If you live in the DC Metropolitan Area, please, please, please do yourself a favor and go to Colorado Kitchen (on Colorado Ave at 16th St.) Everything is homemade, from the biscuits to the purple cow– grape soda and ice cream. It’s officially the most relaxed, come through place around. Bonus: never a wait.

The view from here: Shoppers soothingly swirl through the aisles. It’s mesmerizing from the cafe on the upper deck at The Tenley Whole Foods Market. One can peer down from their perch and watch all manner of transactions being made. It’s way easy than meditating and only twice the creepy. Seriously, I like to come here and do this.

Whole Foods’ genius lies in minimally processing food, sprinkling something special on it and charging seven times the orignal value.

Green beans + blue cheese + walnuts
= 300 million dollars in salad bar profit a year

But we can do this too, albeit, in the emotional punch factor. Instead of simply buying Betty Crocker’s finest for your friend’s upcoming birthday, add a little something to it and watch your networth soar. Here’s what I did:

PINEAPPLE COCONUT BIRTHDAY CAKE
-Buy vanilla cake mix
-Add a can of crushed pineapple to the regular directions
-Generously sprinkle flaked coconut to the top of the frosting
Result: Pure gourmet awesome for less than two dollars more.