Uneventful

Uneventful day of taking Edie out to parks, bike riding, etc. Went out with old friend K in the evening, checked out the protests down on Wall Street then went to Park Slope for Korean food.


BREAKFAST: 7:30am, iced green tea, homemade granola with organic dead milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 12:15pm, 2 hot dogs, mushroom rice, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5pm, 1 slice streetza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8:30pm, kalbi, kimchi pancake, kimchi dumpling, a little salad, a little chocolate thing, sake, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, peanuts & chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Low key day, B had off for the New Year. I fell asleep in the afternoon and she & Edie went uptown to visit family, never quite got my groove back after that.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Would have been a full bowl, but Edie insisted on eating a lot of my "noisy ice cream". Milk, yogurt, banana, grapes, cherries, mango, blueberries, flax, short pinch of salt. Out of vanilla extract, but got a container of spent beans in 180 proof vodka that should be ripe for processing soon.

LUNCH: noon, fried shrimp, mushroom rice, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
As an experiment, deep fried the breaded shrimp in peanut oil instead of baking. Yep, tasted good. Surprise!

PM SNACK: 4pm, chocolate chips & peanuts, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 7:30pm, green salad, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5 

DINNER: 10pm, ramen noodles, 1/2 a beer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5 

Done

Good day, got a lot done.


TODAY'S COOKING
Pancakes: Had some left over buttermilk, wanted to use it up before it went bad. Made double sized pancakes to make the cooking a little quicker.


Mushroom Rice: Used up Taytay's fab French porcinis in this texmati brown rice dish, gotta give her a holler.


Apple Honey Cake: Used an eh recipe, halved the sugar, came out weirdly savory. He he he.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced gree tea


BREAKFAST: 9:45am, pancakes, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3pm, 1 slice streetza, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, breaded tilapia, mushroom rice, large green salad, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, peanuts & chocolate chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8:15pm, apple honey cake, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5 

EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, potato chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5 

Bleah

Woke up and kind of just collapsed into myself. B took E to school and I spent the day on the couch and in bed, taking a long nap in the afternoon. Hopefully I'll be back to myself tomorrow.

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, bagel, cream cheese, a little homemade sausage, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, peanuts & chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 4:30pm, leftover pasta in red sauce, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5 

DINNER: 8:30pm, chicken curry & white rice, wonton soup, shrimp toast, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5 

Thinking about sweet

Weight lifting and knish-paperwork in the morning, chores and food shopping in the afternoon, a visit from the HVS in the evening.

TODAY'S COOKING
Granola: The HVS only wanted salad, so I didn't want to make a big feast she may or may not have been in the mood for, but I knew granola would hit the spot for take-away, and B & E nibble on it with yogurt. Cut the sweetener from 1 1/4 cups of brown sugar and maple syrup to just 1/2 cup of maple syrup, still definitely sweet enough. Amazing how commercial granola is essentially candy. Next batch may try just 1/2 cup of brown sugar, or 1/4 only of one or the other. Sweetener as flavorant (all the brown things) rather than just sweetener  (refined flavorless white stuff) is an interesting concept.


AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:30am, brown rice crispies with organic dead milk, 1 cupcake, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:45pm, green salad, pasta with homemade sauce, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5 

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, chocolate chips & peanuts, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5 

SNICKLE SNACK: 6pm, falafel, green salad, a little hummus, half a vegan cupcake, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

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

Short but sweet ride

Tried to wake up early, but fortunately B got me up around 8:30. Got our of the house around 10 and rode about 25 miles through Brooklyn, a nice but short jaunt. Spent the afternoon doing some chores with the family, dinner with the inlaws in the eve.

AM SNACK: 9am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:45am, banana, wholegrain cheerios with organic dead milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

BIKE SNACK: 12:30pm, 20 oz gatorade, 7/8 oz corn chips, 1 3/4 oz chocolate cookies, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3:15pm, slice of streetza, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3:45pm, large pretzel, ginger ale, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 5:45pm, some Ethiopian food, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5 

Hell Ride, courtesy of the MTA

Spent the early morning applying frosting to the cupcakes, then a painfully twisting ride by various modes of public transportation to Greenpoint -- a 20 minute bike ride became a blindingly epic 1 3/4 hour slog by train and shuttlebus with 3 transfers total. Nice brunch with B's friend's, and one with a car drove us home after, a total of about 10 minutes back.

