New Home

Hi Everyone:
After a lot of thought - I have given Sugar and Spice a new home.
Please see this link for the new "work in progress" home for the blog:

http://sugarnspiceblog.wordpress.com/

The site is not perfect yet - but there are a couple of posts already, so check it out. From now on, I will be posting to this site. I will have the e-mail subscription up soon, I hope and I will keep you all posted.

Like I said - this is certainly a work in progress right now. I have not gotten the blog to where I want it to be yet - but it is coming together.

Thanks to my few friends who actually read this blog on a semi-regular basis, I really appreciate the support! Please keep reading - and thank you!

Tuesday - too far behind!!

Hi Everyone:

What is going on with me this week? Sorry for not posting yesterday.
I'm doing an oh so brief post during lunch - and sorry for not including the pictures!

I am proud to report that I had breakfast at home this morning!! I had only been up for twenty - thirty minutes when I had my bowl of Kashi Vive with 1% milk. Woo-hoo! That was at 7:35 this morning. I remained full until 10:45 which is pretty good for me!

I will devote a special blog entry about my morning snack, which will be post-gym workout tonight!

At lunch I had a peanut butter & jam sandwich (options are slim at home!) on two pieces of fresh (and wonderful!) Arnold double fiber bread! I was looking for double protein when I went to the store last night - but there were only two loaves left in the store, and their "eat by" date was smudged and I couldn't tell if the date had already passed. I HATE IT when that happens! I am yet to get my hands on Arnold Double Protein Bread!!! Next week, hopefully will be the week!

Anyway - back to the sandwich. I had a tablespoon of Teddy peanut butter on the sando along with a tablespoon of TJ's reduced sugar raspberry jam and it was a great combo.

I also had half a cup of plain (yuck) TJ's Greek yogurt. I do not like eating plain yogurt of any kind. But I make myself do this because it's the best type of yogurt. I put some add-ins to make it a little easier to eat! Some slivered almonds, peanut butter puffs (Pandas!) and just a few (10) semi-sweet chocolate chips. I am hoping this will go a long way to filling me up!

After the yogurt I had a clementine. Ben and I bought a box of them last night at Stop & Shop. This one and the one I had last night after dinner were not quite as good as the ones my mom had at home - but they are definitely pretty good. Now that we have an entire box, I will probably start eating about two a day!

That about covers lunch.
Now for my Question of the day:

I just finished reading Sammy's House by Kristin Gore. It was such a fun read, and I am sad that it is over. I am looking for book recommendations!

What should my next read be? Fiction, non-fiction, political, historical, any of these will do!

If you have any ideas for books - please leave a comment below. Thanks!

Ok - I am done with lunch and must get back to work. Enjoy the rest of your day! I will post more tonight.

Snowy Sunday!

Hi All -

Happy Sunday! I was expecting some snow when I woke up this morning, but there was only a dusting on the ground. However, it did continue to flurry most of the morning and afternoon - but we did not get any accumulation.

I woke up around 9 o'clock this morning. The first thing I did was warm up the small amount of oats left over from yesterday's breakfast. I added raisins, a couple of slivered almonds, semi-sweet chocolate chips and a small bit of Teddy. Yum. I knew that Ben was making a brunch later today, so I did not want a huge breakfast - but I also did not want to be starving by the time brunch came around! The bowl has about a half cup of oats, which I warmed in the microwave with a couple of tablespoons of milk to re-hydrate them.

Ben later made us homemade whole wheat waffles! I had two and they were amazing. The recipe Ben used was from his childhood in Iowa. I love the recipe because it does not call for sugar! Ben also bought fresh fruit from the grocery store - I had a helping of cantaloupe which was really great. The other thing on my plate is a Morningstar Farms veggie sausage patty - great protein!

We enjoyed brunch around noon time today. It was so great!
Today we discovered that Daisy is as big a fan of Barack Obama as Ben and I are! She enjoyed listening and watching him today on Meet The Press... seriously - isn't this a little strange? She looked at him on the television for a few minutes. I am glad I had my camera to capture the moment!

Around 4pm I had a snack - the last clementine in the house! I will have to get some more this week. They have been my go to snack this week.

What is not pictured are a couple of other snacks I have had today as well. Five Kashi whole wheat crackers and a Holiday sugar cookie left over from the party last night!

I am beginning to think of the Turkey chili that I am going to make for dinner tonight. I will post the recipe if it turns out well!

While I did not get to the gym today, I did spend most of the day cleaning and organizing, so I feel like I have got a bit of exercise! I definitely should have gone for a run this afternoon, but I will definitely get back to the gym tomorrow.

Hope you are all having a great Sunday! I will post more tonight.
So long!

Saturday continued & Holiday party #1 of the season!

Hi All -
Hope you're all having a great weekend! Ben and I worked on cleaning and picking up the house a bit today. Ben is an amazing person when it comes to picking up and organizing! Our living room looks amazing now, thanks to him.

I had lunch around 2:30 this afternoon. I used our oh so useful toaster oven to make an amazing sandwich! I toasted a whole wheat English muffin, and then melted one slice of reduced fat American cheese on the muffin after toasting it a bit. I then added some of the tuna from yesterday, spinach and a bit of mustard. YUM!


