Fish Fail

Reps are going a little on weight routine, look forward to doubling the original amount so I can cut them back and increase the weight.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Scrod with Chorizo: I was going to cook up a frozen breaded tilapia in the freezer, but the more I thought about how it tastes versus the fresh scrod I picked up the other week, the thought of the freezer fish seemed much less appealing. So Edie & Milli Mil & I swung by the market on the way home from picking Edie up from school. Last time, I prepared it simply, butter and Old Bay, and broiled it for 5 minutes.

This time, I cut up my half-link of chorizo into thin slices, quartered the slices and scattered them on top of the fillet. Added a few pats of butter, and roasted at 400 for 10 minutes (unlike last week, this was a thicker piece). I thought the chorizo's salty/smokey/fatty make up would give the fish a big taste, but it wasn't nearly as salty, smokey or fatty as I thought and the fish was quite underwhelming. I imagine the technique used in the fish I've eaten in high-end restaurants that involve little bits of sausage are a little bit more sophisticated than what I did. Next time I attempt to flavor a roasted fish with a sausage, gonna refer to a recipe for technique first.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10am, hardcore granola, an apple, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, left over whole wheat rotini with mushroom, spinach and onion, a pickle, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
This had to be twice the suggested serving, but it didn't seem excessive. For pasta 3 or 4 days old, tasted surprisingly spritely and fresh. I think the siraccha kick it has somehow helped preserve it.

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, granola bar, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm,  Baked Scrod with chorizo, roasted brussel sprouts, brown rice mix, 7 oz ginger ale, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 7pm, 7oz ginger ale

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, graham crackers with nutella, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, whole wheat pretzel rods, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Crowded out

A good Sunday -- got to read the paper in the morning, took the train uptown with Edie for some time in Central Park and a kiddie orchestra concert with a friend & her kid in the afternoon. Got some time alone in the late afternoon doing the week's food shopping.

Not a good eating day, but it was my "day off", and despite a horrible (but very much appreciated) indulgent dinner of unhealthiness, I'm looking at this list and seeing how very healthy stuff on hand is crowding out lesser choices. Whole grain home made bagels, home made granola bars, green tea, carrots, competing with the McD's and the frozen pizza.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:15am, homemade pumpernickel bagel with a little marscapone, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
My bagel is not as bad as I original feared, look forward to making a much improved 2nd batch. 100% whole grain, and vegan to boot!


AM SNACK: 10am, granola bar, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: noon, honey-roasted almonds, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Strolling near the Poet's Walk in Central Park, seemed like the healthiest option. Very sweet and crunchy, definitely not light on the sugar. Almond flavor was very muted against the sugar.

LUNCH: 2:30pm, filet-o-fish sandwich, fries, diet coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
First Ave in below 72nd St. I just needed the  convenience of an uncrowded, simple experience that Edie would be comfortable and chill in. McD's got my number, I'm an unwonderful parent. :(

DINNER: 7:45pm, Stouffer's Frenchbread pizzas, baby carrots, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


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

Unbalanced

Walked over to Williamsburg with Mil to hang out with MAP, cooked in the afternoon and J came over in the late afternoon for dinner and play with the little ones. Didn't eat enough in the first half of the day, ate a bit too much in the second half.

TODAY'S COOKING
Mushroom Risotto:  Got the ol' recipe cards from c-school out. Rehydrated a pack of porcinis in 5 cups of water, along with some portabella stems and bay leaves, reserved the liquid to cook the risotto. Minced a pack of portabellas and the porcinis in the food processor, sauteed with a little olive oil until dry, held aside. Sauteed 3 minced shallots in olive oil until soft, added a few cloves of minced garlic for a minute, added 1.5 cups of arborio rice to coat. Tossed in 1/2 cup of white wine, cooked a sec. Then stirred in a ladel of the mushroom stock one at a time and constantly stirred the rice until all 5 cups were absorbed. Finished with a 1/4 cup of nice sherry, 3 tbsp of marscapone, a half cup of parm and tablespoon of cold butter, a big pinch of minced parsley, some salt.

I considered using a brown arborio rice, but every thing said while healthier, it is not good for risotto, doesn't exude the starch for the right creaminess. Hey, it's Saturday!


AM SNACK: 7:15am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 8am, corn chex & organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


AM SNACK: 9:30am, darjeeling tea, chocolate au pain, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, spinach salad with carrot ginger dressing & slivered almonds, a few slices of chorizo sausage, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Visited Marlow & Daughters on the walk with MAP, picked up a few interesting dry sausages -- figure it'll add some excitement to my regular salad intake.

PM SNACK: 2:45pm, whole wheat ritz and nutella, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 5:30pm, mushroom risotto, roasted brussel sprouts, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 3/5
The afternoon snack kinda destroyed my appetite. Shoulda had more for lunch.


EVENING SNACK: 8pm, a cup of mushroom risotto, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, leftover hamburger, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

McNoah's

Woke up tired. Got laundry done, a walk to Wholefoods. Spent an hour at the playroom with the chillun' and grandma. Between the bagels in the morning and prepping potatoes and meat in the afternoon, a good cooking day, though not a great eating day. I intended to eat spinach in the afternoon, but too busy, and the sushi tray from Wholefoods filled me up.

One good thing about the high-fat, high-calorie dinner is that I didn't desire any snacks after, and I was able to get to bed by 9pm without much of struggle.

TODAY'S COOKING
Pumpernickel Bagels: The dough didn't rise much in the fridge, but it did rise maybe by 50%. I divided the dough into 12 4oz portions, rolled and formed into circles. Laid them out on sheet pans, and let them sit in the warm kitchen for a second rise. A very distinct smell of alcohol, which is good, the yeast is eating and peeing and pooing in the dough, hopefully it would puff up nicely.

They didn't puff much, and I was left with rather large wholes surrounded by pretzel-like bagels. It reminded me of some dense German wholegrain bread


Burgers n' fries: Instead of ordering in something unhealthy when momma-in-law is over, decided to cook something unhealthy. Couldn't bother finding my c-school recipe for proper fries, so just followed this, close enough. Pound of 85% lean chop meat, grated half an onion into it, a few dashes of Worcestershire, salt & pepper, let come to room temp before frying in butter.

Fries came out pretty good, I cut them a little thicker than I thought, might have been a cross between a string cut and a steak cut, more soft insides to crisper, browner outside. Took great satisfaction in deep-frying Betsy's veggie burger, rather than the usual zap in the micro.


AM SNACK: 8:15am, iced green tea


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

AM SNACK: 11:30am, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5m


LUNCH: 12:30pm, brown rice nori rolls with tuna and salmon, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6pm, 2 burgers, fries, a little ginger ale, pint of grenadine soda, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Holy crap, my soda is a great after-dinner apertivo / palate cleanser after such a gut-busting heavy meal.

Pump der nickel, bagel!

226.8-->228.2--->228.0

Not a significant change, easily attributed to my light eating the last few days due to the kidney stone. Still, I do feel stronger and my muscles a little more defined under my layer of blubber. 

