gazpacho?! (and other oddities)

I am dead-tired and I have a serious (ok, it's really just a minor) burn on my finger from the hot glue gun, so I won't make this post incredibly long. But I wanted to post before my excitement (and I use that word very loosely) over the Tracy Anderson Method (TAM for short) meal plan subsides...and I forget that for a brief moment in time I was loosely excited about gazpacho.

Yeah. Gazpacho. What the heck?!

So, I sat down with my TAM meal plan and wrote out the grocery list. I studied the manual over and over to see how I could create some shortcuts that would speed the meal-making process up a bit. See, for the first week, we are to do what she calls a "Nutrient Boost Week." This week consists of smaller, nutrient-dense meals that are mostly purees. Ugh.

On the menu?

Power Juice (you don't even want to know what's in that), Blueberry Applesauce (doable), Sweet Potato Corn Pudding (ew), Carrot Parsnip Puree (double ew), Gazpacho (what the heck is gazpacho?!), Veggie Protein Soup, and Chocolate Pudding (uh, yes, please).

Doesn't sound all that appealing, does it?

Well, I broke down all the ingredients and realized these foods may not be *that* bad. I calculated how to prep a full week's worth of food in one day - I pretty much used all my math skills. I'm exhausted. Multiplication is hard, especially when fractions are involved ;) My grocery list is ready...and I think I might be, too.

I concluded that to save little money and time, I could simply use some of my kid's baby foods in lieu of pulverizing vegetables to a pulp. Explanation: Instead of buying three sweet potatoes, after doing the math, I concluded that I could just use 3 jars of sweet potato baby food instead. After all, the only ingredients in said baby food are: sweet potatoes and water. I say this is fair game. I plan on doing the same thing with carrots and prunes. My poor kid. I'm stealing her food and she doesn't even know it.

I also concluded that instead of making my own blueberry applesauce, I could simply purchase organic, unsweetened berry applesauce. I believe Whole Foods sells this stuff. I'm crossing my fingers they sell this stuff because I am making the 45-minute drive out there tomorrow morning to get it.

I'm also hoping they sell premade gazpacho, which will save a significant amount of time and heartache. I mean, I own a food processor, but I don't exactly know how to use love it. And I have a 7-month-old for crying out loud. I can't spend hours upon hours pulsing my veggies to death.

I'm also going to save time by purchasing organic, canned white corn instead of slicing corn off the cob. Again, I'm hoping Whole Foods meets me halfway on this deal.

I got a fabulous tip from a new blogger buddy about the Power Juice. Instead of juicing kale, spinach, beets, and apples (I know, sick), one can simply BUY fresh, pressed juice from Whole Foods which has very similar, if not exact, ingredients in it already. To me, that is SO WORTH the money. I do NOT want to buy a juicer and I do NOT want to juice vegetables and drink them. Ugh!! If I just buy juice, however, I think I'm more likely to drink it. Does that make any sense at all?

So, there we have it. Week One is a doozy. Week 2 is a lot easier in terms of preparation. I can actually eat solids and they don't take nearly the amount of energy to create as this Week 1 does.

I better get to bed. I have a big day of fresh-food shopping tomorrow. I'm taking the little one with me, so it should be interesting.

This is gazpacho, by the way. Doesn't it just look...delicious?