365 IN 365 - What I’ve Added Lately, and Eating a Brand New Food

Jennifer Armstrong is the creator of this series of posts, published bi-monthly, entitled 365 in 365. These posts will help guide us all as we accept the 6D opportunity to diversify our plants in order to nurture and nourish our microbiome and thus improve our health and wellness. You can join us for this year-long event either in our Facebook group or by following along via our blog posts!

Going to the grocery store has become something of a scavenger hunt.  Every time I reach for something I usually buy, I stop myself and look around to see if there’s something I can switch it out for.  This week at the store I grabbed broccolini instead of broccoli, radicchio instead of red cabbage, and water chestnut instead of jicama. 

At the farmer’s market I’m seeking out varieties I usually overlook - yellow beans instead of green beans, collards instead of kale, mustard greens instead of arugula.  The abundance and variety is just sitting there waiting for us, but sometimes our routines make us blind to other options, including strangers who are just languishing on the produce aisle shelves, waiting to be noticed.

So what do I do when I find a food that I’ve never eaten before?  A preliminary internet search of what it is, where it comes from, and what the nutritional profile is gives me a general overview.  Then I head straight to YouTube.  There are a lot of channels that literally introduce fruits and vegetables - showing how it grows, how to cut or peel it, what it smells and feels and tastes like, which parts are inedible if any.  I find it more helpful to have someone actually demonstrating in a video rather than just reading about it. 

Then back to YouTube search and I enter the new food plus “recipe.”  I don’t specify vegan or plant-based, I just take stock of what the most common preparations are.  Sometimes a traditional preparation will actually inspire me to do something with a different food altogether, but mostly I focus on this new thing.

If the recipes are not completely plant-based, or if they use lots of oil, I’ll give it a go anyway, just adapting to my preference.  I know many people rely on the security of a tried-and-true recipe, but I’m an intuitive cook and once I get the gist of it I’ll just wing it.

Sometimes it turns out beautifully, sometimes it’s a disappointment, but one of the beauties of eating a whole food plant-based diet is that with just a few exceptions, it’s not an expensive experiment if it doesn’t come out well.

I’d love to know what brand-new food you’ve introduced yourself to in this game so far?  Please leave a comment here on our blog or on our Facebook page!

About Jennifer Armstrong

Jennifer Armstrong has spent her life making things; she has had a long career of writing books for children, decades of gardening, painting, making music, and cooking. A 2023 graduate of the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies course in Plant- Based Nutrition, she has also combined her interest in sustainability with her love of food by learning how to can and dehydrate, saving as much of the local harvest as possible for use throughout the year.  She lives in upstate New York.

Jennifer is both a blog writer and event moderator at 6D Living. Her blog post series 365 in 365 will explore how we can all diversify and improve our microbiome. Jennifer is also an administrator for our public, world-wide event of the same name. This free event is a year long community activity with one goal only - get more people on the planet a wider variety of plants.

About our 6D Community Activity - 365 in 365

This is a 365 day challenge to try 365 different plants in your nutritional routine over the next 365 days. We will explore new and known plants, share their nutritional benefits as well as recipes so we can all enjoy the splendor of the plant world and improve our health - as a united community.

We know that the diversity of plants we eat determines our microbiome health, which in turn determines our overall health and wellness. Our goal at 365 in 365 is to try to get as many different plants as possible into our bodies over the year - steadily becoming healthier together.

We invite all our members to share recipes, new plants they have 'discovered' for themselves as well as resources where we can all find these wonderful gifts from nature no matter where we live in the world.

This is an international plant-based community for curious minds which want to learn how to be healthier, happier and more balanced in their lives. This is a group of hope and encouragement for all sentient beings on the planet we call home. This activity/event is taking place both on Facebook as well as our 6D Blog - you can join via either venue, or join both by sharing your journey through comments and posts!

Be well

Stop.Breathe.Focus.Move.Flow.