My First Cacao

My Tuesdays are ...

... Man

.... I don't know what they are.

I get up around four-thirty. I drive to one of the colleges where I teach English - an hour away. I teach at eight and at eleven.


The eight o'clock class is a bit of a miracle. It's a small class full of bright beautiful faces who all contribute to class discussions and want to work on their writing. One student asked me, a week or two ago, "Can you teach me how to use colons?"


I love them.


The eleven o'clock class is right before lunch. And that's all I have to say about that.

At twelve, I've done only half of the day. The classes that I take start at four. That gives me about a two-and-half hour break. BECAUSE it takes one hour for me to get from the college where I teach to the college where I go.

What do I do with those two-and-a-half hours?

I go to Whole Foods.

Duh.

There's a new one just built near me. It has a beer bar, rooftop seating, and FIVE salad bars. That's not counting soup and olives, okay?

Here's what I got last Tuesday.

My Most Favoritest Salad EVER!!!
Field greens

Roasted red onions

Shittake mushrooms

Carrots

Artichokes

Grilled asparagus

Roasted eggplant and zukes in tomato sauce

Nutritional yeast

Gomasio

Here's what I did to it.

It looks like the back of a dumptruck.

After walking around and shopping, I felt like I needed chocolate. I didn't know why at the time. Although - TMI alert - I figured it out when I started bleeding a couple days later! HA!

Cacao has been on my mind lately. So this is what I got.

Go Hunza Brownie

Cacao

Almonds

Cashews

Agave

Sea Salt

Now before you get on me about the sugar - there was only twelve grams. So far that day, I had maybe four or five grams. The rest of the stats were too amazing to ignore.

I LOVE anything that's high in fats, but low in saturated fats. Also - CHECK OUT THAT FIBER CONTENT!!! With five grams of protein TOO?

Oh, Hunza.

Here's what it looked like unwrapped...

Aaaand here's what I think about cacao.

It definitely has that fruity "health food meets junk food" taste. But now I know what that taste is. It's cacao. And man - do I LOVE cacao. I love that it's not dry or muddy like chocolate. It's wet. It's more like a nut. There's that satisfying CRUNCH and it fills your mouth with goodness.

In the Go Hunza bar, that CRUNCH was loved up by something extra. Underneath it was a classic chewy brownie yum. See?

It was one of those meals that left me SO happy. I drove on to class in a great mood.

What about you? What was the last meal you had that left you glowing?