And then this happened....

So this isn't an internship update, but an important update to share nonetheless.


I've posted before about my family's journey with multiple myeloma, but for some background --  almost 6 years ago to the day, my dad received the diagnosis of MM, a cancer of the plasma cells.  The treatment regimen involves medication therapy, chemotherapy, and a stem cell transplant.  Most patients will experience a brief remission, and recurrance usually occurs within 2-3 years.

But my dad's kind of a special guy.  He went for just over 5 years.  His doctors have been surprised every time he goes for his routine bloodwork that he's still clean, and still staying active and spritely.  He is, after all, only 57 years old this year.

For the last couple of months, he's been battling a pretty nasty chest infection.  He has lung issues to begin with, but this infection has been giving him a lot of trouble.  Last week, he started experiencing chest pain.  Like most people, he took that chest pain straight to the hospital, where he had an ECG and found that he wasn't having a heart attack.  Great!  But the chest pain persisted, sometimes becoming unbearable stabbing pain.  He happened to be due for a routine bloodwork check in the next week or two anyway, so he went to his oncologist early to talk about the chest pain and do the bloodwork all in one shot.  He talked on the weekend about how it felt familiar - like the last time he experienced bone pain and was diagnosed with MM in the first place.  We told him he was exaggerating.  Even the doctor suspected that it was probably a cracked rib, but did the testing just to be sure.


I'll never doubt his instincts again...


His bloodwork confirmed that his MM has returned.  Some time between his last blood test and yesterday, the myeloma started growing, compromising his immune system and contributing to this long lasting chest infection, and is now causing the bone pain he's experiencing in his sternum (chest plate).


So.  Now what.


Obviously my family is devastated.  It's like taking a punch to the gut.  And then getting stomped in the face.  But, dad's a fighter - he came out the first time kicking, and we're confident he's going to kick the crap out of MM again this time.

For now he's taking some major IV antibiotics to get that chest infection under control - no point in going forward with cancer treatment if his immunity is already compromised, since cancer treatment will only make it substantially worse and make more complications.  After the antibiotics, he starts medication therapy for 4 weeks.  From there... well, we don't know.  The next phase of treatment depends on how well he and/or the MM respond to the medication.  Likely, the next phase will be more aggressive treatment - chemotherapy, and his second stem cell transplant.

For the time being, we're dealing and life stays as normal - no one needs to take time off or do much of anything, as it's just medication therapy for now.  But sooner or later things will change for better or worse.  For now, I'd like to ask that you keep my dad in your thoughts and your hearts, and pass along any warm distant hugs that you can to support him in this next stage of his journey.


Want to learn more about multiple myeloma?  This link from the Canadian Cancer Society sums it up nicely.  Also, consider checking out the work of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. 

Internship recap: Week 3-4

Hey guess what??  My first foodservice rotation is officially DONE!

Week 3: This week I was, again, mostly shadowing the dietary aides.  I managed to get out of doing all 5 remaining shifts because I went into the hospital last weekend to do one, which turned out to be not that much different than what happens during the week.  Plus, my preceptor has been pretty adamant about making sure that I actually have a life outside of the hospital, and has been encouraging me strongly to take a day (or more) off since I've been working lots of overtime and that extra weekend day.  So - day off :D!  I spent the morning catching up on all the housework I've been neglecting over the last few weeks.  I also managed to get in a Friday afternoon off to make up for all that overtime.  Long weekend, yay!
Having some time off also gave me the opportunity to do some reflective writing, something that is highly encouraged for interns for a few reasons.  One - it helps you to remember things, and to look back later and remember what you learned.  This becomes useful when you have to do evaluations (which seems to be constant).  Two - it helps you to really understand what you experienced.  Though I'm currently in my foodservice rotation, I've learned lots about patient-centred care through my experience following the dietary aides around, and come to understand the importance of excellent communication and understanding between disciplines.  Three - it helps to encourage self-directed learning.  Similar to reason two, reflective writing is helpful to show what you've learned, but what you have left to learn or expand on as well.  I've learned about interprofessional communication from the dietary aide's perspective, but have yet to see the same issues from the other side of the desk and gain a better understanding of how communication lines can be opened, and hopefully impart some of my wisdom from the foodservice perspective on the clinical end :)

