Sunday, March 10, 2013

Some Food Observations

Ever since going unprocessed I am using a lot more:

Garlic: probably because it’s a great way to add natural flavor

Honey: sugar substitute

Oats: making my own granola, and using it as a substitute for breadcrumbs

Vegetables I don’t usually buy (like snap peas): we’re branching out from our old cook book- Campbell’s 30 min and under (yes I used to go page by page through this book) and trying new recipes.  It’s actually been a lot of fun.

Some pictures from the past week:

Omelets for dinner!  Thanks to not being able to eat meat on Friday’s during lent, and Tom being upset with me bc I asked him to make shrimp jambalaya but neglected to buy Cajun seasoning… we had omlets for dinner.  They were delicious.  Peppers, onions, and garlic.

On Saturday we had family game “night” at our house (we try to rotate each month and get the MD part of the family together).  Tom had to work at 3 pm so we did a game lunch instead of a game dinner.  I decided to make lots of dips since it was afternoon time.  We did lemon garlic hummus and veggies, French onion dip and chips and spinach and artichoke dip.

 

Seriously what did I do before I bought my food processer?  Oh yeah… I don’t think I told you that yet… I BOUGHT A FOOD PROCESSER.  AND I LOVE IT.  I knew I would love it because I loved borrowing my neighbors.  But now I have one of my very own.  Making dips was so easy.  I made the spinach dip and the hummus in about 30 minutes and that includes getting all the ingredients out and putting them away. 

On today’s agenda… using the food processor to make orange crushes: orange juice, ice and maybe rum.  Yummm.  Hopefully it will be delicious and we will have a yummy unprocessed summer drink.  I’m also thinking of trying it with lemon juice instead of orange (my favorite summer drink is lemonade and black cherry rum… but black cherry rum is processed).  Pics later this week!

Abandoning the Food Diary

Why you ask?  Well a couple reasons…

Most of what we are eating now is unprocessed.  Originally the food diary was a way of me having some accountability for sticking to things.  But now I’m doing pretty good.  Don’t get me wrong, I am still eating some processed things.  Like right now, as I type this, I am having breakfast : homemade bread with natural peanut butter, banana, coffee with half and half and stevia, and wait for it… banana but cake left over from a family birthday party- store bought not homemade.


Do I care that much about the cake?  Not really.  You win some, you lose some.  This cake is delicious and until it is gone I will probably continue to eat it.  Do I wish I had had the time and energy to make a cake instead of buying one?  Absolutely!  But life doesn’t always work out that way….

I will say that we probably eat unprocessed 75% of the time.  I’m ok with that ratio.  Like I’ve said from the beginning, I’m not going to stop going out with friends (in fact there is a crab pretzel from Looney’s calling my name after our football game this afternoon).  Going out definitely accounts for some of the 25% processed.  What I would like to cut out completely is the moments of weakness (especially at school) when I get a bag of chips from the vending machine even though I have a hardboiled egg in my lunch box.  Or kids birthdays!  I HAVE TO STOP EATTING KIDS BIRTHDAY CUPCAKES/CAKES.  There… so it is written so it shall be done (maybe).

The second reason for stopping the food diary is that it must be really boring to read.  I mean I have the same thing every weekday for breakfast/ morning snack (apples, peanut butter, yogurt, granola) and the same thing for afternoon snack (hardboiled egg, almonds, dark chocolate).  Dinners change a lot and lunches are usually just dinner leftovers.  I will try to do a better job of posting recipes and pictures of dinners. 

Monday, March 4, 2013

Food Diary 2-25 to 3-3


Date
Monday February 25. 2013
Breakfast
Coffee- with milk and stevia
Apple with peanut butter
 
Morning Snack
Yogurt with honey and granola
Lunch
 Burrito:
Whole wheat shell
Brown rice
Black beans
Ground turkey
Cheddar cheese
Afternoon Snack
Hardboiled egg
Dark chocolate with almonds
Dinner
Chicken
Salad
Dessert
 


Date
Tuesday February 26. 2013
Breakfast
Coffee- with half and half and stevia
Apple with peanut butter
Morning Snack
Yogurt with honey and granola
Lunch
Chicken with snap peas
Apple
Afternoon Snack
Hardboiled egg
Dark chocolate and almonds
Dinner
Crackers
Cheese
Pesto
Green peppers
Dessert
 


Date
Wednesday February 27. 2013
Breakfast
Coffee- with half and half and stevia
Apple with peanut butter
Morning Snack
Yogurt with honey and granola
Lunch
Egg salad
Bread
Apple
Afternoon Snack
Hardboiled egg
Dark chocolate and almonds
Dinner
Salad
???  can’t remember
Dessert
 


Date
Thursday February 28. 2013
Breakfast
Coffee- with half and half and stevia
Apple with peanut butter
Morning Snack
Yogurt with honey and granola
Lunch
Salad
??? Can’t remember
Afternoon Snack
Hardboiled egg
Dark chocolate and almonds
Dinner
Cauliflower pizza
Chips/dip
Wine
Dessert
 

 
Date
Friday March 1. 2013
Breakfast
Coffee- with half and half and stevia
Apple with peanut butter
Morning Snack
Yogurt with honey and granola
Lunch
Cauliflower pizza
Apple
Afternoon Snack
 
Dinner
Hardboiled egg
Dark chocolate and almonds
 
Dessert
 

 
Saturday and Sunday… In New York.  Not recording… it was a major cheat weekend (unless jello shots a jager bombs are unprocessed…).

