Off the Chart

Woke up to my phone alarm -- B woke up early and got out the door around then for her first day of work, and miraculously both chillun remained asleep. Got both of them up, fed, dressed and the big one to school, and lifted weights when I got home.

Have been enjoyed the baby spinach salads, but I need to change it up. It's slightly bitter, chalky taste begs for accompaniment, which has been met with baby carrots and creamy Cesar from a bottle. The carrots are fine, but I need to make my own creamy dressing. The ranch recipes I've looked at call for butter milk (yay!), sour cream (eh) and mayo (ewwww.) Makes me think I should just invent my own, and hope the buttermilk and fresh herbs can give the right flavor. I can make cream fraiche again with the buttermilk and some cream, and make my own mayo. Soup it up with fresh herbs, vinegar and maybe water to thin it. Could be good, but how long would it last in the fridge? It won't be the forever-stuff like you buy in the bottle...

I bought a pound of spinach, and including the one more left, I've gotten about 5 servings out of it. I think in the future I will rotate momma style salad / spinach salad and chopped poppa salad. Need to get one more in there and will have a month's round of salads!


AM SNACK: 7:15am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:45am, hardcore oatmeal, banana, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Funny how what was two servings of oatmeal the first time became 3 solid servings the second time.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, chicken parm hero on whole wheat, spinach salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
This time reheated chicken and bread in micro, added more sauce and a bit more cheese, and set the broiler to lo instead of hi. Edges of bread still burned, but tasty. Add around the bottom half of the bread, leaving over about 1/3 of it uneaten. Chicken, how ever, was pretty good despite being almost a week old. Three solid meals out of one chicken boob!


DINNER: 5:30pm, angel hair pasta with roasted brussel sprouts, momma style salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 6:30pm, whole wheat ritz with nutella, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, left over angel hair pasta, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
I suspect I did not eat enough today, ravings for sugar and carbs off the chart.

A pretty good apple

Another hard night with babies up here and there, but with a new approach and a newly put-up gate, hopefully things will settle soon. Took Edie out in the morning for a big food shop, as it has occurred to me now that B will be at work, it'll be difficult to haul weight by foot with Milli Mil -- he's too young for a bicycle.

Took Mil to a friend's Superbowl party in Brooklyn. She made a veritable feast of fancy food, though due to some appetite-destroying cupcakes B inflicted on me in the afternoon, it was easy to go easy. My salted chocolate caramel tart was good, though I went a little too heavy on the finishing salt.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, iced green tea, hardcore oatmeal, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 11:45am, brussel sprout fried brown rice , baby spinach with a few baby carrots and a little creamy Cesar dressing, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
A powerfully nutritious lunch, in advance of a dinner that'll be very, ummm, American.

PM SNACK: 1pm, an apple
A crisp, cold fuji apple is pretty delicious, but it's even more delicious when cut up, munched on while on the couch, and your 2.5 yr old comes up, puts her head on your shoulder, and shares it with you. Mmmmmmmmm!

PM SNACK: 3pm, 2 cupcakes, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
-sigh- B brought these back for me, after a few hours out and about while I looked after the kids. I guess she didn't get the memo. Didn't stop them from jumping down my neck quite quickly, though.


SUPERBOWL DINNER: 6pm, a few vegetarian dumplings, pulled pork on a steamed bun with a little kimchi, 1 beer, 1 slice of salted chocolate caramel tart, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Pancakes to the Extreme

A restless night of babies, toddler and wives up all night in varying degrees. Took the Es to a birthday party in the neighborhood while B slept in, and in the afternoon B's mom came over, and I got in a solid 3 hour nap. Ordered in food, kept the night as easy as possible.

TODAY'S COOKING
Pancakes: Had a cup of cream fraiche from the torte work, as well as a cup of cream and a quart of buttermilk. So I threw them all in, and unsurprisingly the fat/moisture ratio really interfered with gluten creation, leaving tender, silky pancakes in their wake. Wow. Really good, but I think next time I'm going to go with whole wheat pastry flower to preserve the tenderness while adding a nutty flavor/making it healthier.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 8:15am, pancakes, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: noon, 2 slices streetza, cucumbers & baby carrots, a small square of birthday cake, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
At a 3 yr olds birthday party at the playroom. Thankfully mostly healthy food, fruit & veg, on display, though after one juice box, Edles was braying for another, but I would not let her. She definitely seems to have my (and my dad's) sweet tooth....


PM SNACK: 6pm, baby spinach with a few baby carrots and creamy cesar dressing, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
The mild chalky bitterness of raw spinach is hard to down without an accompaniment. The crunchy sweetness of baby carrots work perfectly.


DINNER: 6:45pm, curry puffs, spicy string beans & tofu with sticky rice, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
With grandma in the house saving our butts, we ordered in. I stayed on the healthier side, a small deep fried meaty app, but the bulk of the meal was string bean and tofu, as opposed to a rice or noodle.

EVENING SNACK: 7:45pm, granola bar


EVENING SNACK; 8:45pm, potato chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 11pm, half a bad chocolate bar, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Around the world of cravings in evening snacks. Mast Brothers make some horrible chocolate, with these high fruity bitter notes that taste like a mistake. Well, it's Saturday night, it's the parent's equivalent of going ape shit on a night out!

Feeling French, haw haw HAAAAW!

I feel so French, on the morning walk with Milli, was thinking about the day's eats. How can I make my lunch of chicken parm a bit healthier than just breaded fried chicken meat? Surround it by healthy stuff! I walked by Wholefoods and picked up a whole wheat baguette to make a chicken parm hero and a pound of baby spinach to make a super easy green salad.

It's good to up my salad game, as though I have been greatly enjoying the resurgence of momma-style salad in my diet, it will eventually get boring.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Shrimp & Brussel Sprout Fried Rice: I surprised myself how much I liked this dish, taking the edge off the longing for take out. This morning, cooked up a cup of short grain brown rice with a little soy sauce, then put it in the fridge. This evening, quartered a pound of brussels and roasted them the usual way, at 400 for 20 minutes after being tossed with oil, salt and pepper. Minced an onion. Caste iron wok heated on high, peanut oil, tossed in some crushed garlic cloves and slices of fresh ginger. Tossed for a minute to flavor the oil, then got them out. Added onion, let cook until slightly soft, about 3 minutes. Tossed in cold rice, a few table spoons of sweet cooking sake. Tossed in cooked brussels. Finished with some sesame oil. Cleared the wok, threw in some quartered raw shrimp until cooked, along with a little more sake. Tossed with my portion, as the rest was for my vegetarian bride, hrumph.

AM SNACK: 7:15am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 7:45, revised smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Replaced milk with acai juice, and added blackberries, raspberries and pineapple to the current mix of banana, blueberries, cherries, mango and peach. Spirulina, flax, a dash of salt (waiting on a new batch of vanilla extract.) Two comments: pineapple is such a dominant flavor, gonna cut it back by half next time. Also, the little hard seeds of the raspberries is unappealing, but due to so many other fruits, not a big deal.

Did two things to speed up production: I emptied all the fruits from their various baggies and made one big gallon-sized plastic bag of mix fruit. Unfortunately, pineapple looks just like mango so I'll just have to bear it. Also, I noticed the acai juice is only good 1 week from opening, and this is two months worth of acai, so I poured it into 3 ice cube trays, and once solid, will keep them in a bag next to the fruit bag.


LUNCH: 11:45am, chicken parm hero on wholewheat, baby spinach salad, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
The whole wheat baguette was kinda meh, probably not the freshest. I used 1 half, split it, inserted the two oblong pieces of chicken, added a bit more sauce, and put it under the broiler for 5 minutes. The chicken got hot and got a little char on the bread, which was great, but not enough. Next time, will probably reheat the whole thing in a micro before the broiler. Not sure what to do about the bread, other than either make it or find better bread. The salad was just the baby spinach with some bottled Italian dressing, simple, satisfying.

DINNER: 5:45pm, shrimp & brussel sprout fried rice, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Really enjoyed this. Maybe a little bit greasier than a super-healthy meal, but it was full of whole grain, greens and tasted....satisfying. Not nearly as salty as the take out stuff.

EVENING SNACK: 7:15pm, homemade granola bar, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 8:15pm, popcorn, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Lunch with the 1%

Lifted weights this morning, paying attention to the feel of my body. I don't know if my slight weight gain is due to building muscle, but I do think that I've come back to the level of tone before I stopped lifting due to Baby Mil popping out.



AM SNACK: 8:15am, iced green tea


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


LUNCH: 12:30pm, a few bite sized fried things, breads & butter, lobster in tomato sauce, pork & parsnip, chocolate thingy thing, water, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Since B is reentering the work world next week, this was pretty much the last chance to go out one on one for a while, so I took her to Del Posto for lunch, a beautiful room, great food, 4 star service. This Italian food made my chicken parm last night look like dog food.

DINNER: 9pm, momma salad, kraft dinner, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5 
After that lunch, trying to make anything real would have been unpleasing...

Mom's great leap forward in Chicken technology

231--->226.8-->228.2

So I went up a little, no big deal -- last month's drop was attributable to not eating due to illness, the gain is practically a margin of error. I'm still surprisingly sore from Monday's workout, which reminds me that muscle is heavier than fat. I think for me to really see a difference on three fronts -- look skinnier, look toner and actually be lighter on the scale -- I should think more in terms of 6 months of consistent better eating and regular weights. I'll still limit myself to monthly weigh-ins, but will reevaluate at beginning of July. Y'know, bikini season.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Salted Chocolate Caramel Tart: For the Stuporbowl party I'm attending this weekend, I promised to make this recipe. It's a bit labor and time intensive, as the dough had to be made, pressed out, chilled baked and cooled. The caramel needed to be cooked, poured into shells then cooled four to 5 hours. Simple ganache had to be made, poured, then cooled again (or in this case frozen, to last to when delivery is.) The recipe calls for 9" pans, I only had 11", so I made 2 1/2 times the recipe.....and found I had enough stuff for THREE tarts. Hrumph. Well, they look good, I'll assume they taste good when I try it over the weekend...

