I really need to hit the grocery...

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, 4 pancakes, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
B sleeping, feeling pleasantly hungry. The good milk is slightly spoiled, so I used 3/4 instead of a cup with a cup of mix and an egg. I through in some cinnamon and vanilla to help mask the milk. The pancakes came out shockingly light and fluffy, and the slight tang of the milk was a wonderful new dimension.

LUNCH: 1:45pm. small green salad with carrot dressing, shumai, tempura, california roll & 4 pieces of sushi, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Sleepy day indoors with B, ordered in Japanese. Was tempted to order Chinese, but B threw a mini-hissy fit at me, which I guess was appropriate.

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, a couple of small bites of cheese, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, popcorn, water, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
At the movies, too salty.

DINNER: 7:30pm, hummus with mushroom stew, stuffed grape leaves, falafel, health salad, a few olives, whole wheat pita, water, vegan brownie, a few bites of vegan cinnimon chocolate cake, hunger 4/5
Went to Hummus Place with B and the HVS after the movies, really yummy, then to Atlas for vegan treats. Had a much smaller brownie this time, as the sugar headache of the last piece of cake I had there was fresh in my mind.

Sad Salad

ADDENDA:

Spent the day riding a desk, banging out a business presentation at the old office. 10 hour day went by in a flash, interrupted by bleah food. Good thing I brought a snack...

BREAKFAST: 9am, good yogurt with honey and vanilla, banana, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, apple & funky cheese, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:15pm, turkey sandwich on kaiser, small handful of fries, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

From a crappy midtown deli, on the company as I'm working freelance in the office today. Funny, it was easy to resist gorging on the fries.

DINNER: 7:15pm, eggplant parm with spag, small green salad, 2.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Again dinner in the office, ordered from who knows where. The salad was a bit sad.

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, homemade almond ice cream, .5 bowls, hunger 4/5
After spending the day working in the office, felt the need for a treat.

Duck, Duck, DUCK!

ADDENDA:
Only road about 26 miles yesterday, with a few hours break in the middle at the Bronx Zoo, but it was enough. Slept like a brick last night, a solid 9.5 hours of sleep. Spent the rainy day indoors at home, working up a freelance project, sending out 10s of resumes. Me and B are going to a dinner party of a friend of hers tonight, and she casually mentions this afternoon that we are to bring dessert....but it's ok, we'll buy cupcakes. No way I'm bringing store-bought stuff to a dinner party where someone is cooking, so I made the only thing I could with the ingredients I had laying around the house, an apple crisp.

I really need to hit the supermarket hard - I'm still living off of dinnerfest leftovers!

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, organic chex with good millk, small apple muffin, .75 bowl, hunger 2/5
Woke up around 8, but stomach still felt full from the night before. Muffin was given as a going-away treat from Craft.

LUNCH: 2pm, homemade mac & cheese, seltzer, 2 bowls, hunger 3/5
In the mood for something lighter, but this was in the fridge.

PM SNACK: 5:45pm, handful of pistachios, .25 bowls, hunger 4/5

DINNER APPETIZERS: 8pm, variety of cheeses, crackers, roasted pepper, cocktail shrimp, 1 beer, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 10:30pm, braised duck, slice of fresh moz with tomato and basil, asparagus, apple crumble, sip of grappa, water, 1 bowl, hunger 2/5
Dinner party where dinner was served too late. The duck was ok, but it reminded me of my mother's 'puke chicken', so I just couldn't appreciate it. Everyone said they loved the crisp I brought, who knows what they REALLY thought, he he.

Donut, Interrupted

ADDENDA:
Heading out on a bike ride around 11am, my first thought was, "Let's go get a donut!" My neighborhood shop, the Doughnut Plant, has some of the best artisan donuts in the entire city. Previously, I would 'balance' my healthy activities with indulgences in unhealthy habits. Looking back, that's kinda retarded - I want to cancel out my healthy activities?! Donuts, like other ornate sweets, alcohol, magical brownies, 5 course meals etc should be saved for special ocassions with friends, not a semi-regular bike ride.

So I paused and munched down an apple to help me get going.

BREAKFAST: 7:15am, good yogurt with honey and vanilla, banana, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 11am, apple, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM-PM WATERING: 11-3pm, 20 oz water, 15 oz water/gatoraide mix
Brought along my camelback as well as a bottle of half purple gatoraide and half water - still haven't found a healthier satisfying replacement for this chemical brew.

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, bag of chips, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Stomach not ready for lunch, but hungry.

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, homemade powerbar, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:45, boca burger on superhippy bread with pickles, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
After ride, home to change quickly, but I was uncomfortably hungry, so I had to eat something.

DINNER: 6:30, 3 pieces of good bread with butter, duck confit amuse bouche, appetizer of crispy 'bacon' pork fatback with apple dressing, lamb loin, roasted onions, a couple of brussel sprouts, garlic risotto, weird mushrooms, 1.5 glasses prosecco, water, chocolate tart, meyer lemon beinets, 3.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Dinner with B & a friend at Craft, probably my favorite NYC fine-dining establishment. I misordered by getting the bacon appetizer, which on an near-empty, hungry stomach, kind of made me feel all greasy and coated on the inside, I would of done better to of started with a raw fish.

Sorry, but gyro meat is not 'lamb'

ADDENDA:
Third night in a row I've slept 10+ hours. Is this a reaction to a week of sick sleeplessness or am I depressed? Thinking about Ilsa's advice, eating less. How to go about it in a structured way that'll not drive me nuts? Bigger lunch, smaller dinner is an idea. Even if I cook something extravegant and complicated, to still be able eat just a bowl or two....I'm hopeful.

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, organic cheerios with good milk, banana, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5

LUNCH: 1pm, moz panini with salad, water, 2 bowls, hunger 3/5
Lunch out in midtown with the HVS and ChoiBoy.

DINNER: 6:30pm, lamb gyro on pita, grape soda, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Riding uptown after yoga to my mother-in-laws, not looking forward to the meal she was serving, and feeling extremely hungry from yoga. So I stopped at a random vendor and after eating it, regretted it. It said lamb, but the meat was processed and salty gyro - makes me appreciate the guy I used to go to in midtown who did the real deal.

EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, small amount of salad, string beans, cookies, a couple of chocolates, water, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5
Ate around the salmon, hardboiled eggs and cold potatoes.

Freezer to Tummy

ADDENDA:
Slept like a brick again last night, 11 hours of blissful deep sleep. Met with Ilsa, her main advice is to eat less n' do more if I want to continue to lose weight. She asked me how I'm doing with the sweets, it occurred to me I couldn't remember the last time I had a sweets-free day (other than today). I need to finish tagging these entries then I'll know...

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, good yogurt with honey and vanilla, .5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Limited myself to 1/3 of the container instead of the usual 1/2.

