Eating Plants,Mostly
Week 3:Enter Snack Based Eating and The Smoothie
-musings brought to you by Jodie
Here’s a working metaphor for my relationship with food. It’s like I’m at a party with personalities galore,and each of these foods are “people” that I either resonate with or not. Some foods are friends,and some are frenemies.
that dastardly cheese bread from last weekend,commanding attention at the party -
Cheese and chocolate come to mind as two fairly dominating personalities;when they tell a story,everybody listens and laughs. People connect to each other through their love of these two entities – and they’ve had me wrapped around their fingers,so to speak – (and literally wrapping my fingers around them). Last week was a hard change in dynamic,like walking out of the room in the middle of a story.
Now that I’m away from cheese and chocolate and I can’t hear their voices so strongly,the link between us is inactive – and there is some space and quiet to notice that I’m really enjoying hanging out with my plant friends. I feel good,my energy is stable;I am beginning to “get it” from the inside,not just in theory.
So I had a marketing conference in Portland this week. I drove down on Tuesday afternoon and I snacked up beforehand,packing:
a container of medjool dates,which are fun to eat and fill the sweet spot.
veggie snack salad – carrots jicama cilantro,&fennel with a lemon squeeze
fruit medley –ataulfo mango,kiwi,jicama,pink lady apple and lemon squeezed liberally
bag of Sweets and Beets – my new favorite chip – who says you need potatoes?
Here’s a link to the Forks Over Knives folks talking about eating well on the road
I arrived at 3 ish and got settled at the old world swank of the Benson Hotel downtown – it was a short walk from there to the pilgrimage place (Powell’s Books),and also to Yoga Pearl,where my conference roommate Wendy – from Community Food Co-op in Bozeman –wanted to check out a meditation class.
Wendy and I met up with my dear friend Caryn for a Dragon Bowl at Prasad before Wendy’s class. Prasad! Go there:9th and Davis,in the same building as Yoga Pearl. It’s open,airy,and quiet,with juice &smoothies,raw vegan chocolate truffles,foods to go,and beautiful bowls of organic whole food to enjoy at simple wood slab tables. The Dragon Bowl is red rice or quinoa,steamed leafy greens,pinto beans,hijiki,avocado,and the green chili sauce. More on that in this great post from an LA yogi-foodie who also fell in love with their food.
Wendy headed off to her class and Caryn and I ambled over to Kask for a cocktail. Kask is one of my versions of heaven:small,lots of lovely wood,big windows that let you gaze on the grey stone cobbled walls of the gothic cathedral across the street,a menu focusing on bourbon,meat,and cheese primarily –and Samish Bay Cheese was up on the chalkboard menu over our heads! We lounged in a delightful corner nook,and I was feeling so well sustained that I wasn’t even tempted. Hooray! Freedom from Cheese!
That’s part of the thing for me – feeling the sense of bounty is greater than the sense of lack.
The hotel buffet was great for the most part – the benefit of being at a national Co-op Grocers conference is that there were plenty of people who pay attention to their food in the house,so every entrée was labeled and there were lots of vegan choices,in addition to the sausages and sweets. There was also canola oil in pretty much everything,and very few vegan options that were also gluten free. Shared food is fascinating to me –the spectrum from family dinner to potluck to catered event,which dishes show up as staples,which food seems weird –needless to say,as beautiful a job as the Benson catering staff did with their spread,there was none of Jill’s favorite soup-for-breakfast,nor were there any vegetables outside of the egg scramble. Breakfast is a fruit meal. Why is that? And why does everything savory get bathed in oil?
I had one rough spot,after lunch on the 2nd day,when I took a small cup of chocolate pudding and strawberries. It was so wee – and I had been so good… and then and so,halfway through the panel presentations on branding,I crashed. I hopped on a doubtful thought and followed its ride:I thought about quitting my job,I thought about leaving the conference early,I had tears in my eyes,even. Stupid sugar blues – I rode out the sugar-coaster,went up to my room at the break and reminded myself that I had enjoyed many many great inspired thoughts throughout the last two days,and that one feeling of frustration did not have to clip me at the knees,then I came down for the final session (titled Creating Lasting Change,ironically enough) with some carrot sticks and jicama and an attitude re-set.
It has been a week of new food explorations: I meant to try Jill’s Overnight coconut and mango oats parfait - but i’ve got a “night-before”block that i have to work out…
– aside from the glory of the Dragon Bowl,which I’ll be working to re-create in my own kitchen next week – with some beans soaked the night before…
our upstairs neighbors made delicious Amaranth and rice flour pancakes with apple currant jam,
my smoothies just went in a whole new direction:
Sweet Veggie Smoothie
* 1 yam and 1 sweet potato
* 1 banana
* 2 dates
* coconut milk
* 2 ice cubes
* lemon
* cinnamon and nutmeg
Cook up the root veggies (beets would be another sweet veggie to cook and peel before blending – I didn’t peel the yam or sweet potato)
add half* of them (then you can make the smoothie a few times) and some of the cooking water to the blender
add the banana,dates,coconut milk,ice cubes,and spices
Blend
Add lemon juice
