Christmas 2009 in review...

Students brought me homemade yummies....

...which I had for breakfast.

I forged the madness of the Dekalb Farmer's Market with Amy on December 23...

I cooked a yummy breakfast for Eric and I on Christmas Eve...

Trader Joe's chicken sausage, Fresh Market cheese biscuits, tomato, fried egg, and cheese grits!

My kitty is not a lap kitty...

...but gave me the gift of a snuggle and a nap on Christmas Eve afternoon.

My husband is a goofball...

My daddy cooked his famous Christmas morning breakfast and it was De-lic-ious!!

maple sausage, bacon, and hashbrowns

fried eggs

make-your-own grits station

sleepy goofball husband

Then the opening of gifts commenced...

I think my daddy resembles a skinny Santa!

and my brother resembles Peter Griffin...

Christmas afternoon lunch of ham sandwiches and tomato soup

goofball husband looks homeless....

my daddy listens to my stocking requests!!!

Night ya'll...

Dear Santa, I've been a bad blogger...

This whole working full time seriously put a cramp in my blogging time. However, now that I have two weeks off, I am back and eating with camera in tow.

Today I was able to sleep in until 9:30. Halleluiah!! Sleeping in on a Monday morning was strange but nice. Eric woke up about this time too; he immediately put on some clothes and headed out to work. I, on the other, proceeded to remain in my pajamas for the next TEN HOURS. However, being pajama-clad did not mean I was lazy. On the contrary, I was able to get a lot done around the house.

I first powered up with some cereal and milk. Because I normally eat breakfast in the car or at school, cereal isn't usually an option. So today, I decided to indulge a little. I ended up trying the Oat Cluster Cheerios Crunch I bought a while back on sale. I used up the last of our skim milk in my cereal bowl (oops!) and had a glass of Trop50.

After eating breakfast and catching up with Kathie Lee and Hoda, I had to get to unloading this...

(Georgia is such a good little helper)

...and do a little bit of this...

I then began to wrap Christmas presents when I realized that I had Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 on the DVR. I took a break from wrapping to watch the movie and about half way through, I had the craving for some popcorn.

My popcorn wasn't bad and the movie wasn't bad either. I love having enough time to lounge all by myself and watch movies I've recorded on the DVR. Christmas break is oh-so-very nice!!! After the movie was over, I felt it was time for lunch so I rummaged around in the freezer and put together an Asian inspired meal of Trader Joe's veggie egg rolls and chicken dumplings I had gotten from Costco a few months ago.

My afternoon of pajama wearing progressed; I continued to wrap presents and even worked on cleaning out my closet. I waited until the first official day of winter to switch out my warm weather wardrobe for my cold weather wardrobe! When Eric got home around 7-ish, he showered (and by this time I had finally showered too!) and we ran out to take care of a few errands. While we were out, we grabbed dinner at Cheeseburger Bobby's. I had the chicken and cheese sandwich and loaded it up with all of the veggie toppings from the bar.

And of course, I consumed what looks like a mountain of fries, too. 'Tis the season of indulgence I suppose! When we got home from errands, I realized I had received a package from Cooking.com. I ordered my daddy something fun for Christmas and it arrived today - yay! I was super excited upon opening the box to find that the folks at Cooking.com had packed a little surprise for me too:

I have yet to try the Starbucks VIA, so I am super excited about my free samples. Although my daddy drinks coffee every morning, this is one coffee he would not be interested in. So....Merry Christmas to me!

Night ya'll!

i can't believe i like watching the country music awards

I do not know exactly where the past few days have gone. Busy days at school make for a fast week (I probably just jinxed the next few days and they will probably go by really slow). Any whoo - I'm just sitting here in my pajamas watching the CMA Awards reflecting on my noshing the past few days. Here's a recap:

Tuesday
Breakfast was a light multi grain english muffin, fat free cream cheese, and two leftover slices of center cut bacon. Mmmm...bacon. I also added some reduced sugar orange juice in my Wizard of Oz travel mug. (Love the WOZ!)

Lunch has been very unimaginative and very processed lately. I hope to go to the grocery store this weeked to stock up on healthier lunch options. In the mean time, Lean Cuisine will just have to do.

Eric was in charge of dinner because I had so many papers to grade. He ran up to our new favorite bbq place and ordered a POUND of shredded pork and coleslaw. I had a combination of the two (with a little mustard based bbq sauce) on a 1 point hambuger bun. I added a bag of the Weight Watchers pizza flavored pretzle thins. I LOVE these thins because they tast just like the pizza flavored Combos. Sinful yum!

Wednesday

I went to recreate the english muffin - cream cheese - bacon combination from Tuesday when I realized the rest of my english muffins were still in the freezer. Oops. So opted for the same combo, but this time on a spinach Flat Out. It was still delicious!

