Happy New Year Everyone!

 So how did you survive all of the holiday food? I did, barely and frought the good fight as hard as I could. Lets start with Thanksgiving.

Thank goodness I began the holiday eating spree at my mother's house with Thanksgiving. She gets it. After watching my show and also with her on fight with diabetes, she did her very best to produce a hardy Thanksgiving feast, keeping it real and keeping it as healthy as possible. She prepared all the fixings minus some of the things we had grown use too over the years. Her children including me are all 40 plus and some are 50 plus and we are all doing battle with our genetic medical history. The turkey with stuffing, but no generous seasoning of pork drippings. She seasoned with onions, carrots, celery, a pitch salt and a egg and let the juices of the turkey do the rest. We had turnip greens seasoned with turkey, apple cider vinger , a little sugar, and pepper. Baked sweet potatoes with no marshmallows, string beans, wild rice and a healthier version of mac and cheese. Everything was delicious and we saved ourselves for dessert, which was the tradiitonal sweet potato pie, apple pie and some egg nog. The only dessert that did not make it  after dinner was the coconut pecan pie demonstrated on the video I posted. The pie was my contribution. It was really easy to make but I used a store brought graham crust instead of making one. Otherwise it only took about 10 minutes to mix all the ingredients and throw it in the oven. The result was a delicious pie and only about 210 calories per slice. My brother and I started off with a small slice, we shared, just to test taste. We decided the first slice didn't tell us enough so we took another small slice. By then my mother, my husband, my daugther and niece joined in to "test" the pie. Needless to say it was gone with silence following and a desire for more.

Christmas soon followed and that is where the real challenges began. Christmas day we had dinner at my husband's cousin's house. Again we were among diabetics. My husbands, aunt , two uncles and cousin all carefully monitor what they eat and it shows. They are as slight and agile as cats and diabetes was not caused by diet but is part of the family history. My husband's aunt, mother and uncle are all 80 plus one about to turn ninety and do everything possible through proper diet, exercise and medication to maintain their healthy lives. But hey its Christmas so whose looking at sugar levels. Well his family was and they did a pretty good job. We had the traditional menu of turkey, ham, cauliflower with cheese, turnip greens, mac and cheese (prepared by his very skinny and young cousin) string beans and dinner rolls. The mac and cheese was incredible and so of course I had to watch my portions. Dessert was all home made, chocolate cake, pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie and ice cream. The pumpkin pie was prepared with Splender and barely had an after taste. Again, portion control at play. My husband's 80 year old aunt was faithful to her Crystal Light, while the rest of us took our chances on diet soda and ice tea.

The day we went to my mother's to be with all of my relatives. My mother kept it pretty light roast beef, turnip greens and corn bread one dessert  a pineapple crump cake purchase at a bakery. We all had one serving of everything, just enough.

On Saturday we visited with some old friends, transplants from the deep south. OK this is where I lost my way. Keep in my mind they grew up in the home of soul food and were very faithful to all the traditions. Now, I was their guest so I couldn't say no to the large deadly feast set before me. Kale (seasoned with bacon grease), ham, turkey, potato salad and the old downhome version of mac and cheese and cheese and cheese and more cheese, with a side of corn bread. Ok , I am not gonna lie, it was good, IT WAS ALL GOOD, but again I was defending my self with portion control. The only thing I allowed myself another small helping of was the greens with the corn bread, really, I swear. We each had a slice of my friend's homemade sweet potato pie, but my husband and I avoided the sweet potato and coconut pie. We patted ourselves on the back.

The next few days we were in hiding at home, clearing out palates with water, fruits and veggies. But a New Year's Eve party was lurking. Stay tuned for more -"New Year's Eve, the Ultimate Death Trap"