Diabetic Moments at the Stampede

We went to the Calgary Stampede today - if you've never been or heard of it, it's sort of a combination rodeo/agricultural exhibit/carnival/state fair thing that is a huge deal every summer in Calgary. We all wear jeans and cowboy hats to work for a week, all the store windows are painted with cowboy designs and pancake breakfasts are scattered throughout the city.

If you'd asked me as a child I would probably have said it was my favorite 'holiday' after christmas! It was a lot of fun, though we just didn't have the energy to stay for the free mini concert at the end of the night - Hedley was playing, darn it!

Of course, I had a few diabetes moments. It's "Marathon Sunday" in Calgary today too. On our way to the stampede grounds, we passed the finish line for one of the marathons. I saw a couple of ladies with 'Team Diabetes' t-shirts who had completed the race, which was cool.

At the marketplace, admist the knife displays, three kinds of blenders, this amazingly weird water massage booth, and various sellers of cowboy hats, I found these cooling neckbands filled with some kind of polymer that soaks up water and keeps cool for (apparently) days. I bought one, and wondered if it's the same stuff that's in a Frio Wallet. Not that I have any insulin to keep cold, but it was my first thought.

Finally, after avoiding the fresh squeezed lemonade all day - I love lemonade but it's way too much sugar - we finally noticed a tiny line noting they had 'diabetic lemonade'. This turned out to be water, a fresh squeezed lemon and a packet of splenda. I enjoyed it - but I drink lemon water pretty frequently. It wasn't 'lemonde' to me, because it wasn't sweet (perhaps a couple more packets of splenda..), but I really appreciated that someone was making an effort to provide alternatives for those who can't have sugary drinks. And it was a very tasty lemon water.

Of course, it was an 'off plan' day in part - I don't think i found a single veggie in the grounds, though I'll admit to not looking that hard.. but normally I'll at least try to get veggies and dips if I can find them. I did have some okay beignets for breakfast, and half a really tasty smashed potatoe for lunch/supper. The smashed potatoe place is there every year - it's a regular baked potatoe, but they flatten it with a large wooden mallet before you get your toppings!

I'm soo tired now, so it's time for an early bed.

Farmers Market, yay!

The farmer's market is quite different in summer. They've re-arranged it now that there is fresh produce. Fresh local produce!

I felt like a kid in a candy shop, or transported back to summers working at my aunt's fruit stand. Piles of fresh fruit, fresh veggies. No blemishes or bruises or waxy coating. We got corn, and tomatoes and pale yellow carrots and dark blue carrots. And raspberries, and strawberries. I barely resisted the cherries and the blackberries.

I forget, going to the grocery store, what a difference freshness and a lack of industrial handling makes. There's no picking through for that one apple without an obvious bruise or a tomato that isn't somehow off, or that box of strawberries that hasn't started to get soft or moldy.

Nope, just reach in, pick something up, and enjoy the goodness.

I've only eaten the raspberries so far- most of the rest is for a family dinner tomorrow - but oh my goodness, SO GOOD! Sweet, tart, and seemingly right off the vine. The grocery store ones have lost some vital essence, but these were a reminder of summertime at my grandmothers house. We'd be given ice cream buckets and sent to pick raspberries from the bushes that lined the garage wall.

I think even as a child, if you'd offered me a choice between raspberries and candy, the raspberries would have one. Raspberries would beat chocolate, sometimes!

If there's a farmer's market in your area - check it out some weekend. It'll be worth it!

Salad Day

Wednesday is now 'Salad Day' at work. Instead of ordering in burgers or pizza or sushi or other food, we make salad for lunch.

I love ordering in lunch. I don't have to worry about having leftovers or making a lunch in the mornings. We save money on groceries because work buys it. And I get to eat a variety of things.

Most of those things aren't very good for me. If everyone's eating pizza and I'm eating carrot sticks, I feel deprived. It's really hard to make good choices day after day, and I've completely fallen off the 'lots of veggies' lunch wagon.

Instead, since I know I'm eating something carby, I try to reduce my portions, or order something that is easily adjusted to be lower-carb. Only part of my burger bun, only a few bites of noodles, only 3/4 of my pizza. It's becoming habit, and I think it's a reasonable way to handle things - unless I get a nasty A1C.

Even though I'm being more consistent with dealing with high-carb lunches, I'm happy we have salad day too. If everyone is eating salad and veggies and cold cuts for lunch, I don't feel deprived. And I know that at least one day a week I'm eating like I should!