Chicken Parmesan: My class made this last semester, at their insistence, and I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. It's not surprising, as this was one of my mother's signature dishes. I remember when I was 5 or 6, she got the recipe from someone who also summered at the rental bungalows we inhabited in the warm months. When I think about it, it's a simple dish, peasant food really, but for someone like my mom, to bread and pan fry a chicken breast was something foreign and challenging. Her chicken parm was gross, the meat was always dry AND greasy, the stale tasting crust would fall off in chunks before ever hitting the plate, the rubbery cheese not quite melted.

But it was a big deal -- the only way my mom made chicken was what me and dad referred to as "puke chicken", a braise in some sort of liquid that I assume involved ketchup. In later years as we entered the middle class, my mom would bring home roasted chickens from A&P, which were a huge step up.

I ate one breast yesterday, and it was a large portion. After slicing the 2nd breast into thin pieces for quick cooking, I got 6 reasonable pieces, enough for 3 medium portions (or 2 generous portions). I used standard breading procedure (dip in salted flour, dip in egg wash, dip in crumbs, straight into hot oil.) Instead of prepacked "seasoned crumbs", I used panko mixed with dry oregano for that crunch. My mom would try to cook through a whole breast in the oil, I just quickly browned the meat then into a glass pan on a bed of sauce. Cheeses, a little dollop of sauce, into the oven for 20 minutes - my mom would just place the cheese on the meat in the oil and hope for the heat of the goings-on to melt the cheese.

This definitely a once-in-a-blue moon food. Next time, more dry spices in the breadcrumbs, skip the bed of sauce in the pan and just put it on top.


AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, organic chex with organic dead milk, banana, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: noon, sardines & avocado and whole wheat sprouted bread, health salad, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


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

PM SNACK: 5:15pm, momma salad, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, chicken parmigiana with angel hair pasta, grenadine soda, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Sure, it's big & American, it's not that healthy, but it's homemade from scratch and is part of who I am.

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, potato chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, peanuts & chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Well, I'm outta chips. Should I try to resist buying them in the market?

Tastes like chicken (Damn you, Liam Neeson!)

I can't imagine who reads this blog -- the stat counter says between 6 and 12 people read this thing every day. (Hello, LTF massive!) It's probably clear to all you out in internet land the motivation for this blog is to recite out loud what I eat, and the thoughts and pressures behind it, more for my own benefit than the world's. Like a kid who reads out loud rather than in his head to increase absorption, this blog is my thoughts out loud to keep myself honest to myself. And every once in a while I'll look at an entry 1, 2 even 4 or 5 years back to see where my head (& stomach) was. Weird, I've been doing this that long. I guess despite the content, you're reading because I'm regular. He he, I'm regular. But that's a whole nuther kinda blog.

The reason I bring this up is that I've hit up all my other social media with news that I'm riding as Team Captain for the Blue Card team in the 5 Boro Bike Ride -- the Blue Card is a charity that gives funds to destitute Holocaust survivors. I need to raise some dosh, so here's the link:


http://www.imathlete.com/donate/NoahWildman

Learning to Feed readers represent! $200+ gets knishes! Back to your regular programming...

Woke up feeling shitty, a rough night unrelated to kids. Insomnia, then restless sleep due to stuffy nose and mucusy throat. Had a weird dream of being in French class with Liam Neeson, the teacher was Tilda Swinton, and I suspected Liam was a spy looking to destroy the free world, and I was jealous of him, because I wanted to do that too! And Tilda always called on him, not me!

Woke up sore, too, more than usual. I did have a good work out yesterday, warmed up by the bike ride haul of kid furniture from Brooklyn. I've been pushing a little harder on the pull ups (some day, I will do one, but I have started going from -no movement- to a slight lift of maybe an inch, so that's something!) but in particular there is one leg exercise that gets me every time. Because of my cycling, leg exercises don't do too much for me even with added weight, except for wide squats. They work my inner thighs and backs of legs. I go full on with my heaviest weight (52.5) and though my reps are 5, I usually do 7 or 8 because it doesn't feel THAT challenging. Yet every time (I rotate my exercise by muscle groups, so it is 1 of 6 leg exercises), my inner thighs are painful the next day, making walking stiff. This is a good thing I suppose, as this part of my legs are not being worked out by bike riding, and having tone and muscle mass in other parts can only help and protect me. Perhaps I should add squats as an every-time exercise, separate from the leg exercises group...

The morning was dedicated to baby luvin' and midweek laundry washin' - long gone are the days of the once a week laundry.Out in the afternoon with an old friend, Edie time, then internet and TV all eve while I took care of Milli.


AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9am, granola bar, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Popped another vitamin C.

LUNCH: 11:30am, green salad, pizza, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Out at Patsy's with an old, old friend I haven't really spoken to since my wedding. We ate our traditional meal, splitting a large salad and a large pizza. I left the bones (i.e. crusts) over.


PM SNACK: 5pm, momma salad, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 5:45pm, grilled chicken breast, tabouli, butternut squash soup, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Hammered out a chicken boob to a 1/2 inch thick, tossed with olive oil, salt and Worcestershire sauce, and grilled for a good 5 minutes on each side to get some nice marks (though I smoked out the house a little.) Amazing how good a properly grilled, fresh chicken breast can be. Usually when you buy that kind of stuff, it's been sitting around and dry, or worse. This quick grill left the meat moist, the hammering left it tender.

The portion was a little large, about 9oz of chicken, in hopes the extra protein would leave me without cravings in the evening...


EVENING SNACK: 7pm, peanuts & chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5'

EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, potato chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
I guess that chicken didn't do the trick! Tried to resist, but was flat out hungry. Not the best snacks this evening, tomorrow will be better. Gotta mix it up or I'll get bored (and discouraged.)

An Apple a Day means a little less chocolate!

Woke up late -- our usual alarm clocks (da kidz) didn't go off and B got up at 7:45, and got Edie out the door while I slept with Milli Mil. Got up at 8:30 with a sore throat and stuffy nose, worse than yesterday. Still have energy and a clear head, so it's not a HUGE deal, but I popped a vitamin C to help things along.

A good day. Road the cargo bike to B's cousin's house in Brooklym and transported a child's desk and chairs over. Lifted weights, walked to Wholefoods with Milford, did a little light cooking.

Good news: Just picked up a new cooking class for a semester, will be teaching it starting next week through April, overlapping the other class I teach by a month. We'll see how it goes, hopefully it'll become a regular thing.


TODAY'S COOKING
Tabouli: While making the week's mama salad, whipped up some simple tabouli. 1 cup of bulgar wheat into 2 cups of salted boiling water, sit for 30 minutes. Mixed in one deseed chopped tomato, 2 deseeded chopped cucumbers, minced bunch of mint, minced bunch of parsley, a small amount of grated red onion, some olive oil. Forgot to get a lemon, will hit it tomorrow.


AM SNACK: 8:45am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, good yogurt with almonds, vanilla and agave, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
I squirted the agave into the yogurt assuming it would flow like honey, and ended up shooting too much in. I poured as much as I could off, but it was still too loose and sweet. Oh well, probably still not as sweet as a McDonald's "healthy" yogurt parfait.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, turkey & swiss on whole wheat, health salad, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Toasted the bread and zapped the filling in the micro for 30 seconds, made for a much more satisfying sandwich.

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, brown rice avocado cucumber nori roll, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Out to Wholefoods with Mil strapped to me, forgot to grab a granola bar on the way out. Considered a slice o' streetza or a hotdog on the way over, but occured to me half way there would probably some sort of appetizing but healthy snack at the market.

PM SNACK: 6pm, momma salad, with carrot dip, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, leftover whole wheat penne with beef gravy, spinach and a little broc, an apple, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
The pasta wasn't too appetizing, and when I sniffed it I almost hope it went bad. But it was fine, and afet zapping, the umami-ness of the brisket braising-liquid derived gravy was nice, beefy, mushroomy. After finishing, felt the urge for desert, for sweet. I bought some nice fujis the other day, so cut up some big apple chunks, and it left me feeling satiated. Though in the back of my mind I feel a salt/greasy urge building....

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, potato chips. .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, frozen waffle, the 2 last mini bagel wrapped hot dogs, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

A Model Sunday

Got to bed around 9pm, feeling run down. Slept fitfully, because/regardless of baby getting up for B to feed, but thank goodness Edie slept through the night. Woke up with slightly stuffy nose and sore throat, but full of energy. Perhaps my better diet is pulling me through? Spent the first half of the day food shopping with Edie then making apple pies, the middle of the day hosting a nice brunch with K&C, a respite of taking Edie out for an hour to run around, then the the third part of the day was a bike ride to Park Slope to meet E for adult dinner. A pretty good Sunday, bye the bye.

One thing of note, I had no cravings in the evening, but dinner was rather heavy. Also, this emerging head cold got me in bed by 11, which may have had an effect on my evening appetite...


