Alice's Wonderful Life!

Cinnamon Buttermilk Pie

2012-03-13T22:05:00.000-04:00

I made this pie twice in one week - it was that good! I used Trader Joe's ready-made pie crust found in the freezer section. I discovered this recipe on www.nutmegnanny.com. Enjoy!

Cinnamon Buttermilk Pie:

4 eggs
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter – melted
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
2 teaspoon cinnamon (you can add more if you want)

Preheat oven 325 degrees

Beat eggs slightly. Add sugar and flour. Then add melted butter and mix well. Next add buttermilk, vanilla paste and cinnamon. Pour into graham shell and cook until custard is set – approximately 1 hour.

Graham Crust:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup white sugar
6 tablespoons butter – melted
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix all together and press into 9 inch pie plate. Pre-bake the crust 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

*If you like a firmer crust I would definitely recommend not doing a graham crust and instead using your favorite pie crust. Also, I made my pies into little tarts instead of one large 9 inch pie. Reduce cooking time by about 20 minutes if you do the same. The pies are ready when they are set but still a little jiggly. Like a pumpkin pie.

Brenda's Lasagna (recipe), Overused Words and One of the Best Moms I Know

2012-03-11T22:08:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted here as much as I thought I would. Not sure why - I guess it has to do mostly with work - I have so many thoughts going through my mind that I think would make interesting topics and then I don't set aside the time to post. I need to manage that a little better! Take my friend, Brenda - I wonder if her ears were ringing today. I was thinking about her. A lot. I mean, she's got a hubby and six kids (four are her own and two step daughters) and if she can find the time to take care of her family and herself and work full time, then I can certainly find the time to post some of my thoughts and recipes more often! I don't have any kids; I just have a boyfriend and a cat.
One of the things I've been thinking about lately is how certain words are overused. Lately the words I hear all the time are AMAZING and ROCKS. I was watching Property Brothers a few weeks ago and this lady kept saying "Oh my God, that's AMAY-ZING" like 18 times in about 7 minutes. I had to have the boyfriend put it on mute. I attended the Institute for Integrative Nutrition a few years ago and AMAZING was used quite frequently throughout the classes. And there's ROCKS as in "he rocks my world." Don't get me wrong, I think they're great words, very uplifting, ascending and positive words, but I hear it so often that I cringe sometimes. That said, let me tell you a little more about my friend, Brenda.

We have worked together for a long time and we've shared one another's ups and downs; I got to share the pregnancy process vicariously through her twice as she had two babies in two years. She was born to be a mom - she's one of the best moms I know. I often tell her if I could suspend time and stay at my present age until her oldest son reaches my age, I would love to be married to him! She is raising her kids to be thoughtful, kind and considerate human beings. She's fifteen years younger than me, but seems to be so intuitive and wise beyond her years. She's bright, sassy, lovely and intelligent. And even with her very full schedule, she recently became a Beachbody coach - her transformation in just a few shorts weeks is nothing short of well... AMAZING. Her before and after photos are incredible http://beachbodycoach.com/esuite/home/BRENDAMCGUIRE - she has committed to become healthy and lose weight and the dedication shows. It gives me hope - it can be done - you just need to set your mind to it. So, here's to an amazing person, an amazing friend, and one of the most amazing moms I know. Brenda, you ROCK! ;-)

Anyway, I took my usual drive up to the Berkshires this afternoon - my frequent escape. I love it up there and I love the scenic drive along Route 7. And after the week I had last week, I needed an escape, however brief. I was wondering what to make for dinner tonight and since I had Brenda on my mind, I thought of Brenda's Lasagna. It isn't actually my friend's recipe, but that's the name of the recipe (courtesy of Allrecipes.com). Here is the recipe as it appears on the site - feel free to omit the ground beef if you're veg - it's still good or you can substitute spinach, grated veggies, etc.. And of course, try to use fresh, local, organic ingredients whenever possible!

Brenda's Lasagna - Serves 8

Ingredients

1 (16 ounce) package lasagna noodles
1 pound lean ground beef
salt and pepper to taste
1 (16 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 pound shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 pound shredded Cheddar cheese
1 pint ricotta cheese

Directions

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown beef and season with salt and pepper; drain. Stir in spaghetti sauce and garlic and simmer 5 minutes.
In a medium bowl, combine mozzarella, Cheddar and ricotta; stir well. In 9x13 inch pan, alternate layers of noodles, meat mixture and cheese mixture until pan is filled.
Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 643 | Total Fat: 29.3g | Cholesterol: 108mg

My note: Instead of the regular lasagna noodles, I used the no-boil lasagna noodles and added about half cup of water to the tomato sauce, then completed the recipe as stated.

Definitely not one of the healthier recipes on the planet, but a delicious, occasional splurge.

Calorie Counter and Diet Tracker

2012-01-14T22:36:00.000-05:00

Despite reading about the importance of maintaining a food journal, I figured I could just keep track in my head. Boy was I wrong! I thought I was doing a pretty good job of approximating the number of calories I was consuming each day. After all, food is my passion and I have a pretty good idea of calorie counts. Over the years, my weight has slowly and steadily crept up, up, up to an all-new high. I brown-bag it during the work-week and prepare really good lunches: usually delicious salads, sometimes brown rice and steamed or lightly sauteed veggies and fruits and cut up veggies for snacks. But still... even though I know better, when I'm at work I find myself munching on a couple of handfuls of pretzels, some chocolates, peanuts, etc. later in the afternoon. Then, I go home and cook a large dinner. It's just the two of us, but I like to prepare extra so BF can take leftovers to work. But I would find myself eating 2 portions (and sometimes 3 if it tasted really good - OINK)! So I would have that tally going in my head, but perhaps had a bit of selective memory going on and not really accounting for everything.

My friend, Brenda told me about an i-Phone APP called "My Fitness Pal" and I've been using it for a week now - it's been a real eye-opener. They also have a website. It's a free APP and once you've installed it, you fill in your current weight, your goal weight, height, gender, age and activity level. The program figures how many calories you should consume for your age/height/weight. Throughout the day, you enter what you've consumed. There is a barcode feature, so you can press the barcode button and point to the product's barcode and it enters that product for you (you can adjust the number of servings if you need to). If you eat a restaurant meal, you will need to manually enter the food - while not as convenient and accurate as the barcode feature, it's still great. You type in the food and it searches for you and fills it in. It's amazing how quickly the calories add up. The program keeps a running tally of calories, so you know how much you've had and how much you can still consume for the remainder of the day.

There's also an area to fill in each day's cardiovascular activity - I like to walk, so I enter in how many minutes and at what pace I've walked and it will calculate how many calories I've burned. And you can keep track of how much water you've had each day too.

It's a great way to account for the amount of calories consumed each day. Looking back, I would say I was easily consuming 2-3 times the amount of calories I should have been. Hence, the weight gain. Duh.

Check it out! www.myfitnesspal.com

Happy New Year! Happy New Blog!

2012-01-08T22:12:00.000-05:00

Eat more veggies... check!
Drink more green drinks/smoothies... check!
Read more books... check!
Walk outside more often... check!
Start my own blog... CHECK!!!!

I wanted to start a blog last year, but I had no idea how and never bothered to learn. I still have no idea, but it's a new year replete with new resolutions and I'm off to a good start! The Blogger program made it pretty easy so here I am. I'm learning as I go. I love food and trying new recipes, so I'll be posting some of my favorite recipes and favorite cookbooks here. Since I'm interested in whole foods, health, juicing, macrobiotics and the raw food diet, I'll share some healthier recipes as well.

Welcome!