Saturday, December 1

Unhealthy Day

ADDENDA:
Forgot to eat anything sweet! But I ate crappily, so that makes up for it...

BREAKFAST:
7am, organic cornflakes with good milk, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, popcorn, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4:00pm, 1 crappy slice of pizza, hunger 4/5
Got two slices at Sullivan & Spring, but could only finish one. The cheese was an oily mess, the sauce was bland, and the crust was both limp and crumbly. Betsy thought it was fine, but I thought if I'm going to eat unhealthy junk, I should at least enjoy it.

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, large amount of baby carrots with freshly made hummus, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, brick o' Chinese food, hunger 4/5
Now this is the unhealthy comfort food that pleases....

Friday, November 30

One Small Step for a Pancake, One Giant Leap for Pancakekind

ADDENDA:
Looking forward to eating today. Brought in the raviolis in, tonight I'm on my own (doin' laundry, hrumph!) and gonna play with some pork medallions n' rice.

Before dinner, Betsy & I had a surprise drink with Ilsa, who works in the same building as B. Seems the new Ironchef challenge is to make dinner for 4 that has a) no animal product, b) no wheat or potatoes and c) still rocks the house. Hmmmm.

BREAKFAST: 7am, stack of good experimental pancakes, hunger 4/5
Got to bed before 11, woke up naturally around 6:30, took a shower and realized....hmmm, I feel hungry. Last night's dinner was great, but not the biggest portions. I already made myself pancakes this week, so to up the ante, I threw in a couple of teaspoons of cinnamon and a small splash of vanilla....whoa. I think I just made a small step for a pancake, one giant leap for pancakekind. Now if only I could add CHOCOLATEto it....and wrap it around a sausage....and put it on a stick....wait, I think that's been done...
AM WATERING: 9:45am, 24 oz still

BP 9:45am: 127/95

AM SNACK: 11:45am, superGerman bread with peanutbutter, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2:45pm, homemade ravioli with homemade sauce, hunger 2/5
Just had a staff meeting about future benefits, made me nauseous. Corporations are evil.

DINNER: 7pm, 2 pork medallions with brown jasmine rice with an experimental scallion/wine sauce, hunger 4/5
Feel crappy and a bit depressed. Cooking this actually made me feel a little better and in control. After lightly sauteing the pork, added wine & Worcestershire to the garlic, scallion and olive oil already in there. Came out nicely.

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, 3 fresh hot chocolate chip cookies, hunger 4/5
Needed 'em after this rough day. Celebrates the beginning of the weekend with my honey.

Thursday, November 29

Raviolios

ADDENDA:
Making ravioli last night was a lot of fun. It's the same tedium of making pasta, but with an extra layer of tedium at the end! Ha, no, the stand-mixer attachment kind of cuts 45 minutes of arm-breaking tedium from the process, and shaping and hand-filling the dumplings in a form was actually quite satisfying. Like sausage, the contents of a ravioli has always had an air of mystery, and to have made it from scratch was a little bit of a revelation. To start with whole wheat flour, a stack of eggs, a pint of ricotta, a few stems of parsley and a block of parm and turn it into rather sexy little pillows of flavor. Look at Betsy's face, you KNOW that ravioli is sexy!

My mom would call them 'raviolios'. I imagine she would have an even grander name for these, perhaps 'ravioliolios'....

Looking forward to hitting the farmer's market hard this Saturday, it's been a while since I made a proper salad, and now I have this new set of skills I want to play with. And perhaps a zucchini may be in my future next week...

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, organic cherios with good milk, banana, hunger 3/5

AM WATERING: 9:30am, 24 oz still

BP: 9:45am, 129/91

LUNCH: 12:30, big plate of shrimp/veg/fish tempura, bowl of white rice, miso soup, hunger 4/5
Needed a break from the curry pork. Something tells me the salt level in this meal was high. Didn't taste salty, but heard a report on NPR this morning about some new survey of American sodium intake, how it's out of control, and how you can't actually taste the salt because of processing. Salty potato chips are comparatively low-salt compared something like a frozen TV dinner, due to this factor. More fuel to cook from home.

After lunch Erikka and I took a walk to the new M&M store off Times Square. Three floors of prime real estate dedicated to the consumption and celebration of shitty-ass chocolate by kids and their irresponsible guardians. Right outside the window is a huge billboard fill of almost-naked ladies advertising the 'Vivid' brand of hardcore pornography. God bless America!!