Week 4: LAST WEEK!!!!!!!!!  My preceptor was away on Thursday and Friday out of town, so I actually had to get almost everything pretty well DONE by Wednesday.  Ummmmm, impossible?  Yes. Sadly this meant that I couldn't get everything quite done on time for my last day in this rotation, since the last bits of my projects would need my preceptor's approval before they rolled out.  But, one of the neat things about having 8 weeks of internal foodservice management split between two preceptors is that there is flexibility.  For the next week, I'll be kind of split between my previous preceptor and new one, finishing off the last of my current projects and getting started with something new.  The only thing I really have left to do of my current projects is follow up with staff - I've done my job descriptions and changes, and finished my maintenance policy.  All I need to do now is present it to the supervisors and staff, get their feedback and make final changes.  Presto chango, projects complete!

So, final thoughts on the first internal foodservice management rotation:

• Though I wasn't entirely convinced that I would be learning things by shadowing the dietary aides for the majority of my rotation, I ended up learning tons.  I saw the care that aides put into their meal delivery and interaction with patients, and I saw the frustrations that prevent them from doing their job to their greatest potential.  I learned that even something as simple as delivering a meal tray can be an opportunity to deliver patient-centred care, and can make a huge difference in the patients' experience in hospital. And, something as seemingly simple as delivering a meal tray provides an opportunity for interdisciplinary communication and teamwork to give patients the best care possible.
• While learning from the aides and the delivery portion of foodservice, I also saw the managerial side.  I came to understand management's role in foodservice, from production all the way to dishwashing after service.  Similarly to learning from the aides, I learned from managers about the challenges that they face in making changes to improve patient foodservice - things that I never would have thought of as challenges before, but become a huge issue when you understand the impact that a small change would have on the employees, patients, and food itself throughout service.
• I used this understanding to create the new job descriptions for dietary aides and my maintenance policy.  Going into the project, I thought "Well duh, just write XYZ and you're done.  Problem solved.  Why didn't anyone do this before?".  But as I got into the project and started asking questions, I found out why it wasn't done before - things were a lot more complicated than I had expected!  In writing the job descriptions and maintenance policy, I had to use this new knowledge to create documents that would be fair to all of the nutrition employees - from the basement to the management - and ensure that patients receive the best possible foodservice delivery (i.e. food is delivered on time, a the right temperature, is acceptable for their dietary needs/preferences, and allows aides the time they need to deliver patient-centred care in every delivery they do).

I'm still not convinced that I want to become a foodservice dietitian; I have a business background and understand management pretty well, but I'm interested in being involved in patient care.  However, I did find that I could still find a way to be involved in patient care through these projects, despite being in a cubicle.  I was pretty surprised about that, and it made me more excited to complete these projects to the best of my ability.  I'm intrigued and excited about what will happen in my next management rotation, as I'm going to a hospital that is in a period of transition with their foodservice operations, and I'm sure that I will find lots of opportunities to be involved in improving patient care and satisfaction during the next 4 weeks.

Vegetable of the Month

It's here, it's here!


This month's veggie is........................

Parsnips!

I love eating root vegetables at this time of year.  They're hearty, comforting, and yummy in your tummy (yes, that's a scientific fact :)!).  Parsnips are a great addition to your root vegetable rotation, along with other veggies you've seen here before (like pumpkin, beets and butternut squash!).

These cream coloured veggies are related to carrots, but they have a sweeter flavour (especially when cooked).  They can be used in similar ways though - including eating parsnips steamed, boiled, baked, roasted, BBQ'ed, in stews and soups, pureed, or even raw.  It can even be used to make wine!  And really, who doesn't love a vegetable that can turn into wine???

