Apples2

I forgot Linda...oh no! How are you, Linda. Katie doing any better. Hope you had a nice weekend with not stress. Hey...forgot Joyce too...got your son moved? Also hoping you had a stress-free weekend. Would that be possible with what you have going on?

Good Morning to Everyone... Arlene...good attitude about exercising to help with the pain. Sorry you have to deal with it. FM sucks! Melissa...hope you enjoy the swimming with your BFF. Try to set up a daily schedule for yourself and make yourself accountable. Always fun to have someone to go with. Julie...how did the wedding go? TX...the anticipation (I feel) of surgery...especially the LB with life changes, etc. is so much more prior than after. Will be thinking of you as you go through both of these surgeries. Just follows both of your doc's rules and do as they say. Hopefully you will heal quickly. Great...as Phyll said...you are the world traveller. How's your food plan been going with all this travelling? Happy to hear you had a nice weekend with your folks. (Breathing a sigh of relief). I know you get nervous about your get-togethers. Safe travels. Jessica...good going on the fund raiser. Also, happy to hear your son is adjusting to his meds. Good luck with the job at the hospital. Have missed you lately. LauraK...a girl after my own heart. I LOVE consignment shops. I have found sooooooooo many new/almost new peices that you'd swear were made for me. I have even been able to find my size of slack/jeans in longs which I usually have to special order. Fun! Eva....how did I know you would be right back to work? Good for you. Funny...I work from home and most days would give ANYTHING to be off to work. Cheri...your last few posts about your school children just makes me so sad. So many children fall through the cracks. Thank God for teaches like you that make it your life. We are so sheltered here (yes, kids do get into trouble some) but where you live the opportunity for kids to get into deep trouble from outside influences is so much greater. Phyll....we are getting the wind that you had yesterday. Also raining. Our corn harvest got rained out on Saturday and it is still raining today. 190 piddly acres left...about a day. Oh well, that's farming. It will get done but looks like rain on and off all week. Nice photos on facebook with your friends. You really are photogenic. I freeze when a camera is put in my face. Stone face...hard to smile. I gotta loosen up. You DH looks good. Nice to see he is bouncing right back. I am sure Zoey had some help with that. Mornin' Janet...hope you have a good work week. Mornin' Laura...I see you were up for part of the night with storms. I love my sleep but it is interrupted most nights by a bathroom call and something to eat. I've always been so lucky to just go right back to sleep. Volunteering today? Lots planned for today. Spent so much time working outside that last couple of weeks that it is time to catch up in the house. I have trucks hauling to town today so will have extra at the kitchen table for lunch. Gotta finish my making my apple pies and get them in the oven. Will talk to you all later.

Good Morning... TX...this is your week! Cheri...sounds like you are almost back in your weight comfort zone. Good for you for getting back into doing the work you needed to do to get there. Also, I admire you for rearranging things so that you could dump some of your stress. Cold, windy and rainy morning here. It is still only 45 degrees at 10:30am. DH asked if I wanted to go out to lunch and a movie. I think we will watch a movie at home and eat egg bake leftovers. Too cold and wet to go out. So, DH in recliner with laptop reading Ag Talk with the big ole' dog on his lap. My plan is to catch up on some hand sewing on some items that need buttons, hems, etc. and put a couple of movies in. Arlene...sorry about your back troubles. I have not heard you speak about it for quite some time. Hope it calms down. Julie...hope you had a nice time with family and friends yesterday at the wedding. Time to take some time to relax. Jodi...gosh...I almost hate to wish you luck with the job...especially if you are seeing that it is going to stress you out. OK....good luck with the job! Change is good. Janet...did you get Andrew settled and all fixed up? Big step in his life and I'm sure makes GM a little nervous. At least he has his cousin living with him and they can look after each other. Phyll....hope DH is doing fine and you can get out and about again. Well, off to the couch and a movie and some treats. Hope you all have a very nice Sunday.

Cheri...I received a call from my cr card company the same week we got back from Vegas. I called them back today to let them know that a few of us had troubles and we had all (I think) used our cards at the Desert Rose. Person I spoke to in the fraud dept stated that there are key words when a fraud is reported and computer program will pick up on it. For instance, Desert Rose.

