Halloween and Movies - Story time

I was told a while back to write down some of my life stories.  I've been thinking of where to start, and until now I was stuck on looking for one story that I had previously written.  But this month holds a holiday that my family did not celebrate like every other American family, we did have a small family party, but we did not Trick or Treat for Halloween.  Dressing up to go to the church Harvest Festival was a real treat, and did not happen that often.  Now most of my class mates teased me for not dressing up, but I liked how we celebrated much better.  First of all, since we did not dress up (with the exception of the church event) my mom would let us skip school that day.  I loved that, and then she would take us to the mall to get Mrs Fields cookies and Julius Cesar drinks.  My parents would then get us our favorite candy to eat, we'd make caramel apples and watch movies by firelight.  It seemed to rain quite often on Halloween.

Our movies got progressively scary as we got older.  So we started out with the Peanuts cartoon The great pumpkin.  Well it was not long before we began to watch Abbot and Costello's Meet Frankenstein. 

I happen to love this film, as I love all of their films.  But eventually this was just to funny and not scary at all, and so we then moved on to CharadeCharade, Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn in the Alfred Hitchcock film.  The suspense was great, and I just loved Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. 

I just watched this film tonight, it's a classic.  But eventually we did have to throw in another movie, I mean we did stay up later and need new things to keep it all interesting.  So we shook things up a bit by adding in another Audrey Hepburn film, this time it was Wait Until Dark. 

Wait Until Dark

This movie still has me jumping in surprise in one place, my DH laughs at me since he never jumps.  He really has only watched any of these to humor me, he'd rather not watch anything filmed before the 80's.  The next movie thrown in for fun, and to make it a double feature night was Death Trap, another suspense film. 

Video clip - Death Trap Trailer

Charade (1963) [Remastered Edition]

In my second grade year, I chose not to be checked out of school, it was the only year.  I went to school and watched the kids parade in their costumes.  I did not have a costume, and so my teacher kept trying to get me to do all the things the other kids were doing including dressing me in a costume.  I was very uncomfortable with that especially as this teacher and I already had bad blood between us.  The whole day was uncomfortable and I was actually defended by a friend of mine in the grade above me, Emily.  I can not remember the details, but I was unhappy and she came over and took care of the situation.

Now, I'm all grown up, and my DH grew up in a family that felt similarly about Halloween celebrations, and we have decided that our kids will go to the church celebrations, but not trick or treat, and I'm going to take them out of class that day and we will make our own memories.  I treasure those times, and even now I wish that I could take that day off, and not dress up for work, because now that I'm grown my employer feels the need to dress up for Halloween, and in an office of 10 you get noticed real quick when you don't do what the boss asks.  I miss my mom at Halloween, for our shopping trips and candy apple making times, and even when my sister and her made pumpkin seeds. I was not a big fan, and did not help much with that food item. 

I will get into greater detail in my stories in future posts, but for now these are some of my Halloween memories.

Cauliflower Pizza Crust - PCOS friendly

 Cauliflower Pizza Crust

 Cauliflower Pizza Crust

• 1/4 of a head of cauliflower, steamed until fork-tender, then chopped fine (you can also use the fake rice method); you'll need a yield of 1 cup of loosely packed, finely chopped/grated cauliflower
• 1/2 cup low-fat shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup egg whites
• Salt, to taste

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Spread onto a baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper* (you could also grease the pan with olive oil or butter if you're averse to cooking spray). Use a spatula to form the mixture into a circle. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until edges are nice and crispy (and I mean nice and crispy - they'll be very brown, almost burned). Remove from the oven and flip putting the crust on another sheet of parchment and cook another 5-10 min. Remove from oven top with your favorite toppings*; change the oven from bake to broil. Broil the toppings until cooked through and the cheese is melted.

My crust with pesto thrown on top

 I added Turkey bacon, tomato, mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese

Added the rest of my toppings

 After adding the toppings, put it bake into the oven to broil until cooked and the cheese is melted.

After broiling and cutting into slices

The finished pizza

I found this little gem on Fare to Remember's site, and I have tried other dishes of hers and loved them. She has more fabulous pictures, and two other pizza toppings. I used what I had on hand, and will try other versions later, especially when I have tomato and basil together.  I did not use pizza sauce since those typically have more sugar and carbs than I need in my diet, and pesto is just delicious as well as much, lower in carbs.
Now, to be fair, I did not make my husband try this.  He got a whole wheat Bobali crust pizza, with the pizza sauce, pepperoni and mushrooms, covered with the pizza cheese mix.
He gets nervous when I make things that appear to be to healthy.  One day he will try it, but not this time around. Fare to Remember had other who tried it and liked it, her guests were proof enough for me to try it, and I liked it enough to offer it to guests along with the regular pizza version as well.  Since you will have three fours of a cauliflower left, I would try the fake rice, roasted, and the mashed cauliflower as well.

