Umami Dinner

227.4--->221.0--->221.0

My weight has remained the same for the past month, but I didn't eat much yesterday, so I suspect I might be a little heavier. Still, it's good that I've maintained despite the increase in sweets and heavy foods I've run to this past month. July is a time for summer foods, but with the upset I had in June with the leaving of the job, the refocusing on the home cooking and finding myself making stuff like baked ziti and rice & beans, it's almost surprising I haven't gained more weight.

The good: ate a lot less restaurant and take out food, replaced it with home cooking, using upwards of 90% of each CSA delivery each week, consistently hitting the weights 3x a week, getting in 50-100 miles a week on the bike.

The bad: my sweets consumption has pretty much increased to daily, my vegetable, fruit and greens intake are too low.

So to be honest, eating less restaurant/take out and and more home cooking is not really a challenge -- it is my new reality until I find myself in a new position at a restaurant or somewhere else. The challenge to focus on this month is to, say, restrict sweets consumption to three days a week, and increase my intake of dark greens and/or fruit and/or raw vegetables to one a day. I guess I should start making vegetable salads again, and lean on that big bag of frozen spinach.

Lifted weights in the morning, nice 30 mile ride in the afternoon. Should of eaten more on the earlier end.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Pasta a la Papa: Very happy how this off-the-cuff pasta came out, worth making again. Sauteed 2 large diced onions in olive oil & salt, added sliced container of baby bella mushrooms. In the last 4 minutes, sprinkled with dried oregano and thyme. Last minute, crushed 4 cloves of garlic into it. Drained 1 lb of tri-color rotelle into hot pot, added sauteed veg, a healthy shot of Worcestershire, about a cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Finished with a large pat of butter swished around until melted, and a few healthy turns of a pepper mill.

Writing this down, I see why it's so good. There are 3 big sources of umami - the cheese, the mushrooms, and the Worcestershire. (Doesn't hurt that I was really hungry from a day on the bike!)

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

BIKE LUNCH: 2:30pm, street pretzel, Gatorade, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:30pm, rotelle pasta with mushroom, onion & parm, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, dark chocolate & cashews, brown rice crispies & organic dead milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: midnight, good peanut butter and nutella, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Anniversary

Didn't get much sleep, probably the effects of the meager 1.5 beers I had before late dinner last night. B,E & I went out for brunch this morning at Bubby's in DUMBO, where we got married and next to the park we had out first date/where I proposed. Today was our 6th anniversary, though for some reason until she told me, I thought it was our 5th.

Our six years can be divided neatly into three eras:

• First 2 years: Meet n' greet
• Second 2 years: Married n' harried
• Third 2 years: Edie indeedy!

I guess the fourth 2 years will be all about juggling 2 bebes and stuff. I'm very lucky to have snookered such a great gal to marry me, and even luckier to have such a wunder-bebe with her.

And so endeth July. I weigh in tomorrow, I suspect I'm a few pounds heavier, but physically I still feel good, muscles more toned than they've ever been, core-strength has increased a little, arms and shoulders feel slightly beefier. Working out three days a week on weights to the point of soreness the next day is something I should have started doing years ago. I have some thoughts about my eating patterns of late, I guess I'll go into that and the challenges tomorow.

Fell asleep at the tv around 7, a few hours later picked myself up and put myself to bed.

AM SNACK: 8:45am, handful of chocolate covered espresso beans

BRUNCH: 10:45am, pancakes, potatoes, sausage, pie, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LINNER: 4:45pm, hotdog, knish, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Fuddy

Spent the day with Edie in the hood, B was feeling a bit under. A quick stop at Hester St. Fair had some meh corn, a utilitarian lunch, and a nice night out in Brooklyn with friends for drinks and dinner. 1.5 beers on a stomach ready for dinner really makes me buzzed, I haven't been such a light-weight since high school.

BREAKFAST: 8am, 3.5 pancakes, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


AM SNACK: 11:15am, cob of Mexican corn, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1:30pm, fish sticks, spinach, cabbage and potato knishes, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, watermelon


DINNER: 9pm, 1.5 beers, a little bologna sandwich, quarter of a deviled egg, a little catfish, shrimp and grits, a little fried chicken, a little brownie & ice cream, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Went to Seersucker on Smith Street, a modern spin on Southern cooking. Nice to go out to a nice room with good service and good food, though I would have been just as happy to be at a friend's house for a dinner party with the exact same crew. Does that make me a fuddy duddy?

She's no fool!

Mellow day in the morning with Edie, afternoon with Edie & D in from out of town. Out for dinner, home early, a good day. Baked round 2.5 of the Knish Experiments during Edie's nap.


TODAY'S COOKING:
Knishes: With the left over dough, made another round. Baked at 350 instead of 375 for 25 minutes instead of 20 -- even less color, tougher skin, not the way to go. Potato better with more onion (5lb p to 3lb cooked o). Spinach, not sure, upped the potato content and it might appeal to what people understand a spinach knish to be, but I think I might like it less. Cabbage is good, I upped the vinegar and it tastes more like kraut, in a good way -- a sweet spot between plain cooked cabbage and pickled vinegary kraut is what I'm looking for. With a few extra squares of dough, made a baked ziti knish (fail) and a chocolate knish (a lump of semisweet chocolate chips, good but needs work, different dough, different ratio, maybe some sort of element in the chocolate to make it more of a pastry cream.)

Edie Ice Cream Pops: Edie has pretty much been demanding "ice cream" after every single meal, breakfast, lunch and dinner ("SHE'S NO FOOL!!", I hear some of you shout.) I made a round of frozen treats last week, and supplemented the supply with some smoothie here and there, frozen to please. Today's round is identical to last time, but 1/2 the sugar. One can of coconut milk, half jar of 1-ingredient smooth peanut butter, 1 ripe banana, a healthy shot of vanilla extract, a dash of salt, and 1/4 cup of simple syrup (1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water, boiled until all sugar dissolved) -- all blended for a few minutes then put in 6 pop molds plus two 5-ounce Dixie cups.

BREAKFAST: 8am, organic cornflakes with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH pt 1: 12 noon, Mediterranean salad, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Made this yesterday, only tasted it to make sure it had enough salt (it did from the feta). I REALLY don't like this dish. The white beans are mealy, the feta is salty/crumbly in a fneh way, the red pepper adds too much moisture (should have done roasted veg), the dill is overpowering and plain, not challenged by any big secondary flavors. 

LUNCH pt 2: 1:15pm, potato, spinach, cabbage, ziti and chocolate knishes, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, weiner shnitzel, German potato salad, cucumber salad, 1 beer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Out to dinner with one of my oldest & best friends in from out of town to a local German joint.



EVENING SNACK: 9:15pm, whole wheat pretzels with nutella, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Pancake desire

Did not lift weights this morning, I was considering it because I skipped it to bike ride yesterday, but I feel pleasantly sore/achy this morning, so might as well enjoy the recovery part. I chose to ride up a hillier route on the ride, and I'm happy to feel it this morning. Spent a nice mellow day with Edie, got some cooking done through out the day.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Mediterranean salad: CSA feta, onion, carrot and dill, can of white beans, 8oz cooked orzo, olive oil, a dash of red wine vinegar. Hmmm. Feta supplies enough salt, but it needs something. Maybe a squeeze of lemon? Let it sit for a day, we'll see. With a cold salad, it won't be too crazy to add an ingredient a little later.

Knish filling: Round 2.5, as I only used half the dough on the first round the day before last. Cooked another 5lbs of potatoes and caramelized 3 lbs of onions. Mixed more potato into the spinach left overs. Cooked up the other half of the cabbage, a little heavier on the vinegar, tastes more like a traditional quick kraut, nice.

Pancakes: Used industrial buttermilk, went a little too heavy on the salt, threw in some cinnamon to mix it up a little.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, toasted bagel with cream cheese, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:15pm, potato knish, cabbage knish, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Really in love with this dough. Microwaved from refrigerator 1 minute, not bad, not ideal, but not bad.

DINNER: 5:30pm, pancakes, 2 ears of boiled corn, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Bought the corn on the way home from the Grand Street farmer's market, looked really good. Was considering chard and zucchini for dinner, but it just didn't appeal to me in the moment, and thought it would be good to have pancakes on hand for the Edles.


EVENING SNACK: 7:45pm, watermelon

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, wholewheat pretzels with nutella, some baked ziti, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5 
Hoped to avoid snacks with the watermelon, but I just got hungry. Residual from the previous day's bike ride, I assume.

Donut Betrayal

Woke up around 6:45am, got a few minutes with B&E, got out of the house around 7:45am and rode the bike up to Garrison. Took the train home, met B on the street as she was coming home, and found myself conked out by 10pm, it was a good day.

BREAKFAST: 7:15am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla, peanuts, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


BIKE SNACK: 8am, 2 cake donuts, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
From Donut Plant. They've introduced new flavors since opening up more locations. The Salty Peanut Butter was pretty great, but the chocolate chip cookie donut was subpar -- the donut itself had brown sugar in it, which interfered with it's softness, and the cookie crumbs that coated the outside just gave an unpleasant mouth feel. For the first time ever, I actually didn't eat about 1/4 of the donut when I realized I really wasn't enjoying it!



BIKE SNACK: noon, 32 oz gatorade, small corn ships, small chocolate chip cookies, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


BIKE SNACK: 2pm, ice cream sandwich
There are no shops open in Bear Mountain State Park, and the grocery by the train station closed last year. So this from a vending machine at Bear Mountain was pretty much my only option in the last 15 miles of the ride, if I didn't want to take a detour.



BIKE SNACK: 3:30pm, homemade granola, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Snacked on this on the train home. It's almost over-roasted, right at the edge, but really good.  The HVS is gonna go bonkers for this!



