Two Good Choices

   We all have foods that "one-bite-isn't-enough", those foods that like a fire-alarm-gone-wild, just keep assaulting your consciousness. In general, it is not worthwhile having those things around…..

Victory No. 1:

     Now I love cheesecake, and allow myself a slice every Saturday night. In order to avoid cutting WAY too large a slice, I cut the cake in advance, on the day I purchase it. Then it hibernates in my freezer until I pull a slice out each Saturday evening.

    Well, I finished my cheesecake last week, so today I wanted to buy a new one. Entering the bakery I was amazed at the variety offered: with blueberries, with butterscotch, or with crumbs. The blueberry version looked like the blueberries were more jelly than fruit, so I pulled the butterscotch one out of the fridge. I headed to the cashier, and then stopped short.

    "Do you REALLY want to buy that? It has more calories than plain old regular cheesecake . That butterscotch icing cream has just got to be loaded with extra calories….."

    So I turned around and replaced that butterscotch confection with something more realistic for my eating plan.

Victory No. 2:

    In about a week and a half it will be Purim, a holiday when people traditionally send "portions" of food to friends, family, and neighbors. Most people send things like wafers, chocolate, cake, and wine. I send challot (braided bread), and containers of home-made salad. [And sometimes I pass on as well the various sweets I have received from others..…..]   

  One year I made the mistake of baking "nice and fresh" on the night before Purim.  I no longer try to do that, as I want to be awake enough on Purim to hear the scroll of Ester being read, and going to sleep at 3AM just doesn't allow for that….. So I bake in advance, and freeze. Yesterday  was the day I had chosen to accomplish the baking marathon, and  I baked about 20 small challot.

    I used a generous amount of egg yolk to glaze the top of the breads, and was pondering what to do with the egg whites which were left over. In the end, I decided to bake a coconut- chocolate-meringue cake, which not only disposed of the egg whites, but also some coconut that I wanted to finish off. I had used sweetener instead of half of the sugar, and I allowed myself a smidgen of a taste, just to see if the experiment was actually edible. It definitely was. I wanted more, but managed to curb my desire, and headed out the door for my Wednesday night swimming session. I would pack up the cooled bake goods on my return.

   Late that evening I was still short of my daily calorie allowance by 200 calories, and I contemplated having some more of the coconut cake. But in the end, I decided that it wasn't worthwhile to do so: cake should be saved for special occasions. Besides, I WANTED an apple more! Gee how my tastes have changed!