Sugar, welcome back!

Sugarfast ends with a wimper.

BREAKFAST: 8:15am, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese and sable, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5
Weird, not hungry, as the french bread pizzas still seam to be sitting in my stomach but thinking about the sable I picked up yesterday, wanted to eat, looking forward to eating, enjoying eating, satisfied by eating, but not quite. Sugar kills hunger in a different way than more complex carbs.

AM SNACK: 10:30am, pound cake and mint chip ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
And it's ovah! Churning the ice cream, a few stray chips found their way into my mouth. Then a taste of the ice cream to test for fluffiness. Then a 2nd. Then realizing I needed to taste the poundcake to see if it was ok and if it went well with the ice cream like I suspected. Oh yes. They are good together.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, pork and chive dumplings, 1 bowl, hunger 2/5
Not hungry, but meeting K at the C&L Dumpling House on Chrystie, so couldn't NOT get dumplings.

DINNER: 5pm, shrimp cocktail, a hotdog, some baguette and random soft cheese, a diet black cherry soda, some mint ice cream and poundcake, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Odd combination of snacky foods at B's family gathering. Ice cream was well received, but kind of wish I made something savory to balance out the shrimp n' dog fest. I blame an imbalance in my sugar intake!

Someone's in the kitchen with Facebook...

My only plan for the day flaked on me, so I kept me n' Edles busy. Woke up early, got the laundry done, then out to food shop by 11. Passing by Donut Plant was a bit hard, wanted a donut but didn't feel a sugar craving -- it was a donut craving! As you can see above, I was looking for inspiration at the market and got it. Kinda wanted to make EVERYTHING suggested (like a homemade hotpocket and make some mac n' cheese and put it in a box) but already had plans to cook two other things -- since tomorrow evening is the end of my week-long sugar-fast, I made lemon pound cake and mint-chocolate chip ice cream today, a riff on the mint lemonade I made a bunch o' times this summer.

After getting home and eating, just spent the time juggling making salad and the 4 dishes with tending to Edie's feeding, diapers, need for snuggles and sleep time. By the time B got home, freshly roasted pumpkin seeds were on the table, soup was ready to go, ice cream custard chilling for churning tomorrow, 3 pound cakes cooling on the windowsill, and the pappardelle about 10 minutes out. It was as much fun as I could have had with Edie in the kitchen -- I can't wait for her to be old enough to help me turn some meals out!

BREAKFAST: 8am, organic cheerios with dead organic milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH 1: 11:15am, 6" Subway veggie burger sub, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
I just don't trust their cheap super-processed lunch meats. Didn't want to be too hungry while food shopping.

LUNCH 2: 2pm, Yonah Shimmel potato knish, Nathan's hotdog on potato roll with kraut and onions, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Freezer-fishing after food shopping and before kicking off an afternoon of cooking. I never paid much attention to the Sabrett's brand "onions in sauce" jar before, but I couldn't help notice how sweet they were. The ingredients list sugar 6th, and the onions themselves were probably chosen for sweetness and are probably cooked to bring that out, so my sugar fast has not been blown. I think this kind of onion relish was designed to be a cheap swap for real caramelized onions...

DINNER: 5:30pm, potato leek soup, pappardelle with pumpkin, chard and pancetta, 1 glass sparkling white wine, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Made the Facebook update on the walk over to Wholefoods, and by the time I got there, the menu was decided. Potato Leek Soup was no problem -- the blender soup method. Saute aromatic veg to soft, cover with stock and water, simmer and soften starchy veg, blend, finish with cream, season. Onion, carrot, celery, parsnips and a whole lotta leeks got softened in olive oil, with a little salt and near the end a few cloves of minced rocambole garlic. Unfroze a quart of homemade chicken stock and poured it in, then added water to cover the solids. Popped in two cubed, peeled waxy potatoes, another 20 minutes of simmering. Blender, a cup of cream, taste, season with a lot of salt, a dash of cayenne, a couple dashes curry powder and a couple dashes chili powder, and it was good.

The pasta dish was a little trickier, because I never had this specific dish before and just guessed. Butternut squash was swapped out for pumpkin, as I had one on hand and B has been hinting very unsubtly that she wanted me to cook with it. Graham suggested the dish, who I last hung out with when we were about 7, but is now a chef in a corporate kitchen, no joke. I would have preferred to make the pappardelle from scratch, but time was limited, so I bought a nice dried egg pappardelle. While my poundcakes were baking, I dissembled a pumpkin and laid out the flesh and the seeds on a pan, and roasted for a solid 30 minutes. Came out nice and soft, chopped to bite size pieces, and held. Seeds salted and put out on the table to await B's arrival. Deveiled a head of chard, cleaned it, blanched in boiling water for 3 minutes then shocked in ice water, drained and held. Minced a 1/4 pound of pancetta, then into a hot pan with a little olive oil. Once started to brown, tossed in the chard and pumpkin, got the pasta in boiling water. Drained pasta, tossed into the pan with everything. Beat an egg, coated the entire thing with the heat off- the dish was kinda reminding me of a carbonara, so why not? A little more olive oil, a little more salt, tossed in some shredded manchego. Plate into a little pile with tongs, top with more manchego:


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, small plate of the pasta, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, Stouffers French Bread Pizzas, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Oy. Just stayed hungry after dinner. The good thing about sugar is that it tell my body quickly that eating is over.

