Fruity

This day flew by, odd for a day where I had "nothing" planned. MAP was supposed to come over to cook, but had to pull out due to work obligations. Between making a proper breakfast and lunch and dinner for 3, handling the Edles with feedings, naps and a walk-about, taking care of a few work-related things, there really was no down-time until after dinner.

Avoided alcohol & sweets today, though between the smoothie in the morning, cherries in the afternoon and watermelon in the evening, that definitely did something to cut my cravings.

AM SNACK: 8:15am, glass of iced mint green tea

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Acai juice, Greek yogurt, banana, frozen mango, blueberry and cherries, freshly ground flax, pimch of salt, pinch of vanilla. Tart but good.

AM SNACK: 11:45am, one shrimp summer roll with peanut sauce
Testing. Sauce needs to be sweeter.

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, one vegetable summer toll with peanut sauce
Testing. Sauce is now sweet enough.

LUNCH: 1:15pm, French onion soup, large green salad, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
An epic home lunch. Caramelized onions last night while B watched Lawzt. Heated in pan, deglazed with a little red wine, through in the 2 cups of beef stock I made for Boof Borgeenon a month or so ago, simmered for an hour. Fried whole wheat oat bread in butter, laid gruyere on top when flipped. Salted soup. Cut croutes into triangles and topped. Goooood.

PM SNACK: 3:15pm, bowl of cherries, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Funny how cherries don't really taste anything like "cherry" flavoring. Maybe a distant relation, cousin three times removed.

SNICKLEDINNER: 5:45pm, shrimp summer rolls with mango coleslaw, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, mulitgrain cornchips with salsa, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Drunk single people love babies and beer in the afternoon.

Woke up pleasantly sore from yesterday's ride, in the upper thighs and lower abdomen, probably from climbing up part of Storm King. A cousin and his family came over, who I don't see often enough, and a 2nd cousin I never met before but we discovered each other on Facebook. I cured some fish, but went lazy and bought bagels, took the muffins outta the freezer and presented my ice tea like it was made for them. I was surprised how much they dug it, lots of compliments and suggestions of trying to market it.

This latest batch of ice cream came out much better, smooth and chocolaty though very much a "milk chocolate" flavor. The custard itself was frustratingly thick, like pudding, and getting aerated in the barrel was a bit difficult. When I make it again with mix-ins, it's gonna be some kitchen drama up in here!

Some residual hunger from yesterday. Between the emotional impact of seeing relatives from my side of my nuclear family to getting out for a walk with Edie into a bar for a beer with drunken friends (drunk single people LOVE babies in the afternoon), it was all a bit much. And the month is quickly coming to an end, gotta get back into the green starting tomorrow.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, large glass of iced mint green tea

BREAKFAST: 10am, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese and home-cured salmon, pickle, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11am, about a scoop of homemade chocolate ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

PM DRINK: 3:30pm, pint of beer

LUNCH: 4pm, slice of 'zen' pizza, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Though pizza is usually neutral or red, this vegan spelt-crust thing full of green tea-infused tofu and vegetables is designed to be in the green zone.

EVENING SNACK: 7:15pm, large slice of watermelon, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, breakfast sausage patties, mini latkes, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, handful of minimuffins, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

BIke day

Woke up at 4, road 80 miles, some serious hill climbing. Got home by 4:30, ate lots, asleep by midnight.

AM SNACK: 4am, large glass of iced mint green tea

BREAKFAST: 4:45am, pork sausage patties, mini latkes, mini blueberry muffins, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

BIKE SNACK: 7:30am, caffeinated cliff bar

BIKE SNACK: 8:30am, gatorade, corn chips

BIKE SNACK: 11:45am, gatorade, funyons

BIKE LUNCH: 12:45pm, turkey & swiss on whole wheat bagel, sun chips, chocolate donut, water

DINNER 1: 4:45pm, 2 slices left over pizza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6pm, large piece of watermelon, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER 2: 7pm, whole wheat matzo farfel, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Daddy-Thing

I love my daughter every day, but somehow I loved her more than usual today. I guess because we did a lot together, and it was nothin' but fun. She went down for a nap early, around 8:45 right after B left, and gave me time to do my thing. I got her up about 10:20 and we took public transportation up to Grand Central, and took a train up intoWestchester to visit J and her new baby. On the train, by a big window overlooking the Hudson, Edie dined on avocados , pineapple and water, and ate from my fingers enthusiastically and without drama. She napped on my lap at J's house, and entertained herself with formula and the window on theway back.

B took a night for herself finally (hallelujah!) and me n' Edie had dinner together (she -- butternut squash bisque, more avocado, a little formula, 2 mum mums) and I gave her a nice long bath before letting her crawl everywhere, but she seemed to only want to crawl in whatever room I was in. Around 7:45, it was allwaaah waaah and I put her down with a hug and more than one kiss. Closed the door behind me, 3 minutes of loud cries, 3 minutes of muffled cries, and out. I then prepped for tomorrow's big bike ride, then pooped out around 10. A good Edie-filled day. I think I'm starting to get a hang of this daddy-thing.

I'm not eating spectacularly well, but one thing I'm finding myself doing is eating smaller, more often. Theoretically, that's a good thing, but my sweet tooth is getting the best of me. I think a week of no sweets is coming up soon.

AM SNACK: 8am, small cup of iced mint green tea

BREAKFAST: 9am, granola with dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH pt 1: 11am, jerk chicken patty, marble cookie, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
A snack before getting on the train at Grand Central. Reminded me of when I used to dine there on a regular basis for work lunches.

PM SNACK: 12:45pm, B&J ice cream bar, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Not my idea, I was visiting new mom J and she wanted ice cream, so I ate ice cream to be socially friendly.

LUNCH pt 2: 4:15pm, falafel sandwich, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Way back through Grand Central.

DINNER: 8:15pm, big green salad, handful of breakfast sausage patties, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Had some left over sausage meat from last Saturday's brunch, decided to fry it up and see what happened -- as I suspected, my sausages came out so dry & mealy because I over cooked them -- is it a Jewish thing to cook pork sausage until it's inedible?!

Roll!

A good day. I was supposed to go to a playdate drop in but after Edle's limited sleep, I let her stay home and nap so we missed it. Thank goodness I went food shopping the night before, allowing me today to dwaddle in the kitchen and make salad and shrimp summer rolls while Edie slept.

For the longest time I've been buying summer rolls on the fly, thinking, "damn, I bet these would be cheaper and better if I made these myself!" So when I saw this recipe on line, I knew what I had to do. A few specialty ingredients, a little practice, and poof, it was pretty damn good. Need a better dipping sauce recipe, but it's almost there.

Ate a big bowl of cherries as a snack, every third one was sweet, but mostly a little flavorless. Maybe they'll get better as the season heightens...

AM SNACK: 8:15am, large glass of iced mint green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:45am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
The banana & grapes were not quite ripe, so I eliminated the tart yogurt and replaced with a little milk. Plus frozen cherries, blueberries & mango, vanilla, fresh ground flax, acai juice. Not bad, not great.

LUNCH: 1pm, six shrimp summer rolls with dipping sauce, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, fishballs with rice noodle, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
In the park by Canal and East Broadway. Haven't gotten these from the cart since Edie was tiny, when it was warm out before the winter. Time flies. This time I got a small instead of a medium, definitely enough.

PM SNACK: 4pm, large green salad with whole wheat lavash crackers, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4:15pm, bowl o' cherries, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, half a pint of B&Js ice cream mess, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9:30pm, pizza, 1 beer, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Oh Cherry Baby

I went food shopping in the evening after getting home from teaching. Being that Edie was home, I was able to relax a little and focus on the task at hand. When I was being advised by a nutritionist, one of my repeating assignments was to go to market and look at the produce -- find something new that called to me, and buy it. I didn't quite get this -- I understood, but the stuff I chose was on a more intellectual basis, not on a 'can ya feel me, dawg?!' kind a way.