A hard night, as Edie has some gastric distress waking her up all night long. I was a bit restless myself, got to bed 1amish and woke up every few hours to feed Milli Mil.

Finished the course of antibiotics last night, so today will be my first drug-free day since Monday. Lifted weights this morning, and despite a sore back, it did not effect the activity -- the soreness is kidney-related, not muscle related. On the attempted pull-ups, I moved maybe a couple of inches, which is a couple of inches more than I could when I started.

Could not fall asleep until 2:30ish, I think the lack of ibuprofin made my achy back stick out in my mind a bit more.

TODAY'S COOKING
Pumpernickel Bagel Dough: What should a pumpernickel bagel taste like? After reading 5 or 6 recipes running the gamut, I'm still not sure but guess that rye and molasses should be in there. Annoyed by the breakfast bagel, pulled out some ingredients then found a recipe that matched what I had on hand. I substituted equal parts whole rye flour and whole wheat flour for the three-flour mix they recommend, and added salt to the flours rather than the wet. Upon kneading in the machine, found it waaaaay too wet and added a cup of whole wheat flour. Still seemed wet but now it pulled away from the walls of the bowl, so I let it go for 15 minutes, knowing as the grains hydrated deeper, the dough would become wetter and looser -- something I've learned the hard way and killed a stand mixer or two while making bagels. Still too wet, added a cup of whole grain rye and let it go for another 10. (I wish this stupid recipe used liquid measures instead of dry.) Tossed in a tablespoon of caraway seeds during kneading -- it just smells like the pumpernickel bagels I remember as a kid, and I'd rather have them stud the bagel rather than coat the top.

The recipe calls for a quick 1 hour rise to double, but instead I stored the dough in the bowl with a loose damp towel on top in the fridge. Gonna let it go until tomorrow and see what happens. With pizza dough (another high-gluten, tough and chewy bread product), a slow cold rise allows the fermentation to really give a lot of flavor to the final product.) I guess I'll be baking these off tomorrow.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10:15am, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Really tasting the bagel, it's....not that great. It fills me up, but it's not pumpernickelly enough, and I assume they're not using whole grains in it.

PM SNACK: 12:45pm, granola bar, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2:30pm, falafel platter, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 6:45pm, baby carrots with carrot dressing, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7:15pm, 2 broc-cheddar knishes, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


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


EVENING SNACK: 2am, 6 whole grain chicken nuggets, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Gobble 'em up!

Woke up with a sore spot where my right kidney, a slight headache, and a dehydrated cotton mouth (though I drank 3 quarts of water yesterday), but not in pain. Glad I skipped the oxy last night, don't wanna be hooked on no hillbilly heroin...and I want those pills on hand in case I do have another bout! Gobble 'em up, there all gone!

Rough night, as Edie didn't feel like eating during the day, but found her appetite several times in the middle of the night. I was up around 5:45, half awake feeding Mil, fortunately B came in at some point and let me sleep for another 1.5 hours.

B went back to work, Edie is in school, today try to get back to normal. Before the sitter came at one, just focused on chores, the laundry & the litter, making breakfast, looking after Milli Mil. Laid on the couch for most of the rest of the day. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be returning to full strength.


AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Well, I blended this one longer than the last, and the hard nits have reappeared, oh well. Made a double batch so I could freeze up some "noisey ice cream" for Edles.

LUNCH: noon, small slice of cold pizza, baby spinach with slivered almonds & carrot dressing, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1:15pm, popcorn, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:15pm, whole wheat rotelle with vegetables & wine, pint of grenadine soda, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Had some veg that I bought to make lentils, but the recent health scare put a crimp on my cooking. Softened a minced onions, cooked down a box of sliced criminis, added 3 cloves of minced garlic and a couple of cups of frozen chopped spinach. Cooked it down for a few minutes, added dry oregano and basil,  a squirt of Worcestershire, a squirt of sirracha and then a couple cups of white wine, cooked down until it was wet, not soupy. Turned off heat, salted to taste and slapped a cold pat of butter on and stirred it around. It was good, the mushroom, wine and spicy sirracha dominated the flavors, but the onion and dried spices did a nice back ground note.


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

On the couch

Woke up at 4:45am to go to the bathroom, felt fine. Woke again an hour later with the pain enough to rouse me, so I took the pain killers. That was almost 9 hours without popping a pill, they are supposed to be good for 6 to 8 hours. Got a baby sitter, spent the day on the couch waiting for what's next, hitting the pills around 1pm

Cancelled today's class, as I just don't know what to expect. Made an appt with a specialist one week from Friday, and spoke to my generalist about whats going on. Unless I catch the stone when it comes out, we're probably not going to know what caused this, or the likelihood of a recurrence. If we know what it's made out of, I can perhaps change my diet or habits. For now, after today, I'm gonna go back to how I was eating -- I just don't think I'm getting THAT much calcium from baby spinach.

Took an ibuprofin before bed but skipped the oxy, hoped I wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night in agony....


AM SNACK: 5:45am, banana and a bunch of pills


BREAKFAST: 10am, small amount of hardcore oatmeal, .25 bowl, hunger 2/5

LUNCH: noon, ham & swiss on whole grain bread, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 4:15pm, granola bar, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 5:30pm, cheeseless eggplant hero, small number of fries, dairy-free tofutti ice cream cone, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Funny, I used to think this was a healthy meal -- hey, it's meatless! Now all I see is fried breading, not enough vegetables, fiber-free white bread and a total lack of nutritional value. Until a doc says otherwise about my stones, gonna go lighter on dairy.

EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, another tofutti ice cream cone, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Is a morphine drip at 6:15am technically an AM snack?

Woke up at 4:45am feeling warm and an achy back. Went to the bathroom with an eye to go right back to bed, but instead the pains continued to grow and throb. Tried sitting up in the kitchen, tried lying down in the living room. Sipped some water, felt dizzy from pain, went to the bathroom and tried to throw up, but nothing came up. With steady rising pain, decided not to find out where this was going to end without a professional and Betsy called me a cab and I went to the emergency room.

It's a good thing, because by the time I got there, I could barely stand, talk or see straight -- pain like I had never had before (and hopefully never again.) The doc pushed and prodded me, nothing hurt where she pushed, and she said it was probably kidney stones. Then, my first morphine drip, then a trip to the cat scan. Kidney stone confirmed, I was out of there around 8am feeling quite warm and fuzzy.

Spent the day buzzing on pills, some discomfort but compared to the morning's 10/10 pain, the afternoon lingered at 1 or 2.

So how did this happen? I'll be meeting with a urologist later in the week, but I can't help but think my first ever kidney stone was probably related to a) stress and b) diet. Though I don't write it up here, I usually take in 2 quarts of water a day (that's 8 cups for those not up on your kitchen maths), not including the 2 cups of iced tea I get in. Is it my heavy hand with salt? Perhaps all the calcium I've been eating in my now-regular baby spinach salads? It'll be interesting to hear with the doc says when I present him with a list of everything I ate for the entire month of February! Thing is, I've been feeling pretty great and eating relatively well since my illness over the holidays, this whole episode is catching me a bit by surprise.

I went to the same emergency room I took my dad when he had complications from surgery, same one I met my parents in when he had his first major fall & stroke. Same hospital where they had hospice care and passed away. I never had an IV drip in my arm before, and I hate needles -- the idea of putting a needle in and leaving it there would usually make me queazy, but I was so racked in agony that I just didn't care, if it would take the pain away. Once that morphine hit, I was staring at the emergency room ceiling, thinking ahhh, this is what my parents saw when they were here! Hi mom! Hi dad! Very odd, made me feel a little closer to them, it was comforting, even though I usually get a little bummed every time I bike or bus by this hospital.


BREAKFAST: 9am, hardcore oatmeal, water, oxycodone, ibuprofin, flomax & cipro, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5


NOON SNACK: noon, granola bar, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 3pm, baby carrots, ritz crackers, xtra strong ibuprofin, .25 bowl, hunger 2/5
Not hungry, but the pill had to be taken with food.

DINNER: 5:45pm, pizza with mushroom & meatball, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Sans Recipe

It just occurred to me if I can add a tablespoon to heavy cream and let it stand at room temp to make cream fraiche (a fancy french term for mild sour cream), why can't I save a load of money by inoculating milk with a buttermilk starter and make my own buttermilk? Next quart of $5.75 buttermilk I get, I'm going to freeze into cubes, and add a cube to room temp whole milk and let it sit for a day, should turn into perfectly fine buttermilk at around 1/4 to 1/2 the cost, AND be fresher. I'm assuming the live bacteria will go dormant in the freezer, and whatever dies will be minor...

TODAY'S COOKING
Pancakes: We had three couples with kids coming over, but for some reason I decided to experiment with the recipe anyway. I saw a little piece on TV about Clinton St. Baking, who are known for their pancakes. I've had them, and it's immediately clear what is up -- the density of the fat in the pancake is leavened with whipped egg whites, very French. The chef/owner pretty much cops to it, telling a story of how he worked in a fancy French place years ago, and the chef wanted to do an Americanized brunch service. It was up to him to make the pancakes, so he just took their crepe recipe and added flour.

So like last time, I added a pint of cream fraiche to the quart of buttermilk for the liquid, as well as 2oz of melted butter, 3 scrapings of vanilla beans and instead of 3 whole eggs, 5 egg yolks. Dry side was 24 o flour, 3 oz sugar, tbsp of baking powder and salt, 1/2 tsp of baking soda, shake of cinnamon. I beat the five egg whites to stiff peaks and folded it in, once the dry met the wet. (I let the eggs come to room temp over night -- warm egg whites hold air much better than cold whites.) The fluffy batter sat for about 30 minutes before I started cooking them off.

Pancakes came out surprisingly well, and despite making over 50 pieces, almost all of them went with lots of compliments. Upon reflection, this is now one of the few dishes I make that I can honestly say there was no way I could have made it successfully or easily sans-recipe without going to culinary school.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, chocolate covered coffee beans, water
Forgot to refrigerate the cooling iced tea, so I skipped it. Hey, it's Tom Cruise Sunday!

BRUNCH: 11:30am, handful of pancakes, about 1 donut, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Guests brought the donuts, one jumped down my throat. Thanks, Tom Cruise!


PM SNACK: 5pm, large spinach salad with slivered almonds and carrot dressing, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:15pm,  whole grain chicken nuggets, brown rice mix, pint of grenadine soda, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
I was about to have broiled scallops, but the glass pirex pan exploded when it tapped the cool edge of the oven while I was removing it. I picked up some brown basmanti rice mixed with wild rice, rye berries and wheat berries, tasted nice.


EVENING SNACK: 8pm, corn chex with organic dead milk, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10:15pm, graham crackers with a bit of nutella, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Windy Saturday

A mellow day. Mil & I got out the door around 10 to visit K in Park Slope. We took a nice walk around Prospect Park in the sunny wind -- I actually saw a whole lot of park I've never seen before. Stopped by a much better than it should have been Thai restaurant on 5th Ave before heading home.

Got a pint of cream on the way home. Inoculated it with a tablespoon of buttermilk and left it out overnight, to have cream fraiche for the pancakes tomorrow morning...

TODAY'S COOKING:
Iced Tea: Had the last pint of the old batch this morning, made another couple of gallons (5oz of tea steeped in a gallon of simmered water spiked with 1/4 cup sugar,  just turned off heat, 5 minutes then left to cool to room temp before hitting the chill box.) It occurred to me that I've been buying green tea randomly and sometimes I really like it sometimes it's a bit too woody and hard. The Houjicha that I'm using right now is pretty good, right in the middle of woody, flowery and just nice n' greeny.


AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea

AM SNACK: 10am, granola bar

AM SNACK: 11:15am, slice of date nut bread, handful of raw almonds, hot tea

LUNCH: 2:30pm, Thai salad, fried tofu, string beans and pork in a curry with sticky rice, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, baby carrots with carrot dressing, potato chips, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, peanuts & chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Gryadon, Anais & Roo

Last day of Edie's school's winter break! Joined B & his two similarly aged chillun' for a bus ride to the far west side to visit the Children's Museum of Art. Definitely a different crowd -- the kid's names were Graydon, Lulu, Anais, Roo and Honere, among others. Seriously.

Slow walk home with two sleeping bebes, spent the afternoon making dressing and keeping on top of the tots. When grandma arrived around 5, I got a quick weight lifting session in. This time Edie didn't try to get on my back, but still did a few downward-facing dog poses while I did push ups.

I did detect something in the Chinese food, but it might have been natural umami rather than MSG -- if they added MSG, it was a lot more subtle. After eating much more MSG elsewhere, I can can say with certainty that whatever it is that makes Chinese food make people sleepy, it ain't MSG. I crawled into bed and passed out around 10pm. Children: Better than MSG for sleep.

Considering color coding my entries again. Looking at today, everything until dinner is green, everything after is red, he he.

TODAY'S COOKING:
 Carrot dressing: Used this recipe again, despite thinking I can improve it -- thing is, I had all the ingredients on hand, why not just use it up? Made a triple batch, used my stored caramelized onions in replace of the 1.5 raw onions I didn't have, shouldn't hurt it at all. Unless it spoils, this should guide my spinach and momma salads for the next week or two.

BREAKFAST: 7:45am, iced green tea, hardcore oatmeal, banana, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Actually set the oatmeal up last night, simmered for a minute and put in the fridge until this morning.


PM SNACK: 12:15pm, 2 homemade granola bars, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Walking home from the far west side, glad I had this in my pocket to keep my hunger in check. Was tempted by various food trucks and restaurants, particularly when both babies were asleep, but figured we'd be ordering in food with my momma-in-law, so best keep it on the healthy tip....

LUNCH: 1:45pm, whole wheat pasta with homemade sauce and a little parm, baby carrots with carrot ginger dressing, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Eating for 1, Edie already taken care of, so I measured out 4 oz -- twice the recommended portion size on the box. It was a good moderately large entree portion in my eyes, how 1/4 of this could be a USDA portion boggles my mind. With the carrots, this was a satisfying lunch but I could have eaten twice as much just from habit.

