World Diabetes Day (or how the Browns spent the weekend?)

So, November 14th is World Diabetes Day - bet ya never knew that, huh?

The American Diabetes Association in Colorado hosted an Adult Type 1 and Family retreat weekend at Beaver Creek, CO. We had a researcher speak about the research he is doing with mice (using all the great donations to me, your RED RIDER?!?!?) and the progress he has made. It was absolutely amazing! I was on a panel of adult diabetics who spoke to the children

and then another panel that spoke to the parents. There was also a discussion between spouses of us diabetics and all that they deal with which sounded REALLY interesting but I was busy talking to the kids at that point. WOW - lots going on!

At dinner on Saturday night I spoke to the group about Team WILD. I didn't realize all the emotions that parents go through until our Team WILD dinner after the 1/2 Ironman when one of the parents said (through her tears of joy) 'When my toddler was diagnosed with diabetes I never could have imagined that this was EVEN POSSIBLE' I wanted these parents to know that 15 of us, with 300 - yes, THREE HUNDRED YEARS - of diabetes between us did just what so many people in our lives thought our disease would prevent.

I hope I inspired just a tiny bit of hope... I hope.

We also met up with our friends Emily and Dave and Tucker got to meet Carter!

It was wonderful to hang out with them in the hot tub and watch their little water baby splash and play! My hope is that he never has to deal with diabetes.... He (and every other non-diabetic) is why I am now involved with these groups that help to cure and improve the life of diabetics and their support network - cause this disease doesn't just affect us and that is what I walked away with this weekend.... until next weekend?

I think it worked out

Some video, some taken by me 1 mile away on 20x zoom. The other... I think you can tell who.

Salad for breakfast, take 2!

Well, I got a few 'complaints' that salad for breakfast the first time was just "normal" breakfast thrown onto some lettuce.... so here's another stab at it! Enjoy!

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Ingredients

* 1 small head iceberg lettuce, torn
* 1/2 bunch green leaf lettuce, torn
* 1 med. vidalia onion, sliced
* 1 small package dried cheese tortellini, cooked al dente
* 1/2 pound bacon, cut into half pieces and cooked
* 4 hardboiled eggs, cooked, cooled and sliced
* 1 large tomato, seeded and chopped coarse
* 1 cup toasted croutons (I make my own but bought will suffice)
* DRESSING:
* 1/2 cup plain yogurt
* 1/2 cup mayo
* 1/4 cup buttermilk
* 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
* 1 tsp. dill weed
* 1 tbs. white wine vinegar
* 1 tbs dried minced onion
* 2 cloves garlic, pressed
* YOU CAN ALSO add a small amount of sugar to this dressing if you like that taste. I prefer it without for this particular salad.


Directions

1. Mix dressing in small bowl, set aside
2. place torn lettuce mixture into bottom of large salad bowl.
3. Top with sliced onion.
4. Drizzle small amount of dressing onto lettuce and onions. About 1/3 of the dressing.
5. Layer tortellini onto lettuce and onions.
6. Layer chopped tomato.
7. Drizzle with about 1/3 more dressing.
8. Layer sliced boiled eggs and bacon and finish drizzling the dressing over all. Top with toasted croutons.
9. Let chill for about an hour then DIG IN!
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CHANGES I MADE:
fat free plain yogurt
fat free mayo
1/2 cup skim buttermilk
NO dried onion
No tomatoes, croutons, or tortolinni
Extra lean turkey bacon - 3 slices total
added 1/4 cup per serving of low fat mozarella cheese
Didn't CHILL for an hour - who can wait that long for BREAKFAST?!?!?!?!
Added the bonus english muffin (Thomas Better Start - 1 WW point)

WW points w/o muffin (made my way) = 4 points
WW point w/ muffin (made my way) = 5 points

Enjoy!
~karyn

To make Jamie proud - salad for breakfast!

So, my trainer, Jamie Atlas, has started making weekly 'challenges'. This week's challenge was to eat two 'new to me' vegetables OR have salad for breakfast. Well, I LOVE breakfast and I like salad... so.... here is the recipe!
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Salad Lyonnaise

Yields: 2 servings (but this recipe can be easily doubled)
Time to make: ~30 minutes

What you need:

* 2 tbsp. olive oil
* ½ lb. potatoes, cubed
* ¼ lb. slab bacon, cubed — I really recommend you seek out the slab bacon for this recipe, as the chewy cubes of fat are part of what makes this salad unique.
* ½ tbsp. shallot or onion, minced
* 3 cups salad greens
* ¼ cup red wine vinegar
* 1 tsp. Dijon mustard
* Salt and pepper to taste
* 2 eggs, poached — click here to learn how to poach eggs

1. Divide the greens among 2 salad plates.
2. Heat the olive oil over medium.
3. Add the bacon and cook until the fat renders, 2 minutes or so.
4. Add the potatoes and onion.
5. Continue cooking until the potatoes are browned and the bacon is crisp, 10-15 minutes.
6. Mix the vinegar and mustard.
7. Add the vinegar mixture to the skillet and bring just a boil, stirring to mix with the bacon and potatoes.
8. Season to taste.
9. Pour the mixture over the greens.
10. Top each portion with a poached egg.
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MY CHANGES
I used no oil in mine, I substituted lean turkey bacon for 'real' bacon and ended up with a 5point Weight Watcher dish. I added a Thomas 'Better Start' 100 calorie english muffins with spray-on 'I can't believe it's not butter' for 1 additional point. I also fried the eggs rather than poaching. Prepare the eggs however you would like!

6 points - delicious! For those that don't follow weight watchers or have no idea what I'm talking about... This meal was approximately 300 calories. WAY more than I normally have for breakfast but worth it and very filling!

Thanks for driving me to salad for breakfast Jamie! I'll see you tomorrow morning to work off those 300 calories now!

~karyn

Still Snowing

Overnight adds to the total!

Blizzard twenty oh niner?

Yep, I wasn't brave enough to fight the traffic, stuck at home all day. Karyn went to work, but came home early.

Two lows have set up east of Denver. One feeds the other... Sound like the blizzard of 03? The difference being, the eastern Low is not over Texas this time... it's north, feeding us Nebraska moisture. It might pass tomorrow.

He got his ski back!

Closing day you saw this:


This year not opening day, but he got his ski back!

What good old times we had last year!