Book Review, T-giving Recap, New Appliance, New Recipe

Thanks you guys! So glad you liked the rugs, and interesting to hear about your ‘days off patterns.’ I’ve been really trying to do 5 days/week – I’d prefer for the off day to be DURING the five days, but sometimes it’s Monday – Friday and I just take the week! I also really try to do what I want. Haha I mean, lately my legs/feet are getting used to running I guess? I dunno – but I’ve been more sore than usual so I’ve been letting that drive the amount of exercise I do!

So, to back up – here is my Thanksgiving in a nutshell!

Wednesdsay: I ended up at 1,646 calories, 194 carbs, 53 fat grams, and 82 protein grams. Here's what I ate.

Thursday:

• Woke up, weighed myself at 118, had a brunch pizza square and headed to the gym: 3.5 miles walking/1 mile running - burned 265 calories.
• Showered, had rotini sausage pasta and headed up to Austin's grandparents house.
• Visited, finished Big Boned (review below!) and then ate lunch: lots of turkey, spoonful of dressing, spoonful of macaroni and cheese, spoonful of hashbrown casserole and one dinner roll (there were not veggies - I swear!). Then me and Austin split a piece of my snickers pie. Um, LOVED IT! (recipe below!)
• Played in a spades tournament. Lost. Had another piece of snickers pie...eek! Did have a great time visiting with his family!
• Left and headed home, fed Reuben and headed to my sister's house. Had a turkey sandwich with hummus and a slice of provolone. Had a slice of haverti on the side! Yum! Hung out with mom and Dev and saw of Dev's new home stuff (lamps, rug - etc. - love it!)
• Headed home, Austin's little brothers came over at midnight, played pool, had a couple of vodka drinks, two beers and popcorn. Ended up at 2,328 calories, 206 carbs, 86 fat grams and 121 protein grams. Here's what I ate.

Friday

• Weighed 118 (again - woo!).
• Housekeepers showed up at 9:30 a.m. BLAH! I grabbed a yogurt and went to the gym to get out of the way. Walked 1.5 miles; ran 1 mile; did triceps, shoulders and abs. Burned 272 calories.
• Headed home and made breakfast for the guys - bacon/egg/cheese muffins.
• Cleaned and showered - had pizza soup for lunch. I think I REALLY love that stuff!
• Mom, my stepdad Mike, Devon and her husband Zach came over and brought their puppers - Buster, Momo and Sadie!!
• I had tons of Devon's AMAZING Buffalo Chicken Dip. By tons, I mean I had least had 3-4 tbsp and lots of scoops.
• The guys watched the iron bowl, me/mom and Dev hung out and visited. It came up that there was a great deal on a stainless fridge. They were like are you kidding. GO BUY IT! So me and Devon left.
• Long story short which included false advertising, Best Buy, Sears and Lowes - I ended up getting it at Lowe's saving about $700... say hello to my new appliance: Samsung french door fridge- woo! It will be here on Thursday. Merry Christmas to me and Austin fo sho!


Me and Devon headed back home, I made a beef enchilada casserole, played some pool then we all sat down to eat - first time I had a full table in my dining room. SO nice to have everyone together. Devon made homemade pico de gallo - um - AMAZING!! I had lots of it with, you guessed it - more scoops! Then I had a creamcheese brownie Devon brought -again - AMAZING. She was completely on top of the cooking - love it.
After dinner mom, mike, momo and buster headed out, so Austin/Zach went up to Austin's office for video games/beer and me and Devon hung out and talked some more - SUCH a good, chill night with my great family.
Had one glass of wine. Got in bed. Fell asleep at like 10:30 - niceeeee. I ended up at 1,913 calories, 218 carbs, 61 fat grams and 98 protein grams. Here's what I ate.

Extras:

Meg Cabot's Big-Boned Review

SO cute. I just love the main character, Heather Wells, and her humor. She cracks me up with her inner dialogue and her interactions with funny side characters like Tom and his constant score-keeping and Magda and her goofiness. There is a mystery but it's NEVER scary and you never worry about her - it's just a light, cute book -GREAT treadmill read. I give it a 4/5 - it would have been a 5 if it had been a bit longer (only 277 pages) and used those extra pages to develop a bit more of the love interest part of the story. Either way - CUTE, easy read!

Snickers Bar Pie Recipe

Recipe makes two pies

8 ounces cream cheese, softened (divided in half)
1½ cups powdered sugar (divided in half)
½ cup chunky or creamy peanut butter (divided in half)
3 regular-sized Snickers candy bars, chopped (divided in half)
16 ounces Cool Whip, thawed (divided in half)
Two prepared chocolate pie crusts
Lite Chocolate syrup for garnish
Caramel Syrup for garnish
Chopped nuts for garnish

In a large mixing bowl, beat 4 oz. cream cheese, ¾ cup sugar and ¼ peanut butter until creamy. Stir in one chopped candy bar. Add to pie crust, smoothing across top. Add whipped cream on top, smoothing for 2-3 minutes on top with a rubber spatula. Now, repeat with leftover cream cheese, sugar and peanut butter adding to other pie crust. Now you have two pies, with no toppings. Add syrups making a grid pattern, then top with nuts. Divide the third and final snickers bar in half, and top each pie with the pieces. Keep in refrigerator until ready to serve. They were SO good – it went over well with Austin’s family and mine- love that the recipe makes two pies! Next time, I’m going to try reduced fat cream cheese and cool whip – I don’t think you would have been able to tell!

So, how was your Thanksgiving?! Play any games? Have any yummy desserts? Buy any appliances?! Black Friday shopping, anyone?

I didn't take pictures. :( Hopefully i'll get some from my mom and/or sis so I can post later this week!!