More health nut foodie adventures
A couple of months ago, I stayed with my parents for a few days to visit. My mom has been increasingly moving toward a raw diet. At the time I visited, my parents were both eating almost totally raw food, and I wondered if I would go crazy in three days.
I was pleasantly surprised. My mom is an awesomely creative cook and the raw tostadas were so delicious I didn't miss cooked tostadas at all. I never felt stuffed, but I also felt satisfied and my digestive system was loving it. I was kind of shocked, because I wasn't tremendously interested in raw food before that. It sounded so extreme, and I'm all about eating local, which could be really hard to do while also eating raw. Not that it's easy to be local around here no matter what diet you're on...
When I got home from my three days of raw food, I decided I was going to have fruit for breakfast and salad for lunch every day. Dinner, of course, is still whatever -- usually some meat and vegetables. And when I eat out, sometimes I eat some serious junk food. But I have to say, I've quickly gotten used to eating salads for lunch because I feel so much healthier. Full-time writers know how hard it is not to just junk out and put on weight when your job is sitting in front of a computer at home in your pajamas. I've started doing my grocery shopping by just filling a basket with half fruit and half vegetables. I thought making all that salad would be time-consuming, but it quickly becomes such a routine and hardly dirties any dishes! It's not as boring as I thought either... I've been making lots of different ones.
But I've also noticed that it's really hard to get good salad at restaurants unless you're in a really hip spot like New York City or Asheville. And that conventional cooking magazines don't give many salad recipes either, especially not actual raw salad that isn't made with blanched or roasted vegetables or lots of cheese and bacon (although I do sometimes put those on my salad -- they are delicious and I'm not trying to be hard-core here). I bet most people don't even know how to make a bunch of different delicious salads! I think I only know because a lot of them are stolen from my mom's creative salad ideas...
A year ago I made a post on how to make a delicious entrée salad: http://fabulousfrock.livejournal.com/307500.html. Later this week I'm going to make a post with some of my usual favorite salad combinations.
I was pleasantly surprised. My mom is an awesomely creative cook and the raw tostadas were so delicious I didn't miss cooked tostadas at all. I never felt stuffed, but I also felt satisfied and my digestive system was loving it. I was kind of shocked, because I wasn't tremendously interested in raw food before that. It sounded so extreme, and I'm all about eating local, which could be really hard to do while also eating raw. Not that it's easy to be local around here no matter what diet you're on...
When I got home from my three days of raw food, I decided I was going to have fruit for breakfast and salad for lunch every day. Dinner, of course, is still whatever -- usually some meat and vegetables. And when I eat out, sometimes I eat some serious junk food. But I have to say, I've quickly gotten used to eating salads for lunch because I feel so much healthier. Full-time writers know how hard it is not to just junk out and put on weight when your job is sitting in front of a computer at home in your pajamas. I've started doing my grocery shopping by just filling a basket with half fruit and half vegetables. I thought making all that salad would be time-consuming, but it quickly becomes such a routine and hardly dirties any dishes! It's not as boring as I thought either... I've been making lots of different ones.
But I've also noticed that it's really hard to get good salad at restaurants unless you're in a really hip spot like New York City or Asheville. And that conventional cooking magazines don't give many salad recipes either, especially not actual raw salad that isn't made with blanched or roasted vegetables or lots of cheese and bacon (although I do sometimes put those on my salad -- they are delicious and I'm not trying to be hard-core here). I bet most people don't even know how to make a bunch of different delicious salads! I think I only know because a lot of them are stolen from my mom's creative salad ideas...
A year ago I made a post on how to make a delicious entrée salad: http://fabulousfrock.livejournal.com/307500.html. Later this week I'm going to make a post with some of my usual favorite salad combinations.