CHEESE ON TOAST!!

ADDENDA:
When ever my godson Elijah has his picture taken, he shouts "CHEESE ON TOAST!", not quite sure why, I guess an adult had him say it once in hopes of making him smile. I guess he may think it's what makes the camera click. Anyway, as an experimental bite before brunch out, I toasted some superhippy bread and melted some cheese on it in the micro, came out pretty damn tasty. Not as tasty (or heavy) as buttery grilled cheese, but definitely a breakfast food I can ad to my menu.

Some insomnia from a crazy sleep day yesterday, but woke up with an appetite and a clearer head. Swung by the farmer's market, bought a jar of bread & butter pickles from Rick's Picks - a nice condiment for boca burgers. For $8 for a small jar, they better be special ($11 on line!!) The $9 I pay for the superhippy bread confirmed the adage, you get what you pay for. Makes me think I should cook up something cool in my kitchen and sell it at farmer's markets. Power bars? Pancake mix? Homemade ice cream? Hmmmm... maybe when I do the management course at culinary, I'll figure out a business plan to rock out at the farmer's market with some kitchen delights...

BREAKFAST #1: 10:15am, 500mg vitamin C, small piece of toasted superhippy bread with melted raw milk cheese, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

BREAKFAST #2: 11:15am, 1 large pancake, sausage patty, home fries, water, 1.5 bowls, hunger 3/5
Brunch on 12th St. with B & my cousin. I received three huge puffy wholewheat & cornmeal pancakes, ate one of them. They were dry, tough, surprisingly tasteless and totally inferior to my own pancakes in just about every way. I ordered the sausage because the menu said it was made there - it looked homemade, but tasted industrial, with way too much salt.

PM SNACK: 3pm, fuji apple, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Just bought a bunch of apples, had to eat the one that's been sitting out for a week...still crisp! Yum!

PM SNACK: 5pm, 4 pieces fresh hot wholewheat organic shortbread, 1 scoop homemade chocolate soy ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Made shortbread with Betsy, to bring to a big Easter dinner tomorrow at a goyish friend's family tomorrow. I mixed wholewheat pastry flour with wholewheat all-purpose for a better chunky consistency last time. Gonna try bread flour next time.

DINNER #1: 7pm, 4 small potato pancakes, apple compote, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Made potato pancakes from dinnerfest frozen mix, still pretty damn good despite some purplish colors on the top. Tried to cook up a couple of chunks of pork loin that was in the freezer, but it smelled funky so I chucked it. Not enough food....

DINNER #2: 8:15pm, fresh pasta with tomato sauce and grated cheese, cup of almond icecream, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Left over fresh pasta from dinnerfest was great, I let the pasta dry for 10 minutes before I cut it into noodles, and when it unfroze in boiling water it all come apart nicely, not one ugly ball.

EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, 2 pieces of shortbread with chocolate chips on top, .25 bowls, hunger 3/5
Sugar cravings. Funny how eating more sugar creates cravings for more sugar...

Dr. Wildman, and his son, Chef Wildman

ADDENDA:
Last night's knife-skills class was a revelation. All very hands on, a good instructor. We cut vegetables of all stripe, and with some simple instruction found the whole thing to be wonderfully easy. First thing: get a sharpening device for my set of global knives. Second thing: totally rethink my salad this weekend, and consider squash & zuccinni in my stirfry & soup life. Third thing: peeling tomatoes is so easy!! Next spagetti sauce from scratch will be with farmer's market tomatoes when they are back in season.

Fourthly: I think I may want to go to chef's school. Of the 15-odd students in the class (again, me the only dude), he made several comments to me, the first was, "Have you done this before?" and said I was a natural and made it look easy (uhhh, it was easy.) Makes me want a bigger challenge. The Natural Gourmet Institute does have a program, but I don't know if I want to specialize in vegetarian/vegan cooking. I think I'll take one more hands-on class here then try one or two other schools in the New Year, to see if I really want to invest all that time and money in a degree I'll probably never earn back in a professional setting.

Forgot to pack any snacks today unfortunately, and realized because I have a social lunch tomorrow, Friday will be my only other lunch-from-home day this week. Three days a week to start next week, then.

Didn't have any sweets yesterday other than the banana and the apple, which I guess a month ago would of been a huge deal, now it feels....like I should eat like that more often. Was wound up from the class, slept well but only 6 hours and woke up hungry.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, good pancakes from scratch, a jigger of seltzer, hunger 4/5
x

AM WATERING: 9:30am, 24 oz still

BP 9:30am: 129/89

LUNCH: 12:30pm, shrimp w/basil sauce and white rice, small salad slathered in peanut sauce, 2 tiny fried spring rolls, hunger 4/5
OK Thai food, would be interested to learn how to prepare something similar...

PM SNACK: 4pm, 3 potato samosa from Green Symphony, hunger 4/5
Slightly headachey, kinda jonesing for refined sugar. If I had an apple, it would knock that pang out. Feel in control, though. Looking forward to making ravioli from scratch for the first time tonight.

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, 3 pieces sesame tofu, hunger 4/5
Feeling peckish, dinner still needs to be made.

DINNER: 8:30pm, homemade cheese ravioli with homemade tomato sauce, hunger 4/5
Really good. Used the simplest recipe possible (ricotta, parm, egg, nutmeg, parsley, salt & pep) and it came through elegantly. Soft pillowy dumplings with just the right amount of chew. If I hadn't already made the sauce, I probably would of just used butter n' sage...

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, 1/2 serving of good yogurt with honey, vanilla, raw cashews, hunger 3/5
Really craving sugar, only desert I had in the house was frozen cookie dough. So I had this yogurt with an extra squirt of honey. Kind of a dessert, but less intense than a full on freak-out.

PCW (Pounds of Chocolate Per Week)

ADDENDA:
This dessert fast thing was kind of a weird shock to the system, and my minor illness at the end of it a small revelation. I sure feel healthier than I did since starting to consult with Ilsa and write this blog. Where do I go from here?

Do I want this to become a blog about discovering cooking, or a blog about losing weight and keeping it off? Does that have to be incompatible? Maybe I should work up some weekly stats about how many meals I made or prepared myself, and how many were eaten out? Fruit vs. dessert intake? Pounds of chocolate per week?

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, organic chex with good milk, banana, hunger 3/5

AM WATERING: 9:45am, 24 oz still

BP 10am: 133/102
Weird because of recent illness? First time I had a really high BP measurement at the docs was after an illness.

PM WATERING: Noon, 24 oz still

LUNCH: 12:15pm, veg Indian combo plate with rice, hunger 4/5
Spicy mouth, thought about getting dessert, as I CAN if I want to, but decided against it, got cheese n' apple with me. Probably get a meaty thing towards the end of the day to get me through the class tonight.

PM SNACK: 3:15pm, apple & onion edamer raw milk cheese, hunger 3/5

LUNCH #2: 4:30pm, lamb on pita, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8:30pm, cup of bitter greens liquid, coleslaw with plum-mustard dressing, aduki squash stew, long grain brown rice with parsley garlic sauce, sauteed kale with mushrooms, 2 jelly almond torte cookies, hunger 4/5
Cooking class was a demonstration of preparation of all these vegan dishes, flashes of interest but mostly boring and silly. I don't need a demonstration how to cook rice (especially since I now own a rice cooker!) During the class, I was thinking of going out to get hot dogs & tater tots, an old favorite meal I haven't indulged in in quite a while. The first thing I tried was the liquid from the kale she was cooking. Very bitter, at first I was 'yuuuuk!' but then, I don't know, I just kind if LIKED it's differentness and drank the whole cup. The food was a bit dorky in a 70s vegan kind of way, but other than the stew (too much ginger), it was all quite delicious and I plan to make the parsley sauce for rice tonight....to compliment some PORK, yo!

I think I will experiment with the kale/escarole/spinach thing, sauteing with mushrooms n' stuff. The only concern I had about the food is she really did not go light on the salt. It was sea-salt, but still.

EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, veggie booty, hunger 4/5
Something tells me this is a newly emerging habit that Ilsa will not be fond of.

Dessert-Fast, Day 2 (Or: Cheesy Apple!!)

ADDENDA:
So had the first of two "cooking" classes at the Natural Gourmet Institute last night. Unfortunately, it was a 3.5 hour lecture on the basics of how to eat healthy - pretty much everything I've been reading about in various books for the past few years. Still, there were a few things that were good to hear again - like how easy it is to over-buy at the farmers market then let it sit all week at home till it becomes inedible or much less nutritious. So when I got home last night after 10, I set up a bunch of fingerlings with mushroom, onion and dried tofu to bake on a timer while I slept.

She did mention controlling the effects of food on bloodsugar (from where all sugar-lust comes) and how she has a weakness for dark chocolate (snooort!). She mentioned how cocoa-nibs are an excellent snack - hmmmm.....I can have a refined sugar-fast AND eat chocolate?! I think I need to go and investigate ASAP.

So far so good. No sugar-lust yesterday, undoubtedly satiated by the fruit. Kinda looking at this like it's a 100-mile bike ride. Once you've started, no point in worrying if your up to it or not. The first half should be easy. And be aware of what your feeling at all times, as a little pain now will be a huge friggin' deal-breaker a few miles down the line.

BREAKFAST: 8am, toasted sesame bagel with cream cheese and gravelox, seltzer, banana, hunger 3/5

AM WATERING: 9:45, 24 oz still

BP 10am: 126/88

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, apple and a few small pieces of raw edamer cheese, hunger 4/5
Oh my. Oh oh my. -arm flap-. I think this is a breakthrough. Oh oh oh my. I refrigerated the apple, and it was much more crisp (why does B like them at room temp?) and delicious. After that, I immediately ate some small slices of raw-milk edamer cheese I picked up at the farmers market. Wow, I never quite appreciated cheese like I'm feelin' on this. And the combo with the apple....next time I will eat them together, bite for bite.

LUNCH: 1:30pm, roasted potatoes with mushroom, onion and tofu, green salad with carrot dressing, hunger 4/5
Potatoes were just eh today, too much oil and too much lemon juice. However, as an experiment I put in whole cloves of garlic and they came out all creamy and nicely garlicky.

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, 2 samosas and a little brown rice with veg curry, hunger 4/5
Felt hungry ever since lunch, but not in a sugar-lust way.

DINNER: 6:30pm, bacon cheese burger and onion rings, water, hunger 4/5
Quick dinner at an indie fast food spot before a show at BAM with sympathetic refined-sugar faster the Hungry Vegan Society. Not a huge fan of burgers or suspicious chopped meat, but if I am to live in this world, once in a blue moon is not gonna kill me.