GCHC offers healthy holiday cooking tips

Posted Dec 22, 2011 By Scott Pettigrew

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From left to right Valumart staff Kyle Stetham and Casey Lepalm took time out from stocking shelves to taste a little of Gateway Community Health Centre Dietitian Ashley Hartnett and Health Promoter Doug Stevenson's cooking demonstration at the Valumart Store in Tweed December 16, and they certainly seemed to enjoy these original turkey recipes.

Scott Pettigrew, Stirling EMC

From left to right Valumart staff Kyle Stetham and Casey Lepalm took time out from stocking shelves to taste a little of Gateway Community Health Centre Dietitian Ashley Hartnett and Health Promoter Doug Stevenson's cooking demonstration at the Valumart Store in Tweed December 16, and they certainly seemed to enjoy these original turkey recipes.

EMC Lifestyles - Tweed - Christmas is fast approaching and with this lovely Yuletide season comes the traditional turkey dinner, with that in mind the Gateway Community Health Centre in Tweed set up another cooking demonstration at the Tweed Valumart on December 16 to help promote healthy and original eating choices.

"If you are the lucky person who gets to host this year's Christmas party, and are therefore left with lots of yummy leftovers, you may want to step out of your traditional leftover turkey sandwich comfort zone and try some new and healthy recipes using turkey. We also want to thank the Valumart for generously donating all the food for our cooking demonstration," said Gateway Dietitian Ashley Hartnett who, along with Health Promoter Doug Stevenson, showed Christmas shoppers at the Valumart how to vamp up their usual holiday recipes with crunchy holiday turkey salad, turkey casserole and creamy corn and turkey soup, which were the recipes featured at this event.

More tips and tricks were shared throughout this two-hour cooking demonstration along with information about a new program starting in January. Ashley will be the "Lifestyle Coach" in 2012 with a new program targeted to busy moms who aren't taking time for themselves.

Ashley began working at Gateway earlier this year and asked about her experience so far she said, "The experience at Gateway has been excellent and I have been able to dabble in a lot of different things. I recently ran a men's cooking class where we did a grocery store tour here and then went back and cooked some healthy meals. The men were either widowed or just wanted to learn more about cooking and there were some young men as well. It was well attended but I would like to have seen more participants. The plan is to do it again if we get enough to sign up but the new program we are starting is January is what I have been focusing on. The busy moms healthy lifestyles weight loss group will start at the end of January and will be targeted at moms aged 20-50 who are looking to put themselves first a little more often than they have in the past. There is a lot of buzz about this new program and we are partnering with Shelly Lough who runs the workout program near the water tower on the Quin Mo Lac Road."

The new program, "Healthy You, Healthy Family, Healthy Community," starts Thursday, January 26, 2012. Women 20 to 50 years old are encouraged to come out from 6 until 8 p.m. at Gateway Community Health Centre. Ashley will be there to help teach the skills necessary for weight loss, as well as help participants build confidence, and connect the dots on the key to living a healthy and balanced lifestyle. To register for the program or for more information about the program, contact Ashley Hartnett at 613-478-1211, extension 228.

Health Promoter Doug Stevenson also runs the pole walking group in Tweed and they have been counting steps and kilometres to track how far they would have gone if they were actually walking across Canada. Doug said if they had started in St. John's, Newfoundland, they would now be in North Bay, Ontario.

"The pole group will be having an end-of-season party January 26 and then we will resume in 2012 for another six-month session with adults 55 and over. In the spring we will likely have an open group and then in August we will pick up again with the walk across Canada. If anyone is interested at all in pole walking even if they do not want to be part of the program give me a call at Gateway and I can help them out with training. We have a number of new programs planned for next year so the best thing for people to do is to keep an eye out for upcoming announcements."