TODAY'S COOKING:
Apple Pie: Entertaining guests, most food was either dead simple (roasting brussels, making bagel chips, searing shrimp) or already made (carrot dip, pumpkin knishes) but no real desserts on hand. So this morning I made the dough, a doubling of this recipe, and in the late morning made some free-style apple pie filling - 10 lbs of granny smiths peeled, cored and sliced, a handful of brown sugar, handful of white, a scoop of cinnamon, clove and nutmeg, salt, a big dash of corn starch for thickening goo-action. Rolled out dough between pieces of wax paper to make the transfer easier, but the side against the stone still got a little sticky. Over all, though, these were some of the better looking pies I've done (though if I had a cold room, it would be a lot easier, or maybe next time I'll roll in wax then put them in the fridge for an hour....)

The three pies came out OK, a little bit dry on the inside for my taste, the crust a little gummy. Maybe I should have let them go a little longer in the oven...

Shrimp veloute: Inspired by the brisket gravy, I tapped my c-school memories and made a simple sauce for the shrimp. Instead of throwing out the shrimp shells, I simmered them in a pint of water for about 30 minutes with some bay leaves. Strained it into a holding bowl, then whisked 2 tbsp of olive oil and 2 tbsp of flour in the pot until it smelled toasty. Slowly fed the hot shrimp stock into the pan and soon had what was essentially shrimp gravy. Seasoned with Bay Seasoning, the same stuff I had seasoned the shrimp with. Simple, relatively light, a nice wet coat for the dry shrimp.


AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 8:15am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Banana, yogurt, milk, grapes, mango, cherry, blueberry, peach, spirulina, flax, salt, vanilla. While feeding it to Edie, B objected, saying I put all sorts of crap in it, like honey. I asked her, dude, do you ever read my obsessive blog entries?!

PM SNACK: noon, handful of dry roasted almonds

LUNCH: 2pm, bagel chips & carrot dip, shrimp with veloute, pumpkin knish, roasted brussel sprouts, apple pie, grenadine soda, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:15pm, fatty burger, duck fat fries, bread pudding, 1 cup of beer, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Out in Brooklyn to some nice restaurants in Park Slope with a good friend, while Betsy held down the fort like I did on Friday. Not the healthiest food, but it was nice to indulge. The burger was waygu beef with bacon fat, a onion confit, homemade ketchup, but I had them hold the gouda, as I did not want to risk a dairy-chop meat explosion in my body....

Walkabout

Woke up 7ish after a fitful night. B&E took off with some friends to some children's thing on the UWS, while Mil & I ventured into the subways to Inwood Hill Park for a nice walk for an hour, before meeting up with an old friend for brunch. We hopped on the subway and walked across Central Park to grandma's house -- such a beautiful day, I only regret Mil is too young to be attached to a bicycle, so we could have been outdoors more and in subways less.


BREAKFAST: 8am, iced green tea, homemade granola bar, handful of chocolate covered espresso beans, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Ah, granola bar. Healthy convenience. When I first ate it the other day, it struck me as not sweet enough, as it is BARELY sweet, but on my palate first thing in the morning, it's mild sweetness is just right. Maybe the next version I'll put in green tea powder for a caffiene kick.



BRUNCH: 11:15am, buckwheat pancakes, bacon, a little melon fruit salad, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
At a resto with Mil and a friend, healthyish fair. The wholegrain pancakes came with the syrup and butter that I only added a little for flavor, but one thing I surprisingly enjoyed was the small side of cut up melon and a couple of grapes to decorate the dish. I see myself upping my fruit game this week, and not just in smoothies.

PM SNACK 3:35pm, momma salad, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 4:30pm, wholewheat ritz crackers, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 5:30pm, cesar salad, pizza, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Ordered in, nice to not cook or make dirty dishes. Large salad, three slices, down from my usual 4 (ordered from Lombardies, very thin, lightly topped - 4 slices of streetza would kill me!)


EVENING SNACK: 6:45pm, grenadine soda, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
The citric acid in the syrup is a revelation. Makes me want to experiment with making other syrups.

Dietary Thoughts

Alton Brown's Good Eats episode about his change in diet over a 9 month period to lose 50 lbs was repeated today, and it re-inspired me. Its never going to work for me to just cut out chocolate in the evening, especially if I get cravings pushed on by hunger -- I just have to crowd it out with nutrient-dense calories during the day to get a handle.

He said he had a smoothie EVERYDAY for breakfast, but that seems a bit extreme (and boring) to me -- twice a week is as much as I can handle. However, I can up my smoothie game. I think I may add more different fruits (frozen blackberries and pineapple come to mind) and replace organic dead milk with acai juice...

Another addition is more nuts, especially almonds. Gonna roast some, add some flavors. Also, to a batch of slivered-almond and cashew granola, gonna make some granola bars, with almond butter as one of the binders.

Maybe I should start re-color coding my entries, too?

Thought about finishing the brisket for dinner, making beef four days in a row, but instead I cubed it and put it in the freezer for future knish use.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Health Salad: The standard, to have around to increase my veg intake. 1 head o' cabbage, shredded. 1 carrot, thin sliced rounds. Tossed with 3/4 cup white vinegar, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp salt, 1/2 tsp white ground pepper.


Grenadine Syrup: 2 cups pomegranate juice, 2 cups tart cherry juice, 4 cups cane sugar, and for the first time, 1 tablespoon "sour salt" aka citric acid. Brought to a simmer, left to cool then put in the fridge. The acid is to give it a certain cleansing bite, part of what makes a commercial soda refreshing after a big meal, despite it being so laden with crap. Hopefully a digestive shot of soda will reduce cravings for sugar later in the evening.

According to Brown's schedule, soda is a never. I don't think he meant HOMEMADE soda -- he'd probably restrict it, though...

Granola: 4 cups rolled oats, 1 cup raw cashews, 1 cup pepitas, 1 cup unsweetened coconut, 1/2 cup slivered almonds, 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup dark maple syrup, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp cardamom. Mixed, roasted at 300 for 45 minutes, tossing every 10 minutes for even browning. Added 1/2 cup minced dried cherries after the fact.


Granola Bars: In a pan, heated 4 tbsp butter with about 8 oz of almond butter and 2oz maple syrup. Mixed in a palmful of spirulina and palmful of ground flax, a heavy dash of vanilla extract, and 3 beaten eggs. Held aside 2 cups of granola (for the HVS), the rest got mixed in with the green slime and pressed into a square pan. Baked for 25 minutes at 300.


AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10:45am, hardcore oatmeal, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Left over from yesterday. Zapped in the micro, very tasty. Next time gonna double the batch now that I have the hang of it.


LUNCH: 1pm, breaded shrimp, health salad, handful of dark chocolate covered espresso beans, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3:15pm, spinach empanada, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Well, this was healthy. Last time had a rather greezy chorizo empanada. This one was full of spinach, onion and tofu, and the crust was very whole wheaty and dry.

DINNER: 6:15pm, momma salad, wholewheat penne with gravy, spinach and broc, 8oz glass of grenadine soda, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Didn't want the brisket gravy made from the braising liquid to go to waste, so I threw it over some pasta and tossed in some quickly sauteed spinach, as well as 2.5 bites of leftover broccoli that Betsy didn't deem worthy of finishing. It was good, but strangely unsatisfying.

I only added one tablespoon of sour salt to essentially a half gallon of syrup, but wow, what a difference it made, and maybe the next batch I'll halve the sour salt. The taste popped, it felt a little scouring in my mouth (in a good way), and while 2 table spoons of syrup for 8oz of seltzer made for light colored mildly sweet soda, the acid was very notable. Made it bubble up kinda foamy like a commercial soda, too.

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, mini bagelwrapped hotdogs, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
After all that, still ended the day on an unhealthy note. The stress/relief of stress after getting the toddler and the baby to sleep with out a second pair of hands wasn't overwhelming, but big enough to cause me to indulge a craving.

Cravings

I ate dinner late, as I had a filling lunch and I was kinda hoping to take the edge off of my evening snacking. It did not work. Something other than hunger is at work here. Cravings, sugar & salt. Hmmmm.


TODAY'S COOKING
Broccoli: Chopped it up to bite sized pieces. Toasted some panko in the 400 degree oven for 2 minutes Tossed the broc with the panko, 2 cloves of minced garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil. Baked for 20 minutes -- usually I'd do 10, but B likes her roasted veg mushy.


Hardcore Oatmeal: Second time, better. 1 cup of the McCanns steel cut, 4 cups of water, 2 tbsp butter, a splurge of brown sugar, a shake of cinnamon, a teaspoon of salt. Brought to a boil then down to a simmer, left uncovered for 30 minutes. A little liquid on top, turned off heat, let sit for 10 minutes and came together nicely. Nice creaminess against the firm poppiness of the oat kernels. No strong flavor from the add-ins, just nice notes underneath the grassy oatiness of it all.


AM SNACK: 8:30pm, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:15pm, hardcore oatmeal, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 12:30pm, hummus, wholewheat pita, a few falafel balls, mushrooms, favabeans, tahini, chickpeas, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5'
Out for lunch at the Hummus Place on St. Mark's with B. Ordered the "Hummus Place Platter", which was a surprisingly large amount of hummus, and more surprisingly was easy to finish (with a bit of help from B)



PM SNACK: 1:30pm, vegan ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
In keeping with the theme, we went to the place on A and 9th that serves Lulu's ice cream.



PM SNACK: 5pm, momma salad, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7:30pm, brisket on wholewheat toast with gravy, roasted broccoli, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, peanuts & chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, mini bagelwrapped hotdogs, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Brisket n' Gravy

A really nice day, despite a rough night. Betsy cancelled her plans and stayed in to sleep, so I took Edie to school with Mil strapped to my chest. After drop off, had a nice wander down to Pier 51, and walked Mil in circles in an empty light-filled mall dining room while I read magazines and the phone for an hour, then sat with a sleeping baby and read for another hour. It's one of those things I'll miss when they're older. I remember when Edie was around the same age I took her down to the Pier (though it was warmer out) and we sat out on a terrace and watched the boats pass.