DINNER: 6:15pm, curry beef over veg fried rice, shrimp toast, a spring roll, 2 cans of Sprite, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
This seems to be becoming a tradition - a good tradition - of some sinful but convenient delivery food with grandma and the whole family. Once a week, I can deal, Tom Cruise style. Though I probably 


EVENING SNACK: 7pm, wonton soup, a little veg lo mein, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


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

Just add an orange is all?!

The only two breakfasts in my repertoire which are super healthy is the hardcore oatmeal and the smoothie -- everything else needs rethinking. Googled "healthy breakfast options"this morning and came up with these scary top 10 lists published by dumb wimmin's magazines. A McDonald's Egg McMuffin with the top thrown out, and the addition of a friggin orange - seriously yo? Today's breakfast, Greek yogurt, is helped along with the almonds -- perhaps I should consider reducing or replacing the honey with fresh fruit.... I should also make the time to bake my own hardcore multi whole grain bagels...

Got out the door with the 2 tater tots around 9:30 and went to Brooklyn to visit C and her 2 yr old Autumn. C is great, we are of similar minds on a lot of things, and we both thought nothing would be more fun than making lunch -- pizza from scratch. We made a quick dough soon after I arrived to give it time to rise for an hour, and topped it with various simple stuff out of the fridge. Not gourmet or blog-worthy, but still better (and definitely healthier) than 85% of the store bought frozen pizzas out there. We rolled out to a playground in the afternoon, and popped into a cafe for tea and cake before we headed back home.


Both kiddles asleep when I got off the train, popped in the local market and picked up a quart of good buttermilk for pancakes this weekend and a nice piece of scrod for dinner.

AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea


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


LUNCH: 12:30pm, homemade whole wheat pizza, half glass of black cherry soda, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 3pm, chocolate cupcake, green tea, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, broiled scrod with butter and old bay seasoning, brown rice, spinach salad with slivered almonds and carrot tofu ginger dressing, pint of grenadine soda, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Brought home a solid 2/3 lb piece of fish. That's around 11 oz, about twice the recommended portion, but I wanted to eat a big dinner to hopefully cut down on cravings. Last night was an exception because I know the slow creep of calorie deficit that a long bike ride can bring (I should strategize for that in the future, rather than depend on chips!)

Though the dressing isn't there, it's easily the best of the bunch so far. The white bean dip was too gritty, the babaganoush too non-descript, the curry carrot dip too pasty. Contemplating how to refine -- perhaps replace tofu with tahini? Cook carrots before blending to make smoother?

Add vanilla extract to my grenadine syrup, gave a nice cream soda undertone to the proceedings.

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, potato chips, .25 bowl


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

Early Summer in mid-February

Woke up to various children at 6:30am, good thing I put myself down at 10 or I'd have a problem f'sure. Pleasantly sore in the chest and shoulders, undoubtedly partially due to Edie crawling on my back as I did push ups.

This morning we hosted a playdate for classmates and friends who are also out of school because of the winter break. I served up the broc-cheddar knishes (quartered), juice boxes and a pitcher of lime rickey, as well as some grapes and the momma salad (composed a bit, not just a jumble.)It went well, it was a lot mellower than it could have been.

Being that I do not have to teach this week, when the sitter came, I got spandexed up and road out to Coney -- it was in the mid 50s and sunny, very odd for mid February. Felt a lot stronger than I thought I'd be for being off the bike so long, the weights must be helping.

Got home and started cooking, forgot to eat spinach salad! D'oh!


AM SNACK: 7am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 8:15am, 2 whole wheat waffles, banana, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACKING 10-12:30pm: baby carrots, a cookie, a broc cheddar knish, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, lentils over white rice, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
A parent contributed this lentil stew and white rice, not very child-accessible but when everyone had left and I found myself hungry and harried with cleaning, there it was -- that's why she brought it, not for the guests, but for the host, he he. I'm not gonna critique such a thoughtful house gift, but it did make me want to reimagine it....


BIKE SNACK: 3pm, granola bar, water

BIKE SNACK: 4pm, small bag of funions, 16oz of gatorade, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
I used to like Funions when I was 8 or 9 years old.  The crappy bodega I stopped at to refuel didn't have corn chips, and this was a small quarter bag, so why not. The first thing I noticed when crunching on the first one was the overwhelming taste of....MSG. Hah! I almost wish I never tasted straight, unadorned MSG, now it jumps out at me like the pink elephant you're not supposed to imagine.


DINNER: 6:15pm, whole wheat spaghetti with homemade sauce, roasted brussel sprouts, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5 
Surprising how normal the whole wheat pasta tastes. It looks brown and grainy uncooked, but looked relatively white cooked. Taste-wise, I didn't taste much difference, especially when coated with sauce, but the bite was slightly different. Despite cooking it a minute past al dente, it still had a slightly crumbly element to the bite. Not enough to make it not-good, but different. Gotta stock up.

This round of sauce also is pretty good, definitely elevated by the cup of wine thrown into the aromatics and reduced.



EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, potato chips


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, a small handful of cookies


EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, more potato chips
Calorie deficit from the day's ride.

Terr-ifibling

Edie is off from school this week due to the President's Day holiday. B had off from work yesterday, but today it was me vs. the Terr(ific?)(ible?)(ifying?) Two. Once B left, I set up the weights, put Mil in a bumbo in his crib, and let Edie free range. She immediately gravitated to imitating me, first doing some stretches. Then when I started doing push ups, she crawled on to my back. Instead of doing my usual 20, I squeaked out about 10 with 30 pounds squirming on my back. Surprisingly, got through my routine smoothly. Edie thought my weight lifting was some sort of dance party, and insisted on listening to "Gotta Get Up" by Nillson over and over again while I worked out -- it actually helped. Mil remained chill, my exercises entertained Edie.

Made a smoothie and shared it with Edles, Mil soon went to nap and I got some laundry put away while Edie watched TV, got granola made and in the oven, took care of dishes, put stuff away as Edie scattered them about. Made myself and Edie lunch. Things got a little tense as we waited for the sitter, but once Mil was covered and we got on the bike to the train museum to play with Edie's favorite friend, all was well.

Got to bed at 10, blown out. This week is gonna be not the easiest.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Granola: Another batch with the idea of making bars in mind. Made a bigger batch, 6 cups of oats, 3 cups of nuts including cashews, slivered almonds,  pepitas, and for the first time, raw sunflower seed kernels. 4oz of dried shredded unsweetened coconut by weight (came to almost 2 cups by volume, double the original recipe, ha) Half cup of maple syrup, 1/4 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup of olive oil, tablespoon of vanilla, heaping 1/2 teaspoons of cardamom and cinnamon, teaspoon of salt. Baked at 325 for 45 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes to promote even browning. 1/2 cup of chopped dried cherries mixed in once cooled.

AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:30am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
I was busy bouncing Mil and feeding Edie a waffle to notice how long I let the smoothie blend for, perhaps 3 or 4 times longer than usual -- it actually cut down on the raspberry nit problem almost completely. Either that, or the raspberries floated to the top of the fruit bag and I'm working my way down it.


LUNCH: 11:30am, sardine & avocado on whole grain toast, health salad, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Edie running around, Mil strapped to me, somehow got lunch down...

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, handful of whole grain pretzels, liter of water

PM SNACK: 4pm, homemade granola bar, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 6pm, baby spinach with slivered almonds and carrot dressing, 2 slices of streetza, Jamaican beef patty, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Brought in dinner, as was too hungry and blown out from the day to cook. On a whim, got a beef patty from the pizza place, haven't had one in quite a while. I used to love these, and quickly discovered if I had more than one in a sitting I'd feel sick.  The crust is nice, flaky, savory. But the filling is weird, a loose smooth meat paste of indeterminate origin. It says beef, but really, it could be any meat that has been cooked for days and mixed with a very distinct spice combo. I had beef patties in Jamaica and the fillings are much more....distinct. I guess like pizza, this is a "NY style" beef patty.

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

Presidential Cooking

Alarm went off at 6 in the middle of some dream I was enjoying, so I turned it off and woke up at 8 to a toddler jumping up and down on my back, shouting "HOP ON POP!" Dr. Seuss, we need a word.

B was off from work today, so I bundled up Edie and we did a tour of the local supermarket. After getting stuff in, I started to cook, not letting up until after 3pm.


TODAY'S COOKING
Tomato Sauce: Softened two large diced onions in olive oil, tossed in 2 shredded carrots and one bunch of fresh thyme, simmered 10 min until very fragrant. 5 cloves of garlic crushed, 1 cup of white wine, full boil until very reduced. 4 cans of freshly milled whole tomatoes, one bunch of basil, chopped, salt.

Considered tossing in some MSG, but decided against it -- there was so much good stuff happening here, why risk it. When my dad would add his "secret" ingredient to his vat of home cooked sauce (a jar of store bought stuff), I wonder if it was the traces of MSG in that jar that made the difference....


Carrot Dressing: Looking for something to make straight raw spinach appealing, it ocurred to me the original reason I LIKE raw spinach was the salad at Dojo... They make a house-made carrot dressing that is pretty special. So I googled, and found this recipe, but after eating it with lunch, it's missing something. I only used it because it was the top google hit, I think the recipes that use tahini might be a little closer. Still, this was pretty good, except that the yield was a meager cup or so.


Broccoli Cheddar Knishes: As Edie is off this week, I'm hosting a playdate on Wedneday. This being Edie's favorite knish and I had a log of left over dough from last week, I made a couple dozen.


Momma Salad & Health Salad: Not gonna have a lot of free time to cook and prep this week, so just tossed these off to have on hand.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 11am, hardcore oatmeal, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2pm, baby spinach & slivered almonds with carrot dressing, 2 kasha knishes

DINNER: 6:15pm, 12" veggie burger on whole wheat hero, cool ranch doritos, sprite, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Stopped by Subway with Mil strapped to me sleeping, an evening walk to Whole Foods. I picked up the "Cool Ranch" Doritos because I remembered it had that distinct umami taste that I now know to be MSG. I used to think there must be some dehydrated buttermilk in there or something. I looked at the ingredients, and low and behold, once you get through corn and oils and sugars, the primary flavorant, before any cheese, buttermilk or herb or spice, is MSG. Well, there ya go. Tasting the chip, instead of tasting cool or ranchy or buttermilky, all I tasted was MSG. Ick. I did not finish the bag.


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

A Vist to my bruddah, a visit to terrible eating

Rented a car and took the family unit up to Albany to visit my brother and his horde of hotten tots. As expected, my eating was horrible -- too busy getting the car and getting everything in order to feed myself properly, eating a bagel on the road to keep my stomach from chewing itself. We hit a McDonalds drive-thru outside of Albany and chowed in the parking lot, oh so American, I felt vastly underweight. Again, fast food on the thruway home. Weird, I actually feel a bit crappier from the day's eating, I would probably feel even worse tomorrow evening if I stuck to fast food. Looking forward to food shopping tomorrow and having a larder full o' fresh veg, healthy stuff and the like.

AM SNACK: 6:15am, iced green tea


AM SNACK: 9:45am, 1/2 a bagel, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: noon, 2 hamburgers, fries, 3 chicken nuggets, diet coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 1:30pm, 1/4 bagel with cream cheese, a cup of apple juice, a cupcake, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 4:45pm, 3/4 of a Pizzeria Uno "Pizza", handful of fries, diet coke, baggie of chocolate chip cookies, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER 2: 9pm, cheese tortellini with tomato, garlic, butter, dried herbs & MSG, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5 
Hungry, but nothing healthy or fresh on hand. So I tossed this dish together, and dossed it with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon MSG to see how it would be. It was that fine line between delicous and weird. As with when I tasted it straight, it left a weird meaty aftertaste for hours afte I had finished. MSG is STRONG. This big dish would probably could have used 1/4 teaspoon of MSG and still been fine.

Feelin' a Burito

After passing out on the couch last night at 7pm (thankfully grandma was around to assist with the kids so B didn't have cause for a conniption!) I transferred myself and a sleeping Milli Mil to bed around 8 and didn't wake until my alarm at 6:15. I guess 2 nights of poor sleep and a good day of weights and productivity (and heavy Chinese food) will set you up for a good sleep.

B stayed home, I strapped on Mil and strapped Edie to the light stroller, and set out to Westchester via subway and Metronorth to visit a friend and her family for the day. Eating involved a greasy spoon, but hey, it's the weekend and I'm kickin' it Tom Cruisian. I was tempted to order in in the evening, but it occurred to me that tomorrows loooong trip to see my brother would bring a lot of bad food, so I just raided the fridge and ate a knish that needed eating. Not the greatest meal, but calorie wise, probably half of what I would have consumed if I ordered in the burrito I was feelin'.

Woke up with pleasantly sore muscles, though I think maybe they should hurt a little more. I'm pushing as much weight as I can, but perhaps I should up my reps from 5 to 6 or 7.

AM SNACK: 6:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 7am, 4 banana pancakes, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

BREAKFAST 2: 9am, 3/4 of a whole wheat bagel & butter, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
A little picnic on the Metronorth train with Edie, waiting for it to move. Food can be so much fun with the right context and the right sharer.


LUNCH: noon,  blueberry muffin, bacon, home fries,water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
It could have been a lot worse if I ordered a proper plate of food instead of sides. The plate of the "side" of homefries was at least 12 oz, and Edie's "children's" OJ was a good pint (I poured half out and replaced it with water -- Edie still wasn't able to finish it.)



PM SNACK: 4:45pm, granola bar, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 5:30pm, hot dog, coney-style knish, a little veg fried rice, 1  bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 8pm, ritz crackers, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Warm fuzzies

Got the laundry in early, felt better -- my neck isn't sore anymore, got a solid 7 hours sleep. Pushed it a little lifting weights, felt good. I doubt anyone but me can see it, but my muscles are feeling harder and a little swollen in a good, mass-building way. I'm hardly the Situation, but makes me look forward to the Spring to see how a bike handles under me with this additional core strength.

