Another reason to like summer
Aug. 29th, 2007 01:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mousmeFresh veggies are just about the best thing about summer. Maybe the fresh fruit and berries beat the veggies, but not by much.
I have become a rabbit of late. I've been eating almost nothing but veggies, mostly raw. My gazpacho was a success, I might add, despite the absence of fresh dill. I am a little out of sorts with my body, which has decided to *gain* weight on an almost exclusively-veggie diet (go figure), but the joy I am getting out of the fruits and veggies pretty much cancels out any minor vexation on my part.
I am currently experimenting with veggie smoothies. I have been having tofu and fruit smoothies for breakfast on and off for a few months now, and the results have been invariably delicious, so I decided to branch out into vegetables and see if I couldn't simplify my lunch prep. Right now I just blended a bunch of celery, spinach, a banana, carrot juice, and half a cup of (very yummy organic) vanilla yogurt. It's not bad, but I've shoved it in the freezer, testing out a theory that it will be delicious when properly chilled. I may make it with ice cubes next time. Then again, I may find a combination I like better.
My coworker printed out a bunch of veggie smoothie recipes yesterday, and I'm using those as a basis for my own experimentation. If nothing else, working with a weight-and-nutrition-obsessed girl has made me more aware of what I'm putting in my mouth. I was a little dismayed at *just* how bad Tim Horton's stuff is, especially the muffins and Timbits. It makes me a little sad, but I have decided that I'm not going to deprive myself if I really want something: I'll just stop making a habit of going every day and simply go for a treat, or if I go more regularly, I'll just stick to a coffee, which is my main reason for going anyway. It'll cost less in the long run, anyway.
Whatever benighted person said that it was cheap to eat well on a regular basis was sadly deluded, I must say. Sure, if you're eating nothing but canned and dry food, then it's cheap. The minute you get into fresh produce the prices skyrocket. I honestly don't know how people with reduced incomes manage. Even when I was earning my lowest salary, which wasn't minimum wage, I found it hard to both pay my bills and eat healthy and fresh things.
Ah well. At least now I can buy a $3 bottle of carrot juice and not worry how the hell I'm going to pay rent. It's been nearly a year since I've been financially solvent, and I'm still not used to the feeling. I still boggle every time I see money in my bank account at the end of the month. It's not a ton of money, but it's not a negative amount, which is something in and of itself.
I have become a rabbit of late. I've been eating almost nothing but veggies, mostly raw. My gazpacho was a success, I might add, despite the absence of fresh dill. I am a little out of sorts with my body, which has decided to *gain* weight on an almost exclusively-veggie diet (go figure), but the joy I am getting out of the fruits and veggies pretty much cancels out any minor vexation on my part.
I am currently experimenting with veggie smoothies. I have been having tofu and fruit smoothies for breakfast on and off for a few months now, and the results have been invariably delicious, so I decided to branch out into vegetables and see if I couldn't simplify my lunch prep. Right now I just blended a bunch of celery, spinach, a banana, carrot juice, and half a cup of (very yummy organic) vanilla yogurt. It's not bad, but I've shoved it in the freezer, testing out a theory that it will be delicious when properly chilled. I may make it with ice cubes next time. Then again, I may find a combination I like better.
My coworker printed out a bunch of veggie smoothie recipes yesterday, and I'm using those as a basis for my own experimentation. If nothing else, working with a weight-and-nutrition-obsessed girl has made me more aware of what I'm putting in my mouth. I was a little dismayed at *just* how bad Tim Horton's stuff is, especially the muffins and Timbits. It makes me a little sad, but I have decided that I'm not going to deprive myself if I really want something: I'll just stop making a habit of going every day and simply go for a treat, or if I go more regularly, I'll just stick to a coffee, which is my main reason for going anyway. It'll cost less in the long run, anyway.
Whatever benighted person said that it was cheap to eat well on a regular basis was sadly deluded, I must say. Sure, if you're eating nothing but canned and dry food, then it's cheap. The minute you get into fresh produce the prices skyrocket. I honestly don't know how people with reduced incomes manage. Even when I was earning my lowest salary, which wasn't minimum wage, I found it hard to both pay my bills and eat healthy and fresh things.
Ah well. At least now I can buy a $3 bottle of carrot juice and not worry how the hell I'm going to pay rent. It's been nearly a year since I've been financially solvent, and I'm still not used to the feeling. I still boggle every time I see money in my bank account at the end of the month. It's not a ton of money, but it's not a negative amount, which is something in and of itself.
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Call me deluded...
Date: 2007-08-29 06:01 pm (UTC)If you are buying only organic veggies in health food boutiques or only locally grown MAYBE, but if you are not adverse to buying U.S. or other imported produce and know where and how to shop, then veggies, fresh fruits and grains are MUCH cheaper than meats, high-fat cheeses (I always feel like I am buying drugs with some of the prices...) or the absolute worst... prepared foods, especially goodies. (Homemade goodies are dirt cheap and contain tops 4 or 5 ingredients, next time you're in a store, read the back of a bag of cookies or those prepared cakes at Loblaws.
You just have to know where to shop:
In NDG: Rocky Montana on Sherbrooke St. West for fruits and veggies plus Marché Akhavan (on Sherbrooke St. W) for unbelievable nuts at great prices
For LaSalle, Verdun and surrounding area no place beats "Frutta Si"
http://www.lavoixpopulaire.com/annonce2-2011904-Frutta-si-super-marche-internationnal.htmlfor fruits, veggies, pasta (including whole grain and high fibre)...
West Island: Mourelatos - everything above, plus the best tzatziki - yes, even better Akhavan's
Re: Call me deluded...
Date: 2007-08-29 06:07 pm (UTC)Yes, cheeses are stupidly expensive, unless you're buying the cheap super-market kind, which comes at $4 a packet and lasts a single person at least two weeks.
A $10 packet of ground beef will make me food to last a full week, sometimes more. $10 worth of veggies lasts half as long, if I'm lucky.
Re: Call me deluded...
Date: 2007-08-29 06:15 pm (UTC)(Except for the part about Mourelatos having better tzatziki than Akhavan's. Impossible!)
Re: Call me deluded...or something nicer ;0
Date: 2007-08-29 06:39 pm (UTC)I KNOW! That's what I said too when someone suggested it, but it is really incredible and I am a Akhavan devotee! :)
Have you had the fresh ricotta from Ackavan over pasta? You just add a bit of the boiling water from the pasta, good olive oil and black pepper for the healthiest, bestest "alfredo" sauce.