In BOTH instances, however, multiple Asian tourists stopped to ask how old the baby is and take pictures of us. Hrumph!

Still eating well. Had big cravings of cookies/brownies/ice cream last night, good thing nothing was on hand other than the usual or I would have gone nuts. I think it was a combination of not eating a big enough dinner/feeling stressed from awake kids/feeling a little blue about whatever. I think right now the key to really making a difference is not getting bored with what I'm eating. Brussels are a good addition to the regular spinach, I think broccoli needs to make a comeback ASAP.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Brisket: 2.5 pound flat cut into the Le Cruset pot, covered in red wine and beef stock, a bunch of crushed garlic cloves, smoked paprika, a little brown sugar, a little onion powder, salt, a packet of dried porcinis. 250 for 5 hours.

The meat surprised me by literally falling apart when I took it out of the pot to rest. I strained the braising juice, and created some roux in the pot with 1/8 cup of flour and equal parts butter. After the cooked, I whisked the braising liquid in to make some kick-ass gravy that would not be denied.

Not sure if I like this. The meat is at once moist, dry, tender and tough. The gravy helped greatly though. One thing for sure, the "beefy" flavor of the meat is much stronger than any quick-cooked tender cut, and very appealing.


AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 8am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Banana, grapes, milk & yogurt, cherries, mango, blueberries and peach, flax & spirulina, salt & vanilla. After not eating her waffle, Edie shouted, "Noisy ice cream! Want some!" I told her to sit and I'd make her a bowl, and she quickly did so. I gave her a bit in a plastic bowl and a spoon, and she eagerly lapped it up, asking for more twice. During eating, she said, "Mmmmm I love it!" and "Oooooo blueberry noisy ice cream!"


LUNCH: 1:15pm, momma salad, sauteed shrimp, butternut squash soup, whole wheat Ritz crackers, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 5pm, slice of swiss, a few wholegrain pretzels


DINNER: 6pm, brisket & gravy on wholewheat toast, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Was gonna make a green to go with this, but B&E&e were causing all sorts of chaos and pressure, so I had to get in quick.



EVENING SNACK: 8pm, potato chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, chocolate chips & peanuts, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Brussels n' Burgers

Woke up surprisingly achy from what I thought was a casual bike ride yesterday -- I estimate I ended up riding about 20 miles at a VERY relaxed pace, but fact is I haven't done any distance at all since Mil popped out on us.

A bunch of things have fallen to the wayside since the baby came, some of which I've brought back since getting sick over the holidays: Lifting weights twice a week, eating healthy, cooking 6/7 days. Some things have not come back, particularly focusing on getting my knish concept off the ground. B goes back to work next week -- will it drift further away or will I find the time and energy to refocus?


TODAY'S COOKING:
Curry Carrot Dip, take 2: Boiled 1 lb of carrots for full 15 minutes, used the small work bowl of the full-size food processor, all came out nice n' smooth.

Butternut Squash Soup: Sauteed onion, carrot, celery and leek in olive oil for a solid 30 minutes until soft. Put one full chopped up squash on top an covered with veg stock, let simmer for 20. Blended. Surprisingly salt-balanced from what I added to the mire poix and from the stock. Lacking fat and cream, but B insisted on a vegan soup, boooo.


Roasted Brussel Sprouts: Third time I've made these in the past few weeks. I'm finding fresh cook faster and darker at 400/20 minutes. This batch came out overcooked, blackened, but still delicious. A bit bitter, but a perfect foil to the the sweet-ish soup.


Burgers: I bought a brisket at Wholefoods today, thinking I'll braise it tomorrow. On a whim, cut off 1/2 pound of it, cubed it, ground it, added some minced raw onion, Worcestershire, salt and pepper, fried in butter, put on some nice buns out of the freezer. Pretty good, maybe a little overcooked and crumbly.


BREAKFAST: 10:30am, good yogurt with honey, peanuts, vanilla, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Forgot to put the brewed tea into the fridge last night, so I skipped it.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, shuyo ramen, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Treated myself to lunch out at Rai Rai Ken.


PM SNACK: 4pm, leftover chicken mushu and veg fried rice, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Was about to eat some momma style salad but saw this in the fridge -- if it didn't get eaten today, would probably have to toss it. Good to mix it up a little -- it's good to increase my veg game, but at the same time things gotta be mixed up.


DINNER: 5:45pm, 2 freshly ground hamburgers on sprouted wholewheat buns, butternut squash soup, roasted brussel sprouts, 7.5oz ginger ale, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

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

OLD

Road out to Red Hook for a meeting, then to Bay Ridge to meet up with an old buddy from college at a crappy diner. I ordered a particularly unhealthy meal, as if we were both in our early 20s again. Though, we are not.

With his omelet and home fries, he was still nursing a broken heart from his last relationship several years ago, not to mention the blood pressure pills he was popping with his coffee. There I am, talking about the rigors of juggling two kiddies and a wife. OLD, he he he.

Took the time to explore Dyker Heights and make my way back home via Borough Park, good wet ride. Got to get Edie on time for a tour of the supermarket before going home. Was invited to a a Chinese New Years get together, but was just too tired.


TODAY'S COOKING:
Iced tea, big momma salad: Just the standard, enough to last for a bit.


Curry carrot dip: Rushed it, didn't cook the carrots long enough, and used the smaller underpowered food processor, came out super grainy. Tossed it, will try again with the left over carrots tomorrow.

BREAKFAST: 8am, iced green tea, Special K with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 11:45am, gyro & fries, diet coke, pickle, slaw, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 5pm, momma salad with babaganoush, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:30pm, breaded shrimp, spinach, peanuts & chocolate chips, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, potato chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Obscene Bagels

A hard night last night with various children waking up at odd times. Also thinking about my eating yesterday -- ate pretty well up to dinner. Chinese food was very sociable, but I'm kinda instinctually programmed to over-eat when confronted with take out Chinese food. I can't beat myself up too hard, it was social, it was the weekend, and it was a bit balanced with the better eating I did for the rest of the day.

As for today, another day mostly indoors. Took Edie out in some newly acquired snow pants, but her mittens soon soaked through and she very cutely complained of being cold and wanting to go home. We ran around CVS for about 30 minutes but I could tell a few moments more and stuff would have started flying off the shelves.

AM SNACK: 8:45am. iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10:45am, bagel with cream cheese & babaganoush, half a spinach potato knish, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5 
B's friend brought bagels from a Williamsburg hipster shop, including flavors like "Bacon Egg & Cheese", "Blueberry", and "French Toast". Never thought of myself as a bagel purist before, but....urrrrg. Mildly sweet bagels are not, not, not RIGHT.


LUNCH: 1:30pm, mushu chicken over veg fried rice, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, baby carrots with salt, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:15pm, breaded tilapia, sauteed spinach, peanuts & chocolate chips, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, mini bagel-wrapped hotdogs, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

A Day Indoors

Woke up to a nice snow cover, but unfortunately it cancelled out plans for a family outing to Staten Island to visit friends. Took Edie outside and hit up a local joint for lunch, tried to stay out side for a while but Edie was wearing water-absorbing clothes, so we had to get back in doors pretty quick. Neighborhood friends came over in the evening for Chinese food, which was nice, but not the healthiest.

AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 8:45am, good granola with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:15pm, eggplant hero, house salad, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 4pm, momma salad with babaganoush, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 5:45pm, Chinese food, grape soda, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, Chinese leftovers, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Mayo Reconsidered

Woke up tired, but it's not Edie's fault -- for the third night in a row she slept through the night with out drama. Lifted weights while juggling Mil. Feeling the need to bike, I miss riding for hours outdoors.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Mayonnaise: As a Jew, I'm not a fan of mayo, but I wanted to have some sardines for lunch, and I didn't have most of the ingredients on hand to do exactly as Alton Brown does. The main supplementary ingredient to mash in with the sardines is avocado, a creamy fat. My mom used to make horrible tuna sandwiches, tuna mashed up with jarred mayo. In c-school, making mayo of different varieties was a lesson, and an important example of emulsification (which I still teach to my students.) Making mayo is easy.

Cheesecake Brownies: As we are invited to a Sabbath dinner in the 'hood with fellow parent friends, and excursioning out to Staten Island tomorrow to visit friends, thought these would be a good take-along. Used my standard go-to brownie recipe (but doubling salt, replacing extract with 3 scrapings)  but jazzed it up with a middle layer -- 16 oz of cream cheese beaten with 1/2 cup of sugar and 2 eggs and 2 vanilla bean scrapings. It's kinds Paula Deen-esque in it's crapitude, but it's fresh and industrial-BS-free.

Into the work bowl of the mixer, 1 egg, 1 yolk, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp mustard powder, 1 tsp white vinegar. Turn whisk on high, slowly drizzle in one cup of peanut oil, one cup of olive oil. In a few minutes, a big light yellow mound of fluffy mayo. It might have been a little brighter with more vinegar, or fresh lemon juice instead. I know jarred mayo in the fridge will last forever, not sure how long this will last, I guess as long as raw egg out of the shell will last....


AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10am, smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Did a standard smoothie (banana, fresh grapes, frozen blueberries, mango, cherries & peach, Greek yogurt, organic dead milk, salt, vanilla, flax) but added a new ingredient I picked up with HVS while getting fresh brussels: spirulina. A dark green powder, it's some sort of ground up dried algae that's supposedly good for you in all sorts of ways. Years ago, I used to eat some puffed corn snack that was covered in the stuff which I enjoyed. I added a teaspoon to the smoothie and....it looked ugly, mottled, a grey-blue like there were too many different colors thrown in. Flavor-wise, it's actually very nice. A very subtle vegetal note that adds complexity. All the fruit's sweetness covers it's potential bitterness, leaving only a very quiet spinach-grass note.

LUNCH: 12:15pm, sardines & mayo on wholewheat toast, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
I liked this much more than I thought I would. Unlike my mom's sandwich, the whole wheat has some nutty flavor, the sardines are tastier than any tuna, and the mayo...fresh mayo tastes honest, jarred stuff is a little, ummm, jar-ry.


AFTERNOON SNACK: 5pm, slice of streetza, scraps of cheesecake brownie, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
On the way home with Edie from the playroom, found myself uncomfortably hungry and got a slice. A few minutes later, at home I took the freshly baked brownies out of the freezer and portioned them, but with the delicacy and crumbliness, a lot went to "waste", a.k.a. into my mouf (and into a scrap container.)

DINNER: 6:45pm, a small piece of salmon, a small amount of wholewheat pasta salad, half a glass of wine, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Over for Sabbath dinner with friends, my appetite ruined by the sweets.


EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, potato chips, small amount of brownie, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Hussle with the Brussels

Everyone in Brooklyn got sick, so my plans for the day were cancelled. Spent the morning making baba, road the big bike around the tip of Manhattan to catch some fresh air and had a nice vegany lunch with T. We went to a hippy dippy supermarket together and I picked up some fresh brussels to make B happy, and a jar of spirulina to experiment with my smoothies.

Still sore from Tuesday's work out, particularly my pecs and inner thighs.  Looking forward to pushing it again tomorrow.

TODAY'S COOKING
Baba Ganoush: No recipe, just winged it. Roasted a 1.5 lb eggplant at 400 for 40 minutes, along with a head of garlic going bad soon. In the food processor 1/2 cup of tahini, 2 lemons juiced and zested, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 tsp smoked paprika, 1/2 tsp cumin, a couple of glugs of olive oil, 3 raw cloves of garlic minced. Eggplant dunked in ice water for 10 minutes to make skinning easy. Roasted garlic squeezed into the bowl. Blended finely, chilled.

Roasted brussels: Split, tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, 400 for 20 minutes. Their faces got nicely charred, the bodies soft and tender, really good. Gotta make these more often.

AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10am, 2 pancakes, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


SNICKLELUNCH: 1:30pm, vegan Cesar salad, cup of dahl, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6pm, momma salad with baba, Roasted brussels & sauteed shrimp with soy yogurt curry sauce over tabouli, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

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

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, potato chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Thought more than usual before eating this. I intended the chocolate to end my eating day, but I felt oddly hungry, ready for more, desiring not sweet but savory/salty. I guess all the healthy food I've been eating just has less calorie density.

An Easy Day's Night

Woke up very sore, which I'm very happy about -- upping the work out close to pre-Mil levels was hard, but effective. But even better than that, I slept pretty much undisturbed from midnight to 8:30am, which was pretty refreshing and miraculous. If the sleeping baby next to me didn't wake up needing a bottle, I probably could have slept another 2 hours, but I'll take it!

Went out with Y&K to dinner in the East Village in the evening, left out around 7 and home around 9:30, and Mil was strapped to me all bundled up -- didn't even peep, so fast asleep. Gotta do more of that before he's too big and awake!

TODAY'S COOKING:
Pumpernickel bagelchips, roasted red & orange peppers: B had an old friend visit this afternoon, so we put out a spread that included the carrot dip and tabouli. I elevated the tabouli a little by roasted a few peppers on the stove top, letting them steam then cleaning and chopping them once cooled.

AM SNACK: 8:45am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10am, reheated hardcore oatmeal, banana, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1pm, 1.5 donut, a few bagel chips, a pickle, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

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


PM SNACK: 6pm, bite of chocolate, handful of potato chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8pm, mixed boiled perogies, brownie with ice cream, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Hardcore Oatmeal

Lifted weights after B&E left for school, the baby sleeping, the laundry in process. I was disappointed last week -- the first session after the 2 month pause left me pleasantly sore for two days, but the second session of equal intensity did nothing. So this morning I ratcheted it up, 40 push ups, 20 sit ups, close to what I was doing before, and it hurt, felt good.

I've been keeping a healthier diet lately, definitely feel a benefit already. The trick now is to keep a balance of sweets/unhealthy food to stop from getting bored.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Hardcore Oatmeal: I tossed the Wholefoods brand steel cut oats, even toasting them to increase cooking time didn't do much, and still didn't taste right. I bought a tin of McCain's Irish Steel Cut the other day, and not the quick cooking kind -- the only way to cook these is 30 minutes on the stove top. So while I worked out and the baby slept, the oatmeal gurgled away. Four cups of boiling water, 1 cup of oats, 1 tbsp of butter, 1 tbsp of brown sugar, a heavy pinch of salt, a heavy pinch of cinnamon, a small glug of vanilla extract. I checked on it every 10 minutes or so, and indeed by the end of the 30 minutes it started sticking on the bottom of the pan. I let it cool for 10 minutes and it thickened nicely.

Taste and texture are equally important for steel cut oats. Taste was spot on, oaty and natural and no weird chemical or metallic tastes. Seasoning was good, maybe a little more brown sugar, but pretty much there. The texture was close, I think I need to cook it lower for a little longer, to soften the grains a bit but there was nice creaminess surrounding the kernels, which were almost too stuff but gave nicely when chewed.

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea

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

LUNCH: 12:30pm, lamb sausage sandwich with fried potatoes, babaganoush & hummus with a little pita, roasted butternut squash, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 6:15pm, momma style salad, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, tabouli with mini bagel wrapped hot dogs, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
The original plan was to saute some shrimp with some interesting dried herbs and condiments, but with B&E in bed and Mil on the edge of sleep & crankiness, I needed something fast. This was my first meal off the tabouli -- I found it a little bit underflavored, could use more lemon, more spice, a little more salt, more everything, but the simple wholegrainy bulgar wheat flavor did ring true. Not so much a good main, but a nice base for something better like a saucy shrimp!


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, nutella with ritz crackers, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Potato Chip Vegan

Another night o' kiddies, another night of not enough sleep. B went out in the morning and MAP & D came over. While D amused Edie and Mil slept while strapped to me, I taught MAP how to cook pancakes -- a while ago, she complained on Facebook that she could not cook pancakes without burning them, and I had been itching to guide her ever since. So technically I did not do today's cooking, MAP did, as I just put everything out and let her at it. We stuck to the C-School recipe, though when the batter came out too thick, we tossed in an extra cup of milk.

After eating, we had a nice extended dance party with Edie in the bedroom, MAP & D left, B came home slightly re-energized, and we met the C's for dinner at Veg Dim Sum. Yep, vegan dinners two nights in a row, I gotta go get some ass-blasting burgers in me stat! (I keed, I keed)

Skipped weights today, as Edie was off from school and there was chaos. It shall resume tomorrow.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


AM SNACK: 8:15am, 1.5 bananas

BRUNCH: 11:45am, pancakes, bacon, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 3pm, 2 cupcakes, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
When B got home from her re-energize time, she brought me cupcakes from Sugar Sweet Sunshine. They instantaneously jumped down my neck without any say from me. I spoke to B later, hopefully if she wants to bring me home thank-you gifts of a casual sort, in the future it can be something other than food. Perhaps mon-keys, cook books, a weird unusual or fancy ingredient to cook with (Irish butter, cough cough). Hrumph. Or just a hug and a smile, I don't need much when my luvin' wife gives me so much already!



DINNER: 5:15pm, vegan dimsum, tea, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 8pm, potato chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Continuing the theme of the potato chip vegan....

Snickleconference 2012

A hard night with the kids waking up at various times in various combinations, at various volumes. We rolled out and visited a neighborhood family in the late morning, then I struck out to Wholefoods in the cold in the afternoon to retrieve supplies for the evening's vegan feast with the HVS. Got to bed (relatively) early, exhausted.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Roasted Brussel Sprouts: Betsy has been asking for brussels for a while, but stubbornly refuses to make them herself. So here is a detailed description how to make them:

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. If using frozen, place entire package in microwave safe brown with a tablespoon of water, zap on high for 3 minutes.
3. Slice each brussel in half length-wise, through the root end.
4. Place in work bowl, toss with a few glugs of olive oil, a few sprinkles of salt and a few turns of the pepper shaker.
5. Spread brussels on a baking sheet, cut sides down, spread out so none are touching
6. Bake 20 minutes. When taking out of the even, immediately use a spatula to lift them off the pan into a little pile. Serve.

Morrel Brown Rice: Threw short grain brown rice in the rice cooker with water, olive oil, salt and a few bay leaves. In addition, took a small pack of dried morrels, smashed them up into lil' bits, and threw that in. Came out pretty fragrant.


Curry Carrot Dip: Betsy had a similar recipe she got from a friend, but I found this version in the Veganomicon which was superior, mostly due to the addition of sunflower seeds. Food process 1/2 cups unsalted roasted sunflower seeds until crumbly. Add 1 lb boiled carrots (10min), 2 cloves minced garlic, tablespoon of curry powder, teaspoon of cumin, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, process until smooth, chill. It had the right note of sweetness vs. spice.

Pumpernickel Bagel Chips: No recipe, just common sense. Had some pumpernickel bagels in the freezer that have been sitting around too long. Sliced them thin, tossed with olive oil and salt, spread em out on baking sheets, 200 for 30 minutes, came out pretty good. Next time less oil, a little longer in the oven.


