What are you doing different this holiday season to move toward your health goals instead of going on a feeding frenzy for 4-5 weeks and just regretting it later? Our clothes will get bigger instead of our waist sizes increasing. What a way to start the New Year, healthier and smaller.

I can't find it but a couple years ago, I made an apple dessert that was basically sliced apples in a casserole dish topped with an oatmeal/cinnamon/brown sugar topping. I made it for my inlaws. The title of the thread reminded me of that. (I can't find the recipe but I swear it was from Dr Weil)

Anyway, every year I was accustomed to gaining 10 lbs over Christmas. The reason is I would visit my mom and eat cookies that she would bake as well as indulge in other things that I don't get when I live elsewhere. I didn't have that issue last year because I was eating a vegan diet and didn't want to eat her cookies. Of course this year, I sent her a vegan cookie cookbook and we are visiting. Hopefully she won't make too many cookies

Halloween is no problem for me and wasn't, Thanksgiving won't be a problem for me and honestly I don't expect Christmas to be a problem this year although we'll see. When we visit my parents, we try to get in a lot of exercise but we are often exposed to foods we don't normally eat or keep in the house (such as chips). I also have access to restaurants which I love and don't get here and really there are 2 things I overindulge on and that is bread and bean burritos. With the bean burritos, I usually split one with my husband and with the bread, I limit myself on how many pieces I'm allowed.

Here's my recipe for Guiltless apple pie:

Peel & chop apples & put in pie pan/casserole dish.
Sprinkle on raisins, pecans, & cinnamon.
Drizzle with apple juice.
Bake at 350 until the apples are done & it smells delicious.

This is sweet enough for my family, but you could easily add icecream or whipped topping if you wanted to indulge guests.

I don't eat stuff that is mediocre/commercial, or always available. This is particularly true of desserts, and also bread. A slice of my sister's homemade sourdough, yes. Toasted, with butter, OMG yes . Dinner rolls from the supermarket, no.

Starbucks has an EXCELLENT sugar free syrup they use in their Cinnamon Dolce Latte, which tastes for all the world like cinnamon syrup.

I have enjoyed slicing a green apple and drizzling this syrup over the apple, tastes like crispy cool apple pie. I'm sure that it would bake well too...with some walnuts...some raisins...

The syrup is only available from Starbucks seasonally, so if you think you would like some, you should call your local store and ask them if they have an extra bottle. Also, I don't know if my store was having a pricing problem but it was only $7 for the bottle (the latte is $4 and change).