Category: Holiday eating

• Girls just want to have fun, #101daysagymrat

  So on Day 101 at the Y I was 15 pounds lighter than 101 days previously, I co-taught a Silver Sneakers class and then went to a 60-minute kettle bell demonstration. All in my purple tutu with LED lights (3 speeds). Lessons learned: A tutu on big hips sticks straight out like a ruffle on…

  JoAnn Rhodes Grose

  January 3, 2018

  Balance, Building better habits, Depression, Exercise, Holiday eating, Keeping track of what we eat, Making new habits, Senior fitness, Uncategorized, Weight Watchers, Working out

  Cooking Light magazine, healthy eating, Paula Poundstone, weight loss

• Holiday time machine; 12 vegetables of Christmas

  Is there any more effective time machine than a Christmas tree? The first ornament that was mine and only mine was given to me by my maternal grandmother, Christmas of 1952. I pull out that silver cardboard horse to hang it up and, bam!, I’m 7 years old in Watsontown, PA, waiting with dread for the…

  JoAnn Rhodes Grose

  December 10, 2016

  Asian food, Beans, Emo eating, Holiday cooking, Holiday eating, vegetables

  cooking from garden, green beans, healthy eating, Sambal Oelek, Vegetables

• Wonderful cookies, flu season

  You know it, and I know it. We’re going to make some Christmas treats (and, we hope, eat only a few!!). So those treats might as well be wonderful. Luckily, these are called Wonderful Cookies. I ate my first at a book club get-together 2 weeks ago. I got the recipe from the host and then…

  JoAnn Rhodes Grose

  December 3, 2015

  Advent, Baking, Celebrations, Holiday baking, Holiday eating, Recipes, Winter

  Almond, Baking, Boosting immune system, Christmas, Cookies, healthy eating

• We are each other’s memories, home-court habits

  “We are each other’s memories,” said my beautiful, silver-haired friend yesterday morning at book club, and with that remark, she grounded me in my world in a way I’ve never before felt. Until I went to college at 17, my mother, sister and I were kept isolated in a very rural setting by my control-freak…

  JoAnn Rhodes Grose

  November 18, 2015

  Building better habits, Celebrations, Emotional side of weight loss, healthy cooking, Holiday eating, Importance of exercise, Keeping track of what we eat, Roasting vegetables

  cauliflower, healthy eating, Peppers, Potatoes, Rosemary

• Mary Emmerling’s cherry cobbler

  Happy President’s Day! Even though George Washington’s birthday isn’t until next week, I made my usual sour cherry cobblers because, after all, we have no mail today and it’s snowing. In other words, the occasion really demands a festive dessert. This recipe showed up at our wedding almost 27 years ago when our friends the Greenes…

  JoAnn Rhodes Grose

  February 16, 2015

  Desserts, Fruit, Holiday eating

  Cherries, Crunchy cookie crust, Mary Emmerling’s American Country Cooking, Sour cherry cobbler

• Easter dinner, harissa roasted carrots

  Occasionally, I’m reminded of our narrow taste palette. Making and cooking with harissa, a hot pepper paste from North Africa and the Mediterranean, was one of those times. Even before adding the lemon juice, olive oil and garlic, it smelled like nothing I could identify, except the overtones of anise. I needed only a wee…

  JoAnn Rhodes Grose

  April 22, 2014

  Easter, Flavors of the Earth, good food, Holiday cooking, Holiday eating, Middle Eastern foods, myflourishingfoodie.com, Olive oil, Women’s Health magazine

  Carrots, Harissa, Lemon, Mint, Yogurt, Zaatar

• Meyer lemons, baby puff pastry shells and a holiday dessert that doesn’t break the calorie bank

  Disaster  narrowly averted at our house this morning: Slicing into a newly baked loaf of Stoic’s oat bread, I started to walk computer-ward with my usual thick crust that I always log as 200 calories. Just for grins, I weighed it before I left the kitchen. Three ounces! An extra 100  calories that I’ve been scarfing…

  JoAnn Rhodes Grose

  March 30, 2014

  Fruit, Holiday baking, Holiday eating, Keeping track of what we eat, Lemons

  Cake filling, Meyer lemons, Puff pastry cups, Whipped cream

• Sweet Potatoes; Big Brother

  If I could get you to read one book before you head to the table on Thanksgiving, it would be Lionel Shriver’s Big Brother, her intense new novel about the meaning of food (besides survival) in our lives and our relationships. “Not irresistible tastiness but the very failure of food to reward is what drives…

  JoAnn Rhodes Grose

  November 27, 2013

  Big Brother by Lionel Shriver, Holiday cooking, Holiday eating, Seasonal food, Simple foods, vegetables

  cinnamon, healthy eating, obesity, pecans, sweetpotatoes, Taste of Home

• Giving thanks on the road

  So Thanksgiving dinner, I read, can easily amount to 3,000 calories. Yikes, as Leonard’s mother says on “Big Bang Theory” — that’s about TWICE what I’m supposed to eat in a day to lose 1 pound per week. Add to that, we’ll be in the truck for at least 7 hours on Thursday and I…

  JoAnn Rhodes Grose

  November 25, 2013

  Holiday cooking, Holiday eating, Uncategorized, Weight loss, Why overweight?

  healthy eating, obesity, sweetpotatoes, Vegetables

• New year, new me, blah, blah, Brussels sprouts

  Time to get re-revved. I’ve rejoined the YMCA after 6 years away. I can walk on the treadmill, do weight circuits, take water aerobics, spin and zumba classes, swim laps. If only it weren’t so much easier to lie in the recliner, read novels (ooh, like Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior) and eat leftover Christmas candy! Christmas around here really…

  JoAnn Rhodes Grose

  January 21, 2013

  Brussels sprouts, healthy cooking, Holiday eating, Olive oil, Roasting vegetables, Rural life, vegetables

  Back on diet track with veggies, Barbara Kingsolver, Flight Behavior, New Town Bistro, New Year’s