The sugar withdrawal abates

I think I'm over the sugar hump, no sugar until Saturday night shouldn't be a big deal. Was only at the restaurant for an hour with Edie, so no pizza and especially no Manhattan Special -- it would of been difficult to turn down if offered, and L would of grilled me about exactly why I was abstaining from sugar this week. I'd blame it all on the HVS -- he's sweet on the HVS.

Edie & I then took a subway to visit E in midtown, and went to PJ O'Rourkes for lunch. A very pubby restaurant, everything is expensive but the midtown lunch crowd can afford it. I wanted something I could eat without getting Edles TOO messy, so a sandwich and fried finger food was the way to go. It was still a bit too messy, but good and filling.

A quick vist from the HVS was totally rad, and Edles seemed to dig her. The evening was chillin' with B.

BREAKFAST: 8am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
The standard: banana, milk, yogurt, grapes, mango, blueberries, cherries, flax. Forgot salt this time, still pretty good, could of been better.

LUNCH: 1pm, crab cake sandwich, fried onions, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Quantity wise, maybe 1 bowl but because everything was fried, calorically felt like a lot more.

DINNER: 6:30pm, restaurant green salad, eggplant hero, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Ordered in from the crappiest local pizzeria, a large salad with ice berg lettuce and assorted unchallenging vegetables, and a large hero that tasted less like eggplant and more like breadcrumbs and freezer burn. I need to go grocery shopping ASAP -- gotta prepare for my sugar welcoming feast!

Fourth day of no sugah

Woke up with out first thinking about wanted something sweet. Focused on getting my lesson plan together and playing with a very smiley Edie -- she's so sweet, she was like eating chocolate cake! Last week I was a bit nervous, was nervous today but ate some salad to keep me full. Last time when I got home I snarfed frozen pizza and a pint of ice cream.

Class went by in a blink, again good with the students engaged and interested in the tasks at hand. I was hungry when I got home, picked up some Chinese and downed a lot of water, just thirsty. Not craving sugar until I sit down in front of the TV and the first thing on is a TV commercial for some mass-market chocolate bon bon things, urrrg, I could use some of that right now.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, toasted bagel with cream cheese, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: noon, large green salad, tortilla chips, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
I made this salad with two nutrient-light lettuces, boston bibb and iceberg. Iceberg was what I grew up on, and is definitely a comfort food now. Not as nutrient-light as, say, SUGAR (it's got water and a small amount of fiber, rather than no water, no fiber and a lot of fast, insulin-pumping calories) but it still gives me the heebies about all the era-specific poor choices my parents made with food. Did we really need to make brownies and cakes from crappy mixes when they were so easy to make from scratch? Mmmmm, brownies n' cake.....

PM TASTINGS: 4-6:30pm, bits of mashed potatoes, swiss chard and carmelized onion, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, beef fried rice, shrimp egg roll, lots of water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

No sugar, day 3

Ate a sweet, fruit-filled breakfast but it wasn't quite enough. I visited B's office and was drawn to the gourmet ice cream truck on one corner, the gourmet cup cake truck on the other. There is a new market outside of Madison Square Park which I checked out for lunch, but it seemed the only choices were BBQ from the crappy restaurant I ate at last week, crepes (sugar in the batter), waffles (same) and cider donuts. One artisan chocolatier was giving away samples of truffles....urg! Briefly considered Shake Shack, but their burgers are grotty and the only good thing on the menu is....ice cream shakes!

Went to a baby drop-in at the local community center as I do every Tuesday, and right in the middle of the floor were homemade chocolate oatmeal cookies, baked by the organizer of the class. Aaag! I feel like I should be in a 12 step program for sugar recovery. How did I ever get so readdicted to sugar without even knowing it?

Ate salad while Edles was awake, then had dinner after I finally got her down. Am I hungrier without sugar? I feel like I'm eating a little bit heavier to squash any hunger pangs.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Banana, organic whole milk, the good yogurt, grapes, mango, blueberries, cherries, ground flax, a dash of salt. Salt makes mildly sweet things taste sweeter. Enjoyed it, but felt hungry for more sweets immediately after.

LUNCH: noon, pastrami on rye, french fries, pickles, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Tortured by the sights of sweets everywhere, decided to have a fatty, indulgent meal to satiate my hunger thoroughly -- any cravings after would be purely sugar-related, not because I was hungry or thirsty. Went to Eisenberg's on 5th Ave because it was convenient, would have rather of gone to the 2nd Ave Deli or Katz's.

