I too am tired of them. Since there are so many ways you can change them up (I've made plain, lemon poppyseed, and orange cardamom so far) and they're French (like my boyfriend wishes he was), I don't think that will happen anytime soon.

My new toys have made the transition from lazy vacationer to stressed-out bus driver a little easier. I'll have to go back to work later today, but not without a few treats to pass out to the dispatchers and mechanics. Make them happy, so when my bus is broken or I need a day off, they remember the delicious glazed cakes that I so kindly gave to them.

Also, last night's dinner. Thai pineapple curry, spinach with tzatziki, feta mashed potatoes.

We like to keep things multicultural.