Unfortunately when we got back around 3, I fell asleep on the couch and B fell asleep on Edie's bed with Edie in her arms...meaning a total of 3 hour nap for Edles. When I got up, I ate a small homemade burrito (the last one in the freezer) and took Edie out for a late night swing -- all the way to 7pm!

I picked up a pint of ben & jerries on the way home, and I was tempted to order in, but the double whammy of fast food AND a lot of ice cream struck me less as fun and more like abuse. So I cooked up some frozen spinach, finished the left over pasta and baked up a piece of fish. By the time B gave up trying to get Edie to bed around 9:30, I felt comfortable and satiated. I let Edie wander around her room and sing in the dark while I camped out on her comfy bed until she announced "Sleep game!" and crawled into the crook of my arm and fell asleep, around 10:30. Ahhhhhh.


BREAKFAST: 8:30am, iced green tea, 3 small cupcakes, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: noon, 1.5 bagels with cream cheese and tomato & onion, 1/2 glass prosecco, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 6pm, small burrito, multigrain tortilla chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8pm, breaded tilapia, cooked spinach, pasta, pint of ice cream, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Pushy Knish!

A good day, made it to Bay Ridge while Edie was in school, and did a few chores and baking in the afternoon. Betsy was out with friends in the evening, and I enjoyed getting Edie through dinner, bath and bed around 8:30. As life proceeds, she becomes more and more less like a baby and more like a miniature person...

TODAY'S COOKING
Cupcakes & frosting: Wanted to make cupcakes for a brunch with some of B's friend's tomorrow. Used this and this recipe, neither of which knocked my socks off but were solid traditional recipes. It does make me amazed how people waste money on mixes and canned frosting when it's relatively easy to make from scratch.


AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea
I'm really happy with this batch, just sweet enough, slightly umami mouth feel, very subtle hint of the earthy green tea flavor.

BREAKFAST: 9:45am, waffle, bacon, hot tea, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Out in Bay Ridge visiting old friend P at the Bay View Diner. It's a different world out there.

PM SNACK: 1pm, potato knish, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Edie & I went straight home after school because of the rain. I unpacked her lunch bag and it seemed she ate most of everything except the quartered potato knish that B packed for her. I had a little nibble of the cold knish, and it actually tasted really good, and I finished it -- just the kind of response I'm looking for! Earlier versions didn't have that PUSH to it, this one does. Needs a little pepper to round it, but over all v5.0 is a zillion times better than the beta version...

LUNCH: 1:45pm, green salad, multigrain tortilla chips, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3:15pm, 2 donuts, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Sweet afternoon snack to hopefully cut down in the evening. From the local good place, one chocolate and one "oatmeal", which was gross. It was too healthy and too unhealthy all at once. On one hand, it had toasted rolled oats stuck on by a very sweet glaze, and the actual donut had bits of candied fruit. All in all, like over sweetened industrial oatmeal or granola bar.


DINNER: 6pm, 2 hamburgers, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Got 1/2 lb of chopped meat from the new Heritage Meats stall in the Essex St Market, a mix of chuck and brisket from grass-fed organic blah blah blah animals. Mixed with a little grated onion, Worcestershire, salt and pepper and a shot of siracha, which I regret as I didn't like it that spicy. I also regret picking up a few generic rolls from the local supermarket, bad bread ruins a burger. Still, the meat was definitely just as good as if I ground it at home, it was tasty and firm and fresh.


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, ramen noodles, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Knish 5.0

Betsy stayed home yesterday and slept, and I got Edie fed, bathed and to sleep by 9:30. The Sleep Game involved more getting her toy monkeys to sleep than herself, but it was still a good transition from up and playing to lights off and in bed. Unfortunately, I had some gastric distress and was up until after midnight. It continued this morning and had to have B take Edie to school.