 They look like albino carrots.  Why should I eat them?

Like all of the veggies that I've written about before, parsnips are chock full of goodness!  According to the Canadian Nutrient File, 1/2 cup of cooked parsnips will give you:

• about 59 calories
• almost 3g of fibre.  For HALF A CUP! Much of this fibre is soluble fibre, which is the kind that can help to reduce blood cholesterol and help with controlling blood glucose levels.
• 12% of your folate needs, important for heart health and reproductive health (particularly for you women of childbearing age)
• 57% of your niacin needs!
• A surprising 17% of your vitamin C needs (surprising because unlike most other vitamin C-rich foods, parsnips don't have a vibrant colour!).  Vitamin C is helpful in building the immune system's defenses and fighting off infections (no colds for you this winter!)

I'm still suspicious.  How do I cook them so they don't taste gross?

They might not look like the most exciting vegetable, but parsnips have a unique sweet flavour when cooked (because its starches break down into simple sugars, making a tasty treat).  As I mentioned, you can cook parsnips in many ways - pretty well anything you can do to a carrot, you can do to a parsnip.  Here are some of my go-to ways of using this veggie:

• Add a diced parsnip to your beef stew this winter 
• Chop the parsnip into big chunks, and roast with other root veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potato...) with a splash of canola oil and sprinkle of salt and pepper for a great side dish that goes with just about anything
• Puree roasted, boiled, or steamed parnips into soups (much like you would with squash or carrot soups).  Try out combinations of veggies, like cauliflower and parsnip, for a warm winter snuggle-by-the-fire hearty belly-filling soup!

Another great way to prepare your parsnips - CHIPS!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Easy Peasy Parsnip Chips

1. Slice parsnips into thin rounds (use a mandolin if you have one), or you can make stick-chips (like really skinny fries) till you have about 5 cups (5 or 6 parsnips, depending on size).
2. Toss with 2 Tbsp of olive or canola oil, and salt to taste till your chips are lightly coated.  Want to spice things up a bit?  Add some other flavours like cardamom, curry powder, cinnamon, or powdered ginger (about 1/4tsp of these).
3. Lay your chips on a baking sheet in a single layer.
4. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes, flipping them over halfway through.  Watch your chips closer to the end of cooking time - depending on how thick they are, they make not take the whole time to cook (or may need a few minutes more).  They are ready when the chips are crispy and lightly browned.
5. Om nom nom!!

Stay tuned for next month's veggie of the month!

Internship recap: Week 2-4

Whooooooooooooooooooooooa.  That went fast.  I thought week 1 went fast.  I was wrong.  I'm pretty sure that all I did was blink and then two more weeks were over.

Waitaminute.  That means I only have two weeks left in my first foodservice rotation (I have 8 weeks total, but split between 2 preceptors).  Crap.  I have a lot to do in the next two weeks.  O___O.

Week 2 recap: 

Well this one went a bit fast because there was a holiday weekend thrown in there.  So we didn't actually start until Tuesday, which was spent with all of the interns doing foodservice on this rotation (4 of us) doing a day long orientation to nutrition services at the hospital.  We met the staff, learned about their roles, and toured around the foodservices area to see all of the facilities.  We followed the food from delivery to the hospital to the fridge/freezer to tempering to the belt line to the plates to the floors to the retherming units to the patients and back down to the basement for plates to be washed.  I finally met my preceptor on Wednesday, and found out about my projects for this rotation...

One of my projects is to review the job descriptions of the dietary aides.  These are the people who are responsible for reheating the food that comes up from the belt line, and delivering to patients (among many, many other things they do).  I'm not looking to see how well they're doing their job, or to make big changes to their jobs - I'm looking more at whether what they're doing makes sense, and whether things could be more efficient so that the staff aren't so overloaded with responsibility.  In order to figure out whether things are running well or not, I am shadowing the dietary aides.  All of the dietary aides.  Sometimes at 6:30 in the morning.  On weekends.  Seriously.  Let's just go ahead and put another pot of coffee on, shall we?