Burger Inn Bison Burger

I'm back! Recovered from my cold and finally feeling like I have some energy again. Here's hoping I get back on a regular posting schedule again.

I had a ferocious day today, so we ate out as a treat. I had a buffalo burger at Burger Inn. It's a local Calgary chain that specializes in a variety of burgers. They've got beef, but why eat than when you can have bison, elk, wild boar, salmon, pork, ostrich, lamb or turkey?

They offer the burgers on white, wholewheat, or bunless, along with the standard toppings. You can also add ham, mushrooms, pineapple, friend onions, cheddar swiss or bacon. Yum!

They also have excellent poutine - fries with gravy and cheese curds, which I also had tonight. Definitely a treat item - I don't even want to think about the carb count! But it was the perfect indulgence for me today.

One day I'm going to try their milkshakes - they've got great flavors, including root beer, which is one of my favorite milkshake flavors. They've also got raspberry, blackberry, banana, peach and mango in addition to the standard vanilla, chocolate, strawberry.

I don't eat burgers often - but when I'm in the mood for one, I'll pick Burger Inn! Same price as any fast food place with far better quality.

Breakfast makes a difference

Work has once again gob smacked me, so I'm feeling very behind on my email and blogging and reading. I keep thinking it'll settle down, but somehow it flares back up again. But at least I'm feeling competent and useful and skilled, which all make me feel good.

The continuing appearance of numbers in the high 4 range (85-90) isn't hurting either. I need to get some more iTest strips and run some comparisons - I lost the 4's when I switched to the iTest, but I'm pretty sure the freestyle I'm using now is just as accurate.

So I'm pretty sure these results are not due to meter changes, hormones, or a decrease in caffeine. I think it's breakfast.

I've always been a solid breakfast eater. I don't feel awake until I've put food in my mouth, and I've always been wary of compromising on breakfast. It's the most important meal of the day, right? It's also been my most carb heavy: oatmeal and oatbran have been my staples the last few years. 1/4 cup of that plus some milk gets me about 40 carbs for breakfast.

Over the last few weeks, partially due to the fact that I am REALLY tired of oatmeal, I switched to a single slice of whole wheat toast, slathered (and I mean slathered!) with cream cheese and a tiny smear of jam. I find I end up wanting my mid-morning snack a bit earlier, but it keeps me going pretty well.

And, at the end of the day, say 3-6 pm.. I'm getting lower numbers. I don't notice lower ones in the morning, which boggles me. But I'm definitely seeing a trend to lower numbers in the afternoon that appears to have nothing to do with what I'm having for lunch or afternoon nibble.

I don't understand it, but I like it. Looks like we'll be buying lots of cream cheese in the future.

Trying to eat slower

Ran across an article today that pointed me to an insulin resistance study in Japan. Okay, first I found a blog that reprinted the entire article as if they'd written it themselves - I have nothing but disgust for thieves of this sort - and found the original one (I assume) that actually linked sources.

In any case, the study I found was a strange one. Eating Fast Leads to Obesity: Findings Based on Self-administered Questionnaires among Middle-aged Japanese Men and Women. I would think that WHAT you eat would matter far more than how fast, but apparently it's not quite as simple.

The basis of the study was a questionnaire that asked several thousand people how fast they ate, among other things. They had to rate themselves on a scale of 'very slow', 'relatively slow', 'medium','relatively fast', and 'very fast'. It's a very open ended question. In any case, long story short - those who ate faster were found to have gained more weight, and had a higher BMI (Body Mass Index).

There's a lot of other reasons to eat slowly to - like enjoying your food more, and turning a meal into a time to relax.

This is good in theory for me, but not practice. I tend to eat because I'm hungry or having a mood swing - It's amazing how fast a granola bar can snap me out of an ill mood. I tend to be multitasking during meals - either I'm reading a book or thinking about work or watching TV. It's often something to get done quickly so I can get back to something more important. I know I eat fast - I tend to be done before everyone else around me.

It's hard to slow down. I'm so used to not paying attention once I've put the food on my plate. It's only on very special meals - or when I'm eating something that's an absolute favorite - that I stop and enjoy. I'm not sure how to change the habit day to day.

If I'm in "the groove" at work, I don't want to interrupt that thought flow at all. If I'm eating by myself, I'd rather read a book to occupy my thoughts. I guess I'll have to experiment and find something that works.

