Sunday, March 29, 2015

Neighborhood Pea Patch

We're lucky to have a really nice community garden that is run by our neighbor, Priscilla, who is a Master Gardener.  She and her husband and some other neighbors have done a lot of work to create little "pea patches" of beautiful rich soil for anyone who would like to garden.  Priscilla also grows herbs and flowers that are available for anyone to take as needed.  If we're giving a dinner party, we can get some last-minute parsley and mint for garnishes, and a bouquet of spectacular dahlias for the table.





We have a lovely pond in our backyard built by Stan, so he was the one asked to create a water feature for the "relaxing area" of the garden.  Here it is in progress - he has to mount a solar panel for the pump, as there's no electricity there. He says it's not arranged yet - I'll post a photo later when it's completed.




While it was raining yesterday, we went to Lowes to buy some plants.  They come in convenient compostable pots now, so instead of having plastic pots to recycle, you just plant the whole thing.  Of course, it was after planting that I read the fine print, and had to dig them back up to tear the bottoms off the pots.  Later we'll add carrot seeds and a couple of tomato plants.









Up until this year, Stan has been the gardener in our family, and I have just enjoyed harvesting as needed.  This year I'll help too, as I'm retired now and have no excuse.



Here's our plot, before and after the work we did today.  We just moved to this plot this year, as it is sunnier than our old one that was in the shade on the other side.  The prior gardener left some rhubarb, so maybe we'll get a pie later in the year  : )



 I also planted a few primroses in the pot by our front door for some spring color.




Remember the Aerogardens I wrote about earlier?  Here they are at 5 weeks.  The tomatoes have been pruned and are doing great.  The herbs are slower.  Both of the light bulbs in the older garden went out at the same time, and we only had one replacement bulb.  I was unwilling to pay for overnight shipping, so the herbs on one side had to wait for the new bulb to arrive.  Basil is hard to grow outdoors, but it is the best herb in the Aerogarden - we pruned it the other night and put it in our spaghetti sauce.  That scraggley one at the right is dill - it grew very long stems before getting any leaves, but seems to be perking up.






I'll make progress reports on the pea patch and the Aerogardens later in the season.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

A Workout at the Gym

Stan and I are lucky to have a beautiful Family Y near our house, and we joined soon after it opened.  When I was working we went once a week during my lunch hour on Fridays, when I worked from home.  Now that we're both retired we have a "date" for Wednesdays and Fridays in the early afternoon.

We start out by warming up - Stan on the treadmill and me on the elliptical machine.  I figure since I walk so much out on the street, it's probably better for my joints to avoid the treadmill.  Notice how nice and uncrowded the gym is when you're retired and can go in the middle of the afternoon!





The elliptical machine is kind of boring.  I can walk for an hour outside without noticing the time, but indoors on the machine, ten minutes seems quite long.  I amuse myself by looking out the window down into the swimming pool, and thinking how nice and cool the water would feel right now. 




Then it's time to get to the hard work.  All the weight lifting books I've read (several, most recently The Paleo Coach by Jason Seib) say lifting free weights is more effective than using the weight machines, because you have to balance yourself and the weights, and you use many muscles instead of just the ones isolated on the machines.  So, a few weeks ago I got out some weights and followed instructions in a little booklet that came with Stan's weight bench to lie on my back on the bench at home, and I did the exercises, no problem.  Then I tried to get back up - oops!  Not possible!  I had to half roll - half fall off sideways - ouch!  So, I'm back on the machines, at least until I get stronger, and maybe lighter would help, too.



The Y provides exercise logs, which I faithfully fill out each time.  I mark an up-arrow when I can do the exercise 12 reps without straining too much, and the next time I know to set the weight up higher.  You can see I don't get to every machine every time.  Guess I should take time to do them all, even if Stan is finished ahead of me.  (If you are wondering about my middle initial, Pam Q Birch - that is because the file of B's is huge and it was taking a long time to sift through and find my card each time.  In the Q's there are only two or three.)




This is a new item that Stan has been watching closely and wanting to try.  It's a climbing wall on big rollers that keeps rolling around as you climb.  You should see some of the young kids zip up like it's nothing.  Stan did a good job for his first time!






