Square Pegs

Holiday Baking Doesn't Have to Ruin Your Diet!

If you are like me, you love holiday baking!  This activity, however, doesn't have to be the downfall of your diet or plan to stay trim over the holidays.   Here are some tips that have worked for me this holiday season:

   

1.  Plan ahead for your baking!  Start your day off with some physical activity and chop fresh veggies and fruits to snack on while baking.  Treat yourself to some exotic, tropical fruits that you may not always buy since this will feel like a treat in itself!

2. Don't bake hungry!  The smell of brownies, cookies, and candies will be a lot more tempting if your tummy is rumbling.  Eat a nice, healthy breakfast and plan healthy snacks throughout your baking day rather than snacking on your confections.

3.  Drink lots of water!  If you are spending long hours on your feet in the kitchen with a hot oven, you may become dehydrated without knowing it.  Often times dehydration is mistaken for hunger.  Keep some water handy and be sure to have an 8 ounce glass been each batch of baked goods.

4.  Remember that even little tastes count!  Although licking the beaters or having a taste of batter throughout the cooking process may seem harmless, over a whole day of baking these little tastes add up to big calories!  Have a designated taster at your house that will give you feedback if you need it.  Spouses, children, and holiday visitors are usually more than willing to lend their taste-buds!

5.  Have a plan for your baked goods!  Sometimes just the baking process is too much fun to resist, but filling your house with tempting treats may sabotage your weight loss efforts.  Hand made baked goods are wonderful Christmas gifts for neighbors, friends, your children's teachers, and various other folks you encounter regularly. Find an outlet for your baking and spread the holiday cheer!

6.  Don't beat yourself up if you slip up a little!  If you just can't resist eating some of your creations, don't let the guilt overwhelm you.  Simply make time to fit in an extra workout or do a little extra cardio during your next workout.  But whatever you do, don't try to "fix" your slip up by skipping meals!

 

Christmas Come Early!

Christmas is still 2 weeks away but I feel like jolly old St. Nick has already been to our house!  Although we've now logged 6 months on the island of Guam, our Japanese friends are still sending us fun stuff from our former home and I have been incredibly touched by their thoughtful gifts!  We are so lucky to have made such wonderful friends during our time in Japan!  Thanks to their thoughtful, generous efforts I've even been able to keep up my Kit Kat collection in Guam!

   

John especially loves his new samurai "hat"! 

Christmas prep around the Lykins house continues to go well as we are eagerly anticipating the arrival of my parents on Christmas Eve!  School finals for me start on Saturday, and these will be my last classes of 2008!  I'm really looking forward to holiday break and having some time to catch up to John in the new Lich King expansion for WoW! 

Today I start my official holiday baking and I just can't wait!  The USO is having two big cookie events before Christmas day and so I'll be cooking up a storm to provide base families and service members with tasty baked treats to commemorate the season.  I've always loved holiday baking, so it is a real treat for me to have an outlet for my hobby rather than just increasing the waistlines of my friends and family!

 

Winter Togetherness

I can't believe how time has flown over the past few weeks!  With Christmas now less than a month away I've been busy making holiday cards, Christmas shopping, baking, entertaining off island guests, and attempting to stay on top of housework and homework simultaneously, and still fit in some volunteer days down at the USO.  To be honest, I love all of the activity and the busyness of the season, so the hustle and bustle has been nice.  I was down for about a week with a really nasty cold, but now I'm back on track and really enjoying all the holiday decorations and activities available both on the surrounding bases and out in the local community. 

  

Today John and I were supposed to go horseback riding near Ritidian Point, but there was a miscommunication between the MWR tour office and the ranch, so we ended up with a free day to explore the island.  I already had my camera on hand, so we decided to visit some of the nice north island beaches and view some wildlife.  Boy did we spot some great local critters; crabs, wild pigs, a big fat monitor lizard sunning on the road, skinks, various crabs, and lots of butterflies.

     

It was awesome to have an exploring day together since in Japan most of my exploring was done without John along to enjoy the discovery. We also found some coconut wine that I'm chilling in the fridge at the moment and I can't wait to enjoy that later on this evening.

