Holiday plans?
Before I write this post, I must apologize for the long gap in posts. I live on Long Island where we recently have been hit by Hurricane Sandy. No gas, no power, no work. Things were crazy. I was lucky enough to have my power. However, my mother was displaced and was staying with me for about three weeks. I have gone back with her to her place in the past week due to Thanksgiving. She also got a new dog so she wanted my help with helping the dog adjust. In that time, I also had some personal issues going on as well. I do not feel the need to share them in a public forum. Just know, there's been a lot going on. As I write this, I am writing from my mother's computer.
Well today is the Monday after Thanksgiving, I had meant to write a running post, planning post and a pre-holiday prep post in the past month. Needless to say, that went out the window. I have been in the meantime, getting ideas and being somewhat creative with my recipes. If you have food sensitivities, I highly recommend getting and reading Living Without magazine. There are two versions, one is just gluten free and the other is gluten free and dairy free. I also have been reading the Vegetarian Times magazine. I just love vegetables and fruit. There are so many ideas that are so refreshing these days. I was not a big fan of new foods when I was a child. These days, I love rediscovering foods from when I was little. Have you recently rediscovered any foods from when you were little? Any new twists on them this time around? For example, I rediscovered brussel sprouts. While I did like them when I was little, they were not among my favorite. This time around, I discovered if I roast them, I adore them. This makes for a happy Suzanne.
Holidays, usually my favorite and most dreaded time of the year. (I'll save the dreaded part for another day and another post.) I have a rather large family on my mother's side. While she only has one brother, she has a ton of cousins. Both her parents had 8-9 siblings. Most of them had children and so forth. On my grandfather's side, there are a lot of cousins and we are all really close. We don't even consider the degrees of separation most of the time. Yes that is how close we are and no I would not trade it for a thing. I love my cousins. Growing up around this time, my grandparents would come up from Florida and off we go visiting everyone. That is just how it was. I adored it. Things have changed a lot since they passed away and my sister has been at vet. school. However, it doesn't mean I can't get together with my cousins. Which I do try to do somewhat.
Holiday time brings back memories of TONS of Italian food. Christmas eve was at my Aunt's house with the 7 fishes as the Italians usually have. I also always had my favorite, my grandmother's potato pancakes. Last year around this time, I had just started my clean eating ways in the beginning of the fall. It was my first holiday trying to be a clean eater among other things. Some parts of it went ok, some parts of it was not. What I did learn was the holidays are a matter of balance. I also recognized that as long as I only eat like this one or two days of the year, I'll be ok. BALANCE is the key. This year I made some more of my own sides and plan to do the same thing for Christmas. Since Thanksgiving was my mother, sister and I, I was able to make requests for certain things such as an organic Turkey, real butter, things like that. My contributions to Thanksgiving was my butternut squash soup and carrot souffle. If any of you hosted Thanksgiving, what did you serve? If you brought sides, what did you bring?
What do the holidays bring for you? How do you do meal time? Anything in specific you HAVE to have?? Do you stick to your clean eating and work out routines? What are your plans to survive the next month or so? Any new year resolutions coming up? Any questions, concerns or ideas, please send them my way as I will be addressing these issues in upcoming posts.
Thank you for your patience in the past month. Regular posting will resume now. Lets all get through the holidays happy and healthy.
"Life, like surfing is all about wave selection and balance. Never let the best waves in life go by" - unknown
Well today is the Monday after Thanksgiving, I had meant to write a running post, planning post and a pre-holiday prep post in the past month. Needless to say, that went out the window. I have been in the meantime, getting ideas and being somewhat creative with my recipes. If you have food sensitivities, I highly recommend getting and reading Living Without magazine. There are two versions, one is just gluten free and the other is gluten free and dairy free. I also have been reading the Vegetarian Times magazine. I just love vegetables and fruit. There are so many ideas that are so refreshing these days. I was not a big fan of new foods when I was a child. These days, I love rediscovering foods from when I was little. Have you recently rediscovered any foods from when you were little? Any new twists on them this time around? For example, I rediscovered brussel sprouts. While I did like them when I was little, they were not among my favorite. This time around, I discovered if I roast them, I adore them. This makes for a happy Suzanne.
Holidays, usually my favorite and most dreaded time of the year. (I'll save the dreaded part for another day and another post.) I have a rather large family on my mother's side. While she only has one brother, she has a ton of cousins. Both her parents had 8-9 siblings. Most of them had children and so forth. On my grandfather's side, there are a lot of cousins and we are all really close. We don't even consider the degrees of separation most of the time. Yes that is how close we are and no I would not trade it for a thing. I love my cousins. Growing up around this time, my grandparents would come up from Florida and off we go visiting everyone. That is just how it was. I adored it. Things have changed a lot since they passed away and my sister has been at vet. school. However, it doesn't mean I can't get together with my cousins. Which I do try to do somewhat.
Holiday time brings back memories of TONS of Italian food. Christmas eve was at my Aunt's house with the 7 fishes as the Italians usually have. I also always had my favorite, my grandmother's potato pancakes. Last year around this time, I had just started my clean eating ways in the beginning of the fall. It was my first holiday trying to be a clean eater among other things. Some parts of it went ok, some parts of it was not. What I did learn was the holidays are a matter of balance. I also recognized that as long as I only eat like this one or two days of the year, I'll be ok. BALANCE is the key. This year I made some more of my own sides and plan to do the same thing for Christmas. Since Thanksgiving was my mother, sister and I, I was able to make requests for certain things such as an organic Turkey, real butter, things like that. My contributions to Thanksgiving was my butternut squash soup and carrot souffle. If any of you hosted Thanksgiving, what did you serve? If you brought sides, what did you bring?
What do the holidays bring for you? How do you do meal time? Anything in specific you HAVE to have?? Do you stick to your clean eating and work out routines? What are your plans to survive the next month or so? Any new year resolutions coming up? Any questions, concerns or ideas, please send them my way as I will be addressing these issues in upcoming posts.
Thank you for your patience in the past month. Regular posting will resume now. Lets all get through the holidays happy and healthy.
"Life, like surfing is all about wave selection and balance. Never let the best waves in life go by" - unknown
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