Well, a big bag of fresh red ripe cherries winked at me, hitched up it's skirt and said, "hey there. Come here often?" I haven't really eaten fresh cherries, though I put frozen in my smoothies. When I saw the display of cherries, these thoughts went into my head, in about this order:

1. Mmmmm yum!
2. My dad loved fresh cherries, would eat them like candy. Maybe it's genetic?
3. Hey! Fruit! That's a green mark on my diet!
4. Is Betsy gonna eat these too? Will I be able to finish it myself?
5. Bow chicka WOW wow!
   

Anyway. Unfortunately I woke/was woken too late to take Edie to swim class, and by the evening we were paying for it with a very energetic, lively baby who wanted to watch American Idol and crawl quickly across the apartment from 10pm to almost 1am.

Lifted weights in the morning, after only getting one session in last week. Felt good, and it really entertains Edie. If it wasn't for the fact that Edie follows my every motion from her crib when I'm doing the push ups, sit ups and weight things, I probably would be less motivated.

Food today centered around school, where we cooked Italian, specifically some recipes out of Mario Batali's book. Good, but not light. The wine-infused sauteed broccoli was kinda kick-ass, gotta make that at home.

AM SNACK: 9am, large glass of iced mint green tea

AM SNACK: 10:30am, a handful of mini latkes, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, wholewheat lavash with the good peanut butter, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1pm, smoothie pop, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, baked ziti, broccoli, fried shrimp, seltzer, 3 cookies, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, multigrain tortilla chips with salsa, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, organic wholegrain chex with organic dead milk, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, five Amish cinnamon blueberries minimuffins, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Work

Spent the day at the restaurant. Raining, slow, kinda boring. Gave me too much time to miss Edie and B!

AM SNACK: 8:30am, large glass of iced mint green tea
Not as sweet as the last batch, but also not particularly minty. My syrup again kinda congealed in the container in the fridge. Gotta review syrup making and consider brewing mint leaves WITH the tea instead of into the syrup...

AM SNACK: 11pm, Manhattan Special, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Wow this is sweet. And made me jittery on an empty stomach...

LUNCH: 1:30pm, Sicilian pizza, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6pm, green house salad, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 10pm, shrimp fried rice, 1 bowl hunger 4/5

Recovery

This past weekend was full of extremes. I woke up at 12:30am on Saturday and got cooking, baking a double batch of muffins using a sour-dough starter, breakfast pork sausage from scratch and a few other show-offy things for a brunch with another babied couple that morning. In the afternoon I brought some of my muffins to a pot-luck birthday picnic in a park, and nibbled other people's food but didn't have much of an appetite due to the heavy breakfast and lack of sleep.

Sunday I woke at 3am and rode the Montauk Century, gobbling food the whole way. I felt full when I got home around 9pm, but by 10:15 I ordered in a brick of Chinese and gobbled it down, a little fearful of what it might do to me. I fell asleep soon after and low and behold, I was starving to the point of feeling sick when I woke...

MAP came over and we cooked lunch, we had bigger plans for cooking but both of us were a bit moody and off our games. I was supposed to attend Taste of the Nation in the evening on a free pass from a friend working the event, but events out of my control conspired to keep me home with the baby. I guess it's for the best, if I went my dinner would be a role-call of delicious but sinful food, in large quantities!

AM SNACK: 9am, 5 mini muffins, .25 bowl, hunger 5/5
I was trying to get some chores done while Edie was mellow, and I suddenly felt queasy and nauseous -- I realized I was so hungry that I felt like puking. So I went into the freezer and grabbed some of the sour dough started cinnamon blueberry muffins I made Saturday morning and nuked them quick. Once I gobbled them down, I felt much better.

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

LUNCH: 2pm, sardine & avocado sandwich on whole wheat, sauteed spinach, pommes maxim, 1 glass wine, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Cookin' with MAP. The potato dish was out of the c-school cannon, involving making potatoes in cylinders, then thin slicing, placing ring molds in the pan then frying in clarified butter into crispy beautiful potato rings.

