All the more.

In the morning the Double Es and I went to Cafe Petisco for a big breakfast, then went for a walk by the river. Lazed around the house, napped, then rolled out to meet the HVS for dinner. Edie is getting bigger. At 7 months, she's more and more interactive with her environment, figuring things out. When our food arrived, Edie (strapped to my chest) reached out and grabbed the plate, raising it in the air at an angle. The food comes tumbling into my lap -- you know it's love when someone dumps a plate of hot food in your lap and you love them all the more.

BREAKFAST: 11am, blueberry pancakes, bacon, homefries, water, a slightly stale chocolate chip cookie, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

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

SNICKLEDINNER: 6:45pm, fruity cocktail, sticky crispy noodles, grilled tofu with satay sauce, sesame seed pancake, garlic shrimp with sticky rice, a few bites of vegan cupcakes, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, chocolate hazelnut spread with whole grain crackers, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Sprain

Went out to Veg Dim Sum with K, and on the way home stepped on some uneven pavement and sprained my left ankle. Edles was in a the carriage so I didn't fall and Edie didn't even notice, but it was bad enough that I skipped out of a play date in the afternoon and a dinner out with E later in the evening. Wanted pizza, but didn't want the hassle of making a phone call and answering the door, so I zapped some homemade mac n' cheese that I made weeks ago. Frozen is definitely not as good as fresh, but still way superior to the yellow stuff out of a box.

B has been eating up all the granola, and giving away a bunch. Must make another batch soon, as I would like to have some for breakfast!

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, toasted pumpernickel bagel with homemade babaganoush and sable, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: noon, vegetarian dim sum, tea, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER pt 1: 5pm, large green salad, pickle, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER pt 2: 7:30pm, mac & cheese, whole grain crackers with chocolate hazelnut spread, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Granola

Off to go food shopping with Edie strapped on, stopped in the local diner. Woke up feeling tired, stomach was a bit tight, thought I needed a belly bomb to get going. I was right! After a moderately greasy meal (chased by a fresh gourmet donut from down the street), felt much better.

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, BLT on bagel, homefries, lemon donut, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2:45pm, homemade granola, homemade kasha varniskas, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Wasn't planning to have granola for lunch, but when it came out of the oven, it was just too groovy to pass up. I followed the general outline of the recipe the HVS forwarded to me, but gave it my own funk:

3 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups cashews
1 cup sliced almonds
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup agave
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup evoo
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1 cup chopped dried apple
1 cup dried cherries

Surprisingly good, better than the expensive granola I buy at the farmer's market. I called that the "good granola", I shall call the homemade stuff the "best granola". Just a nice level of sweet/salty/savory, with the cardamon and cinnamon duality rubbing up nice against the vanilla and the earthy tones of the sweeteners.

SNICKLESNACK: 7:30pm, bowl of dahl, vegan brownie, vegan lemon cookie, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Went to yoga with the HVS, first time in almost 2/3 of a year.

Tired

Spent most of the day at the restaurant, skipped food shopping and walked home over the Manhattan Bridge. Feeling a bit tired.

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, white toast with babaganoush, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, half a pizza, a piece of calzone, a small piece of cheesecake, Manhattan Special, equivalent of half a glass of wine, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Well, the challenge definitely got violated on this one, but it would of been extremely rude to not eat from a professional sense. Between tasting some new menu stuff, a wine tasting and a storied piece of cake, I ate a lot more than I planned to.

DINNER: 7pm, basil fried rice, fried shrimps, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Felt run down. Ordered in with B before hitting the pillows around 9.

Lunkfast

LUNKFAST: 11:30am, sausage with homemade kasha varnishkas, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Had weird dreams, woke up with a tight stomach. After getting the laundry out, started feeding Edie, which made my appetite come alive. Had a couple of large sausages in the fridge that was given to me as a gift. One was some sort of cheese-stuffed thing, other was a dry "bahnmi" sausage. The first was kinda gross, oozing cheese, the second was good but a little bit too salty. Had about half of each.