Tabouli: For the cost of 12 oz prepared, I made about 3/4 of a gallon. 3 cups of bulgar boiled with salt, lemon juice and zest, chopped seeded cucumber, chopped scallion, salt, olive oil, fresh parsley and mint.


AM SNACK: 9:15am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10am, oatmeal, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Couldn't stand the thought of cooking ungood steel cut oats for 20 minutes, so went with old fashioned rolled oats, micro for 6 minutes. Added butter, salt, cinnamon and some honey, as out of brown sugar. Made me appreciate what brown sugar brings to the table, a woodsy earthy sweetness that is severely lacking in flat honey.

AM SNACK: 11:30am, chocolate pastry thing, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


AFTERNOON SNACKING: 3-5pm, sunflower seeds, bits of carrot mush, freshly baked bagel chips, spoonfuls of tabouli, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


SNICKLEDINNER: 6:15pm,  roasted brussel sprouts, morrel brown rice, curry soy yogurt sauce, curry carrot dip & pumpernickel bagel chips, vegan chocolate chip cookie, seltzer, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, potato chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Got hungry, though not for sweets. I guess I truly am a potato chip vegan.

Olive Garden, f'real

Out with B and the inlaws, we went to Olive Garden for lunch. I've never been, and though I've read all sorts of things about it (in sum: genius business, horrible food) and was a little curious. B's brother is a big fan, particularly for the unlimited soup-salad-bread stick deal.

 I was first impressed by how pleasant the dining room was, and the service was pretty great. There were some cheesy touches, sure, but over all chill. I noticed first thing ours, and all the other, tables were huge, which makes sense -- the plates are huge, the portions are huge, and if a table were to order apps, entrees deserts on top of the soups, salads, and bread, there wouldn't be an inch to spare.

Three of us four just ordered soup/salad, and I was kinda surprised how not good it was. The salad was mostly iceberg lettuce, with some red onion, tomato and peppericinis thrown in. Dressing was mild and generic Italian. And the olives -- for a place called "the Olive Garden", I'd think this would be a big deal, but they were extremely mild, almost flavorless black olives from a can, the kind of olives for people who hate olives.

The bread sticks were freshly baked, but tasted of retarder and softeners, and lots of salt and salty cheese and garlic salt. By the end of the meal when they cooled, they tasted 3 times gummier. I ordered a "Zuppa Toscana", which was a version of Farro & Sausage I've made many times with my students. Salty, oddly watered down, a cream base that kinda fought the potato and sausage, very mild flavored. I took a bite of B's cheese ravioli, which was kinda off -- like Chef Boyardee outta the can.

Looking over the menu, I couldn't believe some of the stuff on there -- deep fried, breaded lasagna?! And none of it was cheap, most entrees around $20. Olives for people who hate olives, Italian food for people who don't really like, well, food. Very odd. Still, I enjoyed it, as it was efficient, clean, spacious and they gave Edie crayons and a sheet to play with when we got there. I imagine if I ordered an entree, I would have blown my stomach at -- with two servings of salad and 3 bread sticks (and about half my soup, though that too was unlimited), it was enough to stop me from being hungry.


AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:30am, good granola with organic dead milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, salad, soup, bread sticks, Andes chocolate mints, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5 

DINNER: 6:30pm, breaded shrimp, baked potato, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Had some potatoes laying around from knish making -- eating baked potato triggered two thoughts. One, this was a common side dish my mom would make, with a little butter and salt, and brought me back. The other thought was the taste of unadulterated potato --- in my potato knish, there is shortening, egg, salt, pepper and caramelized onion to alter and accentuate the consistency and flavor, while here there is little interfere. 



EVENING SNACK: 9pm, peanuts & chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Reimagining momma-style salad.

Visited a friend in DUMBO in the morning with Mil, then off to the doc for Mil's 2 month check in (all is well.) Picked up Edie from school but it was too cold and bitter to stay out.

Upped my veg & fruit game today, thinking of strategies to keep this a little more of a habit. I think it's time for the return, and perhaps the further development of the the momma-style salad. My default is how my dad made salad -- lettuce based, finely chopped, dressed and eaten with a fork, many ingredients. My mom's style, however, was few items (usually carrot, cucumber and bell pepper) cut into large chunks and dressed with nothing but a sprinkle of salt, maybe a drop of olive oil, eaten with fingers. I think it'll be fun to explore some vegetable options to add to this, figure out some more interesting but simple ways of dressing. I've never made this kind of salad other than for immediate eating, perhaps I can make it in quantity to eat over a few days...

TODAY'S COOKING
Pasta with spinach and roasted garlic: This meal is not so remarkable, except for Edie's reaction. Boiled up some tri-color fusilli, sauteed frozen garlic with olive oil, red pepper flakes, salt, roasted two heads of going-bad garlic in the oven for two hours, and combined all with a cup of freshly grated parm and a little bit of tomato sauce, just enough to give a coat and a subtle tomato hint, not saucy. Finished with a splash of olive oil.

I was content to eat this in front of a video screen, as the fam had already eaten. Edie was running around burning off energy, and as she is wont to do, runs up to me and says, "Want it! Want papa food!" So I give her  bit off my fork, she runs out, runs back in and shouts, "I love it papa! More!" And this repeats about 10 times or so, just gobbling up my spinachy pasta. A whole 'nuther level of cooking satisfaction!

AM SNACK: 7am, iced green tea


AM SNACK: 7:45am, banana bread, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


BREAKFAST: 10:30am, wholewheat bagel with cream cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1:45pm, fruit smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 3:45pm, momma style salad, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 4:45pm, 3 bagel-wrapped mini hot dogs

DINNER: 6:30pm, pasta with spinach and roasted garlic, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


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

Special K is a sugar trap

Lifted weights with a few pauses to juggle the baby, felt good. It sucks I lost so much strength capacity in the two months off, but hopefully it'll come back fast -- the only good thing is being able to make myself sore for two days off one session, which is direct evidence that it's working.


AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:45am, Special K with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Funny how this is supposedly one of the "healthier" of the big national brands, but tastes overwhelmingly sweet compared to the organic whole-grainy small brand stuff I usually eat. Even compared to the granola I make, this stuff comes off sweet. I picked up this box because it reminded me of what my parents use to pick up, but ugh, never again.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, 2 slices of vegany pizza, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Stopped by Viva Herbal for their faux-pizza, spelt crust, no cheese, seitan and lots of roasted veg on top.


DINNER: 5:15pm, breaded shrimp, health salad, momma style salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Gotta up my vegetable game, so cut up some cucumber, red bell pepper and red onion into large pieces and mixed them with baby carrots, did the trick.



EVENING SNACK: 7:45pm, chocolate chips & peanuts, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Brisketing

Woke up at 7 to the normal business of 2 kids and a wife, and was relieved to find that I felt much better than when I got to bed -- 9 hours of (semi)uninterrupted sleep does well to nip impending illness in the bed. Shoulders still sore, probably from my attempted pull ups -- looking forward to attempting again tomorrow.

A prominent blog asked me for a brisket knish recipe, and while I have a few in my library and some ideas in my head, haven't made one yet, so I spent the day getting that together. Fun working with stuff like tripe, which I haven't touched since c-school.


TODAY'S COOKING
Brisket Knishes: In the morning, diced 6 lbs of onions and set them to slow caramelize in the oven. Boiled a few potatoes to make a batch of dough. Went to the Essex St market with Mil strapped on to pick up some brisket & tripe. 2 lbs of brisket went into the caste iron pot with beef stock, a head of crushed garlic, a dash of Worcestershire, salt, a dash of brown sugar, smoked paprika and coriander, baked at 300 for 3 hours. Once rested, chopped up and ground with the tripe (which was boiled in water for 2 hours.) Mixed with some simply prepped kasha, caramelized onions, ground pepper, more salt & eggs, then rolled into knish shape and baked.

Funny thing about the tripe -- after boiling for two hours, looked and felt exactly the same as in it's uncooked state.


Banana Bread: Spontaneously baked off two banana breads in the evening when B complained noted that we had a bunch of bananas going bad. So I looked up a simple recipe on line, to which I was missing most of the recipe, so I just went by ratios and substituted like crazy -- shortening for butter, yogurt for sour cream, whole wheat flour for white, brown sugar for white, etc.

Dry: 4 cups whole wheat flour, tbsp baking soda, tbsp baking powder, tsp salt. Wet: 2 2/3 cups sugar (half brown, half white) creamed into 1/2 cup shortening, 2 cups B's diet yogurt, 4 eggs, 6 bananas, tbsp vanilla extract, a few shakes of cinnamon. Baked at 350 for 45 minutes.



AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea
Flipping around TV, watched some Cooking Channel, saw a bit comparing level of caffeine in different drinks. 8oz of plain coffee is about 80 mg of caffeine, while a 1oz shot of espresso is 50mg. 8oz of green tea is about 30, so being that I drink pints, I've been getting less than a cup of coffee but more than a shot of espresso. Hmmmm.


BREAKFAST: 9am, banana


AM SNACK: 11:30am, granola with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, brisket on wholewheat, health salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
I don't particularly like brisket, especially when someone without skills make it -- usually it comes out tough, stringy and tasting like barfed tomatoes. However, I actually enjoyed this brisket -- after letting it rest, I sliced it thin against the grain and dunked it in the braising liquid before mounting it on bread. It was tender, tasted sharply beefy in the right way, garlicky-sweet-smokey-briney, pleasant. Too bad I had to grind up the balance of the meat to make knishes!

PM SNACK: 7pm, freshly baked banana bread, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8:30pm, chicken nuggets, pickle, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Felt run down, wanted something quick. Was gonna make mac n' cheese from a box, but no butter, and shortening probably would have made it nast-ay.

A weirdly filling lunch

Got a decent night's sleep, despite finishing the espresso-laiden chocolate ice cream last night. Slightly sore from yesterday's weights, particularly in the upper parts where I attemped a pull up -- thats good, muscle breaking down so it can come back stronger, harder.

Went out to lunch with B to a new Indian street-food restaurant on the edge of the neighborhood, was really good, and I ate a reasonable amount -- B finished her plate, I took home about 1/3 of my lunch. However, by the time I delivered Edie home around 4pm, my stomach was still full, in a weird way. My head started throbbing, and though I was hoping to do some chores and cooking in the evening, I ended up taking Tylenol, tums and got to bed by 10. My body was more sore in the evening than in the morning, which I credit the previous day's weight lifting, but it did not help my over all feeling of being hit by a truck.

Happy 1 month birthday, Milli Mil!

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 8:45am, Special K with organic dead milk, 4 chocolate chip cookies, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:45pm, lamb, rice, naan, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 8pm, 8oz of ginger ale

Tossed off dinner

A good productive day, still feeling the rebound from being sick so long. Mil & I went to WF in the morning, knocked out some granola while doing chores after. Lifted weights for the first time since Mil was born -- definitely lost strength and tone, but felt great to try. Also attempted pull-ups on a new bar, couldn't even budge from the hanging position, look forward to seeing results there. Picked up Edie in the afternoon and my productivity tapered off from there. I gotta figure out how to be productive in the eve, when tiredness and TV take over....


TODAY'S COOKING:
Granola: Stuck to the traditional recipe, the last few experiments made it icky. No dried apples, just cherries.

AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9am, lemon donut, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1:15pm, stouffer's frenchbread pizzas, a few c-chip cookies, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 5:30pm, baked scallops, brown rice, health salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
The cooking involved in this meal was so tossed off, it's weird to put it under "Today's Cooking". Brown rice tossed in ricecooker with olive oil, salt, and about 5 different dried spices. Scallops out of the freezer, into a baking dish coated with olive oil and 4 or 5 other dried spices, baked at 400 for 15 minutes. Came out great, but annoyed how much liquid they expelled, probably artificially pumped up with a saline solution in processing to increase the price. Good thing I baked it, as these kind of processed scallops will never brown in a pan.


EVENING SNACK: 7pm, chocolate ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, bagel-wrapped mini hotdogs, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Llamas & Sheep

Feeling great again, so happy not to be sick. Actually almost got 8 hours sleep, which didn't hurt. B & Mil went and did their thing, and Edie & I got on the big bike and went to Frankie's on Court Street to have a meal with a good friend, who also arrived on bike. The three of us pedalled over to the Prospect Park Zoo for an afternoon of monkeys, llamas and sheep.

Got home 3pmish, and the bike ride was a bit much -- my constitution is not fully recovered, a bike ride so short should not have drained me, but it was great to be out in the crisp air. Baked a bit, then we popped over to some neighbors for dinner, it was a nice change of pace.


TODAY'S COOKING
Chocolate Chip Cookies: Wanted to bring something nice for the hosts, and I already had espresso-heavy chocolate ice cream in the fridge, so baked off some cookies to sandwich it in. Used the Cook's Country recipe, which while only subtly different, is vastly superior to the Tollhouse recipe, as it uses weights instead of volumes, and is designed to be that sweet spot between chewy and crispy --- when you go volumes, you never quite know if you'll get tall dry cookies or flat greezy cookies...

AM SNACK: 9:30am, iced green tea


BRUNCH: 11:30am, lentil soup, bread, BLT, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, cookie dough, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 5:30pm, carrot ginger soup, sauteed tofu with coconut sauce, collard greens, chocolate ice cream sandwich, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, handful of bagel-wrapped mini hotdogs, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Like James Brown, I'm BACK!

Despite only 4 hours of sleep, when I was woken around 5am this morning a veil had been lifted. My body was ache free, my head clear for the first time in two weeks.


TODAY'S COOKING:
Basic Tomato Sauce: It was a bummer running out of the last container of homemade and having Betsy bring in horrid jarred stuff. More annoyingly, B asked me to skip all the fresh herbs I use in my sauce (oregano, thyme, basil) -- I guess she prefers the flat taste of jarred stuff. I imagine if I jarred my sauce and put it up on a shelf for a year, Betsy would like it more. Hrumph.


Grilled Cheese: I wasn't hungry, but fed the family. B's 100-ingredient store bought whole wheat bread, swiss, a few tomato slices, brushed in butter and fried on the caste iron grill pan. Had a nice brown line pattern on it and crunched nicely when I cut them.

AM SNACK: 5:45am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 7am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


BREAKFAST pt 2: 10:15am, egg mcmuffin minus the egg, 2 little hashbrowns, diet coke, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3pm, meatball hero, salad, a few french fries, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 4:45pm, spoonful of homemade chocolate ice cream

DINNER: 8pm, handful of bagel-wrapped mini hotdogs, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Boding better

Feeling better, but still housebound. Went out with Mil for 30 minutes to sit in the park and run a short errand, makes me think -- where the hell is the snow? I think we were snowbound by this time last year. Betsy was out in the morning and brought me lunch -- dang, how lucky am I to have such a woman in my life? She doesn't cook, but she cleans! She rears kids! She's kind to me! She takes care of me! She only freaks out on occasion!

A total feeling of exhaustion took over me in the late evening, the first time in weeks that it wasn't mixed in with an ill-tension. Bodes well for tomorrow, I hope.


AM SNACK: 7am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9pm, organic cornflakes with organic dead milk, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2pm, Subway 12" veggie burger sub on whole wheat, health salad, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:30pm, breaded tilapia, 2 pickles, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, peanut butter & nutella, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Went to the doctor

And the doctor said: no more monkeys jumping on the bed! Actually, I did go to the doctor, and other then being temporarily sick, I'm in pretty good health otherwise. Doc chalks it up to holiday eating / baby-related lack of sleep / stomach bug going around. It was a bit of a struggle to get myself out the door and to the appointment, but I suppose that's for the best. Hopefully soon I'll be back to normal -- tomorrow will be a full 2 weeks of being ill.


AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 11am, 2 toaster waffles, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 2:15pm, hostess apple pie pocket thingie, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, garlic shrimp with blackbeans & yellow rice, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


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

Slowly floating up

A little better, but still not there yet. Doctor appt tomorrow. Eating less, but being that I'm doing little other than lying down, it seems to be OK.

AM SNACK: 10am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 11am, waffles with peanut butter, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 3pm, yogurt with honey, vanilla, peanuts, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER pt 1: 6pm, turkey & swiss on whole wheat, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER pt 2: 9pm, steelcut oatmeal with brown sugar, butter, salt, vanilla, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5 
WF brand steel cut oats sucks. Don't like the taste or consistency. Takes 15 minutes to microwave, despite me already roasting the oats to help with cook time.

A fine specimen

Probably had 4 hours of interrupted sleep last night -- despite that, still feeling a little better than yesterday. If I was able to get some sleep in, I think I would have been up and about days ago, but that's life -- Edie was off from school for the holidays, the baby is a baby and Betsy, while a fine specimen, is still only human.

Stayed indoors today, tried to not sleep too much during the day so the evening would be easier.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10am, wholegrain cheerios with dead organic milk, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:15pm, 2 eggo waffles with smucker's "natural" peanut butter, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Ugg, the generic whole wheat toaster waffles have more character than these things, and the overly smooth, overly salted peanut butter doesn't hold a light to the freshly ground no-salt, no-BS peanut butter that you can get out of a machine at Whole Foods.


DINNER: 6pm, chorizo burrito, chips & guac, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 8:45pm, left over burrito, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Ugg

An unfortunate lack of sleep is preventing me from fully recovering, still a lack of energy and appetite running at 85%. Hopefully I'll be me again sooner than later, I miss participating in life!

Looking at the week before I got sick, the combination of poor eating, rich holiday food on hand, lack of sleep and exposure to some friends who had stomach bugs themselves (who I've learned have also been sick for a similar period as me this time around) just became a perfect storm to knock me down and hold me there for a while.

I miss having fresh homemade food on hand -- my home has been invaded by  whole grain "healthy" bread with about 75 ingredients that tastes not unlike cardboard, jarred tomato sauce that is vastly inferior to a simple prep of olive oil, garlic and dried basil (with a dash of Worcestershire) and an evil expulsion of my chocolate covered espresso beans. I gotta get back.


BREAKFAST: 8am, cornflakes with milk, iced green tea, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: noon, mini pizza, small scoop of chocolate ice cream, seltzer, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, good yogurt with honey, peanuts, vanilla, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 5pm, pizza, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 6pm, scoop of chocolate ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, waffles, goldfish, cornflakes & milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Good Golly, it's another year!

231--->226.8

I was not planning on going quiet on this blog at all, but my health failed me. Friday before last got some sort of stomach bug, destroyed me for about 4 days solid and have taken another 6 or so to regain my strength and mental functioning. I have not left the house since last Friday, which is a new world's record for me. A bunch of holiday plans got cancelled, Betsy juggled the kids, the food shopping, the laundry etc. on her own, and for that I'm amazed and grateful. My eating went close to zero for the first four days, and have been slowly increasing my intake. Today was the first day of relatively normal eating, though I'm finding we're pretty low or out of everything.