Other than shadowing everyone, I'm also working on other projects, including doing an in-service education session for staff about proper handling of equipment, developing a policy for maintenance of the meal carts, and a temperature audit of food from delivery to patient service.  On Friday I spent the day with a guy from a cart manufacturer company, who had these cool little temperature probe discs that we stuck into mashed potatoes and yogurt on a control tray, and recorded when the tray/food entered each part of service (on the belt line, waiting in the holding fridge, reheated, served to patient).  Of course patients didn't receive this food, but it was taken on the journey as if it were :)  At the end, the cart manufacturer guy pulled up a cool chart showing temperature fluctuations of the products throughout the service so that we could see 1. are things staying at a proper temperature while waiting to be portioned on the beltline, 2. how insulated are the carts, 3. how well are the retherm units actually reheating things, and 4. are things still hot when they get to patients.  It was pretty neat to babysit mashed potatoes for a day and see its temperature fluctuations!

Week 3 recap:
This week started my job shadowing.  I have now shadowed 6 staff in completely different shifts, and have 5 more left for next week.  Since the aides are unionized, I'm not allowed to actually help them do anything like fill coffee cups or help push the carts or anything, so I'm really just hovering over them and following them everywhere, taking notes and asking questions.  I'm not going to lie - it's a little boring to just watch someone do their job for 8 hours.  Especially when its essentially the same job that you saw yesterday and will see again tomorrow.  But the aides and their supervisors have been really helpful in answering all of my hundred thousand questions to help me with my projects.  I've now managed to figure out a number of recommendations for the aides job descriptions that will help make their jobs more fluid and make the job description on paper make sense with the job that's actually being done, and I've also finished about half of my cart maintenance policy :)
I also got to participate in a few cool meetings this week, including an interview to hire a new dietary aide.  Having now seen what the job entails in up-close detail, it was interesting to see the process all the way from the beginning, and to see how the hiring process works from the managerial side of things.  My preceptor and I also attended a clinical nutrition committee, where a group of dietitians from various concerned areas of the hospital come together to discuss changes to diets being given to patients based on ever-changing research.  In this meeting, most of the discussion centred around the anti-reflux diet and whether it was possible to reduce fat content to a low enough level to inhibit the reflux, but still leaving food palatable, giving patients their dietary needs daily, and provide enough variety.

Stay tuned for the next 2 week update, when I'll be wrapping up my first foodservice rotation!  

Writing your internship resume

In the next part of my "what's the deal with being an RD" series, let's chat about how to become an RD in Canada.

As I mentioned in the last post, the information discussed on this blog is relevant to the Canadian system, however may be different from how it works in other countries.  /disclaimer

To become an RD (Registered Dietitian) in Canada, there are three steps:

1. Complete an undergraduate degree from an accredited post-secondary institution.  The list of schools that meet Dietitians of Canada's requirements are shown here.  Note, other universities may have nutrition programs, but they are not accredited by Dietitians of Canada unless they are on that list.  For example, the University of Toronto has a nutrition sciences program that is not accredited; therefore, graduates of that program are ineligible to go on to step 2 of becoming an RD without going to an accredited school for more courses.
2. Complete an accredited one-year internship program through Dietitians of Canada, or an accredited graduate degree with integrated internship program.  Some universities combine steps 1 and 2 in an integrated program, where students complete both the undergraduate degree and internship program simultaneously.  These programs are highly competitive, and not all students in the integrated program will actually be accepted to the internship stream.
3. Your provincial regulatory body (e.g. professional college) assesses your academic and practicum experience to determine whether you are eligible to hold the title "RD".  In most provinces, you will now write the Canadian Dietetic Registration Exam (CDRE), a regulated examination that ensures that RDs possess the competencies needed to practice dietetics safely, ethically, and with an evidence-based backing.

Phew...