For some reason I put some kettle baked potato chips onto my lunch plate. They were super and made lunch great!

Soon after lunch, Ben and I left for Salem. We spent about an hour and a half walking around the historic district of the town which was soo beautiful. I just loved the historic homes in this town!

Later in the evening we went to our friends Laurie and Trent's home for a holiday party. We listened to very interesting holiday music - has anyone heard of Johnny Bowtie?? Wow - if you ever find a holiday music CD with Johnny Bowtie on it - pick it up and you'll be in for a treat. It's sort of "bad" holiday music - but seriously entertaining!

Laurie and Trent put together a great party!

My plate of goodies includes a handful of kettle corn, sliced apples and pumpkin dip (awesome Laurie!) dark chocolate covered pretzels, a couple of tortilla chips, and a cinnamon graham cracker. I later went back for a helping of an amazing artichoke dip made by my friend Jenny. I cannot believe I forgot to take a picture of it... it was fantastic!

For dinner we had an amazing salad, homemade macaroni & cheese, and a turkey casserole. I tried a bit of all of these, along with a piece of sour dough bread. I did not quite finish the turkey casserole, but I went back for seconds of the salad because it was amazing. Yum.


A little while later we all went back for dessert! Here is what my plate looked like - wow!

The Trader Joe's peppermint cookie was incredible! The chocolate disaster on the top of the plate was a great chocolate cake - I'm not sure what I did when I cut it and put it on my plate! I was trying to make my piece a small sliver - and I succeeded - but made a mess as well! The piece of dessert on the right side was apple cake which was also fantastic! The brownie in the middle might have been good - but I was not able to eat it. I made the brownies, so at least I got to try all of the other dessert options. We actually had to take home a few of the brownies after the party - so maybe I will eat one tomorrow!

Here is a great picture of Ben and his new friend Benny (Laurie and Trent's cute dog!) They got along famously!


Right now we are finally home, from a sort of long day. I am enjoying a mug of tangerine orange zinger tea!


Tomorrow they are calling for snow... our first snow of the season and I'm sort of excited. I love snow on the weekends - when I do not have anything to do and when I do not have to go to work!

Ok, my bloggies - I'm off to bed soon. Have a great night everyone!

A beautiful Saturday morning

Hi All -

I slept until 9:45 this morning, after a few early morning wake ups...

Once I was up and ready to start my day, I made a bowl of oats. It was an interesting morning in the kitchen. I have a new Calphalon one quart sauce pan, which I am now in love with. However, when you've been using "normal" or less expensive pots and pans most of your life, you have to be prepared for the change over to the new quality of Calphalon products! The water and milk I was heating up for the oats over-flowed while I was making Daisy her breakfast.... so I had a bit of a mess to clean up, and then had to add more water to replace the lost liquid. It all turned out just fine and the oats were amazing as usual.




This morning I topped my bowl of oatmeal with raisins, a couple of semi-sweet chocolate chips, slivered almonds and a spoonful of Teddy's peanut butter. For some reason it looks like a huge glob of peanut butter - but it was actually less than a tablespoon. Weird!

So, after finishing this awesome bowl, and catching up on the other food blogs that I read, Ben and I got ready for our day.

Today we are going to Salem, MA to walk around and enjoy the holiday decorations in the town. I have not been to Salem as an adult, so I am really looking forward to it!

It is now 12:15 on Saturday afternoon, and I'm a bit hungry already. I think I am going to enjoy the banana that was pictured in yesterday's blog since I never got around to enjoying it yesterday!

I will be back either later today or tomorrow to recap the rest of the day. Hope you are all having a great Saturday!!

A belated TGIF!

Hi Everyone -

Well, I'm almost always happy when it is Friday - but this week I am especially celebrating! I cannot wait for the weekend!! Tonight I am planning a trip to the gym to get a little more running in this week. I have packed my bag, and brought it into the office with me today so that my clothes and shoes won't get super cold out in the car today!

So, for a foodie re-cap of the day:


Last night I did not think ahead to pre-set the coffee maker, so when I finally got out of bed this morning I had to make the coffee and wait for it to brew. Bleh. Oh well, it worked out. I took my shower and when I was done the coffee pot was full of hot coffee. Yum! I love our Cuisinart coffee maker. I have had it for a few years, and it is a dream. It has a water filter in it as well - which I think is pretty cool. It's like an internal Brita for your coffee maker! I just have the original Cuisinart coffee maker - because when I was in the market for a new one, I had heard not so good things about the grind and brew model. I am very glad that I went ahead and bought the original model!

Hypothetically you are supposed to eat breakfast within the first half hour of waking up. This is sort of a signal to your body that you are ingesting calories and that you are not depriving your body of fuel. I guess that your body could go into "starvation mode" if you do not have breakfast, and thus your body will not start burning calories. The sooner you eat breakfast, the sooner your bod will start burning calories! I am certainly not an expert on this subject - but it is what I have read recently.

