I cook up stock, B cooks up a bebe

Starting to cook a little bit more to keep my mind off things. B is sooooo pregnant!

B was complaining that her steel-cut oatmeal took too long to make, and that she'd rather get quick oats; it tastes crappier, it has a lot less nutrition, but it takes 3 minutes to make in the micro instead of 30 minutes on the stove top. Urrrrg! So last night I boiled 8 cups of water, tossed in 2 cups of steel cut oats and a pinch of salt, turned off the heat and covered. This morning I reheated and stirred to mix up the liquid at the bottom, and within 3 minutes perfect oatmeal -- and enough to serve up for breakfast all week and some for the freezer. Take that, over processed evil quick oats!

B tasted my smoothie this morning and swooned about how good it was. Then she asked if she could make one with her selection of fruit....and her fat free yogurt and fat free milk. AAAIGH! What is so hard about understanding that FAT IS GOOD?!

BREAKFAST: 9am, Smoothie Supreme, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Smoothies are something I started experimenting with when I first started consulting Ilsa, who inspired me to start cooking for myself and eventually go to c-school. Up until then, I did not like smoothies, my only experience being what they produce in smoothie shops. When you do it for yourself, however, and you choose the best ingredients, all the ingredients you like, well, it's something else. I also realized when the summer was coming to end that a smoothie....is HIGHLY seasonal.

In this smoothie, all in the blender, without measure: the good yogurt, the good milk, vanilla extract, a very ripe banana, fresh blueberries, cherries, red grapes and kiwi, freshly ground flax seed, a pinch of sea salt, a few tablespoons of sugar and a couple of ice cubes to adjust. MOST rocking and satisfying.

AM SNACK: 11:30am, scoop of cinnamon ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Why am I desiring this? Why am I hungry? I didn't eat this without thought, but I did eat it wondering why I'm setting myself up to gain a lot of weight.

LUNCH: 1pm, stuffed rigatoni in wine sauce, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Went to the local market to pick up some cheese cloth to make a sachet d'espice for the chicken stock I'm making, figured I'd pick up something for lunch. Got a 10.5 oz bag of stuffed rigatoni, which are kind of like lined rectangular raviolis. It looked like a single portion to me, but according to the packaging, is 2.5 servings.

Upon consideration, while standing in the frozen aisle, of course, duh, this is two portions. My younger more gluttonous self would have regarded a 2lb bag as one healthy portion and one small portion, but this is sanity. So I got it, and made a small portion for pregnant B, and a larger portion for me. Even with eating maybe 1.75 portions according to the label, it wasn't a full bowl.

After draining the pasta, in the pot I heated some olive oil, tossed in some minced shallot and softened it, covered it in some old pinot grigio from the fridge and reduced until no more alcohol tickled my nose. While the alcohol was cooking off, dropped in a handful of sliced grape tomatoes. Pinch of salt, a few drops of Worcestershire sauce, 2 cloves of garlic straight out of a press, then a bit pat of butter. By the time the butter melted with stirring, turned off the heat, folded in the pasta, serve. No need for grated cheese, as it was already cheese stuffed. B thought it was great, I thought it was a bit too sharp -- a dose of stock or glace would have mellowed it out. Maybe too much acid from the grape tomatoes? Maybe too much wine?

PM SNACK: 4pm, cinnamon ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Woke up from a nap with B, needed a quick pick me up

PM SNACK: 5pm, baby carrots and a little hummus, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, popcorn, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

SNICKLE DINNER: 9:15pm, falafel sandwich, cup of vegan peanut butter fudge ice cream, small bite of way too spicey chocolate truffle, grape fizzy lizzy, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5