January 6, 2010

Are you watching Dr. Oz’s TV show?  If not, you’re missing out on some great health tidbits 5 times a week, but you’re also cheating yourself out of excellent motivational diet and exercise info right now.  Like lots of shows this week, the Dr. Oz show is focusing on helping viewers with their weight loss and fitness goals.

I accidentally caught one of Dr. Oz’s shows in an evening re-run, and now I try to have it on when I’m home even if I can’t sit in front of the TV.  You might think that an entire show devoted to health every day would be a bore and a drag, but it’s not.  It’s interesting and usually important, and sometimes a tad embarrassing or even gross!  But I’ve already learned some things I never heard before.

I loved the show this week that gave us a 14-Day Plan to reboot our body.  It’s from the book “You On a Diet” that Dr. Oz co-authored with Dr. Michael Roizen.  To make it super easy for us, they’ve given us this PDF file that you can print out and refer to.

To get you started, Day 1 of the plan includes a 30-minute walk, 3 to 5 minutes of stretching, and a kitchen purge that eliminates all traces of simple sugars and syrups, trans fats, saturated fats, and all flours except for whole grain or whole wheat.  After that, we’re to restock our kitchen with the healthy staples we’ll need going forward.  I’d call that a pretty full and productive Day 1!

I’m also fascinated with Dr Oz’s 28-Day Raw Food Challenge, since I just committed to a vegan diet for 2010.  According to the web site, the health benefits of this challenge are:

• Increased energy
• Improved skin appearance
• Better digestion
• Weight loss
• Reduced risk of heart disease

I’m absolutely going to include some raw meals in my vegan diet, but don’t think I’m quite up for this challenge just yet.  Maybe soon though!  Who knows what would happen to my poor ol’ bod if I went from vegetarian straight to 100% raw vegan.  I’m guessing I’d have a few adjustment issues, but would ultimately feel awesome.  🙂  There could be a few tough days in there though!

If you check out Dr. Oz, let me know if you pick up any great tips.  I’m a fan and think you might be too!

~BigSis

January 4, 2010

Happy new year, everyone!  I hope that you had a wonderful holiday time, and that you’re fired up about the new year and ready to get it rolling!  I love that it always feel like a fresh start to me.  Who among us doesn’t need a fresh start in some area of their life?

I talked last year about how I don’t really like resolutions because I feel like I’m setting myself up to fail somehow if I make official “resolutions”.  Instead, I like to think about what I did the previous year…what worked, what was a disaster, what do I want to do differently, what do I want to add to my life.  For me, a new year is about reflection and reevaluation.

This new year, I can see that it’s going to take extra workouts to achieve and maintain the level of fitness I’m comfortable with.  I was on that train for several months in 2009, but wandered off it and have to get back on now.  I’m not totally out in the weeds, but I’m a bit off course, and that slight veering off the path can quickly turn into a full-blown physical train wreck when you’re forty-plus!  If you don’t know what I mean, you will eventually!

The biggest change for 2010 is one I’ve been seriously contemplating for the last few months, after having it in the back of my mind for 15 years. It’s time for me to stop fiddling around and finally go vegan.

When I first stopped eating all meat products, I also stayed away from eggs and dairy for quite a while, but finally succumbed and adopted a purely vegetarian diet rather than vegan.  Since I know that the egg and dairy industries are probably more abusive than the factory meat farms, I’m going to put my money where my mouth is and stop putting eggs and dairy there.

I started out telling myself that this vegan business was going to be really hard; harder than going vegetarian was since that was pretty darn easy for me.  The biggest challenge is definitely going to be learning how to bake in a completely different way, and for me this is pretty major since I love to bake more than I like to cook.

I’ve decided this change will be fun, as well as the right thing for me to do, and one thing I’m going to do from square one to make it funner is to blog about it.  I realize that most BigSisLilSis readers aren’t vegan or even vegetarian, so I’m going to start a brand new blog for my vegan ramblings. I’m still noodling it around, so I’ll bust it out when it’s a bit more finalized.  I do know it’s going to be a little adventure, and I’m excited to start.  I’m in the process of cleaning all the butter and eggs and other holiday baking remnants from my kitchen, along with the holiday leftovers.  Once that’s gone, away we go to Vegan Land! Wheeee haw!

So, my goals or resolutions or whatever I’m calling them, are to:

• Exercise with a new motivation and keep it up, with the goal of building more muscle and getting stronger. That means getting back to Jillian Michaels’ videos, yoga class, and using the new Wii Fit I just bought myself with Christmas money.  I also joined RecipeGirl’s 10 in 2010 program as LilSis did.

• Adopt a vegan diet asap and blog about it.  You’ll notice a lot of new cookbooks in my left sidebar reading list now, since I’m going to need some help to keep my food interesting and nutritious!

• Learn how to bake without eggs and dairy!  The 2010 SPCA Bake Sale is only 11.5 months away!

