Help Whip Cancer

Do you ever feel like you complain too much?
Well, I sure do.

The last few months have been a bit bumpy for me health-wise since my diagnosis of gallstones. I haven't been able to eat whatever I want and while I'm scheduled in to see a surgeon to have my gallbladder removed, my appointment is still a month off, and then I have to book a surgery after that with a 4 month wait time.

My goodness, my life is so hard.

*sarcasm*

The first month or so of my gallbladder fiasco saw me very bitter about my situation. I was bitter about the fact that I wouldn't be able to eat another steak or ice cream cone or ear of corn for the rest of the summer. I resented the number of salads I was forced to eat and had a hard time eating anywhere other than at home. It wasn't fun anymore.
As I implied above, however, a month in and my attitude started to change. First of all, I told mysef to stop wallowing in self-pity and to get over myself, and that's about when I realized with all my grumbling to God, I forgot to thank Him for the experience. I'm eating healthier than most people could dream of doing out of sheer necessity, and I've been getting alot healthier myself because of this. I had wanted to lose weight after I gave birth to my second son 3 months ago, and I certainly have been able to do that now. I'm researching healthy options and recipes which I never bothered looking into before, and which will be incorporated into our regular meal rotation even after this is all over. My family is eating more veggies, less bad fats and being more aware in general of what we eat. My family and I will, in all likelihood, be healthier for the rest of our lives because of this.
However, it seemed like once I had finished complaining about something, I couldn't go without finding a new grievance to whine over, and this time I landed on the wait time until I can have my surgery.
It will have been about a 3 month wait time between making my appointment with my surgeon and when I actually get in to see him. Then it will probably be another 4 months before my scheduled surgery time rolls around. My first reaction was, "This is ridiculous."
Then, last week, I was at a monthly Pampered Chef meeting when my director (my go-to lady) informed us that she was awaiting the results of a biopsy, and they didn't have much reason to believe it would come back negative. Sure enough, the very next day she got back her test results which confirmed she had breast cancer. Since then, she has kept us in the loop regarding her treatment. She made an appointment last week with her surgeon and will be seeing him today, and hopefully will be receiving surgery within a couple of weeks.
This is why I wait months to see my surgeon: so that people with real issues, like aggressive cancer, or organ failure, or one of the multitude of other conditions and afflictions which are life-threatening, can get the care they need to survive. My condition is an inconvenience: it hurts if I eat certain foods, so I don't eat those foods. Easy. But if my 7 month delay between diagnosis and surgery means that a wonderful lady, who is a wife and the mother of 2 teenagers, can get the time-sensitive care she requires, then I would gladly trade my 7 months of inconvenience for 7 years.

Ironically, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and I assure you, most people from my Pampered Chef team are more aware of it than ever because of our director's recent diagnosis. Pampered Chef is trying to do it's part in October by making this the Help Whip Cancer month. PC has released a line of limited edition pink items, from which $1 of each purchase will go directly to the Canadian Cancer Society. My focus is currently on one of the items: a 2-pack of reusable shopping bags with the Help Whip Cancer logo for $3.50. I will be placing a mass order of these at the end of the month and would invite everyone to order a set, or more. I'll cover the shipping and tax, but I would like everyone to spread the word, even if you can't get any yourself at the moment. I've challenged my whole team to do the same offer with all of their friends, family and acquaintances in honor of our director. I wan to see just how much money we can raise for cancer research in the course of a month. So please, let me know if you want to Help Whip Cancer.

Mrs. Vander Leek

Fat-Free World

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will know that do to some health issues I am on a seriously restricted diet. My daily fat content has been more than halved and I am unable to eat certain foods altogether, such as red meat, fatty fish, cheese, oil and even avocados.
Talk about cramping my style!
However, I am pleased to announce that there is a silver lining to every cloud. The silver lining in this situation, other than the obvious of losing my pregnancy weight alot faster than I otherwise had expected to, is the opportunity it has given me to find some really, truly yummy, reduced-fat products.
For starters, snack foods! That was the biggest gap I first noticed with my diet - when your meals are already 80% fruit and veggies, they don't seem like very appealing snack options! My first pleasant surprise was when I was shopping at Sobeys and opted to try their fat-free chocolate pudding. My goodness it was wonderful! No funny after-taste, nice rich texture and it certainly fills your craving! Ever after this little bout with gallstones is over, I will continue to get the fat-free version! Next, I wanted something to replace the gap that is chips and crackers. Considering how much fat is in even baked products (tortilla chips are about 1 gram of fat per chip and I try to keep my biggest meal of the day under 10 grams of fat...) I decided I needed to find a good, crunchy alternative. CheeCha Puffs! The fattiest have less than 3 grams of fat in a 2 cup serving. They have flavors ranging from Hickory & Bacon to Crispy Dill Pickle. Some of them are downright addictive and the Tomato Ketchup flavor is the closest Ketchup flavor to Old Dutch ketchup chips that I have ever found - and trust me, I've looked!
Moving into the frozen-treat side of things, stuff gets a bit less promising. While I love Breyer's Smooth and Dreamy No Sugar Added Frozen Dessert (aka ice cream), I've never been able to reconcile with reduced fat takes on ice cream. Some gourmet gelato excepting, in my opinion it's better to go straight to fruit juice and water based products, like granitas and sorbets, than to try and take the fat out of ice cream. Enter Healthy Choice Chocolate and Raspberry Frozen Yogurt Bars (available at Costco). 2 grams of fat in a full-sized treat bar and the chocolate tastes like chocolate! It's creamy! They also have a peach mango variety which comes in the box as well, which I haven't tried, but I have no doubts that it is equally yummy! (P.S. Chocolate is the real challenging thing to fill your cravings of. Chocolate bars are so incredibly fatty, as are any products listed as "milk chocolate", which is why the fat-free pudding and low-fat frozen yogurt bars are so precious)
Now, on to things other than just snacks: breakfast cereals! Surprisingly, this is one of the easier things to go fat-free on. Sugary cereals are remarkably low on fat (Lucky Charms, for example, only has 1 gram of fat per 3/4 c. serving) while other healthier options are higher in fat, albeit, lower in sugar (Cheerios has double the fat, while anything with almonds or other nuts would obviously be higher). Sugar gets wearing after a while. I remember being a kid and plowing through 2 bowls of sugary cereal without thinking twice. Now I can barely get through a spoonful of some. And then I found Compliments Brand Sugar Puffs cereal (available at Sobeys). It's a knock-off of Sugar Crisp, but less grainy-feeling-on-your-teeth-from-too-much-sugar-esque.
Well, my baby is fussy so I'm going to do the rest of this list the quick way with a list of bests by category:
Best butter/margarine alternative: Becel's 64% Less (that number refers to calories... it actuallly has 67% less fat)
Yogurt: Activia 0%
Cake: Angel food (egg whites, flour and sugar essentially)
Restaurant side: garlic mashed potatoes - lots of places don't add butter or milk to their mashed potatoes
Restaurant menu item: Joey's Only Shrimp dinner (poached) w/ honey bourbon beans and broccoli (straight off the menu, no annoying special requests! ... and only 5 grams of fat!)
Tim Horton's order: Strawberry Banana Fruit Smoothie, no yogurt
Coffee add-in: International Delight Fat-Free Hazelnut Creamer
Unfortunately, this time has also awarded me with the knowledge of how bad for you some foods really are. For starters, reading the nutritional information for some restaurants, I found that there are restaurants that don't have a single menu item that would fit the low-fat requirements for my diet, including salads and side items! (I won't name names because, well, libel lawsuits are ridic right now!) Have you ever gone out for wing night somewhere and ordered a couple dozen wings because they're 25 cents apiece? Did you realize at the time that you probably just maxed out your daily recommended fat intake in one sitting? Many portion-controlled snacks may boast low calories, but the fat and sugar contents are ramped up to make the flavor better! And if you are looking for a low-fat option at fast food restaurants, be wary of salads. The Chicken Caesar Salad at Wendy's has more fat than a Baconater! Your best bet at places like that are grilled chicken breast sandwiches with no sauce.
All in all, there are alot of things I'm going to be smarter about after this whole ordeal, like reading nutritional menus before I go places and buying reduced fat products that taste as good as their full-fat counterparts, like Light Miracle Whip, Light Cool Whip, Fat-Free coffee creamer and reduced fat Becel. But there are also things that I acknowledge need to be full fat, like cheese and muffins, and those things I'll stil enjoy in their natural form, just a little more carefully!

Mrs. Vander Leek ;)

Party Menu Help!

