Learning to live with Celiac Disease one day at a time

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Chocolate, Cheese and Buffet Dinners

Well it looks like dairy might be back on the list of "Can Eat" once again...at least in moderation.  I've been doing a bit of experimentation with...you guessed it...chocolate!  I've eaten an entire Canadian-made Cadbury's chocolate mint bar over the course of a week, as well as thrown in a few doses of heavily-buttered popcorn.  Last night I was tempted by some cheese and succumbed.  So far so good!  At a birthday party a few nights ago I had a few scoops of cream-cheese laden Mexican bean dip and was thrilled to find that my body quite happily accepted it.  Of course my taste buds are ALWAYS saying 'you go girl!' but a few hours later the rest of me is asking a lamenting "why???"

Last night was a food challenge as my husband and I chaperoned our school's Social Community's "Healing Hands Charity Ball."  Money was raised for cancer treatments in honour of Ibu Mona, a teacher who very recently passed away due to cancer,  After much hoopla over getting ready (five grade 7 girls in my home, curls being straightened, straight hair curled, dresses and high heels and lots of shiny things stuck everywhere), we headed over to maintain some order at the school gym.  This was NOT a difficult task in any way as the entire lot of kids was very well behaved and spent most of their energy on eating and dancing the night away.  The difficulty for me came in the way of the dinner buffet, which looked and smelled delicious.  As always, it seemed that most things, even the steamed veggies, had some kind of extra in it, whether it was soy sauce, soup stock powder or some unknown brown source that I was not willing to tackle.  I'm learning that in order to enjoy the night, I need to put aside my love of food (I have always been a sucker for All-You-Can-Eat buffets) and to just enjoy my surroundings and my company.  My meal consisted of tropical fruit, white rice, and some krupuk (Indonesian 'bingo chips' that when placed in oil pop into large, puffy chips) and a glass of water.  Now that I know that dairy seems to be a safe bet, I'll probably add vanilla ice cream to that list next time.

Although it's fun to eat, last night was enjoyable mostly because I was able to chat with some friends that we don't see that often, to dance with our son and daughter (ok, proud mom moment when Abby danced with Dad and Matt with me, and neither worried a smidge about what their friends thought) and to watch our kids and their friends have such a fun time dancing that they didn't stop dancing until the take-down crew was ready to go-at-'er.

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