Time for Variety...Well Maybe

It has occurred to me that I have been eating about the same foods every day with not a lot of variety. Well, it is winter time here and there isn't a whole lot of produce that isn't getting shipped into town from somewhere. So I have been at the mercy of whatever my favorite stores stock.

I do most of my shopping for organic produce at Whole Foods. I love that place! The feng shui just pumps high energy from every corner. It is always clean and the food is beautifully displayed. It is a positive experience even when it is packed with people. Everyone is always so happy, polite and helpful...even the other customers! We seem to form an instant bond with each other that allows us to just ask perfect strangers where to find X. I have struck up some pretty interesting conversations with people I don't know over the oddest things! All in all, it is a very pleasant shopping experience compared to say, Wal*Mart. I believe those good vibes get transferred to the food we eat. You really don't want some angry, underpaid person handling your precious greens!

To anyone going raw I would say get to know the produce people where you shop! By name! This has really paid off for me on many occasions. It is to the point now that when the nice guys who stock the shelves see me coming, they will point out something new (Jerusalem artichokes!) or will let me know they have fresher kale in the back and just go get it for me.

So after perusing several raw cookbooks, I found a recipe for a raw "pizza" that looked good and easy to make. I had lovingly chosen just the right package of 3 beautiful portobella mushrooms for the crust part of these babies. I had perfected a tomato sauce that would be just right for this venture and had thrown an extra packet of sun-dried tomatoes into the shopping cart. Every ingredient was chosen with such care. After all, it has been at least 6 weeks since I have had real pizza...I wanted this to be a special moment with my portobellas. I had romantic notions of a red checkered tablecloth with a candle dripping wax down a Chianti bottle. Violin music played in the background as I savored the first bite of my creation. When I returned home from the store I tucked the special stash into the far reaches of the refrigerator and hid them with huge bunches of spinach, kale, chard and red bibb lettuce.

I was looking forward to my new venture in raw food production (it isn't "cooking") all day today, but when I went to find my portobellas they were gone! I ravaged the fridge and they were no where to be found. A short investigation revealed that they had been ruthlessly chopped up, thrown into some dish with smoked sausage, and had the precious life cooked right out of them! I secretly called my daughter a murderer and vowed to get even.

So to try something new, I came up with a less than happy spinach soup. I will try to satisfy my pizza urges another day.

Here's today's menu:
Breakfast: Green smoothie with an apple, a pear, 2 bananas, a fistful of kale and a dash of cinnamon.
Lunch: Citrus Avocado Salad with spinach, spring mix, 1/2 grapefruit, 2 oranges, an avocado, a few raisins, some sunflower seeds and a dressing of lemon juice, olive oil and Celtic sea salt.
Snack: Some power ball goo.
Supper: A soup of spinach, carrots, almond milk, and garlic, all blended. I chopped up some red and orange peppers, a Jerusalem artichoke and a couple of small carrots to throw in for some crunch.