As I knew the in laws were coming over for a dinner that I was not to be cooking (i.e. ordering in), I was extra careful to eat healthy during the day to have some sort of balance...

Dinner was delicious in that comforting way, Chinese take out was a popular family meal with my parents, and it set a warm fuzzy blanket of tired on my right after I finished, passing out on the couch at 7pm.

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:30am, hardcore oatmeal, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Finished the can of McCann's, which I bought after getting sick - I guess that is a marker of time, I haven't gotten sick of this push for healthier eating yet! I also doubled up on the vanilla, salt, butter and brown sugar, as the last batch was tepid. MUCH better, and still relative low in this additions.

LUNCH: 12:15pm, breaded tilapia, baby spinach salad, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Breakthrough! I didn't have any baby carrots left to counter the mild chalky bitterness, and have been finding the bottled Italian dressing way too vinegary and strong. So I looked in the cupboard for an alternate and there it was: blanched slivered almonds!! A sprinkle of it gave the needed textural and flavor counterpoint to make the spinach pop to life AND it's a super healthy food. Huzzah! I dressed it with a little olive oil and a little balsamic, and it was mostly perfect -- perhaps a light sprinkle of salt would make it restaurant worthy.


PM SNACK: 2pm, apple

PM SNACK: 4pm, handful of whole grain pretzel sticks
Edie was running around with the bag in the playroom, it was impossible to resist sharing them with her.



DINNER: 6pm, roast pork & tofu in brown sauce over veg fried rice, shrimp toast, a couple of steamed vegetable dumplings, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Delivery with the family. My attitude is starting to emerge about bad-for-you food similar to alcohol and other similar activities -- it's only acceptable when done socially with friends or family.

Pasta pasta!

One of my chefs in c-school scolded me for plating way too much pasta on a plate -- he complained that American's relationship with pasta is WAY out of wack. At dinner this evening, I measured out 4oz of dry pasta out of the 1 lb box, it looked too meager. So I cooked up 8oz and....ate about half. Too bad the box says 2oz dry is a portion, and the USDA recommends a serving size of 1oz.

Funny, I never weighed out pasta before, always kinda made the whole box and whatever left overs there were, there were. I know in college when I was hungry, I could eat a full 1 lb box of pasta (cooked, of course) -- that's 8 portions, or 16 according to the govmint! Still, 1oz? It doesn't really indicate if that is a side dish size or a meal size. My stomach & mind are set for 4oz as a side dish, 8oz as a main. When I think of what I expect in a restaurant setting, this is actually on the smaller size (or if we're talkin' Olive Garden, REALLY tiny.) Regardless, I think the move is a) be more mindful of pasta portion size and b) start buying up every brand of whole wheat pasta and see if any are good. Worst comes to worst, I got pasta attachments, I can make it if none work out...

I think ending the day with a bit more than a small amount of sweet desert last night didn't help a good night's sleep, and I woke up a second time pretty exhausted. I almost set up for weight liftings, but realized I felt so low-energy, it would take twice as long for 1/2 the result. Just focus on sleeping tonight and doing it right tomorrow.

No appetite came to me for a while for  breakfast, and I left the house at noon before I was hungry for lunch. Had two nibbles out and about, one packed and one healthy enough. Held me over to a proper dinner time.


AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Made a double batch, so Edie could have a new batch of "noisy ice cream" in the freezer.

PM SNACK: 1:15pm, granola bar, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK 2:45pm, whole wheat spinach tofu empanada, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:15pm, baby spinach with baby carrots, shrimp and roasted brussel sprouts with angel hair pasta, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
I wanted a heavy meal because of my lack of a proper lunch, but limited myself to 4oz of pasta with extra brussels and extra shrimp. Hopefully cravings won't come and bite me on the butt...


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


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, small bit of dark chocolate
.....CHOMP! A bit of Mast Brothers chocolate left over from a gift. Really weirdly bitter and fruity, not my cuppa tea.


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, left over pasta, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
.....CHOMPITY CHOMP CHOMP! I think that was another 3 or 4 oz down the hatch...

Kooking Knishes

Woke up just as sore as I did the day before, must have something to do with actually being at work for a full day. I was in the kitchen most of the day today, and noticed my lower neck is sore, making it a bit ouchy to fully turn my head. Hopefully that works itself out before tomorrow's weights.

I got into cooking today, so muh I kinda forgot to stop for lunch. That was a nice feeling - the being busy, not the skipping a meal, which is unhealthy in the scheme of things.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Knishes: Made a full spread, and a new one. Potato, deep fried potato, spinach-garlic, broccoli-cheddar, sweet potato, kasha, brisket and a chocolate hazelnut. I'll go into the making at length on my knish blog, but one thing that was notable was how hard it was to produce. I did not have baby help until 1pm, and keeping Mil chill made it hard to move forward. On top of that, I discovered in the morning I had 10 pounds of rotten potatoes so I ran out with Mil to get more. After I got back and tried to move forward, I realized I was short on eggs and went out once the help arrived.


AM SNACK: 8:45am, iced green tea


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

PM SNACK: 1pm, bite of chocolate hazelnut knish, water

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, potato knish, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7:30pm, halves of 9 different knishes, a whole mess of macaroons, lime rickey, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

A Day at Work

Woke up pleasantly sore -- let's me know I'm not wasting my time and efforts in the weights. Babysitter came early and I made it to school at noon for some brownie-infused recruitment for the 2nd class I'm teaching starting in March. Spent the afternoon at the school cleaning and inventorying the supply closet, as we recently got a new funding source that allows us to buy all the supplies and equipment we need, then after a quick lunch out, taught from 4 to 7:30. Nice bike ride home in the dark, snuggles with Edie, a hodge podge dinner & TV.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea


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

LUNCH: 3pm, lobster roll, a few chips, whoopee pie, sarsaparilla soda, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
This is the first time in a long time I had a proper 8 hour work day, so I treated myself to a nice lunch. Walked over to the Lobster Pound on Van Brunt. They gave me a complimentary whoopee pie (I guess I'm just charming or something) which was not what I needed, but it tasted good. It came with a bag of chips, which I ate one of then thought, "y'know, the grease and the calories are not worth the satisfaction I'll get from eating this." Between the soda and pie, it's already a lotta sugar, don't need the extra kick of the chips. And I was right, this was a very satisfying, decadent meal without the chips.

PM SNACK: 5pm, grape soda, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

SCHOOL SNACK: 7pm, farro & sausage, a bite of brownie, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
A big pot of food, but this kind of dish needs to sit in a fridge for a few days and thicken up before it's completely delicious.


DINNER: 9pm, whole wheat chicken nuggets, baby carrots, granola bar, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
It's late, I'm hungry, I don't wanna cook. Ate some of Edie's nuggets (well, I paid for 'em) and ate the granola bar I brought to school today but forgot to eat.