Lunch is a Bowl of Cherries

You have to love cherry season. Today was the first time I've noticed them in the stores. Over winter I forget how many is a serving, but 15 seems about right. These were a great lunch. Not too sweet, a little tart, just ripe.

I don't eat cherry jam, cherry pie, or cherry anything else. But the fresh ones always remind me of summers visiting my aunt's fruit farm in BC. We'd bring home tons of fruit - most of which I wouldn't touch, but cherries are always fabulous.

I worked there two or three summers, and having that fresh produce was great! I didn't realize how good I had it, until I came back home, took a look at the grocery store offerings and was agast at how old all the stuff looked. I still have trouble buying apples - they seem so waxed and bruised.

Fruit Bouquet

This incredibly luscious fruit bouquet was delivered to our offices today! We've be having a lot of upheaval this week and it was a pick-me up from a company we work with. The strawberries were absolutely huge and very delicious. I had one chocolate covered one - very sweet chocolate so one was more than enough. The rest of the team was happy to go for chocolate covered ones while I nibbled the plain ones. I also had some of the grapes and melon balls.

And to top it all off, we kicked off early today to enjoy the long weekend - it's Victoria Day on Monday here in Canada. I can sure use a break and this was a fabulous way to close out 12 straight days of work.

Zeer - Food Reviews

I ran across Zeer.com recently. It's a food review site currently in Beta. It looks like a combination of food review site / social network. You can add friends, post reviews, rate products and join communities.

It caught my eye because one of the communities they have is 'diabetes'. The idea of reading reviews of products by diabetics appeals to me - it's one reason I like blogs like Glucoholic. Anyone in the diabetes group can classify their review as belonging to the group, so they aren't forcing any constraints on what products are 'diabetic', which I like.

It's a beta site, so obviously it's in early stages. I think it needs to grow a bit to become really useful - there are only three reviews in the diabetes section as of today, including one on a persimmon has no nutritional information and reads, in it's entirety 'no sugar'. If the community grows and more useful reviews are posted, I can see it being a strong resource.

The biggest problem I have on the site right now is finding products. They have a huge database of items, and a number of ways to search them. It's really easy to find a product if you know the brand and product name. I found a few specific products really easily, as well as finding they don't have my local brand of Omega 3 milk.

However for non specific searches you can get thousands of results. For example, a search for all products that have less than 5% of the daily recommended allowance for carbs returns over 4000 pages of results! I could add additional search terms, but I'd rather browse through the list.

I'd love to see 'drill down' links on search results that allow you to refine your searches quickly without having to remember the name and brand of various products. I'd also love to be able to limit by location - there are a ton of brands available in the States that aren't in Canada, and vice versa.

I think they'll need to provide a little more information for consumers as well. From a programmers standpoint I can see why searches for carbohydrates and other nutrients are done in Recommended Daily Amounts, but I have no idea what the rda for carbohydrate is, so the carb search isn't that useful for me. A link to a table of data would really improve this feature. I did try searching for items with 100% of my daily rda for carbs - but this gave me Kibbles 'n Bits with an carb count of 0. I'm not ready to go no-carb!

I'd also love to search on an ingredient level - so I could load up all products sweetened with splenda, or avoid all the ones using asparatame. They have an ingredients search box in their advanced search, but I couldn't make it work.

For a beta, I think it's a pretty good site with a lot of potential. I'll keep checking back to see if the diabetic section is growing, or if they add more tools for finding products. It's still early days so there is a ton of room for them to expand and improve.

Swedish Nutrional Labels

I'm pretty used to reading Canadian/American nutritional labels. Reading ones from other countries throws me now and then. I ran across these 'My Smoothie' juice boxes from Sweden and did a quick skim of the label - 12.7 carbs! Huzzah! Juice I could enjoy!

I really should have considered how they managed to put in all that fruit with so few carbs, but I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. When I went to drink it, I did a second check of the label. And noticed a tiny little detail I'd missed on the first round. The label reads "Nutrition per" in three languages, then adds "100 ml". The box was 250 ml, so a serving was less than half a box.

I'm extra careful with liquids because they cause such dramatic spikes. So I dutifully measured out 100 ml, as shown below. The juice isn't bad - it'd be better mixed with some yogurt for a proper (in my eyes) smoothie taste. But I really need to remember to check foreign labels a little more carefully in future. It's small packages that cause me the most trouble - I can't help assuming that entire container is a serving.