Sunday, March 22, 2015

Spring Cleansing





Spring is here!  I look up at this tree from my armchair as I write my blog posts.  I wrote the following post a month ago about doing a “cleanse”, but didn’t want to share it until I saw how it worked out.  I've been doing it for the month of March, and now that it’s winding down I’ll let you know what I’ve been up to.

March 1, 2015:
I was a bit disappointed in my February monthly assessment because I didn’t lose much weight or look different.  I’m pretty sure I know why – even though I’m eating very healthy meals and lots of salads, I’m still drinking wine, coffee with milk or cream, sparkling water with sugar-free (but sweet-tasting) syrup, and eating several squares of chocolate in the evening. I was wondering what to do about that when I read a blog about doing a cleanse.

My idea of a cleanse was some type of starvation diet or fast, which I would never try, but Stephanie, at Wake The Wolves, approached it differently.  She asked “What do I need or want less of?” and “What do I need or want more of?” and “How can I make that happen?”  She then focused on those things for thirty days.  I realized I could ask the same questions of myself and create a personalized cleanse just for me, mainly about food but also including some other things.


What do I need or want less of?

  • Wine
  • Coffee
  • Sugar
  • Gluten
  • Dairy and Eggs  (I don’t notice a problem with dairy or eggs, but Dr. Wahls says I should eliminate them for a few weeks and see how I feel, and how I feel when I introduce them again.)
  • Sitting around in my chair for most of the day
  • Clutter around the house, especially in the family room where we spend most of our time and on my desk and sewing table


What do I need or want more of?
  • Delicious food that’s healthy, including treats
  • Walking
  • Muscles
  • Sleep
  • Flexibility
  • Spending time with my kids and their families
  • Painting and gardening (that is painting walls and ceilings, not pictures). Actually I want the results of painting and gardening, not necessarily the work, so I guess I really want the energy to paint and garden.


So, how can I make this happen?

Actually, I’m not sure I can make it happen.  I have given up wine many times, for a few days or a week, but possibly never as long as thirty days, and certainly never at the same time as coffee and sugar.  I don't think I've had a day without coffee in at least 20 years!  And some of the other stuff sounds good, but what will I actually do?   I’m not going to mention this in my blog until I really do it.

Here’s what I’ll do:

  • No coffee, but I’ll drink tea to wean away from the caffeine gradually.  I have no intention of giving up coffee forever!
  • No wine.  Or other alcohol – no sense starting a new habit.  I’ll allow kombucha though.  I think it has a bit of alcohol, but is healthy.  Will learn more about it. (See my post about kombucha.)
  • Almost no sugar.  This leaves out most packaged foods – I’ll do my best.  I will allow one (1) square of dark chocolate after dinner.  This is to give me something to look forward to at the end of the day.  (Is that a bit pathetic??  Do I really need to look forward to eating chocolate?)  (Yes.)
  • No gluten.  I’ve done this before and I know it’s do-able.  I’m lucky I don’t have to interrogate every item in a restaurant.  I’ll just avoid obvious sources.
  • No dairy or eggs – yikes!  This seems like going a bit overboard, but I’ll give it a shot.  Stan says he can cook a month’s worth of dinners without eggs or cream.  I’ll learn to eat some other types of food for breakfast – I’m probably overdoing now with two eggs per day.  Coconut milk is very good for me, so I’ll use it as a substitute for dairy.  Butter is an exception – I have read it’s okay, and especially clarified butter, which has the milk protein filtered out.
  • Get up by 7:30 AM Monday through Friday.  I love the early morning time, and never intended to start sleeping in after I retired.  I enjoy spending the evenings with Stan, who is an owl, but if I stay up too late I lose my lark’s desire to get up early and enjoy the morning.
  • Keep up our two times per week on the weight machines at the Y and keep walking on the other days.
  • Try out the class called “Gentle Yoga”.  (Unfortunately it’s only taught at 7 AM.)
  • Tidy my three cluttered areas and check on them several times per week to keep them under control.
  • Buy the paint for the family room and just do it!
  • Visit with Tyler, Alethea and Mira at least once during March – maybe attend karate class and/or have a pizza night. 
  • FaceTime with Melanie and talk about scheduling a girls’ weekend soon.

I think this is enough.  Not sure I can do the food parts, but we’ll see.   I read a post on FeedMePhoebe where Phoebe talks about going 30 days without sugar, alcohol or caffeine.  She had a positive experience even though it was hard, so I’m motivated to try.


