Gross But Good

The first item in this post is actually just gross. Usually it's good. I'll elaborate: Yesterday D went grocery shopping and brought me home my usual containers of salad mix. I get the organic King Soopers brand "herbed spring mix" -- essentially, it's spring mix with dill, basil, cilantro and other herbs added to up the flavor profile. It's actually really delicious, and even though it's more expensive (obviously) than buying my own spinach, red cabbage, arugula, baby romaine, etc., and mixing up my own spring mix, that would be a giant pain in the ass, I wouldn't do it and then the greens would end up rotting in my fridge. Trust me, I know this. So I spend a few more dollars and, in return, I get fully washed and prepared spring mix with which to make my salads. And it actually all gets eaten. (I'm growing some herbs at my house as we speak, so possibly in the near future, I'll start buying the plain spring mix and adding my own herbs. Just in case you cared.)

So I open up one of the containers last night to make today's salad, and ... it's gross. At least half of the greens are all dark and slimy, which is what lettuce does when it gets beyond the point of edibility. Well -- maybe you could still eat it. I'm not about to find out. It's the nasty. I'm picking through the container, saying "Ugh" a lot and trying to find some salvagable salad mix from this mess. It's really gross. D comes over and checks the expiration date (7/25) and gets all heated, so today he's going to take it back to the store, show them exactly what they sold me and exchange it for some (hopefully) fresh produce. Thankfully, the other container was in much better shape, so I could still assemble my salad (which I just finished eating).

Another gross but good thing are these vitamins my brother hooked me up with. I'm about to go into informercial mode here. The brand is called Passion4Life. It's a liquid vitamin, and 98 percent of the vitamin/mineral/etc. blend gets absorbed into your body within three minutes of taking it. It's also kind of a pyramid marketing scheme that Art's involved in, so when he first told me about it, I was kind of like, "Yeah, okay, I'll buy some of this to help you out." Then I quit taking it for a minute and just started again yesterday. And wow! What a difference. He swore up and down that it helped his energy levels and his focus -- he was absolutely right. Weird that I didn't notice it sooner, but it's definitely helped a lot in both of those aspects. I feel like I can do everything on my list and then some today. It's pretty awesome. I just ordered another bottle of it and plan on continuing to take it. If anyone is interested in learning more, let me know -- I can get you Art's consultant number; you'll pay the same price for the vitamins but he gets credit (and paid) for it. They are kinda expensive, but completely worth it for the effect you get, in my opinion.

But. It tastes awful. Like those natural vitamins you can get, that you can smell as soon as you open the bottle, and kind of taste when you swallow them, but not really, cause it's only on your tongue for a second? Worse than those. It really does taste, as Art would say, "gnar." So what I do is this: I blend it into a smoothie which becomes my breakfast first thing in the morning. Here is the recipe:

3 ice cubes (crush these in the blender before making the rest of the smoothie so you don't get big chunks of ice in the smoothie)
1/2 cup mixed berries, approximately*
1/2 cup mixed fruit, approxmiately*
1 baby banana, or 1/2 a regular banana
1 serving (individual cup) Yo Plus vanilla yogurt**
1 ounce Passion4Life

Blend and enjoy.

*I buy frozen mixed fruit and mixed berries from King Soopers (again, the King Soopers brand). I defrost them for about 24 hours in the fridge -- when I'm putting them in my morning smoothie, I'll replace what I use in my special container in the fridge. I only defrost one day's worth at a time. You don't really have to defrost them, but it makes the smoothie thinner and thus more drinkable.

**I've tried both Yoplait's Yo Plus and Dannon's Activia. Yo Plus blows Activia out of the water, in case you were wondering. Not only does it have the fiber, protein and the other added stuff that Activia leaves out, but that whole claim about "regulating the digestive system?" Activia did nothin' for me, Yo Plus actually works. Plus it is much creamier than Activia, and tastes better.