Steph's Holliday Break

Warmth

"Hey Andy, can you pass the salad?" Steph asked pointing at a bowl greens. 

"Sure thing." Andrea said complying with her sister's request. 

Using the tongs Steph helped herself to some mixed greens, nuts, tomatoes, and raisins. The portion she grabbed was large enough to cover three quarters of her dinner plate. The remaining space was occupied by fried chicken and garlic bread. 

"That's a lot of salad sis. Did you want any dressing with it?" Andrea held out a bottle of honey vinaigrette. 

"No, that's okay." She declined politely. 

"All righty." Andrea set the bottle down. "Since when were you such a big fan of salad? Most people's diets get worse during university." 

Steph swallowed the food in her mouth. "Um, it's a more recent thing I guess." she said while putting her fork down. "Still kind of getting used to it to be honest." 

"Well, I'm all for healthy choices. You still eat fun things I hope? We have ice cream from the farmer's market." 

Steph's eyes shot open. "Is it from Gary's?" 

"Nothing but." Sam chuckled. "Your sister refuses to get anything other than Gary's ice cream." 

"Dark chocolate?" Steph asked knowing her sister's affinity for cocoa. 

"Not this time." Sam replied. Causing Steph to raise her eyebrows. 

"They have this new brownie batter flavour!" Andrea said excitedly. "It's even better than their dark chocolate!" 

Steph was now salivating at the thought of ice cream. She looked down at her plate and was rather disappointed at the dominance of green. Were it not for her ulterior motive, she would not have have subjected herself to this diet plan. There was the upside of the piece of fried chicken. This was now her second piece, and with plenty to spare in the takeout box in the centre. 

"Greasy foods, high fat content, too much fibre." She repeated to herself. She knew what foods to eat, and which to avoid to achieve her goals. She wasn't planning on helping herself to dessert to increase the ratio of fibres in her diet, but the ice cream had the benefit of being both dairy, and chocolate. In addition to this, she had helped herself to a midday snack of an unripe banana. 

"Ice cream time?" Andrea asked.

"Maybe in a little bit. let me help you clean up first, I'm stuffed." Steph said while she stood up to start clearing the tables

"I bet." Andrea replied. "Your second plate was pretty full. I'm surprised you finished it all."

"I barely moved today too, but I can't say no to Chef Chang's fried chicken." Steph said as she closed the takeout box. "And you know mom won't really get this stuff for dinner." 

"Yeah, and her health binge has only gotten worse since I got pregnant." Andrea chuckled. "I'm glad you were free tonight for dinner. No plans with your friends?"

"Tomorrow." Steph replied. "We're all meeting at Diane's. Potluck." 

"That's nice." Andrea nodded. "Doesn't she go to the same school as you and Jason?" 

"She does, yeah. but everyone else goes to other schools." Steph answered. "And her parents are out for the next couple days. They're going to pick up her grandma from Quebec." 

"So it's a house party?" Sam said raising an eyebrow. 

"Something like that." Steph said giggling. "nothing crazy, but we do plan to drink... responsibly."