March 19, 2015:
So, now at the halfway point, I feel successful enough to tell you readers about it.  Here’s how it’s going so far:

1 week in:
Hit a new low weight – 134.8.

What do I miss most?  Thought it would be coffee, but I miss eggs!  Have had some good egg-free breakfasts but miss my eggs and veggies.  The canned salmon I bought for easy breakfasts with veggies was okay, but not really great  – somehow canned salmon smells fishier than fresh.  I also like an occasional paleo muffin, and those are made with a lot of eggs.

Had a clear sign something has changed – during the 4 hours Mira and I spent on our trip to the Great Wheel, I never once thought of finding a restroom.  Even during the long bus ride home, it did not enter my mind.  I had only had one cup of tea that morning, instead of 2 or 3 cups of coffee, but we both had large beverages at lunch plus some water.  Kudos to Mira too!  How easy to travel around when you’re  not looking for clean public facilities everywhere you go!

2 weeks in:
Hit another new low – 133.9.  Obviously one or more of the items I was eating before was keeping me from losing weight.

Doing fine, not perfect, cutting out wine and sugar.  Had one glass of wine at dinner at friends’ house and one glass with my son and granddaughter, sitting on their patio on a warm afternoon while they played catch.  Two occasions when a glass of wine is appropriate and lovely  : )  Had two at a St. Patrick's Day dinner and party, also appropriate, but I could have substituted mineral water for the second.

Have enjoyed my one square of dark chocolate in the evening, and avoided most, not all, sugar otherwise.  It’s in everything!

My appetite seems to be on a more even keel.  I’m not getting hungry or thinking about food between meals, and I’m not stuffed after eating.  So far, so good!  At the end of the month I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Here's a lovely tree I passed on my walk.  I love spring!


 

Thursday, March 19, 2015

What is kombucha? Should I drink it?



According to the website KombuchaKamp.com,

kombucha is fermented tea, an ancient elixir consumed for thousands of years by civilizations all over the planet.  The most commonly attributed kombucha benefits are better digestion, increased energy, and a clearer mind. 

Hmm, my digestion is fine, but I could sure use more energy and a clearer mind!  


You can see my favorite co-op, PCC Markets, recommends kombucha.  

Browsing around the internet, I found many, many websites praising kombucha and lots of instructions and videos for how to make it at home.  I also found a few articles pointing out bad or dangerous side effects and calling it more of a fad than a real health tonic.  The website I think is best is KombuchaKamp.com.  It mentions a long list of benefits that people have claimed from kombucha, but it also says “kombucha tea is JUST A FOOD...  It is NOT a panacea.  It doesn’t cure anything...  It is really just a delicious and healthy beverage.”

As usual, I consulted the book I’ve chosen to be my main guide through this year of health, The Wahls Protocol, by Terry Wahls, MD.  My reasons for choosing her are explained in my post What Should I Eat?  Dr. Wahls recommends eating some fermented foods every day, and includes kombucha in her list.  Here’s why, summarized from her book:

 Each of us has 1 trillion body cells and 100 trillion yeasts, bacterias and, in some cases, parasites living on and in us.  They drive trillions of chemical reactions, the by-products of which will eventually get into our bloodstreams and facilitate either health or disease.  We have evolved to have a health-promoting mix of these critters in our ecosystems – which Dr. Wahls calls “our old friends”.  However, what we eat affects the makeup of that population.  She asks, “Are you creating an unruly mob in there, or a well-behaved, health-promoting population of good bacteria citizens?”

Our ancestors learned how to use fermentation to store foods that were plentiful during the growing season, and to ferment honey to make mead, and eventually beer and wine.  They ate the original “paleo” diet we are now trying to emulate.  As we have added more carbohydrate-rich foods like grains and sugars to our diets and introduced antibiotics, our “old friends” are dying off and different species are taking their place, which can cause digestive issues and disease.  Eating more fermented foods with live cultures will bring more of the friendly species to your gut for better health.

Kombucha is made by adding a kombucha “mother”, or SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast) to sweetened tea and letting it sit to ferment, similar to using a sourdough starter.  I found some warnings about molds growing on it and it sounds as though you have to be careful with the home brew.  I think I’ll probably stick to buying prepared brands.  However, I will buy brands that are labeled raw, since a pasteurized kombucha wouldn’t have the live cultures.