*I changed this step after trying the parchment paper 2/11, this helps the crust release easily, and allow you to flip the crust assuring that it will bake through the middle.

Trip to Lake Tahoe with the family

Little M. playing dress up

Posing

Mother and Daughter

The Lake, just before the rain

Playing in the sand

Shopping!

Playing games

The whole crowd

group shot

It was great to get away for a weekend.  We all had a great time together.  David and I took off to have dinner on Sunday afternoon.

The view from Harrah's on the 18th floor is spectacular.  David seems to prefer the view of the golf course, but I prefer the view from this side, of the Lake.  

One day it would be nice to have both halves of my family together, but soon we will be visiting my sisters in Utah.  I did say sisters, it was not a typo.  My family knows of my blood sister Blessed Rain, mother of my of my niece Prissy and nephew Little Man, but my BFF has been rather adopted into our family.  She really did not have a choice, we claimed her as a sister soon after she and I became friends.  I will post pictures of that adventure as well once it happens.

For now though, here is another view of Lake Tahoe

I get caught up

No, not me, uh huh....well maybe....okay, okay! I'll admit it, I get caught up in the infomercials.  This is how i got caught up into my Yoga Booty Ballet, and have been a fan of Beachbody ever since.  This is also how I found out about the dryer balls, and other assorted things I have accumulated around our house.  My latest purchase you may is, was the "Cami Secret".  These are like dickies, my mother told me about them, but I never had one.  The name itself was enough to make me not look for them.  But then again, they found me, all cute and lacy, and all I had to do was call or go online.

I have now worn these for three days in a row.  These have done a great job instead of pinning and camisoles.  I will say that it will help having a skinny strap on your bra though, although you can do a bit wider one, it will just be a bit tight to put on.

I never got the Cream, blue and brown ones though.  I have the bright colors and the animal prints, we'll see if I ever use those.  But for now, I have used the black on the most often since I wear black often, and a red one was not included.

oh, I get nothing if you decide to purchase these, I'm not a paid spokesperson. I just get caught up in the excitement of As Seen On TV.

Pudding with Almond Breeze - Hungry Girl Style!

I am a fan of Hungry Girl,  How can yo not be with all the easy low cal and low carb recipes that she comes up with.  This one is a special favorite of mine now.  I tried to make pudding the other week with Almond milk, and although it was a thicker consistency the flavor was awful and it was not worth you trying yourself.  Today I see that Hungry Girl had also tried this and found what a pudding disaster Almond Milk made.  It's the only thing Almond milk can not handle.  But they found a work around, it's not instant but it's pudding!

 

45 Calories, 5 Minutes, Any Flavor!

(1 half-cup serving: approx. 40 - 45 calories, 1.5g fat, 93-103mg sodium, 6g carbs, 0.5g fiber, 0g sugars, 0.5g protein = 1 Point)

Pick your pudding pleasure! Chocolate Covered Strawberry? Vanilla Mango? English Toffee Coffee? Not only are these pudding snacks only 40 - 45 calories per serving, but you can create limitless flavor combos in five minutes. Top with some Cool Whip Free, or dip fruit in them while they're still warm. Yum!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups Unsweetened Almond Breeze; Vanilla, Chocolate, or Original

2 tbsp. cornstarch

2 oz. Torani Sugar Free Syrup (or another sugar-free syrup); any flavor

1 tsp. Splenda

Directions:

In a medium-sized nonstick saucepan, combine all ingredients. Stir well, and set stove to medium heat. Stirring constantly, allow mixture to reach a boil (approximately 5 minutes, depending on if Almond Breeze was previously refrigerated). Once mixture has reached a boil and thickened, remove from heat. Spoon mixture into three dishes and place in fridge until pudding has cooled and set (several hours). Makes 3 half-cup servings.

Original post found here: www.hungry-girl.com/girls/biteoutdetails

If you don't subscribe to her emails, check out her website often.  There are lots of good things to eat there.  Although some incorporate more packaged items than I use, there are plenty of things there for everyone.

Birthday Party for DH BFF

..."It's your Birthday"...

Family Shot!

Happy Birthday Bill!