Sprouts and Tofu

When I was growing up I was always a little apprehensive about inviting my friends over for dinner. I wasn't sure what they would be fed.

I have a good friend from Jr. High and High School who was offered fresh squeezed carrot juice every time she would come home from school with me. Other times, while out running errands, my mom would stop at the local health food store for a serving of fresh tofutti. (I want to meet the person who looked at a Soy Bean and thought, "mmmm, this would make a delicious frozen treat." )

When the missionaries would come over for dinner, my mom seemed to take great pleasure in serving them a vegetable they would have neither tasted nor heard of. She would dish it right along side of our 37 ingredient toss green salad and stir fried tofu.

I remember in 8th grade, my parents decided to grow their own yogurt cultures. Our laundry room became a veritable culture lab while yogurt of all the purest varieties were produced. The yogurt was only a small element of the whole image. On our counter, we had a large machine called a water distiller. It would purify our water.(It also earned me a ribbon in the school Science Fair.) The other side of the counter held a stack of plastic circular dishes, each growing a different variety of sprout. There was also a spot for the current crop of wheat grass, which I remember my dad gnawing on as a snack.

At one time, we had a whole acre of land that my dad cultivated into the Garden of Eden itself -- well that is if the Garden of Eden had nothing but produce. We had our own corn, watermelon, potatoes, grapes, peas, squash (at lest 4 kinds) and anything else that could possibly take root in Arizona. There were wild chaparral trees around our house which my parents would use to make their own herbal tea remedies.

So, life as a child was very healthy. And I hated it. Any time I could get my hands on brownies, cookies, anything with sugar, I would binge. Most church and school activities were followed up by something that fit into this category, and I got pretty good at keeping my treats hidden from my mom. Imagine how distraught I was when I learned as a teenager from a manners course that it was only polite to take 2 if there was a tray of goodies. Rats!!!

So, here I am, a couple days into REALLY trying to eat healthy, and I can’t believe I am back to the way of eating I grew up on. I swore I would never do it. But in the aftermath of more than one heart crisis in the extended family, I have decided that my mom taught me a pretty good way of eating. (That gulping and gagging you hear, is me, swallowing my pride)
It is more than a matter of preference now. If I want my husband and myself to be around to play with our grandchildren, I have to do this.

That is how I feel now, ask me in a few days when I am tired of having 7 grain cereal and my kids have rebelled completely against my sprouts and tofu.