Window dressing

Eloise, July 2008

It seems like this post should be about pretty things in a window, doesn't it?

Well, it actually is about windows. The windows on my house. And dressing. Salad dressing, that is.
But I thought "window dressing" sounded like a spiffier title.

We live in a 113-year old home, which still has the ancient-style storm windows. The kind that have to be taken down every spring so the screens can be put in place. They're big, very heavy, and look downright dangerous to work with. It's kind of a rite of passage every spring and every fall -- when the storm windows get put up, I know Christmas is right around the corner. It's time to bake more, get out the warm and woolly throw blankets, and think about creative ways to entertain toddlers for the next five months. Then spring rolls around, and the thick storm windows come down. Screens go up, and we're headed towards fresh air, sunshine, and lots of trips to the park.

It's supposed to be downright summery around here this week. So, how happy am I that our windows guy can come early to help us spring ahead?! (We clearly don't get much excitement around here.)

Now, for the dressing part of the equation.

I thought I'd share with you my favorite vegan salad dressing recipe (at least, I hope it's vegan. Will someone let me know if it's not? I mean, I thought I had a pretty good handle on this stuff, and then I read something recently about vegan wine? Are there seriously non-vegan wines out there? What am I missing, vegan gurus? Someone walk me through this one?)

Anyway, this possibly-vegan-but-we'll-find-out-soon-if-it-really-is dressing makes enough to last you through many salads, and, even better, it's a cinch to throw together. I store mine in one of those Rubbermaid shake & pour containers.

The World's Best Salad Dressing
8.5 oz. Balsamic vinegar
3T Dijon mustard
1T Tabasco
2T garlic powder
24 oz. canola oil

Combine ingredients in a blender and mix until emulsified.

Enjoy on some spring greens and put a little spring in your step!

Test drives: Treats for my sweets

Thanks to everyone who chimed in yesterday for support. I had a little bit of an epiphany last night when I was brushing my teeth (a lot of posts stem from the bathroom around here. Noticed that?). I had watched Real Housewives of New Jersey right before bed (so glad the DVR is back!), and one of the Real Housewife Husbands lost 70 pounds over the course of a year. The thought, "Oh, how I would love to be 70 pounds lighter next year," popped into my head.

And then I suddenly realized, if I keep losing 7 pounds each month (the rate I've been losing so far), I will actually lose more than 70 pounds by this time next year. I swear, you should have seen my face. It was just this "Oh!" moment. Like, hey, maybe things aren't as dire as I thought they were.

So, since you've been so sweet with your encouragement, I thought I'd share a couple of my latest yummy discoveries with you. First, although I still love my homemade dressing, I have fallen hard for the Goddess Dressing from Annie's Naturals. Oh, my lovelies, this is delicious. This is so good, my two-year old now tells me she wants salad. (I'm wondering if slathering it on broccoli will change her tune about that veggie, too.) It's such a nice blend of flavors, with just a slight Asian hint. Give this one a try!

Now, a girl can't live by salad alone. Not even a vegan girl. So, I like to keep these tasty little frozen pies on hand for times when dinner maybe didn't quite fill me up.


(I read once, I think it was in French Women Don't Get Fat, that dessert shouldn't be eaten if you're completely full. But, if you've had a light dinner, and you still aren't quite satisfied, then that's the time for dessert. I thought that tip made a lot of sense, and really, it's counter to the way a lot of us were raised, isn't it? Do you still feel like you need to eat a full meal before you've "earned" dessert?)

A word of caution: Two oatmeal cookies, chocolate, and "ice cream" take a hefty chunk from the calorie bank. At 330 calories each, I try to limit myself to half of a pie (it's really more like an ice cream sandwich). "Try" being the operative word. The store I buy them from sells them individually, so that helps. I only keep one or two around at any given time.

Just in time for warm weather. It's my ideal summer meal -- salad followed by a frozen novelty. Enjoy!

Weigh-in Wednesday

There is a Cathy comic strip I saw years and years ago that stuck with me. Maybe you remember it. It's the one where we see Cathy using the loo, brushing her teeth, shaving her legs, and cleaning out the lint from her belly button. Getting ready for her day? No. Getting ready to step on the scale. That was me this morning. And it paid off!

Hello, minus FIVE!!!!!

Can you tell I'm a little excited about that?

All of you who said it would take awhile for me to see the benefits of the exercise were right. I just had to hang in there for one more week. And shave my legs. (Hey, it's not quite capri season here yet, alright? Don't judge.)

Now, sadly, I didn't hang in there with the Shred. I wanted to. Boy, I really wanted to. By Day 5, I could definitely see a difference in how well I could keep up. Unfortunately, by Day 3, I was already feeling heel and knee pain. So when it stuck around, and got worse, I decided I needed to listen to my body and back off a little.

I am now either walking with the girls in the stroller or doing the Walk Away the Pounds DVD. The DVD is old-school, but I like it. I can keep up, but still be challenged. I sweat, but I don't feel chewed up and spit out at the end. For now, the walking is working for me.

I did make another change this week. I decided to really pay attention to how many calories I'm taking in. Right away, the very first day, I saw several areas that were clearly trouble makers. 200 calories worth of granola on my yogurt? And 300 calories worth of salad dressing? Ouch. I quickly realized I could make a couple of adjustments and have room for more filling (and nutritious) foods throughout the day. So I'm still using granola on my yogurt, but now I measure out a tablespoon or two and simply enjoy it as a little added crunch.

I will be the first to tell you that I typically hate measuring my food with a white hot passion. But, I will also be the first to admit that I have pathetically poor judgment when it comes to amounts. Give me a 1/4 cup of something, and I'd swear it was probably a tablespoon's worth. (See why physics was so traumatic for me? I have zero capacity for anything spatial. Maybe that's part of the reason I failed to notice my hips spreading over chairs until it came time to cram them into a middle, airplane seat.)

So because I can easily call a pint of soy ice cream one serving (What? It's soy. Come on!), I think I need to stick with the measuring and tracking for awhile. I plan to also start being mindful of the nutrients I'm taking in, and a site like daily burn was recommended to me for doing that.

I'm so excited about the progress this week. I've been thinking a lot about getting into the next decade because, psychologically, it's an important one. But I truly didn't expect that to happen already. I thought it was probably still a couple weigh-ins away. Now that it has, I'm really feeling lighter -- in more ways than one. I left a little bit of mental baggage behind along with those five pounds. Oh, it's still going to take me many months of hard work to reach my goal, and I have a lot more decades to break through to, but maybe I can celebrate more weeks like this one along the way.

And I hope you'll be here to celebrate with me. Thank you so much for the supportive comments. You didn't let me throw in the towel last week and go running for the cookie jar.

You're better than a new sports bra that hasn't accidentally been thrown into the dryer yet.