Seven | Food (day 17)

Well, we're on Day 17 of sweet potatoes, black beans, avocados, eggs, spinach, whole wheat bread and chicken (and we can't forget olive oil, black pepper and salt). I think most days it feels like we've settled into a routine with these foods and they amazingly seem to taste more delicious to me as time goes by. This isn't what I expected.. but I'm thinking maybe it's because we're used to eating these seven things, and now that we've discovered amazingly delicious ways to prepare them, it seems exciting and happy and wonderful to have such great meal options! For example: I've started roasting whole chickens in the oven, and they are juicy and wonderful this way! And (horror of horrors in the days before July 1st) I use the deliciously fatty juice that collects in the pan underneath the roasting rack to flavor black beans and make some pretty awesome soup. We refer to the syrupy sticky stuff that comes out of the sweet potatoes as "candy". Cooking seven sweet potatoes on a pan generates about 1 tablespoon of this rare delicacy, and we carefully scrape it off the pan to add flavor to our amazing sweet potato black bean soup. Yesterday I made up a recipe for muffins. All the ingredients are 7 legal, since they're either one of the 7 or are found in regular whole wheat bread..although I replaced honey with sweet potato. I about died when they came out of the oven, they were so deliciously fluffy and sweet (sweet potatoes taste incredibly sugary to us at this point). I sent two to work with Casey and he was so impressed with them that he forced a co-worker to try it and be amazed. After taking a bite, Casey's friend said something like, "Well.... I guess it's okay, but I sure wouldn't just EAT one of those if I didn't have to." Oh well :)

As good as I happen to be feeling about this month at this moment (I am currently smelling a delicious chicken roasting in the kitchen), if Casey were reading he would probably force me to take back anything I may have said about it being easy. We've had some pretty lousy moments. My sister Rachel is in town this week and she was anxious to try a new restaurant that a friend of ours opened here in town. I cleverly packed an avocado, black bean and hard boiled egg sandwich (I pretty much take one everywhere I go). Casey happened to be driving by on a work errand and saw my car there, so he stopped in. My sister ordered several incredible delicacies and Casey and I had this moment, looking at each other as we held our little lunch bags full of hard boiled eggs, avocados and black beans. He said he'd better get on out of there before he got any more depressed. Rachel and I sat down to eat, and my food was gone almost instantly (she's one of the slowest eaters and I'm one of the fastest). Normally in this situation, I continue to snack off of Bennett's high chair, Rachel's plate, or wherever I can find food until everything in sight is gone. And between the two grown-ups and two toddlers, there were lots of leftovers. But today I looked around helplessly at the restaurant food and had to just be patient. The truth is, I was plenty full. And what I ate was delicious. I can't say I had a great attitude about it, but what I can say is that it is good for my soul. Oh, so good.. even that small bit of self-denial, it is a new lesson for me day after day this month. I do not have to have everything I want.