Rough food week.
I tried something new this week and am not sure that it is a good thing for me. 
I had been hearing about this “new” “old” bread called Ezekiel Bread. It contains no flour but is made up of sprouted seeds. Well the seeds are for grain and grains just don’t seem to sit well with me. I tried the bread in a sandwich a week ago. I was excited because I haven’t eaten sandwiches for four years. Sometimes I order a sandwich but I only eat the inside of it. It truly is difficult to work around this idea of a sandwich is what you have for lunch. Even today, after four years, I still think it is much easier and simpler to make a sandwich for lunch. Salads take way more time and creativity and since I make my own salad dressing that is also included in the complicated process.
Sandwiches or Not
I used to love ham and cheese sandwiches. I can still taste them and sometimes I just simply want a ham and cheese sandwich or a peanut butter sandwich. I don’t have them. Growing up we would often go away as a family for the weekend. My mother would pack egg salad sandwiches and carrot sticks and usually some cookies and some milk in a thermos for us to picnic in the car. Nothing ever tasted as good as those Friday night, in the car, suppers. Maybe that’s where the love of sandwiches started. Who doesn’t remember having Campbell’s tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches? They were a part of those winter days after being outside in the snow building snowmen or skating with friends at the corner rink. Warmed you up from the inside out. Now it is salads!!! Don’t get me wrong, I love salad. I particularly love salads that other people make. Somehow they taste better. I like to get creative such as my ‘salad
in a jar’ salads. I love cruciferous vegetables in a salad and beans. Black beans, red beans, chick peas that sort of food. Somehow in the waning days of February, the idea of salad just isn’t cutting it for me. I want something hot to eat. Vegetable soup or chicken soup. So all of this brings me to where I am about this bread. I do think the bread is nutritious and it certainly appears to be made with excellent ingredients but it takes me down a slippery slope on the road to sandwiches and toast and all those foods that really caused all my health problems to begin with. Bread is the culprit for me. Like Oprah I love bread but I just cannot eat it. Blood sugar goes nuts, my waist expands (yes, in as little as one week) and I feel sluggish and foggy brained. So it’s grain, grain go away – you don’t belong in my life today.
Bio-Individuality
We certainly were taught in my year at IIN to experiment with ourselves and with foods that make us feel good and to make note of the ones that do not. It is the very foundation of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition – bio-individuality. Keep a food diary and note how you feel after you eat a food or a meal and also how your body reacts to that food. If you are trying to figure out what is going on with yourself, eliminate the more well-known irritants like caffeine, alcohol, sugar, eggs, dairy and flour. Keep in your diet fresh fruits (berries), vegetables, lean proteins (chicken, lamb, fish). I do well on nuts and some seeds like chia, flax, sunflower, pumpkin, sesame and the nuts I like are almonds, Brazil nuts, walnuts and cashews. So back to towing the line and let go of this experiment.
Winter Exercise and Ice
Walking and walking some more. This week saw yet again another weather week of ups and downs. We had sunshine, freezing rain, rain, snow, ice and then melting 
and now back to snow again. We had so much rain that the water in the stream was running over the top of the ice and the lake went up a couple of feet. What I don’t quite understand is how the rising lake lifted all that ice on it but it did. The other thing it did was to create some Chihuly like decorations on the bushes that used to be on the beach but are now in the lake. Chihuly is one of my favorite artists and I have purchased an engagement calendar with photographs of his blown glass every year for the last three years. If you click on his name it will take you to his site and you can see for yourself. He had a wonderful exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts some years ago. So I walked most days but on Thursday I could NOT get out of the house. The rain had frozen on our stone stairs and it was so thick John had to chop it off which took him over an hour. I tried to get up the steps and even holding on with both arms wrapped around the railing it was a no go. The ice on the sidewalks has been horrible so I take my chances and walk in the middle of the road. My ski poles are not a great defense against a car but somehow people notice me and slow down – a little!
A recipe for you
Our grand-daughter Libby was here with us this week for a few days of vacation. While she was her she cooked us a dinner. Her appetizers were terrific so I include her recipe here for your enjoyment. It came from a website called 12 Tomatoes. Easy to make and delicious. Enjoy! We are off to help some more with the move in New Hampshire. A busy few weeks coming up. Have a wonderful week everyone.
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