post-thanksgiving

Well I made it through two Thanksgivings and am still alive.  Actually they were very fun, possibly the two of the best Thanksgivings I can remember.  Thursday we had friends in town with their two toddlers; the toddlers wore out our dogs!  They were so cute.  And then Friday we went to BF's mother's house for a big family dinner.  Lots of fun, both days.  I tried to remember my weight loss goals but don't know how successful I was.  I did not log my food after mid-morning Thursday.  However, Thurday I made cookies after dinner and sent half with our friends when  they left, and took half to BF's mom's house.  I managed to decline bringing home leftover desserts from Friday's dinner, and that was hard!  She made a pumpkin version of gooey butter cake which was fabulous, as was her homemade apple pie and pecan-cranberry pie.  Yes, I tasted all of them but did not have full-size pieces.  Ok, I could have done better, but each day is a new day, no need to beat myself up, just learn from it and move on.  Today I'm back on the wagon with logging food intake.  I didn't log dinner until after I ate and discovered I went over my daily points by one.  Oopsy.

I was so proud this morning when BF asked for Chinese for dinner and instead of getting out the menu for carryout, he asked where the dumpling filling was in the freezer.  He is used to the homemade now!  I made steamed pork dumplings which is a tried-and-true recipe for me, I make it every couple weeks.  A pound of ground pork makes so much dumpling filling that one batch is enough for 4 dinners; I use a quarter of the dumpling mix and freeze the rest for assembling next time we have it. 

Here is the steamed pork dumpling recipe I use: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pork-Dumplings/Detail.aspx and for the dipping sauce I tried several recipes and ended up making my own: 1 part each rice vinegar, soy sauce and mirin, which is a sweet cooking wine.  Add a quarter teaspoon chili paste per serving.  Good stuff!

I tried two new recipes tonight, too: baked crab rangoon and hungry girl's moo shu chicken http://www.hungry-girl.com/chew/chewdetails.php?isid=1653.  I looked up several crab rangoon recipes and most included scallions, soy sauce in the filling, and/or mayonnaise.  I could not comprehend including those so just used low fat cream cheese and imitation crab.  And I left out the scallions because BF is not a fan.  My bad.  Even he said they were clearly missing something.  Probably scallions, mayonnaise or soy sauce :)  But they were adorable!  I made them in muffin cups, most of them I moistened the edges of the wonton wrappers and closed them, and I left a few open like little cups.  They were so cute when they were done!

I probably won't try that particular moo shu recipe again.  It was not bad at all, and it was easy, but it was not what I was looking for.

After we finished dinner and BF fell asleep on the couch with a full tummy, I started this blog entry and realized I forgot to take pictures!  I promise next time I make something fun, I will take some pictures.  Especially if I'm telling you how adorable it is. 

Wednesday was my 2nd weigh-in for Weight Watchers and I lost 2.6 lbs!  For a total of 8.6 lbs in two weeks, woo hoo!  Of course after Thanksgiving, not feeling so confident about a loss this coming Wednesday but that will help me stay on track the next few days.

Enjoy the rest of your Thanksgiving weekend!  Tomorrow I will try a low-fat brownie recipe using a brownie mix and high-fiber cereal, and I will post pictures!