DINNER: 6:15pm, breaded tilapia, small spinach, cabbage and potato knishes, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Resisted the call of the after-ride Chinese.

Go Mediterranean

On my day with Edie, we took the big bike and did a full food shop in the morning, got cooking on some knish experiments through her nap, and hung out with a parent friend in the afternoon before B got home.

CSA haul: carrots, Swiss chard, zucchini, dill, onion, garlic, feta cheese, peaches. Everything except the chard and fruit can go into a Mediterranean salad with orzo pasta and white beans, I guess.

TODAY'S COOKING
Granola: Used the olive oil recipe as a base, used 2 cups of mixed cashews & slivered almonds on top of the pepitas. 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup of agave for sweeteners. Came out a little over roasted but pretty good.

Knishes: The knish experiments continue. Three fillings, all using onion cut into large dice and sauteed with vegetable shortening for a period of a few hours, a nice caramelized sheen. Boiled 5 lbs of peeled chopped eastern potatoes to tender, ran them through a food mill, a bit of salt. Four cups of it went into a new dough recipe, which also had shortening, eggs, salt and flour. Sauteed half a head of shredded cabbage with a little sugar, vinegar and salt. When slightly soft, mixed in some onions and a little mashed potato. Simmered a pot of chopped spinach to soft, added salt and a lump of potatoes. After letting the dough rest in the fridge for three or four hours, rolled out half of it to make about 16 smallish hand-sized knishes.

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, organic cornflakes with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 12:15pm, sardine & avocado on 12-grain toast, 2 ears of boiled corn with butter & salt, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:15pm, 3 homemade burritos with homemade tortilla chips, cookies & creme ice cream, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

In the Mood

Spent part of the day with my father-in-law and stuff, and on the way home picked up a few things for dinner. Didn't get to eat much during the day, and was in the mood for a big unhealthy comforting meal. So I made it myself. Considered making fries, but had tortillas taking up space in the freezer, so I chipafied them -- both Edie & B went nuts for 'em.

TODAY'S COOKING
Hamburgers: Found local grass fed preground meat at WF, added half a minced onion, salt and a healthy dash of Worcestershire. Seared well in butter, on toasted whole wheat bun, tomato, onion and ketchup. Pretty good, though my natural inclination is to cook to well done, it's a little crumbly, gotta pull back to medium-well next time.

Tortilla Chips: Cut my extra corn tortillas into 6ths, fried in peanut oil at about 400 and sprinkled with salt. Addictively good.


BREAKFAST: 10:30am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


AM SNACK: 11:45am, 3 pork & chive dumplings


PM SNACK: 3pm, 1 slice of whole wheat bread with peanut butter, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 5:30pm, 2 hamburgers, tortilla chips, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, cookies & cream ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Another Ride Undone

Up at 5am, out the door at 5:30 all set to meet a group on a bus to do miles out in the Harlem Valley. However, by the time I got to 6th Street & A, the oppressive heat & humidity had my mind racing for excuses not to do the ride. After semi-plausible excuse #20 or so, I realized I just wanted to go home and cool off, and weather reports didn't predict rains and a break in the heat until late afternoon, when the ride would be over. The heat did me in.

Spent a nice hour out with B&E in the morning, since we were all up earlier than usual. While Edie napped, B took off for the day and playgrounds and trundling toddlers in backpacks was the order of the day. When B got home with my dinner, I pretty much tuned out to Sunday night television, the dawn of another week upon us.


BREAKFAST: 7:15am, organic cornflakes with organic dead milk, banana, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1pm, breaded tilapia, spinach, baked ziti, cookies & creme ice cream, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, pint of grenadine & soda
Still have grenadine syrup, 1 cup of syrup, 4 cups of over-carbonated tap water from our machine. No lime on hand, still very refreshing after trudging in the soupy heat with Edie in a darn back pack (HER idea, not mine)

DINNER: 6:15pm, grilled lamb, potato, rice, bread, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
B brought me home left-overs from a Turkish joint she went to her with her fam.

Rollin'

Just rollin' with B's family. Asleep by 10 to wake up early for a bike ride.

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, mini dutch pancakes, half a shrimp roll, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Spent the morning at the Hester St. Fair with my fatherinlaw. The "poffertjes" were almost exactly like the Chinese egg cakes sold on street corners, small round things, golden brown, eggy and puffy. These were dressed in powdered sugar and butter. Fneh. The shrimp roll was from the same peeps who make the lobster rolls, pretty good.

LUNCH: 2:45pm, 1 quesedilla, baked ziti, ginger ale, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
B's poppa and bro in the house, I was going to offer just quesedillas, but the ziti was so popular from yesterday they demanded a repeat performa...uh, left-overs. Needed sugar, so had half of one of B's ginger ales.

PM SNACK: 5:45pm, watermelon
After 2 hours in the heat with Edie, getting her some run around time at a playground where she would not get interested in the water portion at all, this large slice of cold watermelon was pretty much love in edible form.

DINNER: 8pm, sweet & sour shrimp with pork fried rice, egg roll, wonton soup, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Drinking

Spent the day with B and her fam, we hit up the Jewish History Museum downtown, an eatery on Wall Street. At home in the afternoon, cooked up some ziti before taking Edie out to the park briefly.

In the evening took off and met up E and a few friends to take a boat to a floating bar-barge docked in the harbor by Ellis Island, it was a pleasant diversion. After we strolled over to a nice restaurant in Tribeca for a meal of shared small plates before heading home.

TODAY'S COOKING
Baked Ziti: Pretty much a standard baked ziti, done without a recipe. Two boxes of ziti, boiled to just past crunchy. 8 cups of homemade tomato sauce out of the freezer. Bechemel with nutmeg made. Three things mixed together, put in pans, topped with moz and a little extra sauce, baked at 375 for an hour until a nice crisp crust formed. As it was damn hot out, I let it sit for a few hours and it came together nicely.

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, multi-grain sushi, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 5pm, baked ziti, half a chocolaty thing, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNORT: 7:30-9pm, 2.5 beers, diet coke
I haven't drank more than one alcoholic drink at once in quite a while, and cut myself off at 2.5, surprisingly buzzed. I thought my large dinner would have prevented this, but there ya go.


DINNER 2: 10pm, bread & butter, mussels, spatzle, 2 different kinds of wurst, fries, kraut, trout pate, brussel sprouts, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Friends continued to drink, but I skipped it.

Too Smooth

The pops I set to freeze yesterday remains soft and smooth at this cold temp, hmmmm. I guess the blend of smooth peanut butter, coconut milk, banana, sugar and particular a shot of high-proof vanilla extract and a dash of salt not only inhibited crystallization, it inhibited freezing to a rock, so when you pull the pop out of the form, only the stick comes out! Huh. Tastes good, a tad too sweet, gonna re formulate with less sugar and more fruit next time.

A good friend has come up with an idea for a dinner club, similar to a book club but with dinner parties instead of books. TBD.

TODAY'S COOKING
Cookies n' Creme Ice Cream: It's always satisfying when a churn goes well -- the custard is thick and cold enough to take on air quickly, and it rises to the top of the barrel. When it reaches the top, I poured in the ground up oreos to mix it in properly.

AM SNACK: 9:30am, small amount of coco-peanut-banana "ice cream"

LUNCH: 12:15pm, hot dog, health salad, potato salad, pickle, greeny pasta, large slice of watermelon, 3 oreos, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Almost like a trawl through the fridge to finish things before they went bad.

DINNER: 5:30pm, pizza, homemade ice cream, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5 
B ordered in pizzas from Lombardis because her pop and brother were over.

Kookin' in the Kitchen

Dammit, no nips in the supermarket.

Spent the morning chilling, met up with B for a nice lunch near her office, but cookies kept me from being hungry so I just nibbled. Investigated the farmer's market then hit up the supermarket for a big shop, planning a few big dishes for the next week or so.

TODAY'S COOKING
Guacamole: 4 avocados, one whole Valencia onion minced, one head of cilantro minced, juice of 2 limes, large pinch of salt. Very oniony, but purposefully because I wanted an onion presence in the dish this was going into.

Quesidilas: Had to put my ton of rice & beans to use. I bought mini corn tortillas instead of flour, and found that no amount of steaming or microwaving would make them flexible enough to make burritos, so I laid them out, spread on the loose rice n' beans on one, guac on another, and a sprinkling of grated cheddar in the middle.


Vanilla ice cream base: B's family is over tomorrow, and B refuses to allow me to cook, but she let me do some ice cream, and a family favorite is cookies n' cream, so had to make this base now so I can churn and mix ground up oreos into it tomorrow. The usual, pint of cream, pint of milk, heated with 1 cup of sugar, 3 vanilla beans scraped. 12 egg yolks tempered into it, strained into an ice bathe once thick.

Coco-peanut frozen bars: Edie has been going nuts for "ice cream", frozen treats on stick. We have a set of molds and B has been making one-off frozen smoothies with a lot of fruit, and this morning I poured off enough of my own smoothie to make a pop for her. Rather than one offs, I made a set from pantry stuff. 12 oz of coconut milk. 6 ounce of natural-style peanut butter, 4 ounce of cane sugar cooked until comes together and smooth. Into a blender with banana, a large shot of vanilla extract and a large pinch of salt, blend to smooth.  Into 6 molds and into freezer. I calculate that is about 2 tablespoons of sugar per pop -- depending on how they taste, I may cut the sugar in half and consider other fruit to the coconut milk-peanut butter-banana base. Also, I wonder how the consistency will be -- maybe I should try to run it through my ice cream machine to whip air into it and avoid crystallization? Hopefully the salt and extract will help stay soft and relatively smooth in the frozen state.

BREAKFAST: 6am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Milk, good yogurt, banana, frozen blueberries, cherries and mango, flax, a pinch of salt. Very thick.

