Thursday 5 August 2010

Breakfast:  2 slices flax toast, with cheese broiled on top and a little butter/canola on the dry spots.  Decaf coffee with almond milk and half-and-half.  I had a cup of full caff when I got to the office, with half-and-half.

(Mr. Handsome-and-Handy switched to decaf awhile ago, and I used up the last of the unopened regular coffee at home.  When school starts back up, I'll drink green tea in the morning and have a cup of coffee at work if I feel like I really want it.  Because honestly?  I was really dragging by the time I got to work.)

This is still my plain ol' phone camera, so it's not the greatest photo, but I like the composition.  The lights in our kitchen seem to be dying, so I needed some light, and popped this into the kitchen window.

Lunch:  Now this is a sad statement.  Picture the lovely salad of last night, the handsomely grilled tri-tip, the mushrooms, the steak sauce.  Picture me chugging along at work, realizing, "Oh, heck!  I only have 10 minutes until that 2-hour meeting!"  Picture me bolting this food, lovingly packed by Mr. Handsome-and-Handy, before said meeting.  Picture me lightly smacking my forehead, realizing I'd left my phone (with camera) back at my desk, without time to go back and get a picture.  D'oh!

At the meeting:  The consolation prize was an ice cream social at the meeting.  It was pretty easy to resist the standard toppings, because they were all candy I knew I remembered more fondly than they deserved.  I did have a little ice cream, though.

Here's my bowl before I threw it away.  The dulce de leche was too sweet, but I had no problem with the dabs of mocha-cappuccino and the chocolate.  (The chocolate was best.)

(For Biz:  We're having our company picnic tomorrow, and I had to get a photo of the huge bag of jalapeno peppers.  I'll be eating some tomorrow!)

Post-meeting snack:  For 2 hours, ice cream bars and large containers of ice cream sat melting during our meeting, even though it was in bowls of ice.  I felt that "energy buzz" that I read about recently, and I felt mildly anxious for some reason.  I didn't buy the stuff, so it's not like my money was being wasted.  I remember feeling like it was something that should be saved, and I don't know where that feeling came from.  It wasn't the last ice cream in the world.  And it didn't need to be rescued...as if going in my stomach was going to "rescue" it, somehow?

By the end of the meeting, I don't think I was super hungry, but I was a little hungry.  I was thinking fondly of the apple at my desk.  Then I remembered the thing I really felt like:  peanut butter and chocolate.  Probably because I'd been anxious about the ice cream...wishing I'd had a little more, I suppose, plus passing up the cookie tray, because I was having ice cream.  (I'm probably overanalyzing this a little, thanks Thich Nhat Hanh and Geneene Roth.)  I softened up a little of the natural peanut butter I keep in the fridge, using the microwave oven, and added some wheat germ.  (Which is why it looks so funky.)  And I had some Valrhona 71% dark chocolate.  Peanut butter holds its own a lot more effectively with dark chocolate than does almond butter.

And this lonely little fellow, the peanut butter-filled pretzel.  His 9 siblings are sitting in a tiny cup on my bookshelf, saved for another day.

Dinner:  I thought it was going to be leftover night at Casa del Pubsfolk.  But Thing 2 wanted to make me dinner, a peanut butter and sugar-free jam on flax bread toast.  Dinner plans gladly changed!

The salad course, made by Thing 2 and her LPS monkey friends.

I also had half of this piece of cheese (extra sharp cheddar) and a handful of peanuts, while waiting for...

...roasted eggplant!  Oh, how I love this stuff, and these ones were so tasty.  They were a short, squat variety, and I forget the name, but they were lighter purple than your standard eggplant.

Something food does not do:  Cure DOMs, much as I keep thinking, "If I just eat the right thing, my body will immediately feel better."  I'm still not sure if Cardio Sculpt class is going to make me stronger or kill me first, because every inch of my body is in pain today.  I think skipping Pilates on Tuesday was a really good call.

Wednesday 4 August 2010

Breakfast:  I was hungry!  2 eggs with a sprinkle of romano and 1/2 cup diced tomatoes, 2 slices of my flax toast with butter/canola spread and sugar-free apricot jam (in a rut, much?).  I also had vanilla chai with almond milk instead of coffee at home.  (I did have a cup with half-and-half when I got to work, though.)

