food, food, and more food

i swear, all i've done today is eat. no exercise. and whole foods is the mecca of my roly-poly existence. only a 5 minute walk away! -sigh. but some things are so expensive! i love all the healthy and ethnic options, but i know since its the only high-end grocery store in my yuppie area, it must be making A KILLING. a major killing. still, i like it. took home 2 big loads of groceries in my reusable canvas-tote bags (how green am i?!) so i came home and made amazing dinner- spicy vegetarian chili, veggie-burger meatballs, and later, banana bread pudding, sort of similar to the picture below.

yep, that good. except BETTER! see, i had made some banana-chocolate muffins which hadn't gotten around to being eaten, so i made them into a pudding with more fresh banana slices and a fresh honey-spice icing. wonderful!

also got some nori (seaweed, like the kind they use for sushi) to toast for snacking. i don't eat potato chips or anything like that, and i tend to go a little crazy when there's nuts around, so this is a nice substitute. you just dry-toast it over the stovetop. its very light and salty with a crisp crunch.

speaking of sushi, i've been talking about it ever since i got home. this is the second time i've been to whole foods and not gotten any. my only two friends here i know probably wouldn't even try it, and i haven't even been able to sell my mom on the idea of some, even if we got the cooked kind. it frustrates me so bad when people just flat-out refuse to try something that could be amazing (and i'm not talking about drugs or purging here, and i'm talking broader than the sushi spectrum). i mean, you only have one life. why limit yourself? if it tastes bad, you spit it out and don't have to deal with it again. continue with life. but what if you end up liking it? again, broader than the range of sushi, i find that no one around me considers the things i think are important to be important. i get fed up when i feel so passionately about certain issues, and it seems that every person i hold close to me could care less, furthering my feelings of isolation.

i did get out today, at least, to push my mom, in the wheelchair, to the grocery store. the trail is just great. i can't stop raving about it. see:

and it just keeps going like that, all the way through virginia. i mean, there is some variation, but i just love it. period.

another thing i love- terry goodkind books. if you love fiction at all, find the sword of truth series, by terry goodkind, in the library. even of you're one of those "i don't like sci-fi, i don't like fantasy" people, trust me. GIVE IT A TRY. i promise, you will tear through this series like whoa. i got the first one in...hmm, i guess it was like early high school. the series is like 10 or 11 long now, enough to keep you occupied for awhile. and i have all of them. and yall, i don't buy many books. only if i plan on readng and re-reading them will i buy, and this has been a a worthy investment. i haven't read through the series since high school, and since i suddenly now have so much free time on my hands, i figure what better time to start? so, i've finished oh...about 374 of the 836 pages in the first book, and will probably read some more before bed. don't be intimidated by the big numbers- you'll be so immersed they'll fly by.

ok, enough of that. jeez, i'm like an info-mercial or something. well...i'm going to go try to do something productive with my evening, and finish my 3 daily liters of water, so i don't feel like so much of a healthy-eating-habits (it's not a diet. i can't call it a diet- there are negative connotations there) disaster. oh, and try not to verbally bludgeon my family (excluding my mother). yep.