Tis the Season!

Yep thats right! I am posting Christmas stuff early!! Why? Maybe it's because I am in the christmas spirit. Maybe it's because I have been watching Hallmark Movie Channels Christmas Movies every weekend for the past month. Or maybe it's because I am jealous of Erin's Christmas Decorations that are already up and spreading Christmas Cheer! I wish I had a fireplace to hang the stockings on, but my window seal will just have to do. le sigh

Either way, I am in the Christmas Spirit! I have counted down the days (36 by the way) and now I am planning before that big bird goes in the oven. My mother (cough, Grinch, cough) does not like it when Christmas cheer is spread too early, but man is she in for a surprise when she see's all of those recorded Hallmark Channel movies I have in my DVR. (Nine Lives of Christmas= PUR-Fect!) 

So here is a list of the Holly Jolly things I will be doing this Holiday Season! 

-Find Grandpa Candy 

-Drink Hot Cocoa WITH marshmallows 

-Make a new recipe using Cranberries 

-Go Ice Skating!

-Write a Letter to Santa 

-Volunteer!! 

-Decorate my desk at work! 

-Decorate my overly large window seal at home. 

- Get a tiny Christmas tree. 

- Make a profit from our Christmas Bizarre at work and donate it! 

-Bake Cookies! 

-Sing Christmas Carols (from the comfort of inside my house where no one can hear.) 

-Find Reindeer Antler hat for Ghillie. 

-Read A Christmas Carol 

- Watch the Muppets Christmas Carol, purely for comparison. 

-Build a Gingerbread House

What is on your Holiday Bucket List? 

NY Style Pumpkin Cheesecake

I know you guys were waiting for me to post another delicious cheesecake recipe! I could secretly hear your cries for this form of yumminess. Part of my family had their Thanksgiving early so that most everyone could be there, so I decided to make this new holiday treat!

Please note that I made this prior to my clean health kick, so I made this as unhealthy as possible. 

You start with a little bit of inspiration. Might I suggest the Hard Apple Cider Cinnamon, a pumpkin cheese cake candle, and Hallmark Channels Christmas movies. 

Now here are the Ingredients: 

Crust: 

1 (12oz) box of Gingersnap Cookies

1/2 cup (or one stick) salted butter Melted.

1/8 cup of brown sugar

And a pinch of salt

I add the brown sugar and salt to give it a little more sweetness. But if you only use the cookies and butter it should come out pretty darn good.

For the Filling: 

4 (8oz) packages of cream cheese, room temp

1 3/4 cups of white sugar

3 large eggs at room temp

1 (15oz or small) can of pumpkin puree

1 heavy cup of whipping cream

2 tisp Vanilla Extract 

2 tisp ground cinnamon

1 tisp ground ginger

1/2 tisp ground nutmeg

1/2 tisp of pumpkin spice

1/4 tisp of ground cloves

Toppings: 

Whipped Cream

Chopped Pecans

1.) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Put one of the racks in the center and one on the bottom. Now for the crust you are going to beat, bash, and pulverize those little cookies to a pulp. you want them to be fine crumbs. Put those dusty crumbs in a bowl, mix in the brown sugar and salt, and then drizzle the buttah on top. Mix it all in and make sure everything is coated.

2.) Take your 10" springform pan and grease the bottom, press the crumbs into the bottom, and stick it in the oven for 9 minutes. Once it is done, let the crust cool on a wire rack, or in my case on the counter.

3.) Once it is out take a 9x13 dish of water and put it on the lowest rack of the oven and drop the temp to 225 degrees.

4.) For the Filling take the cream cheese and beat it into creamy shape. Once it is nice and creamy, slowly start adding the sugar to make it fluffy. Add your eggs in one at a time, letting them mix in fully. Add in the pumpkin puree, whipping cream and all of the spices until they are all well mixed. Then add it to the crust.

5.) Here is the tedious part! Place your springform pan on an oversized cookie sheet, and put into the oven on the middle rack. Now you are going to let that little piece of heaven bake for 4-4 1/2 hours. The Center of the cheesecake will still be a bit jiggly, but the majority of the cake with be firm. 

6.) At that point turn the oven off and crack the door open and let the cheesecake just sit in their for an additional 2 hours. Once that time is up then you place it on the counter to cool to room temperature. 

7.) Cover and let it completely chill in the fridge. 

8.) When you go to serve it take a plastic knife around the edges and then release the sides of the springform pan.

You can bake it a little faster but it causes the cake to crack and not wind up so pretty. So it's worth all of that time!

The only thing you have left to do is eat it! 

For a PDF version of the recipe to print out click HERE! 

Thankful for... #tbtHolidayEdition

Happy Thursday! I know I am really late to the game, but I wasn't feeling so inspired until 10 minutes ago. Truth be told, I haven't really been paying attention to social media the past couple days. Sure I have checked my accounts, but I have not CHECKED my accounts. Know what I mean?

Well today I am linking up with Heather for #tbtHolidayEdition to give you two people I am thankful for knowing.