Pre-workout snack:  Well, gotta say, I felt a little rush of excitement when I rediscovered these in my cache of candy nutritional bars.  Nutritional info:  The whole package (34 g - looks a little smaller when you take it out of the package, doesn't it?) was 190 calories, 13g fat, 17g carbs (2 g fiber, 13 g sugar), and 3 g protein. I definitely would not have eaten these if it weren't pre-workout time, because that's a little more sugar than I usual go for in a manufactured carb thing.

The verdict?  Well, I like chocolate and all, but this wasn't what I'd expected.  The dark chocolate overwhelmed the almond butter completely, and the dark chocolate wasn't of the best quality.  The almond butter filling was more texture than flavor.  Not sure if a little more salt would have popped the almond flavor a little more, but I think they were trying to keep it reasonable at 50 mg sodium.

Lunch: Spinach and Chicken-ala-Jacques with gravy, and the last of the pecan mix.

Snack:  No-longer-quite-so Crunchy Roasted Garbanzo Beans and an apple.  I ate about half of the beans and felt full.

Dinner:  Tri-tip with steak sauce (was all that 4 oz?), sauteed mushrooms, 1/2 ear of corn, salad with Italian dressing, beer.

Dessert:  Peanuts.

Tuesday 3 August 2010

Breakfast: Kind bar at the Dashboard Diner.

Snack: Chia in my coffee. (I had 2 Tbsp chia and 2 cups of coffee with half-and-half.)

Lunch: Chicken ala Jacques on a bed of spinach, with gravy.

Rose garden during my lunchtime walk. Aren't these pretty? Not much scent, but they sure look nice!

Here's the bench where I ate yesterday.

Afternoon snack: 2% plain Greek yogurt (TJs), blueberries (2 handfuls), and about 2 Tbsp wheat germ.

Dinner: Taco! 1 low carb, high fiber tortilla with about 3/4 cup spinach and a handful of diced tomatoes, with shredded cheese (guessing about 1.5 oz) and a little thing of cheese on the side. Estimating 3-4 oz. of taco meat under all that. The diced orange was kind of bitter, so I put some splenda and cinnamon on it.

Dessert: I still felt hungry, so I decided to make almond milk hot chocolate. 12 oz almond milk with 1 Tbsp Caramel sugar-free Torani syrup, a packet of splenda, 2 heaping tablespoons of Green & Blacks unsweetened cocoa powder, and a splash of half-and-half. Yum!

Monday 2 August 2010

Breakfast: Spackle (1/4 each oat bran and flax meal, 1 tsp inulin, 2 Tbsp peanut butter, about 2 Tbsp sugar-free maple syrup).  I love how these little amounts get so big when you add water!  I also had 2 cups of coffee with half-and-half.  This held me 5 hours!

Left my phone at home on the charger.  Argh!

Lunch:  1 perfectly ripe peach, sliced (a bit larger than the one shown above); 1 serving of 1% cottage cheese, and a rose garden (feast for the eyes rather than the mouth).  I wasn't physically hungry, but it was getting a little late for eating lunch outside AND going for a walk.  So I went ahead and ate slowly, and it did taste good.  The yellow jacket wasps were looking for the source of the peachy goodness, which made me a little nervous, but they were befuddled by the roses and didn't come too near my dish.  Then I went for a walk, in which I pondered Food and Men.  I'd started listening to Geneene Roth's "Women, Food, and God" this morning on the way to work (got like 5 different CD books on hold...all at once!).  Interesting listen so far, and somewhat different than I was expecting, but I like it so far.  Reminds me a lot of the Martha Beck book (although hers is more general; this one is more food-focused), and Geneene Roth's voice even sounds similar.

[Here's where a photo of a mint Pria bar would be.]

Snack:  I felt tummy rumblings, it was 3 hours after lunch, and it's at least 2 more hours until dinner - mint Pria bar, away!

Dinner:  I'm so glad I ate lighter than usual today. Because Mr. Handsome-and-Handy decided to show off for my blog: he made what we call "Chicken ala Jacques."

What is "Chicken ala Jacques?"  It's that lovely thing on the platter.  Mr. Handsome & Handy and I used to spend our Saturday mornings watching cooking shows on PBS.  One morning, Jacques Pepin made a boneless stuffed chicken.  Intriguing!  We tried it, and we LOVED it.  It's been quite awhile since we made it, since the kids don't care for stuffing (!) and like their meat grilled and plain.

