Lose Weight Just by Reading This Post! (YMMV)

Sneaky Little Buggers

Day 4 of Sugar-Free January.

Best Moment So Far: I'll keep you posted.

Worst Moment So Far: discovering the two dozen M&M cookies my mother-in-law sent home with us in the freezer. Why didn't I rummage through the thing on December 31?

For all you dieting readers out there, I found this good tidbit: Science Digest claims that we can reduce our food consumption by just imagining we're eating the food. I don't know about this one. Supposedly, their studies found that "people who repeatedly [imagine] the consumption of a morsel of food -- such as an M&M or cube of cheese -- subsequently [consume] less of that food than did people who imagined consuming the food a few times or performed a different but similarly engaging task." A different but similarly engaging task like slobbering over an issue of Bon Appetit? Or foraging in the freezer and licking the outside of Ziplocs full of M&M cookies? Clarification, please.

One sugar-free appetite-killer that might also bring you relief from arthritis is the home remedy of Gin-Soaked Raisins. I never heard of these things until some women brought it up at church today. Results seem to be mixed, but everyone agrees that if you use cheap gin, the raisins burn all the way down, and the discomfort is enough to distract you from your arthritis, at the very least.

And lastly, you may think I've forgotten my Amish cooking foray, but I haven't. I admit I got burned by "Mrs. Gottshall's Streusel-Filled Coffee Cake" on Christmas morning, which might better have been titled "Mrs. Gottshall's Tough-as-a-Brick Coffee Cake From Which You Will End Up Picking Out Only the Streusel," but the Turkey Bone Soup was tasty, if standard, and the Coleslaw I downright delicious. We think of coleslaw as a summer salad, but it makes a great winter vegetable side, since it calls for easily-available cabbage and carrots. This version also uses cream instead of mayo. Try my variation, which combines Coleslaw I and Coleslaw II!

Christina's Coleslaw 1.5
1 cabbage, sliced thin
4 carrots, sliced fine
2 stalks celery, sliced fine

2 T sugar
1/2 c cream
2 T vinegar
1/2 t salt
pepper

Combine dressing ingredients. Pour over vegetables. Toss. Chill through and serve. (Serves at least six.)