After seeing the requirements to becoming an RD, the next question that people tend to ask is:  "How do I get to step 2???".  Indeed, getting accepted into the undergraduate program is competitive, but the least of your worries.  The most intimidating and terrifying part of the process for most students is getting that coveted internship or grad school position!

 I'm no expert, but I can at least share some of my ideas of how I ended up with an internship.  By no means is this a guarantee that by doing these things that you will get a placement. /anotherdisclaimer. 

One thing that you need to have to get an internship is a great resume!  I've been getting a lot of emails and messages from former classmates who are applying to internship this year asking for advice about resume writing and what should/shouldn't be included, so I thought I'd share some of my ideas here!  Your resume should show a variety of experiences, demonstrate the many skills and abilities that you possess that will be valuable to the internship program, and show that you are dedicated to the process of being an RD.  Here are some of my thoughts of how to build up a strong resume:

1. Volunteer!  One of the best ways to figure out where you want to work in dietetics, or if you even want to work in dietetics, is to get some first hand experience!  Try to get a variety of experiences - clinical, community, and administrative or foodservice experience.  It can be tough to get paid work experience directly related to nutrition without having finished your degree yet, but volunteer work can be very rewarding and expose you to environments you wouldn't normally see.  In many hospitals, clinics and community centres, dietitians and other nutrition professionals take on volunteers for a variety of cool projects, but you can volunteer in other areas and still gain food and nutrition experience.  For example, I volunteered in a breastfeeding clinic for a year, where I wasn't working with dietitians but learned TONS from the lactation nurses and pediatricians running the clinic.  I saw and learned things there that I probably never would have learned otherwise. 
2. Work!  But wait, didn't I just say that it was tough to get work experience in nutrition?  Yep, I did.  But work experience of any kind is valuable, whether it deals directly with food and nutrition or not.  Even customer service and retail experience can be useful to build skills in problem solving, communication, organizational skills, and leadership.  I was fortunate enough to work in a couple of positions that dealt with food or nutrition in some way (e.g. Weight Watchers, worked briefly at a cooking school), but most of my other work experience was in retail, and health/fitness outside of food (teaching yoga).  You don't necessarily have to have a ton of food-related experience (though certainly you can't expect to walk into an internship without having ANY), but the experiences you do include on your resume should demonstrate transferable skills relevant to your future career as a dietitian.
3. Connect!  When I was a student at Ryerson, there were many student branches of professional organizations encouraging us to join.  At first I didn't think it was all that important - after all, I was far too busy with work/volunteering and keeping up with schoolwork and readings.  But I realized that connecting with these organizations was a great way to network with real world professionals, learn about career opportunities outside of just working in a hospital, gain experience and skills, and even have access to financial aid opportunities through scholarships and bursaries!  It helps to be part of a variety of organizations to see a variety of opinions and experiences.  I was a student member of Dietitians of Canada, the Canadian Association of Foodservice Professionals, the Canadian Obesity Network, and the Ontario Home Economists' Association, and participated in a number of events held by each of these organizations and job shadowing opportunities.  I know some students who even got job and volunteer opportunities out of their membership with these organizations.  I was also fortunate enough to have been given money :D!  Most of these student organizations have a professor as a mentor, so this can also be a great way to make your profs notice you and your ambition a bit more and earn yourself a great reference.
4. Be a leader!  In addition to just joining student organizations, it helps to take on a leadership role!  You don't necessarily need to become the president of your student association (in fact, the president of the student association I was most closely associated with didn't actually get an internship), but participation in the organization and helping out with events/volunteer opportunities when they come up can be really valuable.  I was an executive member of several organizations at Ryerson, including Meal Exchange (a food security advocacy organization), the CAFP, and the Nutrition Course Union - in these positions, I took a leadership role and organized many educational and social events for students.  However, I also took on a lot of student volunteers to help me do that, giving them the opportunity to get involved and take ownership too.
5. Learn!  Of course you're in school to learn anyway.  But while you're there, try to select courses that will broaden your horizons and be useful in the future!  Taking a variety of courses and showing that you are able to apply what you learned will be very helpful in setting you apart from other applicants, and show that you are truly passionate and dedicated to the practice of dietetics because you can apply your learning.  I got stuck in some of those liberal studies electives that will never be useful again (like the History of World War 1.  Yeah.  *yawn*), but also was able to take a few liberal studies/elective courses that were actually interesting and had the potential to help me in the future.  For example, I took an introductory psychology course, which helped me to understand some basic concepts in human behaviour and adapt my counselling skills.  Because I took that course, I was also able to take a more advanced psychology course in drug addiction.  I also took an elective course in food security in Canadian populations, and was fortunate enough to take an international community development course in New Orleans, giving me great perspective on the socioeconomic side of food and nutrition and a different perspective of how to approach counselling patients/clients dealing with food insecurity or economic hardship. If you took really special courses in your undergraduate program (like the New Orleans course, or a research course with poster presentations or something), you can include these in your internship resume.