"Wow," I exclaimed.  "What inspired this?"

"Well," he said, "I wanted to do something different.  I was thinking 'Hmmm...stuffing and gravy,' then I remembered this dish."

Mr. H&H modified our old recipe to use my flax bread, so the carb load isn't quite as intense.  He said it tasted a little funny when he cooked it up, but after baking inside the chicken, it turned out good.

So how is this amazing thing made?  Mr. H&H explains:

First, make your favorite stuffing recipe, and set aside.  Take a whole, raw chicken and place it on a large cutting board.  Break the wings at the socket, then pull them off the chicken.  (You can cook these in the pan along with the chicken roll, or BBQ like I did.)  Turn the chicken back side up, and make an incision down the center.  Using a knife, start scraping the meat off the bones.  When you get to the thighs, pop the socket and twist out the bone.  At the drumstick, scrape down the bone, and then break the drumstick bone about mid-way down - whack! - with the back of the knife; you want the skin to stay tight there.  It will look kind of like a mess, but it will be boneless and flat.  Place the cooked stuffing down the middle of the chicken, and stuff it into the legs, too.  Bring the sides up, and truss with cotton string.  Season the skin as you usually like for roast chicken.  Roast until done, breast-side up.  (I lined the pan with foil sprayed with cooking spray, which made cleaning the pan a lot easier.) 

Side view of the "Chicken ala Jacques".  It's a beautiful dish, isn't it?  I wished we had company to share it with.

Here's my dinner: A leg of "Chicken ala Jacques" (6.5 oz. - the bone was probably only .5 oz) with gravy, a bowl of celery and carrots, dip made with 1/4 cup plain Greek-style yogurt (2% from TJs) and about 2 Tbsp ranch dressing, and 1 cup of non-fat milk.

I also ate the wings and another little bit of the chicken + stuffing.  Thing 2 wanted to play, so after I ate my chicken, I set aside the veggies and dip and played and noshed during the evening.  This worked pretty well.  I wasn't really hungry for the veggies, but I felt like I should eat them, because I hadn't had any veggies today.

Dessert: Old school style! I think Debby's granita made me think of this. (Plus, Thing 2 wanted to make pretend cotton candy with cotton squares and a pink marker...this was a much less frustrating solution for pretend carnival food for her stuffed animals.)  We made tiny snow cones, with sugar-free strawberry syrup.

Sunday 1 August 2010

Breakfast:  Mr. Handsome-and-Handy took care of the morning stuff while I slept in.  He made coffee (his decaf) and some sausage+gravy.  I had 2 cups of coffee with half-and-half, the sausage, and the toast (flax bread, both with butter/canola spread, and one with sugar-free apricot jam)

I also enjoyed a donut hole and this small piece of my daughter's chocolate glazed twist.

Lunch:  I felt like something simple and non-meat.  I had a pink lady apple and some peanut butter...

...and I shared half a package of these with Thing 2.  I'm getting a lot less possessive of my food, although I notice I still get a little tense when asked to share something I've portioned out already.  *sigh*...and why?  I'm not insulin dependent, so it's not like I'm going to go careening to a low if I don't get the exact amount of what I've measured out, nor am I calorie counting.  And like I couldn't measure out a little *more* if I wanted more?

...everyone was eating some M&Ms after lunch, so I had 15 chocolate chips and some peanuts.

In the afternoon, we kidnapped Mr. Handsome-and-Handy's brother for a birthday bowling outing!  (He and his wife have 2 college kids; she and their eldest were at on a Sierra Service Project mission, and their youngest was working, so we commandeered his quiet day.)  All of these kids enjoyed the outing quite a lot. Thing 1 bowled exceptionally well, and Thing 2 flung bowling balls at pins with great enthusiasm.  (Thank goodness for lane bumpers.)

I ate one french fry (meh) and 4 of these onion rings.  They were quite tasty.

Dinner:  After we got back, we decided fish would be a nice dinner.  We picked up a family pack from Flying Fish Grill (which includes fries, cole slaw-yuck, and fish).  I ate way more fries than I usually do (symbolically pictured above), because they had the potato skin on them, and I have a thing for potato skin.

Here's my plate.  I ended up eating two planks of fried fish and this nice salad I got myself.

