Cookie Weekend

This was a weekend I try not to think about, but then instantly become concerned about once it is here for a few different reasons. This weekend was cookie weekend. I would give myself a passing grade in Migraine management this weekend, but I didn't do a great job.

I have been baking cookies for my family for over twenty years. Even though I enjoy it, it has been getting more difficult every year. I probably would have stopped making them a couple of years ago if it didn't mean so much to my boys and if I'm making cookies for my boys, then I might as well do enough for the rest of the family. Last year, the boys gave me a dough mixer for Christmas. This definitely made it easier to mix this year and I was not exerting myself the way I have in previous years. I hate to admit it, but I think the cookies look a lot better; perhaps because a lot more air gets in there when mixing.

A good rule to Migraine management would be to spread out cookie making over several weekends. However, I know all of the boys I live with. I would end up remaking all of the batches I made early because they would have eaten them up. This is the reason I wait until the last weekend before Christmas before I bake plus baking them last minute keeps the cookies as fresh as possible since we won't see the rest of the family until New Year's Day when we can all get together.

I don't think I would have made it through making the cookies if I didn't have the cookie dough mixer. It really saved a lot of my energy that I would not have had this year. I was also able to take a needed nap during the day. My youngest son has helped me decorate the sugar cookies forever and continues to do so. The last cookies I make are a drop cookie that must settle overnight and then I refrigerate them before bundling everything up. If I didn't package them the same weekend, they would also disappear and I wouldn't have enough cookies for everyone else.

This year since I am in the midst of the elimination diet, cookie making was a little more difficult. It is a good thing I have a lot of cookie testers around and they would even be willing to test every batch that came out of the oven if each batch needed that kind of quality control testing. Given that the dough was mixed differently this year, it was nice to have this upfront testing done - before everyone gets a chance to have these cookies.

I don't think I was real bad, but I wasn't as good as I wanted to be either. I have to keep telling myself every time I want to stray from my diet, there is a reason I chose to go back on the elimination diet. I want to identify if I have anymore food triggers as I believe I do. The only way I am going to continue to find them is if I stick with the diet. I can say that all I want since I don't want to break the elimination diet, but I did have three cookies while baking.

As I go through the ingredients, I had one chocolate chip cookie where the chocolate chips could be a problem for me, I can't think of anything in the sugar cookies and although I haven't retested everything in the oatmeal raisin cookies, I don't think there is anything that would stick out, but I could be wrong about that again. I didn't plan on having these cookies and even though overall I feel I showed self control, it still wasn't good enough.

What I find amazing is that I have gone to a nice Italian restaurant with a few friends and all I had was water as they had appetizers, meals, desserts and drinks. I was never tempted to enjoy anything but their company and conversations. I can forgo this nice Italian meal with all of the ambiance with a few friends, but I can't skip a couple of cookies. On the plus side, I did not touch any of the cookies I knew would be really bad for me like these fudge cookies that I used to love and everyone else still enjoys.

One other poor Migraine maintenance I did on cookie baking day that I would not have even entertained without the dough mixing machine was that I also took a break and donated blood. I think that speaks volumes for how well the dough machine worked. I had been looking for a few weeks for a time and place to donate blood and this was the only time I would be able to do it. Of course if I did not have the dough mixer or it did not relieve a lot of my exertion, there was no way that I would have gone.

Although I did make all of my cookies in one weekend, ate three cookies while making many double batches of cookies and I stepped out to donate blood, I also took my time throughout the day, used a great dough mixer to do a lot of the hard work and took a nap during the day to try to offset a busy weekend. This is why I would give myself a passing grade in Migraine management this weekend, but I don't think I did a great job.

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