See This Red Coat?

This probably looks like an ordinary red coat to you but it's not.  After I got dressed this morning I went into the bathroom to comb my hair and took a look at myself.  I thought I looked pretty darned good--and a bit thinner.  So after putting on my earrings I went downstairs to my clothing storage, pulled out this one-size-smaller red coat and tried it on.  It fit.  IT FIT.  It even zipped--easily--so it got to come upstairs to hang in the front closet with the big coat and go on errands with me today.  Zipped up against the just over freezing air and everything.  It's been about 3, maybe 4, years since I've been able to wear this coat.  I'm proud of myself and my dedication to eating right and sticking to my guns (she types as she's eating her daily weighed and measured serving of chocolate ice cream) so I ensure that my red coat continues to fit me and might even be a bit baggy next winter.

In service of my desire to keep eating right I woke up thinking about making WW Slow Cooker Lentil Soup.  I knew that I had all the ingredients I needed except Canadian bacon which isn't added until 6 hours into the cooking so since I planned a trip to the grocery this morning that wouldn't be a problem.  Because I am unable to make a recipe exactly as written I added a can of mushrooms when the Canadian bacon went in and I finished it with two tablespoons of lemon juice which DIL1 advises doing because slow cooking tends to muddle flavors and a bit of lemon juice (or vinegar if you're out of lemon juice) perks them back up.


Last month Weight Watchers changed their program--again.  See the first time I was in WW,

Jean Niedich who invented WW was still alive.  It was probably 1974.  I've been in and out of WW a dozen times since then and amassed cookbooks from every iteration of the program.  Yesterday the mailman brought the two latest volumes of recipes using the new Freestyle program.  At first I was quite peeved at the changes because I felt like I had the system down but over the last few weeks I have come to like the new plan and the fact that things like eggs and plain nonfat Greek yogurt and seafood and chicken & turkey breast and corn and peas and beans like pinto and black and garbanzos (my fave) are zero points now.  ZERO.  That lentil soup?  One and a half cups of it only counts 1 point.  ONE.  To be honest I probably won't eat that much for lunch but I'll charge myself a point nevertheless.  I've always loved lentil soup but seldom made it because the lentils "cost" so many points it just wasn't worth it.  Now this seems like a way a person can live her life and eat healthy and tasty food and still lose weight.  Nobody ever starved on WW but it's getting easier and easier to cook the WW way.  Tomorrow night--Roasted Shrimp Scampi out of the new Italian cookbook.  Who loves Italian food?  We do.

This morning a piteousness of mourning doves (yes, I had to look it up) came for breakfast.  And they could also all get a drink because the birdbath glacier was rapidly melting.  By the afternoon it was all open water much to the surprise of a squirrel that jumped up for a drink, put his paws where the ice had been, and was shocked to get wet feet.  Ha!

 


Tonight was the monthly caregivers meeting at the ADRC so my sock got its turn to get knitted on.  It's not going very quickly but it is growing.  I'll be wearing it before spring.  No doubt about it.



January 9--Camille Pissarro, Peasant's House, Eragny.  The hedge was so green that it looked like it would reach out and grab you if you got too near.  Elaine admired the apple, cherry, and pear trees in bloom behind the hedge.  She thought of all the fruit to come and wished she had fruit trees in her garden.  The whitewashed cottage looked so inviting with its pots of geraniums on the stone steps and the smell of baking bread wafting through the open window.  The black dog growling at the gate belied the welcoming air of the place.

Aw man, it's trash night.  That means I get to go around emptying all the trash cans and then maneuver the trash bin out of the garage between the snowblower and the van.  I'll probably end up backing the van out to save the paint job.  Better get on it.  Toodles.
--Barbara