Pooh...got rained out. Oh well, we both need a break. Both cold and wet from working in the rain for a couple of hours and only 48 degrees outside and windy. A hot bath and nice egg bake for supper and some reading. Neither DH or I have sat on our butts for more than 5 minutes the last few weeks. Rain in the forecast for tomorrow and most of next week. Looks like we will be having to wait to get the rest of the corn crop. We always get it in and we always get it out. (DH's favorite saying when I fret about it). Janet...hope you are having a blast with Andrew. What a nice GM.

Arlene...I have no idea what Pei Wei is but have had some great chicken lettuce wraps at different restuarants. Usually have whole peanuts in them besides the peanut sauce but I left that out of the recipe. I forgot to add that I sometimes put julllianne carrots in it or snow peas. Any kind of veggie can be added. I love water chestnuts in anything and usually add double of them.

Laura....Awwww...nice family and happy you are all together again. Enjoy your time. Thanks for sharing the photos.

Janet...no sense in me typing that recipe....it's on the Bell Plantation website...once you get to the site,just type in PB2 Cheesecake. It has a breakdown of protein, carbs, cals. A lot of good recipes on that site.

Eva..I would love to have a housekeeper. I'd like to go back to work just so I can do it. LOL So many years of it and am sick and tired of it. Same old/same old. Don't beat yourself up about choosing the Desert Rose. It could have happened anywhere. I think I will give my cr card fraud dept a call back and let them know I was not the only one and let them work on it. Was implusive of me to think about calling. Thanks, Cheri, for the tip on maybe the manager could have been in on it. Good to hear that your ins stuff can be worked out, Eva.

Rstoun...you will learn waaaaaaaay more on LBT than you will from your doc and his staff (at least that is was I have gotten from many posts on this site). There's so much info to take in and learn from the experience of others. Hope you stick around for the pure benefit of picking up tips and to share your experience also. Hope this unfill puts you on the right tract and you can start to eat more healthy foods and see the benefit from that. Good luck!

True.......

Ok, kids....have one of my favorite food items to share with you. This is something I order at a restaurant whenever I can and always have. The lettuce wraps in restaurants can be very high in oils so revamped a recipe. Chicken Lettuce Wraps Dice 2 raw chicken breasts (large) or use 3 if small....about 1/2 inch cubes Mix together in a stir fry pan 2 Tbls olive oil 1 cup water chestnuts 1 cup mushrooms 1/2 onion diced 1 Tsp minced garlic 1/4 cup Splenda 2 Tbls lite soysauce 1 cup water 2 Tbls ketchup 1 Tbls lemon juice 1 Tbls dry mustard 4 Tbls dry PB2 Simmer all of this on medium heat until chicken is done...stir occasionally. (About 6 minutes once it all gets hot) Serve on lettuce leaves (iceberg). Actually no manners allowed and you can eat with your hands.

Arlene...have a fun day!

Good Morning... Got a little rain overnight...hope it does not halt the harvest...it's going so good. TX...not long now. Congrats on another 3lbs. Admire your commitment and thinking of you as you prepare for both of your surgeries. Phyll....major bummer with DGS's injury. When my DS's were playing, we had one little thumb jam..I always had my fingures crossed. That PB2 is a wonderful product. Expensive, but good. It's a powdered peanut butter you can throw into shakes, put in oatmeal, mix with water and put on celery. If you go to the Bell Plantation website, there are many recipes. There is a section called "healthy" and there are 30 recipes. Lower in fat and calories than the reg PB and quite tasty. I made a Thai chicken last night that was to die for. Like I stated, it's spendy but goes far. It was cheaper on Amazon but only if 12 jars were purchased. DS's GF used it so she got half. It was a little over $7/jar in the end. But, if I find something I like, it's worth it. Going to make a lowfat cheesecake today with it. Will use it in the recipe (baked) and sprinkle the dry PB on top of whipped cream when I am done. When harvest is over, I am going to experiment and see about making some protien bars with it. Julie...thinking of you today. Big day for you and your family. Hope you can enjoy the day. Make sure you find someone to do what you might be tempted to....just enjoy. Great....hope your visit with parents is going well. Eva...sounds like someone at your company didn't get their story straight. Hope you can get it all worked out with your retirement status. A little stress to come back to. Love your photos. Wow, some of those buildings in BA are really close...or maybe it just looked that way. Cheri....hope your conference was a good one. After you posted about your credit card being compromised also, I was thinking. I stated I only used it to buy lunch but remembered...I, too, used it at the Desert Rose when I checked in. I decided I am going to call out there and talk to the manager and let him/her know that a bunch of us used our cards there and most were compromised. Sounds like someone who worked there did it or sold the numbers. My Visa person I talked to said it is so easy for a hotel clerk to write those numbers down. I won't give anyone's names...so no worries. What's done is done but think they should be aware of it. DH already has a couple hours in working outside transferring corn from bin to bin and now gotta throw the french toast on the griddle. Later