The bad press I read about kombucha were mostly warnings that it is not the miracle tonic it is sometimes advertised as, and will not cure diseases like cancer and AIDS.  There is a documented case of two women becoming ill in 1995 from drinking kombucha, and one of them died.  They were from a rural town in Iowa and apparently the kombucha they each had drunk came from the same SCOBY.  It sounds like they had too much acid in their systems.  Warnings also mention that it contains alcohol (a very small amount) and caffeine (from the tea).  It is recommended to start drinking it in small quantities at a time and pay attention to how you feel.  


For myself, I like the taste and I’m finding it helpful as a substitute for the wine I would like to be having around 5 PM.  I only have half a bottle, 8 ounces, and sip it slowly to feel like I’m having a treat.  You’ll notice I also put it in a fancy wine glass (from Kalaloch Lodge on the Washington coast – a nice place to stay while exploring the Olympic Peninsula.)  Anything I can do to make my healthy food look appealing causes me to feel happier about my new way of eating.  I noticed the berry flavor has 4 grams of sugars, while the original and citrus have only 2 grams.  I think the less sweet flavors actually taste better (more like beer), so I'll stick to those.

Other fermented foods Dr. Wahls recommends are unsweetened almond and coconut milk yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, nutritional yeast and (some of you will be happy to hear) non-grain-based spirits like wine, rum and gluten-free beer.  (She does warn to have only one glass of spirits a day for women and two for men.  Shouldn’t this be determined by height and weight rather than by gender?  I still wouldn’t qualify for the second glass, but it would sound more fair.)




At PCC I found unsweetened coconut milk yogurt with live cultures, but I only found almond milk yogurt in a sweetened vanilla flavor.  Oh gee, for the sake of science, I tried it  : )   Since I've been avoiding sugar for a few months, it tasted really sweet - very tasty actually, like vanilla custard, but I'll get the unsweetened kind from now on.  The unsweetened coconut milk yogurt was quite tasty, although not as fluffy and light as dairy Greek-style yogurt,  and I enjoyed it for breakfast with raspberries and blueberries.  This would be a handy item to have in the fridge for mornings when I'm in a hurry.



I also bought some sauerkraut with live cultures.  I love sauerkraut (especially on a nice juicy hot dog!) but I didn't know it had live cultures.  Since Stan doesn't eat it I usually freeze it in small quantities after I open the jar, but now I wonder if that kills the good bacteria.  I didn't find any website that said absolutely that freezing sauerkraut doesn't kill the cultures.  However, I did find the information below about yogurt, and it seems it would be the same for anything with live cultures.  I also found the advice from Healthybliss.net that when sauerkraut is refrigerated, once you open the jar, you should eat it within 30 days.
The freezing process does not kill any significant amount of the cultures—in fact, during the freezing process the cultures go into a dormant state, but when eaten and returned to a warm temperature within the body, they again become active and are capable of providing all the benefits of cultures that haven't been frozen.
Bottom line:  I'm going to enjoy kombucha and other foods with live cultures, but moderately.  I won't be having second helpings and will remember that they contain an active ingredient.

Monday, March 16, 2015

Time Out for Golf

Our favorite little golf course re-opened March first and Stan couldn't wait to get out there.  It's a very short "pitch and putt"-type nine-hole course in Bellevue that we discovered last year.  It's hardly ever crowded during the week, except for some high school kids who come out for PE.  (I wish we had learned to play golf in PE when I was in high school!)  On a few occasions we've even had it all to ourselves, as we practically did last week.




When we pay our Senior fee ($11 each), we can go around as many times as we want.  We can even go off for lunch and come back later in the day.  I noted on my Fitbit that one time around only resulted in half my daily goal of 10,000 steps, so we'll need to play 18 holes whenever we can.




Last year I bought new clubs.  My old ones were 17 years old, and I was pretty sure some new technology would improve my game.  Then I wound up going to physical therapy and chiropractic, and the chiropractor said no golf until September, so the clubs are still nearly brand new.  I was excited to get them out this year and I think I am hitting better, though they are not an instant cure-all.  Aren't they pretty??



