10 Friday, December 14, 2018 brooklintowncrier.com Plant-Based Eating by Sheree Nicholson Making Christmas Eater-Friendly Christmas is around the corner and, if your family is like mine, there's a wide variety of eating styles. Ours has vegetarians, vegans, a niece who is celiac and can't eat gluten, as well as the "give me as much meat as you can"' eaters. Since we do a bit of a potluck for our Christmas dinner, it works out fine. My dad buys the turkey. But I sometimes wonder if he's worried we might not serve one as the rest of us make dishes trying to be conscious of each other's preferences. It can be hard to know the differences among all the eating choices. Vegetarians, for example, don't eat meat, fish or fowl but do eat cheese, butter and honey. So it's easy to accommodate them. Vegans don't eat any animal products, including meat, seafood, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy and honey. Watch for gluten Gluten is the protein found in wheat. Therefore someone who is gluten-free can't have wheat products. The most common thing with gluten is bread. No stuffing or rolls for them. However, gluten can be hidden in some products so it's best to check the label. For example, quite a few bouillons have gluten. If you add a cube to gravy, you need to double check it's gluten-free. Except gluten isn't always called gluten. Because there are other names for it, like hydrolyzed vegetable protein and maltodextrin, it can be challenging to avoid it. If in doubt, look for products labelled gluten-free. When attending a party, I offer to bring something I know I'll be able to eat, which also makes it easier on the host or hostess. I'll bring hummus or a vegan cashew "cheese" that can be added to the appetizer table. Here are some tips to make your Christmas meal "eater friendly": Before you add butter and cream to potatoes for mashing, put some on the side for vegans. Vegetarians can eat butter and cream and these are also gluten-free. Use gluten-free bread in stuffing. Place half the stuffing in the turkey and cook the other half outside the turkey for the vegetarians. For vegetables you're adding butter to, either replace the butter with Earth Balance, a vegan and gluten-free alternative, or place some veggies on the side. Earth Balance is also nut free. Turkey is meat. You probably think this is obvious, but many people consider pork and beef to be meat. Someone who identifies as a pescetarian eats fish and poultry, so turkey is a go for them, however, vegetarians and vegans won't eat poultry. Many pies are made with vegetable shortening, suitable for vegetarians and vegans. But flour contains gluten which means gluten-free family members will skip it. Most sugars are not vegan since bone char, often referred to as natural carbon, is widely used by the sugar industry as a decolorizing filter. Beet and coconut sugar are not filtered using bone char making them vegan friendly. If this is too complicated, I suggest asking everyone to bring something they can eat and can share with everyone else. This makes it both easier for you and more of a community meal. Synergy and Common Goals From Regional Councillor Rhonda Mulcahy: Last week, I took the oath for both Whitby and Durham Region. As well, my colleagues and I underwent orientations with both coun- cils. At the inaugural regional meeting, all 29 council- lors are listed on one of four committees and we vote to pass it. I am on Finance. Subcommittees are basically assigned by Whitby Mayor Don Mitchell through Regional Chair John Henry. I am on Transit and CLOCA. The Whitby meeting provided an opportunity to address the community. I'm pleased that many of us chose to highlight both our municipal successes and the areas we need to improve. As a municipality our work should never be done and I believe the community appreciated knowing we were listening during the campaign. Addressing issues I was relieved to hear John Henry's first speech in which he addressed key issues we all heard about during the election, specifically economic development and removing the 412 and 418 tolls. The issues the region faces are not much different from Whitby's and Brooklin's. It's good to know there is synergy and we can focus on it collectively. We have an enthusiastic group of councillors along with a staff which seems eager to get to work. At a special Whitby Council meeting on December 11, we passed our council goals: To build a strong, respectful Council team with a positive shared vision and four-year action plan; to ensure all municipal affairs are conducted with professionalism and integrity. To enhance the transparency and accessibility of Town Hall and ensure effective public consultation and engagement, including greater opportunities for voter engagement through the municipal election process. To deliver local jobs and prosperity through strategic planning and promotion that builds resilience and economic diversity. To make workplace morale a priority by building a collaborative, inclusive, respectful and creative work environment that engages the abilities of all staff to solve problems, accomplish new things and deliver the best outcomes to residents. To continue the Whitby tradition of responsible financial management and respect for taxpayers; and to understand the importance of affordability and sustainability to a healthy, bal- anced community. To ensure Whitby is clearly seen by all stakeholders to be business and investment friendly and supportive; and to continuously improve the customer experience and the effectiveness and efficiency of communications, service delivery and ap- provals. To accelerate the pedestrian focus of our historic down- town cores; to leverage municipal tools and resources to generate downtown supportive investments; to facilitate the continued growth of our Innovation District; and to gain care and control of Baldwin Street through downtown Brooklin. To make our streets and neighbourhoods safer through innovative and best-practice design standards and traffic calming measures that reduce traffic speeds; to increase citizen involvement in building Complete Streets; to effectively manage parking on residential streets and in our downtowns; and to reduce the traffic impact of new developments on existing neighbourhoods. To remain the community of choice for families and become the community of choice for seniors and job creators; and to focus new growth around the principles of strong, walkable and complete neighbourhoods that offer mobility choices. To become the destination of choice for visitors; to realize the economic, cultural and social potential of our downtowns, waterfront, green spaces and major attractions; to support and facilitate new community events and increase recreational opportunities along our waterfront. Overall these goals look familiar to the previous council goals. We still have lots of work to do and we need to remain focused on the big items. Yes, there are lots of details to address to help us achieve the overall goals. The devil is in the details.