"biteynins"

i find myself thinking about food. again. and vitamins. since i've had a head cold for a week now, i've been pounding vitamins. and i don't think it's helped one bit. in fact, the only effect i've felt from the vitamins is nausea when i take them on an empty stomach. admittedly, i do think they improve my fingernails when i take them regularly. but otherwise, i might as well rub them on a doorknob (as my dad would say), for all the good they do.

maybe I should just get my vitamins from good, wholesome foods, i thought (wondering if fois gras can possibly be seen to fall into this category). and then, i ran across this article...the case for real food and this one too, outlining all kinds of studies that show that vitamins are not really all they're cracked up to be. and then i began wishing that i felt more energetic and motivated to cook, but the problem is that when you're sick, you just want to lie around and have someone bring you big mugs of steaming, sweet tea, you don't want to stand at the stove, even if it is for your own good.

i loved taking my "biteynins" when i was a kid and sabin loves hers too, but that's because they're purple and pink and tasty and shaped like the flintstones (in my childhood) or they're like elmo-shaped gummy bears (in sabin's) (which is probably a big red flag in and of itself). but maybe i should have just had a carrot and i should definitely just give one to sabin. we should be getting our "biteynins" the old-fashioned way...by eating them in their natural state, enjoying the real flavors and the pleasure of having prepared the food ourselves.  and then we wouldn't get that vitamin nausea feeling either. i sure hope i feel better tomorrow so that i feel like cooking again!

* * *

roasted pepper salad ala nigella

this is a vitamin bomb and pretty too!

8 red bell peppers, roast in the oven, then remove the skins and slice them into bite-sized pieces

1 pomegranate (nigella has a brilliant method of cutting it in half and wacking it with a wooden spoon to rain the lovely little seeds down on the salad)

1 handful chopped fresh parsley

dressing: 

3T pomegranate syrup

2T olive oil

1T garlic oil (mine was canola)

salt & pepper to taste

*inspired by a similar recipe in nigella lawson's new christmas cookbook, in which nigella goes mad for pomegranates (in a lovely, sensual, very sexy way, of course).