I need help!!
We're having about 30 people over to our house this Friday for a baptism ceremony/party in our backyard! I'm really looking forward to it, but I also have a lot to do before then. I agreed to take on a bookkeeping job for the next little while which starts on Thursday, Thursday night Matt and I are going out for my birthday date which we had a heck of a time scheduling, and Friday I'm not even going to be home all day! So, in light of this, I'm having to replan my menu to include more quick and/or make-ahead ideas.
There are a couple of things I know I'm going to be serving, like mini corn muffins. Super quick, super easy, and I can make them Thursday afternoon. Done.
I also know the beverage menu: mimosas, italian sodas and pink lemonade.
That's about where my knowledge ends :)
I'd love to have input about what I should serve at the party, so I'm listing all the possible selections (already pared down from an even bigger list that included homemade pitas and caviar) and the pros/cons of that dish. Let me know what you think I should do!
Sweet:
Sweet Orange Marscanpone Tartlets - the phyllo shells for this I can make three days in advance and then just fill and garnish them last minute.
Individual Stacked Pies - Pie dough cut into circles with pie filling piled on top. Easy to do a lot of varieties but while I can make the dough in advance, it would be pretty time consuming even then. Cute, though.
Cake - easy to make, picky to decorate and not individual servings. Also not "wow", except if I spend alot of time on it.
Peanut Butter-Chocolate SemiFreddo - I could make tonight and it would be out of the way, but it would be messy and hectic to serve at the time, but I still like the idea of a cold treat
Savory:
Mini Asian Cucumber Bites - a weird little Pampered Chef recipe featuring cucumbers, bacon and water chestnuts. Really yummy and very cute, but also a little labor intensive.
Mini Savory Waffles with Syrup-Sweetened Ketchup - Brunchish, but so are the Mimosas. Could make earlier on in the day and reheat but would still be pretty hands-on.
A savory phyllo tart - those phyllo shells would be so easy to make dozens of and then, again, I could just fill them at the last minute. I just don't know what to put in them.
Honey Garlic Marinated Chicken Wings - An old family recipe that I adore: throw together the night before, marinate overnight and bake all day. Very yummy, very messy
Beef Satay with Spicy Peanut Sauce - Slightly cheaper than the chicken wings, but more work. But also more trendy.

I'm thinking two sweet, one meat and one other savory. So....

What do I do?????