Felt a bit better mid morning, got laundry done, lifted weights, started on knish fillings. L, who gave the knish lecture in the early summer who inspired me, came over for dinner to taste my knishes. Overwhelmingly positive feedback, and she & B got along like a house on fire, but I know they're not perfect yet, but coming along.


TODAY'S COOKING
Knishes: Potato, broc-ched-potato, spinach-potato & mushroom potato.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Hit the spot. Milk, greek yogurt, banana, grapes, blueberries, mango, cherries, vanilla extract, flax. Forgot salt, still pretty good.

LUNCH: 1:15pm, large green salad, falafels, small spinach knish, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5 

DINNER: 5:45pm, 4 halves of 4 different knishes, seltzer, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, peanuts & chocoalte chips, corn chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

The Sleep Game

Last night went much better. Betsy was asleep in our room, she left work early and felt totally blown out, and being she's so pregnant, did not want to push it. By 9pm, after a bath and playtime and a meal and 2 extra mini meals after, Edie just didn't want to go to sleep. So as we were at the kitchen table, I asked her if I could go to sleep. She said, "No!" So I put my head on the table, then she put her head on the table. A light bulb went off, and I said, "OK, now we are going to play the sleep game!" Edie exclaimed, "Sleep game! Sleep game!" I brought her to her room, put down the shades, got under the covers with her and turned off the lights. "Now we pretend we're asleep!! Zzzzzzz!" She imitated me, and within 5 minutes, she was fast asleep in my arms. -sigh-


TODAY'S COOKING
Tomato Sauce: Made a big round to last a while. Sauteed 4 chopped onions in olive oil to soft, added 2 finely grated carrots until cooked, then minced bunch of fresh oregano and fresh basil from the CSA. Added 4 large cans of whole peeled tomatoes right through a food mill, then added 2 full heads of roasted garlic, mashed up by hand. A shot of balsamic, a healthy dash of salt, simmer for about 45 minutes then cool to room temp to pack for the freezer. Gosh, I remember when me & my dad did this, we'd have all 4 burners going with 4 big pots, and we'd make enough to last 6 months. I think the next round I should try to mimic his recipe, which involved tomato paste, Italian sweet peppers, and a jar of cheap spaghetti sauce as a base...it was more like extending the jar of sauce as much as making something from scratch...


Knish filling & dough: For round 5.0, I'm caramelizing 5 lbs of onions in the oven instead of the stovetop, boiling the potatoes and adding extra shortening and a few whole eggs to see how the final comes out.


Green Tea: Just made 2 gallons with high quality stuff, 1/4 cup sugar in each gallon to hide the bitterness of my poor brewing skills. Definitely will be nice to wake up to again.


BREAKFAST: 9am, BLT on rye, homefries, diet coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:45am, homemade brownie


LUNCH: 2:15pm, large green salad, lame Trader Joes frozen pizza, pickle, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7:30pm, capellini pasta with sauce, vanilla ice cream, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Not enough sleep

Edie had a bad night, up hootin' & hollerin' in the middle of the night. B worked on it for a while, but eventually let me take over. I fell asleep in her room in her new bed with her in my arms, it was soooo nice after such drama. However, we woke up late, Edie was an hour late to school. I had to decompress at the local diner before doing some food shopping and picking Edie up from school.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Brownies: the standard recipe, to be given out as samples, compared to Lil' Debbie, tomorrow at school. I learned the hard way last year they really need to be refrigerated overnight, or they crumble when cut...

BREAKFAST: 10am, blueberry pancakes, homefries, bacon, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1:45pm, pork tonkatsu and curry rice, pork dumplings, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK:  4:45pm, bag of peanutbutter cups, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 8pm, peanutbutter & pumpernickel pretzels, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, chicken nuggets, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Done In

Lifted weights while Edie was in class, rode out to Coney in the afternoon. Tried to eat some doughnuts to head off sugar cravings in the evening, but I think a calorie deficit and a lack of salad did me in.


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

LUNCH: 12:30pm, rice noodles & fishball, 2 lotus lea wrap, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 4:15pm, 2 donuts, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
A sweet snack in hopes of delaying dinner and avoiding sweets as the last thing before bed.


DINNER: 6:45pm, falafels & hummus, pickle, some stinky cheese, hot dog, scoop of vanilla ice cream, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4.5


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

Flop

Well, this was not the day I expected to have. Woke up at 4:30am, good weather, felt good. Bike prepped and ready, all indications it was gonna be a swell 100 mile all-day ride on the NYC Century. Eating caffeine at 5am, lots of kerfuffle in the bedrooms, Edie up and crying, Betsy up and blown-out from waking up multiple times during the night. We removed a side from Edie's crib, since she almost escaped it yesterday, but having that side missing had her roll out of the crib a few times and made for a bad night.

Though I really wanted to just get hopped up on beans and ride like crazy at 5:30am, there was no way I could just split on my very pregnant wife and very cranky daughter. So I ditched, B went to bed and I hung out and played with Edie for a few hours until B woke up, then I crashed out, and all of a sudden it was noon. We ended up getting a sitter at the last minute and borrowing a friend's car, and we made it out to Ikea to get a proper twin bed for Edie -- there is no way I want another night like that for any of us.

-sigh- Edie has started school last week. This week she graduates to a big girl bed. Her language has rocketed, she says things every day that I did not specifically recall teaching her, she just absorbs language out of the air. Her latest phrases are "I do not like it!" and "Get out of the shower!" I love her so much, she is so great. And she likes pizza, too.

This bike season sure is a big ol' flop, I haven't ridden this little since my parents passed. I imagine I won't be pushing 100 mile weeks back to back until #2 is in school...for now, I guess I'll have to focus on lifting more, eating less and getting rides in when I can.

AM SNACK: 5am, chocolate covered coffee beans, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


BRUNCH: noon, pancakes & sausage, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 4:30pm, beef huarache, water, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5
The one bright spot of the trip to Ikea is that we got to swing by the ball field vendors for some good South American food.

DINNER: 8pm, slice of cold pizza, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, cheese danish thing, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Sausage Party!

Slept well, but tried to wake up at 6am, as I need to be up by 5 for the NYC Century tomorrow. Got out of bed at 7, worried that I'm still sore from the concentrated, heavier lifting I did on Thursday, particularly the inner back of my thighs from the dead-lift squats.

Had people over for brunch, good time. Had 2 other Edie-aged kids and one micro-baby over. Made me look forward to having another curly head in the house.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Sausage & Pancakes: Went ahead and used 50% more buttermilk in my recipe, liked how it worked. Maybe do 100% more next time. The breakfast sausage sat in the fridge over night, and it made all the difference -- I realized that since c-school, I've always made and cooked sausage in one go -- it's sooo much nicer to let it sit in the ice box over night, the flavors really come together and make something more than the sum of it's parts. I cooked them in small, 1 tablespoon bite-size patties, simply so they'd cook faster, and it's always fun to eat nuggetized food.

Vanilla Ice Cream: Very happy with how this batch came out. Even though I do this recipe over and over again, sometimes it comes out pretty good, but every once in a while, it comes out A++. The custard has

BRUNCH: 10:30am, buttermilk pancakes, sausage patties, apple betsy & vanilla ice cream, 1 mimosa, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Sausage party!

DINNER: 5pm, 2 slices pizza with olives, mushroom and onion, water, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, slice of veg pizza, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Apple Betsy

Edie did not nap yesterday, which would make one think that that would mean she would sleep extra deep and long over night, but she was up for a few hours in the middle of the night and inconsolable. At one point I tried to relieve B, but Edie wasn't having it. Oy. Edie had a nice nap today, so hopefully this evening will be different.


TODAY'S COOKING
Breakfast Sausage: Kinda winged it. 3 lbs of pork butt and a little less than a pound of fat back, ground twice, and mixed with equal parts fresh sage and marjoram, some salt, brown sugar, fresh black pepper. Gonna be the star of tomorrow's sausage party brunch, as two other couples are coming over, one with a 2 yr old boy and a freshly born boy, the other with a 2 yr old boy and a boy about to be born.


