Yes, I'm Still Eating!

But not much photographing.  I resumed that again today, and hope to have some tasty-yet-healthiness to show tomorrow.

Some food observations from over the holidays:

• I think clamping down tightly earlier in the month may have set up me up for a whopper of a holiday rebound.  There are still a couple of days before New Year's Eve, but I won't be ending the year the same as I ended last year, as I'd hoped.  OH well.
• Enstroms' sugar free toffee is the BEST, but boy, does it have a rather...um...aromatic maltitol after-effect to it.  Definitely a "proceed with caution" treat.
• A certain blogger friend of mine sent me a GLORIOUS care package!  (thankyouthankyouthankyou, even though you aren't around to read this right now. :-)  I have adored everything in it!  And now that I have her address, I get to send her stuff, too!  Muuuah ha haaaa!  (I hope she likes kale...)
• I still show love through food.  I got Mr. Handsome-and-Handy a bunch of items from a "wurst-haus" that makes their own sausages and smoked meats...one of those gifts that benefits both of us, I guess! ;-) I am a bit more particular about the food now, though, so I guess it's okay.
• So does Mr. Handsome-and-Handy.  He got me Kona coffee and scrumptious macadamia nuts from a small farm on the Big Island!  Yummy!!!  (He also got me the toffee.)
• Thing 2 enjoys making messes with me in the kitchen, even if she doesn't eat them.  We had a great time baking cookies, and a great time making roasted veggie ratatouille.  And while the former was probably more rewarding personally, she seemed very happy to make stuff and not eat it, too.  I call her our "little Polish grandma," because Mr. Handsome-and-Handy's Grandma Stella was a tiny, bird-thin woman who loved to feed people (and quite heartily) when they came to visit.
• I have been eating custard-style oat bran all along, and I didn't realize it until now!  D'oh!  I'd been wanting to try custard oats for awhile now, but the egg part seemed like too much work.   I usually  mix equal parts oat bran and flax seed meal, in a bowl, then whisk in hot water and let it sit.  Earlier in the week, I made some oat bran and didn't have the flax meal to add to it like I usually do.  And instead of being smooth and creamy, it was thick and pasty.  Icky texture, and not the nutty flavor of flax, but it was okay and I ate it anyway.  Well, as I cracked open a new bag of flax seed meal, I noticed that it had instructions for how to substitute flax seed meal for egg in recipes.  And that's when I realized that I don't need to try the mix-the-egg-in-the-oats thing.  (Although I still might try it one of these days, to see how it compares.)
• Georgie's almond butter cookie recipe (flourless, too stinkin' easy, and small batch!) works really well with peanut butter, too.  (And some chocolate chips. *cough*)
• Chocolate chip cookies (dough and fresh-baked) are still my kryptonite.  Which is why we baked only half a batch this year and ended up giving most to neighbors.