Hobbies

Do you ever have those moments where you wish you were better at something, or that you could learn how to do something you've never tried before?
Well, I have a lot of those moments.
I really enjoy learning new things and I also really enjoy learning on my own. I've never been the type who enjoys classroom learning and a set pace; I've always done much better on my own, left to my own curriculum. I'd much rather take a text book home and learn how to do something that way than wait for someone to explain it to me.
From an early age my parents nurtured my desire to try new things. Even though things were tight when they were a young couple with little kids, they made the decision to enroll us in community programs like swimming, soccer and t-ball. They also encouraged us to take every opportunity we could, be it soccer camp, a weekend writing course or leadership retreats. Being a bit on the low-income side at that time, our recreational activities were also quite diverse and low-cost. This wasn't by any means a disadvantage however. I remember one winter when my parents found cross-country skis at a garage sale. They bought a pair for everyone in the family and we did a few outings that winter around town. It was a great time and I liked it so much I even joined the ski team at my school the next year. We also vacationed in the mountains every year which ultimately led to our enjoyment of fishing and hiking and my parents brought us out to a farm that some family friends owned so we could try horseback riding and get accustomed to getting our hands dirty. My dad owned an archery store so we all did that to some degree and my mom encouraged us all to join Home Ec in school so we could learn the basics of sewing and cooking.
It was a great foundation for living an interesting, resourceful life.
I soon found that I had a great interest in sports and music. I did soccer every year and took part in basketball, volleyball and badminton in school. In grade 6 I started playing guitar and eventually got into piano (rather, got back into it... my mom had tried to teach me when I was younger but it proved to be too much of a classroom setting for my liking). In high school I joined the choirs and became an official choir geek, spending 4 afternoons and 1 evening a week at choir rehearsals, not to mention all of my lunch hours as well. In grade 11 I picked up a job at a cafe and I found a new passion: coffee. I loved it. Everything about it. I loved the smell, I loved the taste, I loved the knowledge of what makes coffee good and how to make the perfect espresso shot. I became a veritable coffee snob and at one point could identify 30 different varities of coffee simply by the grinds. At that cafe job I also rekindled my love of cooking. When I was 4 or 5 my favorite TV show used to be The Urban Peasant - a cooking show featuring James Barber. I'd watch it every day. I always liked cooking but I never started experimenting until my cafe job. When I was on baking duty I'd have to have muffins, bread and scones ready before 7 a.m. and then make dozens of cookies, cakes and squares through the day. If I were on kitchen duty I'd have to make the soups from scratch, taste and tweek them, and make up specials for the day which often involved getting a little adventurous with leftovers. That was my first exposure to things like artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, celery root, hearts of palm and any type of cheese other than cheddar.
My mom taught me how to knit at some point through high school and I dabbled in sewing here and there, too.
Now, I'm 24, married, with two kids, and I'm very appreciative for my upbringing. My love of cooking makes a daily chore enjoyable. Cooking dinner isn't a burden - it's an opportunity to try something new. Giving Christmas presents is tied into my hobbies when I make pillows or sugar syrups for people. I'm teaching my boys how to appreciate music already and the coffee... well, that little enjoyment sure helps after a few middle-of-the-night feedings :)
Lately, I've been wanting to add to my list of things that I've tried. While I do have a tendancy to "dig an inch deep and a mile wide" (an expression that a high school teacher used to describe my essay writing), I can't help but want to learn more things. Granted, there are some things that I ought to focus on learning better, like improving my guitar and piano skills and brushing up on my knitting, but it's so hard to not want to do everything.
The other day I realized that in the past year I have, for the first time, made soaps, done canning and tried quilting. The year before that I tried a few things too, like making candles and bath salts. When it comes to cooking, in the past few years I've hit a lot of milestones, like my first time cooking lamb and duck, my first time making custards, first time making sushi and even my first time roasting a chicken.
It's interesting looking at some of my inspirations for trying some of these new things. The first, and often most prominent, would have to be Martha Stewart. After the birth of my first son I subscribed to her magazine. I had bought an issue for reading when I was in the hospital with him and it was the first time I actually wanted to read every single article in a magazine. It's because of Martha Stewart Living that I tried needle felting, making bath salts, making soaps, and making teacup candles. My second biggest improver lately has been The Food Network. By some glitch with our cable internet, our TV would actually get a couple, albeit blurry, cable shows. I discovered this when Gabriel was 4 months old and teething. He was wretched some days and all I could do was sit on the couch, holding him and watching blurry TV. My favorite show to watch the The Food Network and I started to get ideas for techniques or dishes that I wanted to try. I started roasting meats after an episode of Chef at Home, and I have since implemented alot of techniques that I picked up on from watching shows like 5 Ingredient Fix, French Food at Home, Chef at Home and Ricardo and Friends. Some of my favorite foods to make, like my No-Butter Chicken and Dulce De Leche Bars are Food Network recipes.
This year, family members are getting canned condiments for Christmas and my boys are (finally) getting quilts made by Mommy. And while there are lots of nice things about all of these hobbies, like saving money on Christmas gifts and eating good dinners without having to go out, the best thing is really how enriching these things are to my life. I love having productive things that fill my time so well, and I'm going to love passing these down to the next generation. That's right, my boys will cook - and well :)

Mrs. Vander Leek ;)