PM SNACK: 3:45pm, chocolate ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
After a short nap, just had a huge desire for sugar.

DINNER: 7:30pm, half a large pizza, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

A healthy cupboard

Didn't really leave the house today, feeling mellow and making sure Edie is 100% (she is). Didn't want to order in food, so ate around the cupboard pretty well until it was time to meet up with B at a restaurant.

Going to go quiet this weekend. Tomorrow I'm waking early and cooking an ornate brunch of french toast, home fries, sourdough muffins, chocolate ice cream and pork sausage from scratch, then attending a pot-luck birthday picnic for a friend in the afternoon. Sunday is a 100 mile ride out to Montauk, where my eating will be subsumed by my need to power a ride. Regular broadcasts (and a weekend recap) on Monday. See ya!

AM SNACK: 5am, large glass of iced mint green tea

BREAKAST: 8:45am, organic whole grain cheerios with organic dead milk, banana, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: noon, sardines and avocado and multigrain wholewheat bread, multigrain tortilla chips and salsa, a pickle, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 5:45pm, fried fish sandwich with fries, bread with yogurt dipping sauce, 1 beer, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Met up with B and a mom friend at a local dining establishment, good vibes if not the healthiest meal.

A momentary lapse of veganism

Edie is doing better, but she's used to eating just formula all day, so spending more time with her as she sits with solid food is a focus. We went out on foot today for a solid 4 hours and she was totally back to normal, food excepted.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, large glass of iced mint green tea

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

LUNCH pt 1: 11:30am, large green salad, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH pt 2: 1:30pm, slice of 'zen' pizza, small cup of vegan chocolate 'ice cream', 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
A big ol' vegan lunch in honor of the HVS. Went to Viva Herbal to have the spelt-crusted green tea-infused soy mush and other stuff thing. Walking down the street, felt the urge for sweets but didn't want to go too far into the red, so stopped in at Stogo, for their so-called "ice cream", but what I ate was kinda gritty, bland and bitter punctuated by dry, pasty chunks of "brownie". Ick.

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, bottle of unsweetened green jasmine tea
Thirsty after a short Wholefoods shop, I picked up a bottle of Tea's Tea unsweetened green jasmine tea, the same kind of tea I've used in my last batch of ice tea. I wanted to taste green jasmine in unsweetened form, and it surprised me -- the jasmine flower flavoring gives a depth of flavor that is kinda like sweet without the sweetness. No wonder my iced tea tastes so sweet, the jasmine perfume is amplifying it.

DINNER: 7:30pm, roti cannai with curry dipping sauce, spicy shrimp & vegetables over brown rice, chocolate experiment, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
I plan to make the MOST DECADENT OVER THE TOP RE-GOT-DAMM-DICULOUS chocolate ice cream for Edie's birthday, so for Saturday's brunch, I'm going to serve experimental chocolate ice cream, a winged-recipe based on a creme Anglais base. I put one ramekin of the custard in the freezer just to taste it for sweetness when cold -- it was good. The balance ain't there yet (less instant espresso, a different technique to get the chocolate less gritty needed) but it's a good start.

A Spare Cheesecake.

Chilled out with the Edles in the morning, she seems to be doing a whole lot better. Her eating hasn't quite come back yet, but her crawling, her sunny disposition and energy has.

I should of eaten a proper lunch, because when I got to school I was too hungry, and the only thing around was....a spare cheesecake. Woe to the hungry person trying to be healthy confronted with a spare cheesecake.

We made breakfast in class, and we made the breakfast sausage in tiny 1-bite patties to aid with cooking, which unfortunately made them very easy to pop in the mouth...

AM SNACK: 9:15am, large glass of iced mint green tea

BREAKFAST: 11am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
A big helping of fruit -- banana, grapes, cherries, mango, blueberries and acai juice, with greek yogurt, a pinch of salt and vanilla. Forgot flax this time. Delicious. Remind me again why I don't drink these more often?