AM SNACK: 10:30am, 5 cookies, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 12:30, an arancini, an avocado toast, a little moz, a bit of sandwich, a few potato chips, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK 4:30pm, a few failed mini burritos, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:15pm, a quesadilla, 3 ears of boiled corn, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, handful of Oreos

Nip

Stayed in doors with Edie to beat the heat in the morning, took an adventure to Staten Island in the afternoon to visit a friend with child. I had a Rolling Rock "nip" with lunch today when we were out, I think it was about 8 oz -- hmmm, just the right amount for having with a nice lunch. I'm going to look for this or better beer in this size bottle in the supermarket, as only every once in a while do I want beer with lunch, and usually in this quantity.

Picked up CSA. New cabbage head gonna be a cabbage knish. Basil, garlic going and a few fresh tomatoes into a baked ziti. Salad greens and a few more tomatoes for green salad. Parsley, not sure what to do. One singular squash blossom given to Edie as a flower. Blueberries & peaches into Edie's maw, cheese into B's maw.

TODAY'S COOKING
Spinach: Bought a huge 5 lb bag of frozen chopped spinach last week to increase my greens intake. Sauteed some garlic in olive oil, threw in the spinach, some onion powder, a little salt, a splash of water then covered it and let it heat up on low until the rest of dinner was ready, about half an hour.


BREAKFAST: 9:30am, 3 small pancakes, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH 1: noon, bowl of pasta with CSA veg, 5 cookies, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Pasta from freezer, last week's dish. Freshened up with a sprinkle of freshly grated parm and a dash of olive oil.

LUNCH 2: 3pm, pizza, 1 small beer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
In Staten Island, went to Lee's Tavern for bar-pizza, a midwestern style that is oddly popular on SI. Really enjoyed it, made me feel like I was 1000s of miles away when I was just in NYC's strangest borough.

DINNER: 7:45pm, breaded tilapia, cooked spinach, rice & beans, cookies, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Rice & Beans

Monday blahs, camped out in a movie theater for the first part of the day, went to the supermarket to pick up ingredients for dinner, and spent the rest of the day cooking. Put me in a much better mood.


TODAY'S COOKING
Rice & Beans: An experimental batch, and a large batch. The short grain brown rice says 1 cup of rice to 2.5 cups of water, I used 4 cups of water. For the first time, I took a pound of dry black beans and rehydrated them instead of using canned. In the bean reconstitution process, I threw in half an onion, half a green pepper, bay leaves and salt to give them some base flavor. Made sofrito with 2 onions sauteed to soft, threw in chopped green peppers and softened. Added half a head of minced garlic for a minute, then threw into a blender with a whole bunch of cilantro and blended to smooth. Put beans, rice, water and sofrito into one large pot and simmered about an hour until the rice had absorbed much of the liquid. Salted as I went a long, added a shot of hot pepper sauce and some ground black pepper. Final dish was milder in flavor than I thought it would be, but good. It's currently vegan, but I think a ham bone or something would have done a lot to deepen the flavor.

Chocolate Chip Cookies: After a low-eating day, craved sugar after dinner, so whipped out a bunch of chocolate chip cookies. B bought a mess of Nestle's Morsels a while ago for something I never ended up cooking -- they're hard to eat by themselves because they don't taste that good, chalky, not very chocolately, just fakey, but when put into a cookie with real brown sugar, real butter, real vanilla and real eggs, it kinda saves them.


AM SNACK: 9am, banana


AM SNACK: 11am, wholewheat pretzels, good peanut butter, pickle, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 1pm, handful of cashews, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5pm, health salad, pickle, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:30pm, shrimp, rice & beans, cookies, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

A Day of Rest

The challenge I set for myself early this month is going well in some aspects, poorly in others.

• Well -- I've cut down on restaurant food and delivery drastically, increased my consumption of home-prepared food equally, and definitely feel my diet has increased for the better. Also, I'd say 90% of the CSA food is being put to good use. 
• Poorly -- restricting sweets. Still hitting up sweets once or even twice a day, though maybe in smaller quantities and usually matched with something healthy-ish to make it seem like it's more than it is.

Around 7:30pm last night, I ate the remainder of the pork loin despite eating a lot of meat earlier in the day -- I was worried that my body would not recover fast enough from the day's ride to be ready for the next. I was asleep by 8pm, and when I woke up at 4am, my fears were confirmed -- assorted muscles felt beat up and tired, but most importantly my legs and thighs were sore. I intended on riding around 50 miles yesterday, but due to fun-related things, ended up doing about 75 in some relatively hilly Connecticut terrain.

I got up, ate a bowl of cereal, sprayed on sunblock (the opposite of a spray tan, I assume) and started to put on my cycling gear. Bike was ready in the hall, day bag already packed. As I lifted my legs to put them into the spandex, I was thinking about the day ahead -- on one hand, it was to be perfect weather, the route I had not seen since a year ago, and the food at the rest stops should be good. Psychologically, I was good, and 8 hours of sleep helped. On the other hand, my legs hurt, my body shouted for rest despite 8 hours sleep, and if I were to embark on this trip then quit early (or worse, given my lowered sharpness), it would be very depressing. So despite being on schedule and 90% ready to go, I paused, stripped out of my stuff and hopped back into bed with B. I woke up at 9:30am -- 13.5 hours of sleep, badly needed.

Legs hurt at 4am, but now they are just pleasantly sore, recovery in full effect. Sad I didn't do the Hudson Valley Century, but I made the right choice. Took the morning to lay on the couch and read the paper, in the afternoon wandered over to the local playground with the family to take in the neighborhood at it's most social. Spent the evening on the couch with the TV. A good day.

BREAKFAST: 4am, organic chex with organic dead milk, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5


BRUNCH: 10am, kraft dinner with sauteed veg, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1pm, health salad, pickle, handful of multigrain pretzels, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Made the health salad on Friday from a CSA cabbage -- added CSA scallion because I had to do something with it. Don't like it, the onion-ness of the scallion doesn't play well with the tangy-sweet dressing and the more vegetal ingredients.


PM SNACK: 2:45pm, slice of cheese knish, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Despite B wolfing down most of this baked item I made last week, a small sliver was found tucked away in the freezer. Recipe definitely needs work.


PM SNACK: 4pm, slice of streetza, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 6:15pm, half a slice of streetza, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7:15pm, breaded tilapia, kraft dinner with sauteed veg, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, a few squares of chocolate, a few multigrain pretzels

Kraft Dinner Sukks

Woke up at 4am to get on the bike so I could meet my family at the train station in Westport, CT at 10am. Ate some high energy stuff when I woke, a big breakfast half way there in Mamaroneck, and had a big lunch at the inlaw's place, grilled burgers n' stuff. A nice summer day away, with Edie freaking out with joy in a pool.

Ended up doing about 70 miles all in, including a ride with some of the younger bits of the family.

TODAY'S COOKING
Kraft Dinner w/ Sauteed Vegetables: On the train ride home, had a hankering for this dish I haven't made since the years immediately following my college time. I used to make a ton of kraft "mac n' cheese", and sautee keilbasa and vegetables in the sausage fat then mix it all in together, a really heady brew. This time, I eliminated the meat because I ate a ton today already, and sauteed the onion and mushrooms properly -- I used to cram them into a pan and defacto steam them, now I know ya gotta use a big pan. Roasted green peppers on the flame and let them finish cooking in a sealed bowl before rubbing and chopping. Added a lot of fresh pepper to the mix and... it still tasted kinda pheh. I used to like this stuff, now it just tastes tame and anemic. I think Alton Brown has a recipe to make kraft dinner from scratch, I think I may have to try that.

AM SNACK: 4:30am, banana, handful of chocolate covered espresso beans, water


BREAKFAST: 7:30am, bagel and cream cheese, whole wheat pretzels, 32 oz gatorade, 3 chocolate chip cookies, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


AM SNACK: 11:30am, clif bar


LUNCH: 1pm, 1 hamburger, 2 hot dogs, lemonade, potato chips, watermelon, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6pm, kraft dinner w/ sauteed vegetables, ginger ale, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Puppet Show & Left Overs

Woke up at 5, got a ride in to Coney Island with peaceful traffic, lifted weights while my body was warm again. Took Edie to Brooklyn Bridge Park in Dumbo in the morning for a puppet show, took a big nap in the afternoon, and got to bed around 9 so I could wake up for a longer bike ride tomorrow.

No cooking, but eating well with intended left overs. Pork loin on point.

BREAKFAST 1: 5:30am, banana, brown rice crispies with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

BREAKFAST 2: 9:15am, toasted sesame bagel with cream cheese, pint of lime rickey, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:15pm, sliced pork loin, salty brown rice & stir fried veg, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5 

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, chocolate chips & cashews, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 5:15pm, small potato knish, health salad, pickle, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7:30pm, pasta in sauce, watermelon, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Knish 2: Electric Boogaloo

After getting up at 4 in the morning, had no problem conking out by 11, but woke up late, close to 9 when B was leaving. Certain upper body muscles are sore, a good thing, I was warmed up for the weights after riding 40 miles yesterday. Took the morning easy, put Edie in the backpack and brought in my road bike to the local shop for a few tweaks. After an hour or so in the playground, Edie had no problem getting to nap while I enjoyed myself in the kitchen.

Kitchen enjoyment rolled on into the evening. As Edie was eating pasta and I was cooking rice and a simple vegetable stir fry, just kinda fell into knish-making, like I didn't have enough going on already. It's nice sometimes to do 5 things at once, and all of them -- dinner, knishes, baby -- all seem to come out well.

TODAY'S COOKING
Pork Loin: Heated up the grill pan, opened the window and gave it 2 minutes on each side, twice, and stuck it with an instant read to be assured of the doneness. Let it go to 135 before putting it in a foil pouch with some held marinade for 10 minutes. Came out pretty perfect, very slightly pink in the middle, juicy as all git-out. One of the rare meals I've made for myself that I'd be happy to pay $25 (plus another $5 for dessert) in a restaurant. Food cost about $12 for this serving, so at 50% food cost that is kinda bad (you should have a 25% food cost or less to really be OK) but I was also paying retail for my inventory...

