Northern Groove

This weekend I learned a little bit about my Scottish ancestry.  I was privileged enough to be able to witness and take part in the celebration of the well known Scottish poet, Robbie Burns Day.  For those who attended... this event needs no further explanation.

For those who have never been... there are no combination of words which I am capable of putting together which may accurately describe this event.  All you need to know is that this is an event that you should mark on your calendar and experience... at least once, in your lifetime.

And - I ate Haggis for the first time. I was told by the organizers it's actually mostly oatmeal. ... and then they laughed.

Please enjoy the pictures from the evening!  Here's the link to see them all.

The Fall Fair is happening this weekend and it's always a great time! There's so much happening from the Saturday morning pancake breakfast to the talent show and the family dance in the evening.

If you want to check out some of the cool exhibits or contests or tractor pulls here's the schedule to find out when everything's happening!

Jack Jackson will be playing through out the weekend while the Arts Council has their Pie Booth. There will be watermelon eating contests, a tractor pull, and the classic car show. Head out to the Fall Fairgrounds for a great family weekend!

It is that time of year again - party time! Join us this Saturday, June 18th at Centennial Park from 4 - 8 pm, for a fun family evening at Party in the Park.  We’ll have food and drinks, gigantic air toys, a kids carnival,  live music, a massive outdoor dance floor for two-stepping, karaoke, petting zoo, wagon rides, an even bigger Cowboy Town, and absolutely NO COST! 

Show off your talent at the Cowboy Town Idol (Karaoke) and win great prizes and a chance to perform in front of the big crowd during the Country Hoedown that goes 'till dark! 

Party in the Park is an annual event held at Centennial Park in Fort St. John, B.C. It is truly the gala of the year, ranking as one of the largest events on the Fort St. John calendar!  What really blows people away is that there is no charge for anything, no hidden gimmicks, no strings attached.  Everything is free!

Check out Party in the Park at Centennial Park, this Saturday, 4 - 8 pm, brought to you by Evangel Chapel & Company.

Also, Party in the Park is currently looking for face-painting volunteers! If you've got talent turning faces into butterflies and tigers and you want to get involved with the biggest party in town, call Sara Warriner at 250-793-4817 or send her an email at  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . 

It's the Community Garden's first event of the season, our Bed Building Day. We need volunteers to help construct raised beds so we can offer more gardening opportunities this summer. Our goal: to construct 40 more raised beds! This is a great way be part of a fantastic community-oriented project, get some physical activity, and meet other garden supporters.  Weather forecast looks hot and sunny so join us for some fun in the sun! There will be a BBQ lunch provided for volunteers.

Join us on Saturday, May 28th, 10am - 4pm at the Community Garden on 102 Ave (beside the FSJ Medical Clinic). More volunteers = More raised beds = More opportunities for local families to grow fresh food!  

For more info, contact Kimberly Gulevich at (250) 793-3970 or  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Hello all you web-savvy Groovers!

Some things to think about over the holiday season are the multitude of global celebrations that happen during the winter months.  There are dozens of celebrations all over the world that explode with colour, light, lanterns, piñatas, food, drink, dancing, laughter, and joy.

The Welcoming & Inclusive Communities & Workplaces Program, along with many local cultural groups, organizations and friends are organizing “Winter Wonderlands” – a huge multicultural celebration of the winter months.  On February 19^th from 1:00pm to 4:00pm, the North Peace Cultural Centre will transform into a global festival of all things winter related.  Enjoy multicultural food, displays, performances, crafts, and activities.  Get your photo taken at the “Winter Wonderlands Photo Booth” and enter to win one of two amazing prizes!

To make this event even bigger and better, I AM LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS AND PERFORMERS!  If you would like to help out with this event or you know someone who might be interested, either as a performer or as a volunteer, please contact Clarice Eckford at 250-271-0169 or by email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .  I would LOVE to hear from you!

I took a traditional cheesecake recipe and cleaned it up. I hope you enjoy.

• 1.5 cups organic rolled oats
• 1/2 cup raw almonds 1/3 cup apple butter
• 1/4 cup almond butter
• Ingredients for filling:
• 2 x 8 ounce packages of reduced fat cream cheese
• 1/2 cup thick fat free Greek yogurt (or strain plain yogurt overnight)
• 1/2 cup raw honey
• Zest of 2 lemons and juice of 1 lemon *reduce amount of zest if you prefer a less tart dessert*
• 3 organic free range eggs

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees
2. Place oats, and almonds on a cookie sheet and bake for about 10 min.
3. Remove from oven and let cool.
4. In a food processor combine toasted oats and almonds, apple butter and almond but-ter. Process until almost smooth and sticky.
5. Press into bottom of 9 inch spring form pan.
6. To prepare creamy lemon filling add room temperature cream cheese and yogurt to mixing bowl. Blend until fluffy. Add honey, lemon juice, lemon zest and eggs.
7. Mix until blended. Pour over crust.
8. Bake at 325 degrees for approximately 1 hour.
9. Tart should be cooked all around the edges but still have a slight jiggle in the center.
10. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours before cutting.
11. Garnish with fresh seasonal fruit or a low sugar fruit puree.

Yup . . . I’ve fallen victim to a case of the “TV Munchies” more times than I’d like to admit; head first into a bag of cheezies & half-way through an episode of Grey’s Anatomy!  Can you relate?!  So what can you do about it . . . what do I do about it?  Well, there are several options to consider here: 
    Throw out TV.  Yeah right!
    Give up cheezies entirely.  Ummm, let’s come back to this.
    Pick something else to do instead of watching tv.  Okay . . . not a bad idea.
    Determine if it’s really hunger or an unhealthy pattern.  Alrighty then!
TV snacking is not something new, nor is it something that is likely to end any time soon.  So here is what I’m suggesting . . .  look at this “phenomena” with eyes that are wide open & be honest with yourself about what’s going on with this body-mind-appetite connection. 
Now for some people, late night snacking is the result of eating supper early & expending a lot of calories later on.  You know what I’m talking about . . . your son/ daughter comes home from evening hockey practice & spends the next half hour with their head inside the refrigerator.  This is legitimate hunger; their stomach starts growling on the drive home & by the time they walk in the door, you’d better get out of the way!
For a lot more of us it’s an unhealthy habit, rooted in boredom or a need for comfort.  Think about it, how many times during your favorite evening TV show are you honestly hungry, really hungry . . . stomach growling hungry?!  Have you ever stopped to consider the amount of calories you consume while snacking & watching TV, as opposed to the amount you consume during a sit down meal?  Trust me, it’s pretty high.  So why do we do it?  Only you can answer that question for yourself.  The next time you find yourself heading to the kitchen during a commercial break, STOP & ask yourself if you are honestly hungry.  Can you actually feel hunger in your body?  And where do you feel it?  Is it even in your stomach or are you just “needing something” & food is the obvious & easy go-to?  If it isn’t hunger that is making you eat, you need to find out what is.  Are you bored?  Are you lonely?  Are you upset about something that happened today, yesterday, last week, last year?  When you get your answer, you can begin to change the behaviour & start feeling a lot better. 
So . . . we can NEVER watch TV & indulge?!  Well, not exactly never.  The idea here is to recognize WHY you are eating & get back in control.  Once you understand what is fueling your late night eating, you can better control if you do, when you do & how much.  At that point, it becomes a “treat,” a family movie night, a date night! 
The goal here is to not be a prisoner to an unhealthy habit that has you feeling bad or guilty.  A bowl of popcorn & a Star Wars movie can be a great evening with family & friends . . . as long as it isn’t EVERY evening!  Cheers.

As obesity in North America continues to rise at a staggering rate and diabetes remains one of the top 10 causes of death, do we really need to continue to debate whether or not sugar is bad for us?  Hmm...food for thought?

Why is sugar such a hot topic?  Because, although it may be bad for us - and let’s be honest, we all know it’s bad for us in the amounts we are consuming - it tastes so darn good and it makes so many other things taste good too!  

So where is all the sugar?  Almost everywhere; soft drinks, candy, cookies, pastries and let’s not forget the increasingly popular “healthy” snack foods, like energy bars & sport drinks.  What about fruits and vegetables?  Don’t they contain sugar as well?  You bet they do, but here is what you need to keep in mind:  NOT ALL SUGARS ARE CREATED EQUAL.

The question you may be asking now is, “What does this all mean and what can I do about it?”

First of all, you need to become a label expert!  Please don’t take for granted the pictures of dancing celery and smiling apples on the outside of food packages.  Take a look at the ingredients and see if you can actually find celery or apples in the product.  Next, look at the sugar content.  There is a good chance that if there is no real fruit or vegetable content in that particular food item, the sugar has been added in the form of refined sugar...EVIL! You also have to be a bit of a detective, because sugar goes by a lot of different pseudonyms, such as high fructose corn syrup.  Beware the many names of sugar, it is still refined SUGAR!

Still not sure about refined sugars and how much you may really be consuming? Let me ask you this, “Are you able to eat a single Snickers bar?”  I certainly can!  “Are you able to eat 3 lbs of carrots in one sitting?”  Really?  Because that is exactly how many carrots you would need to eat  in order to consume the same amount of sugar that is in a Snickers bar. Just how alike do you think these sugars are?

UPDATE:  Click here for a great recipe on a low sugar cheesecake!

Okay . . . so although I don’t spend hours of my time counting & calculating the exact caloric sum of every bite that passes my lips, I do have a general idea of how many calories I’m consuming & how much activity I’ve done in my day.  A GENERAL idea; meaning I am aware of what I’m eating & how much I’m moving!

You see, when we begin to weigh, measure & calculate all the calories that we are eating, I think we take some of the joy out of eating.  Oh, who am I kidding . . . we take all the joy out of eating!  It’s my personal view that when we start to look at calories in terms of an “allowance”  they become the enemy.  And once something becomes the enemy & you tell yourself, “I can’t have that,” it becomes all that you want.  It is on your mind constantly & eventually you will find yourself locked in a closet eating Skippy out of the jar with a spoon!

Now forgive me please, because I know that this does not apply to all of you & counting calories does have it’s place; but that is another article entirely.  What I want to address is the misconceptions hovering around calories.  If you remember anything from this article please let it be this statement . . . calories are NOT your enemy!  They are essential to your survival, they help your body in it’s ability to rebuild & repair because they feed your cells, they are the fuel that you run on.  But here is the thing, not all calories are created equal ( think ice cream vs fruit salad ), & this is where some of us get a little misguided with our dieting strategy.  Consuming too many calories, especially too many empty calories is not healthy, but so is not consuming enough calories.  You cannot be on a calorie “deprivation” plan & expect it to work . . . it won’t . . . it will sabotage all your good intentions.

So here is my humble suggestion, try a realistic & user-friendly approach.  Most of us know what is a healthy food & what isn’t, so be sure you are including more of the healthy foods into your day; gradually cutting out the empty calories.  And you do know the difference!  Now add in some activity, at least 30 minutes 3 times a week. I guarantee you will begin to feel better & notice the results of eating clean & living clean! 

Cheers.