Sylvia's Scenario

I've been feeling like one of Santa's elves lately busy working in my workshop.  It's always a big push to get our boxes mailed off to Japan to Nick's family and the grandkids and then once that's done, it's another big push to get all the almond roca  mailed out to everyone.  In-between all that, it's wrapping presents and putting them under the tree.  My dinning room or workshop looks like this: It's a good thing we aren't having anymore dinner parties...!  All I have to do now is get ready for Christmas and that seems like the easy and fun part.  We've gone to a few holiday events around town in-between all the preparations like at the Public Market they call Magic in the Market.  Just being at the Market is fun in and of itself but it's extra special at Christmas with all of the festivities happening. It's my favorite place of all Seattle.  And we are fortunate that it is so easy for us to get there because we just take the water taxi...

Green bean casserole, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, yams, green gelatin salad, rolls...you know the drill. It's Thanksgiving, once again, with all the usual fixin's.  Our family has never made green bean casserole for Thanksgiving.  This year I wanted to make it only in a healthier manner.  So, I did and people liked it!  Instead of canned green beans I used fresh green beans so there was a big difference right there.  Then I used my homemade mushroom soup .  I was going to make homemade onion rings but opted for the easier version of just buying some Funyuns which I'd never had before so I tried them and they were pretty good!  Plus, they were cute, as you can see from the above photo.  I used a tube of the "minis".   For whatever reason, I just didn't feel like the usual Brussel sprouts for Thanksgiving this year so the green bean casserole sounded really good to me.  Now, I think I will make this each Than...

Now that I’m back from my latest travels, I’ve been slowly getting back into my normal routine.  I am trying to eat 30 grams of protein per meal as recommended by the dietitian I was working with, Hannah Freese, RD.  She has discontinued her business but she helped me so much with controlling my weight and to follow an anti-inflammatory diet after my joint replacement surgeries.  I now only eat two meals daily and these little turkey sausages have really helped me start my day out right.  Quite frankly, it is hard to eat 30 grams of protein at breakfast but this recipe helps a lot. I've noticed that when I stick to her guidelines, I am not as hungry during the day plus I have no urge to snack.  Each of these patties are 2 oz. of ground turkey meat or 14 grams of protein; the egg is 7 grams of protein, I'll have a slice of toast (Ezekiel bread) with 1 Tbsp. peanut butter which is another 9 grams of protein and then I've met my goal of 30 grams.  Another brea...

We are still having soup weather around here as we just got a couple more inches of snow last night.  Winter is not over.  We feel fortunate our weather is not as bad as some parts of the country but we are still getting antsy for spring to arrive.  But not quite yet, I'm afraid.  I made this soup a couple of weeks ago and put some in the freezer to save for a day like today when we just feel like staying home all hunkered down waiting for the snow to melt.  It's no fun trying to drive around here with all our hills.  This soup warms you up real fast because it's a Mexican soup with just the right amount of spices and the best broth I think I've ever made.  After I made it, I gave some to a couple of friends and I got the seal of approval.  It's a recipe from a local chef named Charlie Midencey who works at Ovelake Golf and Country Club and this is his grandmother's recipe.  He was featured in the Sunday paper and I thought the recipe looked ...

I've made this recipe a few times but I've never posted it so now I am finally making it official.  The combination of lemon and rosemary together on pork really makes this recipe a keeper.  Our local Metropolitan Market has a coupon this week to buy-one-get-one-free for pork tenderloin so once again I made this recipe. We like to barbecue it but you can also cook it in the oven as the recipe instructs. It only takes about 20 minutes to cook so it's a pretty quick meal.  It's also special enough to serve with guests which we've also done in the past. This is a recipe I got from   Hannah Freese, RD  who is actually discontinuing her nutrition business so there may not be a link to her page soon.  I've enjoyed following her nutrition advise these past three years and plan to continue with everything she has recommended to me.  I feel the best I've felt in ages so, of course, I will continue.  I realize getting three joint replacements also has had s...