It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I just sort of make it up as I go along. I buy frozen cauliflower florets because I'm lazy and hate having to take the time to clean up a raw head of cauliflower. I steam the cauliflower in the mocrowave until tender and then drain as much water out of it as possible (if it's too wet, the mash can get runny). I mash up the cauliflower with cream cheese, butter, and heavy cream (and maybe some salt, onion, garlic, parsley...whatever I have that sounds good!). Then I put it into a baking dish and top with shredded cheese and bake before serving to melt the cheese on top.

 Great post, Diana.

Thanksgiving reminds me that it's my two year anniversary since having my DS.  Two years ago I was home recovering from surgery, and managed just a few bites of mashed potatoes and some turkey with gravy.

This year I'm going to enjoy my meal, and eating a lot more!

Our menu is pretty much the same each year, we're creatures of habit:

Turkey
Sausage, Leek, Apple and Dried Cranberry Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Butter, Vanilla, and Brown Sugar, Topped with Carmelized Pecans
Green Beans (if DH gets his way), or Brussel Sprouts (if I get mine)
Homemade Cranberry sauce with orange and diced apples


My son is dating a girl whose mom is a pastry chef.  Last year she totally spoiled and indulged us with a ton of desserts, and I'm hoping for the same this year :)

I've just been discussing this with my friend, who is hosting Thanksgiving, however I'm being drafted to teach her how to cook the dinner, LOL. 

We'll be having one of our own turkeys from our bbq restaurant, smoked..then deep-fried, with smoky crispy skin that will curl your toes.  Mashed potatoes with cream and butter are a must.  We'll do a nutty sweet potato thing, broccoli pudding, green bean casserole and some kind stuffing, then various appetizer things like deviled eggs, veggie tray, dip things and such.

Last year, with the kitchen in disarray, I bought a KFC deep fried turkey.  Even though it was KFC, it was freaking delicious.  I can only imagine how a SMOKED turkey, made in a non-industrial fashion, and then deep fried in oil/lard that is relatively fresh, would taste.  Curl my toes indeed!!

Broccoli pudding??  Meh, pass the stuffing.

The deep-frying of a smoked turkey is all about the skin, which becomes unappetizing with smoking, however is absolutely divine after it's been deep fried.  Think "turkey rinds"

Hi Diana:

I understand your stance on the DS and while I cringe at some of the vitriol (generally speaking), I respect what you are doing. The bottom line is getting the right information out there, correct? I would never be run off a forum. I have used my block button once but that was only because of a personal issue between the blockee and myself (she only joined to see my weight loss progress). This doesn't make me superior to anyone because I don't block but I want to hear ALL sides from ALL people here from ALL walks of life and ALL manners of "support".

I feel compelled to share with you why I would not get a DS. It's not about being an example to my kids. The youngest is 18 next month and leaves the next next May. For me, its about enjoying food with my husband. He is 5'6''and 186 lbs with no weight problem. Sharing meals can be fun, intimate, loving, kind...unlike the stress inducing meals as a kid where I scooted the same food around the plate..that's so far behind me now. :) If I were to get the DS, how would I be able to enjoy meals again in front of my husband. Wouldn't it be natural for him to start feeling resentment because he wasn't able to indulge like me without harming his health?

I ask this question with all due respect. Your thoughts:?


ETA: I am not implying I'm unhappy with my surgery choice. My mind just wandered onto this question while reading this thread today. Thanks for your time.

Good grief - how old is your husband??  Did you rob a cradle?  Is he 12 years old??  How could a grown person take personally and with resentment what someone else's biology allows them to eat, which may be different from their biology?

So, let's see - if YOU were diabetic, would he give up all sweets so YOU wouldn't get resentful??  Or eat them out in the car??  Or sneak out in the middle of the night to get a piece of pie?  Holy crap - do some people live like that??  Would you EXPECT him to do that??

In our house, I eat what I eat.  He eats what he eats.  Sometimes it's the same, sometimes, it's different.  My husband worked for a few weeks in college in a chicken factory - to this day, he can't STAND chicken, not even the smell of it.  Chicken is a mainstay of my diet - I love it, skin and all, and I eat a lot of it.  I almost always have a bag of cooked chicken thighs in the fridge for snacks.  That doesn't mean he has to eat chicken - ever.  He's a grown up and gets to eat what he wants, and so do I.

He does much of the cooking in our house - he makes me coffee and 1/4 - 1/2 lb of bacon in the morning and two fried eggs - he eats biscuits with jelly and a Coke Zero.  He's a grown-assed man and can have what he wants (even though it's not good for him) - but why in the world would I expect what I eat to NECESSARILY have anything to do with what he eats?  I cook steak - we both eat steak.  I cook chicken, he finds something else to eat.  He makes fish sticks, and we both eat them, but have different side dishes.  We cook potatoes, and we each dress them ourselves - I put more butter on mine.  Not exactly rocket science or international peace negotiations.

I am baffled, utterly stunned, by the assertion that you think a grown person would give a rat's ass what someone else was eating that was in keeping with their medical/biological dietary requirements, if it was not compatible with THEIR medical/biological dietary requirements.  I hope your husband doesn't see this - I know mine would be HIGHLY insulted by the insinuation that he could be so petty and small-minded and low in emotional intelligence.

In fact, my husband delights in making or buying delicious things for me that I denied myself for so many years of dieting, because I can now enjoy them.  He loves to make me happy.  I kinda thought that was how love was supposed to work - don't you?  Doesn't your husband?  Jeez, I hope so, and that your thought was just a random wander into that self-loathing dark place that dieters are so used to living in.

Diana, you FOOL!!!

My SO only eats pineapple with his cottage cheese---so I *must* do the same. *I* only eat honey-mustard with my chicken fingers---so *he* must do the same.

Screw the fact that *I* don't like pineapple with cottage cheese, or that *he* doesn't like honey-mustand---we live together, so we MUST eat the same damned things, all the f'ing time. After all, my cholesterol is 112 and his is 217, so we NEED to eat the same things, right??? His BP is 180/120, and mine's 110/80, so we need exactly the same diet, right???

I like venison, he likes fish---but we should both eat turkey---RIGHT???

Please forget it. It was hypothetical. I was asking a question and you chose to attack. Why should I be surprised? Thats what you do. Good job. well done. 

Attack??  Are you serious??

I thought you were making a joke, and we were playing a game - you were SERIOUS in asking your question?  You were REALLY, SERIOUSLY asking whether your husband would be resentful of you getting to eat better tasting food than him?

You must really REALLY be sick of dieting.  And your marriage must already be in trouble, if that's how you are trying to rationalize living like you do with your lapband.  I can't imagine what you are going through if your question was actually a serious one.  I hope you are getting help.