Recipes and links

Ahhhh, sweet baking. How much I love it. ...and how much I've been doing it lately.
In light of my health issues and my inability to eat fats, I have been making my own bread in our house since many store-bought loaves have a surprisingly high fat content. Also, when you can't eat fats it's hard to feel full, so I have been baking low-fat, high-carb snacks for our house. (I'll worry about my carb intake when I can eat meat and dairy products again.) Last week I started out with baking a loaf of my Wheat and Flax bread. A few days later I made some soft pretzels. The recipe I used was the Classic Pretzel recipe on KingArthurFlour.com. That evening I also made up some muffins. This recipe was the low-fat Carrot muffin recipe from the website ILoveMuffins.ca. It's a great little website that I plan to visit regularly. We were going to a family dinner the next day so I made up some baguettes for that. The baguette recipe was from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and I was surprised how well they turned out. Typically, Better Homes and Gardens recipes are a little too "store-bought" for my liking, however, these were the best baguettes I've ever had. The dough is remarkably soft but it makes for super light and crusty bread. My family was surprised they weren't from the store. However, like all good bread, it was best in the first few hours. In France a baguette is considered to have a two hour life span and that's really how you should treat all artisan loaves.
Anyway, last week I definitely made a dent on my flour stock and will soon need to buy another bag of bread flour (which I used for my pretzels too, btw). I remember growing up in my parents' house and we usually only had one type of flour in the house - white. Whole wheat on rare occassions. And while I don't claim to have branched out to full flour potential, I value the traits of bread flour and rye flour and look forward to experimenting with potato, rice and corn flours.
My meal plans have been branching out a bit, too. A week ago I was watching TV at my parents' house (I was running an errand over there and a thunderstorm hit and Gabe fell asleep so I took advantage of their cable to watch the Food Network) and I caught an episode of The Spice Goddess. This episode featured her No-Butter Chicken, which substitutes plain yogurt for the traditional butter or cream. I had happened to pick up some indian spices a couple of weeks prior so it turned out the only ingredient my kitchen wasn't stocked with to make that dish was the plain yogurt. Last night I finally made it and was surprised by a couple of things: first I was surprised how easy it was. I'd never really made Indian food before and now I honestly can't tell you why. There was nothing to it. Second, I was surprised at how fast it was. I'm hesitant to cook with chopped chicken breasts because I always imagine so many complications of working with raw poultry (oddly enough, I have no qualms about working with a whole raw bird...). But really, from the time I pulled the chicken breasts out of the freezer to having the meal completely ready, it was about 35 minutes. Not to mention that was my first time making it so I'll probably take less time with my next attempt. Lastly, I was surprised at how much it smelled and tasted like Indian food. Have you ever made sweet and sour pork at home? There are a million recipes on the internet and few of them taste anything like how you think they should. This recipe tasted just like what one would get at a restaurant. A good restaurant, at that. I was impressed - and so was my husband.
Tonight I made my Goat Cheese Chicken Pizza finally. I decided to brave the obvious fat content and to try and limit the fat on my side of the pizza as much as I could. I have to confess, I used a store-bought pizza crust, which I later regretted. Not only did it have a high fat content, it was too salty, too white and too blah. Anyway, I didn't use a sauce but instead I sprayed the crust with a little olive oil, then I sprinkled on some thyme and some fresh basil and added on some crushed garlic. Next I put on the goat cheese which I crumbled and ended up using maybe 50 g. for the whole pizza. Then I layered on slices of red peppers and peaches and lastly I added the chicken cubes which I had sauteed with some red onion. My goodness it was incredible! I'd have ordered it at a restaurant and been thrilled with the result, even on the lackluster crust. Next time, however, I'm going gourmet all the way and making my own crust. (My excuse for not doing so today is that I put all of my baking efforts into making more loaves of Wheat and Flax bread today).
Over the next little while I'm going to be investing more and more into high quality ingredients. Without fat to cover up tastes, it really is more glaringly important to have wonderful flavors in each component of a recipe. Plus, if I am having a little bit of fat in my meal, I want it to taste as good as possible. Take for example, cheeses. If I am using a typical, mild, North American cheddar, I would typically use quite alot of it. It's an easy thing to eat, comparable to coolers where you can hardly taste the alcohol and can drink like Koolaide. However, too much fat and too much alcohol alike are bad things. Now, if you replace your cooler with brandy, or scotch, or rather your mild cheddar with aged cheddar, or gouda, or asiago, you don't chug, you sip. So if I'm planning on putting some grated cheese on my pasta, switching out asiago for cheddar will mean I can use less and not feel like I'm missing out on anything. And if I'm making a pizza, I can use a 1/4 c. of goat cheese, comparable to 1 1/2 - 3 c. of cheddar or mozzarella cheese that is typically used on a pizza. And maybe even for Nachos or something I could use a good, smoked cheddar and get away with eating those. If you think about it, it's actually quite ridiculous that they sell 900 g. blocks of cheese in stores and that people buy those about once a month for their households. A typical lasagne alone will take up a third to a half of that block. Ucky.
One thing I'm guilty of is buying the cheapest olive oil on the shelf. Well, I do spring for Extra-Virgin, but that's as high-minded as I get typically. My reasoning for doing this was that I don't really like olive oil anyway and only using it as an occassional substitute for canola oil anyway, so why bother spending more on it? Well, a couple days ago my dad showed me why. When I brought out the hour old baguettes for some pre-dinner munching this weekend, he brought out a bottle of olive oil that he wanted to try. A local businessman bought an olive grove in New Zealand and makes this oil and brings it over here to sell. My dad wanted to dip his bread in it and while I was lamenting the fact that we had no fresh herbs to throw in it, he dipped it in the naked oil and said it was great. I didn't really believe him, but I tried it, and he was right - it was great. The oil is called First Drop and the variety we tried had slightly grassy notes to it. And it didn't taste like stale oak, which my el cheapo brand does. So, in the future I shall invest in flavor and save money through the old quality vs quantity adage.

