In January, when the winter weather leaches all the color out of the landscape, I find that one of my favorite pick-me-ups is to weave a rainbow of color into my life through meals.
For this reason, I devoted a small section in this month’s journal pages to record my favorite winter recipes along the spectrum of color. Red, for instance, already includes strawberries, and orange includes sweet potato, butternut squash, lentils, carrots and clementines.
Conveniently this attention to color positively contributes to my nutrition since healthy foods tend to be the most vibrant ones. But rather than pressure myself into a diet challenge, it’s more playful for me to “color with my food” and enjoy the artful process.
So far red, orange, yellow and green have been natural to come by, so half of my rainbow is merrily complete. I have plans for later this month to include blueberries, radicchio, purple cabbage, Tuscan kale, and beets to round out the spectrum. (Cauliflower, obviously, is my cloud at each rainbow’s end). And given my history, I predict a similar theme carrying into February.
In summation, we’re told as children not to play with our food. Respectfully I disagree.
