Food Fog

Spontaneous Green Smoothie Day

Wednesday, 21 July 2010

Darren and I had been reading about fasting for time management lately, and though we're not up for another juice fast at the moment, we thought just having three green smoothies in a day would be a big time-saver, even compared to juice-making. We figured we could do anything for a day, so we gave it a try yesterday.

Our first smoothie was simple; papaya, mango and dandelion greens. It looks like toxic sludge, but it's actually one of my favorite combos. Next, we did a savory "salsa" smoothie, with the fresh tomatoes we got this week from our produce co-op. And, to round out the day, we made a dessert type smoothie with various superfood powders, including cacao, carob, maca, chia and hemp. I also threw in some raspberries, soaked goji berries, a date, and spinach (it's a green smoothie, after all).

So, all in all, it only took about 15 or 20 minutes to prepare all our food for the day, which is at least a quarter of the time it usually takes. I think I will definitely do an occasional "blended food" day. Toting a smoothie jar along in a cooler is easy, even if you're on the go. And, it would be interesting to go for a longer stretch to gauge the digestive impact of only "eating" blended food.

Summer Update

Thursday, 15 July 2010

A lot has happened since Mother' Day, as it is now mid-July. So, I won't even try to condense two months worth of thoughts into a coherent blog entry. But, I will touch on a few highlights.

Since our Mother's Day trip to the Philadelphia area, where we walked around Valley Forge National Park and had lunch at Arnold's Way Raw Food Cafe, we have launched fully into Summer. For Father's Day, we got a picnic lunch at Roots Market in Clarksville, Maryland, and went and walked around Fort McHenry for the afternoon. So, natural foods and historical sites seem to be the theme to celebrate our respective parental days.

This month we went to Vegetarian Summerfest in Johnstown, Pennsylvania at the campus of the University of Pittsburgh. It was five days of lectures, music, vegan food, community and fun for the kids. Unfortunately, because Zofia kept me so busy, I missed most of the lectures I had planned to attend. But, on the positive side, I got to spend a lot of time with her, walking around the beautiful campus and getting lots of use out of our new jogging stroller. And, I enjoyed not preparing food for five days! Their salad bar and raw foods bar were good, so there was plenty of raw food selections. But, it did kind of throw off my groove a bit, being out of my regular routine and eating different things than I usually eat. The kids had a great time reconnecting with friends from last year and making a few new ones. They really want to go again next year, but I think our plans for a trip to Canada will have to take priority. We'll see, though.

So, now we're here in mid-July. On Sunday, Darren's sister, her husband and three kids are coming down from Canada to visit for the week. Our niece, Samantha, came to Summerfest with us, and just headed back to Ontario last week. So, our guest room has been getting a workout this year. The rest of my week consists of meetings, appointments and cleaning, so I'm off to try to get the kids to bed again, so I can rest up and have a few minutes to myself before I succumb to complete exhaustion.