When was the last time you ate something that you felt like it was a party in your mouth??? My answer: [This past] Saturday night.
Over the weekend, I enjoyed some time with friends and family on Sanibel Island, located off the coast of Fort Myers, in Southwest FL. Although I only live an hour away, I hadn’t been there in nearly 4 years. Prior to that, I hadn’t been there in nearly 20 years.
Sanibel Island was a vacation destination, just 3 hours from Miami (where I was born and raised), where my uncle and aunt used to take my cousins and I for summer vacation. Every year, we enjoyed the shell-filled beaches, bike riding along the shore, and ate Dairy Queen ice cream almost nightly, as we watched the sunset on the ocean horizon. Enjoying vanilla soft service ice cream with rainbow sprinkles on Sanibel Island is one of my greatest childhood memories. Needless to say, as my husband (Rich) and daughter (Sofia) and I were driving off the island after a beautiful beach day, I saw Dairy Queen, and yelled “Dairy Queen now!”
I pulled up to the window and ordered a vanilla soft serve ice cream with rainbow sprinkles and sat on a bench with Rich and Sofia. At the first mouthful lick of my ice cream cone, my mouth smiled, danced, and was overjoyed with flavor and fond memories. It was a party in my mouth, like not many other foods, can create.
When I work with groups and employee wellness programs, we talk about always incorporating foods that bring us fond memories, remind us of traditions, create experiences, and make our mouths want to party. That is the power of food. Yes, food can help us maintain and optimize our health, but it is so much more than that. It is meant to bring us happiness and pleasure. And I’ll tell you one thing, every time I have a Dairy Queen vanilla soft serve ice cream with rainbow sprinkles, there will be a party in my mouth and the party becomes even more exciting every time.
Now think about what foods create a party in your mouth and share them with me in the comments below.
**This blog post is not sponsored or affiliated with Dairy Queen**
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