 

Last night we had a fabulous time out with friends at our favorite local restaurant, Carmen's Cha Cha Cha!, then we viewed local Christmas lights in Skinner Plaza.  I really thought it would be tough to get that Christmas feeling in such a tropical climate, but Christmas is definitely in the air here on Guam!

   

As we have been enjoying all of the amusements, celebrations, and tasty foods of the season, both John and I have noted that what we are relishing most is experiencing it together!  Although life on Guam has not been a cake walk, the fact that we can experience it together has made a world of difference!  Having John home and entertaining our first true visitors in years has been such a refreshing experience for both of us.  We are feeling pretty blessed this holiday season!

Halloween Hiatus

When taking a look at the Hallmark calendar, Halloween is definitely one of my favorite holidays to celebrate and decorate for.  It is usually my practice to go all out, but for some reason this year I haven't even as much as carved a pumpkin or put up a single decoration.  I'm not really sure why, but I think it may have something to do with it feeling like perpetual summer here and fall just seems like a distant memory rather than an observable season.  I've been enjoying the joys of fall weather vicariously through my blog buddies' postings.

John is underway this week and my big plans for Halloween are a 5K fun run and then hula class afterward.  It should be a busy week though between VIP's at the USO and visiting ships arriving today from Yokosuka, so that means lots of volunteer time for me over the next week.  School is going well and I'm nearing the end of my current classes and will move on to my next set, which will carry me through to Christmas break in December.  I just can't believe the holidays are coming up so fast, but since it means friends and family will be coming to visit, it cheers me up a lot! 

Bagpipes & Green Beer

One of the best things about the Yokohama area is that it is so Internationally friendly and there is never a celebratory opportunity missed!  Saturday was a perfect day for a parade as we woke up to a cool early spring breeze and a sky full of sunshine! 

John and I enjoyed a lazy morning together before dressing up in our finest green attire and heading down to Motomachi Street to meet up with friends for the parade.  John ended up being the subject of many photographers who seemed quite interested in his fuzzy green beard and pointy elf ears.

After enjoying the short parade, we started our own little parade heading down to Benny's Place where we all congregated, waiting for our favorite pub to open so we could dig into some tasty grub and chug some green beer!  Within 10 minutes of opening the place was nearly packed since it is one of the most popular post-parade hang outs each year. 

Last St. Patrick's Day I was the 'Irish Car Bomb' queen, but given my weight loss goals before moving, I just sipped some green beer and cheered on those wishing to claim the title for their own this year.

I may have not been the 'Car Bomb Queen' this year, but John certainly claimed the title of  'Wing King' as he munched down on some of his all time Benny's Place favorites.  We had a great time celebrating early since on the 17th John will be away from home, and I'll be at Fuji Safari Park sipping on green tea rather than green beer.  Happy early St. Patrick's Day to all!

Xin Nein Kuai Le- Happy New Year!

Whether you celebrate according to the Gregorian or lunar calendar, enjoying Chinese New Year means good smells, delicious foods, and fantastic sights to see for people of all cultures!

With John away and and afternoon to myself, I decided to strap on my walking shoes, pack a snack, some yen, my camera, and hit the streets in search of New Year festivities.  After about a 45 minute walk I found myself in the heart of Chinatown sipping hot milk tea and enjoying a steaming hot pork bun while surrounded by firecrackers, brightly colored lanterns, and thousands of fellow revelers.

I hit the information center to find out when and where the lion dances were starting and found I had about half an hour to kill, so I enjoyed some shopping and managed to root out some wonderful goodies to bring home (a new flavor of KitKat, and some terrific incense).  Huge masses running down the street with their cameras at the ready was my signal to click in to "sheep mode" and follow suit.  The Lion Dance is an important part of Chinese New Year, and is accompanied by loud firecrackers, drums, and cymbals which tie into the legend of Nian.  The Lion Dance is meant to bring luck, prosperity, and good fortune to families and businesses.  During the dance, the climax is the "CaiQuing" or 'picking of the green', which is simply veggie greens attached to a red packet containing money, which the lion "eats" and then spits out signifying his blessing and the overflowing abundance of good fortune and wealth in the coming year.