Belmont Diner French Toast

We went out to lunch at the Belmont Diner today. Neither of us wanted to cook, and the place had an excellent review in our local restaurant critic, John Gilchrist's new book My Favorite Cheap Eats. We've tried a few places from the book so far, and they've all be good.

There was a line out the front door so we had to wait for 20-30 minutes for a table. We'd been warned about the line from the book, so it wasn't a surprize. When we left the line had grown to a dozen people. I think the restaurant only seats a couple dozen, it was a tiny place.

I'm a sucker for diner breakfasts, especially hash browns, pancakes, french toast and waffles. They have a tiny little notice on the menu that smaller portions were available, so I downgraded my order to a single slice of french toast. It arrived perfectly cooked with a mess of crispy bacon and a serving of their bottomless hash browns.

I was very pleasantly surprised to find it wasn't made with white bread. In fact, I didn't see a single slice of white bread in the place - even the toast was made with some kind of brown bread. The waitress thought it was whole wheat, but I couldn't tell for sure. It was very flavorful bread - I'm sure they're either making it themselves or buying it from a good bakery. In any case, it was really nice - not soggy, plenty of egg, and I topped it with butter and the real maple syrup they stock at each table. I don't mind fake syrup, but the real stuff was very tasty, and I didn't need much with the cinnamon sprinkled on the toast.

I'd been smelling the bacon while we waited and it did not disappoint. I think I had five or six rashers on my plate - too much for me so I passed a couple on to my husband.

I finished off with soft fluffy hash browns. Next time we go back I think I'll order eggs just so I can nibble more than a couple of bites of the hashbrowns. I love hashbrowns in all their incarnations, but these were really excellent, with a great flavor. I have no idea what they spiced them with, but it was great to enjoy hashbrowns that don't rely on salt for taste.

In any case, it's great to know there's a place to go and get a whole wheat grilled cheese or really tasty hashbrowns the next time we're having a treat for brunch.

Whole Wheat Biscuits

I took a stab at converting our favorite 'Touch of Grace' biscuits to whole wheat this weekend. My mother loves these, so we have an excuse to make them a couple times a month. Now that they're becoming a regular part of our diet, I thought it was time to make them slightly more diabetic friendly.

I've never tried to convert a recipe before, and I wasn't quite sure what the rules were for changing things up. We ended up just winging it. The recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of white flour, and we substituted 1 cup whole wheat and 1/2 cup white instead. We've made this recipe enough that we know what the dough should look like, and that made it a lot easier. I had to add a half cup of extra milk to get it to look right. Now I know that whole wheat flour absorbs a lot more liquid.

They turned out great. Still had plenty of 'biscuit' flavor, nice and fluffy, and in no way did I feel deprived of my regular white biscuits. I'm going to try all whole wheat flour next time - and use buttermilk (we were out this weekend) because I did miss the buttermilk taste. But overall, a great experiment.

Whole Wheat "Touch of Grace" Biscuits
adapted from The South The Beautiful Cookbook

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp Splenda or sweetener of choice
3 tbsp vegetable shortening
1 1/4 - 2 cups Milk or Buttermilk
1/2 cup additional flour (any kind)
2 tbsp melted butter

Preheat oven to 500 F/ 260 C. Lightly coat an 8" pan with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, mix the first six ingredients. Work the shortening in, forming pea sized lumps with a pastry blender or your fingers. Gently stir in milk or buttermilk until just mixed. You want add enough milk that all the flour is moist. We find we need less milk than buttermilk, but you will need at least 1 1/4 cups for the whole wheat version. This is a thick, wet, drop biscuit dough, sort of like thick muffin dough.

Let the dough stand 2-3 minutes. The dough is so wet that you cannot shape it in the usual manner. Pour the last 1/2 cup of flour into a plate and flour your hands. Spoon a biscuit sized lump of dough into the flour, and sprinkle with flour to coat it lightly. Shape the biscuit into a soft round, shaking off any excess flour. Place into the pan. Continue with the rest of the biscuits until the pan is full, or you run out of dough, pressing each biscuit as close to the others and the pan edge as possible.

Brush the biscuits with melted butter and bake 15-20 minutes until brown. Let cool for five minutes, then serve and enjoy.

