Friday, September 12, 2008

Take Out Salad

Cam has been suffering from a nasty cold for the last few days - he seems to get this every single year in the fall without fail - he's really wishing he had stuck to the raw food challenge longer but he needed a break and I fully supported that. Any way, he always feels like Thai food helps out quite a bit whenever he gets sick - particularly lemongrass, so he decided to order from our favorite Thai restaurant, Thai Flavors. When I say this is our favorite Thai restaurant, what I really mean is that this is our favorite restaurant in Iowa City. It's so amazing! I felt like I couldn't let him order without getting a little something for myself as well. So this is what I chose: Mixed Vegetables Salad with Special Peanut Dressing. This was not 100% raw (I'd say more like 90%), as you can see there are some little fried onions on there and the peanut dressing certainly wasn't raw either but I ate it with glee. It was wonderful. I wish I had the recipe for the dressing so I could make a raw version. Maybe if I'm really nice...

I'm finding myself being much more lenient over the past week since Cam started getting sick. I realize that from the beginning of this challenge I never intended to be 100% raw so I'm giving myself a bit more space when it comes to things like hot tea and decaf coffee. Probably not the healthiest thing in the world to drink but I'm pretty sure it won't kill me either. As the weather cools off I long for a warm belly.

Another indulgence has been a 1/4 cup serving of some strawberry popcorn that we grew in our garden. I was so excited to have successfully grown popcorn in the first place that I just had to give it a try. And honestly, 1/4 cup was enough for me. I savored every tiny morsel and it was enough. I realized after listening to Cam eat some potatoes and onions that he cooked up on the first morning of his "break" with all of his "mmmmm's" and "ohhh's" with a few "oh that's soooo goooooood's" that one thing that eating mostly raw does is make eating some cooked food so much more pleasurable. I got mad at Cam at first because I thought he was just rubbing in my face that he was eating cooked food, but in reality he was simply delighting in the food! Sure, it helps that we grew those potatoes and onions in our own garden, but it's nice to have developed a whole new appreciation for God's creation and provision.

I feel like I'm definitely growing closer to God through this experience. My spiritual journey has already seen many ups and downs and I'm grateful to come out of each twist and turn stronger than I was before. It's amazing how exposed I feel when eating raw. I just can't shove my stuff down any more. I feel like God kind of likes that. I thank God for blessing this raw food challenge!
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3 comments:

Rose said...

What a yummy looking salad! I'm curious, what's strawberry popcorn?

Stacey D said...

Strawberry popcorn is a variety that has really beautiful red kernels. It pops like regular popcorn (only smaller since the kernels are so tiny). It's a fun variety to grow.

Cheryl Ann said...

Great looking salad! I just went raw 6 weeks ago! Unfortunately, after only 4 days of teaching, I caught a nasty cold and got bronchitis (already this year!!!!)...but...it doesn't seem to be as bad as it has been in the past! I'm hoping the raw food diet will get me well sooner.