Food

What have we been eating, you ask?  Gourmet vegetarian food, that's what!  Because Adam has not been working, he has taken over the shopping and cooking.  Plus, he is the only one on the insurance, so I can't drive to get to the store anyway.  He has LOVED communicating with the store owners and trying to figure out what food to buy.  He is a creator and he is artistic, so this has been a perfect job for him!  We have been spoiled.  How will I ever take back the cooking when we get home?!

On our very first night in Costa Rica, our driver took us to a grocery store before driving us to our hotel.  Adam ran in and bought a few things and then whipped up this delicious dinner of carrots, potatoes, onions, and some Instant Noodles.  Yum!  The ketchup was super gross, but luckily we were able to find a better brand as the trip went on.

Breakfast the first morning?  Leftover dinner mixed with eggs and wrapped in a tortilla.

At our lodge in Tilaran, we could pick the fruit from the many trees surrounding the house.  We had the most delicious grapefruit juice I've ever had!  We mixed it with sweet lemon juice and mmm!  So good!

Adam got really good at soaking and cooking beans.  We ate lots of chayote because they were super cheap.  They tasted mild, like a zucchini, and the kids liked them. We had rice nearly every day and LOVED the delicious sauce the Costa Ricans eat.  I don't even know what it is, it's just so good!  Adam would make his great-grandmother's rice pudding for dessert every couple of weeks.  We ground our own cinnamon and nutmeg, so it tasted fresh and delicious!  Everything is so fresh here!

Adam just whipped up a vegetable soup from a recipe in his head.  

Stuffed peppers and squash.  We loved their squash.  Who knew they grew squash here?

Breakfast of rice, eggs, and zucchini.  We often had pancakes, French toast, and oatmeal too.

Our typical lunch.

This became our favorite meal and one we would serve when we had guests.  Adam would soak the beans, fry some garlic, onions and red peppers, then add tomatoes and the beans, and top with cilantro.  That would go on a bed of rice and lettuce.  Sooo yum.

We ate about 3 pineapples per week!

Breakfast.

Passion fruit.  Jade's favorite! We ate a bunch of these per week. We ate probably 50 bananas per week!  We'd freeze them and then eat them as popsicles.  Banana smoothies also became a favorite dessert.

Lunch!

Breakfast of eggs, chayote, and mangoes.

These were so yummy!  They were like a mix between a grape and a cherry tomato.

Snack! The cheese here tastes like fish, but we've gotten used to it.

This was at one of the few restaurants we went to.  Yucca, chayote, plantains, carrots, and some other roots that I can't remember.  And some coconut shrimp.  Divine!

Did you know that hibiscus flowers are edible and super healthy?  We went on a tour of the forests surrounding us and our guide said that eating the hibiscus petals was like eating 30 oranges.  So much vitamin C and way good for us!  Fun!

Well, this was just a sample of our amazing food.  We loved it.  We had so many fruits and vegetables every day and felt so good!  We finally kicked our sugar addiction, except when our families visited and brought us chocolate:).  We also ate a lot of chips and salsa and Chiky cookies.