PM SNACK: 2pm, chocolate chip cookie brittle, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
This was from the leader of the playdate drop-in, she makes homemade baked goods, so I'm gonna say this does not violate the challenge this week...

PM SNACK: 4:15pm, babaganoush on white toast, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER PT 1: 5:15pm, zucchini pancake, mint chocolate chip ice cream, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Used rice flour, fried it in caste iron, forgot to use an egg. Came out gloopy and not as good as when the HVS was here.

DINNER PT 2: 8:45pm, cheese ravioli with homemade sauce, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Pie?

Today was the first day of the no-non-homemade-junkfood challenge. I almost forgot -- as B & I wandered through Brooklyn, she stopped to get a cup of coffee at a cafe and I asked her to get me something sweet, but then I took it back. Then again, waking up and finishing the day with a luxurious almond-chocolate tart is not too much of a struggle, he he.

I have mint chocolate chip ice cream and another 12-inch tart on hand, but I need something else to break up the monotony. Gotta make something fun to get me through the whole week. What shall it be? Unmagical brownies? C-chip cookies? Maybe I should review my c-school notes, replicate something challenging. Edie Bird Pie!

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, chocolate tart, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:15pm, crappy pizza, diet coke, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, large green salad, 2 small slices of leftover Chicago-style pizza, chocolate tart, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

They call this pizza?

Made sauce the other day, bought all the ingredients. Today time was spent making Chicago-style pizza dough, which involves corn meal and a lot of butter. Between rises, the dough was rolled out, spread with a layer of soft butter, then rolled up and rolled out -- laminated like a croissant.

While that was in progress, I finished baking the two large tart shells to accept the large amount of chocolate pastry cream I had laying around. Just to kick it up a notch, I melted a dark chocolate bar with a little butter, then poured that into the shells to set before spreading in the cream, just to give it another layer of texture.

The actual dessert served was chocolate "ravioli" with cherry "marinara" and powdered sugar "cheese". It was good, but way too much work.



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

PM SNACKING: 12-4pm, snippets of moz, sausage, onion & olives, a few prosciutto canapes, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Oddly enough, I spent so much mental energy prepping dinner that I forgot to eat lunch. Got hungry around the time guests were supposed to show up.

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, large wedge of chocolate tart, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Waiting for guests to arrive.

DINNER: 5:45pm, several slices of Chicago-style pizza, several ham & pickle canapes, chocolate raviolis, a few mini canolis, 2 glasses of wine, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Edie really enjoyed the party, interacting with several people at once, hangin' like one of the fellahs.

In Style

Made pastry cream last night, this morning attempted to turn it into chocolate-almond pastry cream -- as a filling for chocolate ravioli I'll be serving as desert for tomorrow's dinner party. The recipe called for gianduja, a hazelnut-infused chocolate not available at my local markets. So I tried to melt chocolate on a double boiler with almond paste, but almond paste does not melt. D'oh! So as I mixed and mixed, the paste turned into sticky little grit-bits. I mixed the melted mass in with the cold pastry cream, and voila -- chocolate pudding with little sweet lumps of gooey almond paste. Fine for a snack, inappropriate for a refined fancy desert filling.

So I ran to the local market to pick up ingredients and remade the pastry cream, and infused it with chocolate and almond extract in the evening. The chocolate ravioli only took a small portion of the cream, so I made two large tart shells to take the 2 loads of chocolate pastry cream. I guess if I'm going to only eat home-made sweets this week, might as well do it in style....

BREAKFAST: 9am, chocolate pudding with candy almond bits, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

BREAKFAST 2: 11:30am, onion bagel with butter, sable and onion, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5 Totally forgot the babaganoush!

LUNCH: 2:30pm, muffaletta sandwich, 1/3 of a chocolate caramel tart, 1 beer, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, 2 slices of white bread toast with babaganoush, tortilla chips with a little salsa, a few spoonfuls of chocolate pastry cream, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

I went there.