So, this morning I woke up at 7AM and did not actually consume breakfast until 9AM. As I was eating my whole wheat English muffin with a tablespoon of Teddy Peanut Butter, I got to thinking about the fact that I had been up for two hours before consuming anything substantial.

I don't really know what to say about this. But it is something I am going to work on - and I will get back to you.


Having breakfast so late worked out for me because I was not hungry until lunch time at 12:30. I had a lovely looking banana at my desk, just in case I needed a mid morning snack. Hopefully I will get around to eating it for my afternoon snack before my run.

At 11:55 Katherine and I set off for our walk. We walked for half an hour. Today was such a better day for our lunchtime walk! It was sunny and the wind was a lot calmer. We were not walking directly into the wind like we were yesterday. The water was so beautiful - it is a picturesque day out!

Two of my colleagues and I ate lunch at 12:30 this afternoon. Here is what I had:

I actually took the time this morning to make a tuna sandwich and to make my carrot sticks - which I was so happy about at lunch! I put spinach on the sandwich, and really enjoyed the carrot sticks. They really are so much better than baby carrots. I do not know why - but baby carrots always taste sweet to me. Carrot sticks are the real thing - and what I grew up on, since we did not have baby carrots when I was bringing a lunch to school as a kid.

I also enjoyed a bag of kettle baked potato chips. Wow, these were amazing. The flavor was rosemary and olive oil and they were divine!


Unfortunately, after the carrots, chips, spinach, and small tuna sandwich, I was still hungry! When I got back to my desk I enjoyed another clementine and a piece of Dove dark chocolate - and more water!



At around 4 o'clock I needed my pre-work out snack. I had a honey graham Zbar. It really hit the spot.



I left work around 5:30 and was at the gym by 6pm. I ran a really easy 2 1/2 miles and then did a quick arm workout with the weights. I was at the gym for an hour. After the gym, I walked down the street from our house to Newtonville Pizza and ordered a cheese pizza for dinner. It was so nice to relax on Friday night and realize that I had survived the week and I had a lovely weekend ahead!

Unfortunately, I was too exhausted and out of it as I had dinner to remember to take a picture. I had two pieces of cheese pizza - and I put our Trader Joe's red pepper flakes and garlic powder on the pizza which made it perfect! So yummy. When Ben got home from his happy hour, he had a pizza for dinner as well. We relaxed for the rest of the night and watched one of our favorite holiday movies, Home For the Holidays. Unfortunately, I fell asleep in the last twenty minutes or so of the movie, and then slept on the couch for an hour. Thankfully Ben woke me up at 11 to get me to go to bed.

I did not get to posting this blog last night (Friday) so I'm posting today (Saturday morning!) - happy weekend everyone!

Thursday's lunch, dinner & cake!

Hi All -

Wow, another stressful day at work and by the time I got home I was totally wiped out. I know I would have probably felt better if I had gone to the gym - but I just did not have it in me today! My body was a bit achy, and I was just exhausted when I got home.

But the re-cap of the day continues:

At lunch my friend Katherine and I went for a walk for 15 or 20 minutes. Walking by the water was sooo windy today! It was cloudy, and looking a bit like rain, so we cut the walk a little short. Meh! I wanted to be able to walk for longer, but we had a one o'clock meeting and still had to get something to eat before hand - so we were a bit short of time today. After the walk, Katherine and I split a sandwich - and due to the lack of time, I totally forgot my camera again! I have no idea why I keep forgetting my camera at lunch - it must be due to the constant LACK OF TIME I have been experiencing ALL WEEK!!

Ok, so the sandwich was really good! But I am so glad that we split it. It was a curry chicken salad wrap - and the wrap was whole wheat. Yum. It's my favorite sandwich our caf offers, I think. The curry chicken has a little bit of mayonnaise, I am sure - but it isn't much, thankfully. The other things in the chicken are celery, red grapes (yay!) and walnuts. It is awesome.

The half a sandwich held me over for a while. At 2:30 I had another clementine - soo good.
At 3:30 I finally got to my whole wheat English muffin with a bit of peanut butter. Wow, that kept me full for a really long time - until dinner around 7:45 tonight.


Before dinner tonight, I borrowed a recipe from Tina at Carrots 'n' Cake. It is a holiday cake recipe - and we can now say that we've made it, tried it and loved it. Thanks Tina! I love this cake because there are spices in it! I did follow the recipe - which called for ginger, nutmeg, vanilla and cinnamon... four of my favorite flavors! Check out how our cake turned out:



While the cake was baking, I put some leftovers into the microwave. The chicken & broccoli with brown rice was better today. This looks like a big plate - but that's because it's a lunch plate - not a dinner plate. Just had to clarify for the record!


Along with dinner, I had a glass of milk with a teaspoon of chocolate syrup. I do not like the taste of dairy milk - so I often flavor it with just a little bit of syrup so I can get the protein and calcium!

During Grey's Anatomy Ben and I enjoyed some of our holiday cake with some Friendly's low fat vanilla ice cream. Yum!


Well, it's 10:40 and I'm pretty much ready for bed. I am so hoping that tomorrow will go quickly, so that I can get to the weekend!

I hope you all have a great Friday. See you tomorrow, my bloggies!