Cooking, Baking, Holidays, and the Waist Line!

I've really been enjoying cooking and baking these last couple of days. On Friday, I went home sick. I ended up feeling better pretty quickly, so cooked up a turkey (we bought one while they were on sale for Thanksgiving, but since we went to relatives I didn't need to cook). I also made my first ever, from scratch, pumpking cheesecake. It came out SOOO yummy and even looked like the picture in the book! I was so proud. A lot of my baking comes out really yummy but it never looks as good as the picture. This item totally did, though. I took a picture of it I was THAT proud. ;)

Yesterday I spent the day cooking. I made some turkey salad that came out really well, then made my second ever batch of homemade spaghetti sauce, then made Turkey Pasta Primavera for dinner. It was good, but it made way too much and was too rich to eat a lot of. I doubt I'll make it again. I'll throw together some lasagna with my spaghetti sauce later this week.

The unfortunate side effect of being in the mood to cook and bake, and also, of course, Thanksgiving, is that I've put on a few pounds. Not a lot, only about 4 1/2, but I was nearing a certain number on the scale that I don't like to see (I was 1/2 pound away!). Thankfully we bought a scale a couple of months ago, so I can keep track of what I'm weighing. It's too easy to let 5 pounds turn to 10, then 15, when you don't really keep track.

So, I have managed to get back down to my preferred weight. It's amazing what not eating two pieces of 500 calorie cheesecake a day will do! I have to be good weight-wise for the next couple of weeks. The more I cook, the more we all eat. Hazen has about 2 more pounds to lose before the Air Force calls, so I need to be careful and stick to healthy, low-calorie, low-fat meals. I've kind of been sabotaging my poor husband!