Not a great eating day, but could of been worse.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, toasted onion bagel with cream cheese, sable and red onion, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:15pm, grilled chicken strips, potato nik, water, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, shrimp toast, pork dumplings, beef chow fun, a can of Pepsi, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
B was out getting her hair did, I was feeding Edie, cleaning up the house and dealing with other stuff so ordering in just seemed easy. It came with a free can of Pepsi, and it was just there as I was eating, so I opened it up intending only to take a sip. Huh. The sweet high acidity of it really cut through the very fatty food -- a palate cleanser, not unlike eating French food with a bright red wine. Yes, I'm equating take out Chinese and Pepsi with French food and red wine. I went there.

It's gettin' snickly in here!

The HVS came over in the morning with a bunch of spare vegetables. She get's a delivery every week and some of it built up, so we hunkered down and got to work making some snickly snacks out of them.


Two acorn squashes, an eggplant, a couple of zucchinis, a short stack of oranges and clementines. First thing was juice all the oranges and shoot it down. HVS made matchsticks of the zucchinis, then I tossed it with equal parts flour & water and a dash of salt, then fried it in peanut oil. When close to done, added a shot of sesame oil, whipped up a simple dipping sauce of soy sauce, rice vinegar and sesame oil, and voila:


I was surprised by how really simple and surprisingly authentic tasting this dish came out. Gonna experiment with higher gluten flour, higher temp, maybe add rice flour, scallions, hmmmm...

Roasted an eggplant, peeled it, then blended it with tahini, lemon juice, garlic, a little salt and olive oil for nice baba ganoush. Acorn squashes got split, oiled, salted, a drop of molasses then roasted. Potatoes were peeled, chopped, tossed with oil, salt and minced rosemary and roasted to brown. It was fun whipping out these simple dishes. Yomomma came by around 12:30 and nibbled on some of it with us. Now only if Edie was old enough to enjoy eating (& cooking) this stuff, too!

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, good granola with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

SNICKLE SNACK: 10:30-1:30pm, freshly squeezed orange juice, zucchini pancake with soy dipping sauce, a taste of baba ganoush, a small dish of rosemary roasted potatoes, a taste of roasted acorn squash, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2:30pm, BLT, fries, coleslaw, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Met P for lunch out at Chat n' Chew on Union Square. Yuck. The menu said thick-cut bacon but my sandwich came with a large lump of deep-fried thin-cut over-salted industrial bacon, left about 2/3 of it over on the plate. Really.

PM SNACK: 5:45pm, graham crackers with chocolate, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Just woke up from a nap, needed something to get going.

DINNER: 10:30pm, kasha varnishkes with chicken, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


BONUS PIC!!

Squeaky

Spent the morning at the restaurant, and the afternoon at a hospital where my friend gave birth a day a go. Edie is now 7 months old, and 7 months ago I was in a hospital room with a new born squeaky girl, just like C's new addition, Autumn.

Hunger is back, though the day was busy enough to not eat enough. When I got home, I immediately dispensed a large salad then quickly made a nice homemade meal.

BREAKFAST: 9am, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese, sable and onion, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, sausage, potatoes, salad, Manhattan Special, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Ate with L at the restaurant. Delicious, prepared in cast iron in the pizza oven.

DINNER: 5:15pm, grilled chili chicken breast strips over kasha varnishkes, large green salad, 1 cupcake, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 5/5
Didn't eat enough up to this point, got hungry enough to feel nauseous and a little light headed. Picked up a chicken boob from a local butcher, sliced it, marinated it quick and grilled it fast and went well with the kasha I made yesterday.

EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, dark chocolate and graham crackers, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Not hungry today

Just not very hungry today, my body must be recovering from a bug, this is not typical.

