0 Dreaming

I realized that I was pretty cranky when I wrote my previous post. I blame it on my diet. I'm participating in a New Year's weight loss challenge at the office. We're in week 8 right now and even though I'm doing fairly well - there are 20 participants and I am currently in the top 3 overall "losers" - I am constantly dreaming about food. In the beginning I was dreaming about pizza from Flour+Water, but now I am dreaming about dessert.

Being on a diet and living in one of the best food cities in the country has been tough, but I guess dieting is tough no matter where you live. Over the past two months I've learned to adjust my eating habits. I've always had fairly decent habits. I eat lots of vegetables and fruits, very little processed/packaged foods, and 98% of the time my drink of choice is plain water. I always bring my lunch to work and my husband and I only eat dinner out 2 or 3 times a month. But my portion size was out of control and desserts were hard for me to pass up. So instead of changing what I eat, I've just changed how much I eat. Before I put any food in my mouth, I always stop and ask myself if it's worth using my limited daily allotment of calories on it.

I can still have a 4505 Meats cheddar bratwurst when I go to the Ferry Building, but instead of eating the whole thing, I will eat a third of the bratwurst and none of that delicious bread that it comes nestled in. On the bright side, I can have all the sauerkraut I want. And that 4505 sauerkraut is definitely yummy enough to make me almost forget the other two-thirds of the bratwurst. I've survived Chinese New Year celebrations, fried chicken and cream biscuits at Prospect, and a pasta tasting at Perbacco.

You would think that I could make things easier on myself if I stopped baking during the weight loss challenge. But asking me to stop baking is like asking me to stop breathing. I just cannot survive without it. And I have been baking a lot lately. Most of it's been tempting, but not blog worthy. I've been able to resist the florentine cookies and lemon mousse cake I made for the Daring Bakers' challenges as well as the chocolate cake I made for Valentine's Day. I usually take one or two bites of what I make just for quality control purposes. Have you ever had just one bite of chocolate cake? It's really, really hard to stop after just one bite. But I did. And that's how it's been for weeks.



But my resolve is starting to wane. And it's all because of these damned pumpkin donut muffins. Damn the internet for bringing these to my attention. Damn Martha Stewart. Damn. Damn. Damn.

These baked pumpkin donut muffins are so hard to resist. They are insanely good. Baking them in a miniature muffin pan gives them the appearance of donut holes which adds to their appeal. They are moist and spicy with that lovely crackly sugar coating.

One bite and I was hooked. I could not stop at just one bite. One bite turned into 2 into 4 into 10. I ended up eating two whole mini muffins. And, yeah, I know, those calories are not going to hurt me, but in the long run every calorie adds up. I guess it just means that I have to stay on that treadmill a little bit longer.



Although I am now constantly dreaming about these pumpkin donut muffins, they are way too dangerous for me to make again. However, the recipe is too good to keep to myself. So bake 'em at your own risk.
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