Lunch was still a little over-processed. But at least it included sugar free chocolate pudding. :)

Eric wasn't hungry at dinner time so I just fixed a littel sammy for myself. I recreated what is often referred to as a "turkey rachel" (a spin off of the reuben sandwhich). I used my 1 point hamburger bun as a base, then added light thousand island dressing, oven roasted turkey breast, melted asiago sliced cheese, and coleslaw. It ended up being a little soggy because of the dressing/ coleslaw combination, but it was a good sandwhich. Especially when paired with baked Doritos and a ginormous dill pickle. I. Love. Pickles.

In other exciting news, I got a special little package in the mail on Monday. Can't wait to try out the Nature Valley Nut Clusters and Chewy Trail Mix bars. I LOVE getting goodies in the mail!!

The eyelids are getting heavy....'tis time to retire.

Night ya'll!!!

Off Da Chain Seafood & Mo

yet another reason why I love the state of South Carolina...

Like most women, I find Monday to be a day of fresh and new beginnings. I do, however, apologize for the multiple "new beginnings" I establish on this blog. Hey, maybe this is the one that sticks.

I started off the day early at school to prepare for the chaotic educational station activity for microscopes. I packed breakfast early and ate it during homeroom.

I really enjoy the english muffin/ almond butter combination! Lunch rolled around before I knew it, at which point I nuked a Lean Cuisine flatbread melt...

I had packed this little guy for an afternoon snack, but ended up eating him at the lunchroom table instead...

I ran errands after school, wandered around Publix for a while, and then came home to make dinner. We ended up having Kirkland brand turkey burger patties on Whitewheat buns. On the burger, I added 2% cheese, ketchup, mustard, dill pickles, sliced tomato, spinach leaves, and two slices of center cut bacon. It was SUPER TASTY and a very hearty burger for only 8 points. I rounded out our burgers with an oldie but a goodie - frozen twice baked potatoes.

At this point in the evening, I should be grading papers. However, I am pretty much exhausted and my head is starting to throb. To my comfy bed I go. Is it really only Monday???

Night ya'll!

yawn...

I know I have been M.I.A the past few weeks - funny how life just sort of happens around us. Tonight's post will be short because I am pooped. I started day 1 of what could possibly be a long term sub job - yay! However, long days and little sleep make me a sleepy girl. Will post more soon...I promise!

I actually had enough time this morning to eat at home before heading out to school. I toasted a Thomas Light Multi Grain English Muffin and topped it with some Blue Diamond Almond Butter. This was my first experience with almond butter, and I really liked it! I rounded out breakast with some reduced sugar orange juice.

I took my lunch to school like a good little girl! I had a Lean Cuisine and a banana.

I was so very busy at school and the day sort of slipped away from me with no real opportunity for a snack. Which of course meant I was starving when I got home. The hubs wasn't hungry so I fixed an Asian inspired meal for myself. I found some really yummy chicken dumplings in the fresh foods section at Costco this past weekend. I had 6 dumplings, 2 Trader Joe's veggie egg rolls, and a cup of the CP shrimp wonton soup. The meal was very satisfying and helped to curve the Chinese food cravings I was having!

I still have 3 WW points left today- I think I will wrap things up so I can head into the kitchen for a goodnight-glass of chocolate skim milk!

Night ya'll!

The Real Number System

I was a sub for a math teacher today and I realized I was soooo much better at seventh grade math when I was actually in the seventh grade. However, I had a good time and I was glad to work another day! The hardest thing about subbing at this particular school is the time schedule - my first alarm went off at 5:00 am. I finally rolled out of bed at 5:19 am...boo....

Needless to say, it was a coffee morning.

Unfortunately, I only got to drink about a third of my cup before I got super busy running around school. :(

Breakfast on early mornings like this must meet two criteria:
1. Easy to prepare
2. Easily eaten in the car

The only thing in our house that meet both criteria right now are Jimmy Dean D'Light breakfast sandwiches.

I was hungry by the time lunch rolled around at 1 pm. I had packed a fairly healthy lunch of lean sliced turkey and fruit, but the smell of School Pizza was calling my name. I had missed School Pizza and School Salad, so I splurged on a treat. I had forgotten that School Pizza smelled so much better than it actually tasted PLUS they went up on the cost of School Pizza and School Salad. $3.50 was a bit much in my opinion. I do not believe I will fall victim to the smell of School Pizza any time in the near future. (I was not able to take a picture of School Pizza and School Salad....let's just say the mention of a food blog to some of my fellow (male) teachers would serve as fodder for personal humiliation for weeks to come.)

Once I got home, I shut my eyes for 10 minutes before running a few errands with the hubs. We were both hungry when we got home so I started making dinner. I totally relied on the pantry and freezer for tonight's meal.

Amy's Tom Kha soup was pretty good for a canned version of the Thai restaurant favorite. I, of course, would always prefer the restaurant version, but for an at-home Asian inspired meal, neither hubs nor I could really complain. Same goes for the Hamburger Asian Helper. I did try to "freshen up" my boxed meal by adding sauteed baby bella mushrooms and green onions. And of course, I LOVE the Trader Joe's stir fried vegetable egg rolls!!!

I think a glass of fat free chocolate milk is probably in my immediate future. Then, I do believe it is bed time. Another early morning tomorrow!!

Night ya'll!