Different Species?

Joyce and I are a lot alike in so many ways. We love to read, write, talk (well, she surpasses me in this one), travel to sites connected with the books we've read, stream British mystery shows, go to the movies, see our son, daughter-in-law, grandsons, occasionally eat Forbidden Fruit (crunchy peanut butter, say, with a knife, right out of the jar--or Stoddard's Frozen Custard).

But if you were to examine our lunch and dinner plates each evening, you would not believe that we lie along the same evolutionary branch.

I'm a carnivore--but in more focused ways than I used to be. I grew up on hot dogs, hamburgers, roast beef, etc. I very very rarely eat beef anymore. Got to keep the cholesterol down--and my weight. (I'm on a heavy-duty med whose odious side effects include easy/rapid weight gain.)

So, it's our feathered and finned friends who must accept the consequences. Pretty much every night I have chicken or fish or sliced turkey.

Joyce prefers veggies--though she is not a total vegan. She loves salmon. Loves freshly outdoor-grilled chicken. Will sometimes have some sliced turkey.

But many meals she eats no animal protein whatsoever. Instead, at night, she loves a plate piled with salad (sometimes alpine in its dimensions). For lunch she'll often have some stringy things that look like pasta but are made from other veggies. She heats them in the microwave; the kitchen absorbs the powerful odor, which I have learned to ... tolerate--maybe endure is a better word?

And my lunch? Lowfat yogurt and fruit, a slice of sourdough bread, toasted, with fruit spread; 8 oz of pomegranate juice (helps fight the prostate issues).

And at supper we sit there, side by side--she with her Everest pile of grasses and weeds; I, with a sizzling something that once walked and clucked and maybe loved.

Oh, I also must have some of my sourdough bread at every meal (see lunch comment above). She will sometimes join me in that obsession--though often not. She does like a grilled cheese sandwich made with that bread--and she likes the yeast baguettes I make when we have spaghetti (oh, is she a pasta addict--one of the first things I learned about her a half-century ago).

Oh #2, one night a week we each have a 3-egg omelet. She gets real eggs; I get Egg Beaters (chol.--see pic at the top). Her omelet she decorates with veggies; I adorn mine with (turkey) sausage (chol.).

I guess one way to look at our diverse eating habits is this: Nothing edible in the grocery store is safe from Dyer Teeth!