Thank you,
Lyndzie. I've read this yesterday evening and you were right - afterwards I felt better.
Day 11It's Easter and we are usually invited on Sunday and Monday to my parents in-law. On Sunday they usually serve white asparagus, with potatoes, hollandaise and cutlets. On Monday they usually make a big barbecue for the family. So I was afraid how I will 'survive' those days...
As usual I did not have breakfast. I already was quite nervous about the family meal. My in-laws are somehow sensitive when it comes to family meetings and cooking for everybody. Difficult to explain but especially my father in-law feels offended quickly if you dislike something. I haven't talked to them about my current WOE - I wasn't even sure if I could eat like this by myself! And then there was no opportunity to talk about it plus actually I am not that kind of person that needs to inform the whole world. I never did so, whether I was on a diet or followed a real plan like Keto.
They really spend a lot of time decorating the whole garden, the table and so on. Usually we have good weather around Easter and so it is, besides some coffee drinking or cake eating outside, the first family meal outside in their garden. It's a big thing for them and they want it to be perfect. My first strategy was: Hoping they don't see it.
So I put potatoes, asparagus and some mixed vegetables on my plate and tried not to arouse the attention. But as soon as all wanted to start my mother in-law looked at my plate: "Wait, Salo has no cutlet yet. And where is the hollandaise?" My husband peeved me the whole morning that it will be so funny watching me explaining his parents I don't eat meat. I didn't expect any help from him but then he said: "Remember? Salo had an endodontic treatment. It is not finished yet. She cannot eat the cutlet. And she has to be careful with that sauce because of the infection in her mouth." Everybody was instantly understanding and quiet and started to eat.
Later when the men were plaing soccer with my son I tried to continue the conversation about my eating with the truth. I explained my mother in-law that I had real bad blood levels at my latest test and that I really have to do something about it. I told her that I am following a plantbased way of eating for almost two weeks now and that I am starting to feel better. She was understanding and also curious. "So after a month, will you eat dairy and meat again?" And I replied honestly. "I don't know, yet. I am not missing anything at the moment and I feel I am doing something good for my body. But to be honest, I don't know what I will do after this 4 week-experiment."
When we sat together again for some coffee my mother in-law took over the planning for the barbecue and said to her husband. "We will need some jacket potatoes for tomorrow. And do we have enough vegetables to prepare a colourful salad?" He was confused. "You already prepared a big bowl of your potato salad." And she said "But there is eggs and mayonnaise in it. Salo can't eat this. End of discussion." I felt terrible and thought I caused discomfort. But then I had the idea. "I could make a salad as well. For the barbecue I am usually in charge of the bell-pepper salad. I will just leave out the cheese if it's okay for you? And for honesty's sake: I already left out the oil for years.
" We all had to laugh and my mother in-law was impressed how I could prepare the salad without oil the rest of the day. (side note: This salad is usually made with lot's of oil, but one day I hadn't enough oil in the house and so I just combined water and vinegar and brought the quantities to perfection over the years. I found out that although the oridinal recipe contains a lot of oil you never taste that oil - so why using oil at all?)
In the evening I cooked some whole-wheat pasta and warmed up 2 cubes from the corn-potato-dried tomato tray in the freezer. Afterwards I prepared the salad. The cutting work takes some time but I like to prepare food that way. Years ago at school I had cooking lessons. My teacher always set great value upon such cutting work. Everybody was hacked off but I actually saw the difference. Everybody was like "It will end up in your stomach anyway" but I liked to say "You eat with your eyes first."
So I always look if my cut vegetables "fit together". And for the salad I cut a lot of bell-peppers in tiny cubes or stripes so they fit together with the bulgur or rice or what you actually want to use. I used rice yesterday so I made tiny stripes, lol.