• Find a new church and plug in.  It’s time already; stop messing around and commit to one.

• Work toward balance between all aspects of my life: work, blogging, social, health, and spiritual. This is a toughie when you’re an all-or-nothing personality like me!

There you have it.  I bet that some of my goals and LilSis’ goals are the same as yours, so let’s all rally around each other, and make some positive changes in 2010!  We can do it!

~BigSis

December 31, 2009

We have one more little topic to wrap up for 2009 just as we fly into 2010…the SPCA Bake Sale results, of course!  The sale was held for one day only on December 14th, and we thankfully sold every crumb we had!  We also had a web site set up for donations from out-of-town folks, or for local friends who just couldn’t make the sale.

So here are the results.  Drum roll, please!  The web site donations are $405, and the one-day sale of baked goodies brought in $3618.  That makes our grand total so far $4023!  Woo hoo!!

We are enormously grateful for the support of our friends, family, fellow tenants, our building’s management, and an awesome SMU fraternity.  Thank you so much for showing your love to the animals and to the SPCA of Texas in a huge way! We baked our fannies off, but without all of you, it would have been for nothing!

Here are some photos from the sale.  You can get an idea of how much we started with, but what you can’t see is that we have boxes and boxes of more goodies under the table!  We sold it ALL!

Cakes and breads all lined up before the sale started at 8 am.

Bars and brownies are ready to be snatched up and gobbled up!

Cookies were all huddled together here.

All the treats were organized in happy little rows here.

Almond Toffee and Soft Peanut Brittle went into these cute little totes.

Cakes and breads were packaged in tall treat bags from PaperMart.

Brownies and other bars got these cute Treat Toppers from Hobby Lobby.

3 kinds of fudge were molded into shapes, and then decorated.

Cinnamon and Peanut Butter Fudge close-up.

Pretzels got a dip in chocolate, and then a swoosh and a drizzle of cuteness.

The cutest gift bags ever were donated by LilSis!

Thanks again to everyone! We can’t wait until next year!

~BigSis

December 29, 2009

For the first time since 1926, Dallas got a White Christmas!   It snowed all day Christmas Eve, and we ended up with around 3 or 4 inches of blowing little flakes.  Our weathermen actually called it a blizzard!  I think that folks up north who know what a real blizzard looks like would have laughed their butts off to hear that!

For us, the snow caused lots of traffic problems since it turned to ice just as everyone in the area was on the road, but it was gorgeous and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  Here are some images from my Christmas this year…

After a day of snow, still snowing.

Pretty snow with sunshine and clear walkways! No shoveling!

Gaby wishing he was anywhere but in the Rudolph costume!

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas, and that it had a few surprises for you as ours did!

~BigSis

December 24, 2009

From BigSis and LilSis, we’re sending you warmest wishes for a wonderful Merry Christmas!

We’re taking off a few days to celebrate Christmas with our friends and family, and will be back soon.  Til then, Merry Merry Christmas!

December 22, 2009

I like for things to be perfect.  If I had my way, Baby Jesus would have been born in a nice temperature-controlled room, on clean smooth sheets, with a nice cozy fire in the corner fireplace, and maybe some lovely candles burning and peaceful music playing softly in the background.  Oh, and how about some nice snacks for the 3 Wise Men to munch on after their long trip; homemade of course!

That’s not how it happened though, and guess what?  Things worked out like God intended, even though they didn’t appear perfect to us; whatever our definition of perfect is.

I’ve been running and rushing around like crazy for a month, and will probably run as fast as I can to finish my To Do List before Christmas.  I’ve had my little holiday meltdown, and I confess to getting wigged out over things that really don’t matter that much.  I’m stressed that while I take a few days off to celebrate the holidays, the work accumulating in piles on my desk at the office will grow taller and taller.  I’m thinking about this itty bitty Christmas detail or that one.  All in an effort to make things perfect.

I just have to stop right now, and give myself a little shake.  What in the world do I have to be worrying or freaking about, and why aren’t I being grateful beyond words to just have this Christmas with lots of my family?  I am thankful, but I think the stress of the details can get in the way of the spirit of the season for me and lots of people.  I don’t want it to be that way.

Is it going to matter if someone wants a Cream Soda on Christmas Eve, and I only bought Dr. Pepper?  Who will care if I buy the guacamole instead of making it?  Will it be the end of the world if the cat hacks up another fake Christmas tree needle hairball in front of my guests?  Nope, nope and nope.

So today, I’m reminding myself that Christmas is about the birth of the Baby Jesus, and how grateful we are for that gift.  It’s about spending time with friends and family, and being thankful for that opportunity. It doesn’t matter if every single little detail about the celebration isn’t perfect.

Merry Christmas to you all!  Enjoy your friends and family, and don’t worry about all of the teeny weeny details!

