Prunis dulcis: Mini Exposé

Prunis dulcis?

[whaaat?]

codename
the almond

.: Hello, beautiful little thing!

It's not a secret that I'm a bit concientious of both my and my family's dietary habits. I'm a huge proponent of eating things as fresh as they can be, and I love everything about [truly] organic-based products, be they edible or not.



wonderful, indeed!



One of my favorite little snack buddies is the almond. I love everything about almonds. They're portable, they're virtually crumbless, and they usually have just enough texture to satisfy all regions of my midday taste pallet. I've always known they were good for the body, but I hadn't really bothered to do much digging into the hows come? of it all...

... 'til now.

Here it is, folks. Pass it on.

For starters, almonds grow on trees. It might seem like they should grow on a small plant or stalk, but no. Trees. Botanically speaking, they're actually considered drupes, not nuts. From what's most known of them, they started somewhere in the Mediterranean regions and with the help of human hands, spread their way out into the world. As of 2009, the United States was listed as the top-producing country for almonds, with 1,162,200 tons. That was a slight 880,100 more than Spain, the second highest producer. Here in the U.S., California is the metropolis for almond production.

As with any raw food, there's a much wider range of naturally-occurring almonds than most of us care to consider; they come in different colors, sizes, shapes, and even levels of tartness. There's not much that can't be fashioned out of almonds; their culinary capacity ranges from the raw form all the way to liquid [almond milk]. I personally am a huge fan of almond milk, almond butter, and especially just the original, plain ole' almond. :) Did I mention they're jam-packed with nutrients? Well, they are. Go check 'em out for yourself if you don't believe me!

If you feel like taking me up on that offer, or if you're just curious like I am at times, Wikipedia did a pretty good job on this one [kudos, Wiki!], and there are plenty of other references. 

So bring it on, Prunis dulcis. Nom Nom Nom.....  ;) 

xo | cmd 

Checkpoint [17]

We maaaaade it :)

Cycle One
Day 17.
That's TODAY.
Not a bad way to end the week, and almost the month.

The new cycle starts tomorrow. It's the 'activate' phase [as opposed to the 'accelerate' theme of cycle 1].




I'm excited..
.. to start a new 17-day stretch
.. because this thing is working
.. because I've been relatively disciplined with it so far
.. also because it's Friday, it isn't raining, and I just ate all of those almonds I used to comprise the #17.

Good times. Good times.

xo.

.: c :.