PM SNACK: 5pm, large green salad, tortilla chips, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, cheese ravioli, homemade tomato sauce, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

16 POUNDS OF FURY!!!

Edie had her date with the doc today -- 16 lbs, a full 25% bigger than 3 months ago. Fully healthy and happy, though the round of vaccinations she underwent tested the maximum volume of her voice box and lungs. Other than the usual breast milk, I gave Edie a dropperful of infant tylenol to help her with her discomfort. She had some crying jags in the afternoon that would only respond to being held, sung to, and played the smooth, smooth greatest hits of Al Green.

I forgot to eat breakfast this morning, busy with laundry, Edie and getting it together to go food shopping -- I needed to be home early enough to get Edles to her 12:30 doctor's appointment. As I walked out, I told myself I'd just grab a bite on the way then I remembered....

I promised HVS to do a refined sugar-fast this week, until Saturday night. I didn't eat any sweets yesterday, so I guess it started yesterday. The only things available to me were little bodegas and a fine dining restaurant called Broadway East, which had a chalk board out front advertising delicious high-grade muffins at half price. There's no way to make a good muffin without sugar, so I had to pass. I thought of maybe some sticky-rice n' minced pork lotus leaves from the vendor usually at Rutgers, but it was too early.

Wandering through Pathmark with a hungry stomach, stuck close to my list. Read a fantastic recipe for shortbread in Cook's Illustrated on the train up to New Haven, would be ideal to bring to some mother's groups, but it's a SWEET! Gah!

On the walk home from grocery shopping, ran into neighborhood folks J, E and their kids. We had talked brownies a week or two ago, and I recommended a revision to J's recipe. She remade them, she claims they're fudgier like she wanted, and offered me one....I had to explain that I was in cahoots with a friend to not eat sweets this week. That kinda hurt, I really wanted to taste one! I can't walk down the street without people offering me sweets!!

In Union Square after Edie's appointment, walked through the farmer's market. Hot apple cider, that looks like something to have right now....d'oh! That's a cup o' sugar! Shopping for diapers, a case full of colorful cupcakes....d'oh! Where did all these sweets come from?

HVS also wants me to refrain from pizza, but I'm modifying that because I can't let the ingredients go to waste -- no shitty pizza, just for work and home made.

I was a bit restless in the evening, probably due to craving sweets. Surprised how sugar-obsessed I've become today.

BREAKFAST: 11am, pumpernickel bagel with whipped cream cheese, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Nothing like a still warm out-of-the oven brown bagel from the greatest bagel bakery in the world which happens to be located down the street.

LUNCH: 1:45pm, falafel on whole wheat, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
At Maoz on Union Square, HVS-approved!

PM SNACK: 4pm, large green salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Freshly made!

PM SNACK: 5pm, school-made fresh salsa and tortilla chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Waiting on B to get home to get the pizza in the oven.

DINNER: 5:30pm, homemade pizza, glass of wine, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Went heavy on the oregano, put cheese under the sauce, spiked the sauce with vinegar, 2 little pinches of vanilla sugar (not enough to violate the sweets ban) and sea salt. Preheated the oven and stone for an hour, which definitely helped. Wholefoods wholewheat dough, proofed it for an hour to get over the leadedness of whole wheat.

So greeeeeezy

Woke up at 6am with a sore back, which tends to happen nowadays when I sleep extra -- I got 11 hours, don't know why I was so tired. After lazing around, got the troops out to the local bistro to meet friends for a meal, then went our separate ways. Me and E road bikes around, got a pint and a bite, then home, where B's friend L and her brother were enjoying Baby Edles. A good sociable day.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla, cashews, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

BRUNCH: noon, blueberry pancakes, bacon, homefries, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LINNER: 3pm, half portion of fish n' chips, pint of hard cider, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Not hungry enough to eat a full anything, we split a portion of fish and chips at the Telephone Bar and it was STILL a bit much. Just so greeeezy. Tasty, but a bit much.

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, piece of Ethiopian injera, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, butternut squash soup, whole wheat ritz crackers, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Up in New Haven for the day

B, E & I trained it up to New Haven to get pizza at Pepe's. Technically this is Edie's second time, as she came up with us in utero last time. Edie slept or cooed through most of the train rides, no drama.

The white clam pizza again was a revelation. The large chunks of garlic, the distribution of oregano-spiked bread crumbs, generous olive oil and lots and lots of fresh clams. Other than the clams, the other star flavor had to be the subtle bitter char of the crust, flavored by the coal of the oven. Really good.

By the time we got home, I was surprisingly tired and hit the bed with Edie around 7pm.

BREAKFAST: 8am, organic chex with organic dead milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 9:45am, large cookie, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Pre-train snack at Grand Central.

LUNCH: 12:45pm, clam pizza, water, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Considered getting the small white clam pie instead of the medium, but after considering that 4 hours on a train was involved in getting this pizza, might as well get a bigger one and just skip the crusts.

DINNER: 6pm, apple pie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Wasn't planning on eating this, but B left it out on the table and I could not say no. I made this pie a week ago or so and froze it.