Some Holiday Cheer!

First things first: great lowcarb food!

Lady Atkins has a LOW CARB EGGNOG recipe. I had seen an LC recipe for this but it was ALL complicated and required cooking and so on. LA's is a a quicker-simpler approach that sounds SO yummy! I will be trying it soon and will report more. But it's so easy, you could try it yourself in like 5 minutes!

I just ordered some DaVinci (zero carb syrup sweetened with splenda, used in LC stuff as a sugar substitute and flavoring) EGGNOG! Syrup (and Butter Rum, yum!) from Netrition.com -- I am a big fan of that place, it's $5 shipping to anywhere in the contiguous US no matter HOW much you order, and they package the big glass bottles really well -- I'm planning to use that for some sweetener in the eggnog recipe!

And I forgot to mention, sorry for the delay!, that Big Daddy D has a LOWCARB PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE recipe that he invented himself. Sounds awesome and the picture is drool-able.

If a very simple but undeniably awesome regular cheesecake is what you'd like, try the recipe called Bawdy's Cheesecake -- it has tons of great reviews! That link will show you the recipe plus what everyone has said about it.

For a giant list of HOLIDAY LOWCARB RECIPES of all kinds, from stuffing to desserts to cranberry to you-name-it, visit the Lowcarber.org forum kitchen, where the awesome chef Karen Barnaby posted links to several major threads & collections of em.

I want reviews! It's a big deal for me to cook you guys, given my limited time, and my family is not LC so whatever I make has gotta taste good, so when you find an awesome recipe, let me know!

Next on the list of holiday cheer: The divine JIMMY MOORE of Living La Vida Low Carb, a whirlwind of prolific blogging, journaling, and podcasting for LowCarb's coolness (if it was software instead of food, they'd call him "LowCarb's Product Evangelist"!), who by the way lost nearly 200 lbs lowcarbing (wow!), posted his "Top 10 Blogs of 2006" on Episode 8 of his show, and it turns out he found my blog somehow, 'cause it just made the top 10! Gosh, and I've only been online a few months, and due to traveling was gone for a spell. Aw shucks. Thanks Jimmy!

And speaking of Jimmy, I think I can say on behalf of all lowcarbers, CONGRATULATIONS for getting rated one of the TEN BEST HEALTH BLOGS ON THE INTERNET by FOX News! A mainstream news channel's recognition is a big deal, and that's not an easy slot to get into, especially in the high-carb/low-fat world of today! Yee haw, that's a good thing for lowcarb, way to go!

o0o

Well, today was supposed to be a chili verde day. Of course, so was yesterday. I know that previously, I have eaten the stuff for tiny meals like 36 times in a row or something (like 5x day at 1/2 cup servings), but for some reason I seem to be a little tired of it now. (...Hmmmn, can't imagine why!) I still love it. I just can't seem to eat it more than once or twice a day.

Which is tough since my stage 1 is not supposed to allow ANY seed/grain products, mushrooms, or cheese... and I'm eating one or more of those daily, in my search for FAST non-chili-verde food! Sigh. So at this point I am eating lowcarb, but have not yet begun stage 1, which on my particular plan is required at the beginning of each cycle. Well, it'll work out.

My house is a mess, when I was on vacation all this stuff mysteriously appeared and stacked in my room. I've been working my butt off (very busy this season due to the coming college term, as I work in publishing). DP (as the lowcarber gals call him) despite allegedly having no money (after 20 months of zero expenses, rent and food etc. provided, etc.? I not only don't get child support, I support HIM like a child...!) says he has "ten thousand dollars of inventory" from eBay computer stuff in our living room... now that, I am willing to believe, given that our living-dining area is now 60% full of his computer stuff and inventory and boxing and you can hardly get through the house and it's pretty much like some kind of storage shed. Which is why we have no couch, chair, or kitchen table to eat at, as there is no room for it. That will change... soon. Anyway! So these are all my excuses why I don't have my food act together a little better! Aren't they pitiful?! Now you know: there really is no excuse, only excuses. ;-)

I did most of my little girl's christmas shopping last night, online. She's 10. Usually each year she has like 20 things she wants. This year, she only had 4, and the other 3 items on the list were like, "go to see Happy Feet movie" and "go see the Harry Potter movie when it comes out", which I'll do without it being a gift anyway. Aside from a near-christmas walkthrough of walmart for fun and girly and stocking stuff, she is done. I got just a couple things for others, and I have two orders left to place for important stuff except, DANG IT, I have to wait till I have money! Which will not be until RIGHT before christmas so I will never get them on time. :-( Ah well. Who knows. Maybe something'll work out.

I'm getting my parents some things to match stuff I've bought them before. If you haven't been there, Home Decorators is amazing -- their catalogs are a dream just to browse offline (ask for a mailing). Anyway, they have a cool lighting section, where you can get everything from chandeliers to 1-4 unit wall sconces to big wide wall sconces to round and squared pedestals --all in "tiffany-style stained glass." Very cool. I got my parents a tall round pedestal last year that was on sale. This year (they don't know about this blog so I'm safe ;-)) I am getting them THIS full Violet wall light ($79) OR, THIS single ($39) and THIS double ($59) sconce except using THESE ($26ea) glass shades for all 3 little sconces. I think they'll love it. Dad retired, stepmom left her job, they have no money really, but they don't really NEED anything (seriously though; who does?); they've worked hard to improve their house, so I think they'll like the lighting options. I'm sharing this because I was so STUCK about what on earth to get them until I thought of these. It seems like a nice kind of gift for someone who works hard on a nice house interior and you can't think of anything more personal.

Speaking of "who does" need anything, another friend of mine who certainly doesn't, and who is currently off in Japan filming the next Nippon TV version of 'psychic detectives' -- he has helped Japan's version of the FBI find a ton of people that were cold cases, some of them missing literally for multiple decades! -- he's really into animals. He has a charity he donates to that buys goats, chickens etc. for super-poor people in various parts of the world (he was Army intell/NSA for over a dozen years, and has traveled more of the world than most people know exists; he has a heightened awareness of the "poverty and chaos" outside the world we know than most!), but I think instead of doing that this year, I'm going to do a donation in his name to one of the small rescue ranches that house lions, tigers, cougars, etc. that have no home, have been rescued from circus life, etc.

One is Lions and Tigers And Bears (oh my!), a no-kill shelter for rescued big cats mostly. Any of you who need to buy for someone who really just SO does not need anything, but has a soft heart for the truly needy, maybe you could make a little donation in their name instead. Or, they have a merchandise area -- cool kids T-shirts with big animal pics, that makes them a little profit for donation.

Back to work here!
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