 

 

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Subway

Friday night involved too many margaritas… you don’t need to know the details but Saturday morning was rough.  Tom got home from the gym around 11 am and we went back to bed for a loooong nap.  We woke up around 1:30 and both of us were starving.  There was next to nothing in our fridge.  We had deli meat for sandwiches but no bread.  And since bread involves 3 hours in the bread maker that was out.  I also needed Gatorade.  Badly.  So we decided to go to subway for sandwiches and Gatorade.  I know, Subway is not unprocessed, but we figured it was the closest we would get with fast food.  Did I mention that I was starving at the time?

I thought the smarter choice would be to get turkey on wheat instead of the chipotle chicken and cheese I wanted.  By the time the guy behind the counter asked me what I wanted though, I went with the chicken and cheese.  Tom got a oven roasted chicken breast sandwich.  As we drove home we were discussing how the chicken was probably heavily processed and how gross that was.

Side note: I’m currently reading “The New Rules of Lifting for Women.”  The author has a diet plan in the book and one section is on food on the go.  The subway oven roasted chicken is one of the things he recommends if you have to get fast food.  Guess its not as bad as Tom and I thought.

Anyway… Subway did not have Gatorade but did have Vitamin water.  I got one.  When we got home I was reading the label.  IT’S SWEETENED WITH STEVIA!!!  What???  I was amazed.  Stevia is what we’ve been using a sugar substitute because its natural.  Awesome.  Obviously vitamin water has lots of other stuff in it, but I feel good about it was an option when I need a sports drink.

Monday, February 25, 2013

Food Diary 2-18 to 2-24


Date
Monday February 18. 2013
Breakfast
·         Coffee- with milk and stevia
·         Whole wheat bread
·         Peanut butter
Morning Snack
 
Lunch
·          
Afternoon Snack
·          
Dinner
·         Whole wheat pasta
·         Ground turkey
·         Butter/ garlic
·         Parmesan cheese
Dessert
·          

 
Date
Tuesday February 19. 2013
Breakfast
·         Coffee- with half and half and stevia
·         Apple
·         Yogurt
·         Granola
Morning Snack
 
Lunch
·         Whole wheat pasta
·         Ground turkey
·         Butter/ garlic
·         Parmesan cheese
Afternoon Snack
·         Hardboiled egg
Dinner
·         Turkey sandwich
·         Carrots
·         Bean dip
Dessert
 

 
Date
Wednesday February 20. 2013
Breakfast
·         Coffee- with half and half and stevia
·         Apple
·         Yogurt
·         Granola
Morning Snack
 
Lunch
·         ½ turkey sandwich
·         Apple
Afternoon Snack
·         Hardboiled egg
·         Buffalo chicken dip/chips
Dinner
·         Cauliflower pizza… see separate post… we did not succeed
Dessert
 

 
Date
Thursday February 21. 2013
Breakfast
·         Coffee- with half and half and stevia
·         Apple
·         Yogurt
·         Granola
Morning Snack
 
Lunch
·         Homemade bread
·         Turkey
·         Swiss
·         Mustard
·         Banana
Afternoon Snack
·         Hardboiled egg
Dinner
·         Cheddar Cheese
·         Crackers
·         Apple
·         Chocolate/almonds
Dessert
 

 
Date
Friday February 22. 2013
Breakfast
·         Coffee- with half and half and stevia
·         Apple
·         Yogurt
·         Granola
Morning Snack
 
Lunch
·         PB and J pancakes
·         Maple syrup
·         Apple
Afternoon Snack
·         Hardboiled egg
·         Dried edamame
·         Chocolate/almonds
Dinner
·         Cheese/crackers
·         Chicken wing
·         Margaritas… (processed)
·         Salted pretzel cookies…. (processed)
·         More margaritas… (processed)
Dessert
 

 
Date
Saturday February 23. 2013
Breakfast
·         Coffee- with half and half and stevia
·         Toast with peanut butter
 
Morning Snack
·          
Lunch
·         Subway… posting about this separately
·         Vitamin water (very hung-over from the margaritas… it was necessary)
Afternoon Snack
·          
Dinner
·         Tacos:
·         Whole wheat soft shell
·         Ground turkey with homemade taco seasoning
·         Cheddar Cheese
·         Sour cream
·         Brown rice
·         Black beans
Dessert
·       Wine


Date
Sunday February 24. 2013
Breakfast
·         Coffee- with half and half and stevia
·         Scrambled eggs with onion and cheddar cheese
·         Ketchup
·         Toast with butter
Morning Snack
 
Lunch
·         Burrito:
·         Whole wheat soft shell
·         Ground turkey with homemade taco seasoning
·         Cheddar Cheese
·         Sour cream
·         Brown rice
·         Black beans
Afternoon Snack
·          
Dinner
·         Chicken and snap peas with basil… see recipe in recipe tab.  Yummm. (will post tomorrow)
·         Italian herb bread with butter
Dessert
·