Papaya & Chocolate chips Pancakes

She finally looked up at my voice. Then, with an expression that we often have when we swat away a fly, she turned and walked away. No other acknowledgement and no effort to move the obstructing cart even an inch.  She had a male companion with her, who had been invisible to me so far. Both of them played tag around her car for few seconds, vying for the passenger seat from the look of it, and then she walked around, sat in the driver’s seat, and started the car. All the time, avoiding to look at me at all cost, while I sat there, totally outraged and stunned at this unfamiliar act of brazen disdain, inexplicable lack of manners and insensitivity.

Exasperated and angry, I honked my car, stormed out, shoved the cart out-of-the-way within an inch of her car’s front wheels, walked back and drove my car in. All of that before she even had time to check her rear view mirror while backing out.

When I finally got down from the car, my smiley neighbor expressed sympathy and surprise at the uncouth behavior of the couple. “That was unbelievable! I watched all of it. She was so rude it was criminal,” she exclaimed. We both rolled our eyes, expressed outrage, shrugged our shoulders, two strangers momentarily bonding with each other over an unwarranted bout of unacceptable behavior from a third stranger.

Two very contrasting set of behaviors, both with 15 minutes of each other.

 

 

So do two acts from the opposite end of the same spectrum cancel each other out? Personally, I would rather not let anything so unpleasant spoil the rest of my day. Still, the unpleasant feeling lingers. Luckily, I had the good gesture from the morning to help me along.

 

I am a part of this exceptionally talented blogging group that showcases a Power Food each week. The Power Food ingredient each week is based on the book Power Foods: 150 delicious recipes with 38 Healthiest Ingredients from the editors of Martha Stewart’s Whole Living Magazine. It’s amazing the kind of food that fall under the purview of Power Foods. You can find these ingredients in everyday kitchen. They provide an outrageous amount of nutrients – fiber, vitamins, iron, calcium, magnesium, minerals, phytonutrients, fatty acids – and anything else that you can think of that aids in promoting good health and healthy food habits.

 

 

This week’s ingredient is papaya. Ever since I was a child, I hated papaya, particularly its sweet clingy smell. My family loved it. In fact, our family dog Pixie used to adore papayas. My Mom has a few Papaya trees growing in her garden. Pixie would sit below them for hours, waiting patiently for birds to knock a juicy fruit off its branch. Then she would spend next few hours wolfing down the papaya. She ate one such papaya even a day before she died. Now a days, whenever I see papayas, I remember her.

 

 

Papaya is a veritable super star amongst Power foods. While it too has all the other mandatory nutrients like beta carotene (only the ripe ones), fibers, vitamins etc, where papaya scores solidly over other foods is its ability to aid in digestion. The proteolytic enzyme called papain breaks down protein and also acts as an anti inflammatory agent. It has enormous other medicinal qualities as well. It is one of the very few fruits whose direct use in form of extract has been proven to reduce cancerous cells. Papain is also a great vermicide. It is also used to treat acne, freckles, warts, corns, etc. Papain is a goldmine for beauty treatments.

 

 

 

For more fabulous papaya recipes, do check out my fellow Power food bloggers:

Alanna – Kitchen Parade Veggie Adventure – Alyce – More Time at the Table, Ansh – Spice Roots,  Casey –SweetSav Jeanette – Jeanette’s Healthy Living, Jill – Saucy Cooks Martha – Simple-Nourished-Living, Mireya- My Healthy Eating Habits