Dessert:  I had a scoop of the chocolate Clemmy's and about 1" of the supermarket bakery bundt cake.  The cake was not worthy, so why did I keep eating it?  The clean plate habit is pernicious.

How I Felt:  The weekend was pleasant, and many of the foods novel, but I felt kind of sick to my stomach later.  Just way too much rich food over the weekend.  I went for a walk in the evening, and it helped me feel a little better, but I'm so ready for simpler, weekday eating.

Thoughts:  I'm thinking I need to work on breaking myself of the clean plate habit; for me, and to model better behavior for my kids.  Remember that "habit energy" thing?  Yeah, that ingrained "clean plate" thing is still there.  Half of that last fish plank I ate was because fried fish does not reheat well; I wasn't even hungry for it.  We don't insist on clean plates, although we will urge the less food-interested Thing 2 to eat a little a few bites of the veggie and protein things on her plate.  But what they *see* is us, eating everything on our plates.  Part of this is because I got into the habit of measuring out exact portions, but really, it's not going to upset any delicate balance if I leave a symbolic bite or two on my plate.

I also noticed that, while I've gotten better at this, I don't (nor did I ever) need to eat the same amount as the guys.  It kind of makes me laugh to myself now.  Where did this perceived need for "keeping up with the Joes" come from?  Was I worried that they'd eat it all and there wouldn't be enough left for me?  (Maybe...I did date a guy who would eat off my plate.  I used to save my favorite bits for a last taste of something yummy, and that dude would snap 'em up.  Honestly, I should have stabbed his hand with my fork one of those times.)  It's not like all the food would be gone forever.  Did I think they needed the company?  Whatever caused that habit, it served me about as well as feigning a dainty appetite would do.  How much or how little I eat isn't going to make anyone like me more or less than they already do.  (Unless, of course, the "anyone" is a jerk, and who wants to deal with that crap?)  

Saturday 31 July 2010

Breakfast:  2 slices of my flax toast, with butter-canola spread and sugar-free apricot jam.  I had 3 mugs of coffee with half-and-half and almond milk throughout the day.

We stayed up really late watching our movie, and Mr. Handsome-and-Handy was more tired than hungry. So we didn't do the full brunch thing.  I did make the Saturday bacon.  I had these...

...and this half-piece that I shared with the cat.

Lunch:  No, this wasn't quite it.  This is the proxy for french fry I ate on the way back from McDonald's and the pickle off of my son's hamburger.

Here's my lunch.  I finally tried a "Green Monster" smoothie!  Half a banana, half a cup of blueberries, 2 Tbsp flax seed meal, 1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder, a handful of spinach, and 2 cups of unsweetened vanilla almond breeze.  Vrrrrrrrr!!!

I also had these strawberries from our plants.  (The tomatoes are thriving, but I don't think we'll have any ready until later August/September.  Tomatoes are a fall harvest thing here on the coast.  They're actually all doing pretty well!)

Here's what it looks like all blended up.  I took this photo outside, hoping to show the lovely green color better, but it has kind of a grey cast to it in the photo. *sigh*.  Some observations:  Overall, it was tasty and filling!  It didn't look quite as smooth as expected, there were darker green bits and tiny blue bits, kind of like confetti!  I didn't taste the blueberries at all...sort of a waste to put them there.  I tasted mostly sweet (from the banana and the powder) and almond (from the almond milk).  The flax seed added a bit of a gritty texture, but it wasn't bad.  I would definitely make this again, but I would omit the blueberries and add some cocoa powder.

Snack: Leftover hot wings...

...and decaf coffee with half-and-half.

Dinner: Mr. Handsome-and-Handy smoked up a rack of ribs. I enjoyed these, plus another little one, with BBQ sauce. Spinach and tomato salad dressed with caesar dressing and sprinkled with shredded romano and minced green onions.

Dessert: 1-1/3 serving of Clemmy's no-sugar-added ice cream. I'd had their coffee flavor before, and then our New Leaf market (similar to Whole Foods) seemed to no longer be carrying it...but this last trip, I found it again (repackaged in pint-sized containers instead of quart-sized). So I bought the chocolate flavor and the toasted almond flavor. Hmmm. The toasted almond tasted a little too strongly like almond extract. The chocolate flavor was quite tasty, though...very rich. It may be no-sugar-added, but it is full fat.