There are other things you can do that will be helpful to beef up your resume, but I believe that those five are probably the most important.  The last thing I would add to the list as a "maybe 6" would be to get certified, i.e. make it easier for you to get the work and volunteer experience by showing initiative and getting a certification to get the position.  For example, get a food handler's certificate (often required to work in foodservice at hospitals) - some schools will run the program at a discounted rate, or it may be offered as a condition of employment if you are working in a foodservice operation.

And remember, you only have 2 pages that you can submit!  Keep it succinct, but explain your skill set thoroughly.  Try to keep your resume to experiences in the last 4-5 years (unless you had something that is extremely relevant from earlier years, otherwise, keep it recent).

The absolute most important thing about writing your resume for internship applications - REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!  You'll end up reviewing and revising your resume about 3874328975647289732 times before you get ready to print and submit.  Have a friend, professor, or professional (like a dietitian you work/volunteer with) to help you review your resume and application package to make sure that it pops :)

If you're a dietetics student in Ontario looking for some info on internship applications, leave me a comment :)!  I'm happy to address questions in future blog posts!

Internship Week 1

Whoa.  What just happened?

A week has already passed by???

True story.  This week was orientation!  We spent most of the week touring the 3 sites where we'll be spending most of our time, visiting with dietitians in various clinics and inpatient units to get an idea of where we'll be working, and getting lost in the hospitals a lot.  We went over the internship program's expectations - what's expected of us and what we can expect from the program, our projects, and our preceptors.  We discussed patient centred care, the standards of care at the hospital and how to chart/what we're legally allowed to order by medical directive, and how to use electronic patient charting.

Maybe it was the fluorescent lighting.  Maybe it was the fact that it's been super overwhelming.  But I left the hospital on Monday with a cray migraine.

Yet here we are at the end of week 1, and it all went by so fast O__O!!!!

So far so good.  The other interns are awesome.  I couldn't have asked to have been put into a better group if I tried.  We've only known each other a week, and we've already bonded so much and are really looking forward to working together, learning together, and supporting each other through the next 11 months.  Despite how HUGE the hospitals are and how lost I've gotten this week, it's starting to become more intuitive and beginning to feel like home.  The staff, especially the dietitians we've met so far who will be mentoring us, have been incredibly supportive and showed how enthusiastic they are to have a fresh batch of interns.  I can't wait to get started!!!!!

We also (finally!) got our schedules this week, and I'm SO EXCITED that I got almost ALL of my top choices for clinical rotations!!!!  For the next 12 weeks I'm going to be in foodservice and industry rotations, followed by my clinical and public health rotations for the rest of the internship.  I'm working with a few other interns in foodservice, though I'm rotating by myself for the first 4 weeks before I meet back up with them.  Though I'm not too frightened of the foodservice rotation (since I have a business background and some experience in foodservice already), I'm anxious about working solo with my preceptor when the others are working in a team together!

For now, we've got a long weekend ahead (thank you, Canadian Thanksgiving :D) to do our readings and prepare for the first rotation.  And to, you know, breathe before starting up for real on Tuesday when we had back to work.

