What's left? Water?

I live on Maui. Love it, love it, love it!

What's not to love? Beaches everywhere. Mountains, waterfalls, lush vegetation! Oh, yeh, tourists..well who can blame them? Enjoy! No winter, that something to love. In winter, locals splurge and wear long pants with our flip flops. There are lots of birds, they love it here too! Why? Because with no winter, there might be bugs!...or something producing seeds or fruit, year around.

There's something for everyone! If you love the ocean and think surfing and snorkeling is to die for, come to a beach near you and enjoy, plus get a healthy dose of vitamin D. Do you really love it when you are on the trail? Climb in the mountains and enjoy the waterfalls, ginger and clacking bamboo! It can rain, so be prepared.

The weather is so gloriously consistent, that even those of us with life altering allergies can breathe in peace. It is truly the silver lining, when and if we have a cloud, that is!.

There is just one point of confusion. Maui is one of those magnetic places on the planet that attracts people. Like Santa Cruz, Sedona, Portland and many other magnetic locations, it has a certain something-something that people gravitate to. Do you prefer to dance to your own drummer? You might just find a whole band to your liking in those magnetic locations. So let your hair grow out, trade in your soccer van for a bicycle and chill.

Over the past few years, I have noticed the independent healthful spirit at, of all places, potlucks! Everybody brings a dish as part of a huge cultural custom in Hawaii. It's part of the aloha spirit. Make what you make best, and bring enough of it to share with 20 or 30 of your closest friends (ohana). But now you must do it in a healthy way, or perhaps just a more healthy way. Ancient Hawaiians knew very little of over- processed illnesses. Most died old and blissfully well fed!

Now we come to the mindfulness era. There are are diet classifications. Besides the 'see food and eat it" diet we have some new, and often misunderstood designations.

The most common designation is the vegetarian. It has been around for a long time. I remember when I was in high school, peers declared themselves vegetarians. It was often just a ploy to be "different" and drive their parents and older brothers crazy, but it was popular.

This diet includes animal by products such as milk, cheese and eggs. So quiches are fine for a potluck, as long as no meat or bacon is involved. Maui, a magnetic place, attracts tons of vegetarians. How great is that? Just remember not to include any local, grass fed beef in your potluck dish! Sorry paniolos, put those grass fed cows back into those lush green pastures.

As a vegetarian you know too much beef is bad for your cholesterol levels. Plant proteins always come with built in fiber--good for your cholesterol! Its a win-win! So your vegetarian dish is always welcome at the best potlucks, easy on the butter, cream, and cheese, cholesterol considered.

Another designation often found in magnet communities is vegan. Similar to vegetarian, but with a twist. In fact some people who embrace the vegetarian diet have been known to consider vegans to be wound a little tight! Who knows? To each his own!

The vegan diet has all the perks and benefits of the vegetarian diet, but adds an exclusion. Nothing produced by something with a face (an animal) is included. This means no cheese, or dairy. No caviar (right, as if!) and of course, no meat of any kind. Wow! No cholesterol in that.

Notice how neither the vegetarian nor the vegan diet is down on sugar? Sugar is made from either a root vegetable (sugar beets) or a weed like bamboo (sugar cane). Considering sugar has such a bad rap, I find its inclusion in these diets to be remarkable.

A third diet designation is the plant based diet. Everything grown can be relished. Strictly speaking it does not eliminate meat, as meat is the end product of something eating a plant based diet. This point is hotly debated, as many plant-based devotees also avoid meat. But strictly speaking, plant based diets just push vegetables, but don't totally exclude meat, dairy and eggs. Don't ask! I'm just the messenger here, don't shoot me! I did say it was debated!

The last and most interesting designation is the pescatarian. This diet promotes fish and seafood. Eggs and dairy are OK--but meat and poultry are not included?

Confused? Have questions about things like sugar, highly processed products, high fructose corn syrup? All these items and more start to be matters of personal choice and opinion. Beginning to feel the impending stress of preparing a universally acceptable offering to the next potluck? Been there, done that!

Then I started to consider the range of the GMO free diet, the acid and alkaline differences, artificial colors and artificial flavors, levels of processing, cooked vs raw, microwavable, radiated, sprayed, organic, locavore,...I just started having trouble sleeping at night. Then I gave up cooking altogether!

I went as far as to list, in order of protein strength, all the plant based products that I could take, raw and organic, to potlucks. That list goes something like this:

tofu

lintel

edamame beans

peanut butter

chick peas

black beans

peas

quinoa

almonds

pistachios

walnuts...and more!

I was just without any more room in the pantry and was spending all my free time searching for recipes that used these ingredients in their various forms.

Now I take tofu rolled in crushed raw almonds, walnuts, and pistachios, on a salad of stewed lintels and quinoa, thickened with peanut butter and chickpeas, served on a bed of quinoa which has been mounded on a plate smeared with mashed black beans and peas. I have it all covered. People love it!

As for me, I, a breatharian!

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Corrections? Additions? Comments? They are welcome! Send to Karenmac1999@hotmail.com