Stan hadn't golfed until I urged him to try it, and our friends, Melanie's in-laws Sharon and Bill, arranged for a group golf lesson for the family.  It was fun and Stan got hooked!  I had to explain to him that when someone shows you a new activity, it's bad form to show her up right away.  I only beat him once or twice all last year.  This year will be different!  But he did beat me our first time out : (


When Stan saw the photos of our first time out, he remarked we had dressed like gardeners, not golfers, so we tried to do better today!

Stan makes a long putt


Darn, he beat me again today






The orange ball is easier to find when I'm off in the rough


A great way to get outdoors and get some exercise! 

Friday, March 13, 2015

Quilting with Food

My quilter's eye noticed I had some lunches that looked similar to quilt fabrics - multi-colored up close, but from a distance they "read" one particular color.  Once I saw this, I just had to make the rest of the rainbow and arrange them together.  What a fun way to get my antioxidants!!

Most of these are just breakfasts or lunches I put together without a recipe, but I must mention the purple cabbage in the upper left.  It is a delicious recipe from the March 2015 Clean Eating magazine.  (Sorry, I couldn't find the recipe online.)  We had it with pork tenderloin and they went together very well.  (Those lighter-colored pieces are apple chunks.)

The tomato soup in the lower right is my dinner at our favorite wine bar, Vino at the Landing, where we go most Friday evenings.  That is Parmesan cheese in it, and a few croutons, which I leave in the bowl when I'm being good, and eat when I'm really happy to get a few bites of bread.

And the purple in the "quilt" below comes from Stan's mashed purple potatoes.  I've read they have more antioxidants than regular white potatoes.

A rainbow of good food!







Here's my quilt  : )



Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Going Coconutty



In my quest for healthy things to eat I am finding coconut everywhere.  Coconut oil, coconut milk, coconut water, coconut flour and shredded coconut are all featured in many paleo and low-carb recipes.  I read three books to try to find out what's so good about coconut oil:  The Coconut Oil Miracle and Stop Alzheimer’s Now! by Bruce Fife, C.N., N.D. and Alzheimer’s Disease What if there was a Cure? By Mary Newport, M.D.  

 

Mary Newport was the Director of Neonatology at a hospital in Florida when her husband, Steve, started having signs of early Alzheimer’s in his 50’s and the disease progressed fast.  When Steve failed to qualify for a trial of a drug that was showing a lot of promise, Mary researched the drug and the science behind it.  She found the drug has one active ingredient, a type of  medium-chain triglyceride, and a report she read stated that any MCT would give basically the same results.  Mary was aware that MCT oil has been used safely in the treatment of epilepsy for many years and in hospital feeding formulas and infant formula.  The drug’s patent application indicated the MCT was extracted from coconut oil, which is made up of 63% MCTs. 

So, long story short, she started giving Steve coconut oil every day.  Almost immediately he started acting and feeling more like himself.   Mary now says on her website that coconut oil gave her and Steve two extra years of normal life before Steve sadly began failing again with seizures and a fall.  She also shows pictures of a test Steve took multiple times where the patient draws a clock face.  The improvement after starting coconut oil is pretty convincing.

Bruce Fife is a nutritionist and naturopath who has written many books and is president of an organization called the Coconut Research Center, whose purpose it is “to educate health care professionals and the public about the positive nutritional aspects of coconut”.  I tend to be skeptical when a person is making money by touting a particular treatment or cure, especially when it can not only cure Alzheimer’s but also help in weight loss, fight infection and give you beautiful skin and hair.  Perhaps the word “Miracle” is a bit strong.  However, Dr. Fife does list studies and trials, as well as testimonials (I’m a sucker for testimonials), and for some of the folks in his examples, coconut oil has been pretty miraculous. 

According to Dr. Fife, medium- and short-chain fatty acids behave differently in the body than the typical long-chain fatty acids found in meat and vegetable oils.  The long-chain fatty acids are stored as fat tissue if not used immediately for energy, but short-chain (which are very rare, but some are found in butter) and medium-chain fatty acids are broken down and used predominantly for energy production and seldom end up as body fat or as deposits in arteries.  An article on the San Francisco online news website SFGATE also mentioned that medium-chain fatty acids go directly to energy rather than being stored.
 
An article on Livestrong.com says some benefits of coconut oil may be due to the presence of lauric acid, a fatty acid present in breast milk that confers many of the immune and health benefits to breastfed babies.