LUNCH: 1pm, pork tonkatsu with curry sauce, white rice, pickle, cabbage, 4 pork dumplings, 2.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Midtown lunch by the old offices with a friend. Meal came with a cup of miso soup, but skipped it, as it's a salt trap I don't need. Still enough food.

PM SNACK: 7pm, half a homemade calzone, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Dragging this thing out with me all day, had to eat it or throw it out. The crust went a bit stale but the innards were well preserved.

DINNER: 9pm, homemade mac n' cheese, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Outta the freezer, into mah tummy. After microwaving, it was a bit frightening the amount of grease that I poured off the plate into the sink. Still, yummy in mah tummy!

Don't Go to Remedy Diner, It Sucks!

ADDENDA:
Slept like a brick last night, solid 11 hours of sleep, first full sleep in a week, feel good. Before eating, hopped on the scale, and the scale says 232, huh. Looking forward to getting a bit more active this week, a bike ride, a yoga class, hopefully an interview or two, some kissin' on my B, some good cookin', some good eatin'...

BP 11:15am: 136/101
Not happy with that number. Got to watch this closely for the next few days.

BRUNCH: Noon, left over clam pie, grape soda, 2.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
The pie reheated excellently in the oven, really made me appreciate how I could never make this at home for two reasons - one, the clams, despite being a day old, still tasted fresher than anything out of a can. Two, the coal-char on the bottom of the pie gives a certain mildly bitter taste to the crusty part of the crust that is such a great contrast to the sweeter chewier parts.

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, baby spinach salad with oo&v, roasted cashews, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 7:15pm, banana, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Trying to hold out for when I meet up with B later this eve.

DINNER: 8:45pm, small green salad, 1 piece of whole wheat bread, sauted shrimp in wine sauce over yellow rice and peas, vegan peanutbutter cheesecake, water, 2.5 bowls
Me and B went to a new spot in our hood, Remedy Diner on Houston, and man, did it suck. Beside the cheesy decor and the bad service, the food was kind of badly cooked and came out of the kitchen not as described on the menu. And expensive to boot! We scooted over to Atlas for vegan treats to make up for the lackluster meal, which I now regret because I got a thumping headache from the sugar. Gonna drink some water...

EVENING WATERING: 10:15pm, 24 oz still

A Day Trip to New Haven for Clam Pie

ADDENDA:
Woke up still in the thrall of brownie-ness, which pretty much lasted mildly and pleasantly through to the afternoon. Went with B and 5 others to Frank Pepe's in New Haven for clam pizza, was a whole mess of fun. I abstained, but the others sampled my brownies and agreed soon enough that they were quite magical.

First day I felt 100%, glad I didn't have to cancel all my birthday festivities.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, organic raisin bran with good milk. .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 9:15am, small piece of calzone, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10:45am, large chocolate chip cookie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2:15pm, large amount of clam pie and assorted cheesy/meaty slices, 1 pint beer, water, 3 bowls, hunger 4/5

PM WATERING: 4:30pm, 20 oz still

DINNER: 7:30pm, homemade almond ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Fried Chicken, Cheese Steaks, Pizzas, ice cream....and Brownies

ADDENDA:
Well enough to take the bus to Union Square for the farmers market and Wholefoods, then go to deep Brooklyn in the afternoon for lunch. Hopefully next week will be a bit more productive.

BREAKFAST: 9am, apple, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:15am, boca burger on sprouted whole wheat with pickles, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:45am, a few spoonfuls of chocolate soy ice cream batter, .25 bowls, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2pm, a few bites of fried chicken, fried shrimp, fried fish, cheese steak, fries, macaroni and cheese, bread roll, coleslaw, sweet potato pie, grape soda, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
For reasons I can not reveal yet, I went deep into South Slope to a non-descript fried chicken joint, bought up a selection of stuff off the menu, and brought it home and tasted everything. All was quite gross, even the chicken was dry - how can a fried food be dry?! Sweet potato pie was surprisingly mild and vaguely cinnimony, and $21 bought enough food to feed 4 people well.

Thought I ate 1 bowl, but the heaviness in my stomach feels like 2. Not the food I should be indulging in so soon after an illness...

DINNER: 8pm, 2/3 of a magical brownie, spinach salad, homemade pizza, homemade chocolate soy ice cream, 1 glass presecco, seltzer, 3 bowls, hunger 4/5
Made pizza for a couple of B's friends, shared a singular brownie with 2 others. Dinner was great, pizza even better than before, and before desert everything went a bit berrrdoing. Had to lie down, should of had 1/4 to 1/2 brownie, fo sho....

Got up a few times during the night feeling berrrdoing, fortunately not the least bit hungry...

Anita Gofradump

ADDENDA:
Surprising to say I didn't really leave the house again today, I'm on my way to becoming like the woman who sat on the toilet for 2 years. I got on the bike around 10:30 to go to Wholefoods and less than a block out felt weak, sweaty, wobbly and increasingly tired. I was to cook a vegan pie for the HVS's birthday today and totally blew it, and was gonna test run magical brownies, which will have to wait.

Maybe got 4 hours total of sleep last night, replacing Nyquil with ice cream, probably not the smartest move I've ever made. I do know whenever the first night of no sleep-meds happens, it's rough. Getting ansy, really want to get out of the house and do things and see people. I think Betsy is a little nervous I've been sick because I may be depressed, I think it's on the edge of being the other way round if I don't feel significantly better tomorrow.

AM SNACK: 4am, wholewheat pretzel with peanut butter, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, 1 apple, .5 cups, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30p, whole wheat pasta from a box with homemade tomato sauce, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
My pasta is so superior, sniff sniff. Gotta figure out a whole wheat recipe, though.

PM WATERING: 2pmish, 50+ oz of tap
Rereading the blog, I wonder if I'm not drinking enough water.

DINNER: 7:30pm, half a mushroom and onion pizza from Isabellas, water, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

ADDENDA II:
After spending a week on the couch, I found myself doing things like searching 'pizza' on Youtube. This classic Bart Simpson gag at a pizza place was the only vid to make me laugh out loud:

Holistic Nutritionists Are Wicked Overseas!

ADDENDA:
Saw this program today, "You Are What You Eat" on BBC America, which follows a holistic nutritionist around England to her clients, to which she is totally direct and refreshingly brutal in a very English kind of way. Ilsa could definitely do the American version of this show! (Do a search on Youtube to find more parts and episodes.)

Feel better, still took the day indoors, though did some work and puttered around a bit.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, organic chex with soy milk, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Real milk spoiled, reconfirmed my belief that soy milk is nasty.

LUNCH: 2:15pm, cold sesame noodles, wonton soup, sticky rice & mince bundles, 24 oz water, 3 bowls, hunger 4/5
NOT a Chinese brick, but vegan food ordered in.

DINNER: 6:45pm, vegetarian Ethiopian food, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5
B brought in the food from a local place, unfortunately their quality control has tumbled and we probably won't be eating from there again soon. Good thing I had a heavy lunch.

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, almond ice cream, .5 cup, hunger 4/5
Really craving sugar.

Day of Rest

ADDENDA:
Slept fitfully, uncomfortable. Postponed another birthday dinner tonight with a friend, and a birthday breakfast, seems I have a lot of good meals out banked! Damn, I love to eat good food. The 'sick' food I've been eating yesterday and today is mostly homemade, it's a good vibe.

I remember in past years when I came out of an illness like this, I'd be really hungry and I'd break the health-enforced fast with a brick of Chinese. Seems kinda self-abusive now, he.

On a side note, I just picked up a small but potentially exciting non-graphics freelance gig that involves....food! It's too early to say more, but when the poop hits the fan, I'll tell ya all about it.

AM WATERING: 2am, 24 oz still

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, chocolate soy icecream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Have homemade ice cream in the fridge, too, but don't think dairy would do me well in this state.

LUNCH: 11:45am, homemade pasta and tomato sauce, 24 oz still water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5 Appetite coming back, feel better but still out of sorts. Skipped the grated cheese.

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, homemade powerbar, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, boca burger with pickles on superhippy toast, brown rice, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Not a lot of energy to cook, but throwing rice and vegetable broth in a rice cooker with butter is easy peasy. I was originally supposed to have a birthday dinner with Yana this evening, and the cooker was her wedding gift, so I guess it balances out.

EVENING DRUGGING: 10pm, shot of nyquil

Happy Birthday to Me

ADDENDA:
Did not go to sleep the night before, as I was using the WC regularly on the hour. No appetite, fuzzy head, achy. Too much rich food the past few days, rereading the blog I see that these bouts are set off by high concentrations of rich food...

Did not leave the house, postponed fancy dinner with B....

PM SNACK: 12:45pm, 1 apple, 1 small homemade powerbar, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, 1 apple, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, vegetable broth, 2 pieces buttered toast, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM DRUGGING: 9:30pm, shot of NyQuil

Junk Food Armageddon

ADDENDA:
My first summer at summer camp, we had parent's day right in the middle of the month I was away. It was the very first time I was away from my parents, and I struggled with home-sickness for the first week. I was OK for the second, but then my parents visited.

It was a glorious day, and I cried when they left, probably the first time I ever cried for my parents (I was 10). One thing I remember clearly....most of the other campers were from Long Island, and came from much wealthier homes than I did. The camp fed us 3 squares a day, 'family-style', meaning you could as much as you wanted. No one was in need of food. Regardless, other parents would mail their kids all sorts of junk-food which counselors would collect and put into big plastic barrels to keep the animals out.

But when parent's day came, it was JUNK FOOD ARMAGEDDON. Parents would just bring tons of crap to eat all day, take their kids out off campus into the wilds of Pennsylvania to get 'real food', etc. I don't remember what we ate that day, but I do remember a small blue cooler which had some simple things for a light lunch, probably bread and cheese and fruit. My parents never gave me sweets, so it was a huge treat for my mom to give me a plastic baggie full of chocolate chip cookies she made (undoubtedly the recipe off the back of a Nestle's morsel's bag) before they split. I cried, hugged, it was difficult for the three of us.

That evening, the counselors and staff had all the kids take out the huge amount of junk food crap they received that day and put it on the picnic table in the middle of our bunks. Basically, we were told this has to be eaten now, whatever's left thrown away. I had not eaten a single one of my cookies because I wanted to wait till I was hungry and try to make them last for the 2 weeks I had till I saw my parents again. But, it was share and eat and throw away, and I really didn't want to share or throw away, so I took my bag of cookies and ate the whole thing - all these kids had this horrible store-bought cheesy-poof crap in vast quantities, and all I had was my bag of cookies, a little part of my mom right with me. I distinctly remember eating the whole bag, taking a few steps, and chucking my guts out. Wasn't pleasant, but I was glad those stupid kids didn't get any of my cookies, they wouldn't of appreciated them anyway. Still kinda glad.

(When I did a google image search for 'Junk Food Armageddon', this Hulk Hogan pic came up - he was at the height of his popularity when I was arounf 10....)

Brought my Easter candy to the office today, some others also brought theirs in, and put it on the lunch table for whoever to eat. Kinda like the adult version of the parent's day picnic table.

Weighed myself this morning, perhaps not what one is supposed to do the day after Easter dinner, 234. Though others might be disappointed, losing a pound over a few weeks seems right to me. Still, gotta step it up.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, 1 fuji apple, .5 bowls, hunger 3/5
Feel like I have a food-hangover, but I need to go into a client's to pop out some work, would be foolish to eat nothing.

LUNCH #1: Noon, tomato soup, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Swung by B's office and we went to lunch together. Not very hungry and just ordered soup, but once I ate it, it went down my throat fast, guess I was hungrier than I thought.

LUNCH #2: 2:15pm, handful of cocktail shrimp, prime rib sandwich on super hippy bread with b&b pickles, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Left overs from last night's feast, 20 seconds in the micro and still tender and juicy and yummy. Matched well with the toughness of the superhippy. Tried the Rick's Picks super-expensive pickles, was good, not as cloyingly sweet like industrial bread n' butters, but still, not a big deal, not worth the money. Guess I'm just not a pickle fanatic.

PM SNACK: 5pm, a headless solid dark chocolate bunny, .5 bowls, hunger 4/5
A little bit too much. Threw out the remainder of the Easter sweets.

DINNER: 8pm, 2 little rice balls, 2 little fried olives, spoonful of eggplant parm, 1 meat ball, gnocchi with sausage in a light cream sauce, about 2 teaspoons worth of various chocolates, 1 glass prosecco, water, 2 bowls, hunger 3/5
Birthday dinner for a close friend at a nice local restaurant, really good vibes. Cupcakes were also distributed, showed a rare restraint because after the tiny bits of fancy chocolates, the last thing I wanted was a cupcake.

Eat-ster

ADDENDA:
B & I went to deep dark NJ to a friend's family's house for Easter dinner, my first. It's an eating holiday, and there was about 3x more food than necessary for the 7 guests. After a huge spread of appetizers, I got B & her friend out on the 3 rusty bikes in the garage to pedal around the neighborhood for a wee bit, but when we got back were confronted by a gob-smackingly large dinner. It was fun but goyishly weird.

The other day at Grimaldi's Pizza, the server was slow with refilling our water glasses. Around us, almost every person in the place had 20-oz bottles of coke, diet coke and 7-up at their sides. For a hot second I wished I had a bottle of diet coke to wash down the pizza, then it hit me in another hot second - diet coke tastes like battery acid, what I really want is hydration and a palate cleanser, for which either still or sparkling water is ideal. It's the consumer culture, the push to charge me more, which tries to present sodas as the logical choice, when really it's quite insane and unhealthy.

BREAKFAST #1: 8:30am, fuji apple, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
B still asleep, feel 100% better, glad I didn't go out last night. Don't feel like eating, but the slight pangs in my tummy say otherwise. Apple beats caffeine hands down.

BREAKFAST #2: 10am, waffle, bacon, homefries, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Dragged B out to the East Broadway Cafe in our hood, a Polish diner of the old school where I used to go regularly with my parents on weekends. The food was definitely better (and less pretentious) (and a whole lot cheaper) than the place we went to brunch yesterday. Bacon was too salty, given, but sitting in the same seats where I used to sit with mom and pop with B at my side, made any sin of bacon a lot more tolerable.

DINNER: 3-9pm, shrimp cocktail, fritos with various dips including 'caviar pie' and chili cheese goop, bread with sundry dried meats and cheeses, water, prime rib, potato au gratin, asparagus, spinach, salad, chocolate, apple & blueberry pie, vanilla ice cream, weird spicy cookie, short bread, 1 glass wine, 1 glass prosecco, water, 4 bowls, hunger 4/5
So many tchokes on the table, we couldn't find the salt & pepper...

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...

Sick Day

ADDENDA:
Woke up at 10:30, good sleep but physically drained and a remarkable lack of appetite. Slowly came back in the afternoon, hopefully this won't be an extended illness.

Slowly but surely reviewing the contents of this blog, applying labels to each entry (see the list to the lower right.) About a third of the way through, surprised how high sugar cravings are. Where did those cravings go? Am I indulging too much? Perhaps another week's desert fast is in order....

AM DRUGGING: 11am, 500mg vitamin C, pint water

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, homemade powerbar, .25 bowl, hunger 2/5

LUNCH: 3:30pm, 6 potato perogies, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Back of the freezer, wacked these in the microwave. Tasted like....all the stale flavors of a freezer. Pasta should be boiled in salted water, but looking at the nutritional info on the package, it already has an obscene amount of salt.

DINNER: 7pm, garlic shrimp with black beans and yellow rice, small cup of almond ice cream, 24 k\oz water, 3.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Well, my appetite is back, if not my energy. Ordered this dish before, but this time it didn't taste quite right.....the yellow rice was too salty, the shrimp's sauce a bit too astringent.

Emilabar

ADDENDA:
Made these yesterday afternoon, adjusting a recipe that was passed on by Ilsa. I replaced the dried fruits with chopped almonds, organic brown rice crispies, shredded dried apples and dark chocolate chips, and added a shot of almond extract. It's ok, but could be a lot better. The three eggs in the recipe make it overly spongy, I'd like it denser. The rice crispies lost their crispness, not sure how to overcome that. The dried apple bits are too large, gotta chop them finer. The recipe calls for peanut butter, that's a nice note, should up the amount, goes well with the almond extract. Maybe experiment with other extracts on the next batch. Regardless, this should be a good bike-food this season...

I've eaten Cliffbars on the bike for the last 8 or 9 years, I could see a refined recipe taking over. Hmmm, what should I name them? Dude named his bar after his father, Cliff. Emilbars? Emilabar? Emilobar? Sounds a little bit like one of those meal-replacement bricks....

Got home around 5pm, feeling much more tired from the casual ride than I should, so I skipped yoga. Spent some time going through the earlier portions of this blog, tagging things to make them searchable. Noticed I got into my yogurt habit around the time I did a week-long desert-fast, wonder how that's related.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, boca burger on toasted sprouted wheat with ketchup and red onion, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10am, half a homemade powerbar, hunger 4/5

AM DRUGGING: 11:30am, 500mg Vitamin C
Got a headache, feeling tired and achy. Got 6 hours, disturbed several times by Betsy's repeated alarm. Inner ear a little achy, may be an infection starting.

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, 2 brownies, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Quick snack before a casual bike ride. Needed to finish them.

LUNCH: 3:30pm, sausage and veg pizza, half a small cup of rich hot chocolate, 2.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Took B's cuz and a few of her friends on a bike tour of the tip of Manhattan, then over to Brooklyn Heights with a stop at Grimaldi's. Took a quick walk over to Jacques Torres. Really nice.

PM SNACK: 8pm, 3 halves of small chocolate bunnies, .25 bowls, hunger 2/5
Snacked on a few bits from Jacques Torres with my B. One was white, one was milk and the third dark. Nice contrast, underlines that dark is the yummiest.

DINNER: 9pm, baby carrots with a little ranch, 1 homemade power bar, .75 bowls, hunger 3/5

EVENING SNACK: 1am, small superhippy bread cheese sandwich, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5
To help get to sleep.

Food Crime Then & Now: Iceberg Lettuce & Sausage Sticks

ADDENDA:
During the course of the day, I sat down to read my hand-written journal from my cross-country bike trek. I wrote down pretty much everything I ate, the good, the bad, especially the ugly, and a lot of thoughts about my parents, whose passings were still very fresh in my mind. Only once, the two subjects crossed. From my Marshfield, Missouri entry:

Heard a piece on the radio about some local hospital improving their food, choked me up, reminded me of the time my mom was hospitalized, her food, sharing pizza & Chinese food with her, bringing her chocolate. God I miss her.

Mom's hospital food was bland and gross, and my mom had no appetite due to the chemo. Still, she would eat bites of the pizza, Chinese & chocolate not because she was hungry, but because it was comforting and it was shared with her son.

The full weight of my mother losing her facilities came to bear due to her bearings in her kitchen. When she started her first course of treatment, they eventually sent her home, and every few days would make her way back to the hospital. I got a call from her one evening at work, a little panicked because she could not remember how to turn off the oven. I immediately left work and rushed to her apartment. When I got there, the oven was off - she had mistaken the clock time on the panel as a temperature. The next day I moved in with her and started making arrangements for home health aides during the day.

My mom was never a good cook, and it was almost a relief that during the time I lived with her, I got to prepare breakfast and dinner (I'd set aside easy stuff to prepare for the aide). I remember one dinner, I was making dried pasta and jarred sauce, and made a simple green salad with most of the stuff I grew up on - carrots, cucumbers, green pepper, celery, onion - and romaine instead of iceberg. I stopped eating iceberg lettuce years before because it tastes like nothing and is nutritionally void. When I served the salad, my mom asked where the iceberg was. I sighed like I was a snotty teenager again, told her this was much healthier, not to mention tastier, and it was HER generation who screwed up our eating habits by making silly stuff like that the standard.

Instead of getting into a raucous (and fun) argument with me about intergenerational food warfare and my silly teenage-like snottiness, she meekly said, "but I like it." I immediately felt horrendously guilty - I knew subconsciously she was dying and these were most likely her last meals (they were), but on the surface I was hoping to introduce her to new things, to things that reflected my way of thinking and seeing things. Suffice to say, for the next month till the end her house saw nothing but iceberg lettuce. I can't eat the stuff today without feeling a little guilty and sad.

Speaking of guilt, sadness, and nutritional corruptness of a generation, today's peeps certainly aren't guilt-free. Some of us have gotten a lot worse than just iceberg lettuce. I think I ranted about this product early on in this blog, but it's worth repeating. This morning I went to my local Pathmark to pick up bulky sundries like cat litter and toilet paper. I used to shop for my main groceries here before Whole Foods and Fresh Direct started up. After picking up my list, I wandered around a few aisles, where I would find the things that in the past I'd be there to buy. Industrial cereals, yick, diet soda, blech, frozen White Castles, ewww. I seriously considered buying something snackable from the freezer case, and I was also keep an open mind about alternative breakfast foods. Of course, the chocolate chip pancake-wrapped sausage on a stick came into my view and stunned me with all the power that it stunned me with months and months ago.

Really, any adult who bought this for their kid should be charged with child abuse. Looking through the freezer case, looking at fat and salt-heavy snacks called "Anytimepertizers", Jesus fuck, are we insane? I understand freedom of choice, but if economic activities that are arguably victimless like drug use and prostitution are illegal, shouldn't there be a class of "food crime"? (Personally, I think prostitution and all drugs should be legal and regulated, and so should so-called 'value-added' food products, but that's a rant for a different kind of blog....)

BREAKFAST: 10am, organic cheerios with good milk, banana, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, homemade mac n' cheese, homemade vanilla ice cream, homemade brownie, homemade seltzer, 3 bowls, hunger 4/5
Boy, I'm stuffed. Three relatively unhealthy foods easily available in large quantities at Pathmark - mac n' cheese, brownies and ice cream, all made from scratch, all simply delicious, even if frozen and in the fridge for a week.

DINNER: 8pm, assorted shared appetizers including beef bone marrow on toast with wine reduction, 1 boiled whole shrimp with touch of cream sauce, artisanel french fries, country pate, misc. vegetables in vinaigrette, saucon sec, mushroom ravioli, chocolate bread pudding, 1 glass wine, herbal tea, water, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Intense meal at Blue Ribbon bakery in honor of Katya's birthday, with B and 3 others. Read a lot about marrow, seen it on TV, felt like I had it before but upon eating it realized, ahhh, actually, I never ate this before. Presented in a cut shank of bone, the inner marrow is fatty and gelatinous, a cross between warm bacon fat and good butter, really rich and tasty and a bit overpowering if not spread thinly enough. Really tasty, awesomely non-vegetarian looking - when you look at it, you know exactly what your eating, unprocessed and unmediated - you're scooping goo out of the bone, near the joint, straight up. Ain't a burger made up of 20 different cows, ain't mystery meat.

Fat Bastard No More

ADDENDA:
Went to see Bad Manners last night, an early 80s 2-Tone era British ska band whose leader was renowned as an extremely fat guy. Doug Trendle, a.k.a. Buster Bloodvessel, a.k.a. Fattie, a.k.a. Fat Bastard has many songs in his catalog celebrating being fat, over eating and over drinking. In the late 90s, he sponsored a hotel called Fatty Towers that catered exclusively to obese people - big beds, huge meals, an expectation of little physical exertion....

....So I was pretty surprised when Buster came out on stage looking like a slip of his former self. Hoping he did it through diet, though a google search says otherwise, kinda disappointing. Still gave a great high-energy show, just like he did in his corpulence a decade ago. Of course now he's in his late 40s instead of late 30s. Didn't play a single song I didn't know, most of which I was already intimate with when I was 15. When I was 15, I was about as skinny as Fatty is now. Now I'm more towards the old Fatty size of things. Never thought I'd be fatter than Buster Bloodvessel. Oh, how times have changed!

BREAKFAST: 10:30pm, homemade pancakes and bacon, water, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Woke up late after a good night's sleep, hungrier than usual. Haven't made myself this yummy breakfast in recent memory, really hit the spot. Used the last 5 strips of bacon, I know it was excessive, but sooooo yummy.....if it was the crappy salty industrial kind, probably couldn't of gotten through 2 of them.

LUNCH: 4:30pm, grilled tempe with kasha & marinaed hijiki, cup of spicy lentil soup, water, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Lunch with the HVS at the yoga studio, after another session of back-bending. Surprised how this vegan food tasted so good - reminded me a bit of Angelika's, whose food all kinda tastes like dirt. Unlike 99% of non-fine dining establishments, the portion size was a lot more reasonable than the usual buckets of food we've come to expect.

DINNER: 8pm, shoyu ramen with extra pork, 6 pork dumplings, half a portion of edemame, a small portion of Yana's noodles, a piece of vegan cheese cake topped with brownies, water, 4 bowls, hunger 4/5
A bowl of ramen soup is a large thing, easily fitting more than 2 bowls of food in it. Didn't eat enough all day. Afterwords, we walked to Atlas for desert, which does a zillion different kind of vegan sweets.

Weighty Matters

ADDENDA:
A little sore in the arms from hauling Erikka's lifetime of possessions. Rushed out the door this morning a little after 9 for an interview, but not before stepping on the scale - 230 even. That's the first time in budged by more than a pound or two from 235 in in years. I suspect it's just water weight that I haven't gained back from Saturday's ride.

While at WF today, tempted to buy apples but they all seemed vaguely mushy to the touch. Bought brown rice crispies and chocolate morsels to make my own powerbars this week. If I'm gonna burn large amounts of calories on the bike, I guess that's an opportunity to up nutritional value, too. Still haven't found a good replacement for Gatorade...

BREAKFAST: 8:15am, 1 apple, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5
Not enough, still thinking about a new breakfast regime.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, pork chop, brown rice pilaf, large spinach salad, seltzer, 3 bowls, hunger 4/5
Sauteed the pork without marinating it to see how it would be, still good but not as flavorful or tender. Brown rice pilaf left over from dinnerfest was alright, and made a big new baby spinach salad with carrots, cuces, and this time slivers of red onion, dressed with oo&v and some freshly roasted crumbled cashews.

PM SNACK: 4pm, boca burger on sprouted whole wheat with hot sauce, .5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Hungry, desiring sweets, drank some water but didn't stop the hunger. Kinda want to have a sweets-free day.

DINNER: 6pm, chana masala, daal, half a naan, small amount of white rice, 1 potato samosa, water, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Very mediocre Indian food, been on the hot tray too long. Nice to be out with B, though.

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, wholewheat pretzel with good peanutbutter, large handful of shelled pistachios, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Really hungry, desiring sweets. Almost ate ice cream, almost ate some mac n' cheese, but I was trying to eat the minimum to stop me craving.

A Moving Experience

ADDENDA:
Spent most of the day driving a large truck and lugging boxes and furniture, helping my good friend Erikka move house. A little sore from yesterday, in a good way, kinda want to get on the bike again as soon as possible and do a 50. And really want to take another back-bending class this week too.

BREAKFAST: 8:15am, apple, .25 bowls, hunger 3/5
Gotta rethink my breakfasts, cut back on the dairy for a while.

AM SNACK: 10am, 2 donuts, .75 bowls, hunger 4/5
Donuts were supplied to the troops to keep them going up and down the combined 5 flights between the two apartments.

PM SNACK: noon, 1 quart gatorade, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Again, quarts were supplied to the troops to keep energy up. Reading the label, surprised that the bottle was indeed 4 servings, but a total of 200 calories. A quart of soda would of been close to twice that.

LUNCH: 3pm, 2 slices of streetza with mushrooms, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Third time, vittles for the troops.

DINNER: 7pm, bowl of baby carrots & cucumber with hummus, small slice of lasagna, brownie & small cup of vanilla ice cream, 2.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Damn, that lasagna was easily the tastiest thing I made over Dinnerfest, save maybe the pork medallions.

Let's Get Physical

ADDENDA:
Slept horribly last night, couldn't get to bed till 3, think I overdosed on dairy. Woke up at 8 and dragged myself into the kitchen to eat something. Felt like going back to sleep, but also felt crappy. I knew if I did go back to sleep, I'd probably wake up better rested....but still crappy.

So I took off for a 10:30am yoga class, a beginner's back bending class, really enjoyed it. Swung by the farmers market for a few things, then met Betsy in Chinatown for a 45 minute back rub.

Feeling energized, I went home and had a quick plate of lasagna before gearing up head to toe in spandex and biked to Coney Island, stopping at the beach to scarf a sandwich I brought with me. First ride of the season proper. I wore my day-to-day glasses instead of my sun glasses because I just didn't want any barrier between my brain and the sun. Not clever, but it felt right.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, small portion of good yogurt with honey and almond extract, .5 bowls, hunger 2/5

PM SNACK: 12:15pm, fuji apple, .5 bowls, hunger 4/5
After yoga, as I was in the farmer's market, started to feel a little bit nauseous from having a totally empty stomach and having just done some physical exertion. So I bought a sack o' apples and scarfed one right then and there. Oh my, the crisp sweetness, the juice filling my mouth and running down my throat to soothe my upset tummy, a very superior apple experience.

LUNCH: 1:45pm, lasagna, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, superhippy peanutbutter sandwich, handful of almonds, 28 oz water, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, large spinach salad, macaroni n' cheese, brownie with small cup of vanilla icecream, 2.5 bowls
Kind of surprised I didn't eat more.

Post-Dinnerfest Wrapup II

ADDENDA:
Despite the late indulgence, slept like a rock - having Betsy by my side was what I needed. Funny, I didn't really miss her THAT much until yesterday afternoon and I was finishing up my work and she was back in NYC uptown helping her mom. Then I was, like, enough already, I miss her!

Rereading yesterday's post, I didn't really do a Dinnerfest post-mortem. Some random observations.

1. Making a lasagna from scratch is an intense 5-hour affair.
2. Everyone loves homemade icecream, but if you over-aerate it, it's not nearly as intense.
3. When I cook something complex a 2nd or 3rd time, it's almost always better (specifically the risotto and the 2nd round of arancini.)
4. Diverging from a recipe is a good thing 2/3 of the time.
5. My friends are pretty awesome.
6. I really enjoy cooking, but I'm still fuzzy if I want to do this for a living. However, I more now than ever want to go to Culinary.
7. Pizza-fests are the easiest go-to fun meal for a crowd, but I need to find a good dough recipe.
8. I gotta cure my own bacon, too.
9. Dinnerfests generate a LOT of dishes, and a lot of Wholefoods bills (and a whole lotta leftovers - the mini freezer is stuffed with ice creams and brownies!)
10. A lot of people don't want to eat vegan. Even the HVS pulled a boner.
11. The only thing Rufus has with misery is a love of company.
12. Marinating pork for 3 days then browning it on high heat for 7 minutes on one side and 5 minutes on the other results in a restaurant-quality piece of meat. Up until Dinnerfest, I was a bit unsure of my skills handling real, un-grinded meat, but now I have the confidence for MORE PORK!
13. Both my brownies and lemon muffins were (I think) superior to mixes, and not much harder to make.
    
14. All my life when I made salad, it was a standard green salad with a very limited ingredient list. However, the baby spinach salad I made with the roasted nuts was so enjoyable, I think I'm going to start mixing it up. Salad season is upon us!!
    

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, good yogurt with honey and nuts and vanilla, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5
Ate 1/3 of a carton rather than 1/2, was still pretty satisfying.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, 2 slices streetza, green salad, water, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5pm, 1 arancini, .5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Man, these things are good. I should do the same for the mac n' cheese I'm making - ball up old leftovers, bread it and fry it!!

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, 2 spoonfuls of almond icecream, ramakin full of pistachios, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, small portion of mac n' cheese, a few strips of prosciutto, small piece of chocolate cake and cheese cake, 1 glass wine, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Potluck dinner for B's cousin. Surprised how few people (no one other than me, really) brought home-cooked food. I made a mac n' cheese, took about half an hour to prep and an hour to bake, and it was still hot when we got it there. Disappeared pretty quickly.

Post-Dinnerfest Wrapup

ADDENDA:
The plan was to go up town to meet a friend for lunch, then yoga, but I got wrapped up on a piece of freelance typesetting that's due tomorrow morning, and before I knew it it was 5pm.

Got a good amount of sleep, but feeling vaguely sick, headachy, groany. I'm ready for Betsy to be home.

BREAKFAST: 10am, organic chex with good milk, .75 bowl, hunger 2/5
Got 9 hours of sleep, still groggy and a little headachy.

AM SNACK: 11:30, 2 short bread cookies, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5
Need a nibble to keep focused on work.

LUNCH: 3pm, lasagne and 2 arancini, small cup almond ice cream & 3 pieces shortbread, water, 2.5 bowls hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, large spinach salad, boca burger on sprouted wheat bread, water, 2 bowls, hunger 3/5
Not very hungry, but I'm afraid if I don't eat, I'll get hugnry at a late hour and eat regrettably.

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, small cup of almond icecream, 1 piece shortbread, hunger 4/5
I shouldn't of ate this, this purely serves to keep me fat. But I was in a celebratory mood, as my Betsy is back and I wanted her to have some. And once it was out....

Dinnerfest V: Lasagne Laboratory

ADDENDA:
Long day capped the final night of Dinnerfest 2008. Couldn't fall asleep last night till 3, woke up naturally at 7. Had a good interview uptown, then picked up stuff at Wholefoods. Ate, chilled, and before I knew it it was 2pm. Cooked straight till 8pm, finding making such a large quantity of fresh pasta in such a multi-layered dish. A few peeps cancelled at the last minute, but Karen & her Chandler came which made everything all right, if only a lot more stuff for the freezer than I expected.

