Aug 9, 2010

Freakishly Healthy and a Recipe

I know I mention it all the time, but that is because it's still weird to me:  Since moving here, we've gotten a lot healthier.  I'm not gonna to lie: I had nothing to do with it.  In fact, I had every intention of starting a "Dessert Club" when I moved in.  In fact, I may be the sole reason we're still as un-healthy as we are.

(Okay, so I AM the sole reason.  But how was I to know we'd be planted (pun intended) in the middle of a hot-bed of Vegetarians and Nutritarians*?  A girl needs time to adjust to major life changes such as seven pounds of vegetables on a single pizza with only about a half ounce of cheese!!!)

I mean, REALLY Janeen!

No healthy person should be so happy!

Even the KIDS around here eat healthy.  Voluntarily!  Don't believe me?

Meet my neighbor Eva:

Exhibit A:
She wandered into my back yard one day eating a bell pepper.  Eating a bell pepper like an apple.  No one is even making her!!!  (Sick, right?!  See what I mean about freakishly healthy?)

Now look at this startling photographic evidence:
Exhibit B:
This is my child - Gabe - eating a WHOLE cucumber AND a carrot!  (???)  Sure, most kids will eat a baby carrot if coerced, but a WHOLE CUCUMBER?!?  It's totally bizarre to me that he's doing this AND smiling.

And this final picture?  I just find this one PAINFUL...

Exhibit C:

Gabe is seen here happily eating RAW (nasty/horrible/disgusting/my-arch-nemisis) tomatoes!!!
MY!!!KID!!!

You can rest assured I had nothing to do with this.

So anyway, it's gotten so bad here that now Doug just goes into the kitchen and whips up healthy meals with ingredients straight from our Square Foot Garden.  (Our garden is totally ROCKING this year,  btw!)

This is what he made us for dinner tonight:

And guess what?
It was surprisingly delicious!!!  (After I picked out the tomatoes...)

(My standard reaction to most vegetarian dishes is:  "This is... Surprisingly good!" or "Surprisingly delicious!" or "Surprisingly not as disgusting as I thought it would be, and I REALLY thought this one was going to be disgusting!!!")

So if you want to get in on the healthy eating action, try this out.  You might be as surprised as I am!

Doug's Healthy Pita Pockets
1 giant oversized fresh to death cucumber out of the garden (sliced and chopped)
1/2 chopped onion
1 apple, chopped
a man sized handfull of sliced grapes
2 japanese sized cloves of garlic (these are about 1 1/2 the size of american ones)
1 can of garbanzo beans, mashed up with a fork
1 cup(ish) fresh cherry tomatoes, halved (Less if you have a picky wife.  More if you don't)
1 T dill weed
2 T balsamic vinegar

Mix all together and place into warmed-up whole wheat pita pockets and place into pie hole. Enjoy.

*all these can be adjusted and experimented with. I wanted to use some lettuce but forgot.
**some plain yogurt mixed with some dill weed and lemon juice is also a good topping.
***it was good for lunch again the next day!


Enjoy in good health! (weird-o)

*Nutritarian:  A person whose food choices are influenced by nutritional quality.  See "Dr. Furman" for more details.

P.S.  Janeen has a website here with a bunch of recipes here.

10 comments:

MandiScandal said...

I must be a weirdo because my favorite pizzas are the ones loaded with veggies and no meats. i eat tomatoes and bell peppers straight... and my favorite snack as of late has been tomatoes fresh from the garden with salt and pepper on them...and maybe a slice of fresh cheese! mmmmmm. seriously though. tomatoes=heaven. pure.heaven!!!

Anonymous said...

You'll be a veggie eatin' fool in no time, Em! (and you will like it!.... and you'll be making things and people will say, "wow! This is surprisingly delicious!" ♥ Janeen

Lyana said...

Love your post! And Janeen looks great:) I know! Gabe asked me for a raw tomato once as a vegetable for dinner--of course I gave it to him since no one else in my house likes them.

Anonymous said...

YUCK !
Em, You never learned any of that healthy stuff from me growing up. It's like I said after my double by-pass last year, I almost accidently ate a healthy vegetable once, but spotted it just in time to take it off my plate and feed it to our dearly departed dog, Lucky. When I lived in Ohio growing up, White Castle was my favorite food, now back in California, it's a Double-Double (with no tomato) at IN n' Out. Life is too short to not enjoy. "My candle burns at both ends, it will not last the night. But ah my foes and oh my friends, it gives a lovely light." Love, Dad

Kylie said...

I happen to have Dr. Fuhrman's book from the library RIGHT NOW! I've been trying to add a lot more vegetarian dishes to our usuals. I made a particularly delicious carrot and zucchini spaghetti sauce the other night. I'm totally trying that recipe! :)

Raadgep Fam said...

I am so proud of you! It is a difficult transition but a good one! Wow I think I need to take 8oz of cheeses off our pizza Mike and I still love cheeses! Hang in there

Anonymous said...

I thought the pizza looked awesome! I love eating whole cucumbers and tomatoes and by the way I have tried to get your dad to just consider a vegetable.... oh well. But your kids should know what not eating vegetables do to you... you have imaginary dogs named 'Lucky'.

Claudia

mama bear said...

Okay, that was waaay to healthy for me! I'm sorry, pizza needs at least a pound of cheese on top of all the meat!

Beeswax said...

Tell me more about how a dessert club would work.

Anonymous said...

Prefer cucumber over carrot

Not bizzare