Vegan Gluten Free Quick Macaroni Salad

Sometimes I don't like telling people I eat whole foods plant based because they look at me, and seeing an overweight person, must wonder just how healthy an eating style that can be if I look like I do.  What I'd like to tell them is that..
A: I only started recently
B: I have years of unhealthy body to make up for
C: I have little to no will power which means that while I definitely eat some very healthy meals I also eat plenty of things I know I shouldn't... until now

Last night was a perfect example of something that sabotages my efforts to be healthy.  I had a great healthy lunch of homemade split pea soup, brown rice, and fresh veggies.

As usual, I got behind in my daily tasks and by the time I had to go to the gallery to take new jewelry it was pretty much my usual dinner time.

I was at the gallery longer than I thought and by the time I was leaving I was "first world starving".  It is precisely at times like this when the bad things happen.  When I don't plan well, am not prepared, and let my blood sugar drop too far.

My instant "go to" thought was, "I'm calling the Thai place and ordering Pad Thai".    Yes, it's vegan, but it's loaded with oil and who knows what else (and by that I mean hidden corn... more on corn in a second).

And I was just about to call them and place the order when I remembered I was supposed to pick up celery for my mom (who's on a celery detox cleanse).  How would going to the grocery store impact my getting take out?  Before... after... ???

In an uncharacteristic move, I nixed the pad thai and headed to the grocery store.  When I was there, I toyed with the idea of grabbing some frozen things to heat up at home... but the fear of corn (which is in EVERY restaurant dish and EVERY processed food) held me at bay.

I was still craving something quick and carbohydrate-y.  I went into the pasta aisle and grabbed a box of organic chickpea pasta.  Nine minutes cooking time... I could handle that.

At home, as the pasta cooked I chopped up celery, onion, and kalamata olives.  I added in some dill relish.  A note on corn... both those last two ingredients have corn.  What?!  Are you shocked?  Distilled white vinegar is derived from corn.  But this meal was my "instead of eating out" so while it was BETTER than eating out it was in no way a 100% healthy for me meal.  But last night was about making choices and I chose the lesser of multiple evils.

When the pasta was cooked, I gave it a quick rinse under cold water, shook it well and mixed it in with the above-mentioned items.  A little vinegar or lemon juice to moisten it and I had myself a pasta salad dinner.  Mmm... carbs!

Now that thing about corn... I am apparently intolerant of corn... which is good and bad.  It's bad because corn is in frikkin' everything.  It's good because it forces me to choose whole foods over processed or restaurant foods.

Corn stuffs my ears up... big time.  I was at a fund-raiser dinner the other night.  The pre-fix menu offered three choices... beef (no), chicken (no), or vegetarian (my only option other than not eating).  The vegetarian meal was polenta.  :-)

What can I say, I was hungry.  I ate it and have spent the past week dealing with dreadful ear issues.  Today (eight days later) is the first day I have some relief.  Ugh!  No more testing corn.

So anyway, to emphasis (in case you missed the point in all this rambling), I am NOT a healthy person.  I want to be a healthy person.  I try to be a healthy person.  I know HOW to be a healthy person.  It's just taking some time getting there.  I'm on a path... I just have a hard time not wandering around.

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