Pudding.

Not a good eating day, it was a bit bumbling, but hey, it's the weekend. Indulging myself.


TODAY'S COOKING
Chocolate Pudding: I tossed out last night's pastry cream and started over with this recipe as the base. Upped sugar by a cup. Turned cornstarch into a slurry with a 1/2 cup of cream before adding it. The last time I made this, it never thickened enough -- this time I let it come to a boil while I vigorously whisked, and poof! it thickened perfectly. I still noticed little bits in it, I wonder if that is from bringing the temp too high too fast.

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea

AM SNACK: 9am, spoonful of ice cream


AM SNACK: 11:15am, slice of streetza
Didn't intend to skip breakfast, but it turned out that way. Picked up this slice from a place I previously adored as one of the better slices in the hood, but since the last time I was there, they turned into a $1-a-slice joint. The slice was significantly smaller and the crust had snap but almost no chew, typical of a discount slice. Fneh.



BRUNCH: 11:30am, BLT on rye, fries, diet coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 5:45pm, half a pastrami sandwich, pea soup, fries, pickles, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
At Katz's with B's family. It could have been worse, I suppose. Even 1/2 a sandwich is a little bit much. 



EVENING SNACK: 8pm, spoonful of pudding, spoonful of pastry cream, spoonful of ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Not Pudding

Got a sitter so I could ride this morning, a little b-day gift to myself -- the weather was too nice not too, and the weekend is not going to be as good. Had a scan of my kidney in the afternoon, did some food shopping for the Mad Men dinner party I'm hosting on Sunday....

TODAY'S COOKING
Ice Cream batter: Making cookies n' cream ice cream for visiting inlaws tomorrow. Funny how I don't need to refer to a recipe, of all things, -sigh-. Pint of cream, pint of milk, cup of sugar, combine & scald. Temper in a dozen egg yolks. Add vanilla. Whisk until thickened, pour through sieve into ice bath. Chill, run through ice cream machine. I'll do that last step tomorrow, and toss in a package of Newman-Os that have been pulsed in the food processor.


Chocolate Pastry Cream: UGG. I'm serving chocolate pudding as part of the retro-TV dinner tomorrow eve. Rather than use the recipe I've been using, I used my c-school recipe for pastry cream. I remember making this at school, thinking, "Oh, this is kinda like pudding!" Key: LIKE pudding, NOT pudding. After making a load of this, I realised it's a LOT thicker and pastier than pudding, and not that sweet comparatively, so it can accommodate sweeter things on a tart. Probably will hold this, and remake pudding tomorrow.


BREAKFAST: 7:30am, iced green tea, corn chex and organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


BIKE SNACK: 10:45am, 16oz gatorade, 10oz Manhattan Special, baggie of "potato stix", small Hostess apple pie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2:15pm, breaded tilapia, 2oz whole wheat spag with tomato sauce, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Weird hungry feeling I get after a bike ride -- my stomach feels tight, feels full, but I still feel hungry.



DINNER: 6pm, beef lomein, egg roll, a few veg dumplings, can of Sprite, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, more beef lomein, a few more veg dumplings, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Convenience

Got some weights in, then Milli Mil & I dropped in on DUMBO to visit a colleague in the resto biz. Took Edie & Mil on to and adventure at the garden on 6th between B&C, then spent a long evening running around at home, as  B came home around 9pm. I intended to make something healthier for dinner, but needed something convenient that did not take away my focus from the two rugrats.

AM SNACK: 7:15am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, hardcore oatmeal, a banana, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 11:45am, whole wheat bagel with cream cheese, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 4:30pm, homemade granola bar, pint of seltzer, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 5:30pm, Stouffer's French Bread Deluxe pizza, baby spinach salad, pickle, quart of water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, small bag of potato chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Chilli Chilling & Milli Milling

A good day chilli chilling and Milli Milling in the morning, teaching in the afternoon. Really good, enthusiastic group. Had them taste pure MSG and the majority said, "SOUP!" Ugh, they've all grown up on cheap bouillon, a cheap swap out for real stock.


AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea, small piece of banana bread
Something was wrong with the banana bread, something in it gave an overwhelming biter taste. Something to do with the espresso powder? I threw it out.


BREAKFAST: 9:15am, homemade granola bar, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: noon, sardine & avocado on whole wheat toast, baby spinach salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


SCHOOL SNACK: 6pm, sauteed chicken, mashed potatoes, sprite, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8pm, singapore chow mei fun, baby carrots, 10oz sprite, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Picked up a sane amount of Chinese take out on the way home, mostly rice noodle, thinking it would nip my appetite in the bud, but I found myself hungry soon after.



EVENING SNACK: 9pm, almonds and chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, handful of whole grain pretzels

Ankly

Chores & babies in the morning, teachin' in the afternoon. Pleasantly sore from weight lifting yesterday, though my left ankle is acting up from wearing a different, rarely worn pare of shoes that may have to be retired.

AM SNACK: 8:45am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:45am, hardcore oatmeal,.75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1pm, baby carrots with a little tahini dressing, whole wheat spaghetti in sauce with meatballs, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

SCHOOL SNACK: 6:45pm, 4 mini cheese and meat empanadas with pique sauce, 1 small cheesecake brownie, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5 

DINNER: 9pm, homemade salsa with wholegrain tortilla chips, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10:15pm, small chocolate pudding

Shame on Subway

Had a hard time falling asleep, but got to bed around 1am. Lifted weights in the morning, felt strong, happy Mil slept through most of it. A small shop at Wholefoods with Mil, then a few hours in the local playground with Edie in the glorious weather.


TODAY'S COOKING:
Granola Bars: Wallop of almond butter, wallop of maple syrup, a fistful of flax and spirulina, simmered then 3 eggs added. Tossed with yesterdays granola, pressed into a lined pan, 300 for 25 minutes. Looks good.

Tahini Dressing: Used this recipe randomly, which as to my suspicion uses carrot and tahini interchangebly in this Japanese style ginger dressing. I doubled it, as it is a lot of work for ONE serving of dressing. Tasting it, too mustardy, perhaps because all I had was stuff from the pickle guys. Aftr storing, came out surprisingly thick, and the flavor was a bit too strong. In the next iteration, halve the mustard, maybe up the tahini by 50%, and perhaps add some water to thin it out and lower the volume of the flavor.

Salsa Fresca: Diced a bunch of tomatos, one full sweet white onion, minced three cloves of garlic & most of a bunch of cilantro. Tossed in the cup of tomato juice made yesterday, salt, red wine vinegar and a few dashes of tabasco to make up for the jalapeno missing. I sipped the cold tomato juice -- WOW! I never liked V8, it tastes like aluminum and acid, but this was bright, fresh, tomatoey in the right way, and surprisingly redolent of celery (probably due to the call to cook the leaves as well as the stalks)

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10:30am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
The new fruit mix with less pinapple and nit-berries (black and red) definitely makes for a better smoothie, but I'm getting a note of sulfer, not sure where it's coming from. Still, good.

LUNCH: 1pm, veggie burger sub on "9 grain honey oat" bread, diet coke, a few sunchips, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
While eating, I tried to find the ingredient list on line on my phone for the bread to see how healthy it really is. Couldn't find it, but googled around and found this:

9-GRAIN WHEAT Enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, barley malt, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, yeast, high fructose corn syrup, whole wheat flour, wheat gluten, contains 2% or less of the following: oat fiber, soybean oil, salt, wheat bran, rolled wheat, rye nuggets, dough conditioners (DATEM, sodium stearoyl lactylate), yeast nutrients (calcium sulfate, ammonium sulfate), degermed yellow corn meal, rolled oats, rye flakes, caramel color, triticale flakes, parboiled brown rice, refinery syrup, honey, barley flakes, flaxseed, millet, sorghum flour. Contains wheat.

Jeebsus! This is just Italian bread with a tiny bit of "healthy stuff" thrown in for shits n' giggles. It's mostly just plain white flour -- there is more YEAST than whole wheat flour in it! Ther is more HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP that whole wheat flour in it! Looking at all the bread options, there are NO real healthy bread options there. The take the sheen of healthy eating, but bread-wise, they are committing fraud.

DINNER: 6:45pm, broiled sole with butter & old bay, roasted brussel sprouts, baked potato, baby spinach salad with slivered almonds and tahini ginger dressing, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, almonds & chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, leftover masaman veg curry & white rice, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

High Suburban Style

Food shopping with Edie in the morning, a car trip with Uncle A and the fam to the wilds of Montclair, NJ to visit A's friend and family. Definitely high-suburban life style out there, with a 20 minute drive from midtown. Definitely not my speed. A & B were craving Doritos-shelled tacos from Taco Bell, thank goodness that didn't happen!

TODAY'S COOKING
Tomato Juice: Gonna make salsa this week, but the recipe calls for tomato juice. Tomatoes were on sale, vine ripened 99 cents per pound, so I experimented with this recipe. What is tomato juice, other than tomato sauce with a thinner texture? I halved it, sent it through a food mill, where it pretty much looked like smooth sauce, so I sent it through a wire mesh strainer. Out came a cloudy pink cup of liquid,  maybe 1/4 the original mass. More like what a fancy restaurant would call tomato broth or tomato water. Big flavor, should go nice in my salsa in a few days.


Granola: Ready for another batch of bars. 5 cups rolled outs, 4 cups of raw cashews, slivered almonds, pepitas and sunflower seeds, 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup maple syrup, 1/4 cup dark brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp cardamom, 1 tsp salt, a heavy dash of vanilla extract. 325 degrees for 45 minutes, stirred every 10 minutes. 1/2 cup of chopped dried cherries tossed in after baking. Ready for bars later in the week!


BREAKFAST: 8am, banana bread, iced green tea, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

LUNCH: 12:15pm, breaded shrimp, leftover roasted broccoli, 2 pickles, pudding & whipped cream, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 2:30pm, bits of donuts, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:45pm, pad thai with tofu, chive pancake, thai salad, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, chocolate pudding with whipped cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5