Blimpies 3 Inch Sub

One of my husband's favorite fast food meals is a Blimpie's Sub. My father owned a sub shop (not a Blimpies) for five years so it's a bit of a nostalgia meal for me too. I made a lot of subs in high school.

I like the freshly sliced meats, the extra tasty mayo and the provolone cheese at Blimpies.

Of course, the problem with any sub place for me is the enormous sub bun. A 6" wheat is about 40 carbs according to a few nutritional sites. I'm not eating all that.

Instead, I ask them to cut it in half, then dump all the filling into one half and munch my double thick three inch sub.

Yum!

Parents - Leftover Disposal

Since we moved to the same city as my folks, we have them over for dinner a couple times a month. It's something I really enjoy. For one, I like feeding my folks - it's a great reversal of all the meals they've fed me, and I know they appreciate having someone else doing the cooking. We usually play a couple of board games as well which is great fun, and difficult for two people.

Every time they come, they leave loaded with leftovers. I end each evening looking around and going 'what else don't I want'. Tonight they not only took the supper remains (chicken, cauliflower, biscuits), but dessert - 3/4 of a boston cream pie, and a half a bag of cookies I was trying to avoid eating. It was great to have the boston cream pie - we never buy it because it's too big to finish, and I can't be tempted by extra biscuits or cookies if they're gone.

It's nice to give away extra food - and especially extra carbs - instead of letting them go to waste.

Jelly Straws

The import foods aisle at the Real Canadian Superstore is always filled with strange and interesting things. Most of it eye with astonishment and skepticism. Dried Squid? Corned Mutton? Wasabi Peas? Grass Jelly (Jello)? No thank you.

I do run across something I like now and then though. Jelly straws are now a staple snack in our house. It's a pretty simple product - assorted flavors of Gelatin in a tube. We don't have Jello in our house much, as it seems impossible to find sugar and aspartame free varieties, at least up here in Canada. These are a great alternative.

Each straw is only 4 carbs, so they're a great quick sweet snack. I find the flavoring fairly subtle - each pack has a mix of grape, pineapple, lychee, apple and strawberry. I wouldn't recommend them for lunches because I've never been able to get a tube open without scissors.

Gelatin has always been a treat for me - I never had it much growing up, so I appreciate being able to have it anytime I want.

Brownies & Bad Moods

Alright, brownies are on the 'eat less of' list, but it's been a while, and they looked delicious.

I was careful. I only ate half my multigrain burger bun at lunch. I waited a couple hours to let it digest.

Then I had a small brownie. Not tiny, but within what I can usually handle for a brownie. I was quick to regret it. It was small, but sweet, and very lacking in that chocolate fudge flavor that was the entire point of eating it.

Then I started feeling that sugar rush. The fatigue, the swirling stomach, the fuzzy head and lack of focus. It always makes me just want to curl up somewhere until it passes - not really possible at work. I have no idea how much sugar that baker used but it has to be considerably more than the average brownie to get that reaction.

For some reason, the sugar rush never seems quite reflected in my sugar levels - I tested at 7.7 (139), which is high for me - I try to stay under 6.5 (117), but it's not hugely over.

Fries, I will note, can easily raise me to 9 (162) with no adverse reaction. It takes sugar to screw me up.

Usually I figure once the sugar rush is past, the worst is over. But I'm very slowly starting to clue in to a secondary reaction: the sudden bad mood, five or six hours later. There's such a huge time frame between the sugar rush and the bad mood it's taken me a long time to connect that they're related.

Especially since, once again, it's not reflected by my blood sugars. I'm holding at a stubborn 6.0 (108), even though aside from some roast beef I've barely eaten in 5 hours. Not a bad number, but it means I have to be careful what I eat if I don't want to get past 6.5 again today.

I still haven't figured out how accurately judge what's going to give me a sugar rush. I'm glad I've figured out that sugar rush means an oncoming bad mood later - and my husband will certainly appreciate the warning - but I feel foolish for taking so long to clue in. I need to remember that even if my meter isn't showing crazy numbers, what I eat can be affecting me in a lot of other ways.

Glamorgan Bakery - Whole Wheat Cheese Buns

This is a whole wheat cheese bun. I've finally found one! I love any kind of cheese + bread combination but try to avoid all the white bread.

This one was discovered at the Glamorgan Bakery. We'd been told they had good sausage rolls and cheese buns and decided to check them out this weekend. The cheese buns did look good, and exceptionally cheesy. I didn't spot the brown ones on display, but they had a sign up so I knew to ask.

