LET’S GET COOKING

As the saying goes, families that eat together stay together. But sometimes we get stuck trying to find recipes that are both delicious and nutritious. This recipe section will present recipes that are easy to make, healthy and designed to please even your pickiest eaters. So let’s get cooking!

Overnight Oats

Oats are a wonderful source of fiber and have antioxidants as well as protein. Oats may lower cholesterol, help relieve constipation, and may improve your blood sugar level control. PLUS, oats are super filling, so they’re great to have when you’re trying to stave off hunger for a longer time. This recipe is a no-cook preparation of oatmeal that is made by marinating the oats in milk and warm cinnamon spice. Topped with fresh or dry fruit, this makes for a hearty breakfast or healthy on-thego snack.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups old-fashioned oats • 2 cups unsweetened almond milk • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract • Pinch of salt • 2 tablespoons sugar-free maple syrup • or your choice of sweetener • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon • 2 tablespoons chopped almonds (optional)

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

• Mixing bowl • Jar or container

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. 2. Pour into a jar or small individual containers and refrigerate overnight. 3. Top with fresh fruits right before serving.

Banana Oat Muffins

Did you know that bananas may help with constipation, heartburn and stomach ulcers? They’re also a great source of energy as well as vitamins C and B6, potassium and manganese.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

• Mixing bowls • Loaf pan • Spatula • Cooling rack

DRY INGREDIENTS

• 1 ¾ cups whole oat flour • 1 cup rolled oats • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder • 1 teaspoon baking soda • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon • ¼ teaspoon salt

WET INGREDIENTS

• 3 ripe bananas, mashed • ¼ cup coconut oil • ⅓ cup sugar • 1 egg • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

YIELD: 12-14 Servings COUNT AS: 1 Snack

DIRECTIONS

1. In a bowl, mix the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. 2. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper. Pour the batter into loaf pan. Bake at 350°F for 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. 3. Cool on a cooling rack for 1 hour before serving.

A NARROW PATH

My Weight Loss Surgery Journey

by Leeba Wein

The night I decide to go ahead with surgery I am at my in-laws’. It has been a beautiful Shabbos and melaveh malkah is underway. I am on a “dieting break,” which is a term that may seem to suggest that I am conscious of what I’m eating while still allowing myself some leeway, but it is just an excuse to gorge myself on whatever I see, which is exactly what I had done all weekend, and the week preceding that weekend.

YYet I always tell myself, and honestly believe, that Sunday is the day I will make it all go away. The constant cycle of dieting and losing and letting go and gaining will all come to an end this coming Sunday, when I start yet again. It is my husband who had opened my mind to the idea of surgery, one I had always been dead set against. I am not one of “those people.” I don’t need to go under the knife to turn my life around. I am a mature, responsible adult, wife and mother of two little kids while holding down a full-time job, who has the intelligence and capabilities of sticking to a diet plan, eating healthily and sticking to portion control. I just know it is only a matter of time and I will finally do what it takes.

Yet I don’t. And with the cycle of eating and dieting and failing once again comes a bitter sense of self-loathing, one that makes me promise that I will never touch another morsel of cake or kugel. And my husband, who has watched me struggle for the four years he’s known me, watched how every failed attempt at weight loss sends me into a spiral of poor selfesteem, how a (to him) small problem keeps on casting a shadow over so many aspects in my daily life, suggests I look into surgery. His friends have done it. So many people we know have done it. This could be the solution to get me where I want to get. I balk at the idea. I will kick this habit and I will do it myself. I will not admit to failure. Secretly, though, I am enticed. I am certain I am not going to go ahead with it, yet I am interested enough to do some research. I log onto an online community forum and anonymously request information from other women who have been through the journey. I read the responses as they come in, and I’m not sure if I would prefer that they be persuasive or the opposite. Some comments

are negative. Most of them are extremely encouraging. Yet I am adamant, I do not need surgery. I can do this myself. Surreptitiously, without admitting it even to myself, I begin inquiring. When someone tells me they or their relative had the sleeve done, I ask for the doctor’s name and whether they are happy about their decision. I file this information in my mind, yet am determined not to actually use it. It is a few weeks later on a Motzaei Shabbos when the fateful decision is made. Nothing has changed, yet that is precisely what leads me to this moment. Nothing has changed, and I am about to make that change. I realize what I knew all along. I cannot live my life to the fullest on this roller coaster. I have been doing this for as long as I can remember, a minimum of 15 years since childhood. I have tried every diet plan, every diet hack. I have tried rewarding myself and punishing myself. Yet nothing has changed. I take a long and hard honest look at myself. I have two options. I can either continue living in denial, continuing to ride the ups and downs of the journey I have always been on, always hoping

“I can do this myself”

for a better tomorrow, or I can steer the ship in a different direction, allowing my journey to change course, hopefully dramatically. I feel a thrill, an excitement at the prospect of finally getting to the destination I have been trying to reach for years now. And I feel shame. I am one of “those people.” I cannot control myself and need a surgeon to do it for me. Sunday morning, I am energized. I reach out to a couple of acquaintances who I know have gone through bariatric surgery. I choose carefully, as I am loath to admit to anyone I know personally that I am considering surgery. Yet I connect with a friend of a friend and the wife of one of my husband's friends and I start my inquiries. I learn that the sleeve gastrectomy, my preferred option, is the best option. I get information about the best doctor, the procedure and its aftermath, and life after. Everyone I ask is extremely encouraging. Life has changed for them, and for the better. I bombard them with questions. I want to know everything. If I am going to do this, I want to do this right. I collect the information I need, and I sit down to evaluate my options. I choose to use the doctor I have heard about most, one who has performed the procedure on many women I either personally know or have heard about. Yet I cannot call him. I sit on this information for a week or so, thinking and rethinking and evaluating my options. My weight has been such a determining factor in my life. Every event, every day had centered around my weight at the time.

My successes, my failures, my pregnancies and birth of my two beautiful girls, nothing had bypassed that aspect of my life. It is time to let go. I make the call.