The Healthy Everythingtarian

I wish I could tell you the title of this post refers to the fact that I’ve begun sleeping in a pile of Benjamins (refer to this song) at night or that my sugar daddy (*cough* Jake Gyllenhaal *cough*) finally came to whisk me away for that romantic sojourn to Morocco or that I’m having an illicit affair with a 70-year-old man to collect his multi-million dollar inheritance when he inevitably kicks the can.

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My first name may be Holly, but my last name ain’t Madison.

So alas, none of these are true.

Instead, it just means I’ve been eating food.

Lots of it.

Mostly of the rich, I’m-going-straight-to-your-thighs-and-never-looking-back variety.

Since it is Madison Summer Restaurant Week, I had budgeted one splurge for my meager, peasant-like bank account: a dinner out with my friend Brett. However, it is officially Wednesday night, and I’ve successfully eaten at three different restaurant week eateries thus far.

***All my pictures were taken with my iPhone camera in bad lighting environments. You’ve been warned.

The first unexpected restaurant week outing happened at the Capitol Chophouse to celebrate our intern’s 21st birthday. I started with a gorgeous heirloom tomato salad with buffala mozzarella drizzled in a balsamic reduction…

Then, things got even better with BBQ pulled chicken flatbread…

Devoured (as if you had any doubts).

Dessert made me think of my newlywed homegirl Janetha G: peach crisp with vanilla bean ice cream.

Three courses and a mere $15 later, I left happy.

Very happy.

My intern was officially legal, and my belly was full.

Not to spoil the rest of this post or anything, but it may have been my favorite restaurant week meal of the three. Although, to be quite honest, I don’t know if you can call eating three different desserts a meal.

Yes, three desserts.

They were inhaled at a new authentic Italian restaurant in town called Francesca’s al Lago. To be truthful, I didn’t eat all three by myself…well, except for the first one: torta di cioccolata.

That would be a chocolate mousse cake with a crackly peanut butter chocolate crust.

No words my friends, no words.

Then, these little buggers started being passed around the table…

The fancy word for them would be profiteroles. I call them cream puffs. Really delicious cream puffs filled with pistachio gelato and drizzled with chocolate ganache. You could also just call them delicious.

If you are going for authentic Italian, tiramisu is simply a must.

There is nothing worse than bad tiramisu, but I am happy to report this one was simply fabulous. Did I mention I washed all this down with two Spotted Cow beers? I did. And I called it dinner.

Finally, in what was supposed to be my ONLY restaurant week experience, Brett and I headed off to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse to continue the summer restaurant week…

Since I was ready to pass out having not eaten much all day, I ate the bread basket clean.

I blame the fact I woke up full this morning from last night’s decadent dessert dinner. Now, all that bread is currently digesting in my stomach. True story.

For starters, I opted for the crab corn chowder…

…continued on with the Almond-Crusted Walleye for my entree…

…added in a side of creamed spinach to up that veggie intake…

(and by veggie intake, I mean my daily cream, butter and artery-clogging intake)

…and finished off with some Pellegrino water, which I thought was free before Brett informed me it was probably about $12. Clearly, fine dining is not a regular thing for yours truly. Determined to get my money’s worth, I drank the whole bottle and ended up only paying $4.95 for it.

I couldn’t even celebrate the joy of knowing it was indeed only $5, because I thought my bladder was going to burst. Let’s just say, I am well-hydrated. Very well-hydrated.

The moral of the story: La Vida Rica clearly doesn’t mean, “Holly is rich and acts that way too,” or “Holly has a really expensive camera,” or “That girl Holly – man, she is one classy broad.” When one has delicious food in the belly, good friends to lean on and a wonderful family to see this weekend, that is all the rich life one needs. Jake Gyllenhaal would merely be an added bonus.

I should probably stop trying to meditate while laying in bed at 9:30pm with the lights off.

But if I do choose to engage in said meditating at said time with said mood lighting, I should at least brush my teeth, wash my face and put on pajamas knowing I will nod off despite my good intentions.

That way, when I wake up at 1:34am, I can turn off all the lights in my apartment before falling right back asleep on my drool-stained pillow. Instead, I am forced to change out of my daily street clothes, wash my greasy skin and brush my grimy toofers, which inevitably perks me up and causes me to catch a tremendous case of “monkey mind” where I am not able to fall asleep again for another hour or so.

