What's on your (PHOTO) Friday Menu, RNYers?

Happy Black Friday, Friends! I hope all of my American buddies had a great holiday yesterday and everyone else had a great Thursday, haha.

I had a really nice day. We were busy all morning cleaning and prepping food, and guest came at 1pm. We had originally been expecting 14 people but illness, unexpected commitments, etc, dropped us down to 8 guests, and it was pretty perfect. Last year we had 24 people and that was just too much... 8 was excellent! Today I am going to relax! We earned it. I want to be lazy, online shop from the couch, and then to go to the movies (flick tbd--I'm letting Grim choose!).

Here are my charcuterie plates! I loved how they came out and everything was delicious but it was waaaay to much food for 8 people, let alone the actual dinner to come!

Accountability: I definitely had too many calories... I wasn't really trying to stick to a plan... I had little bites from my appetizer plates all morning as I was making them and cooking. Mostly meats and cheese, of course. For dinner I had a big piece of turkey and small bites of mashed potatoes, corn, and green beans. And for dessert (over about 6 hours) I had 1/2 piece of pear pie, a peanut butter cookie, and a few iced sugar cookies... I can't be sure that I added it all up correctly, but my calculations in MyFitnessPal = 2210 calories but a whopping 209 carbs and 97g fat... yeesh. Maybe there is a trip to the damn gym in my future today after all?

QOTD: What are you most thankful for this year? It probably sounds terrible but I am most thankful to be out of that awful job I had last year. I was surrounded by negativity and disfunction every minute, and I am so happy to be in a "normal" environment again.

Good morning Julia and all of my fellow RnYers! Happy Black Friday!

JB, your charcuterie trays look scrumptious! I made some too! I forgot I had some mini pumpkins, or would have added them in for fun! Anyway, I had a lovely Thanksgiving. I was really busy on Wednesday so only had a very few hours at night to bake - I made jalapeño cornbread, orange-cranberry glazed mini/muffins, and almond-stuffed, bacon-wrapped dates before collapsing into bed. Thanksgiving morning I assembled three charcuterie trays, two of which are shown below. I was running late and forgot to snap the third one, but it had various crackers and breadsticks, a really pretty dip shaped into a ball that I completely covered with pomegranate seeds - it looked encrusted with glowing rubies! Plus shrimp, smoked oysters (found them at last), and smoked salmon.

I drove down to my DIL's mom's place, and together we drove to another mom's house in my DIL's extended family. On the way we stopped to see my kiddo and her daughter (my DIL) - they just bought and just moved into their first house on Tuesday! It?s a wonderful house, warm and inviting, and they are both so adorably excited about it. Then the 4 of us piled back into Linda's car and drove on. It was all family and a great time was had by everyone! I had some of the cheeses I brought (even a bite of the Stilton with apricots and of the baked ricotta with blood orange and chocolate chips (just a tiny taste - it was way too much like frosting for me to feel it was safe to eat!). I think my favorite was the peppered cheddar, and that sharp, firm manchego. I had some prosciutto and some shrimp too, plus some of the excellent turkey and this great keto green bean dish with mushrooms and bacon that one of my DIL?s sister?s brought. No dessert, but I did have a creamy cup of coffee - and two glasses of wine! I rarely drink - maybe 2-3 times a year - but it was an excellent wine and hey, it was Thanksgiving.

QOTD: I am so very thankful for my family, both those I love here in earth, plus those I love who have passed on. I'm incredibly fortunate to have the family I have!

I'm still in bed (it's just past 5) and haven't weighed myself yet, but hope I won't see an uptick. I honestly didn't eat all that much so fingers crossed that not much damage was done, despite yesterday's various cheeses and the wine!

First: there will be coffee! Plus several mugs of tea. I like the robust caffeinated nature of coffee, but for sheer hydration, tea is a softer way to go.

B: Some of that prosciutto, and a little TJ?s plain nonfat Greek yogurt, with SF, carb-free syrup.

L: tuna packet, a hard-boiled egg, and a little Skinny Girl Buttermilk Ranch dressing

D: Roast beef and cauliflower OR some hot-and-sour soup.

Have a wonderful Friday, my friends!I

P.S., I keep trying to replace question marks here with m intended apostrophes, but this is my 3rd attempt. If it doesn't work this ime, so be it.

I get you about the monocultured news. I'm not sure how anyone could think that only one news source is accurate and the other hundreds of news sources all over the world are wrong, but... clearly some people believe that. It's a head scratcher, for sure...

I agree - if you only get your input from one source, you are more easily led by the nose! But I deleted that whole long paragraph from my post. Just because I like talking politics doesn't mean others do, and I don't want to offend any folks here who are on the other side.

you weren't really talking politics, you just mentioned you had a discussion and brought up the monocultured vs more diversely-sourced information. I'm sure we could all guess what your side is based on what you said, but you didn't directly state it.

Those are beautiful You have a lot of talent. Thanks for posting

Thank you!

Good morning, everybody!

We had a really nice Thanksgiving. I survived Fran on Wednesday afternoon, although I was huffing and puffing my way through. Yesterday morning we all got up (except for my older son) and went to the Turkey Trot. My hopes for breaking 30 minutes were dashed on the first hill. After I finished, I got a chill waiting for the rest of the family to cross the finish line, so we went to Starbucks. Oh, and did I mention that I had tollhouse cookies for breakfast?

We went into the city to have dinner with our friends another families. Everything was wonderful. Somebody brought a carrot cake from Gibsons, which is a steakhouse in Chicago. (pictured below) Unfortunately, I had about a quarter of a piece and did not feel well afterwards. Fortunately, it was not enough to experience a full dumping episode, but I had to go sit on the couch for a half an hour.

After that, I may have drank a little Whistle Pig.

I just put enough into My Fitness Pal to keep my streak alive.

Today, we are headed for Kansas City to attend the Baylor/ KU football game tomorrow. Hopefully, I can convince the family to go to Arthur Bryants for barbecue this afternoon.

QOTD: I am thankful that my children are growing up to be such good young people and that they are all home for the holiday.

Pictures from the race and the really big carrot cake.

Breakfast: Chaffle

Snack: peanuts

Lunch: brisket

Dinner: maybe leftover brisket

Have a great day, all!

I would have ate that cake and been sick too. My DH doesn't understand how I can go from fine to taking a bite of something and feeling like I'd like to curl by the toilet and be left alone. Just something I can't explain an he does not understand how it makes me happy.

I hope it's warmed up a bit there, when I drove through it was not quite sleeting/not quite raining but super duper foggy.