Michael: A Clean Plate

The deep red trumpets
Blow silently in the land
Of garden flowers.

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Sometimes you make good choices, sometimes a lack of choice thrust goodness upon you.

Being a vegetarian is definitely a mixed bag here compared to Los Angeles. In L.A. the sky’s the limit. Here, rice cakes and Bob’s Red Mill Muesli will be on the shelves for a few months, then you don’t know if and when they’ll return. So it’s best to simplify and rely on the staples. Fortunately, I don’t feel that’s such a bad way to go.

Thankfully, they do have Almond milk on hand at all times here, or I’d be desperate. I’d love it if the muesli returns but I can get by on the local granola, a banana, coffee and maybe some trail mix or a brownie picked up from the Friday market for breakfast. In the states I’d break up the monotony with a healthy oatmeal now and then, but the few oatmeals here all have added sugar, so they’re out.

Lunch is fruit and veggies, a scoop of raisins and nuts, and a pack of crackers with ‘natural’ peanut butter. I was having rice cakes with peanut butter but since I can’t be certain that the small ones I like will be kept on the shelves, I’ve gone to a brand of whole wheat crackers that’s always available. And the peanut butter, though labeled ‘natural’, still has sugar added and isn’t just the “peanuts and salt, and that’s all”, that I’d prefer.

The first time we went to Price Smart in David, an hour and half bus drive away, they did have veggie burgers, but they haven’t had them since. They’re available in Boquete, but that’s another 45 minutes on the bus from David, and though I liked veggie burgers, it’s not worth the five hour round trip bus ride. Besides, I don’t like the breads here, so burgers and bread have left the diet.

Kimme makes a variety of wholesome hot meals and a salad for dinner. We can’t get a decent healthy salad dressing here, so we make a few simple, healthy and delicious ones ourselves.

Desert is four squares of a Ritter’s chocolate bar. In the states we’d mix in some dairy free coconut bars from whole foods, but the ice creams and deserts here are the same big bad name brands they have in the states, so again, we’re limited and that’s probably for the best both in terms of our health and our budget.

Sometimes the limitations we encounter are the best choices we could’ve made. And that’s pretty much how I feel about my evolving diet in Volcan, Panama.