Adventures in Culinary Creativity: Part One: Tool Five - Culinary Artist Dates

When I imagine a night out, I think of "guilty" fun. A high calorie appetizer or two, a couple of good tasting cocktails and a dessert with coffee. But the challenge from the Writing Diet was this: take yourself on a date and order healthy food. The key was to go to a new restaurant, order what you want and make yourself proud by keeping it healthy yet adventurous, Korean food one week and Ethiopian food the next.

The questions that this chapter got me asking myself were, "Do you trust yourself?" and "Can you eat right with no one around to keep you accountable?" The answers brought out in me a startling insight: I should be eating right for me not everybody else. How interesting to sit down at a restaurant alone, look at a menu and make myself proud with what I order. Even if nobody else knew if I were to over eat a high calorie meal, I would know. The person that I should be concerned about disappointing is me.

Checking out new restaurants or recipes, if you are on a budget like me, keeps the adventure in your diet without leaving you with the same old greasy food hangover. Julia Cameron, you are keeping me thinking, that is for sure.