Well, Arlene, the above pie is not exactly something you would want to eat every day but for something special like a holiday it does cut down on calories. Yep, isn't that PB2 good? I have used it in so many things. Oatmeal, on celery, on graham crackers, in protein drinks, in my pudding, made cookies with Splenda and PB2 the other day. I'll do some thinking on some low cal snacks. Haven't been eating too many of them for the last couple of years. I do try to really try to eat healthy and keep my guys on a low fat and somewhat low suger foods. I'll think for a bit.

Correction...no a "no sugar" pie...gotta consider the sugars in the fruit but pretty close.

I know one thing...I don't think I will ever use my credit card in Vegas again. I had the cash on me but I used my card to get air miles. The one and only time I used it was to buy lunch that last day...just one time...damn. Joyce and Arlene...hope you get it cleared up. Joyce...congrats on the NSV...good feeling when ppl start to notice. It's gives you a little bump of encouragement also. Keep it going! Sorry for the stress....we've had our share this summer. Once the charges, etc. are in place with these silly stalkers, I will feel more at ease. It has helped that I am too busy to think. Eva...wonderful photos. Those elderly ppl dancing were so cute. What great memories you have made with all your travels. I feel fortunate that DH loves to travel, loves museums, is willing to go do whatever (when I can get him away from his work). Also fortunate we have our winters free. It will be a quite weekend on the thread, I imagine. Julie has the wedding, Great is visiting parents, Laura is chasing DH around the house, Phyll is tending to her DH. I'll be around some to junk up the thread in between loads of corn. Lucky you guys! How are you doing TX? Keeping your energy up? Your first days seemed to go really well for you. Just wondering. "Apples2 Tip of the Day" With the holidays approaching I thought I would post a band friendly recipe. I have made this for my family and they didn't know it was low fat/no sugar. Cranberry Apple Pie 1 pkg low fat refrigerated pie crust 1 cup splenda with Fiber 1 Tbls all- purpose flour 1/2 Tsp ground cinnamon 5 large Granny Smith apples-peeled, cored and sliced 1 cup chopped raw cranberries Preheat oven to 400 Put one piecrust into a 9-inch pie plate Combine all filling ingredients in a large bowl. Toss well and put into pie crust. Brush top crust with 1 egg white and sprinkle 1/4 cup Slenda over it. Place remaining crust over filling and crimp edges. Bake 40-50 minutes until crust is golden brown. Cover edges with aluminum foil or a edge protector if you have one. Cool one hour b/4 serving. I stole this recipe from the O magazine and revamped it a bit. About 280-300 calories per slice (serves 8).

Arlene...I read all the reviews for the PB2 and there were rave reviews for the regular and not so good for the chocolate one. But, I'm wondering if the choc one was in a shake and not just eaten plain, that it would be OK. You'll have to ask Janet what she thinks. I'd better get back to work. Sure would hate to get fired!:w00t:

Eva...sounds like a wonderful trip. The scenery in the photo is absolutely beautiful. Can't wait to see the rest of your photos. Glad you had a good time. Nice to have you back...you were missed. Great....awww...a baby girl...so fun that you were able to see fingers, toes, etc. That's so special. Laura....Have a nice honeymoon! Glad your DH is home safe and sound.

Here's your proof, Eva Good Morning Everyone...will talk later in the day. Gotta run

Joyce...hope this fill does it for you.

Sorry about your Sis, Janet. Nice you went to see Andrew. He's your guy, isn't he???? I bet you really miss him but good to hear when you previously mentioned that you enjoy your alone time now. Good going on putting the candy bars back. Hugs.:w00t:

Phyll...how's the patient doing? Hope all is well and you can get back into your routine soon.

Arlene...I've been wearing my boiled wool jackets for a couple of weeks now. Love my boiled wool!:wink2:

I've been at goal for 2 yrs and I find myself in the pre-op and post-op threads every single day. When a thread is titled "Help!!!!", I'm goin' in!