Silly topic right?? Giggle!! Well, the story goes that last week I met a friend for lunch at Greens. It is on Transit Rd in Amherst. They have the most awesome Dr. Jack friendly food there, and when I see Kelly for my skin, I like to stop to eat there. Walk by the pizza, no stopping, lol… they make these chopped salads that are to die for. Soooooooooo good. Filled with fresh, non preservative yummy things.
You choose all the things you want and they chop it all together and then top it with dressing. It is soooooooo good, did I mention that? And unlike other places, I never have so much as an itch after I eat there. No weird food reactions. Trust me, order a small!
Well, I had the salad there and one of the things they have is fresh Parmesan cheese… you know the shaved kind…gosh, I love Parmesan, or Romano cheese. My mom was pure Italian! Our veins are filled with olive oil and pure Parmesan cheese. When I was a child, my grandpa used to take us to the Italian store and always asked for a taste before he bought it and I can still remember him handing it to me and asking my thoughts. If he saw pre grated? He would flip out! Never!! We need to see the wheel it came from!
Grandpa made all his own food. He handmade his pasta, homemade sauce and the salad? We fought over what was left in the bowl. We always ate the salad with the meal and often at the end because he said it helped digestion. Grandpa was famous for his salads, with all fresh ingredients, many picked that morning from the garden. He would chop and cut fresh greens, tomatoes, cheese, fresh herbs and then he would pour the lovely olive oil, Philippo Bario, straight from the huge cans he bought. He never used tongs , but his fresh clean hands mixed the huge salad. He would taste it as he mixed it and hand us a green. “Good? No! Needs garlic, more salt! And I can’t taste the cheese! Cut more.” They are lovely memories….
This was going to be a step out of the food I eat, but Dr. Jack kept telling me that trying a real food once in awhile, not a foodlike thing, would be okay. Don’t make it a daily habit but once in awhile okay. I was nervous, but I had it put in the salad. For me, it was a big step out of comfort land.
My fear in trying it was multi facteded. 1. Would I react to it? 2. Would it start the huge downward slide of cheating? 3. Would I run to Wegmans and now eat it every day? 4. Would my little cells start screaming and my Hashimoto symptoms return?
Anddddddddd the answer to all those questions is?? NO! And yes, I told Dr. Jack! Do you honestly think I ever lie to Dr. Jack?? Absolutely never! Can’t get help when you lie!
I learned a lot that day. I can enjoy something that is not on the list without fear. Woo hoooooooooo! My body is in such a great place now, I can enjoy it and not worry about reactions. Will I try cookies next? Absolutelyyyyyyy Never again…. do your research. Never again. That’s another blog. But I might try some different things that are real food, not fake food and not sugar laden. We will see.
The salad? It was amazing…. spinach, arugula, cucumbers, artichokes, three kinds of olives, Parmesan cheese, slivered almonds, banana peppers and jalapeños, and dressed in only olive oil….. I smiled at it before they chopped it and thought Grandpa Carriero would have loved it, as to me it tasted like all those lovely dinners at his house, bringing back all those memories of him at the cheese counter, “Christinie (my parents name for me), taste this….is it good or should we try the other? Is it good enough for our homemade pasta? No! Let’s try another.” Trust me grandpa, that Parmesan? It was soooo worthy of that fresh salad!