On the positive side, a few pounds came off, though I wouldn't invest too much in that. I'm not that big into New Year's resolutions, but the few I make I usually follow through on. Here is what I'm thinking:

• Resume biweekly weight lifting. Other than simply increase strength, flex and muscle mass, one paricular goal: gain the ability to do one chin-up. I've never been able to do one, and to accomplish that would be a not-small deal.
• Kontinue Knishing. Next steps are to set up a kickstarter, establish a relationship with an incubator kitchen, and book some tables. 
• Ride more miles than this past year. Shouldn't be too hard to accomplish, as a) B will not be giving birth again (hopefully) and Edie will be ready to be taken on longer adventure rides.

I think all that is within reason, right?

AM SNACK: 9am, iced green tea, banana

BREAKFAST: noon, steel cut oatmeal, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 3:15pm, chicken nuggets, mini potato knishes, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, pad thai, fried tofu, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, left over pad thai, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Marsala

Weird eating day. Got to school early to help get a leg up on cooking a rather large meal for about 40 heads, which had to have apps out at 5:30 and entrees out at 6. Funny, after a lot of thought and anxiety on my part, the logistics went great. I spent a couple of hours getting four huge pound cakes in the over and pounded out 50+ chicken breasts, and was able to drive the 6 students at a moderate pace to get everything out on time.

Despite being such a standard fare, I've never had Chicken Marsala before -- I've had chicken in creamy wine sauce with veg, but not in this specific style. Breast dredged in flour-salt-oregano, browned in butter, mushrooms sauteed in same butter, all places in a baking dish with marsala wine, poached for 20 minutes, chicken removed, heavy cream added, sauce reduced, seasoned, topped on the chicken and mushrooms. The marsala was a bit too sweet, but it was some cheap-ass bottom shelf stuff. This dish over mushroom risotto would be filling, but rocking.


AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea


AM SNACK: 10:30am, handful of chocolate covered espresso beans

SCHOOL NIBBLES: 2-7pm, tastes of broccoli, potatoes, chicken marsala, pound cake, mik shake, a few shrimp scampi, salsa & chips, a few swigs of soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8:15pm, chicken marsala, mashed potatoes, pound cake, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Tired again, surprisingly

Not enough sleep again. Spent an hour at Edie's school for a sweet Hanukkah party. Woke up after a nap and grabbed some left over Chinese intended for Edie, but the tiredness required something quick and easy. Didn't eat enough dinner, ended up repeat-snacking until getting to bed around 10:30pm.

BREAKFAST: 7am, iced green tea, steel cut oatmeal, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


AM SNACK: 8:45am, a couple of latkes, a couple of chocolate cookies, ,.25 bowl,  hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1:15pm, vegetable lomein, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, hotdog, large green salad, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 8pm, peanutbutter on wholewheat toast, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, chocolate chips & cornflakes, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, vegeburger on wholewheat bun, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Good Monday

Almost a whole night's sleep allowed me to go to Brooklyn to visit C and her 2 year old daughter Autumn in the morning after dropping Edie off. Took a nice long walk to Trader Joe's after, then home. Spent a nice hour with both kids after school in the park.

AM SNACK: 6:45am, iced green tea


AM SNACK: 8:15am, banana

BREAKFAST: 10am, hot tea, a mini bagel & butter, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 12:30pm, supermarket sushi, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Swung by Trader Joes on the way home, the sushi there was very cheap. I picked up a largish platter for $6, and sat on the street and tried to eat it, but....you get what you pay for. The main feature of this kind of stuff is not the fish, but the rice, and here the rice was kinda overcooked and mushy, not that delicate balance of sticky and individual at once. Ate about 1/2 of it, so in reality it was the same price as better stuff, just crappier.

PM SNACK: 1:15pm, 2 chocolate ice cream mochi, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, beef empanada, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Walking with E&E after picking up Edie from school, stopped by a local tiny empanada shop - quite interesting, as it's similar to what I envision a modern knish shop to be, only the wrong ethnicity. Not a huge beef fan, but a beef empanada is kinda like the potato knish or the cheese slice, y'know? Nice flavor, cumin, wine, softened raisins. Yeast dough, baked. Reheated on a griddle with a cover. Hmmmm.

DINNER: 7:45pm, large green salad, shrimp toast, wonton soup, vegetable lomeain, 8oz ginger ale, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Zoned-out

Strangely enough, sleep went well last night, I slept midnight to 8:30 with minimal interruptions, and others in the house seemed to be similarly peaceful. B&Edie went out in the morning, and in the early evening we all went to a neighborhood Hannukah party. All in all, a zoned-out Sunday.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea


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

LUNCH: 12:30pm, Stouffer's French bread pizzas, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6pm, a few latkes, a few pieces of donut, diet coke, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, tortellini in sauce, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Never Quite

It sucks waking up after a long hard night of non-sleeping family members and feeling flat out destroyed, like if your brain was on a heart monitor, you'd be showing a flat line. I managed to motivate to make a fruit smoothie to get me going, but the brain box never quite kicked in. The day was taken with a trip uptown to visit with B's family, and I was able to sneak in a small nap, but still. Ugg.


BREAKFAST: 8:30am, iced green tea, fruit smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


AM SNACK: 11:30am, chococheese knish, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 3pm, 2 slices of pizza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER pt 1: 6:30pm, large green salad with sauteed shrimp, handful of newman-os, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, ramen noodles, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Instinct Override

Edie off at school, B out with Mil, I got to focus on having some fun in the kitchen, overriding my other instinct to just sleep.


TODAY'S COOKING:
Potato knishes, chocolate hazelnut knishes: Made mini sized 2-3 bite knishes to bring to a kiddie hannukah party tomorrow, and some for a family gathering next week. Choco knishes were an experiment, losing the nutella and working to balance dutch cocoa, hazelnut paste and shortening. Not there yet, but in the right direction.


Wholewheat 10-grain bread: Busted out the bread machine, used my standard recipe but added 2 tbsp of vital gluten, on the idea it'll strengthen the bread, make it heartier. It did, but not enough, and it fell apart as I was slicing it beyong the 2 slices I needed for my sandwich. Maybe it fell apart because it was still warm? Hmmmm.


AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 8:45am, sausage mcmuffin, hashbrown, diet coke, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


AM SNACK: 11am, bites of potato filing, bites of chocohazelnut cheese filling


LUNCH: 2pm, sardine and avocado on freshly baked wholewheat, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 6pm, cookies baked by a friend, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 8pm, bowl of potato chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Shuttering

Betsy went out for a massage in the morning, and me and Mil met her out for lunch. The day just seemed to speed by due to lack of sleep, and came to a grinding shuttering halt around 9pm when my brain felt like it was falling out of my skull from lack of sleep.


AM SNACK: 6:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 7:30am, 3/4 of a toasted sesame bagel with cream cheese, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
The Ediemonster declared ownership of the rest of the bagel, maybe ate a small toddler bite and the rest was grist for the toy mill.

AM SNACK: 10:30am, slice of streetza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 12:15pm, ziti & meatballs, a few brussel sprouts, root beer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Lunch with the wifey at Pulinos. Haven't been there in a while, it's really fallen off with desperate service, just OK food. Kinda empty, too. Didn't finish my ziti, it was just unremarkable.


DINNER: 5:30pm, tilapia, 2 spinach knishes, health salad, pickles, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 7pm, handfull of newman-o cookies.

I miss bike riding.

Slept in as much as possible this morning, hoping to catch up on some sleep. Went to school to teach, got there early so I could slowly organize the class without worrying about my fuzzy head screwing things up. Class went well, students were very happy with the Italian-American menu. Riding home from Red Hook on a fuzzy head and full stomach was a slow slog, but it was nice to be outside and pedalling. I miss bike riding, the going-placishness of it, the calm it brings me, the connection to the city.

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


LUNCH: 1pm, 1 slice streetza, small amount of ginger ale, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


SCHOOL DINNER: 6:30pm, chicken parm, meatball, fresh pasta with tomato sauce, broccoli, sprite, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9:45pm, 3 small pancakes, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Adventuresome

It was too cold to hang out outside with Edie after school yesterday, so we went home and had a great amount of fun doing the laundry together. Funny how routine things can become adventuresome when done with a toddler.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, iced green tea, the good oatmeal, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
1.5 cups water, .5 steel cut oats, 1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp cardemom. Good, but I think I can cut back the last 3 ingredients to 1/8 tsp -- I guess I'll just have to go "heavy pinch"

LUNCH: 12:30pm, 2 spinach knishes, health salad, pickles, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, 2 slices streetza, large green salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 8pm, whole wheat ritz crackers & nutella, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Yay Edie!

Woke up without a lot of sleep. Skipped a proper breakfast to get Edie to school and then go to Union Square to pick up a big bag o' cat food. Back in time for my first ever Parent Teacher conference as a parent. It was running behind schedule, so instead of going out for a nice breakfast with B, I grabbed some Chinese street cart breakfast. Rest of the day went in a haze of lack of sleep.

According to Edie's teacher, she's very mature and forward-thinking for a 2.5 year old. Hopefully I'll be hearing stuff like that for many years to come! Yay Edie!

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10:30am, rice noodle & fishball, lotus leaf wraps, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 5pm, stouffer's french bread pizza, large green salad, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


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

Too Many Cookies

B & Mil spent the day in doors while I took Edie on the big bike and took the ferry to SI to visit Sailor Snug Harbor, a spot I grew up near and had a lot of pre-teen angst in. In the evening, we popped over to some neighborhood friends for a nice home cooked dinner. Ate too many cookies in the evening and suffered for it.


BREAKFAST: 10:45am, iced green tea, onion bagel with cream cheese, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

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

DINNER: 6pm, baked ziti, sauteed kale, 1 glass of beer, 1 glass of wine, pineapple, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, cookies, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5