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Great Thanksgiving Challenge

Bobby and I are going to try to do Kath’s Great Thanksgiving Challenge!

Our rules:

  • spend $126 on groceries between yesterday and Thanksgiving, including Thanksgiving dinner
  • whatever is in the house already is fair game
  • 1 night out per week not included
  • Bobby gets to buy lunch once a week without counting it (because I get free lunch from work on Fridays)

Other info:

  • my dad is visiting us this coming weekend (Thursday through Monday morning) so we will have to buy food for him as well for a few days
  • Bobby and I are going to Miami for 4 days next week, and we won’t have to buy any food those days (next Thursday through Monday morning)
  • we are hosting our own Thanksgiving dinner, so we will have to get a decent amount of food for that… we’re buying a Tofurky meal and having a few other things, which I’ll post about eventually.

This is what’s in my fridge right now (the last time we shopped was on Thursday night):

Some highlights:

  • 13 eggs
  • various fake meats & turkey bacon
  • shirataki tofu noodles
  • applesauce
  • orange juice
  • some veggies – plum tomatoes, lettuce, 1 eggplant, 2 red peppers, a few carrots, apples
  • whole wheat wraps, regular tortilla wraps
  • yogurt (Fage 0%)
  • peanut butter, almond butter, bbq sauce, various other sauces and jams

And the freezer:

Highlights:

  • soy ice cream
  • lots of bagels
  • chicken sausages
  • various fake meats
  • bread
  • gyoza
  • frozen seafood (shrimp and an assorted bag)

And we also have food in the pantry – pasta, oatmeal, nuts, bars, etc…  And I have a bunch of fruit in my fruit bowl (more apples, persimmons, and pears).  I also have 3 acorn squash, 2 butternut squash, a weird squash that I don’t know the name of, and 2 pumpkins.

At first I thought this challenge would be impossible, but after looking at what we already have I think we have a very good chance of succeeding.  Let’s see how it goes!  Let me know if you join up!

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Pear & Crab Salad – Blogger Secret Ingredient

This week Erica from Itzy’s Kitchen is hosting the Blogger Secret Ingredient – and she chose pears!  I was very excited because pears are such a delicious fall fruit.  I came up with this salad and it was really good.  I let Bobby taste the dressing before I put it on the make sure it was okay and his mouth dropped – “don’t change anything!” he exclaimed.  So I didn’t.  And here’s the finished recipe…

Pear & Crab Salad

Ingredients

  • 1 bosc pear, chopped (centimeter-ish cubes are good)
  • 6 ounces of lump crab meat (1 can)
  • 2 big handfuls of fresh basil, chopped – maybe 20 leaves?
  • 1/3 cup finely chopped white onion
  • 1/2 cup shredded cabbage OR chopped celery (or both!  I was out of celery, but that was my original idea – I substituted in cabbage and it was still really good)
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • 1/2 cup cashews (optional – I was going to add these at the end and I completely forgot – but they would have been perfect) – or walnuts, or almonds, or your nut of choice!

Dressing

  • 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (or vinegar of choice)
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 1 tablespoon mustard

Directions

  1. To make the dressing, just mix all the dressing ingredients well.
  2. For the salad, mix everything but the crab.  Then gently fold the crab in.
  3. Pour the dressing over the salad and gently mix them together.  Serve!  Topped with cashews or other nuts would be delicious, especially toasted walnuts or sliced almonds.

I had mine on top of lettuce with some extra pear slices; Bobby had his alone with extra pear slices.  We will definitely be making this again.  Thanks for a great ingredient Erica!

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I eat apples…

This morning I went for a 4.4 mile run (about 42 minutes) – Bobby tagged along with me the first mile, so I ran slowly for that.  When I got back I did some serious stretching (I stretched before too!), then we headed out to meet my friend Nina for breakfast.  We went to Hobee’s in Mountain View.  And they had an oatmeal bar – unlimited for $4.95!  I was in heaven.

Breakfast:

  • oats, fruit, sliced almonds, raisins, cinnamon, and a bit of brown sugar
  • another overflowing full bowl of fruit – honeydew and pineapple mainly – and some more raisins (unpictured)

I was really lazy this afternoon and didn’t do much of anything at all.  There was a nap, and I put together my SmartSpin Storage System (cool organized tupperware in different sizes that all have the same lid size) that I got from Amazon.  I also got some canisters from Amazon into which I want to put my dry foods (oatmeal, flour, sugar, etc…).  I might do that later tonight.  I also did 25 minutes of really relaxing yoga – just stretches and easy holds, nothing cardio at all.

Lunch/Snacks: (lazy afternoon…)

  • WW wrap with smart balance and olallieberry jam
  • an apple
  • another WW wrap, with a banana
  • handful of raisins (unpictured)

I decided to make my Blogger Secret Ingredient recipe for dinner tonight – a pear & crab salad – it was great!  The flavor combos were really delicious and tangy.  Bobby LOVED it.  I adore crab, and the pear addition was awesome.  I’ll post the recipe tonight.

Dinner:

  • pear & crab salad (BSI) over lettuce, onions, red pepper & chopped cabbage
  • butternut squash fries with organic ketchup
  • more pear slices

Dessert:

  • Spooky S’Mores Z-bar from Rhodey Girl
  • another apple (EDIT: and another one!  Dessert apple total: 2)

I’m munching on the apple now.  It’s pretty delicious.  I like ending my day with an apple.  I like starting it that way too.  I’m a big proponent of the saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” – only in my case it’s more like 4 apples a day!  What is your favorite healthy habit and/or saying?