While I'd like to post an update here every week to keep y'all posted on how internship is going, I don't think that's very realistic.  Plus, with my foodservice rotation lasting a hundred years (well, 12 weeks, but it seems like FOREVER), it might not be too interesting to be like "I'm still here. The end!".  So, I'll post when I can - I'd guess every 2-3 weeks, depending on the rotation and what's going on.


Phew.  Here we go.

Veggie of the month

Since we're heading into October, it's only right that the veggie of the month this time around iiiissssss......

Pumpkin!

This globular orange gourd is best known for its decorative qualities at Halloween.  But, it's also a nutritional powerhouse!  There's a difference between the pumpkin that you find in the fleshy, little pumpkins and canned pumpkin versus that big jack-o-lantern pumpkin with more goo and seeds than flesh.  And of course, pumpkin pie isn't quite the same thing as cooked pumpkin!

Since when are jack-o-lanterns edible??

Pumpkins are related to other squash, like butternut, acorn and spaghetti squash.  Like its cousins, pumpkins have bright orange flesh, a core filled with pulp and seeds, and a thick orange or yellowish shell (sometimes pumpkins are white, but generally the kind found in grocery stores are orange).  Most parts of the pumpkin are edible, including the flesh, seeds, shell, and even leaves and flowers.

The kind of pumpkin that you get for jack-o-lanterns (big, hollow) aren't as exciting to eat since they don't have much flesh.  Smaller pumpkins will have more flesh than goo inside, and be more worth your while to roast or boil to eat.  However, the seeds that you scoop out from your jack-o-lantern pumpkin are definitely great to eat!  More on that later.

I like pumpkin pie.  But I hate vegetables.

Pumpkin pie is a fun treat on Thanksgiving, sure - but pumpkin on its own without the pie is also delicious and super nutritious!  Check out these stats from the Canadian Nutrient File!

For a 1/2 cup of cooked, mashed pumpkin (1 serving), you get:

• Just 44 calories!
• About 4 grams of fibre!  That's a whole lot of fibre for only a HALF CUP of a vegetable, and will help you to feel full longer, help to stabilize blood glucose levels, and may even help with weight loss.
• 17% of a man's Vitamin K needs, or 22% of a woman's needs.  This vitamin is important for blood coagulation and bone health.
• An amazing 140% of your Vitamin A needs!  Getting enough vitamin A is important for growth and development, maintaining a healthy immune system, and vision health.   
• A crapload (yes, CRAPLOAD!) of beta-carotene!  Beta-carotene is a precursor of Vitamin A, and an important antioxidant that may be helpful in treating some types of cancer.
• 22% of a man's iron needs, or 10% of a woman's needs.  For a veggie to provide that amount of iron in only half a cup is pretty impressive!
• about 6% of your potassium needs, an important electrolyte to maintain fluid balance in the body.  What?  Six percent doesn't sound like much?  Well, per half cup of pumpkin you get about 267mg of potassium - that's about the same as the same volume of bananas!

Wow!  And you thought that pumpkins were only good for pie.

I bought pumpkin seeds at Bulk Barn.  What's the deal with those?

Sweet!  Pumpkin seeds are also a great nutritional powerhouse!  You can find them in grocery stores or bulk stores (look for roasted unsalted seeds), or just roast them up yourself after scooping out the goo from your jack-o-lantern.  The little green kind that you often find in grocery stores/bulk stores are the kernals of the seeds, while the big white flat seeds are the whole seed.  Pumpkin seeds are a great source of zinc, needed for immune system functioning, cell division and growth, wound healing, and other bodily functions.  Zinc is also used in production of testosterone - which many women experience low levels of, contributing to low sex drive.  So ladies.  If you're looking to get your sexy on, toss some pumpkin seeds in your salad every once in a while ;)

I bought a pumpkin.   Now what....?

Hooray!  Let's get cooking! 