Between the massive crowds and increasingly cold temperatures of early evening, I decided to make it a short trip and head home after about an hour and a half.  Celebrations will continue well into the night in Yokohama's Chinatown! 

Meanwhile, I plan to do a little New Year's celebrating of my own, and have all the ingredients for a solo fun night in; new incense, a tasty new seasonal KitKat, Netflix, a lemon Chuhi, and my all-time favorite garlic dressing for my veggie salad!

Happy Year of the Brown Earth Rat to all!  For a little bit of New Year fun at home, follow this link to make your own Chinese lantern!

Early Christmas

Given that the USS Scrooge...uh, I mean the USS Stethem has given us a few unplanned schedule changes, we decided to do an early Christmas today.  Being a 7th Fleet Navy couple, we learned a long time ago not to schedule our celebrations by the Hallmark calendar. 

We had a great time digging into our gifts, and it was a very Japanese Christmas!  We got several Japanese themed gifts that we just love from our friends and each other!  I'm also excited about the digital photo fame we got from my folks and I'll be sure to post photos of that once we've got it set up!  I was also thrilled to receive the Epicurean wine and champagne preservation system, along with a professional wine servers corkscrew with sommelier knife that I've been mentioning to John all year!  Hooray!

Although we really miss seeing our families, we have them in our hearts want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! 

Holiday Melting Pot

This holiday season has been "double the fun" culinarily speaking  since I get to cook and bake all of my American Christmas favorites, while at the same time learning and practicing how to cook Japanese osechi foods for New Year!  I'm going to work on posting all of my recipes on my cooking blog, so feel free to check them out over the next few days.  I'm officially on vacation from school, so I'm enjoying all my new found (although temporary) leisure time!

I've made everything from gingerbread, white chocolate & macadamia nut cookies, and Chex Mix to grilled squid and chicken rolls with burdock root, carrot and green beans!  It really has been so much fun! <ps- I've been so proud of John for trying everything I set down in front of him!!>

Thanks to Misako san, I've been able able to practice some osechi cooking in preparation for New Year!  Yesterday we ate ozoni soup with mochi, and it was delicious!  In fact, the mochi was so tasty I'm going to go out and buy some today so I can snack on some before oshogatsu (New Year).

Thanksgiving in Kyoto

This Thanksgiving has been our first in Japan that John has not been underway!  We decided to take advantage of the Stethem's brief time in the yards to take a short holiday trip to Kyoto.

I've been wanting to visit Kyoto since first arriving in Japan, and so I was overjoyed to finally make the trip with John, and it couldn't have been more beautiful!  Our trip coincided perfectly with peak kouyou season in Kyoto, so we really got to experience some gorgeous scenery and fall colors. 

The Japanese maples were just breathtakingly beautiful!  Out trip was kind of a whirlwind of activity and temple visits, but we had such a wonderful time having some downtime together and being so far away from everything Stethem! 

Tricky Treats & Little Feets

Modern American Halloween has evolved over the last 75 years to be just as popular with adults as it has traditionally been with children. Japan is quickly catching the Halloween bug as the holiday grows in popularity each year, and this year's Halloween parade in Kawasaki demonstrated just how excited our Eastern neighbors are becoming with this old American cultural staple! However, I still get tickled pink spending Halloween night with candy craving kids! 

As much fun as I have at masquerade balls and being a grown up during the ancient Celtic New Year season, I still remember the fun of being a kid, running from house to house all night long filling up a pillow case with chocolate kisses and licorice bits.   One of my favorite Halloween activities is still trick-or-treat, even though now I'm standing on the other end of the porch stoop.

John was on duty Halloween night, but I was far from lonely as I had some of my favorite local little ones over to celebrate an All-American Halloween!  Negishi base was positively swarming with costumed kids in search of the candy grail.  It was too much fun!

We're also sending lots of love to our favorite far-away trick-or-treats whose goodie bags we want to fill with hug and kisses!

  We hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween!