A healthy cupboard

Didn't really leave the house today, feeling mellow and making sure Edie is 100% (she is). Didn't want to order in food, so ate around the cupboard pretty well until it was time to meet up with B at a restaurant.

Going to go quiet this weekend. Tomorrow I'm waking early and cooking an ornate brunch of french toast, home fries, sourdough muffins, chocolate ice cream and pork sausage from scratch, then attending a pot-luck birthday picnic for a friend in the afternoon. Sunday is a 100 mile ride out to Montauk, where my eating will be subsumed by my need to power a ride. Regular broadcasts (and a weekend recap) on Monday. See ya!

AM SNACK: 5am, large glass of iced mint green tea

BREAKAST: 8:45am, organic whole grain cheerios with organic dead milk, banana, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: noon, sardines and avocado and multigrain wholewheat bread, multigrain tortilla chips and salsa, a pickle, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 5:45pm, fried fish sandwich with fries, bread with yogurt dipping sauce, 1 beer, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Met up with B and a mom friend at a local dining establishment, good vibes if not the healthiest meal.

A momentary lapse of veganism

Edie is doing better, but she's used to eating just formula all day, so spending more time with her as she sits with solid food is a focus. We went out on foot today for a solid 4 hours and she was totally back to normal, food excepted.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, large glass of iced mint green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:45am, organic whole grain chex with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH pt 1: 11:30am, large green salad, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH pt 2: 1:30pm, slice of 'zen' pizza, small cup of vegan chocolate 'ice cream', 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
A big ol' vegan lunch in honor of the HVS. Went to Viva Herbal to have the spelt-crusted green tea-infused soy mush and other stuff thing. Walking down the street, felt the urge for sweets but didn't want to go too far into the red, so stopped in at Stogo, for their so-called "ice cream", but what I ate was kinda gritty, bland and bitter punctuated by dry, pasty chunks of "brownie". Ick.

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, bottle of unsweetened green jasmine tea
Thirsty after a short Wholefoods shop, I picked up a bottle of Tea's Tea unsweetened green jasmine tea, the same kind of tea I've used in my last batch of ice tea. I wanted to taste green jasmine in unsweetened form, and it surprised me -- the jasmine flower flavoring gives a depth of flavor that is kinda like sweet without the sweetness. No wonder my iced tea tastes so sweet, the jasmine perfume is amplifying it.

DINNER: 7:30pm, roti cannai with curry dipping sauce, spicy shrimp & vegetables over brown rice, chocolate experiment, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
I plan to make the MOST DECADENT OVER THE TOP RE-GOT-DAMM-DICULOUS chocolate ice cream for Edie's birthday, so for Saturday's brunch, I'm going to serve experimental chocolate ice cream, a winged-recipe based on a creme Anglais base. I put one ramekin of the custard in the freezer just to taste it for sweetness when cold -- it was good. The balance ain't there yet (less instant espresso, a different technique to get the chocolate less gritty needed) but it's a good start.

A Spare Cheesecake.

Chilled out with the Edles in the morning, she seems to be doing a whole lot better. Her eating hasn't quite come back yet, but her crawling, her sunny disposition and energy has.

I should of eaten a proper lunch, because when I got to school I was too hungry, and the only thing around was....a spare cheesecake. Woe to the hungry person trying to be healthy confronted with a spare cheesecake.

We made breakfast in class, and we made the breakfast sausage in tiny 1-bite patties to aid with cooking, which unfortunately made them very easy to pop in the mouth...

AM SNACK: 9:15am, large glass of iced mint green tea

BREAKFAST: 11am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
A big helping of fruit -- banana, grapes, cherries, mango, blueberries and acai juice, with greek yogurt, a pinch of salt and vanilla. Forgot flax this time. Delicious. Remind me again why I don't drink these more often?

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, multigrain tortilla chips & salsa, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, cheesecake, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LINNER: 6pm, french toast, pancake, too much freshly ground breakfast sausage, seltzer, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, whole wheat lavash crackers

Scary

A rough night of Edie crying and tension, a trying test of our teamwork and parenting, but I think we made it OK. B decided to stay home from work with Edie and the nanny while I spent my first day as supervisor of the restaurant from 10:30 until 10pm. Even though I was intimate with the place and the boss, it was all a bit new, being out of it for almost a year and in a new position with a staff I have only socialized with a bit, not worked with. Like war, it was a lot of boredom punctuated with moments of fear and violence (well, not violence, but hot pizza, surly customers and rushing).

The action part was assisting the front of house staff and eye-balling the kitchen, not the same athleticism that I was performing while working in the kitchen. So while I was too busy to worry about food, I didn't burn ridiculous calories either. Louis was around and served me lunch, and after the rush I treated myself to a house salad -- pizza and pasta is not light food. By my bike ride home, I needed a treat and picked up some non-bricky Chinese.

B seemed to have a good day, and the worst of it for Edie seems to have passed. A good end to a big, slightly scary day.

AM SNACK: 8:45am, large glass of iced mint green tea

LUNCH: 1:45pm, spinach & meat lasagna, 2 slices of Sicilian pizza, half a vanilla soda, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 9pm, green house salad, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 10:15pm, shrimp fried rice, shrimp roll, ramekin of dark chocolate, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

The Ediepie

The morning started rocky with B waking me up late, only to tell me I need to get Edles to the doctor. She's been running a slight fever for a few days, and pretty much refuses all food except formula and water. (No worries, the doc says she's fighting a virus, everything is normal, should clear up in a few days by itself.) We went food shopping straight after, and I realized I was crazy hungry. The breakfast bar is full of all sorts of nutritionally suspicious stuff like old french toast, greasy hash browns, sausages of indiscriminate nature. So I picked up a few sushi items, and made sure to get some brown rice in there to try to keep the day in the green as much as possible.

Spent a mellow afternoon doing chores and lifting weights, and Edie slept through a good deal of it. By the time I left for a bike ride, Edie felt cool to the touch, but 10 miles in, B called me that Edie was shivering and had a pallor and was taking her to an ER. So I ditched my ride, took the subway home and checked in with her every time I got signal on the cell phone. Everything was under control, so I went home and awaited news. I couldn't just sit, I needed to use my hands and keep my mind from spinning out in stress, so I made dinner -- keep the hands (and mouth) busy. A big greens salad while preheating the oven and stretching some left-over Wholefoods dough. Brushed it with olive oil, scattered a helping of raw chopped clams, fresh raw garlic, grated parm, pieces of thin sliced prosciutto and a few grinds of black pepper. I was surprised how good this pie was, almost comparable to Pepe's. While the meat got nice and crispy, it did not supply the salt the pie needed -- the only thing it could of used was a sprinkle of salt, and maybe some melted butter mixed in with the olive oil...

The stress of waiting for my family to come home was still upon me, and while I heard everything was good, I still needed some chocolate. I was hoping for a full-on green day, but considering the situation, I decided to be kind to myself in the moment. The idea of my daughter being in discomfort is such a horrendous feeling.

AM SNACK: 8:15am, large glass of iced mint green tea

BRUNCH: 11:15am, brown rice California roll, shrimp summer roll, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2:30pm, sardine & avocado sandwich, bite of kimchi, a handful of multi grain tortilla chips with salsa, swig of mint green iced tea, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, large green salad, clam and prosciutto pizza, ramekin of chocolate chips, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Aspire to Greatness

Mother's day. Woke up after too much sleep, allergies in effect. We trudged out to Brooklyn via trains and shuttle buses, and I fell asleep for a few hours in the afternoon. Found myself hungry after not eating much all day, and packed in some Indian delivery. Rice AND bread, how the traditionalists must sneer at us tubby Americans!

Nothing too awful today, but nothing too great. Need to refocus on my diet. It's not good enough to just not eat anything too awful, I must eat some nutritionally great things, too!

AM SNACK: 7:30am, large glass of mint iced green tea

AM SNACK: 8:30am, spoonful of white chocolate peanut butter

LUNCH: 12:30pm, bagel with cream cheese and salmon, a little salad, a bite of cheese cake, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, shrimp saag with rice & naan, vegetable pakora, water, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5