For me, about half of one of these is enough. They're really packed with cheese, both inside the bun and on top, so it tears apart in cheesy layers. I did find them a little salty for my taste, but still something I'll buy again. I don't eat a lot of salt so I find I don't have much tolerance for it.

I'll be having cheese bun for breakfast all week!

Food Blogs

I love reading food blogs. Tastespotting is my go-to place for finding great food ideas. All the stuff I'd love to eat, would never eat, can't believe people eat. A thousand funky new veggies and ways to serve them, as if I ever would.

I don't -cook- you see. Well, on very rare occasions. But I've really got no intention (time, desire, willpower) to actually find ingredients and follow instructions and figure out what it is I'm doing wrong. After all, what I make never looks like it does in those luscious food photos.

Still, I like to browse, check the newest postings as if it's a huge menu I place imaginary orders from. I'll take the flan please, and those cookies are great, and those meat skewers from Malaysia... The salads and veggies and soups and whole wheat/oatmeal/seed bread never make it onto my ideal plate. Except when I see blt salads in bacon cups. Those, I'd make an exception for!

When I read these blogs, I tell myself that one day I'll find that one recipe that makes eggplant appealing, or a way to eat zucchini that doesn't involve disguising it in chocolate cake. I know I need to add a LOT more veggies to my diet. The five or six I eat get very boring.

Salad. Carrots. Broccoli. Cauliflower. Asparagus. Corn. Tomatoes. Cucumber. When I try to convince myself that olives should count too, or that mushrooms have a lot of nutritional value, then I know I'm just lying to myself.

I have been trying. I have decided that even deep frying cannot make a yam palatable for me - though yam fries are everywhere I go these days in Calgary. I went out for Ethiopian - and that was too much shock for my westernized taste buds. I'll eat bok choy at a Chinese place - but it's only a few shades removed from broccoli.

But really, I'm struggling. I'm tired of the veggies I do eat, the rest either I don't like or I'm unwilling to believe I would like. I love the voyeurism in reading these blogs. I get to imagine being at a dinner where they're serving espresso panna cotta, or ordering an extra large poutine or munching fresh baked cookies.

At the same time, I look at the healthy stuff and think, "Hey, someone out there obviously enjoys Brussel sprouts. And beans. And squash. So maybe, if I keep reading, that perfect recipe will come along and somehow I'll enjoy these things too."

Hungry Days

I am having one of my hungry days. They usually happen on weekends, so I've been blaming them on the lack of my usual breakfast. I count on those weekend breaks to avoid being too bored with my repetitive breakfast.

However, I ate my breakfast today, and I'm still hippo hungry. I had breakfast. I had a snack. And another. And another. Let's all pretend they were low-carb snacks. I feel like I could go out and eat a cow. (Medium rare, with baked potato.)

Lunch just arrived and my stomach is growling.

I hate these days because I've never figured out how to turn it off. I eat carbs. No luck. I eat protein. No go. I eat fatty foods. Nope.

I'm not doing anything unusual today. No extra exercise, no extra stress. No changes in schedule, no trouble sleeping. Just rampaging, insatiable hunger.

I'm going with my backup plan after lunch: lots of water and gum. There's sure no need for me to eat anything more.

Sobey's Mini Desserts

We went to our local Sobeys (Grocery Store Chain) today, trying to find something to sooth my sweet tooth without skyrocketing my sugars. We usually go on weekday evenings when the bakery section is a little bare, but it was fully stocked today.

They have an entire section they call 'Assorted Pastries', which is filled with twenty or thirty itty bitty desserts. Chocolate things, mini tarts, cakes.. I was too busy trying to pick out a couple to really register what the complete selection was.



At 50 cents each, I was able to pick up a miniature butter tart (always a favorite), and a mini roll cake, shown here with a quarter for size comparision. The pastry on the butter tart was a bit bland for me, but the filling with one or two raisens was great.

The roll cake is the sort of thing I never buy, because even one slice is way too much and who's going to eat the rest of the cake for me? This one was very sweet, with tons of icing and took about four bites to eat. It was just perfect in size. I wouldn't have wanted any more, and it definitely satisfied the sweet tooth.

We'll have to go back on weekends now, so I can continue to sample selections now and then. For me, this is a much better option than a chocolate bar, or a cake that I'd have to slowly eat over a week before throwing out the remainder.

Major Yays for appropriately sized sweets!