December Has Been Crazy...

... and then last week when time started freeing up I got sick and all I have wanted to do is sleep and watch ridiculous made for TV movies on lifetime.
But before all of that I took a trip down to Utah to see some friends and we went to see the lights at Temple Square, very fun, insanely cold. I always enjoy just relaxing with friends and making up new rules to make games funnier :)

I also was introduced to a new method for making gingerbread houses that is really cool. All you do is melt white sugar in a saute pan on the stove and then dip one edge of the graham cracker in the molten sugar and then add the other wall, within 30 seconds the sugar has hardened and you do not have to worry about your
little house falling down. I also got to make up some new ways to make trees- some of my gingerbread house making friends did not bring their creativity with them- I won't mention names.

My branch had a service auction and I had a lot of fun making caramel & candy covered apples, and I ate so much chocolate making them that it was probably better that someone else have the finished product.

Martha, Martha, Martha

The other day I found a beautiful red casserole dish at Macy's and I justified buying it telling myself that I could bring it to Thanksgiving dinner. I trusted that a Martha Stewart dish would be the best quality. Well it isn't the quality I had an issue with. Martha had glued a paper to the bottom of the dish and it wasn't coming off. Not only had she bonded the paper to the dish never to be parted, but she had written something (important, I'm sure) on the back side of the paper. Now how was I supposed to get to that?

Luckily a little elbow grease went a long way, and I think the dish looked wonderful filled with spinach casserole.

Because I know how much I love food...

my sister and I are going to do a 5k tomorrow morning, to hopefully offset some of the calories I am sure to consume. If you're around the Idaho Falls area you should join me.

http://www.pb-performance.com/pb/calendar.php?year=2009&month=11&eventId=25

Have a Happy Thanksgiving! (More on actual food and how Martha Stewart recently disappointed me coming up)

I love this video!

"Haven't Met You Yet"
Michael Buble

Maybe I should be looking for more than food at the grocery store :)

Get Outta Town

Once in a while, you just have to get away... When I planned this little getaway I was thinking that it would already be "winter" in Idaho Falls and I would need some time in the warm sun to thaw my bones. Lucky for me we have had a very mild fall and just this week (Nov. 15th) is winter really starting.

So a week ago on Thursday night my friend Jami and I flew away to "sin city." In true dietitan fashion here is my food diary:

Thursday night- Airplane treats. Since they no longer give you food on airplanes I have to bring my own. By the time we arrived in Vegas and got to our hotel, The Stratosphere I was way too tired to even think about food.

Friday- our day to be crazy. We started off CRAZY shopping at the outlet mall. What shopping trip would be complete without a stop at Auntie Anne's Pretzels? After some more shopping we finally left the mall and stopped by Quiznos for a late lunch.

I tried a sandwich called the Pesto Turkey Bullet. It's made on a thin ciabatta baguette and just the right size, and price ($3), for a mid afternoon snack. We headed back to the hotel with a few more bags then we intended and took a short stop by the pool before our next adventure.

I am proud to announce that Jami and I rode all 3 CRAZY rides that sit atop the Stratosphere tower. (Our favorite of the 3 rides, Insanity is pictured below.)

After we exhaled and safely had our feet on solid ground, we headed to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner, and dessert. I love the food there, but sometimes I struggle with the atmosphere, we were seated in VERY close proximity to the surrounding tables.

A quick stop off at the M&M store (we practiced some good self control there) and we were on our last ride of the night at New York New York.


Saturday-

The majority of the day we spent at the Hoover Dam. I had driven over the dam before, but it was really cool to get to take a tour of the inside and learn more about how it works. We also got to eat some "dam food" at the High Scaler Cafe. I had a really yummy crispy chicken wrap. (Note: Las Vegas has a lot of overpriced food, but in my opinion the Hoover Dam was the worst.)

Once we got back to Vegas we changed and went on our way to our worst meal so far. We ate dinner at Maggiano's. I don't recommend it. To make up for it we got a nutella crepe from The Paris and enjoyed The Fountains at the Bellagio. I think I could watch those fountains everyday and never get bored.

Sunday- We went to Sunday brunch at a little cafe called Serendipity 3. It was the best meal of the trip and our flamboyant waiter only made the experience more memorable.
After the best meal we had had all weekend it was time to get back on a plane and come home. Lucky for us my sister knew that we were not ready to transition back into real life just yet and she had homemade enchiladas waiting for us when we got in.

After a weekend of warm weather it's hard to believe that it's almost time to start making fudge and Christmas cookies.

Who said you have to carve a pumpkin?

I'll fill you in on more of my Halloween weekend adventures later (after all of them are over!) Have a happy Halloween!

Random thoughts for today

1. When someone asks me what my favorite flower is I never say roses. I don't have favorite flower, per se, I think I always answer that question differently. But it's not roses. That said my mom sent me a beautiful bouquet for my birthday. It contained bright green spider mums and roses in two shades of pink and other whitish flower that I can't remember the name of. They are on their was out and as I passed by them today I had the fleeting thought that roses really aren't that bad; what did roses ever do to me? I think I might like them, don't get me wrong, they are not my favorite and I never want to smell like roses, but sometimes it's nice to have them on the coffee table.

2. This is how I feel after this week at work, the days seemed to last forever.


3. Should I buy myself a birthday present? Is that something grown-up people do?

4. I love the rain, but I am afraid that it may be a sign of colder and wetter things to come.

5. I spent way too much time debating the purchase of a saute pan today, now I know that is not something normal grown-up people do.











6. I discovered a new disease to add to the list of things not to get. It's called cyclic vomiting syndrome. I don't think you want all the details, but trust me that you don't want to get it. My heart goes out to people I see everyday that struggle with challenges that I cannot even imagine.

That's all folks!