DINNER: 6:45pm, 1 small buttery nan bread, wonderful grilled/cured venison appetizer with a small unsweetened baked apple, small shot of pumpkin soup, nicely spiced curry shrimp over a bed of brown rice pilaf with odd/tasty threads of vegetable matter in it, peanutbutter custard with concord grape granita over a thin chocolate wafer in a small pool of fresh grape jelly, 2 small filled-chocolates, 1/4 glass of presecco, hunger 4/5
Took the wifey to nice dinner at Tabla. She had cheese for dessert, I was more interested in indulging in something sweet, as this was the time to get something above and beyond. However, I couldn't help wondering hmmmm....maybe a cheese course could be more satisfying than a childish sweet? (The name of my dessert was "Peanut Butter & Jelly".) It came served with small handful of yellow raisins and some nicely shaped toasty breads. Made me regret forgetting to eat the apple and cheese I brought to work.

Wednesday, November 28

Dr. Wildman, and his son, Chef Wildman

ADDENDA:
Last night's knife-skills class was a revelation. All very hands on, a good instructor. We cut vegetables of all stripe, and with some simple instruction found the whole thing to be wonderfully easy. First thing: get a sharpening device for my set of global knives. Second thing: totally rethink my salad this weekend, and consider squash & zuccinni in my stirfry & soup life. Third thing: peeling tomatoes is so easy!! Next spagetti sauce from scratch will be with farmer's market tomatoes when they are back in season.

Fourthly: I think I may want to go to chef's school. Of the 15-odd students in the class (again, me the only dude), he made several comments to me, the first was, "Have you done this before?" and said I was a natural and made it look easy (uhhh, it was easy.) Makes me want a bigger challenge. The Natural Gourmet Institute does have a program, but I don't know if I want to specialize in vegetarian/vegan cooking. I think I'll take one more hands-on class here then try one or two other schools in the New Year, to see if I really want to invest all that time and money in a degree I'll probably never earn back in a professional setting.

Forgot to pack any snacks today unfortunately, and realized because I have a social lunch tomorrow, Friday will be my only other lunch-from-home day this week. Three days a week to start next week, then.

Didn't have any sweets yesterday other than the banana and the apple, which I guess a month ago would of been a huge deal, now it feels....like I should eat like that more often. Was wound up from the class, slept well but only 6 hours and woke up hungry.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, good pancakes from scratch, a jigger of seltzer, hunger 4/5
x

AM WATERING: 9:30am, 24 oz still

BP 9:30am: 129/89

LUNCH: 12:30pm, shrimp w/basil sauce and white rice, small salad slathered in peanut sauce, 2 tiny fried spring rolls, hunger 4/5
OK Thai food, would be interested to learn how to prepare something similar...

PM SNACK: 4pm, 3 potato samosa from Green Symphony, hunger 4/5
Slightly headachey, kinda jonesing for refined sugar. If I had an apple, it would knock that pang out. Feel in control, though. Looking forward to making ravioli from scratch for the first time tonight.

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, 3 pieces sesame tofu, hunger 4/5
Feeling peckish, dinner still needs to be made.

DINNER: 8:30pm, homemade cheese ravioli with homemade tomato sauce, hunger 4/5
Really good. Used the simplest recipe possible (ricotta, parm, egg, nutmeg, parsley, salt & pep) and it came through elegantly. Soft pillowy dumplings with just the right amount of chew. If I hadn't already made the sauce, I probably would of just used butter n' sage...

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, 1/2 serving of good yogurt with honey, vanilla, raw cashews, hunger 3/5
Really craving sugar, only desert I had in the house was frozen cookie dough. So I had this yogurt with an extra squirt of honey. Kind of a dessert, but less intense than a full on freak-out.

Tuesday, November 27

234 Pounds o' Fury!!

ADDENDA:
What hath thow raught? Ilsa has a blog!! Here!

Weighed myself this morning, almost forgot, but the scale was in the way (the weigh?) of me retrieving my cell phone. 234. Was wearing pants, and just ate breakfast, so it's probably closer to my standard 230. Not feeling very furious, but anything that is tagged with "o' Fury!!" sounds less blubbery.

Feel weird about the pint of soy icecream I snarfed last night. On one hand, I think I enjoyed and appreciated it more than I would of if it was a regular habit. On the other hand, my lust for it immediately following my substandard home meal was overpowering in a way. Ilsa's blog suggests brushing teeth to get the stomach-body-brain signals to shout "done!" to the lust impulses. May just try that.

BREAKFAST: 8am, organic chex with good milk, banana, hunger 3/5
Start the sweets off right.

AM WATERING: 9:30am, 24 oz still

BP 9:45am: 132/90

LUNCH: 12:30pm, homemade hummus, carrot sticks, cucumber slices, 2 slices normal wholewheat bread, 2 slices weird dense superGerman "bread", 3 pieces sesame tofu, hunger 4/5
Out of superhippy bread from the farmer's market, so I got this weird, dense block of bread-like material imported from Germany, full of whole grains, weirdly moist, and shelf-stable for months in the unopened wrapper.

Hummus was good, needs more cumin. Next batch is going to rock. Hard. My dad never had the secret weapon of the roasted garlic, damn I wish I could share that with him. I think he'd be impressed. After tasting it, he'd nod, and say something quietly, like, "Noah, that's pretty good. I wish I thought of that." A small grin was like a hug from him (though in later years I subjected him to more unasked-for hugs than I can count.)

