The expedition that this paragraph depicts occurred more in my mind than in actual miles traveled. When I looked out on my front yard this morning, I was impressed by the beauty of the snow-covered cedar trees that had taken on the shape of cones due to the weight of the snow. Being a person blessed with an excellent appetite, when I put the words "snow" and "cone" together in the same sentence, my mind immediately pictured the image of a favorite childhood treat---snow cones. But remembering that I am trying to limit my intake of concentrated sweets by following the First Place 4 Health (
www.FirstPlace4Health.com) program, I began brainstorming on how I could make a snow cone without all the calories. That made me recall how several years ago, I sprayed fruit-flavored, sugar-free syrup on "frost blossoms" from my front yard's unusual plants, known as frost weeds. That was a fun experiment, so I started experimenting with the abundant snow around my house, and came up with an incredibly simple, low-calorie version of a snow cone. I simply stirred in the Torani sugar-free, raspberry flavoring syrup I had in the pantry, into a big bowl of freshly-gathered snow from outside, used an ice cream scoop, and "voila!", I had a delicious mid-day snack! Torani has a huge variety of these sugar-free flavoring syrups, which you can sometimes find locally, or order from their website at
www.torani.com (Another common brand is Davinci.)
I can't conclude this post without completing this "expedition" my mind went on: When I remembered my First Place 4 Health commitment, I realized I needed to also see if I could remember the First Place memory verse for this week, so here it is: "But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57 This could also be the favorite verse for the "Who dat nation" (aka, any of the thousands of New Orleans Saints fans) who are joyously celebrating their SuperBowl victory this year! Miles of snowy smiles! Tricia