I wonder if Edie will dig it. Gonna slice it thin for her.

Brown rice & stir fry veg: Added salt to the brown rice in the cooker straight from the box, something I would yell at my students for doing. Came out WAY too salty. Picked up a zucchini, onion and scallion from the local farmers market to add to my CSA Swiss Chard. Despite the salt, ate it and have enough for one more meal. Kinda want to toss it, we'll see how I feel tomorrow.

Cheese knish: While stir frying and cooking rice, saw the lump of knish dough that had to be used or thrown out. B has farmer's cheese, so I looked up a recipe for a basic cheese filling in the Encyclopedia of Jewish Cooking. Very simple, just farmers cheese, cream cheese, egg yolks, vanilla and salt. Lined a loaf pan with the dough and slapped the filling in, covered it up and baked under golden. Innards are a little too moist for my comfort but still pretty good, a good starting point for improvement.

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, 4 tiny pancakes
 I think I need to make some iced tea soon.

PM SNACK: 12pm, health salad, pickle, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, pork loin, 2 small knishes, sauteed spinach, chocolate ice cream, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:15pm, brown rice with stir fried veg, slice of cheese knish, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Filling up the Larder

Woke up at 4 and was out and on the bike by 5, but technical difficulties that lead to a rough-handling bike made me cut my ride short to 40 miles. It was nice to by home by 9 and be able to lift weights and do some knish research before getting into the chores of the day. Went to the 2nd part of the knish lecture in the evening, and swung by Whole Foods after before heading home to a sleepy household.


TODAY'S COOKING:
Red Sauce: Wanted to use the nice basil and garlic bulb from the CSA -- sauteed onion well, then added 2 grated carrots, a bunch of fresh thyme. 3 big cans of freshly milled tomatoes, then the diced basil, the roasted mashed head of garlic, and two Parmesan cheese rinds I was saving for the occasion which was fished out when the hour simmer was over. Salt, a dash of molasses, and done, pretty good.

Potato Salad: To use the CSA dill, boiled and shocked left over cubed potato from the knishes yesterday. Made a quick dressing of a cup of mayo, the minced dill, some mustard powder, a little onion powder and a little Old Bay Seasoning. Pretty good, if standard.

Pancakes: Oddly, I went to Essex Market to pick up the good buttermilk and was told they will not have any until Fall, due to the fact the farmer will not be making butter again until then. Snooches! Made straight ahead pancakes with whole milk, came out fine, good freezer food to feed to Edie over the next few weeks.

Pork Loin: Made this recipe in the evening when I got home from the market, just the marinade, trimming silverskin and getting it into the fridge to sit over night. Will cook it up tomorrow for lunch. Suspect it will be too limey, but adjusting is for 2nd and 3rd tries, not 1sts (usually, unless the recipe is clearly stoopid.)

BREAKFAST: 4:30am, organic chex with organic dead milk, handful of chocolate covered espresso beans, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 7am, banana

BRUNCH: 11am, pumpernickel bagel with hummus, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3pm, a few pancakes, watermelon, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Had to eat the burnies & the funny shapes while cooking the pancakes, otherwise there would be too much waste!

PM SNACK: 6pm, a little pasta and sauce, half a ginger ale, a few bites of potato salad, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

KNISH TASTING: 8pm, assorted kinds, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10:15pm, half a pint of Ben & Jerries, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
I'll be surprised if this is still there if Betsy wakes up before me...

Knish me, dahlinks!

Took Edie out in the morning to Pier 17 for a runaround, then back home before it got too hot. Spent the afternoon making knishes and grenadine, and had a few parents and kids over in the afternoon for a combination playdate/tasting.


TODAY'S COOKING
Knishes: Followed this recipe on the recommendation of last week's knish lecture. It was OK, I guess the compromises it makes (modern chemical leavener vs traditional yeast, volume measures instead of weight, lack of certain descriptives, etc), is to appeal to the general public, not someone hungry for the authentic, true knish with a culinarily precise, repeatable product. But it came out ok -- the dough was a little more brittle than I like on a knish, but over all it was solid. I departed with the recipe on a few small things, like:

1. a 2 hour slow caramelization on the onions in much more oil than what they recommend, which all ended in the potato mixture, 
2. and I let the dough rest for a solid hour to make rolling and cutting easier. 
3. Also, the recipe describes an assembly that would result in a bagel-shaped knish, which I dispensed with and did a simple square dough, lump in the middle, then folded up the sides to make a kind of giant open-faced dumpling, aka Shao Mai.
4. I also used white pepper for black, which gave a distinctive sharp note which I like, and I think it looks nicer in the finished product.

Grenadine Syrup: The lecturer presented lime rickeys as a drink that was served at Ms. Stahls, which I don't have a memory of, but sounds great. She did it with some store bought grenadine, a splash of lime and seltzer. After googling a few recipes, it was an easy do: 1 part 100% pomegranite juice, 1 part 100% tart cherry juice, 2 parts powdered sugar, brought to a simmer then cooled. In a 12 oz glass, 4 oz of syrup, one wedge of lime, squeezed, and fill to the top with extra bubbly seltzer. Stir and serve with a little ice.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, good yogurt with peanuts, honey and vanilla, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: noon, small glass of lime rickey


LUNCH: 1:15pm, hamburger, knish, health salad, pickle, lime rickey, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 6pm, knish, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACKS: 7:30-9pm, multigrain pretzels with nutella, chocolate squares, popcorn, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Hamburglin'

After lifting weights, I aimed to ride the bike to Coney, but caught a flat on the Manhattan Bridge and walked back, showered, then brought the wheel to my main bike shop on the East Side. It was an easy fix, but if I knew I was only gonna ride 8 or so miles and not 30 I wouldn't have indulged in the donuts. Oh well.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Hamburgers: Spontaneously made burgers this evening for dinner, as momma-in-law was over. Haven't tried it since c-school, and I've always said the best way to eat chop meat is to grind it yourself, but rarely actually do it. Got a piece of chuck at the market and some whole wheat buns. Ground the meat with some butter, added some salt, pepper and grated raw onion. Fried in a pan with a little peanut oil, got a nice browning going. Topped with tomato, onion and some Worcestershire, as I actually don't have ketchup in the house (Perhaps I should make some from scratch, as the industrial stuff is blech.) I'd do two things different next time: get fattier meat and go with a bigger grind. It was juicy, but a little bit dry and crumbly at the same time.

AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea


AM SNACK: 9:30am, 2 donuts, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2pm, sauteed chopped spinach, spicy brown rice, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:45pm, 2 burgers, 1 corn on the cob, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, multigrain pretzels with nutella, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Hello Mudder, Hello Fadder

Rented a car and visited my parent's grave site. Edie had a great time running around in the sunshine. met up with my brother, sister-in-law and their 6 offspring, ranging from 12 years to 4 months. Oy. We picked up some quick food from a local deli before having an informal picnic in the woods and a hike to a reservoir.

On the bike ride home from the car rental place, stopped by a supermarket to pick up some frozen spinach and a few baking potatoes to mix it up for dinner a bit. My first thought was to order in, but after eating out of a deli in the afternoon, some home cooking seemed like the way to go.

AM SNACK: 8:15am, iced green tea


LUNCH: 12:30pm, turkey & Swiss on roll, potato chips, Gatorade, chocolate chip cookies, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 6pm, health salad, pickle, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7:30pm, breaded tilapia, baked potato, cooked spinach, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, 4oz homemade ice cream, small ramekin of cashews and chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

I gotta do me, you do you.

Today was a big day for me n' Edles -- we went to the Bronx Zoo. We met up with a few friends with babies Edie's age, took a series of trains that ended up in a shuttle bus situation that was probably more stressful for the adults than the kids. Zoo was nice, but it ain't cheap to get in, and they nickle and dime you on everything possible, from charging extra for certain permanent exhibits to $3.25 for a bottle of soda that would be $1.75 off the grounds.

We went to the main commissary for lunch, and I ate food I brought, the CSA veg-infused pasta and a pickle, while Edie chowed down on my pasta and pickle, watermelon, blueberries, whole wheat goldfish, a little cheese and a whole mess of unsalted peanuts. The two other kids were fed breaded chicken fingers and french fries, which I understand -- it's easy, the kids like it and peace reigns in the valley. But it ain't cheap, and more than once in a blue moon can be kinda destructive. I felt  bad, a little bit snobby for feeding my child such holier-than-thou food, but I gotta do me, you do you, knowwhatamsayin'?

While we walked back slowly down Fordham Road in the heat and concrete, someone suggested slurpies at 7-11, and damn if 20oz of frozen corn syrup, phosphoric & citric acids, artificial flavor and color didn't hit the spot. In a theater, this drink would have been $6, but here it was $1.62 -- yep, I never had a slurpie at a 7-11 before. I guess I just got a little less snobby, he he.


