Eat Like a Rabbit

Now that it's really cold in Florida, I feel like I can share these creative plasticware snowflakes from New York and fit right in. Especially since this morning it was about the same temp as it was in New York early December. What's up with that!

We're still eating up food from Paul's family being in town last week. The only thing I'll run out of is milk and bananas, I think. So, I will have to take a quick trip to some grocery store soon. Meanwhile, I have a list of likely dinner options that will be eaten in the expected order in which it might go bad. Also, I have a number of potential lunches lined up and will share those, too.

While out with my mom one Friday, we stopped at a bookstore and ran into our pastor's wife. She asked us if we wanted to join her for lunch and recommended a health-food store like Whole Foods called Chamberlin's. I'd never been there before, but I once heard a patient rave about their yogurt. I was excited to give it a shot, but was saddened to learn that they no longer offered frozen yogurt.

The salad bar looked really good, but some reason (possibly the price) deterred me, and I went for a sandwich. My mom ordered the vegan chicken pot pie, and we split the pie and the sandwich. I think we both preferred the sandwich over the pot pie.

I was really impressed by the freshness of the tomatoes and cucumbers off of the salad bar that went into my sandwich. I also thought the way they sliced the top off of the pita bread was interesting. It was the first hummus I had had since being pregnant, and it was very good. The tabouleh seemed a bit strange because I had never seen a recipe with bell peppers in it. I don't think it was bad at all. In fact, with the veggies and hummus it was very good. I just didn't expect it.

After my first ultrasound, we headed over to Park Ave. in Winter Park for a lunch. I knew immediately I wanted Powerhouse Cafe. On a hot midday in the scorching Orlando summer, I wanted the coolness of a cold sandwich and a smoothie. Not to mention, frozen fruit in general makes me very happy right now.

Ironically, just today I was talking to a coworker who was meeting her husband for lunch in Winter Park about the cafe and told her about the specials (but forgot to tell her about the coupons) and how the sandwich and smoothie cost me under $10 and she said that that was a good deal because a burger and fries at any other restaurant on Park Ave. can cost $17. I haven't talked to her to see if she took my advice.

Fiber has five key health purposes if I recall correctly from my nutrition course: 1) Prevents constipation, 2) Prevents colon cancer, 3) Lowers bad cholesterol, 4) Helps control weight, 5) Wards off diabetes. And the day I wrote the post about counting my daily grams of protein, it occurred to me when people learn I'm a vegetarian and ask if I get enough protein, I should be asking them "Do you get enough fiber?" Being from south Louisiana, my experience has generally been that people will down meat before they pick up a fork and down salad. In fact, many people I know would vote meat and potatoes over quality fruits and vegetables. Anyway, as long as I was counting and am not so interested in counting calories because I am not trying to lose weight, I thought I'd better check our fiber intake along with our protein intake. Sadly, this takes a good bit of time; so I'm a week later typing this than the words been mulling around in my brain.

This is a small, hole-in-the-wall restaurant with a Mediterranean food store attached. It has a Greek menu and has been voted Orlando's Best for a few years, with framed advertisements above the cash register. However, when you look at the plastic table covers with pictures of different kinds of pasta and the "silk" leaves and plastic grape clusters hanging from the ceiling, you might get slightly confused. Paul had a falafel sandwich in a great thick bread wrap. I had the hummus and tabouleh sandwich. Both had lettuce and tomato added with a creamy cucumber dressing coating every bite.

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