One of the easiest ways to use pumpkin's flesh is by roasting or boiling it, and mashing/pureeing.  The puree can then be used in a huge variety of ways.  Of course, if you can't find pumpkin in your grocery store/market, or just don't want to deal with the hassle of cooking a pumpkin just to mash it up anyway, you can get canned puree pumpkin in most grocery stores (sometimes found in the baking needs section rather than canned vegetables section).  Be careful to purchase pure puree pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling.  They're often placed right next to each other and labelled similarly, so take your time picking a can.

I use pumpkin often in breakfast in the fall and winter.  I posted once before a recipe for ridiculously fluffy pumpkin pancakes.  I also often put in about 2-4Tbsp of pumpkin puree into my steel cut oatmeal, along with a sprinkle of brown sugar (not too much, maybe 1/2-1tsp), cinnamon and nutmeg (or if you have it, pumpkin pie spice).  Mmmmmmmmmmm.   Pumpkin puree can also be used in many dessert and baking recipes (like pie, cookies, loaves, muffins, etc etc etc...)

One of my all time favourite ways to use puree pumpkin, though, is CURRY!!!!!!!!!!!!  When pumpkin is added in curries, it takes on a sweeter flavour, helping to balance out the spiciness.  Try out this recipe for Pumpkin Shrimp Curry!

• 2 Tbsp olive oil or canola oil
• 1 cup diced onion
• 1 Tbsp each minced ginger and minced garlic
• 1/2-3/4 cups diced tomatoes (about 2-3 Roma tomatoes - they have more flesh than juice compared to the big hothouse kind of tomatoes!)
• 1 15oz can of puree pumpkin
• 2 cups low-sodium vegetable or chicken stock
• 1 cup coconut milk (** don't want leftover coconut milk?  Just use less stock and toss the whole can of coconut milk in.  Use 1 cup of stock to start, and if needed, add more later in cooking if the curry is too thick)
• 1 1/2tsp curry powder
• cayenne pepper to taste (about 1/8-1/4tsp)
• 1lb peeled, deveined shrimp
• 1 1/2tsp lime juice
• optional: 1 cup diced butternut squash.  No squash around?  Try 1 cup sweet potato, or just add some more diced tomato (about 1 1/2 cups total tomatoes).

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat, and sautee onion and ginger till soft and fragrant (about 5 minutes), then add garlic and mix another minute.  Add the tomatoes and pumpkin puree, stirring frequently till the pumpkin becomes a golden brown (about 8-10 minutes).

Add broth, coconut milk, curry powder and cayenne pepper, and simmer for about 20 minutes.  Add the squash (if using), shrimp and lime juice, and continue cooking till shrimp is cooked through and squash is tender.

Serve on steamed rice with a sprinkle of fresh chopped cilantro, if desired :)

But wait!  What about all those seeds from my jack-o-lantern!??!

When I was a kid, I loved doing the pumpkin carving and getting covered in the sloppy insides of the pumpkin.  But the best part of jack-o-lantern carving was getting to eat the aftermath by roasting the pumpkin seeds!!!

Get rid of any of the stringy goo that accompanies the seeds, and rinse your seeds to get residual slime off.  Toss your seeds in a bowl with about 1-2Tbsp of olive or canola oil (depends on how many seeds you get out).  You can toss it in the oven as is to just get roasted seeds, or try flavouring with:

• garlic salt (my favourite thing in the world as a kid)
• Sweet seeds: 1 tsp each cinnamon, ground ginger and cloves, and 1Tbsp brown sugar
• Spicy seeds: 1/2 tsp each garlic salt and chili powder (want an extra kick?  Sprinkle in some cayenne too!)  

Spread the seeds out in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (to prevent sticking and dealing with cleaning up later) and roast at 250 degrees for about an hour, till they are crispy and golden.  Stir them around every 10-15 minutes.  After removing from the oven, the seeds will become crunchier as they cool.  Let the seeds cool completely, and eat either whole or shelled.