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, multigrain tortilla chips & salsa, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

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

LINNER: 6pm, french toast, pancake, too much freshly ground breakfast sausage, seltzer, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, whole wheat lavash crackers

Scary

A rough night of Edie crying and tension, a trying test of our teamwork and parenting, but I think we made it OK. B decided to stay home from work with Edie and the nanny while I spent my first day as supervisor of the restaurant from 10:30 until 10pm. Even though I was intimate with the place and the boss, it was all a bit new, being out of it for almost a year and in a new position with a staff I have only socialized with a bit, not worked with. Like war, it was a lot of boredom punctuated with moments of fear and violence (well, not violence, but hot pizza, surly customers and rushing).

The action part was assisting the front of house staff and eye-balling the kitchen, not the same athleticism that I was performing while working in the kitchen. So while I was too busy to worry about food, I didn't burn ridiculous calories either. Louis was around and served me lunch, and after the rush I treated myself to a house salad -- pizza and pasta is not light food. By my bike ride home, I needed a treat and picked up some non-bricky Chinese.

B seemed to have a good day, and the worst of it for Edie seems to have passed. A good end to a big, slightly scary day.

AM SNACK: 8:45am, large glass of iced mint green tea

LUNCH: 1:45pm, spinach & meat lasagna, 2 slices of Sicilian pizza, half a vanilla soda, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 9pm, green house salad, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 10:15pm, shrimp fried rice, shrimp roll, ramekin of dark chocolate, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

The Ediepie

The morning started rocky with B waking me up late, only to tell me I need to get Edles to the doctor. She's been running a slight fever for a few days, and pretty much refuses all food except formula and water. (No worries, the doc says she's fighting a virus, everything is normal, should clear up in a few days by itself.) We went food shopping straight after, and I realized I was crazy hungry. The breakfast bar is full of all sorts of nutritionally suspicious stuff like old french toast, greasy hash browns, sausages of indiscriminate nature. So I picked up a few sushi items, and made sure to get some brown rice in there to try to keep the day in the green as much as possible.

Spent a mellow afternoon doing chores and lifting weights, and Edie slept through a good deal of it. By the time I left for a bike ride, Edie felt cool to the touch, but 10 miles in, B called me that Edie was shivering and had a pallor and was taking her to an ER. So I ditched my ride, took the subway home and checked in with her every time I got signal on the cell phone. Everything was under control, so I went home and awaited news. I couldn't just sit, I needed to use my hands and keep my mind from spinning out in stress, so I made dinner -- keep the hands (and mouth) busy. A big greens salad while preheating the oven and stretching some left-over Wholefoods dough. Brushed it with olive oil, scattered a helping of raw chopped clams, fresh raw garlic, grated parm, pieces of thin sliced prosciutto and a few grinds of black pepper. I was surprised how good this pie was, almost comparable to Pepe's. While the meat got nice and crispy, it did not supply the salt the pie needed -- the only thing it could of used was a sprinkle of salt, and maybe some melted butter mixed in with the olive oil...

The stress of waiting for my family to come home was still upon me, and while I heard everything was good, I still needed some chocolate. I was hoping for a full-on green day, but considering the situation, I decided to be kind to myself in the moment. The idea of my daughter being in discomfort is such a horrendous feeling.

AM SNACK: 8:15am, large glass of iced mint green tea

BRUNCH: 11:15am, brown rice California roll, shrimp summer roll, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2:30pm, sardine & avocado sandwich, bite of kimchi, a handful of multi grain tortilla chips with salsa, swig of mint green iced tea, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, large green salad, clam and prosciutto pizza, ramekin of chocolate chips, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Aspire to Greatness

Mother's day. Woke up after too much sleep, allergies in effect. We trudged out to Brooklyn via trains and shuttle buses, and I fell asleep for a few hours in the afternoon. Found myself hungry after not eating much all day, and packed in some Indian delivery. Rice AND bread, how the traditionalists must sneer at us tubby Americans!

