Cute story. So, I got home late from work and Mark had a friend over. We all hung out for a while but at 8:30 we realized we were hungry and had no dinner plans. Mind you, the friend we had over seriously questions Mark’s credibility about how our “healthy” food is actually quite tasty. I love me a challenge. I ran to the kitchen and quickly assessed our choices: 5 day old pink lentils, Castelvetrano olives-(stupid good), raw green cabbage, carrots, cucumber, kimchi, seeds & nuts, bread in the freezer and leftover mexican rice. Alright??…Ready, set go!

15 minutes later, I watched these two starving boys gobble it up to the very last bite. They loved the lentils and built the perfect bite with a variety of goodies again and again using the bread as little edible plates. Quote from our friend; “Oh man, the carrot dipped in lentils with a little cabbage and hot sauce is the shit.” Well said my friend, I concur;)

For dessert I brought over a jar of walnuts and apricots and said: “oh you won’t believe how the flavors marry when you eat them simultaneously, tell me what you think” (a little teacher-manipulation-stragegy I picked up while putting in time as a public school educator.) They tried it and they both help out their hands for more…if they had tails, they would have been wagging.

Sometimes I get the biggest kick out of seeing grown meat-loving men going crazy over a lentils, cabbage, apricots and walnuts;) Don’t tell them it’s vegan, don’t tell them it’s healthy just smile inside and know that they are being nourished.

The spread:

Raw carrots and cabbage, Korean salad with julienned cucumber mixed with kimchi/sesame seeds/sunflower seeds/collards & heated on the stovetop, pink lentils mixed with chopped pecans and smokey salsa, toasted bread, fabulous olives, sliced strawberries and LOVE.