Lately I’ve been hooked on these yummy smoothies for breakfast:

Packed full of good-for-me things and loaded with antioxidants: pomegranate juice, frozen blueberries, greek nonfat yogurt, a dash of honey. Yum. Take a closer look if you like.

Anyone who knows us or reads this blog knows that Rick and I both love to cook and eat. I don’t think we eat badly either. We don’t eat much in the way of processed foods and you won’t find our freezer filled with frozen ready-made dinners. We’re all about cooking fresh. We don’t eat out very much because we enjoy our own food more. Plus, when you eat out you cannot control what you are eating. You have no idea how the food was prepared (what fats, sugars, etc. that they might have used) and are probably taking in way too many extra calories loaded with things your body doesn’t need. As far as portions go, restaurants today give you so much more than you could or should possibly eat that’s it’s ridiculous! Many times Rick and I will share an appetizer and an entree (if we can agree on the same one!) and that works out very well.

For several years (before we moved to New Jersey) Rick and I followed the South Beach Diet and we both got downright skinny. It got kind of old and boring. (The diet part; not the skinny part!) Then we started eating a more modified South Beach by letting in some pasta, potatoes and bread. Then we pretty much threw out the South Beach plan and just ate everything in moderation which pretty much worked but neither of us were as skinny as we were. But like I mentioned before, we got lazy over the past few months and noticed a slight gain. Funnily enough, we both started complaining at the same time. It was time to put a new eating plan into action, so since the start of the year we’ve been South Beaching it again. It’s working, slowly but surely. There is a difference.

I’m always looking for new recipes that are both good for you and good tasting at the same time. And let’s face it, at the beginning of a new year doesn’t everyone think about eating more healthily? Losing one or two stubborn pounds that may have crept up when you weren’t looking? I bought these two great books recently (smoothie recipe came from Cook Yourself Thin Faster) and have been pouring over the recipes and tips.

They are not really “diet” books, just guidelines for eating things that are good for you and avoiding the things that are not. They are all about not depriving yourself of the foods you crave, just making small adjustments to them to make them more calorie friendly. You might not notice the weight loss for several weeks it’s so gradual, but it’s there.

Cook This Not That is a wonderful little book! Packed full of all kinds of helpful things, it begs to be read from cover to cover to glean all the little hints and tips on every (colorful) page. “Score card” pages show nutritional and dietary comparisons of dairy products,  bread, rices, grains and pastas, meats and fats so you can see at a glance the differences. Other pages include “Matrix” pages where you mix and match different ingredients for skewers, homemade salad dressings, pasta and toppings, crock pots, smoothies and more. Full color photos of each delicious looking recipe adds to the allure of this great little book.

The other book, Cook Yourself Thin Faster is the follow-up to her first book Cook Yourself Thin. I have both books, but I think the second one has better recipes. We made one the other night “Cod Saltimbocca” which was absolutely delicious! We both loved the cannellini bean/radicchio side. Here’s the photo from the book.

I can’t wait to try more of them out! And no, I don’t own stock in the companies, nor do I know the people personally. I just think they are great little tools to help you eat right. If you happen to buy one or the other I don’t think you’ll be sorry!

On the day I took my walk the sun was shining brightly. Everywhere I looked the crystalline quality of the snow was catching the light and acting like a prism. Just like someone had strewn jewels across its surface. It was beautiful. I tried capturing it so many times and each time when I viewed the photo back the colors were not there. The snow was glistening, but no prism action was happening through the lens. I took the camera off the mode I was using and tried a few different things. I finally got this image by using a slower shutter speed on the shutter priority setting at 1/320.

Well? What do you think?

The shadows this time of year are very long. Etched against the stark white background of snow they seem larger then life.

I was the only person to go down the forest path since the snow. The pristine surface so far had only been broken by the tracks of forest animals. Sometimes the shadows were combined with various animal tracks. These I think are rabbit.

These are possibly geese or swans.

Crossed paths!

Some tracks eluded me. Like these. A drunken mouse perhaps?

Other shadows were just interesting to me.

And to conclude, my prints and my shadow. How I hated to disturb the surface of the snow! Somehow it seemed as though I was an interloper here, but these woods know me well. They don’t always welcome me, but they know me.

A tiny trickle of water runs alongside the forest path. I found the patterns in the ice fascinating. If you look closely you can see what the water was doing when it became imprisoned. Delicate frosty fingers at the edges, little eddies and swirls; all held captive. Can you see the outline of a bird in the last photo?

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. We haven’t seen temps above freezing in a week. Yesterday it hit the 30 degree mark. Nights are in the teens and twenties, but so far no single digits. Let’s just say the temperature doesn’t fluctuate much from day to night. We’ve had a few little snows but nothing to write home about. It seems to come in dribbles and drabs. Nuisance snows are what I call them. Just enough to coat the ground and driveway, but not really enough to make it worthwhile to snowblow. A darned nuisance. We’re supposed to get another one tonight and into tomorrow. An inch here; an inch there. Big deal.

Even though it was cold and a bit windy yesterday, I bundled up in my warm down parka, slapped my “Elmer Fudd” hat on my head, grabbed the camera and went for a walk. After all the food over-indulgence of the holidays, Rick and I put ourselves back on the South Beach Diet for a few weeks and I figured a nice walk would help that along. What? You don’t know what an “Elmer Fudd” hat is? It’s the kind that has ear flaps on it that you can either tie up on top of the hat or pull down over your ears. I wasn’t trying to make a fashion statement here, just wanted to keep my head warm.

My goal was to walk through the woods and all the way down the road to Green Turtle (a little over a mile round-trip). I hadn’t been in the woods in a long time and a visit was long overdue. The sun was shining brightly which hasn’t necessarily been the case lately, a real plus when trying to take photos. I’m going to take you with me on the walk, but in small steps. I took a lot of photos! First we visit the part of Green Turtle that is right at the end of our street, the part where it drains out over the dam. As you can see: frozen. I tried to take a photo without my shadow in it but it didn’t have the same impact, so I’m in it, bulky parka and all.

Here there are some nice cattails growing even though they hacked a good part of them away this summer. Not sure why either, they didn’t look like they were harming anything to me. Because it’s the outlet for the lake, the water is not completely frozen here.

The ice that has tried to form around the base of the cattails look like glass UFOs, or maybe sombreros!  Very cool. Take a closer look:

My fingers nearly froze taking these shots. Old Man Wind was trying to give me frostbite! I was hoping that once I was in the woods I would be sheltered from him.

To be continued ...