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, potato chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
I write how many "bowls" in each entry, to keep mindful of quantity, but this is the first time in a while I actually consciously used a smaller bowl to limit quantity. I filled the small bowl up to the top with chips, and it felt like a lot, but it was not.

Tom Cruisian

A bumpy night with waking babies and a cranky momma, but hey, it's Monday. Time to stick to my Tom Cruisian ideals of refocusing on healthy eating during the week, and eating whatever within reason on the weekends!

Granola bars are fab, though I forgot to add spirulina and flax to this batch. Cook's Illustrated has an article breaking down granola, which may make me reformulate the recipe I've been using for quite a while now. 

Lifted weights this morning, funny how a baby crying can motivate you to move harder/faster so you can go and stop them from crying!

TODAY'S COOKING
Brownies: Not for consumption, but for recruiting students tomorrow.  The standard recipe, replacing extract with bean scraping and doubling the salt.

Caramelized Onions: Baking a series of knishes on Wednesday, already have 4 cups worth of cooked onions from a month back (stored in the back of the fridge, still smell great), but don't want to be short handed. While Mil slept, chopped 6 lbs, salted and two big glops of shortening, 200 degree oven for about 6 hours, stirring every once in a while. If I'm caught short handed, it'll defintely effect the thing I like most about knishes -- a proper level of yummy cooked onion flavor.

Vanilla Extract: As I make this kitchen staple myself, I don't know if I've ever gone on at length about it. As I split and scrape beans, I put the used husks in a dark glass jar that's full of 180 proof vodka (that's 90% alcohol). When a good number of beans fill the jar, by that time about half the vodka has evaporated from opening and closing the wide-mouth jar. I place the contents in the blender and make a slurry. I strain the slurry through a cheese clothe covered chinois back into the jar. I fill it up with water, as the strength of the extract uncut is crazy-strong. It's still much, much stronger than any commercially available extract, so watering makes it go a lot farther with not really blunting it's pure vanilla punch. Even if this was standard strength stuff, a pint of it would cost 40 to 50 bucks -- my half pound of beans only cost $30, and after using the scrapings in all sorts of things, I end up making 3 or 4 pints of extract from it. Just about all my pastry, all my ice cream, all my smoothies and various other things get hit by vanilla in my kitchen, and buy buying in bulk and making extract, it's probably not only something that elevates my cooking over the scrum, it also is one of the biggest bangs for the buck. I should get some nice little jars and give it way as presents to my cooking-friendly friends...

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:30am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
I don't mind that the spirulina makes the smoothie a really ugly shade of mud-blue, but the fruit mix with the nitty raspberries are a drag. A smoothie is suppose to be smooth, not slightly gritty! But down it went. I imagine if I tried to push the smoothie through a sieve, I might loose more than the nits, but it might be a worthy experiment regardless...

LUNCH: 12:30pm, sardine & avocado on whole grain sprouted toast, health salad, pickle, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 5:45pm, granola bar, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7:45pm, hotdog with onions, mashed potato, baby spinach with bean dip, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, grenadine soda, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
I made myself a whole pint, but half of it was enough.

Mac n' Cheese, I quit you!

Mac n' cheese was one of those first dishes I made at home when I decided to focus on cooking in my life. I grew up with kraft dinner, and continued with it, making greasy casseroles with it in college. I started making real mac n' cheese with this recipe, and at first I deliberately adjusted it, and after c-school and learning the inside outs of roux and mother sauces, I kinda just wing it. Nowadays, I make it regularly every semester with my students, and make it once or twice at home every cold season.

However, I think mac n' cheese in my life is coming to a close. I ate a relatively small portion of it this evening, maybe 3" x 3" by 2" tall, had more chicken and brussels than mac by volume. (In the past I would eat maybe 4 to 5 times that much of mac in a sitting). Still, it was too rich for my system and ended in some discomfort (and I'll leave it at that!) In the end, mac n' cheese as a make it is just a block of creamy cheese. with some macaroni stuck in to give it some structure. Betsy loves it, Edles loves it, it's not going to waste for sure, but that's it for me. I'm too elderly for my mac n' cheese!

I'll still make it with my students and for my family, but I'll be limiting myself to small tasting portions when it's fresh and leave the left overs to others.

TODAY'S COOKING
Mac n' Cheese: Gotta make it once a winter. 3 lbs of cheese, 2 lbs of macaroni, a half gallon of whole milk -- after giving our guests a sizable brick to take home, we still have enough left overs to last a few weeks.


Chicken Nuggets: B asked me if I knew how to make nuggets, since I never made them before, and I had to laugh. Cut chicken breast into coins, standard breading procedure with panko bread crumbs (mixed with some mustard powder and smoked paprika), and deep fry until golden. Hit with some salt while hot. Not too sophisticated, but the kids dug it.


AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:30am, hardcore oatmeal, banana, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


BRUNCH: 11:45am, onion bagel with cream cheese, 3/4 of a donut, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 4:45pm, chicken nuggets, mac n' cheese, brussel sprouts, a donut, two glasses of beer, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

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

Superbowl of Banana Bread

Food shopping at Pathmark in the morning with Edie on the big bike, a nice play date at some friends we don't see often enough in the afternoon, a walk by the river, then an evening in with B's momma & some pizza ordered in. Over all good chill day in the 'hood with the family.

Not the greatest eating day, but I think the only way not to fall off the wagon is to loosen up (if not lighten up) on the weekends. I hear that Tom Cruise eats only what his team of nutritionists and cooks allow him during the week, but on the weekends he's off the hook and able to eat as many Scientology Crackers as he likes or something. I wonder if he would hire a guy like me to record everything he eats and write a witty blog about it.


AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9am, special k with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10:45am, cheese ravioli and spinach, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: noon, banana bread, pretzels & hummus, different cheeses, salumni & crackers, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
At friends house with the kids. We brought some banana bread as the host also made banana bread and ate them head to head -- too different to really compare. Really nice cheeses and salamis, ate lightly because a ton o' meat and cheese will kill my guts, but enjoyed it highly regardless.


PM SNACK: 3pm, baby carrots & white bean dip, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 5:45pm, 3 slices of streetza, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

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

Top of it

Busy day. Did the laundry in the morning, got out with Mil to visit MAP for hot chocolate, went downtown to do a secret special chore, got home by 1:15, made lunch, put away laundry, cleaned up house, picked up Edie, exchanged some clothes at a kids store, spent an hour at the playroom and changed multiple diapers, got everyone home and made dinner for everyone. Rushed but on top of it.

TODAY'S COOKING
Granola bars: In a small pot, a few glugs of maple syrup, quarter stick of butter and about a cup of almond butter. Once smooth, added 2 eggs, a glug of vanilla extract and a sprinkle of salt. Mixed it into yesterday's batch of granola, pressed it into a parchment lined glass pan, and baked at 300 for 20 minutes.

Banana Bread: Had 4 bananas on the edge of oblivion, so made up a recipe. Beat a stick of butter into 1/2 cup of white sugar and 1/4 cup of brown sugar. Added 2 eggs, the 4 bananas and a 1/4 cup of full fat fage. Teaspoon each of baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Turned to slow, added 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour. Baked at 350 for 1 hour. Came out weirdly dense but light, so moist almost to be mushy, just holding on by a thread.


AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:30am, hardcore oatmeal, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:am, large mutzu apple
Looking for a snack in the farmer's market. My mind went to pretzels and whole wheat baked goods, but the farm stand of 15 different apple varieties caught my eye. This golden yellow apple was almost a pound, and was cold, crisp and seasonally perfect.


AM SNACK: 11:45am, 3oz bourbon hot chocolate
Visited my friend MAP at City Bakery for hot chocolate, she does a blog every year tasting every flavor they do in the month of February. It was really good, had the smokey wood flavor of bourbon that worked well with their dairy-based rich hot chocolate. Most notable was the size -- we got tasting servings, which in actuality for something so rich was pretty much all you need. A 20oz Starbucks-size serving of this stuff would probably be enough calories to cover lunch and dinner, he he. Mil slept through it, but I think later in the month I'll be taking Edie, and she'll also have a 3oz shot. I hope it aint cappucino hot chocolate then!!


LUNCH: 2pm, breaded tilapia, health salad, pickle, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Between going out and getting Edie, popped home to do chores, put away laundry and make a proper lunch. The frozen fish is weird -- it's breaded, but the actual fish is raw, so it would not be fair to say it is deep fried, but the amount of oil in the breaded that leeches out on to the pan, the oil that allows it to become crunchy, makes me wonder. Maybe I should get the unbreaded ones and bread them myself on demand?


DINNER: 5:45pm, cheese ravioli & spinach, grenadine soda, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
2 lbs of frozen mini cheese raviolis, a pound of frozen spinach cooked with a little olive oil and 3 cloves of garlic, a cup of homemade tomato sauce, all thrown into a pot and mixed together. Not the yummiest -- the ravioli are so bland -- but filling and could be worse, I suppose. Ate a small second helping in hopes of avoiding snacks in the evening.


EVENING SNACK: 7:45pm, banana bread, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Granola bars to the rescue

Hung out with old friend J and Mil in the afternoon, walking around, kinda skipped lunch but I had some homemade granola bars with me to stay sane, and had a small lunch when we got home after picking up Edles from school.

Fried up a nice sausage from Whole Foods with dinner -- unlike a lot of different meats from a butcher case, one link is 1/3 lb, a good single portion with no worrying about using the meat over several days.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Granola: My friend brought me a gift of a huge 32oz jar of artisinal granola, but I went a made this anyway. The jarred stuff was fresh, organic and full of healthy stuff, but still too sweet for my palate and had walnuts in it, whose flavor just doesn't appeal to me.

Brown Rice Pilaf: Sauteed a cup of shortgrain brown rice in 4 tbsp of butter for a solid ten minutes. Added water, half cup of slivered almonds, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, onion & garlic powders. Came out pretty good, though the almonds had less impact then I thought they had -- next time I'll sautee them with the rice.

Iced Tea: Another 2 gallons, each gallon with 1/4 cup of white sugar.


AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea
Last pint of the 2 gallon batch. Noticed it tasted a little funky, from being in the fridge too long. Hmmmm.


BREAKFAST: 9:45am, toasted pumpernickel bagel with scallion creamcheese, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
I was looking in the cupboard for a healthier breakfast -- had smoothie yesterday, oatmeal soon but not today -- and realized I had to change it up or risk getting bored. Makes me think perhaps I should make a load of my own bagels, a pumpernickel bagel with proper 100% whole grains, rye and wheat, and just freeze them. Won't be cheaper than buying them, but will be fun and healthier...

PM SNACK: 1pm, granola bar, seltzer, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 2:45pm, pickle


LUNCH: 3:30pm, whole grain chicken nuggets, health salad, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6pm, momma salad, andouie pork sausage, brown rice pilaf, roasted acorn squash, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
I don't like acorn squash that much -- I suspect it has such a high water content that it makes the flesh a little bit too juicy, despite being roasted at high heat for more than an hour. Weirdly sweet, too, like a sweet potato (another thing I don't like.) Well, I ate it, despite remembering that I don't like it, hrumph.


EVENING SNACK: 8pm, whole wheat ritz & nutella, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Went hard. Lunch and dinner were both too small.


EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, 3 small buttermilk pancakes, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Up the Walls

And old friend and her toddler come over in the morning to hang out and share smoothies, had coverage in the afternoon and took myself out to lunch -- in a few weeks, I'll be teaching on Wednesdays, too, but we put the child care coverage down in advance. Nice dinner at a friend's in the hood with kids crawling up the walls.


TODAY'S COOKING
White Bean Dip: Made this recipe pretty much faithfully, an alternative to bottled salad dressing. It came out nice and salad-dressing runny, but I wonder how it'll thicken when it's chilled... I suppose even if it thickens to hummus-like standards, it'll still liven up the momma style salad.


Health Salad: Kinda forgot about this slaw, a good simple side.



AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10am, smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Yep, lose the raspberries, halve the pineapple, and we'll have a divine smoothie. Pretty good, makes me feel good, but look forward to working through the gallon of frozen fruit to create a new mix...


LUNCH: 1:30pm, veg dim sum, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Took myself out to lunch, but improved. I always order too much when I go to veg dim sum by myself, but I limited myself to 3 small plates and it was a nice, proper amount in which I was able to finish everything and feel good after. Not enough veg, very starchy, but it hit the spot.


DINNER: 6:45pm, shake n' bake boneless chicken thigh, boxed mac n' cheese, a little roasted broc, 2 wedges of salted chocolate caramel tart, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Took the fam over to a neighbor's house for dinner, a little bit raucous but a good time. Brought the last of the 3 tarts I made for the stupor bowl -- I wiped off about 2/3 of the finishing salt before presenting it, was definitely more balanced....

EVENING SNACK; 9:45pm, Special K with milk. .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

A Nice Granola Bar

Got into a funky mood last night, continuing through the morning. Forgot to eat breakfast while taking care of Milli Mil, doing the laundry, cutting back my beard, etc, but a nice granola bar held me over.

Started teaching a new culinary class, these kids are a year younger than who I've been teaching, 15 to 16, and I'm surprised at the difference. A little bit more hand holding, a little less explanatory oratory, a little more cat-herding to clean up. Still, the food turned them on and got mostly positive feedback at the end of the lesson.

Still, our meal wasn't the healthiest, so I ate lightly, and by the time I got home, I shoveled in some unhealthy snacks and that was that.


AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea

LUNCH: 11:45am, turkey & Swiss on sprouted whole wheat bread, baby spinach & carrot salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
The bread struck me as kinda tiny, so I toasted a second pair while I ate the first, but half way through my sandwich I realized it was really dense bread and that it would be enough.

PM SNACK: 1:15pm, granola bar, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


SCHOOL DINNER: 7pm, chimichurri flank steak, mac n' cheese, sauteed spinach, water, a little grape soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


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


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, whole wheat ritz and nutella, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

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....