Heeeey Macaron-ah!

A rainy, rainy soaking day in NYC. Ate too well for someone not moving their body. Baked banana bread for the first time in the morning -- extra banana, 1/2 the sugar of the recipe, and replaced white flour with whole wheat flour. Tastes pretty damn good anyway. Then spent the afternoon cooking up macarons, which occurred to me after making that I don't need to eat any, because they are perfect for passover -- no flour in them, just egg, sugar and ground almonds...

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, organic cheerios with organic dead milk, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm. two sardine & avocado sandwiches on wholewheat, 2 pickles, small piece of freshly baked banana bread, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3-6pm, little bits of almond meringue cookie, little bits of chocolate ganache, caramel ganache and vanilla pastry cream
My fried MAP came over and we made macarons together, in three colors and three flavors. They came out better than the first time, but still not bakery-level. A lot of fun, a good way to spend the rainy afternoon while B was out doing girly things in Brooklyn and Edie watched us from her high chair and walker in the doorway.

DINNER: 7pm, homemade wholewheat pizza with onion, mushroom and pepperoni, 1 beer, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
MAP stuck around and helped me caramelize the onions properly while I tiled with the rest of the set up. Pretty good. Drank the beer before even thinking about the rules, whoops. Still, far from being an issue.

Finally, no dessert!!

A nice day, maybe not the best eating day, BUT writing it up this morning, realized that no desserts slipped down my neck! After an early dinner, felt tired from walking with 20 lbs of Edie strapped to my front all day and hit the hay around 10pm

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese and sable, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1pm, small amount of green tea
Met up with K uptown for lunch, but work was too busy for her so we just slipped into a Starbucks for 20 minutes so we could amuse ourselves with the cuteness that is Edie. I ordered green tea, which is on the every-day list, but all they had was "orange blossom green tea", where tangerine rind and ghoji berries overwhelmed any honest green tea flavor. It tasted like unsweetened Sunny-D-Lite. Gross. I picked up a pack of good green tea last week, I think I'll make a pitcher of lightly-sweetened brewed ice tea this week with it.

LUNCH: 2:45pm, Ethiopian combo plate, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Not sure where this falls. There was no obvious forbidden or once-a-week elements, and I think the injira is made with a whole grain (teff).

DINNER: 6pm, shrimp saag, a little naan, a little rice, 1 onion bahji, 1/2 a vegetable samosa, lentil crackers, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Lunch came a little late, dinner came a little early due to social obligations. Didn't eat most of my food.

Improved Freezer Fishing

Despite me not purposefully eating multiple sweets a day, when I look back at the color codes this week, I'm going to find a sea of red, all from bits of deserts flying down my throat. On the positive side, most is home made or on the way to homemade, but still, it causes one pause. On the other hand, I don't know if it's psychosomatic, but I definitely feel more energy and a little bit lighter on my feet...

BREAKFAST: 9am, organic wholegrain chex with organic dead milk, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:45pm, fillet of sole, whole wheat waffle, large green salad, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
I gotta get some frozen fillets of oily fish. Still, cooking fillets from raw is a whole lot better then nasty fried breaded fish sticks out of the freezer. Some whole wheat waffles I made last week also came out and crisped up nicely on the pizza stone.

PM TASTING: 2:30pm, a bit of chocolate ganache
Filling the macaron cookies I made earlier in the week, to bring to a casual dinner party this evening. Unfortunately B ate a bunch of the cookies AND a hunk of the chocolate I had on hand to make the ganache, so this batch ended up only being 5 measly macarons!

DINNER: 6pm, small green salad, a few olives, mushroom ravioli in red sauce, 1 piece of bread, 1 whiskey cocktail, one chocolate macaron, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Beets, brought to you by Hershey's

Watched an episode of Good Eats this morning all about....beets. Roasted, pickled, as a salad. Fneh! And the show was sponsored by....Hershey's.

This morning instead of baby food, I fed Edie bits of very ripe banana and a few spoonfuls of full-flavor Fage yogurt. Fruit is nature's baby-food.

My eating day was dictated by professional obligations -- first the after-school culinary class I teach, then at the restaurant I consult at afterwards. It's fine, but it underscores the fact that I need to control the habits I keep outside of these times.

BREAKFAST: 9am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
I replaced milk with aica juice this time, which lead to a much sweeter taste. All the other usual suspects in tact: fage yogurt, fresh ground flax, banana, grape, cherries, blueberries, mango, splash of vanilla, pinch of salt. The aica juice straight tasted too sweet, generic berry flavor.

LUNCH: 11:30am, demi-hippy bread with good peanut butter, small bowl of tabbouleh, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER pt 1: 6pm, small panko-crusted chicken cutlet, small portion of swiss chard & onion, whipped potatoes, small fruit punch, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER pt 2: 7:30pm, 2 small slices of pizza, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING WATERING: 9:30pm, 2 liters

EVENING SNACKS: 10:30pm, handful of ginger roaster almonds, a large bowl of freshly popped organic popcorn in grapeseed oil, lightly salted, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Got uncomfortably hungry, ranged around the kitchen looking for snacks that would be nutritionally acceptable. Almonds were a no brainer, but wondering about the popcorn -- technically, isn't it a whole grain? I dunno, must do some research..

Ashy bagels of yore

A busy day, capped with B coming home early so I could get on the bike and ride out to Coney Island. Was great, but I definitely feel the early-season weakness. I almost bonked 2/3 of the way in and had to stop to eat. Next time I'll be more prepared.

BREAKFAST: 8:15am, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese and sable, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5 "Pumpernickel" is the whole-grain equivalent of rye bread, and while historically it has had a dark color due to the ash-content of the grain, nowadays it is mixed with other flours and dark coloring via molasses, cocoa or other means gives it back it's shade. I don't know if this is a 100% whole grain bagel, but it is soooo delicious. Sable is my favorite appetizing fish, and wikipedia confirmed it is an oily fellow, which made this a rather Brown's Rules-approved breakfast!

AM SNACK: 11am, 2 freshly baked macaron cookies
I'm running through a half batch of the cookies for the French macaron cookie sandwiches me and my friend MAP will be baking on Thursday. They're a little tricky, and I took notes on what to try differently then. I had to taste to test -- good, but Thursday will be better.

LUNCH: noon, bowl of tabbouleh, 1 piece of demi-hippy bread, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Good, but the tabbouleh tastes a little flat. Salt? Unsatisfying.

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, 1 oatmeal cookie, 1 chocolate chip cookie
At the mutha's group, 2nd sweet of the day.

LUNCH 2: 3:45pm, large green salad, handful of "whole grain" tortilla chips, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 7pm, slice of streetza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Didn't want to, but out on my first proper ride of the season, 30 miles to and from Coney Island. My body was about to shut down if I didn't eat something. Next time, will bring a clif bar...

DINNER: 8:15pm, tofu & broccoli in brown sauce, pork fried rice, pork egg roll, smoothie pop, water, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Needed a Chinese brick, but damn, pizza and Chinese food? Regardless of the ride, if I'm going to lose any weight, this won't do. But I was frazzled, it was comforting to go to the same take out spot me and my dad would go to, to take food out, and I think I made a selection that could of been a lot worse.

Code Green, hopefully

In the side bar to the left, I've color coded the lists: dark green for every day, light green for 3x a week, yellowy orange for 1x a week, and red for never. I'm going to color the text of meals for a while, so I can see if I'm in a sea of green or flailing around in a world of yellow and red.

I spent the day doing laundry in the early morning, shopping for food in the late morning, and cooking in the afternoon. I assembled a bag of Russ & Daughters goodies for my brother-in-law for his birthday, so I was inspired to cook off a bunch of chocolate babkas. It's a lengthy process involving 2 rises, and 2 parts (dough and chocolate filling), but the result is fantastic. During the 4 hour ordeal, I made salad for the week and a large bowl of tabouli. I didn't use a recipe, I just looked at some ingredient lists on line and free-balled it. Got bulgar wheat from the bulk section, soaked it in hot water for 15 minutes. Added chopped tomato, onion, scallion, garlic, red pepper, parsley, mint, a little olive oil, a drop of balsamic vinegar, the juice of one lemon and a dash of salt. At first it tasted a bit weak but as it sat and came together, I'm glad I left it alone. It's mild, but you can really taste the wheat and it has that tabouli flavah.

I wasn't planning to eat desert today, but life had other plans for me. After spending 4 hours knocking out the babka (and the vegetables and the baby and the clean up) when B got home, she made short order of one of the babkas. Once she started one, I had to have a small piece to see if it was good. (The dough was really wet, but I decided to see what would happen instead of adding more flour -- it became MUCH more tender than last time, really good.) I stopped at a 1" piece, but B made her way through the ENTIRE 8" pan!! Hrumph!

A few hours later, I was really desiring sugar, broke down and had another desert, officially breaking B's rules of no more than one a week. I know tomorrow there will be a sweet snack at the playdate drop in, and I'm baking macarons and going to a dinner party on Thursday, which will be another sweet spot. And no weekend is complete without desert. If I make it through the week with only 5 deserts, I guess it'll still be an improvement....for now

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, organic cheerios with organic dead milk, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Woke up pretty hungry, but I wonder how much of that is due to only 4.5 hours of sleep. I know lack of sleep is a potential cause of obesity, due to messing with blood sugar levels...

