MY FOOD, MY PICTURE!

I did it! I got the cable to upload my own pictures to the web and now I can post them here! YEA! I'm so proud to have figured it out. Although there is one slight catch; I was able to upload it to my e-mail but couldn't find the option to send it directly to my computer. Anyone know??

What you see on this table is what I ordered for dinner tonight at the Zephyr Vegetarian Cafe when my veggie restaurant hopping friends, Wayne and Larry took me there. What you see in the photo is a portabella mushroom burger wrapped in lovely big leaves of collard greens instead of on a bun. I took some tomato pieces from a salad to garnish the top. :) On the side of the plate are blue corn chips and a side of fresh salsa.

The burger was perfect, because it was blackened mushrooms, grilled red onions and tomato. It was delicious. It needed nothing. The corn chips were great and the salsa was just right, not too spicy, not too salty.

The Zephyr serves wonderful natural sodas, including Virgil's natural root beer and "Real Cola". Wayne and Larry ordered those and let me take a sip. I ordered the agave-sweetened hibiscus iced tea. It was so good! Hibiscus is excellent for the kidneys. We can all use a healthy pair of those, especially as we get older. I rarely order anything but water with the actual meal, but tonight that hibiscus tea just sounded like what the good doctor ordered...and it was! I got a refill to bring home!

I'm working on getting a very alkaline forming diet going here. Most fruits and vegetables are alkaline forming and most grains, beans and animal products are acid forming. Foods that have a higher content of acid, such as lemons, actually do the opposite of their chemistry when they get into the human body; the more acid-containing foods produce an alkaline effect. On the other hand, those with the least acid in their basic form, produce more acid in the system, so the rather bland tasting foods produce a lot of acid in the system. The idea is to have a balance between the two.

Most people tend to eat meat, dairy, eggs, potatoes and a lot of bread and grains because they give a quick feeling of being full and satisfied etc...or because it's what they're used to and have grown to prefer. Also, those foods are the easiest to get if you are in a hurry.

This didn't start out to be a chemistry lesson, and I couldn't teach one if I tried. I just know what I research and I have researched the PH balance diet for a few years now. Hard to stay on it, but for one who eats a lot of fruits and veggies naturally, it gets easier. My tummy and my entire digestive tract has a temper tantrum when I eat too much acid forming food.

I would say that in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, about 90% of the recipes are acid forming: meat, meat, meat, butter, eggs etc. About 10% probably deals with veggies in a completely non-acid forming context.

Smoke that one, Julie and Julia! :)

Peace, peace, and more peace...