~BigSis

December 20, 2009

I’ve been around the house a lot for the last 4 weekends; busy with all my bake sale baking, and Christmas stuff. I like to have movies on in the background when I’m home, and these are my Christmas favorites that I’ve been watching over and over and over.

• It’s a Wonderful Life

• Elf

• National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

• A Christmas Story

• Planes, Trains and Automobiles

• The Santa Clause

I’ve also been watching “Dirty Dancing” and “Liar Liar”, just cause they make me happy, not because they’re Christmasy.

So, did I miss any of your favorite must-watch Christmas movies?

~BigSis

December 17, 2009

We still have donations coming in following Monday’s SPCA of Texas Bake Sale, so I’m not telling you yet how much money we were blessed to collect!  Maybe by the weekend I can let the cat out of the bag.  Not that I would ever put a cat in a bag; that wouldn’t be very humane.  Unless I had to do that to get the cat out of a dangerous situation and couldn’t do it any other way.  ^..^  Do I have a touch of rambling Christmas delirium?  Think so.

I also have some recipes that you have to make if you’re trying to figure out what to bake for Christmas!  These were my favorite things to make for the bake sale, but it occurred to me that they are also awesome things to make for Christmas gifts.  I’m not burned out on baking yet – weird, I know – so I may make more of these before we hit the new year since we had nothing left after Monday’s sale!  I would feel comfortable mailing all of these except for the Snowballs.  They’re a little fragile so keep them at home.

• Barefoot Contessa’s Outrageous Brownies: plain, with mint Oreos, or with chocolate chips and walnuts.  I know I talk about these ALL of the time, but they’re my favorite brownies and I love them.  We sell the HECK out of them at bake sales.  Not because of my baking prowess, but because it’s an awesome recipe!

• Vegan Pumpkin Bread: no one believes there are no eggs or dairy in this bread.  It’s moist and flavorful, and absolutely one of my favorites.  I have to add walnuts.  Have to.

• Fudge: chocolate, cinnamon and peanut butter.  Just use the regular fudge recipe on the marshmallow cream jar, and substitute cinnamon chips and peanut butter chips for the semi-sweet chocolate chips.  I like to pour the fudge into little silicone molds with Christmas shapes.  When they’re cool and set, you can easily unmold them, sprinkle with sparkling sugar (brown on gingerbread boys, green on Christmas trees, and red on stockings).  For a final touch, add some royal icing accents here and there.  For the sale, I packaged them two different shapes to a treat bag: one chocolate and one cinnamon or PB.

• Pecan Pie Bars with Chocolate and Bourbon from the Pastry Queen: these got a little oozy, but they were fudgey and boozy, so who the heck cared?  Nobody!  I love the original flavor of these, and was shocked that I loved this over-the-top variation even more.  Wicked!

• Chocolate Mint Snowballs: based on RecipeGirl’s Snowballs. I used mint chips and pecans instead of peanut butter chips and peanuts.  Roll these in green sugar and powdered sugar, and pack in a cute treat bag with a ribbon, or a box with a window so you can peek at them.

Happy baking, little kitchen elves!

~BigSis

December 15, 2009

The 2009 SPCA Bake Sale is now history.  We started setting up at 6 am, opened the doors at 8 am, and left the building at 6 pm.  It was a long day, but it was incredible fun.

Our goal was to beat last year’s donation of $3055.  Our little team started baking 3 or 4 weeks ago, and we pulled out every trick in the hat to try to make our goodies irrestible to buyers. We emailed everyone we know, we sent out press releases, we lined up the most irresistible sample girls you could ever meet, and we talked about nothing but the SPCA and cookies for the last month.  We decorated, packaged and labeled until we were loopy.

How did we do?  I’m too fried to remember how to get pictures off my camera today, and we don’t have a final total yet because donations are still coming in online.  I’ll just leave you with one little teaser for now.  We are humbled and amazed and incredibly grateful.  How much money do you think that 5 baking girls could raise in one day if their bake sale sold out?  What if God showed up in a big way to answer their prayers?  What could happen?

I’ll come back later to tell you.  If I come down off Cloud Nine long enough to type again.

~BigSis

December 14, 2009

It’s finally here; the day we’ve been working toward and looking forward to since last year’s sale that resulted in a $3,055 donation to the SPCA of Texas!

The baking and packaging is all done, and now all we can do is sell these goodies!  Our goal is another $3000 for our favorite charity, and we pray pray pray that we make it!  Our secret fantasy – not so secret now – is that we sell everything we’ve made!  How incredible would that be!

If you’re in the Dallas area, email me for directions at bigsis at bigsislilsis dot com.  We’d love to see you!

If you’re not in the area and you’d like to help these little furkids, you can donate at http://www.spca.org/goto/bakesale.  If you use this url, the SPCA can see that your contribution came through our event, and we can send you a thank you!

Thanks for your support, your well wishes, and your prayers for a successful event today!

~BigSis