BREAKFAST: 8am, iced green tea, 1/2 a bagel with cream cheese, .5 bowl, hunger 4/ a5


LUNCH: 2pm, greenie pasta, pickle, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 3:30pm cherry slurpie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 5:30pm, peanut butter, a few cashews, a few whole wheat pretzels, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6pm, 4 mini burritos, brown rice, water, watermelon, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
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EVENING SNACK: 9pm, 8oz chocolate ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Grenadine Ick

Woke up late, too hot to go out with Edie in the morning, just stayed in and prepped for the evening's dinner. Took Edles to our friend MAP's office in the afternoon followed by some playground int he rain. A nice evening indoors with another family from the 'hood


TODAY'S COOKING
Grenadine syrup: 2 cups pomegranate juice, 2 cups cherry juice, 4 cups sugar. I made the mistake of walking away and candied it, making a big sticky lump that hardens when hit with cold seltzer, not dissolve.  Will try again and be more careful. (I'm making this to add to seltzer and some lime juice to make an old fashioned Lime Rickey, inspired by the knish lecture I took in this past week.)
Pizza: -sigh-. First time cooking pizza since leaving the restaurant. Watching my hands stretch the (whole wheat Wholefoods) dough, topping the pies as I've seen done 1000s of times. Made margarita, a pepperoni, a white pie with a medley of vegetables I roasted earlier, a nutella pie decorated with jelly beans contributed by a 2 year old guest. It was fun to make pizzas, but it's starting to feel like something from the past already.


BREAKFAST: 10:15am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Milk, banana, good yogurt, CSA blueberries, frozen cherries & mango, ground flax, vanilla extract, salt. Pretty good, not very sweet but still balanced. Edie demanded some, sat next to me with a cup of it, and proceeded to get equal amounts in her mouth, smeared on her nude body, and the bench and walls.


LUNCH: 1:15pm, apple pork sausage, green pasta, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, assorted slices of homemade pizza, 3 small ice cream sandwiches, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Sugar Lust

Woke up early to a very energetic and very happy little girl jumping up and down on me. Legs and joints felt much better, lifted weights in the morning, took Edie out to some swings, then grocery shopping before getting her down for a nap and lunch.

Felt cravings for sugar in the afternoon, and ate some ice cream. I picked up some cherries and a zucchini from a new local farmer's market, and made a nice very green dinner. It was a bit too green, it tasted green. For whatever reason, my cravings for sugar went off the charts right after the meal, I haven't had this kind of lust in quite a while. I hoped the cherries would have dampened it, but I guess that and the pasta just primed the pump.

I think I have proper supportive mandels in my closet somewhere. Time to bust 'em out.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Pasta with CSA veg: A pound of mini wagon wheels met a cup of homemade sauce. In the woke, I stir fried some broccoli and sugar snap peas, through in the scallion and zucchini, then added the chopped swiss chard I just par-boiled. A little peanut oil and salt. Looked very healthy. Finished the dish with CSA parsley, which B informed me she finds repulsive after the fact. Oh well, off to the freezer this dish goes then.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


LUNCH: 12:45pm, breaded tilapia fillet, corn on the cob, health salad, pickle, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5pm, fresh cherries, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, pasta with CSA veg & a little homemade sauce, pretzels with nutella, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, 5 oz of ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Knish!

Woke up with sore feet, ankles and legs. I was wearing flip flops all day yesterday, and the walk from Grand Central to home did a number on my joints, much worse than any bike ride. So though I planned to bliss-out on an 80 mile bike ride today, instead I packed up some snacks and trundled off to a well air-conditioned multiplex to catch 3 movies in a row on a single matinee ticket.

While there, my wifey found a little knish lecture at a small community outpost out in Carrol Gardens, and asked me to do it. So I did, a talk from a knish-crazed lady to about 10 random people from all over the city. It was pretty inspirational, and this week I'm gonna knock out some knishes -- can't be too hard to pass the low bar that Yonah Shimmel has been producing these days...

AM SNACK: 8:45am, a small handful of chocolate covered coffee beans


BREAKFAST: 9:45am, banana, good yogurt with honey, vanilla & peanuts, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


AM SNACK: 11:45am, pumpernickel pretzels, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 4:45pm, eggplant hero, green salad, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 8pm, a few squares of various knishes, lime rickey, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACKS: 10pm 1 mini burrito, small ramekin of cashews and chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Adventures With Edie

Woke up early and Edie & I hauled butt up to Grand Central for a train to Tarrytown, where we met up for breakfast with my old friend J and her baby. Visited a water park, then took the train back in the early afternoon while Edie slept. Walked slowly from Grand Central to home, stopping in various parks along the way for Edie's eating, Edie's playing, Edie's walking, Edie's exploring, it was pretty much an intense meeting of Edie-love and City-love.

Picked up a nice selection at the CSA - snap peas and a little lettuce and scallions again, kale, some Swiss chard, a little broccoli, blueberries and cheese.

The potatoes I cooked yesterday were good, but there was too little stuff to too many potatoes, and I could have seasoned it a bit more aggressively. I think this pound of snap peas is gonna meet a pound of potatoes later this week....

AM SNACK: 7:15am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10am, pancakes, sausage, diet coke, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 2pm, 20oz Gatorade


PM SNACK: 3:30pm, 4 cabbage & pork dumplings, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
On the epic walk home, stopped in on the new Clinton St dollar dumpling place. Good, but not really different than the chive & pork dumplings.



PM SNACK: 4pm, large wedge of watermelon, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:15pm, sauteed curry shrimp, roasted potato & snap peas, health salad, water, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5 

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, 4oz ice cream, small ramekin of chocolate chips & cashews, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5 
Sugar hunger got a hold on me. This challenge is gonna take some easing into.

4th of July Challenge

The HVS and I spoke of a new challenge for the month, it's been evolving in my head for more than a week now. Though officially it's a one-month weight-loss challenge, I think this month may be for an ongoing basis:

• Limit restaurant meals to one a week and delivery meals to one a week. 
• Limit desserts to three a week total, including sweet snacks.
• Eat 75% or more of all the produce we get from our CSA on Tuesdays during the week.
• Devise at least one dish each week to be made in quantity to last beyond the week via freezer and fridge, that is both Edie-friendly and B-friendly.

I'm open to suggetions on the last one. I would love 10 recipes that I could rotate. Currently, I have two warhorses in my cannon:

1. Pasta with homemade tomato sauce.
2. Mini burritos, whole wheat tortilla filled with slow-cooked black beans, guac, cheese and sometimes rice

I'm thinking 7 or 8 recipes needs to be vegetarian, 2 or 3 can be meaty or all meat. I think making meatballs from scratch (including grinding the meat myself) is a good one. Homemade breaded fish sticks or chicken fingers might be a good one. Bread maybe, or is that more of a side utility food? Pesto? Hummus? Gnocci? Rice & beans? Rice & lentil? Falafel?

TODAY'S COOKING:
Corn on the cob: Boiled it for a spare 4 minutes, slathered on some butter and salt (olive oil for the HVS), came out perfect -- sweet, firm but not too firm, toothsome. My parents used to boil the hell out of corn, but I suppose it was genetically different back then,

AM SNACK: 9am, iced green tea

BRUNCH: 11:45pm, 2 small burritos, small amount of pasta, small cup of ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

SNICKLELUNCH:  2:30pm, rice & lentils, healthsalad, corn on the cob, pickle, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


SNICKLEDINNER: 7pm, roasted potato & snap peas with breaded tilapia, mango sorbet, lime seltzer, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, 2 ice cream sandwiches

Truffle conundrum

Got to bed around 11, woke around 9 -- I ate kinda poorly the 2nd half of the day, I wonder if that was directly responsible for my utter lack of energy after 7 or so.

B grabbed an ice cream sandwich this morning while I was churning custard, and Edie was on her lap and insisted on sharing the "papa cake". Edie later woke up cranky from her nap, and only uncrankified after her pasta lunch when given some watermelon....which instead of just eating, she would lick a bunch of times like it was ice cream before eating it properly. I wonder if the sugar of the ice cream made her cranky. I think we may need to keep letting her eat anything and everything she wants EXCEPT sweets, and we'll have to limit our own intake when around her. Learning to feed, indeed.

TODAY'S COOKING
Vanilla Ice Cream: I made this custard on Friday but forgot to freeze the barrel, so I churned this morning. The custard was in the back of the fridge, on top, and about 1/3 of it froze. Frozen custard is NOT ice cream, as it freezes while stationary rather than being constantly scraped off a cold surface. So instead of having air whipped in and crystals being so tiny as to be smooth, instead you get an icey block with long, sharp crystals. I broke it up and stirred it the best I could, but the final result still has a little bit of icy crunch to it, boooo.

AM SNACK: 9:15am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, toasted bagel with cream cheese, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10:15am, spoonful of vanilla ice cream

LUNCH: 1:45pm, one vanilla ice cream sandwich, a few whole wheat farmer's market pretzels, a small bowl of health salad, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Putting together ice cream novelties, one ended up in my mouth. A little grazing in the kitchen before heading off to a July 4 gathering in Jersey, where I suspect there will be food.

DINNER: 6pm, creamy pasta, pizza with marscapone & prosciutto, 1 beer, 1 glass prosecco, 1.5 ice cream sandwiches, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
For a 4th of July meal, this could have been a lot worse! The pizza-thing our hosts made was redolent in truffle oil, which makes me think....hmmm, not sure whether I love or loathe truffle oil. Truffles, I love (other than the price), but truffle oil, I dunno. Something weird about it, rings a wrong note, but it does remind me of truffles.


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, whole wheat pretzels, cashews & chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Morning Bleah

I'm finding that morning is the hardest part of the day to get through since my life has been thrown into some minor chaos with leaving the restaurant. Between the tiredness, Betsy & Edie rolling in lockstep, and my mind naturally going to pessimism, it's something I need to strategize -- whether it's food (jump start with chocolate covered coffee beans?), a routine or a ritual, I dunno. I lift weights M-W-F which definitely helps, but I think doing it more than that might be excessive. Maybe a combination of food, an act to help with a work search, and a light yoga routine? Hmmm, could anyone advise me on a light self-guided daily 10-minute yoga routine?!


TODAY'S COOKING
Ice Cream Sandwiches: Last week's left over mint ice cream was enough for about 15 sandwiches. Forgot to freeze the barrel, so will have to make to make the vanilla ice cream for another dozen tomorrow.
Health Salad: A nice simple vegan slaw for our vegan picnic on Monday!


BREAKFAST: 9am, iced green tea, 5 small pancakes, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, penne in sauce with shrimp, ginger ale, 2 cc cookies, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5 

PM SNACK: 3:15pm, 1 small ice cream sandwich
Wasn't planning on eating this but MAP came over, and mommainlaw, B, MAP and even Edie were all eating these things I ate this morning, so I ate one to be sociable. Edie was going nuts on mommainlaw;s sandwich, licking the ice cream then grabbing her hand and pushing her face into it when it was pulled away from her, all the while strenuously repeating the word, "CAKE!"


PM SNACK: 4:45pm, slice of streetza, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Was in the playground, B was feeling hungry because all she had to eat all afternoon was...an ice cream sandwich, so I got a slice for her, and I couldn't just let her eat alone!

DINNER: 6:30pm, shrimp toast, small amount of beef & string beans with white rice, ice cream sandwich, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, left over beef & string beans with rice, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Of Two Minds

230.2--->227.4--->221.0

Well, this is the lightest I've been in a while. I'm of two minds, as I usually am about this stuff...

• Negative: Work stress from finishing up at the restaurant definitely saw a lack of appetite for a few weeks -- starvation diet is not sustainable, healthy or desirable. 
• Positive: I've been riding a lot more the past few weeks, I've cut back on restaurant and take away food to try to budget better, and this past month I've notched up the amount of weight I've been lifting three times a week. My routine now includes two sets of push ups, 18 and 9. The greatest number of push ups at my peak strength in high school was 10. I'm sure if I tried to blow out, I could hit 25 to 30....

Babysitter came, and spent the morning picking up groceries, a few things fro the farmers market, the pet store, and diapers and a potty from the baby store. Popped home for a smoothie then jumped back on the bike to meet B at the doc for a scan of the fetus.

TODAY'S COOKING
Creme Anglais: Another round for ice cream sandwiches for taking to various holiday weekend events, this time sticking with traditional vanilla, though more vanilla-y than most.
Chocolate Chip Cookies: Used dark chocolate chips, a bit further with the brown sugar and less with the white. Had to bite Betsy from going beserk on them when she got home, now under lock and key in the freezer until ready to be sandwichatized.

AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10:45am, smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Milk, banana, flax, a lot of fresh blueberries that Edie hasn't been eating but we got a lot from the CSA, frozen mango and cherries, vanilla extract and salt. Forgot the yogurt, still exceptionally thick and filling.

LUNCH: 1:30pm, red curry with shrimp, basmanti rice, a beer, a few bites of cookie, a few bites of cupcake, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Celebratory lunch on the UES with B & her momma, we just had an anatomy scan to check the new bebe for health and gender. Yep, it's a healthy babay!



PM SNACK: 4:40pm, watermelon, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7pm, large green salad, breaded tilapia fillet, pickle, water, 1 cc chip cookie,  1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, popcorn, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
I used twice the amount of butter and olive oil in making this batch -- Betsy said it was the best yet, though I didn't tell her why, he he he.

A Walk Around

Chill day, play ground with Edie in the morning, a walk around downtown in the afternoon and meeting with B for dinner in a park then more wandering. Prelude to the holiday weekend, I suppose.

AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea

LUNCH: 11:30am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla, peanuts, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5 

DINNER: 5pm,  falafel platter, small piece of baklava, lemonade, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACKS: 9-10pm, chocolate chips & peanuts, 2 small burritos, small amount of pasta, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

1-Pack

Woke up to Edie doing a hard belly flop onto my middle (OOFAH!) As I was doing a small stretch in prep for weight lifting, I noticed a weird curve in my upper-midsection. I felt it, pressed it, prodded it, is it a hernia? It felt firm but pliant, no discomfort or pain...it's a muscle!! I have a 1-pack! Call the fitness magazines! Call Hollywood! My fat pad still pretty much hides whats been developing these past 3 or so months, but it was still pretty nice to see, however fleeting.

Edie had the day with the sitter & summer camp, so I spent part of the morning working on work-related matters, then road the bike to Coney Island and back. Indulged in a Chinese brick -- it makes sense to do this for lunch and after a strenuous activity, as compared to a bigger brick for dinner, where I probably hadn't done much of nuthin'. And a full stomach helps shopping rationally at the supermarket, which I did right after.

AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, 4 small buttermilk pancakes, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2:15pm, lomein & fried rice, small wonton soup, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:45, green salad, 2 pieces breaded tilapia, large piece of watermelon, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
I bought a big bag of breaded raw tilapia at the supermarket,  a few pounds for under $12. Farm raised in China, I wonder if this cheap protein is ok. Funny to eat it with a green salad of CSA vegetables. One side organic and local, the other side of the plate....less so.


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, peanut butter with chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Kale Fail

The day wore me out in a good way yesterday, fell asleep around 11 and got 9 hours sleep. Woke up sore and muscle-tired in a few places. Took Edie to a music event in Madison Square Park in the morning, out to the swings in the afternoon.

Cutting back restaurant and take out food, ate everything mostly homemade today. Got a load of salad greens at the CSA, had a bowl full o' them before my heaping bowl of pasta.

TODAY'S COOKING
Kale chips: Got an excessive amount of kale from the CSA today. Deveined it, chopped it, tossed it with olive oil and old bay seasoning. Roasted at 375 for 12 minutes. Discovery: too much oil, came out crunchy in spots and wet in others. Ate a little, then had to toss. Will do it better next time.

AM SNACK: 9am, green iced tea


AM SNACK: 9:45am, banana


LUNCH: 12:45pm, 3 mini burritos, 2 pickles, a lump of brown rice & lentils, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 3pm, watermelon, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6pm, a few kale chips, pasta with sauce and fresh basil, salad greens with Greek dressing, a small piece of CSA cheese, can of ginger ale, 2 mint ice cream sandwiches, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Riding

Edie started summer camp today, just a few hours in the morning Mondays and Wednesdays, in the same place where she'll be starting preschool in September. She's growing up!

Lifted weights in the morning. The weather was too perfect to not cycle, so I rode up to Nyack and back. Weird riding out there on a Monday. Not many other cyclists, but a lot of tree-trimming trucks, Con Ed and Verizon trucks, etc, jamming up the roadways.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:15am, toasted bagel w/ cream cheese, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


BIKE SNACK: 1pm, bag of corn chips, banana, pack of 3 cc cookies, 24 oz Gatorade, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 5:30pm, pancakes, can of ginger ale, one mint cc cookie ice cream sandwich, water, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5
On the way home I was kinda vibing on getting a brick of Chinese, but B texted that she wanted pancakes, so instead of spending $6 on a brick, I stopped by the local market and got $6 worth of top-shelf buttermilk and cooked up enough pancakes to last me & the fam a solid week. A good investment.

Harmonious Ice Cream Sandwiches

I went out in the morning to collect a few local delicacies -- knishes, bialies, pickles -- for a couple of B's friends who came over for an easy brunch.

I assembled the ice cream sandwiches in the morning, and they were pretty good -- the cookies were only about 1.5 wide, so two or three of them could make a portion. The strong vanilla presence in both the ice cream and the cookie really tied it together, but the mint of the filling and the brown sugar and chocolate of the cookie sang together in good harmony.

Also in three-part harmony, B, Edie & I all took blissful naps in the afternoon and got back to it after a quickie lunch. I took Edie out to the swings, then food shop, then once home, I took off to visit the HVS in Brooklyn. After a local restaurant meal, the rarest of rare happened: a snicklebikeride! We did a loop around Prospect Park on one of the most beautiful nights of the year, not cold, not warm, just right.

We spoke of a weight-loss challenge, which I think will be good for me about now, so starting Friday the 1st, I'll institute some new rule or approach to limiting my calorie intake and increasing my low-density food intake....

BREAKFAST: 8am, iced green tea

AM SNACK: 9:30am, 6 misshapen chocolate chip cookies, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


BRUNCH: 10:30am, knish, half a mimosa, a pickle, one mint ice cream sandwich, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 3:45pm, half a knish, a little watermelon, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


SNICKLEDINNER: 7:30pm, vegan singapore mei fun, a few veg dumplings, a few veg samosas, half a peanut butter bomb, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Pretty lucky

The scene I witnessed yesterday made the cover of the NY Post -- oddly pushing coverage of the passage of gay marriage in NY State off the front page. The woman lost her job and her boyfriend dumped her on the same day, and I think the article mentioned she was only living in the building for a week, so I imagine that could have been an unstable situation, too. I'm a pretty lucky guy.

A little sore from lifting yesterday, which is a good thing -- soreness means the lifting is making a difference. And Gawd knows so many people work out mindlessly with out the push to get out of the comfort zone, and wondering why nothing changes. Something is changing!




TODAY'S COOKING:
Machta Ice Tea: Haven't had tea in a while, time to get back on that horse. 1.8 ounce of the stuff was $16, so I think I'm going to either switch or find it in bulk on-line, like I do with uber-expensive vanilla beans. In the meantime, I used .9 ounce to steep a gallon of water, but I noticed on the packaging the leaves can be used twice. So though it'll fill the fridge up for a while, it's a good efficiency.
Mint Ice Cream: Made the custard yesterday with mint we got from the CSA. Tastes pretty damn fresh, and the extra vanilla bean doesn't hurt.
Chocolate Chip cookies: How does one define a chocolate chip cookie? Chocolate chips, sure. Vanilla flavor cookie, ok. Equal parts brown and white sugar creamed with butter, that's key. It's such a constricted formula, but it tastes so good!
Rice & Lentils: Wanted a side dish for burritos. Dumped a 2 cups of shortgrain brown rice and 1 cup of black lentils into the rice cooker with 8 cups of water, salt, smoked paprika, ground up some dried mushrooms, onion powder and white pepper. Came out pretty tasty.

BREAKFAST: 9am, banana


LUNCH: 1:15pm, watermelon, pasta with sauce and a little cheese, a spoonful of mint ice cream, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, a beer, a slice of pizza, a small square of blackbean brownie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8:30pm, 2 homemade burritos, brown rice & lentils, water, 4 chocolate chip cookies, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

OOFAH!

When Edie jumps on me in the morning, the noise I make when the air is pushed out of my chest is, more or less, "OOFAH!" Now Edie likes running up to me or B with a slap/hug and shouts "OOFAH!"

Well, I left the restaurant, and while I did give 2 weeks notice, my last day was this past Monday, with the drama and silliness I expected from a boss with whom my relationship was rather odd and always sort of unstable for the two years I worked with him. Basically, for the past several weeks the wind has been knocked out of me in slow motion, and is only slowly coming back to me in the same sluggish way.

I've been taking it easy this week, and B has been spectacularly supportive, the best wife/friend/life partner/mom I could have ever hoped to meet (and marry & impregnate & stuff!) I don't know if the wallowing and the existential crisis and the feeling-sorry-for-myself is over yet, but I'm starting to come back to normal, and have a more positive outlook. I lifted weights this morning for the first time in weeks, felt good. Got a call about a potential gig from a contact last night, don't know if it's for me but taking a meeting next week.

My family is in good health. Our home is clean and comfortable. And I don't ever have to go back to work for that guy. My three goals: cook some, see friends I've neglected lately, and slowly ease into a work search.


BRUNCH: 11:15am, small pastrami sandwich, a little lomein, a little coleslaw, pickle, a cheesy cracker, a few weird multigrain pringles, a bite of pizza, a forkful of pizza, a spoonful of ice cream, .75 bowl, hunger 45
Edie graduated from her NYC funded early learning and literacy program, which she has been attending twice a week for the past 3 months or so. B came, and there was a parent-donated spread, which was fun to graze through.

After dropping B off at the subway, we came upon a dramatic scene at the corner of Canal and Essex. The entire intersection was roped off with police tape, and hundreds of people were standing around looking at a roof. We joined the crowd and looked, and there was a young Asian woman sitting awkwardly on the edge of a building, while two beefy cops seemed to be talking to her. After a couple of minutes, she started gesturing and seemed to start sliding off, when the cops grabbed her and dragged her out of view. There was a collective gasp, then a collective cheer. Walking away as the crowd dispersed, I couldn't help but think why she was there. It's easy to dismiss as simply a crazy person, but what if it was something else? Family problems? Lost her job? Lost her life savings? Betrayal? Made a mistake she can't live with? Who knows? It's sad. My times are hard right now, but not in a jump-off-the-roof hard. Thank goodness for B&E! And the foundation my parents gave me. And my friends. And my bicycles.

DINNER: 6:25pm, 4 small homemade burritos, seared shrimp, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Made blackbeans overnight a couple of days ago, nice and thick and tasty. Today made some guac and grated some mild cheddar, wrapped them in small whole wheat tortillas. Skipped the rice. Between the intensity of the beans and the onioniness of the guac, think these are my best yet. Betsy got rather upset about the heavy oily shrimp steam released into the house, agitating her impregnated state. Man, no meal without heavy emotional drama today.....

EVENING SNACK: midnight, cheese steak, watermelon, chocolate chip & peanuts, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Feeling relaxed in a quiet house, got the munchies and went to town. Not the healthiest eating day nutritionally, but definitely a healing day emotionally. Gotta get down on some salad yo.

Update

OK, maybe I wasn't totally honest in my last post. Part of my lack of appetite was the heat, but another part was things changing at work -- it seems my last day at the resto will be this coming Wednesday. I'm still eating lightly, and this weekend I'll attempt my longest bike-ride yet, 145 miles. I'll be back to reporting everything I eat when my appetite goes back to normal, probably next Thursday!!

My only concern is prepping for the weekend ride -- I can not attempt a ride like that without topping off the glycerin supply in my muscles a day or two before. Good thing I'll have time with my wife and my beautiful Edie to relax with!

Update

OK, maybe I wasn't totally honest in my last post. Part of my lack of appetite was the heat, but another part was things changing at work -- it seems my last day at the resto will be this coming Wednesday. I'm still eating lightly, and this weekend I'll attempt my longest bike-ride yet, 145 miles. I'll be back to reporting everything I eat when my appetite goes back to normal, probably next Thursday!!

My only concern is prepping for the weekend ride -- I can not attempt a ride like that without topping off the glycerin supply in my muscles a day or two before. Good thing I'll have time with my wife and my beautiful Edie to relax with!

Heat Break

The last couple of days has been unprecedented heat in NYC, way too hot for this early in the season. The result has been a lack of appetite, drinking a lot of water, but not a lot of eating. Being that I'm spending a lot of time in the kitchen this weekend cooking for Edie's 2nd birthday party this Sunday, I'm going to take a break from this blog and return on Monday with a summary! Thanks, all my 2 readers....

Proper

This morning, Edie insisted on sharing my bagel with me. Shed stand next to where I was sitting at the kitchen table and say, "more!" until I gave her a bite. It's a real NYC bagel, so shed sink her teeth in as far as she could, then pull back with her full weight until her bite tore away. Even before she would swallow, shed ask for more and I had to tell her to chew and swallow before another bite. Yep, she's being raised to be a proper NYC gal.

BREAKFAST: 7:45am, iced green tea, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 12:45pm, 3 slices superthin pizza, 8oz Sprite, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 4pm, green salad, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 5pm, 3 slices of cheeseless sauceless mushroom and onion pizza, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Yogurt Duality

Edles was up a bit last night, wanting nothing other than momma-time, but it still kept me up for a while. Woke up a bit later than usual, but still managed to fit in a round of weights due to a very generous wife.

AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:30am, good yogurt with homemade granola, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
I skipped the usual mix-ins and threw in my sweeter-than-usual granola. It was interesting, the unhidden tartness of the yogurt side by side with the sweet nutty crunchy savoriness of the granola.

LUNCH: 1:15pm, 3 slices Sicilian,  8oz Sprite, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, 8oz Sprite

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, green salad, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, tortilla thing with moz and pepperoni, tortilla chips, 8oz Sprite, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 7pm, chocolate chip cookie, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

"Snacks!"

To bed at 11, woke up close to 9 but not quite energized. Took Edie out in the morning, swung by the local diner for "snacks!", and found myself in a deep 3 hour snap in the afternoon after lunch. Never quite energized after that. Yesterday's 85 mile ride was fun and strong, but definitely took the wind out of today.

However, an article in today's NY Times makes me think that this might be the next step in my bike hobby. I've always kinda avoided clubs and teams and such, but this kind of challenge -- distance without regards to speed -- seems like something I'd slot into naturally.

AM SNACK: 9am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10:30am, 2 pancakes, bacon, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1:45pm, hot dog, large serving of health salad, pickle, a few bites of leftover veg fried rice, 1 bowl, half a ginger ale, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 5:30pm, vegetarian Ethiopian platter, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Riding

A pretty simple day. Up at 7, out by 8, on a ferry to Sandy Hook at 8:15, 9 to 12:15 road down to Seaside Heights, 1 to 5 back, with a half hour goof-off in Asbury Heights, where a few friends were renting a house for the weekend. Between their hang overs and complaints about mild weather (which was PERFECT for cycling), I think I got the better end of the deal. Home early enough to see Edie all happy and some couch time with B before bed.

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


AM SNACK: 8:15am, 2 donuts


LUNCH: 12:30pm, eggplant hero, fries, diet coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 5pm, bag full of homemade granola, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, beef lomein, egg roll, shrimp toast, ice cream square, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Cookin' for fun

Woke up at 4 after 6 hours of sleep and couldn't get back to sleep. Got a lot done before lunch, a few recipes, laundry, Rufus to the vet and other chores. When B & E went down for a nap, I found myself failing and fell asleep too. I woke up to find them gone. I tried to watch TV but felt restless, so I went into the kitchen and cooked some more, just because it was fun. A bad movie on tv then to bed early, not a bad day.


TODAY'S COOKING
Tomato Sauce: A little too much balsamic forced me to balance it out with a bit of sugar, which resulted in a big flavor. Hmmm.
Lame Potato Salad: B made me make this, pretty run of the mill. Replaced dried tarragon with fresh, quartered the potatoes after boiling, eh.
Goldfish crackers: Used this recipe, came out pretty good. Used all whole wheat flour, and didn't have any onion powder. Used a sharp, sharp Australian cheddar that gave these some character, The commercial stuff has relatively few ingredients, too, though they use a blend of vegetable oil instead of butter, and their cheddar is so....generic. These had some oomf.
Pumpernickel loaf: Threw everything in the bread machine. Good thing I didn't go out, because the dough looked too dry, so I was able to slip in a half cup of water while kneading and it came out ok.
Granola bar crumble: Gotta apply the binder while it's still hot and press it quick -- the brown sugar recrystallizes and is an important factor in helping bind -- I let come to room temp and had to shatter it out of the pan and into another, silly.

AM SNACK: 5am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 6:30am, fruit smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 11:15am, 1 fish stick, health salad, potato salad, 1 ice cream square, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACKING: 3-6pm, goldfish crackers, watermelon, an ice cream square, granola, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8:30pm, small bowl of ziti with sauce, a pickle, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Afternoon Reverie

Up and out to class with Edie in the morning, a healthy lunch, then the nanny came and I took the afternoon up in Central Park, reading the paper and listening to music in the Sheep's Meadow. Ahhhhh!

TODAY'S COOKING
Iced green tea: This batch is a sencha with toasted rice in it, should be different.
Health Salad: Between eating green salads at work and B not being in the mood for vegetable salad, made a batch of this cabbage slaw to help up my veg content at home.


AM SNACK: 8:30am, half a pint of iced green tea


LUNCH: 12:30pm, sardine & avocado on oatmeal bread, 2 ice cream bars, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6pm, a little tortellini & gnocchi, potato tater tots, ginger ale, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, small apple pie, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Expected

228--->230.2--->227.4

The weigh in this morning brought expected news: my weight has not significantly changed the last month. My weight regimen continues to see results, with various muscles feeling harder and stronger, and dare I say it, slightly bigger. Not enough for people to notice yet, but if I keep on this track, maybe within a year... Think I'm going to increase the weights to the next increment, as I'm not getting particularly sore from the lifting lately.


AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 8:45am, good yogurt with vanilla, honey and almonds, a few bites of watermelon .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Cut up a bunch of watermelon for Edles -- not quite in season yet, but didn't stop Edie from wolfing down a ridiculous amount.


LUNCH: 12:45pm, 2 slices pizza with sausage and onion, 8oz sprite, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH 2: 3pm, 2 slices sicilian, 8oz sprite, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
B stopped by the resto by surprise, and the pizza jumped down my throat.


PM SNACK: 6pm, 1 meatball


PM SNACK: 8pm, green salad, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 11pm, brown rice California roll, pork tamales, chocolate cheesecake, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
A nice end-of-work-week meal from the Wholefoods shopping.

Work

Restaurant wasn't too busy, but it was rode hard and put away wet the day before, so it was a bit of work to bring it back to organizational and cleanly standards.

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea


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


LUNCH: noon, 2 slices white pizza, Manhattan Special, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH 2: 4:15pm, 1 slice Sicilian, large green salad, 8oz sprite, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6pm, 8oz diet coke

DINNER: 7:30pm, meatballs, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, ice cream square, small apple pie, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Memorial

I weighed in this morning out of curiosity, as a lot came out the last few days but little went in. I weighed 224 this morning, I wonder how much I'll be on the 1st when my system is closer to normal.

Mellow Memorial Day. Took Edie out in the morning to the local parks, and by the time we got back for a nap, B went out to the movies with friends. After nap and a small lunch, we hopped on the bike and explored playgrounds a little farther from home. Spent most of the eve on the couch, still not 100% from illness, but close.

AM SNACK: 9am, iced green tea


AM SNACK: 10:30am, a few pieces of ruggelah


LUNCH: 2pm, cheese steak, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, egg roll, cold sesame noodles, ribs, 1 can coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 11pm, 5 squares of dark chocolate

Illin'

Oy. So I woke up sometime in the morning and my body evacuated quite thoroughly -- I was feeling a bit sick to my tummy all night and was relieved to get rid of some of the pressure. I had 0 appetite, a dry mouth, and between a lack of energy and a soreness from the previous day's ride, I could not do much other than lie on the couch or lie in the bed. Good thing B had Edie covered or I would have suffered a lot more.

I slept on and off all day, and forced myself to eat a few pieced of ruggelah in the afternoon. My appetite came back late, and a full tummy helped me get to sleep.

PM SNACK: 3pm, 5 pieces of ruggelah


EVENING SNACK: 1am, tortellini with olive oil and parm, a few pretzels, a lime ice pop, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Ride then ill (and waffle shame)

A great day, a bike ride up to Nyack with a few friends, about 70 miles all told. Slow, leisurely, a long lunch at Nyack. Usually avoid alcohol on rides but being that it was so leisurely, I had a pint of cider with ice in it, and drank it slow. Really hit the spot.

Once back in Manhattan, rode around the rip of Manhattan and took the free Ikea ferry to Red Hook and ate at the soccer fields. When I got home, I was not hungry but thirsty, and the water made me feel...oddly full. I started to feel a vaguely acidy feeling in my tumm, and a tightening. I thought it would go away, and I conked out at around 11pm. I woke up at 3am feeling less full but...still tight, a burning feeling, and nauseous. I'd be waking up again and again all night. I took a gulp of Mylanta anti-acid stuff to help.

BREAKFAST: 7:45am, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese and sable, iced green tea, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


BIKE SNACK: 10:30am, small donut


BIKE SNACK: noon, 2 donuts, gatorade


BIKE LUNCH: 2:30pm, onion rings, pint of cider with ice, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


BIKE SNACK: 5:30pm, 2 waffles with nutella, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Holy crap. Everyone took the subway from uptown to the Ikea ferry, I chose to ride. I got hungry and found a Wafles & Dinges cart in the park without a line. I ordered two waffles, never having them before -- they put my waffles to SHAME! Thicker, heavier, crisper, more flavorful, just better in every way. I gotta reformulate. It's a good thing I was in serious calorie deficit/burning mode, or two waffles would have knocked me off the bike. In this case, it rejuvinated me and I rode with speed the rest of the way.



DINNER: 7:15pm, large shrimp taco, tamarind drink, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Noga

 A busy day. Woke up at 6 so I could ride to Brooklyn to have blood taken. I was exposed to measles while visiting T in the emergency room, so I got a call from the DOH saying I was potentially an outbreak starter. I was quite certain I was immunized as a baby, but not 100%, and if I wasn't, it could be a big problem for my family. I came out clear.

After, I did some food shopping and got home and started cooking, as a friend and her baby daddy came over for brunch -- it was the only time we all could get together before they left the country for who knows how long.

Got Edie and her pushbike loaded up and went to ER Park for a picnic with a few other parents and their mini-mes, was a good time. It went a little late and by the time I got home and got the laundry in, it was time for yoga. Unfortunately, about 20 minutes into the practice my body and brain were screaming, "STOP! EAT!" so I did. Met T after and I portaged her back home where we ordered in food and hung out with B. Other than what T referred to as "noga", it was a pretty good day.


TODAY'S COOKING
Waffles, bacon: My kitchen scale died, and had to eyeball the dry ingredients -- came out more flippity floppity that I like.

Granola bars: Made a batch of olive oil granola, then in a pan heated almond butter, a bit of brown sugar, some agave, a little corn syrup and a shot of water to loosen it. Mixed it all up and pressed it into a pan and refrigerated it. Came out nice and solid, but pleasantly chewy, sweet but not ridiculously so.

AM SNACK: 6:15am, iced green tea, handful of chocolate covered coffee beans


BRUNCH: 11am, waffles, bacon, sable, water, a piece of ruggelah, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1pm, 4 small chocolate caramels


PM SNACKS: 2:30-4:30pm, granola bar, chocolate cupcake, lentil crackers, a few pieced of melon, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 6pm, a couple pieces of ruggelah


DINNER 1: 7:30pm, vegan cesar salad, seiten with blackbeans and quinoa, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER 2: 9:30pm, veg samosa, odd fish-like proteins and veg with a little rice, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Fun at class

A good day -- Edie's class was in the local library. My class was the next to last -- we were cooking food that will be served to about 40 peeps next week, and on top of that baking pies to be sold by the slice at a festival in Red Hook the day after. So we made about 200 mini empanadas of two different kinds, and 16 sweet potato pies from scratch (not to mention 4 gallons of lemon iced tea, a half gallon of pique dipping sauce, and a gallon of chimichurri marinade) Class went late, until 7:30, very good vibes.

AM SNACK: 8:45am, iced green tea


LUNCH: 12:15pm, 2 lotus lead wraps, fishball and rice noodle, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


SCHOOL EATS: 6:30-7:30, mini empanadas, a pork dumpling, sprite, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, a few squares of chocolate, water

Nice to be challenged

Tried to wake up to lift, but the apple pie I inhaled last night made me feel leaden, so I slept in. Not a good habit to get into!

Work was a bit nuts, as my main cook quit by just not showing up, and I was short handed when we got a bit of a rush in the evening. Had to work a few stations in the back and stay late to get the prep done, but over all it went smooth and it was a good vibe. Nice to be challenged.

Got a strange call from the health department, probably nothing, but bothering me -- will talk more about it as soon as I know more.

AM SNACK: 9am, iced green tea

LUNCH: 1pm, 2 slices pizza, 8oz sprite, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 5pm, 3 meatballs, pomegranate soda, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 10pm, 2 slices pizza, sprite, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 12am, multigrain sushi, a few squares of chocolate, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Spring, you were all too brief

Woke up to Edie crawling onto my bed, chanting "papa papa papa" and sticking her smiling face right into mine. Pretty awesome.

Another mellow day at work. Hard to believe Memorial Day is this weekend. What happened to Spring? A winter that lasts 7 months, a spring that sticks around for a week?!

Restaurant got a little busy in the evening and I didn't eat, and ended up eating too much when I got home. Oy.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea

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


LUNCH: 1pm, 2 slices Sicilian, 8oz Sprite, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 5pm, green salad, 1 small slice pizza, half a glass of apple juice, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 10pm, cheese steak, apple pie, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5

Ache

Edie has come subsumed a bit with her wooden pushbike, which she is still too small for. Ohhh, I ache for us to ride together!

Today, woke up to lift, Edie was in her crib standing, doing the stations of "Wheels on the Bus" to the music I was playing, was incredibly cute. Slow day at the restaurant, really grinding on me. Thinking big thoughts, next moves, career decisions, scheduling Edie's school life for the next few years, wishing my parents were around to bounce ideas off of, missing my wife and Lil' E...

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


LUNCH: 1pm, 2 slices pizza, 8 oz coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, 2 slices pizza, 8 oz coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 10:30pm, singapore mei fun, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Mellow

Woke up to shuttle out to Brooklyn to visit some friends with a baby. An afternoon nap followed by chores to pick up diapers. There was an event in the public park next door to our building, I got to sing karaoke to B while she and Edie napped. Mellow evening with order-in food and TV.

AM SNACK: 9am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 11am, 2 wholewheat muffins, half a donut, pickle, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 3pm, falafel sandwich, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, scallion pancake, sesame noodles, chicken sate, tempura shrimp, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5