It's now 10:15 and I'm completely burnt. Hopefully desert won't keep me up tonight...

BREAKFAST: 8am, organic cornflakes with good milk, .75 bowls, hunger 3/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, pork medalions, brocoli, rice pilaf, brownie and almond icecream, 2.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Pork was still moist and tasty after a night in the fridge...

PM SNACK: 4pm, 1 piece of whole wheat shortbread cookie, hunger 4/5
Just baked it, had to try it. Gooooood.

DINNER: 8pm, arancini with baby spinach salad dressed with oo&v and roasted cashews, meat & dairy lasagne from scratch (including the pasta), almond icecream with shortbread, 1 glass wine, seltzer, 2.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
The arancini this time were so much better, I breaded them with panko that just made the rice balls SCREAM, and I deep fried them longer for a thicker jacket o' crust, an excellent compliment to the salad. The lasagne was technically extremely difficult to get together, between all the differnet parts (a ricotta & spinach layer, a mozz-duo layer, a ragu layer(which was made last week), freshly made tomato sauce on the bottom and top, and all those sheets of fresh pasta that almost didn't come off because doubling the recipe doesn't quite work right, he he.

I think Rufus is tired of me cooking so much food every night, he had a bite of shortbread then curled up on my head for the night....

Dinnerfest IV: Powered By Pork

ADDENDA:
Saw the latest Anthony Bourdain show this evening, where he went back to the restaurant that made him famous and worked the line for a night. I'm sure they took some liberties with editing, but it looked like a huge pressure-cooker of a cluster-fuck for anyone not ready to submerge in a vat of no-think-just-do for 12 hours daily. Cooking for Dinnerfest is definitely a beast of a different nature than cooking professionally. I'm just playing the guitar for a few friends in the living room, they're out on tour with Michael Jackson.

BREAKFAST: 7:15am, 2 lemon muffins, coffeecup full of chocolate soy ice cream, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Before leaving the house at 8:30 to do family chores, baked brownies from scratch to accompany a new batch of ice cream tonight, whose mix I cooked up last night before going to sleep. The pork loins have been marinating for 2 days... tonight's meal definitely is taking the most pre-thought.

LUNCH: 1pm, 1 pint pork fried rice, shrimp toast, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
I was far uptown and my bicycle was crippled by 1.5 foot deep pothole, so popped into a Chinese take-out for some oral entertainment on the subway ride home. For some reason, they did not give me any utensils or napkins....the shrimp toast was easy enough to pop in my mouth, the fried rice not so easy.

The train wasn't crowded, and once I got on I realized the appetizer made me hungrier, and some how the rice had to find a way to mah belly. I opened the container, firmly gripped within the paper and plastic bags, and using three fingers as a spoon, I lifted the rice close to my face and shoveled. As the train would come to halt at stations, I'd stop to grab the bike to make sure it didn't fall over. As I'm eating, I realized I probably look totally nuts - I'm the nut on the subway. No one was staring, and I WAS careful not to get rice anywhere other than my mouth. I know if Betsy was there, she'd be three shades of purple, but I probably would of not of busted out the rice till I got home.

PM SNACK: 3pm, 1 tiny square of brownie, hunger 3/5
Just wanted to see if it was the brownie of my dreams....no, but a lot closer to it...

DINNER: 8:30pm, 2 arancini (pictured below), pork loin with an onion sherry gravy, roasted brocolli, mushroom rice pilaf, almond icecream and a brownie, 2 glasses wine, 1 small cup Guiness, seltzer, 3 bowls, hunger 4/5
This meal was the best yet in Dinnerfest, if only because all the dishes that I made previously, this time they were markedly improved. The arancini (deep fried balls of yesterday's risotto with a speck of mozz in the middle and coated in egg and flour) was so much better because of the addition of a fry thermometer and much denser risotto - this time, surprisingly ungreasy. The brocolli was as good as usual....the pork, oh the pork, I cut the loin into small 1-serving hunks, just a palm size piece, and browned them on three sides before putting them aside to rest...moist, tender, just a tease of pink in the middle - not perfect, but 2x as good as the pork chop I made a week ago and 10x better than the dry husks I cooked up a month ago. The pilaf....eh, I used all the good ingredients and toasted the hell out of the rice before puttin g it in the cooker, but after 2 tries with hard grainy results, I added more liquid by a cup and it came out mushy. Peeps liked it, but it's not the risotto of my mind.

I served everything on the small 'salad plates', and the plate looked relatively full with a normal conservative portion. If I put them on our 'dinner plates', it would of taken up 1/3 of the real-estate, rediculous.

Dinnerfest III: All About Ilsa

ADDENDA:
Unfortunately, the Hungry Vegan Society pulled a boner and couldn't make it, so tonight's dinner was all about the singular guest of honor, my nutritionist, Ilsa. Funny, one sure way not to over eat is to become friends with the person helping you manage your eating, then invite them to a homemade rich meal.

I kinda wanted a second helping of risotto, as it took a good 45 minutes of elbow grease, but I'm glad I didn't - after a small single serving of soy icecream, I really was content.

Never worked with rice pizza dough. Early in the cooking process I made a little sample 'za (pictured - ain't it cute?) to see how it reacted to the heat and pizza stone - Ilsa said it was really good but the whole cracker-like non-chew of the crust bugged me out.

Earlier in the day, I got an interesting email from Ilsa. I asked for some specific kind of meal plan to focus on to get my weight reduced a bit. She wrote:

Hi Noah,

at our last session you asked me to give you an ideal meal plan.

First things first: no more snacking and no more late meals (no food after 8 pm) and no more boxes of cookies. You have enough awareness by now to know when to say when and you need to put that into practice.

I suggest the following and we'll tailor it to minimize suffering and maximize results.

1. start the day with breakfast. 3/4 of a bowl. I'd suggest you take a page out of the Isreali breakfast. You want to eat foods you enjoy, that will nourish you and jump start the metabolism.

2. make lunch the biggest meal of the day. I'd suggest you eat the pork medallions at lunchtime. 2.5 bowls

3. a small something, ONLY if you feel hungry around 3 pm.

4. dinner: this meal needs to become smaller and lighter. More vegetables. 1.5 bowls.

Last but not least no more take out chinese food. Seriously. You can have take out chinese once per month and that's it.

Keep track of when hunger (grumbling stomach) hits so we can adjust according to your real needs.

also: please be very smart about this weight loss. You're going to feel different. As you lose the weight toxins will be released into your blood stream this will affect your moods. I'd suggest you start to drink more water to help flush the system.

We've also got the cleanse coming up at the end of the month and the cleanse will involve drinking more water.

I have not mentioned specific foods b/c you are going to have to start listening to what your body wants. I can't tell you what's right. I've asked that you go to whole foods and contemplate the fruits, vegetables, and meats and I'm going to ask you to do this again. You have to begin to listen and hear which foods are resonating with you. Those are the foods you should eat.