Mrs. Vander Leek ;)

Problem Solving

...Health problems, that is!
You see, about two weeks ago now I was hit with an 'episode' of sorts. All of a sudden I got this pain around my ribs that kept increasing, it became hard to breathe, the pain settled between my shoulder blades and I almost passed out. I was on the verge of asking Matt to take me to the hospital when... It stopped. Just as suddenly as it came. I had no other symptoms until 6 days later when again I got another attack, this time accompanied by nausea and vomitting, and again, after 15 minutes or so, it just stopped. When something like that happens once you think, "that was weird." Twice and you think, "what's up with this?". Third time and you're thinking, "okay, something's wrong...". Well, my third time came just a few hours after my second attack, but this time it lasted over 6 hours.
So, I went to the walk-in on Monday morning and after hearing my accounts and asking where the pain was, the doctor asked how old my baby was. I assumed that he was being nice and friendly, but he was actually looking into my condition still. He then drew me a little diagram that I recognized: Stomach, intestines, liver... Gallbladder. Yep, gallbladder. Evidently, elevated hormone levels related to pregnancy can cause gallstones (what? The ribs moving in and out during the pregnancy wasn't bad enough???). Anyway, there was another alternative diagnosis that was pregnancy related too. I had awful heartburn when I was pregnant that went away as soon as I delivered Nathaniel and the doctor suggested that the heartburn could have burned my esophagus raw and it's now in spasm. Apparently these two conditions have identical symptoms and you can't tell the difference without testing. SO, I am scheduled for an ultrasound this week, I'm taking a prescription that will help if it is the esophagus, and in three weeks I have a doctors appointment where I'll find out if I need to get my gallbladder removed or not. In the meantime, all I can do is try to avoid another flair up.
In case you don't know what a gallbladder does, it aides in the digestion of fats through secretion of bile. Gallstones block the release of bile and cause me to feel like dying. Therefore, the best thing I can do to try and avoid more of my little episodes is to prevent the bile from needing to be released by not eating fats.
I have currently placed myself on a super low-fat diet until this all gets sorted out. No red meat, no cream sauces, no butter, no rich cheeses, no avocado, no salmon, no artichokes and absolutely nothing that's ever been fried. And even though we do eat fairly healthy in our house, this is going to be quite the shock to me. For the rest of the summer I won't be allowed to have another hamburger, or steak, or any ice cream, or any of my special cranberry-cinnamon goat cheese. Breakfast is one of my favorite meals to go all out on from time to time: sausage, bacon, eggs, pancakes... Well, sausage and bacon are definite no's and eggs may or may not bother me but I'm horrified to try them just in case the answer is 'yes'. Frapaccinos are out, so are tortilla chips and any baking made with lard or lots of butter or oil. Incidentally, hot foods can cause a flair up too, so salsas, curries, hot peppers and the like are out. oh, and no coffee.
So what can I eat?
Well, I can eat rice. And I can eat chicken (white meat mostly). I can eat some less fatty fish (salmon's out but sole is good). I can eat most veggies and fruits, although it is recommended that I avoid the cabbage family and citrus fruits. I can do yogurt and low-fat dairy products, and I can drink water. :)
It's really not that bad for a season though. It could be a lot worse in a lot of ways. Even just having this happen in winter instead of summer would make it a lot harder, but as it stands fresh produce is readily available and eating a salad for dinner every night just seems seasonal instead of restricting. And while I have from the start of this season in my life prayed for God's help in managing and avoiding pain, it wasn't until today that I even thought to thank Him for this great opportunity to get back into shape. At least 2 months of an extremely low-fat diet? It'd be hard not to lose weight! Not to mention the potential long-term benefits this season of healthfulness could have on our family. It may encourage us to leave healthier lives overall, and that would be well worth this temporary inconvenience.
However, just because my diet is restricted doesn't mean it has to be flavorless. It simply means I have to turn off autopilot as far meal planning and look up some new recipes. I found a recipe for butter chicken made with yogurt instead of cream or butter so that'd be a fun one to try. My Glorious Mango Pudding recipe will still work for me if I get low-fat ricotta. I love sole baked in a roasted red pepper dressing and I finally invested in some basmati and jasmine rices in our home instead of plain white all the time. And I will make sure Matt is well plied with steak and hamburger in the meantime. It's my issue, not his after all, and while he would eat whatever I made for myself every night with very good grace, I won't ask it of him.
Anyway, if you have any low-fat recipes yourself that you can send me, fire them my way! I could use the help!

