Eating The Rainbow … Does Red Jello Count?

On the first day of tracking my intake, I realized that I had ignored one recommendation you see consistently from dietitians and health coaches.  Eat the rainbow.  My breakfast this morning was basically all white, brown, and pale yellow … yogurt, pears, walnuts.  Soothing to look at, but not a good representation of the rainbow, so I decided to fix that for lunch.

Here was my original menu:

1 slice leftover lentil/mushroom loaf   (see link for recipe, this is really delicious! https://food52.com/recipes/31927-lentil-walnut-loaf)

¾ cup mashed potatoes

Too much brown and white, so I added 1 cup of green beans.

All of these were leftovers from a meal I had prepared for the family two days prior, so there was just reheat and eat.  I sat down at our counter and savored every bite.  And then I realized that while I had added green, I was still sorely lacking in the red and blue colors of the rainbow, so back to the refrigerator to see what was handy. 

Cranberry jello

In my home state of Iowa, jello is a food group.  So, does red Jell-O count as eating the rainbow?  If not, I could take comfort in knowing there were cranberries in the salad, and that certainly counts.  At least in my midwestern interpretation of eating the rainbow, it counts.

NOTE TO SELF – It doesn’t have to be freshly made to be really good.  (See my friend’s lentil/mushroom loaf recipe in the link.)

ANOTHER NOTE TO SELF – Think of the rainbow next time you shop.  This is going to be great.