Geraldine and Albert Callison

Some people don't typically get to meet their great grandparents and remember any of it. My great grandpa passed when I was younger but I remember certain things about him and love to hear stories. My great grandma, who we just call grandma, now lives in the cold state of Ohio; near 3 out of her 6 living children. Seeing her can be slightly heartbreaking at times since she is going through a state of dementia, but it brings back a flood of memories from when they lived in Arizona. 

Things I remember: 

They always had a bowl or container of chocolate covered raisons in their house. 

My great grandpa's big ears and skinny frame. 

My grandma still to this day always has a word search near her chair. 

They made the best canned condensed chicken noodle soup. ;)

The only soda they had in the house was 7-up. 

They watched their daily soaps together, and never missed a day.

The taste of grandma's mac and cheese. 

Grandpa candy (also known as Brach's Peppermint Taffy)

My grandma refused to drive! 

Things I have learned: 

How to make grandpa's sloppy joe (bar-be-que) recipe. 

The difference between a tisp and a tibble. 

One night cap a night is a good thing. 

My Grandma was not the best at keeping the items for memories, but was awesome at keeping her taxes. 

That the apple hasn't fell far from the tree for generations. 

Naptime has always been an acceptable practice in my family. 

  

For obvious reasons I am glad that they met and had 7 beautiful kids, and had dozens of grand children and great grand children. But I am glad that I was able to meet and know them for what little time I have. Those memories are what mean the most in life.

Do you have someone in your "old life" or that may be a little older that you are thankful for? 

5 Scary Things about Lifestyle Changes

On Monday November 10th I start something big. I am starting a new lifestyle change with my food and my exercise. It started with my purchase of this little journal and the food program to go with it.

As soon as I bought it though, I started to go through doubts. I started to get scared that I just bought it for no reason and that I wouldn't use it. But then I remembered that I felt the same about my UP24 band when I bought it. Needless to say that band has not left my wrist for more than 3 hours before I realized it wasn't on. I have stuck with it and trying to better myself because of it. But when it comes to food, I tend to panic a bit more. But what is there to be scared of? 

Here are my top 5 reasons I am afraid of lifestyle changes.

1.) Failure
We are all afraid of failing, or giving up. What if you don't meet your goals, you skip a day, or if you just spent all of that money for nothing. Sometimes the thought of failure just gets the best of people. 

2.)Lack of support:
People don't have a strong enough support system. I can speak from experience when I say that there is only one member of my family who would join me in this endeavor, but the rest will tear it down and question all of the reasons I am doing it. They are a steak and potatoes kind of family, when they really need to be a rabbit family. 

3.) Too Expensive: 
Hello, single girl living here! I have bills to pay, I don't need to spend all of my dough at Whole Foods. I am lucky because I have a Sprouts about 4 miles away and they are fairly inexpensive; but buying groceries on a weekly basis is hella scary. I have little to no control when it comes to food, especially the Chili Lime Mango slices only sold at Sprouts.

4.) No Time: 
This is my downfall. In my head there is no time for meal prep or work outs. I know this portion is purely mental since I wake up at 4 in the morning every day. But none the less, to my brain there is no time. 

5.) Slip Ups: 
Have you guys heard about my insane sweet tooth? No, well it is there! And when I slip up man do I slip up. But as I have so learned from last nights dinner, slipping up will be the death of me. Death by heartburn. 

Now what does all of this mumbo jumbo mean for the blog that I have been so horribly neglecting? Well expect to see a few posts about me wanting to die and give up, a few about food, and a maybe a few about solutions to my 5 reasons I am afraid.

Is anyone else doing the #8weekhotbodychallenge ? How do you make it through the holiday season with a healthy diet?

Goodbye Sweet Weekend, Hello Monday.

It's Monday. I think that that is statement enough to warrant some horror in my voice. I came in to an email full of hate mail (claims) and nothing but problems. So I decided to take a momentary break to blog about my weekend, so that I don't break into a pure sob. 

Friday: 

Well let me start by saying, OY VEY WITH THE POODLES ALREADY! Friday was madness and amazingness all combined into one. I was sleep deprived from making my super cute costume, Running around helping with work activities, and covering 2-3 desks at the same time because every one was out. So needless to say, instead of dealing with the DUI check points and crazy people, I stayed home for halloween out of pure exhaustion. I actually fell asleep at 9:15. 

My super cute costume! 

Saturday: 

So does anyone else have the problem that when you clean one room in your house the rest of it looks like a bomb went off? Well that was my Saturday. I managed to magically get 3/4 of my bedroom cleaned, and laundry put away, but as I went through the rest of my house it was a mess. But hey whats a little mess topped with some Hallmark Christmas movies? Because I watched them this weekend! Have I mentioned that I am into Christmas this year? 

Sunday:

NEWS! THE LIZARD IS OUT OF MY HOUSE!!! HAHAHAHAH!!! I know I sound way to excited about that but it has been 7 months in the making. Not to mention like 7 different goals I have made over the past 3-4 months. So after dropping the lizard off and running, I enjoyed breakfast with my little brother and then he was the coolest sibling by taking me to finally see the Maze Runner. (Amazing! But I was thrown by the ending, and I read the book.) And then I had to have one of those awkward conversations with someone. You know the ones that break hearts? Is it bad that I was like, whatever, about it? 

Hope everyone else had a more exciting weekend then I did.