This is my life.

Bienvenidos.

It involves spontaneous bouts of speaking in Spanish, narcolepsy and the food group known as chocolate.

Stonyfield Farms sent me some coupons to try out their new dessert-like Greek yogurt cups. I completely j’adored the caramel…but how did I feel about the chocolate?

Not to switch countries and languages then back again but…le amo.

I love it.

Not as much as the caramel, but this is my life, and I can cry if I want to. Or eat Oikos Chocolate Greek yogurt with Kashi Toasted Berry Crumble…

Because who would rather shed tears than eat that decadent concoction?

Not I.

Not me.

Not yours truly.

Grammarazzi…a little help with this one please?

I like smoothies.

1 Oikos Chocolate Greek yog cup
1/4 cup organic skim milk
1 diced frozen banana
1/2 T peanut butter

A lot.

I also like coffee a lot.

And chocolate.

When you mix coffee AND chocolate, I really get happy.

After a delicious Lemon Coconut flavor and gross Cinnamon flavor, how did this Cocoa Coffee stand up?

It may have taken over the #1 spot. It was perfectly chocolatey with a generous hint of rich coffee flavor, and I wouldn’t lie about that.

I wouldn’t lie about statistics either.

For 140 calories, 16 grams of protein and 7 good-for-you ingredients, I don’t know how they do it.

Good on ya Simply Bar, good on ya.

Just saying that makes me miss Australia and saying good on ya, bush pig and right-O before being inappropriately felt up by Australian men on the dance floor of grungy beach bars.

I digress.

At least I still have PB+B toast.

It never lets me down.

It hits the spot every.single.time. In winter, in summer; for breakfast, for dinner; for mealtime, for snacking; in sickness, in health; for long as we both shall live, I take thee PB+B toast as my lawfully wedded husband.

Yes, husband.

The male persuasion isn’t exactly lining up outside my door at the moment, if ya know what I mean.

Life is not perfect.

It never will be.

But with the help of a pint of Chocolate Hazelnut Fudge Coconut Bliss…

The bad days don’t seem so bad.

Like today.

Today wasn’t a very good day.

But it’s okay.

Because this is my life, and I am going to meditate sitting up, eat chocolate instead of crying, look forward to drinking coffee + eating PB+B toast in the morning, plan another travel venture (where I will perhaps meet someone of the male persuasion…) and remember that tomorrow is a brand new day.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said,

“Love of beauty is Taste. The creation of beauty is Art.”

Thinking about it, I am pretty sure Mr. Emerson was an insightful philosopher who was way ahead of his time and could see into the 21st century. I mean, how could he not be talking about us modern day foodies who blog about food and read food blogs?

Let’s be real, we are the world’s best tasters as well as some of the best artists – constantly appreciating and creating beautiful, nourishing and delicious works of food.

And coffee. Always coffee.

I like to think art, beauty and creativity are the ABCs of my life.

Whether in writing, photography, paintings, food, clothes, nature, design, ideas, architecture or just about any thing else I can think of, I get a huge sense of satisfaction from exercising my creative muscles.

More so, I love noticing the little things.

While this PB+J was delicious, it was the blueberries that stole the breakfast show for me.

If you take a minute to look deeper at this dish of antioxidants, you see each blueberry is unique in its own right – with a slightly different shape, color pattern and taste than the next…

And for some unknown reason, that makes me happy.

Because there is nothing wrong in wanting to be things to be aesthetically pleasing, even if you have to Photoshop them to make that happen…

Farmer’s markets, for one, are obviously a great example of showcasing the beauty of food as well as the beauty of people and their Midwestern fashion sense.

“There is no beauty as true as old man Hawaiian shirts, ankle socks with sandals, mullets, mom jean shorts and too skimpy college girl clothing.”

You can quote this Everythingtarian on that.

Plus, when you can get 5 multi-colored peppers, 4 banana peppers, 3 cucumbers, 3 zucchini and 1 bundle of kohlrabi all for just $9, beauty is merely an added bonus.

So what makes this Tortilla Espanola (Spanish Omelet) even more beautiful?

Not peeling the red potatoes.

I find the sliver of brightly colored skin adds a burst of much-needed color.

A work of art AND a delicious lunch?

Double bonus.