LUNCH: 2pm, two sardine sandwiches, 2 pickles, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
I was nervous about this, but Brown hyped up the nutritional power AND deliciousness of this sandwich, but I had never really done sardines. Once I opened the can, two things soothed me -- first the heads, tails, fins, scales, bones and guts were all removed, leaving just little round fillets surrounded by skin. Second, the smell -- it smelled like a mild tuna fish! Ah hah! This isn't some scary little eyeball-and-gut crunchy thing, this is just sustainable, healthier tuna! I tossed them with a little cider vinegar and fresh parsley, and smeared some ripe avocado on the toasted whole wheat bread. They went down lickety split, I can't believe I haven't been eating sardines all along.

I always associated those tins with anchovies (funky salt!) and old people like my parents, though even my parents were all about the chunk tuna -- the sardines were THEIR parent's thing. Justine Timberlake can have his sexy, I need to bring sardines back.

DINNER: 7pm, large green salad with chili shrimp, a few spoonfuls of homemade tabouli, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, small slice of freshly baked babka, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, 3 graham crackers with chocolate and peanut butter, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

For the love of pork.

A good Sunday. After cooking up a healthy significant breakfast, helped B clean up the house bit before some cousins and friends came over to kick off the bike season with a small tour around the tip of Manhattan. An afternoon jaunt to Greenpoint for some authentic Polish food, small in quantity, topped off with sprint down to Red Hook for a drink in a salty bar. A good edge-of-Spring day. Didn't stick to Brown's rules (which are now in the left hand column of this blog) strictly, but getting better. Next week will be improved. Let's say the week starts on Monday...

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, 2.5 wholewheat waffles, 3 slices of bacon, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Hungry for a real big breakfast, and didn't want to give up control to a restaurant. Made my waffles, replacing white flower with whole wheat pastry flour. I also left the eggs out over night to bring them to room temp, and zapped the milk to make it slightly warm. The melted butter did not seize, and the egg whites became much more solid, making for a lighter waffle. The taste of the whole wheat was very mild, in a pleasant nutty way. Definitely the new standard. Gonna experiment with brown sugar and AP whole wheat next...

Brown's rules permits red meat but once a week, which at the outset I imagined as cow. Does red meat also mean pork, lamb, buffalo and bear? Isn't pork the other white meat?! -sigh- I guess it is, I just love pork so much. On the negative side, I ate red meat for breakfast. On the positive side, it was well below an 8 oz serving and half of my usual breakfast bacon intake...

PM SNACK: 2:15pm, bite of bagel with creamcheese, bite of pizza, half bite of dry ruggelah
Riding around with cousins and friends, doing a bit of the tour thing. Didn't want to eat, but ya gotta take a bite to be a participant.

LUNCH: 4pm, 6 mixed perogies, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Two potato/cheese, two kraut and two meat. Again, went against Brown's rules and had another bite of ride meat, but much less than a serving, maybe an ounce. How do they make this meat in the perogie? I suspect it's been ground then boiled to make stock, then tossed with a few spices, and stuffed.

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, 1 pint of beer, 1 bite of frito pie, a small quiver of french fries, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
D, E, K and I popped over to Red Hook for a drink. E ordered a horrible looking frito pie -- a crock full of fritos, topped with a very generous portion of all-beef no-bean chili, and a layer of what must of been cheese-wiz. I didn't want to taste it, but when I refused, E asked me if I was a food snob. Urg! I'll eat anything!! It was as gross as I expected, but makes me want to make some at home. I'll use my "whole grain" tortilla chips, my home-ground skyline chili, and a good quality raw milk sharp cheddar. Red meat IS allowed once a week....

DINNER: 8pm, baked sole with herbes de Provance, kale and brown rice, chocolate ice cream, small amount of dark chocolate and 3 graham crackers, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Three small fillets of sole (6 oz) baked with some herbs and a little pat of butter, small delicate flavor, needed a little salt. I reheated the mushroom brown rice from earlier in the week, and cut up a full head of fresh kale into it. Threw in some chicken stock, and let that cook the kale down a little and revive the rice. Still a little too salty, but a good save.

After a second portion of kale and rice, realized I had ridden about 20 miles today and was a bit undercalorized. Rather than wait until 10 to lose my mind, I powered through a delicious desert, full on. B berated me for risking my sleep tonight, but hopefully the bike ride will counter it.