Food Improv

Hello again from Forsyth, Georgia! We are still here and will be for the next few days. I have to say…I am really wishing I was back in Atlanta. Not to be ungrateful for the experience we’re getting at the conference (we’re learning a ton!), but I’ve seen a few too many confederate flags and eaten a few too much canned food, mystery meats, and high fructose corn syrup for my taste. Yesterday Jason and I went to this little pizza place in Forsyth called Jonah’s on Johnston for dinner.

It was actually REALLY good. I was completely impressed. I wasn’t expecting much because this is such a tiny place, but I was so wrong! They used fresh ingredients and the food was excellent. I got a mixed green salad to start with.

And then got a small pizza of my own with roasted red peppers, portabello mushrooms, and Italian sausage. DELICIOUS.

And Jason got his pizza with pepperoni, sausage, and jalepenos.

The crust itself was just to die for, I wish my pizza crust tasted like that!

So the way it works here is that we eat breakfast and lunch in a government cafeteria and then dinner we can get out on our own. This has led to me pretty much having NO access to fresh fruits and veggies, except at dinner. I could not keep going on that way! Especially since it’s Project Veg-Up this month. I had to do some food improv. So we made a trip to what I’m 99% sure is the only really grocery store in this whole town.

In Atlanta Ingles is pretty much at the bottom of the grocery store chain, but this one was pretty nice! They actually had a TON of organic products and even a fresh nut butter station with like four different types of nuts! I walked away with enough of a stash to hold me over for a few days (fresh fruit is the hardest to come by so I focused on that).

Jason is not one to care about fruits and veggies so these are all for me! Haha!

I know that today is Soul Food Sunday, but I was unable to procure anything even CLOSE to soul food for you guys! We attempted to travel to Macon (the nearest “city”), but in areas this deeply Southern everything shuts down on Sundays so there was none open for us to go to. Instead we went to Cheddar’s Casual Cafe, a chain restaurant that actually has very yummy and fresh food.

We started with the Chips and Homemade Queso w/ground beef. Honestly I should NOT have eaten this because I knew with my dairy issues it would not turn out well (especially because I don’t have Lactaid or my probiotics with me…), but I’ve had it before and I just couldn’t resist it’s incredible deliciousness.

I got a WATER to drink!!! You should be incredibly proud of me, I can hardly EVER resist getting sweet tea at a restaurant but I did this time!!!

For dinner I was craving greens and knew I needed them so I ordered the Roasted Pear Spring Salad, which was “roasted pear slices, almond slivers, tomatoes, grilled chicken and shaved Parmesan served on spring mix with a maple cider vinaigrette”.

And Jason got this ridiculously unhealthy meal:

Fried chicken strips, french, fries, BBQ ribs, and broccoli and cheese casserole. At least there was broccoli in there. What can I do, he doesn’t listen to me about eating healthy foods. If I wasn’t there he probably would have gotten mac and cheese instead of the broccoli with cheese! HAHA! Oh well. Eating these foods just make him happy.

I just have to convince him that living longer and not developing heart disease would make him EVEN happier. 😉

Well that’s it for now, folks! We have another full day of workshops tomorrow but we get out a little earlier in the afternoon than usual so maybe we’ll have time to do something fun.

Also if you didn’t check out yesterday’s post about Loving Day, please do!!! It’s a topic that’s really important to me.

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren