Right now I am sitting in my little apartment, cuddled under covers with my computer, talking to my kitty, drinking my second cup of awesome coffee, and eating a very small portion of a Bumble Bar I bought at my own People’s Grocery. It is mostly composed of rice syrup and tons of tiny little flax seeds and a few peanuts, but it pretty much looks like a bunch of little seeds just smashed together! However, I tend to wake up hungry, and just two or three bites of something like this takes care of it. And this bar is made of good wholesome ingredients, so it is totally healthy and filling! However, I’m sure I’ll still want breakfast again in an hour or two.
While I am sitting here crunching on this Bumble Bar, I am also thinking about the totally delicious pizza I ate Friday night at Regina’s house. Not only were the two pizzas super tasty, they both looked so pretty they could have been on the cover of any foodie magazine as a prize winner! Ellen and I dined on these pizzas with Regina, and even though I purchased a few of the ingredients, I did not help put them together. I still have this cold, and even though I thoroughly washed my hands, I didn’t want to touch the food too much that others would be eating.
Anyway, Regina made pizza dough, so the crusts were freshly made. One pizza was a thin crust, and we had no tomato sauce on that one. First Ellen placed huge chunks of mozzarella over the whole thing. Then she sprinkled kalamata olives, chopped red onion, mushrooms, artichokes, fresh spinach leaves torn into tinier pieces, a little basil, and feta cheese. It was so pretty! With the white cheese, green spinach, and purple olives, it really looked like a classy Christmas decoration! I would say that I hated to eat it because it was so pretty, but that would be telling a tale. I didn’t mind eating it at all. None. Nada. It was…..oh my goodness it was so very good!!
Then Regina also had a dish to prepare a deep dish pizza. On that one Regina first layered on more thick chunks of mozzarella. And instead of a tomato sauce she just opened a can of tomatoes and spread out a few chunks of that juicy red fruit along with some basil for extra flavor. (mmmmm……!!). Then she added cooked sausage, chopped red onion, pepperoni, mushrooms, and more slices of mozzarella on top. That one took a little longer to cook, but it was definitely worth the wait. I still couldn’t eat a whole lot because of my cold, no matter how tasty. So I brought home the rest of the slices I did not eat and I shall enjoy them this afternoon. I make pizzas sometimes but always buy the crust. I probably will not delve into the world of homemade crust, but I definitely will go with the idea of putting mozzarella on the bottom of all the toppings. That was an absolutely delectable idea!
Then yesterday my neighbor Larry and I shared a lunch together of some of his totally awesome chili, topped with cheese and his famous guacamole. Really, I’m sure it is famous. And then he prepared a side salad of greens, onions, sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts, and a drizzle of basalmic vinegar and walnut oil. You know? I’m not a real walnut fan, but that drizzle added just the right amount of sweet. Again, I couldn’t eat all of the chili, so I brought the rest back to my refrig so I can eat it for lunch later this week at work. Geez…..I’m already psyched about lunch at work. Man! I guess I really, really do like good, wholesome food, huh.
So, today is Sunday. Which means I do my weekly laundry, finish my cleaning around the apartment, and watch some TV I recorded earlier this week. I also need to spend several hours completing my prep for a class this week. And for my food today (yes, as confirmed in the last paragraph, a real priority for me!), I plan to eat some of the leftover pizza I brought home from Regina’s with a side of a tossed vege salad. And I think for another meal I will prepare my new fried rice recipe with veges and peanuts.
I seldom get philisophical in my writings, but today I will share something with you. This movement into whole, natural foods I began a few years ago has been a large part of my deeper spiritual growth. I am a woman of faith. And as I look at these foods in their more whole and natural state, I realize, again, how much love God has for each of us. He provided us with so many delicious foods. So many vitamins and nutrients. Juicy apples and oranges, colorful carrots and squash and spinach, peanuts and almonds and pecans, And when I do decide to sit down and eat part of an animal – and let’s all face the fact that when we eat meat we do just that – I thank the Lord and the animal for living his life so that I may have protein and other nutrients. Some people believe it is wrong to eat an animal, others believe that practice is part of the circle of life, and I sit somewhere in the middle. I believe it is a personal choice, but somewhere deep inside I don’t think I myself should practice carnivorism. I will continue my quest to eat less meat, and eventually I hope to be a full pescatarian. Why is fish OK with me? I’m not sure, but right now I’m OK with that practice. However, I’ll be honest in my blog and not hide the fact that yes, I do still eat meat.
My goodness! It is almost 9:00am! Time for one of my favorite shows ever – This Week with George Stephanopoulos, and time for me to shut up! I like the way the people in the roundtable offer varying points of view without being rude to each other like they do on FOX and even CNN sometimes. They do not interrupt each other and we can actually hear what they say. As a professor said to me once, “In a conversation we learn when we listen, but not when we talk.” A wise man.
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