Mrs. Vander Leek ;)

My vision

My last post was an appeal for input to three questions for which I have already received some feedback. I thank you, those who responded. If you haven't responded, go read my last post and then post your input.
One of those questions I did not give a preamble to. The reason was, that question happened to be the most significant one and I didn't want to guide any responses by indicating why I was asking. Now that I have had some input though, I'd like to share why that question has been weighing on me.
The question was, "what is your vision for your city?" (or something to that extent.) I live in a city that I have heard called "Alberta's pee-stop"; a city that tries to pump itself up as a cultural and theatrical hotspot, however just saw one of its main independent theatres shut down due to lack of funding and support. The face of this city is, I feel, very different depending on where you look at it from. High Ups in the city would have you believe we've obtained that status as a cultural leader in our province, most locals would agree that the title still elludes us, and outsiders would laugh at the idea that anyone would confuse this city as a leader in anything other than rednecks and rest-stops.
Now, while I am not, nor do I ever intend to be, a politician myself, I do feel passionately about this issue. For the sake of our community, our economy and our quality of living I feel that we should take advantage of some trends and establish ourselves as leaders in those fields. I have 3 fields that I feel should be focused on, that make up what my vision for my city is: to be a leading player in music in Alberta, to be a pioneer in the "eat local" movement in Western Canada, and to be a center for spiritual revival in Canada.
These fields each fall under a catagory: because we should, because we could, and because we might as well.
Music is under the catagory of "because we might as well". Every year, music festivals pop up all around our city. We have country music festivals, indy music festivals, gospel music festivals... one of our local high schools has a nationally recognized choir and one of our local community choir directors is esteemed internationally. Our local marching band has received many awards and honors and we have copious amounts of untapped talent - or even moreso, talent that moves away to bigger city centers for better opportunities. Really, some focused funding and a bit of hype and we really could be the new "it" place for music in Alberta.
The "eat local" movement is the "because we could" catagory. And boy, we totally could. Within a 100 km radius of us, I can tell you that we have miles and miles of crops, ranches for everything from elk and buffalo to goats and long-horned cattle, an award winning cheese factory, mushroom farms, game-bird farms, potato farms... farms of every kind. What I find so disappointing is that our local farmer's market stopped being a "farmer's" market years ago - there weren't enough booths with real farm products at it for them to keep their farmer's market license. Our busiest restaurants in town are national chains. Most of the produce sold in our grocery stores is brought in from BC or up from the states. We have the potential for so much more and we don't do it. At times I've thought how nice it would be to have coffee roasting classes in town put on by a local business, or to be able to keep chickens in my yard so I can have fresh eggs every morning, or to have community vegetable gardens instead of rows upon rows of border flowers in our city hall park. But none of these things are close to happening. I'd like to draft a plan to propose to city counsel, but I don't know where to begin short of saying, "We should be more like Portland, Oregon..."
Lastly, the "because we should" - being a center of spiritual revival. Why should we? Because we are called to proclaim the good news of the gospel, to live as God has commanded us, regardless of the consequence, and to serve Him in everything we do. If we did that, if we really did that, wherever we were could not help but become a site of revival. I yearn, my soul yearns, for the church to stop drawing their own lines and playing in their comfort zones and to step out and stand up like men. I want to see a church that will honestly and openly pursue God's will in every aspect, not just "the big points". Unfortunately, we are far too apt to call issues "little things" that God has deemed as important to Him. If He gave us guidance and direction in His holy word about it, I don't think it's a "little thing" to Him. If we loved God more than our own plans, and more than our own lives, more than our own money, or comfort, or convenience, we would be shaking our community. Our cities would be turned upside down.
These are my visions for my city. These are things that have been weighing on my head and my heart and that I want to help spur on. I want to see these things become actualized and I intend to research the best way to do that. My intent in seeking input from others regarding their vision for their city was to gleen inspiration and passion from others; to embolden my own vision by the passion of others.
These are my visions and I hope, and pray, that one day I'll actually see them.

Mrs. Vander Leek