Introducing Dining Decisions, a new library program geared toward empowering people with health info… and filling their bellies with nutritious food.

Guests to our first-ever Dining Decisions, Nov. 6, will be treated to a scrumptious KC strip steak with whiskey mushroom sauce, vegetable barley soup, Asian Napa salad, green beans with sautéed mustard seed and almonds, desert and a nonalcoholic drink.

Millennium Café chef and owner Doug Petrie has crafted a diverse menu. Between the four courses, he will explain the health value of certain ingredients used in the meal.

Here are a few examples of what you will learn:

• Rosemary is used for its calming properties.
• Barley helps reduce edema, the build-up of fluid in the body.
• Lime can help liver function.
• Hawthorn berry can help lower cholesterol.

Petrie and guest speaker, Mary Alice Scheer, registered and licensed dietitian from St. Francis Diabetes Center, will also discuss diabetes.

Reservations needed by Nov. 4 for the meal, which costs $24,50 plus tax, but the program is open and free to the public. The event begins at 6:30 p.m.

“Dining Decisions offers a value for your dollar. It’s comparable to other gourmet restaurants in the city, but here you receive information, recipes and a better understanding of how to eat properly,” Petrie said.

Dining Decisions is an on-going healthy lifestyle program. If you can’t make it to the Nov. 6 event, come to the next Dining Decisions Dec. 18, when we’ll be discussing stress-relieving foods.

The Millennium Café is located inside the library. Dining Decisions is a special after-hours event. The cafe's normal hours of operation and menu can be found here.