My diet is something… something! You’ve seen too many pictures of me hugging burgers, cupcakes, and donuts. But, I don’t really eat like that all the time. And of course there’s a few rules. For example, I earn a donut every 5 miles, but if I am running that day, then there’s no rules!

It always ends up going back to me eating whatever/whenever I feel like.

I REALLY enjoy food. I love food. I think about food constantly. I daydream about food. And I am fortunate that I can (mostly) eat whatever I like. Luckily, I don’t crave sugar all the time. Some days I crave red meat. But on the days when I am not craving something, which is always very specific (and usually has “Shake Shack” or “caramel” in the name), I eat really healthy. Disappointed? Sorry, it’s true though. I said healthy, I didn’t say how much of it…

With a 100% Italian family, you’d think my staple is pasta. It’s not. I’d been totally spoiled with my nonna’s hand-rolled fusilli (ah, she rolled each one of them!) with home-made tomato sauce, and since then, all the other pasta in the world is tasteless to me. I do have whole wheat spaghetti once in a while but I’ve been in love with the the grains-as-pasta/rice replacement for a while. I’ve moved past the brown rice onto ingesting crazy amounts of Quinoa and Buckwheat in the last year (buckwheat is great for breakfast too!). I LOVE LOVE LOVE red Quinoa. It’s the best thing there is in the world. And it’s also ridiculously delicious.

So, last month, when RW had an article about this and listed the best grains, I brought the list (April issue, “Edible remedies”, page 37) with me on my grocery shopping. I only found wheat berries and bulgur (this is the brand) on my first try. Bulgur is ridiculously rich in fiber, and cooks super fast, like Quinoa (15 mins!). It’s also very light and fluffy, almost airy. Wheat Berries are dense, heavy, sweet, and crunchy (more similar to buckwheat, though not as smoky). And though I liked it too, it takes FOREVER to cook. So, it might be just a weekend thing, I think it was over one hour before it was ready to go (that’s what she said!!!!!). Over an hour is really not cool. Not cool, wheat berries. I still like you though.

I have 4 supermarkets within a 4-block radio. I am hitting the next one soon for more list items, but with a headset and sunglasses because every-single-time I go to C-Town on 1st Ave men seem to think it’s a good opportunity to chat me up. EVERY-SINGLE-TIME!!!  I should probably put some really weird stuff in my basket to get some alone time with my list.