Spent the evening at a food coop meeting, thought it's too early for the subject to really be about food, more about business structure and philosophy, from which the food can flow.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, organic granola with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
I gotta start making my own granola, it'll be cheaper and more available in quantity.

LUNCH: 1pm, left over pasta, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5

PM SNACK: 2pm, cherry crumble bar
A home baked snack from the group leader of the play date drop in.

PM SNACK: 4pm, large green salad, snippets of kasha varnishkes, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5
After coming home from the group and before B came home, I cooked up a big ol' bucket of kasha varniskes. I caramelized 3 Spanish onions in chicken fat, toasted some barley then reconstituted it in chicken stock, fat, salt and pepper. Boiled up some egg noodle bow ties and tossed it all together, along with more salt and a lot more fresh ground pepper.

DINNER: 6:45pm, fish taco with rice & beans, glass of cava, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Out to Petisco with B, E and a couple of friends.

Sweetness

Felt really low energy today, not very hungry, either. After laundry, fell asleep with Edie in my arms on the couch for a couple of hours. Sweetness incarnate. Need to go food shopping and get some homemade salad in my life.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, good granola with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, green salad, eggplant parm hero, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, mint chip ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9pm, 3 small fish sticks, small amount of pasta with homemade sauce, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

5

Between a crying baby, an upset and an unhappy tummy situation, I didn't get to bed until around 4:30am. Woke up around 1:30pm, and Edles & I rolled out to the greasy diner around the corner. Not good food, but we didn't have to get 100% bundled up to get there. B was supposed to take a nap. but ended up joining us. It was 5 years ago today that my mother passed away.

I used to meet my parents at this diner on Sunday afternoons. We would always get the same things. We'd all drink diet coke. It was cheap, fast, convenient. After, we'd either go back to their apartment to fart around, or mom would go home and me and dad would go to the movies, or a museum, or book and record shopping, whatever.

Five years is a long time, but I still see and hear my parents quite clearly. Scrambled eggs, toast, margarine no bacon (but they'd eat some of mine), home fries, diet coke, coffee with splenda.

LUNCH: 2:30pm, BLT on bagel, home fries, diet coke, water, half a black & white, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Not my usual nowadays, but comforting. Diet coke on ice in a tall plastic cup with a wedge of lemon is somehow superior from straight out of the can, but if I were to try to replicate this anywhere but at this diner, would probably taste like the acidy fakeness it is. After eating, Edie & I popped into the kosher bakery next door to get a black & white. My mom got these for me a few times, not because I like them, but because she grew up on them as a kid in Brighton Beach, and though she didn't eat them herself, it gave her some sort of feeling continuity or home by getting them for me. I ate the chocolate half.

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, blue corn chips with salsa, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, chicken soup with vegetable gyoza, potatonik, 2 graham crackers and a little chocolate, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Using my chicken stock, spiked it with sea salt and Worcestershire sauce. Tasted weird, good, not quite there yet.

Creaky

The famz went up to Uncle Andy's place in Chelsea for some TV, then we walked home, hitting the farmer's market, the baby supply store, a restaurant, etc. We had plans in the evening, but they all got cancelled through no cause of our own. HVS was coming off a big day of yoga tests after grinding for weeks, so it was great to be able have her come over and take a load off, even if that meant doing 10 minutes of creaky yoga!

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

AM SNACK: 11:30am, 2 donuts, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
From the Donut Plant, a lemon and a triple chocolate.

LUNCH: 2pm, pizza, Greek salad pizza, orange soda, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
At Pizza By the Inch, where they serve long Roman-style pies cut to order. The Greek salad pizza is basically a pre-baked shell with sauce, which they top with romaine, red onion, olives and sprinkle with feta. I'm not a big feta fan, but as a condiment it's pretty great.

PM SNACK: 5pm, apple cider, .25 bowl
Fresh from the farmer's market.

DINNER: 7:30pm, left over rigatoni & meatballs with spinach and ricotta, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
The HVS was coming over, but wasn't hungry, so I zapped a few left overs which hit the spot.

