Day Four

You may have noticed by now that there has been a bit of repetition in my food choices so far, eg., oatmeal for breakfast every day. One reason is that I am becoming accustomed to a new way of eating--getting comfortable in my new habits. That is just how I roll. I do best when I incorporate things slowly. As for oatmeal specifically, I am simply digging it right now. A mystery even I cannot explain.

As for the cabbage rolls each day, the plain fact is that my recipe produced ten giant cabbage rolls. I have managed to engage my husband, Gerald, in eating a few of them, but as much as he enjoys them, he feels he "needs some meat." I can be content with repeatedly eating the same thing if it is tasty and satisfying, which for me, the cabbage rolls are just that. Plus, it is like fast food in that it is all ready to go and just needs to be warmed up, which is immensely convenient during the workweek. A lot of people may opt to freeze such items, but I have found foods lose a lot of flavor and vitality in the freezing-thawing-reheating process. I believe that is in part where food companies came in with all of their additives and preservatives to ensure their products would not lose any flavor or desired texture. It is a personal preference thing, perhaps. 

I also lost my mind a tad bit when I purchased a five pound bag of carrots. The fact that they were grown in California (where we live) just excited me knowing what I know about shipping produce from long distances: Older, less vital food for me, and ecological waste in the transportation methods used (planes, trucks, gasoline, pollution, and so on). The one bad thing, if you can call it that, about fresh, whole foods is that they do not have a long shelf life. One cannot buy a head of lettuce today and expect it to be edible a month from now. 

New recipe ideas are brewing in my fresh food loving mind, so do not give up on me just yet. I am a little pressed for time today and have to keep this blog entry short. In the next few days I will be blogging about sugar, exercise, and introducing some newer recipes.

So here is what I ate yesterday:

Breakfast: Oatmeal, one meatless breakfast patty, coffee with soymilk.
I prepared the oatmeal as I did on Day One with apricots. 

Snack: Smoothie and raw carrots.
I used the same recipe that I used on Day One. The carrots were out on the counter as I prepared my salad for later, and I just could not resist snacking on a couple of them. 

Lunch: Brown rice, red kidney beans, micro greens, and asparagus. 
First, I sauteed the asparagus in vegetable broth. Once they turned bright green, I added about 1/4 cup canned red kidney beans to warm them. I then added about 1/4 cup brown rice and sprinkled Bragg's Amino Acids over everything. After I transferred everything into a bowl, I added between 1/4-1/2 cup organic micro greens mix (a mix of purple kohlrabi, red cabbage, red amaranth, arugula, tatsoi, mizuna, bulls blood, beet tops, dill, kale, red & green mustard). 

Dinner: Cabbage roll, garden salad with Annie's Naturals dressing.
Yep, same cabbage rolls from Day One (they're probably going to be gone by tomorrow). Garden salad contained red leaf lettuce, carrot slices, cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes, micro greens, red bell pepper slices, and I used Annie's fat free mango dressing. 

Snack: Carrots, a slice of Ezekiel toast with apple butter, a Mandarin orange.

Now on to Day Five...