Tuesday, June 19, 2012

FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD

MATZO BALL SOUP - CREAMED MUSHROOMS
CREAMED MUSHROOMS ON TOAST - MATZO STUFFING
Most of my family life from a infant has been focused on food.  My great grandmother, Sophie, was a live-in chef in Russia/Lithuania before she came to the United States.  When she cooked our family actually kissed her hands.  Her dishes were loaded with butter and cream and delicious.  Her recipes were passed down to my grandmother, Edith, her only daughter, among 5 sons. Then down to my mom and now to me and my daughters. Even though Sophie died before I was born, her memory and cooking was kept alive.  Family gatherings was always food first and then the roar of everyone talking at the same time probably trying to make room for dessert.

Food became my love and comfort.  Marrying an Italian, my mom blossomed into a great Italian cook.  Eating her spaghetti and meatballs, chicken parmisan and antipasto was euphoria for me and the memories linger forever. So now we are talking about great Russian food full of butter and cream and great Italian food. 

ROAST CHICKEN - MEATBALLS & SPAGHETTI - CHICKEN PARMISIAN

Fast forward all of this and I am now 60 years old, 420 lbs. and on the road to physical disaster.  Ordered by my doctor I had lap band surgery and proceeded to lose 170 lbs.  Lap band surgery is not for the weak of heart.  There is an internal device that is placed around your stomach to make it tiny and the "passage way" is also tiny.  Even swallowing medication becomes a chore.  Most of what I could eat, which wasn't much except maybe soups, came back up.  There were foods, many foods, that I could only look at and never eat. This continued for 6-1/2 years.  I realized throughout this process the psychological and emotional reasons I dealt with food.

GREEK SALAD - SALAD WITH FRUIT - MIXED GARDEN SALAD - CHICK-FIL-A SIDE SALAD
ANTIPASTO 
I have also been strengthening my relationship with God during this process and know that I can now get that same comfort from Him and His Word.  Based on this, I decided to go back to my surgeon and ask him to please reverse the tightness so that I can now eat NORMAL portions of foods that I have been missing. IMAGINE being able to have this and the LOVE of our LORD ALSO!


Still waiting to try the piece de resistance - STEAK and BURGERS. YUMMMMMM!

BURGERS WITH CHEESE BACON AND CARAMELIZED ONIONS ON A BUN!
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STEAK AU POIS - STEAK WITH CREAMED PEPPER SAUCE!

GRILLED NEW YORK STRIP STEAK AND GRILLED T-BONE STEAK!

11 comments:

AnnMarie aka Vintage Junkie aka NaNa said...

The pictures of the salads made me hungry...the other stuff is too heavy! I grew up on Italian food and love it but I am a baker so my weakness is Italian Christmas cookies.Good thing I only bake them once a year!

Unknown said...

Yum, it all looks good Sue. What a lesson here in relying on the Lord through all of this. Glad you are able to enjoy a few things you have missed eating. All in moderation of course. I am a "foodie" too :-)

Aloquin said...

Sue, thank you so much for the informed post. It is interesting, the fact that people can survive on a lot less food intake a day than we are used to... at first, I read that much of what you ate came back up, and I was like "how did she survive?" But the truth is, we as a populace eat too much daily, waaaayyyy more than we need to survive.

I am glad you're doing better! :) Maybe when we meet up we can indulge in a cupcake... and then nothing else for the rest of the day... lol, just kidding, but am very serious about the cupcake!!! :)

Julia Badgley said...

The food you picked looks delicious!
I'mso glad you are able to eat more comfortably now:)

Niki Jackson said...

You've been on quite a journey Sue. I am so glad you will be able to enjoy food once again and have the strength of Jesus to guide you in making good choices to satisfy you. Blessings Niki x

Susan Windsor said...

Thank you for posting about this, Sue! Truly our fulfillment can only be found in Christ. I identified with you on a number of levels...one in particular is that my grandmother was a live-in cook in Germany. She ended up marrying a baker. Needless to say, our family has also focused our gatherings around yummy food--and way too much. I'm glad you talked about this as I need to refocus again on Christ. Thank you thank you! Blessings! ~Susan

Luella Newkirk said...

Delicious! One of God's best gifts is tasty, fresh and beautiful meals. And we live in a day and time where there is so many delicious recipes and ingredients to choose from. My stepdaughters and sons-in-law love to cook. Their idea of a great day is to cook all day and have 12 people over the eat so I know what you mean by growing in grace in the way I look at food. God bless you as you enjoy normal portions again!!

sammysgrammy said...

I'm so glad that you can gradually increase your food choices now - Maybe even a nice hot pastrami on rye with a pickle !!!

Becky K. said...

Oh my goodness...I thought I wouldn't get hungry since I just ate dinner...but I was wrong. Good grief it all looks so good.

You and I are on a similar journey. Trusting God with our weight and our health. I'm so glad that the doctor was able to ease up the lap band. Much better.

Crafty Mommas said...

yes,this made me very hungry! and I am so so so happy that you are able to begin to enjoy food again. food is a gift from God and is meant to be enjoyed in moderation. I am glad you are getting to do that again :)

Unknown said...

Sue thanks for sharing this important part of your life. The pictures are great! Glad to see you have reached this important milestone in your health walk and can now enjoy food again.