SNICKLESNACK: 8pm, a little bit of dark chocolate, 2 graham crackers, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Snuggly

After doing the laundry in the morning, Edie and I napped and I ended up blowing off all plans for the afternoon. A cold snowy day outside, a warm snuggly baby inside, and enough little things to do around the house to remain sane. Edie fed strongly, and I got a few baby spoons of the good yogurt in. I can't begin to say how fun it is to feed her a food I love, and to watch her weird reaction; a screwed up little face followed by an open mouth looking for me.

BREAKFAST: 9am, apple cider, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Stomach still feeling a little weird from yesterday's dinner.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, rigatoni and sauce with meatballs, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Around 11:30 got hungry for lunch and started pacing the kitchen looking for something quick, but that feeling was what got me into trouble in yesterday's dinner. I happened to have an onion lying around and all the pantry ingredients for tomato sauce, so I made some. No recipe, just hoofed it, using a little tomato paste in the flavor base to see what would happen. Came out ok, I suspect the tomato paste gave it a stronger fakey tomato taste. Finished up the school meatballs.

I ate half my plate before realizing this was way too much food. I put it into a container and into the fridge -- in the past I would of just shovelled it down...

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, graham crackers and dark chocolate, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, 2 veggie soy sausage patties, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, chicken soup with vegetable gyoza, wheat crackers with the good peanut butter, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Stomach was feeling acidy but hungry. Roving around the kitchen again, realized I had freshly made never-frozen chicken stock in the fridge, so I cut it with 50% water and boiled up some dumplings in the freezer I picked up in Koreatown. Still nippy, B lead me to some wholegrain crackers which I shmeared with a little peanut butter. A light, very satisfying meal.

Dumb Dinner

Edie & I visited the Brooklyn Museum with our friend L. I thought we'd have some time in the morning to fart around but I was depending on Edie as an alarm clock, and she didn't go off until 9:45, so it was a quick jump out the door.

After the museum, we wandered in Prospect Heights for a late lunch, later than I like, I got too hungry and overate a little. It destroyed my appetite for a normal dinner, and on the way home I connected with B, and we spent some time wandered the aisles of the local drug stores (because that's what married people with babies do for fun, dang nabbit!) I almost got a single cheapo freezer case ice cream cone, but the line was too long, and the next drug store only had a 4 pack. -sigh--

Not a good dinner, not a good dinner at all. Dinner shouldn't give you a throbbing headache then send you to the bathroom when you should be soothing your baby. Lesson learned, I hope.

BREAKFAST: 10am, organic cheerios with organic dead milk, apple cider, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3:30pm, variety of small Indian dishes including shrimp curry, chicken tikka, aloo gobi, rice, nan, rikta, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6pm, ice cream cone, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

"DINNER": 8pm, 3 more ice cream cones, hotdog, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

The Good Yogurt vs The Bad Yogurt

One of the things my wife and I do not see eye to eye on is yogurt. We both love Fage, the thick strained tangy Greek-style yogurt, what I call 'the good yogurt'. However, while I get plain ol' Fage, she get's Fage 0%, as in 0% fat. Fage, a cow's milk yogurt, in it's whole state, is not light: a full 2/3 of it's calories comes from fat, mostly saturated (though no trans). It makes sense, as fat IS flavor. While the 0% stuff looks identical, it's kinda like the difference between eating ice cream and eating paste in the shape of ice cream.

But my wife insists that there isn't a big difference, that she loves her yogurt regardless. A few times we had taste tests with various friends and relatives passing through our kitchen in the morning hours (hello Ido! hello Mariko!) and while they were both polite about it, both agreed that the whole unreduced less processed yogurt tasted better.