PM SNACK: 4:15pm, apple & raw funki havarti, hunger 3/5
Apple was mushy, May have to run out and grab another snack, as I have a knife skills class 6:30-10 tonight.

PM SNACK: 5:15pm, lamb on pita, hunger 4/5
As I'm eating this, I'm thinking, "This is not going to help me lose weight, is it?"

PM SNACK: 7pmish, carrots sticks & inferior hummus, small handful of olives, lemony water, hunger 4/5
Snacks during class

DINNER: 9:30pm, yummy carrot soup, quinoa with orange supreme, white bean thingy, sauteed broccoli with mushrooms, roasted cubed potatoes, hunger 4/5
Dinner was made with all the veg that the students prepped in knife skills class, all vegan, the HVS would of been proud. Food was actually pretty good, but could of used some sort of protein for satiety's sake.

Monday, November 26

Back On It

ADDENDA:
Meant to weigh myself this morning but forgot. I tend to forget things I have no interest in/really don't want to do. Looking forward to getting back into healthier eating habits. Before it was new and a little struggling, now it's starting to be the new routine. Brought an apple & stinky cheese to work, not because I'm on a sugar fast, but because it's damn yummy...

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, good yogurt with honey & vanilla & raw nuts, hunger 2/5

AM WATERING: 9:15am, 24 oz still

BP: 9:30am, 130/93

LUNCH: 1pm, small pastrami sandwich with pea soup, slaw & pickles, water, hunger 4/5
Satisfying sit-down at Junior's around the corner on a rainy day. Reading the beginning chapter's of 'The Omivore's Delimma', oy, how corn is a vessel so we can all eat fossil fuel in many different foodstuffs, including the beef I just ate.

PM SNACK: 4:45, apple and funky-ass raw cheese, hunger 3/5
Funny how stinky cheese becomes yummy with a good apple.

DINNER: 7pm, shrimp in a wine sauce with mushrooms and onions, wild rice, almost a full pint of chocolate mint soy icecream, hunger 4/5
Made another pound of shrimp, threw in wine and veg and high-heat safflower oil into the wok. Definitely better than the last time, but still not....very good. I'm missing something or a step, may have to read a recipe. Cooked this weird black long-grain wild rice with low-sodium organic chicken broth, come out kinda crunchy and unappealing. So when I was finished with the meal, just felt unsatisfied, but I was glad there was no more gelato in the house....uh oh. I had soy icecream in the house, to feed the HVS at the last pizza-blowout. Well, I hadn't inhaled a pint of icecream in such a long time, so I did it. I ate it in front of the TV. The soy icecream itself wasn't so great, but the sitting, the leisurely eating of it, the wave of satisfaction, it was mmmmmm. Figured hey, I'm not a robot, this is an uncommon indulgence, and you better not make a habit of this or I'll have to dislocate my leg and kick my own ass....

Sunday, November 25

Travel Day Home

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, half a bottle of seltzer, hunger 1/5

AM SNACK: 8:15am, 36 ingredient granola bar, handful of pirate booty, hunger 4/5
On the train home.

AM SNACK: 9am, horrible veggie burger, ridiculous cinnamon bun, bottle of seltzer, hunger 4/5
Amtrack sells a remarkable 'vegan' veggie burger, which has over 70 ingredients...

PM SNACK: 2pm, small cup of gelato, hunger 4/5
Good that it's homemade - it's comforting that I know whats in it, but it's not very good. I think I know how to make it better, though, though I'm not too anxious to have another big bucket of gelato in my fridge!

LUNCH: 3pm, Korean vegetable dumplings, hunger 4/5
Medium bowl from the bowels of the freezer.

PM SNACK: 4pm, small amount of air-popped popcorn, hunger 3/5
Betsy made some popcorn to go with the a DVD we watched.

DINNER: 7:30pm, spinach ravioli in a mushroom wine sauce, small amount of gelato, hunger 4/5
Was going to order in, but since we went shopping and I was cooking other things for the week anyway, it made sense to cook something up. Bought fresh ravioli and made a nice sauce using wine we had in the fridge, mushrooms, parsley, olive oil, garlic, a little salt and a little butter. B went nuts on the gelato, so there were only a few tablespoons left to finish.

PM SNACK: 9pm, small handful of carrot sticks with fresh hummus, hunger 3/5
Blended hummus, replaced the two cloves of raw garlic the recipe called for with an entire head of roasted garlic. Came out pretty good, unfortunately I didn't make a lot. My dad would literally make a couple of gallons and keep it in the freezer over 6 months. If Betsy doesn't scam it all, will try to smuggle out samples to the HVS and Ilsa.

Also cooked a big batch of basic tomato sauce, gonna attempt to make fresh ravioli later this week...