Loving Food Feels Like a Curse Sometimes

Some days when I don't feel like cooking (or rather dealing with a mess to clean up) it can feel like a curse. When I crave some good and healthy food like a simple fresh green salad with some fresh figs, or some heirloom tomatoes lightly tossed with a dressing of oil, balsamic vinegar and fleur de sel it seems impossible to find it anywhere but in my own kitchen. I know what you are thinking: what's gonna get dirty? A salad spinner, a knife, a cutting board and a bowl? Big deal. Wash the damn dishes. But it's not like that. I feel like I always have to clean up before I can start preparing any meal. Dishes from the previous meal (lunch and breakfast, and if I'm not so lucky, dinner from the night before). Plus, I have 2 boys here. They won't be satisfied with just that salad. Sometimes I think the dirty dishes multiply exponentially within minutes around here.

So we make an attempt to find a place to go out to eat that will be close to home, relatively cheap, and serve fresh healthy food, and some meat for my carnivore son. It's not easy to find that place in suburbia. Even in the suburbs of LA. I wonder how the Westside would fair? I know Whole Foods is always an option. But sometimes the ambiance is a turn off. Plus Whole Foods is not all that inexpensive. Tonight it set me back $45 for a very mediocre meal with the ambience of a fast food joint. Don't get me wrong, I love Whole Foods for grocery shopping. But where else can we go? Forget chain restaurants. Salads in chains are usually from a bag, never rinsed and doused in bottled dressing. Ick. I am on a mission to find a good place here in the South Bay. I'm sure there's something out there.