So this early this evening Edie was in a feeding frenzy, first I fed her some oatmeal-pea-formula mush which she ripped through, then I fed her the remaining peas from the jar, and she showed no sign of slowing. So my wife suggested we feed her some yogurt, as Edie already had some at some point. And then, you guessed it, B pulled out the ZERO PERCENT PASTE!! (the horrah, the horrah)

Bottom line, when man discovered that there were bacteria that could be added to dairy that would not only not spoil it, but preserve it, thicken it and have probiotic health benefits, the first thing they probably thought (after, "Hey! It didn't kill me!") was "This is delicious!", not, "How can this help me slim my figure?" Zero % yogurt is "less than", it is more processed, it is "reduced", it is unbalanced. All that milk protein without it's natural fat to help the body absorb it? Babies should never be given any sort of "diet" food.

So Edie tried her first good yogurt, and she screwed up her face in the most adorable of ways, then opened her mouth and went for more. I served her about a tablespoon, and she would of eaten more, but with such a rich food, moderation is probably not a bad thing at this stage in the game.

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, apple cider, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, 3 slices white shrimp & bacon pizza, Manhattan Special, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK:5:30pm, large green salad, pickle, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, halibut fishsticks, brown rice mushroom pilaf mixed with garlic spinach, graham crackers, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Picked up some battered fishsticks while touring Trader Joe's today. When Is aw them, reminded me of some horrible fishsticks my mom would serve -- processed pressed fish cakes in super thick and greasy coating. These fish sticks were really nice -- the fish seemed to be whole fish, and the batter was relatively thin with a nice touch of tumeric.

No Intervention

After a calm day of a playdate drop in at the community center and some grocery shopping, made myself a quick meal then attended a meeting to establish a food coop on the LES. Had to leave early, as Edie was getting cranky. Spent the evening making chicken stock, and as B slept, Edie woke up a few times crying. I picked her up and soothed her, and 3 minutes later put her back in the crib -- this was the first time I got her back to sleep successfully without the intervention of Betsy. That was pretty satisfying.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, good yogurt with homemade vanilla extract, cashews and honey, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, tortilla chips with a little salsa, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:15pm, slice of streetza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1:45pm, piece of chocolate chip banana bread, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, bone-in pork chop, sauteed spinach, brown rice mushroom pilaf, apple cider, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Some left over rice microwaved, put a thick 2" chop in the pan with a little chicken fat for 20 minutes, took a bag of frozen spinach and put it in another pan with chicken fat, garlic, salt, cayenne and a little water and slowly heated it covered. Once I rested the meat for about 5 minutes, I tucked into another meal that I was surprisingly happy with. The spinach was tasty, the chop was a little less pink than I like but juicy and a nice crust. The rice from yesterday was an excellent nutty-tasting side dish, and I would be very happy if I got this plate at a restaurant for $23. Which makes me think, the food cost on this was probably about half that, and in a restaurant setting 1/4 would more appropriate.

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, vegan oatmeal chocochip cookies, sour cream and onion pop-chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Up late making chicken stock, got hungry.

Corner Baby

Insomnia kept me up until 4, Ediebird got me up at 7:30. Got laundry done, and the plan was to get out of the house after lunch, but felt so run down, had to spend all my strength and concentration on keeping Edie happy and fed and safe. Her backwards crawling has gotten stronger, but when you can only go in reverse, it's inevitable that you're going to back yourself into a corner:



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

LUNCH: 12 noon, large green salad, Stouffers Frenchbread pizzas, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, chocolate covered bacon, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:15pm, curry shrimp over porcini brown rice pilaf, chocolate chip mint ice cream, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
It's nice when a casual meal is successful. Peeled and cleaned some shrimp, let in marinate in curry powder, cayenne and cinnamon. Sauteed onion and garlic in olive oil and butter, through in a pack of chopped dried porcinis, then toasted long grain brown rice. Covered it in a tetrapack of beef stock, brought to a boil and wacked it in the oven for about an hour. No recipe, just following basic method, and it came out really good. The premade stock was really salty, but fortunately the final rice was seasoned in the right spot.