Nothing too awful today, but nothing too great. Need to refocus on my diet. It's not good enough to just not eat anything too awful, I must eat some nutritionally great things, too!

AM SNACK: 7:30am, large glass of mint iced green tea

AM SNACK: 8:30am, spoonful of white chocolate peanut butter

LUNCH: 12:30pm, bagel with cream cheese and salmon, a little salad, a bite of cheese cake, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, shrimp saag with rice & naan, vegetable pakora, water, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5

The best grilled cheese I ever ate.

I originally intended to be up at 4am and out by 5am on the bike, but weather reports reported thunderstorms from 6am to noon. I woke at 8am to overcast but clear skies, but a good storm to run through briefly around 10am. During this lay-about time, I felt more and more rundown, leading me to think that hay fever is in effect. Also, Edie had been warm on the edge of fever since the night, and maybe staying home and helping out wouldn't be the worst idea.

I slept a good 10 hours, and I went to bed after a relatively small dinner around 8:30.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, red velvet peanut butter pancakes, large glass of iced mint green tea, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
A heavy, satisfying breakfast. Left over batter from yesterday's peanut butter blowout.

LUNCH: 2:30pm, vegetarian Ethiopian food, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:45pm, grilled cheese sandwich with caramelized onions, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
On nice demi hippy bread, with left over caramelized onions and a good soft pawny cheese we picked up from a local cheese monger, cooked with good European butter in a cast iron grill pan with a sandwich weight. After eating the sandwiches, Betsy and I agreed that these were the best grilled cheese sandwiches we ever ate. In song with Edie clapping away, B took credit for the idea and I took credit for the cooking. Hopefully in a few years there will be three of us saying that was the best grilled cheese ever.

Peanut Butter Daze

MAP came over around 9:30 with a sh@t-ton of plain and flavored peanut butters and we cooked up 4 out of 5 recipes we wrote for a competition sponsered by a PB restaurant/product line who provided us with the freebies. Edie napped from 9:30 to 11:15, which was convenient, so we were able to finish a lot of the heavy lifting before Ediecakes started crawling all over the floor and needing to be fed.

Didn't eat a formal breakfast, but nibbled on everything we cooked after taking a round of sexxxy pictures of each. We set up an informal studio for the pics by the living room window, and while we were taking pics of the last item, the proscuitto and peanut sauce pizza, Edie crawled over and hogged the spotlight, reeeediculous!! The fact that this pic was not staged, but a curious little booger jumping up and going "HAAA!", my heart just went pitterpat.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, mint green iced tea
This recent batch uses a jasmine green tea (good) but is the sweetest yet (bad.) I added a cup of my homemade mint syrup, about what I usually add, and this time I upped the tea bags to 12 (instead of 8) -- the strength tastes right now, but the sweetness....hmmm, maybe the jasmine flavoring amplifies the sweetness? Gonna cut the syrup by half on the next batch.

AM SNACKING: 9:30-12:30, red velvet peanut butter pancakes, roast beef sandwich with peanut sauce, peanut butter vegetable sushi, peanut butter & prosciutto pizza, seltzer, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNORT: 2pm, glass of white wine
Informal playdate in Tompkins Square with A and MAP. I brought the wine.

DINNER: 6:30pm, pasta with homemade tomato sauce and caramelized onions, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5
In anticipation of a long bikeride tomorrow, carboloaded with pasta. My eating limits this to once a week, which makes me think how I used to eat pasta several times a week. I miss it a little, but really, once a week makes it more special. Unfortunately, I already had rice pasta with my students on Wednesday, so I can't truly say this was the ony pasta this week.

Salad day

Woke up too late to really focus, because I needed to get Edles to a 10am doc appointment to follow up on her ear infection -- alls well. Met E for lunch, went to Patsy's and had a pretty reasonable meal -- half of what they call a 'small' and half of what they call a "family size" salad.