Food doesn’t necessarily have to look beautiful.

Sometimes it just IS beautiful…all 17 grams of vegan protein of it.

That’s not to say “ugly” meals don’t happen. I mean, as great as the ingredients and stats are on this Simply Bar, I will be honest in saying I did not enjoy the Cinnamon flavor that much.

C’est la vie.

Life goes on.

To a gorgeous, all-organic farmer’s market salad of spinach, cucumber, white pepper, banana pepper + ranch and a BBQ tempeh sandwich…

And when you can combine your love of art, beauty and creativity with a fellow food-loving friend?

The beauty is doubled…if not tripled.

What if the food at hand is going to be Chocolate Beer Waffles?

I’d say that quadruples the beauty.

But wait…those waffles are VEGAN?

Beauty officially quintupled.

Vegan Cashew Cream + Chocolate Sauce?

How do you say six-tupled?

Excuse me why I do a quick Google search.

Sextupled.

Definitely, sextupled.

I forgot my coffee with coconut milk creamer…that septuples the beauty.

That’s seven, right?

But I haven’t even gotten to the waffles yet!

Take this all-vegan feast of Chocolate Beer Waffles, Chocolate Sauce + Cashew Cream…

…multiply it by 2 1/4…

…and you get true beauty octupled.

But please don’t call me Octomom or even Octoeverythingtarian.

Holly works just fine.

Natural beauty is best, no?

What did YOU do this weekend?

…scares you.

Perhaps a 6-mile run at 6:30am? Even though I slept a solid 9 hours (after falling asleep at 8pm in my work clothes and proceeding to wake up at 5am looking like a hot mess of a hungover college girl who had just woken up in some random guy’s bed), it still took every ounce of energy I had to run.  That and a slice of PB+J toast with black coffee.

…comforts you.

Yes, more PB+J+B toast and black coffee. No shame.

…gives you a sense of accomplishment.

For me, that was working diligently all morning and getting thisfrickinclose to finishing a few projects at work while sipping on a TJ’s Raspberry Lime sparkling water + POM juice mocktail.

…makes no logical sense whatsoever.

Like purchasing an overpriced KIND bar when you’re trying to stick to a budget and brought your lunch to work. Then, if at all possible, devour it in 0.02 seconds and never actually take the time to taste it.

…is completely new to you.

You all know I love my yog messes. That’s just plain fact. However, I think the apple mess is totally the new yog mess. Mark my words Zac Posen. Just take 1.5 cups of unsweetened, natural applesauce and add 1/2 cup of strawberries + 1 crumbled Dark Chocolate Muffin. Mess and eat.

…that involves the word ‘balls.’

If for no other reason than it’s good for an immature chuckle. And let’s be real, we need more immature chuckles in our lives. Whether it’s Caitlin’s Flax-Encrusted Sweet Potato Balls (below) or one of Averie’s Famous Raw Ball recipes, just say balls. It will immediately make you smile. Balls. I dare you. Balls.

…includes peanut butter + chocolate.

For obvious reasons.

…makes you feel like you are back in 6th grade.

Like ROLLERBLADING! I went rollerblading with my friend Steph after work for an hour. Did I almost biff it multiple times? Of course. But when you get sunny, 80 degree weather in Wisconsin, you soak up every last droplet of warmth and forget about falling face first in the grass.  Then you come home and while dinner is cooking, devour some of Gena’s delicious Banana Soft Serve…

2 small frozen bananas
lots of cinnamon
1/2 T peanut butter

…is just plain good for your body.

Today, that meant veggies…LOTS of veggies! I took 3 heads of kale, and with the help of coconut oil, salt, garlic salt, crushed red pepper + a 400 degree oven, turned them into a mean batch of Kale Chips. Then I nuked a sweet ‘tater in the microwave for 6 minutes (poke holes in it first) and topped it with a bit o’ real buttah. And yes, I ate the skin. Mama Everythingtarian says that’s where all the fiber is.

…requires no thought at all.

Watch Glee, LOST (requires some thought) and Pray the Devil Back to Hell in bed with the same clothes you went rollerblading in, do some dishes while listening to Pandora, take a warm bath and go to bed without overthinking a single minute of your day. If you figure out how to do that last one, please let me know.

Fill in the blank. Do something everyday that ________, and give me an example from your day!