when i was recovering from this and eating the cleanest/healthiest way possible, my friends and family used to ask me “what are you eating?!”. i could see the worry in their eyes. and when i gave them my answer (mostly whole grains and vegetables). I knew they pictured me with a boring plate of brown rice and steamed broccoli, plugging along through each meal and suffering like a modern martyr. and they were right, for a minute. preparing meals using only grains and veggies was a new thing for me- i ate a lot of boooorrring food at first. but then i started to play around with whatever seasonal veggies we brought home and imagining up the most delicious meals. like this one, our lunch today: a garlicky pile of sauteed collard greens topped with last nights roasted vegetables, some freshly cooked quinoa, heaps of avocado and dressed with our favorite homemade spicy balsamic vinaigrette. sweet, salty, spicy, WINNING!

i guess the cat’s out of the bag, no boring plates ’round these parts! eating healthy, organic, local vegetables with lots of whole grains doesn’t have to be a snoozefest, you just have to figure out how you love them most. and the possibilities seem endless: roasted, sauteed, raw, steamed, chopped, turned into soup, made into casserole, mixed into salad, piled into a bowl, baked into a patty, turned into a drink, inside outside upside down, wheeeeeeee!