raw foods diet

not sure what i was thinking... as usual i'm from one extreme to the next. i got the bright idea to try a raw foods diet. i've been following in kristin's foot steps with the vegetarian thing for a while now. of course on the 4th i celebrated with a burger on the grill & kristin stuck true to her diet & went for the portabella mushroom. from time-to-time i do enjoy red meat & i couldn't imagine giving up seafood. i used to think i couldn't live without chicken, but since kristin became a vegetarian we just rarely buy it & i can't remember the last time i ate chicken (probably about 3 months ago).

anyhow, i'm back to working out (like a normal person, not an ironman) & with the working out my super healthy diet has returned too. while at the store this friday kristin grabbed some carrots & snap peas to enjoy as snacks. we also bought some red cabbage & after we got home & chopped things up i started nibbling on a bit of each raw vegetable. right then & there i told kristin i was going to try a raw foods diet for a week. only seven days, why not?

meal #1 (dinner) was easy & quite simple. in-fact it was just more of what i ate as a snack earlier that day. red cabbage, carrots, & snap peas. by 9PM last night my tummy was grumbling for more & something with a bit of substance. i had a glass of green tea & forced myself to bed early so i wouldn't give in to eating something cooked or processed.

meal #2 (breakfast) i actually felt good when i woke up this morning. probably even dropped a pound or two. kristin was well into her morning oatmeal when i headed to the kitchen to figure something out. oh BTW, no way i was giving up coffee (or tea) on this diet. i was well into my second cup of joe when i started making my breakfast. i pulled a pear, an apple, some blueberries from the fridge. i chopped up half of the pear & apple & tossed them on a plate. i grabbed a handful of blueberries & threw those on the plate too. it didn't seem like enough... i headed to the pantry & grabbed some dried prunes & some flax seed & added them to the morning treat. surprisingly i was full & feeling very good again.

meal #3 (snack) i enjoyed the other half of that pear & apple i chopped up for breakast. i also had an apple cinnamon lara bar on the drive to the gym. i had no idea that the lara bar was a raw food either. i knew it didn't contain anything that was processed, but i didn't realize it was a raw food. thankfully that little bar held me through my afternoon gym workout (25 minutes elliptical, 15 minutes treadmill, back & core workout).

meal #4 (lunch/post workout) by the time i got home from the gym, feeding trevor's cats (he's out of town), & picking up more raw veggies at the store so i could keep this silly diet up i was starving. i fixed a heaping bowl of salad to include spinach lettuce, 1/2 of a roma tomato, red cabbage, carrots, snap peas, & broccoli.

meal #5 (snack) the other 1/2 of that tomato :)

by dinner time i'd thrown in the towel. kristin & i fixed up vegetarian stir fry consisting of mushrooms, broccoli, carrots, & red cabbage all tossed over steamed brown rice. while i'd given into the "cooking foods god" it wasn't like i was eating another burger or something. the raw food thing was fun but not knowing how to eat beans or grains without some cooking or processing i would have been feeling some real hurt come tomorrow.

oh, for dinner i had a plum... a raw plum at that.

casa has spoiled me

casa de luz has quickly become the most frequented restaurant for kristin & i. what started out as an every now & then sunday night meal has turned into an every sunday night tradition. even better is that we have a few friends that are becoming regular “sunday nighters” with us. over the past couple of weeks we’ve even found ourselves enjoying both a breakfast & a dinner at casa during the week.

while casa is absolutely amazing & super healthy i’ve got to tone down what has turned into a “how many plates can brian eat” episode. the food is obviously all healthy for you. like anything though, to much of something can be bad for you. the “bad” parts for me is that i'm finding that it is taking much more food to fill me up when i eat & secondly i’ve got an addiction to veggies & you’ll be hard pressed to find another restaurant that serves up the type & most importantly the quantity of healthy veggies as casa.

tonight i suppose i lucked out. i had dinner at the hotel restaurant rather than driving around looking for somewhere to dine. while i do order meals with meat (mostly fish), i try my best to get as many veggies as possible with the dish i order.

i began my meal with a spinach, beet, & garlic salad. i asked to have it served dry as the beets & garlic where enough to flavor the spinach to my liking. for a main course i ordered the sea bass which was to be served over polenta, mushrooms, & cherry tomatoes. i quickly scanned the menu for other veggie offerings. the bok choy, kale, brussel sprouts, & asparagus all grabbed my attention (a number of restaurants in white plains, NY have had kale & things like swiss chard on their menu to my surprise). in an effort to keep the cost down i asked the waiter to 86 (given that i’ve never worked in a restaurant, it was just over a year ago that i learned the 86 restaurant term while out for lunch with the crew in ft. lauderdale, FL) the polenta & hook me up with a side of bok choy, kale, brussel sprouts, & asparagus. of course i requested that they all be steamed or just lightly sautéed with olive oil. the waiter with a confused/shocked look on his face nodded that he understood & said thank you & walked off.

when he returned with the meal he almost got it right. the polenta was 86’ed as requested & the sea bass looked amazing. however, the chef simply mixed in a few pieces of kale & bok choy with the mushrooms & cherry tomatoes that were already part of this meal. there also wasn't any sign of the asparagus or brussel sprouts. i went ahead & started eating the dish as it was prepared thinking that the waiter would just bring the asparagus & brussel sprouts on the side on his next trip out & i could live with the few pieces of bok choy & kale that were mixed with the meal.

when the waiter finally did return to my table my plate was clean. the meal was fantastic! the veggies mixed up really well & the sea bass tasted even better than it looked. the waiter, gary, asked how everything was & i told him that it was great & then asked about the missing asparagus & brussel sprouts. he apologized for missing them & then asked if he got everything else correct. i explained to him that i was actually requesting a side of kale, a side of bok choy, a side of asparagus, & a side of brussel sprouts (wow - that is a lot of veggies... maybe i got carried away) & that i was expecting the sea bass to simply be served with the mushrooms & tomatoes just like on the menu. he explained that he would take care of it.

i expected him to simply return with the veggies i ordered on the side. to my surprise & delight he returned with an entire full meal & went so far as serving the mushrooms & tomatoes on the side too. he said, “here you are sir & as your requested for no additional charge. i apologize for the prior confusion & i hope this meal meets your expectations.” talk about great service!

in the end i got my fill of healthy & tasty veggies along with two magnificently prepared sea bass fillets – all for the price of the original meal. if only the service & food at every restaurant could be this awesome. remember, you get what you pay for.

phlog - mon,mar10'08 - 2