Many sources warn that definitive studies have yet to be completed, although some are in the works.  Nowhere did I read anything actually bad about coconut oil other than its being a saturated fat with 120 calories per tablespoon.  Of course, don’t eat partially hydrogenated coconut oil that may be in snack foods and non-dairy creamer.  (Any partially hydrogenated oil would have trans fats, which are bad.)





As I mentioned in one of my earliest posts, I am using The Wahls Protocol, by Dr. Terry Wahls, as my main guide during this year of health.  Dr. Wahls recommends coconut oil and coconut milk, especially for those following her most drastic (perhaps I should say most advanced) protocol.  In “Wahls Paleo Plus” the goal is to be in mild ketosis, or burning fat for energy instead of carbs.  She says “Your goal is to have a source of medium-chain fats at each eating occasion.  You will get the most ketones from coconut oil as opposed to other kinds of fats.”  I am not even doing her most basic protocol fully as yet, and I’ll probably never make it to Paleo Plus, but I do eat low-carb, and I know I should eat plenty of good fat.

Whew – what a dense read without a lot of pretty pictures!  Here are some things I’m doing with coconut.

Breakfasts and stir-fries – I started cooking with coconut oil right after I wrote the post about what oils to cook with.  Since olive oil has a lower smoke point, coconut oil is a better choice for stir-frying and sautéing.  Here are a couple of my recent breakfasts sauteed in coconut oil.  (I'm experimenting with egg-free breakfasts - not easy!)


Sausage and veggies
Red cabbage, apple, greens and yam

Tea and coffee – ever since reading about how good it is for the brain, I’m putting a dab of coconut oil in my tea and coffee whenever I remember.  I don’t taste it at all, it just makes the surface look a bit shiny.  And any time Stan forgets something or has one of those Sometimer’s moments we all have, I resolve to sneak coconut oil into his food, too.


 If anyone wants to go really hard-core, you can check out the Bulletproof Exec’s Bulletproof Coffee.  It is “high-performance” low-toxin coffee blended with grass-fed butter and a coconut oil extract he calls “Brain Octane”.  The exact procedure and recipe are at the link.  I believe this is healthy, but it’s beyond me at this point.  Too lazy to track down the ingredients and too miserly to pay for them, not to mention I want my morning beverage to resemble my usual coffee with milk or half and half.

Have you tried the new coconut milk latte at Starbucks?  I had one a few weeks ago.  Gotta admit, it wasn’t quite as good as my favorite soy latte, but I know the soy milk is laced with sugar.  Well, guess what…  shortly after that I read an article on rebootedbody.com with a photo of the ingredient list purportedly on Starbucks coconut milk.  In addition to coconut and water, it shows sugar, 4 kinds of gums, corn dextrin and tricalcium phosphate (is that something we wash clothes with??).  Darn.  It wasn’t that great anyway.  I’m going to stick with my new favorite Starbucks – Teavana Jade Citrus Mint green tea.

Don't laugh but I also took some virgin coconut oil up to the master bath.  I'm going to check out its antibiotic, antifungal, anti-itch and beautifying properties on some of my imperfections  : )

I noticed many recipes in my new Against the Grain cookbook use coconut in some form or other, including the Banana Nut Porridge I made, as well as soups, scones, macaroons, ice cream, French vanilla coffee creamer and coconut whipped cream.  Yum!  When I've tried some of these I'll write a post on cooking with coconut!







Sunday, March 8, 2015

A Great (Wheel) Day

Today I had an invitation from my granddaughter, Mira, to ride the Seattle Great Wheel.  Yippee!  It was a beautiful day for it, warm and sunny.





We took the bus downtown and walked to the waterfront, past the Hammering Man in front of the Seattle Art Museum, who was working on Sunday.  Apparently his only day off is Labor Day!



We bought our tickets and had to wait in line for a few minutes.  Then we were on our way up!







It was cool!  Beautiful view of the city, Elliot Bay and the Olympic mountains.












After our ride, we planned to eat lunch at Ivars;  however, due to the construction of a tunnel along Seattle's waterfront, that and many other places were closed.  We walked north along the water for a terrific lunch at Anthony's.  Mira introduced me to this great beverage - half and half lemonade and sparkling water.  I asked for mine light on the lemonade, and our waiter made them both perfectly.




As you can see, we had two great lunches!  Shrimp mac and cheese for Mira and salmon salad with cranberries for me.



It was a great day.  Good idea, Mira!