Spent the afternoon shopping for some peanut-butter exploratory cooking with MAP tomorrow, laundry, and just Edling around. E2 came over for dinner, and I made something that took a little bit of effort. I caramelized 4 onions in chicken fat and used about half in the chard side dish, but am saving the other half to do something fun in -- when something takes 3 1/2 long, slow hours to cook, why not make some extra?

AM SNACK: 8:45am, mint iced green tea

LUNCH: 11:45am, half a medium pizza, a large portion of green salad, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:45pm, large green salad, multigrain tortilla chips, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6:30, handful of mixed nuts

DINNER: 8pm, ocean perch fillet, red chard with onions, twice-baked potato, a little chocolate, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, cake, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Splash! Gobble!

A busy day with a swim class in the morning with Edie (splash! smile! splash splash! giggle!), teaching a round of Asian food to the students in the afternoon (chop chop! stir fry sizzle! gobble gobble!) and then the evening at the restaurant to get myself oriented for this coming Tuesday, where I will be managing the ship once a week.

Not a good eating day, but glad to be a little sore from the work out the day before.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced mint green tea

LUNCHFAST: 11am, 2 grilled cheese sandwiches on demihippy bread, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, slice of cheesecake, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30p, pork dumplings, scallion pancake, pad thai, chicken & brocolli with white jasmine rice, slice of cheesecake, seltzer, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Nanny-up

An interesting day. Starting next Tuesday, I'll be working a 12 hour shift supervising the restaurant, so El came over to nanny -- a test day, so to speak. El has worked with B's family for ever, nannying many of B's cousins who are now in their 20s. So off I went to the movies -- my stomach was a bit nervous from leaving Edles alone with someone other than B, but as I rode my bike over to the theater, realized I needed to get something in.

I got home in the mid afternoon, and spent some time frying the latke mix I made yesterday, for a pot luck the food coop I'm involved in was holding.

I lifted weights in the morning -- I felt like I needed to do something, because the time I spent at the movies, I could have gotten a good bike ride in, but I was feeling too uneasy about Edles to really enjoy that. I changed up the routine, and by evening I started feeling sore in a whole new bunch of muscles, which is good.

AM SNACK: 9:30am, mint iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 11am, sushi, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Picked it up from a refrigerator case of an Asian market. Ick, too cold and some of the fish was just wrong. Sat lack a block in my stomach.

LUNCH: 3pm, a bunch of mini latkes, large green salad, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
As I was frying off 10 lbs of mix to make latkes, I realized I had to eat something other than the delicious fatty carb cakes to be reasonable, so I ate salad as I spend a good 90 minutes frying.

DINNER: 7:30-9pm, "friendship" bread, mini spinach pies, a few vegetable sticks, apple juice, seltzer, a few latkes, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Noshing at the food coop potluck. "Friendship" bread is really cake that uses a sourdough starter contributed from said friend....I got myself a starter, gonna funktify some myself in 10 days....

Back

Hello, everybody. Had a good weekend upstate in the Woodstock area. Highlights of my eating was Saturday night's dinner -- a whole bunch of little appetizers at the wedding reception. I find at many of these kinds of events, the appetizers are enough and then you eat a whole extra meal that is considered the formal dinner. I was on Edie duty, so after getting my dinner-sized portion of appetizers, it was time for me n' Edles to get to bed.

Sunday I road up and down the Hudson and ate not-totally-nutritious energy food, but it was a good time. Today, I found myself scrounging for food for lunch, settled on a bagel due to a lack of anything else in reach that was convenient to eat before getting out with Edie to go food shopping. On the way back grabbed a knish on Delancey, chose spinach as it's a littler greenery, no?

Dinner was some simple fish filets baked with old bay seasoning and butter, and brown rice cooked pilaf style with a whole mess of stuff thrown in to give it some funk -- vegetable stock, dried morels, coconut, chili powder. I also made some red chard but badly oversalted it to the point of not being edible, oh well.

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

LUNCH: 12 noon, bagel with cream cheese, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH pt 2: 2:30pm, spinach knish, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, baked sole & brown rice, large green salad, chocolate with peanut butter, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5