When we got back from Christmas in Newfoundland – where they tear it up on every one of the Twelve Days of Christmas, from Tip’s Eve to the Epiphany – we were corpulant.
We spent three wonderful weeks in South Branch and it must have been the hangovers, the fresh air and the electrifying conviviality of that town that compelled Wayne and I to eat the way we did. We were unstoppable. We’re talking 7,000 calories a day, mostly whiskey, potato chips, mayonnaise, Nutriwhip, margarine, Cheese-Whiz and gravy. That’s a lot of condiments, and they mostly went on top of bread, potatoes and ice cream.
I ate Wayne’s mum’s killer date squares for my breakfast dessert, her molasses cookies for my lunch dessert, and white ice cream with chocolate shell (remember shell?), over top of a white cake that I iced with my mother’s superlative chocolate-marshmallow frosting for my dinner dessert. On Christmas Day, Aunt Jessie brought over an enormous pan of Orange Creamsicle cake:
We were powerless against it.
When we got home, I looked like Keith Richards from the sugar-and-sodium bloat. It was time to start eating clean again. So I turned to an old standby from a hilarious 1980s diet book called Fit for Life. It’s the Energy Sandwich. The principles of Fit for Life aside (does fruit honestly rot if it travels slowly through your system behind non-fruit foods?), this is a really good sandwich. And my naturopath does second the FFL notion that digestion may improve when you eat your veg with carbs or protein, but not both at the same time. (Try it for a couple of days and you’ll see.)
But the sandwich – it’s foolishly simple:
Avocado, sliced thickly
Sprouts
Thinly sliced tomato [which I skipped this time; can’t stomach them raw if they aren’t ruby-reddishly in season]
Lettuce
Mustard, mayo
Salt and pepper
I made one on toasted rye yesterday. Doesn’t this look good?
Something magical happens when you give slices of perfect, creamy avocado a heavy shake of sea salt and a grind of cracked black pepper. I have declared avocado the new cheese in my life, till spring at least.
7 comments
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January 29, 2010 at 4:46 am
Siobhan Tynan
It’s all about avocado, I agree! I never get bored of the juicy ripe ones……
I made tonight (and let the trumpets roar again!!!…..
Your Spinach Coconut Chicken Curry Pear Tonight (from your x-mas recipe book 2003″….with mint and 1/2 beer!)
I loved it but i have to admit, next time, more vegs in the mix, too meat heavy……….and yes i put tons of spinach…xo
January 29, 2010 at 3:53 pm
francetoast
Can you believe I forgot all about that curry? Wayne goes vegetarian and all my chicken dishes fall to the wayside. It was a great one and it had (correct me if I’m wrong here) you-know-whats in it. Yes, raisins. I don’t mean to be hysterical about them, but they were in there. I’m going to post that curry.
January 30, 2010 at 12:00 am
Siobhan Tynan
Yes but you wrote raisins: (optional) and even pointed out that you had to skip the raisins because of Wayne! What an ongoing war…..ha-ha
I skipped them too (I don’t the idea of raisins in curry, sorry meller…)
January 30, 2010 at 1:37 pm
Katarina
Fit for Life!! Boy did that bring back memories! Your delicious-looking avocado sandwitch reminded me to look back at this book for some simple, quick recipe inspiration.
Oh.. and just to put my 2 cents in there… raisins are the way to go 😉
January 30, 2010 at 3:15 pm
francetoast
Score another point for the raisin avengers! There are some great vegetarian ideas in there, if you can get past the photo of the Diamonds, who look like extras from Dynasty, on the cover. Coming up this week: A post on their New York Goodwich, a weird and wonderful lunch idea that we’re currently addicted to.
February 1, 2010 at 8:46 am
Paula
Haven’t tried the sandwich yet but wanted to say how much I enjoyed your food memories of Newfoundland! My Folks were in town recently from The Rock and after they left I had to wean myself off of dessert after every meal!
February 2, 2010 at 10:47 pm
francetoast
Thanks, Paula. There’s nothing like a mitt-full of cinnamon chicken bones and a frozen dessert full of Philly after a giant, delicious dinner built around potatoes. Hurts so good!