Please add seeds, nuts, and olive oil and more fruits: apples, pears, bananas.

I hate to say it but I think your palate is a bit lazy and you're going to have to strengthen it by varying your diet.

Your weight loss plan is a work in progress but let's try what I've outlined here for a month and see where that gets you.

Talk to you soon.

Ilsa

Oh dip! I got served! Lazy palate 'n all. After reading this, I thought, "Hmmm, I haven't had Chinese in quite a while, should I go for a brick?" He he. Actually, the last brick made me feel so crap, I can't see that happening. But after cooking so much this week, I may kick back with a pint of pork fried rice...

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, 2 lemon muffins, water, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Funny, I forgot I made these and wasn't going to eat breakfast because I just didn't feel like eating anything. Looked in the fridge and 4 beautiful, fresh muffins in tupperwear stared back at me. I instantly became a little hungry.

LUNCH: 12:15am, fresh hummus with a handful of baby carrots and a hunk of superhippy bread,water, 2 bowls hunger 4/5
Not much to eat in the house other than ingredietns for dinner, so I whipped up a batch of hummus, whose ingredients happen to be lying around. And if I'm going to try a Euro-Israeli breakfast, it's a key staple...

PM SNACK: 4pm, 1 small cup of vanilla icecream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:45pm, rice crust olive oil & garlic pizza, mushroom & sherry risotto with roasted broccoli, small cup of chocolate soy icecream, 1 glass wine, seltzer, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
The rice crust pizza was a bit skeevy by my pizza-standards, but I guess if you can't tolerate wheat, you could disguise it with good cheese, sauce and olive oil. This was the second time I've made risotto, and even though it was 2x better than the first time I made it, it sat for about 15 minutes before serving and became a little bit gluey - that there is some sensitive stuff. The roasted broc was good as usual. I played a little with the soy chocolate ice cream, using both melted baking chocolate and coco powder - it became intensely chocolaty, almost to the edge of bitter but not quite. A strong chocolate that pulls no punches.

Dinnerfest II: Brunch Edition

ADDENDA:
Woke up, felt good, yesterday's yoga didn't hurt me too much. Today's dinnerfest was a relaxed affair, four friends and a comfortable rolling afternoon.

Got the key ingredient to make magical brownies today, gonna bake it for my birthday.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla, nuts, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5
Time to peel the 'taters...

PM SNACK: 1pm, veggie booty, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

BRUNCH: 3pm, 3 small lemon muffins, 5 potato latkes with cream fraiche and apple compote, vanilla ice cream, 2.5 bowls, 2 mimosas, seltzer, hunger 4/5
Made bacon, but only enough for the other four guests. The lemon muffins were from scratch and quite good, used whole wheat pastry flour. The latkes were a challenge, the oil being either too hot or too cool. The apple compote came out surprisingly well, simply cubed apples slightly sauted in juice and lime juice with a little sugar and corn starch. The ice cream was again rather rocking.

DINNER: 8pm, 5 potato latkes with a little bit of cream and compote, water, 1/5 bowls, hunger 3/5
Was tempted to dig into ice cream but actually stopped myself because a) had no sugar craving, as the apple compote was sweet enough and b) thought it might interfere with my sleeping. It's bad enough not having Betsy here, for her to not be here AND have insomnia, that would be worse.

Dinnerfest I: Pizza Nite

ADDENDA:
Woke up late, bathed and whipped up lunch, then went to a yoga basics class, hit the farmers market, cleaned the house and prepped for Dinnerfest. Four friends came over, none know each other, but I knew all were quality peeps and was a great vibe, emails were exchanged and all the fod presented was eated, with 2nd all around. With the left over ingredients, made calzones for peeps to take home.

LUNCH: Noon, shrimp in a stock and sherry reduction with mushroom brown rice, 1 bowl,, seltzer, hunger 4/5
After making it and eating some, realized that I had made about 3 bowls worth of rice, but was content at less than 1.

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, 1 mutzu apple, chunk of raw milk onion edammer cheese, seltzer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Went to the farmers market after yoga, didn't buy much other than this snack. Damn, that apple was crisp and fresh!

PM SNACK: 6pm, veggie booty, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Spent the last hour cleanings the house, something Betsy somehow doubted I would do before having guests, like I was some uber-slob before she moved in. Hrumph!

DINNER: 8:30pm, spinach salad with olive oil & balsamic & roasted cashews, various pizza slices, small cup of homemade vanilla ice cream, 2 glasses red wine, 1 beer, seltzer, 2.5 bowls
The first night of Dinnerfest went swimmingly, but I must admit, it did feel a little bit like a punt - I've done the pizza thing for 5-6 people before. Still, I did this nice appetizer salad - baby spinach, cherry tomatoes, cucumber minus the seeds, balsamic and olive oil, and some crushed freshly roasted cashews in butter and fresh thyme, really yummy.

I discovered with the pizzas that if I role it out to a 6" disc then let it rest until I need it, the dough becomes VERY loose and barely needs to be rolled, it can by stretched by hand! And tossed, I imagine.

I am....the CARBONATOR!!

ADDENDA:
Fell asleep before 10 last night, woke up at 4:30. I wonder if only having about 4.5 bowls of food had anything to do with that.

Making a list to go shopping for the first few days of Dinnerfest 2008, which starts tomorrow. Haven't really given it too much thought, but now that I am, looking forward to some things I've never done before. Tomorrow, a restaurant-worthy appetizer salad to compliment the pizza, on Sunday brunch lemon muffins to compliment the vanilla icecream...

Betsy got me a home-carbonation kit for my birthday, I guess because I was grumbling how that GuS soda is so lovely, but probably easy to make if I just had the right equipment, he he he. I guess it's put-up or shut up time, I guess I may try for some homemade sodapop for dinnerfest... regardless, I used to go through a good $100-$150 worth of carbinated waters every few months - between the packaging and the importing, ridiculous. I'm not a huge green-fiend (hi, HVS!), but I am a huge fan of NYC tap water, it's my #1 drink of choice because it TASTES GOOD. And now I can have carbonated NYC tap water!

BREAKFAST #1: 5am, good yogurt with honey, nuts, vanilla, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

BREAKFAST #2: 9am, boca burger on sprouted wholewheat, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11am, baby carrots, cucumber and red pepper with ranch dressing, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Just hungry this morning, avoiding hammering down something heavier.

LUNCH #1: 1pm, homemade cheese ravioli with olive oil and grated parm, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH #2: 3:30pm, 1.5 grilled cheese sandwiches on superhippy bread with raw milk emmanthaller and grilled onions, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5-7pm, about 3 cupcakes, from batter to frosting, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Baked 3 dozen vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting, came out ok, better than the last batch.

DINNER: 8:30pm, half an Isabella's Oven Margerita DOC, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, 1 bite of homemade pizza, 1 cup sangria, water, hunger 2/5