Apple Betty: Rather than do the apple crisp recipe I've done a thousand times, went with this one. Used up many many pounds of CSA apples that have been accumulating. Not sure how this is that different than a crisp, except for maybe a bit more butter and orange juice instead of lemon. I suspect B might devour this before we can share it with others, I'll have to rename it Apple Betsy.

Creme Anglais: Whipped up the standard vanilla ice cream custard in the evening while Edie ate dinner because apple pie-like stuff needs good vanilla ice cream. Used 5 vanilla beans this time.

BREAKFAST 1: 8am, brown rice crispies with organic dead mik, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

BREAKFAST 2: 8:45am, rice noodles with fishball, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
I left the building this time when Edie went to school for two hours this morning. I checked out the local diner, but didn't feel like pancakes. Walked to the corner where Canal Street starts where there is always vendors, and I found a line on the pushcart I've gotten rice noodles and lotus wraps for lunch before. Judging from all the Chinese people lining up for this stuff, I guess it must be more of  a breakfast food than a lunch. Makes sense, the rice noodles are gentle on the stomach but filling.

LUNCH: 1:30pm, large green salad, falafel balls and hummus, 1 slice of multgrain toast with funky CSA cheese, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 5pm, chocolate cake donut, green tea donut, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
From Donut Plant down the block. Green Tea is a new flavor, not my favorite. I get what they're going for, but the best green tea is very mild, but also unsweetened -- a donut by definition is sweet, so they should of chosen a stronger version of green tea. It kinda tasted like a plain donut with a slight hint of green tea.

DINNER: 7:45pm, 2 homemade bean burritos, multigrain tortilla chips, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENNG SNACK: 10pm, apple betsy, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Wah!

Sh@tnuts

Conked out before midnight last night, woke to a happy Edie a little after 7. Today Edie did 2 hours of school, and I waited in the hall, feeling nervous while I heard various Edie-sound alikes crying and shouting. As it turns out, Edie did not cry at all, she was very participatory and happy, and the teacher gave me the go-ahead to drop her off and leave for the 2 hour session tomorrow. Good news!


BREAKFAST: 8am, toasted pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1pm, sardine & avocado on whole grain toast, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Haven't had this in too long. So good, so simple, the kind of food a fancy pants chef would make for himself at home.

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, 2 crappy dunkin donuts, 1 chocolate-chocolate chip vegan ice cream cone, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Thought if I had a sugary snack in the afternoon before dinner, maybe I could avoid a sugar snack in the evening and that could help me get to sleep earlier. Regret the dunkin donuts -- each was only a dollar compared to the $3 for my local, but ohmahgawd they had no taste. Horrible. Lula's vegan scoop shop was between the donuts and home, so I got a cone to make up for it. Funny, even though it's vegan and not as full-bodied or boldly flavored than the real stuff, it's still 5x more satisfying than crappy dunkin shitnuts.

DINNER: 7pm, BBQ ribs, pork fried rice, egg roll, wonton soup, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Was going to have salad and falafel, but just had a craving for Chinese.

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, chocolate chips
Hoped to avoid any sweets, but something called me to them. On the positive side, only had a very small handful and it did me fine.

Hazey

Did not sleep well at all, probably due to a 2 hour nap in the middle of the day yesterday. Edie did well at school this morning. In a haze, I got her an Egg McMuffin, of which she ate a good half of it.


TODAY'S COOKING
Falafel: When we got home from Edie getting her flu booster, I fried up a whole lotta falafel. I made the mix yesterday, but was too tired to remember to write it down! It was the c-school recipe, though I went more by feel than by measure. I added a whole lotta whole wheat flour to the mix to get it firm enough, and let it sit overnight. This time I dredged the balls in flour before deep frying them in peanut oil, came out looking a little nicer but not a big difference in texture or taste. These are great meals/snacks to have around in the freezer.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, chocolate covered coffee beans, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


AM SNACK: 11am, the bottom bun of an egg mcmuffin


LUNCH: 1pm, breaded tilapia, heath salad, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, large green salad,  falafels, hummus, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


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


EVENING SNACK: 11pm, nutella and pumpernickel pretzels, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Early Up

Woke up early and attended an hour of preschool with Edie -- eventually she'll be on her own for 4 hours every morning, but this is the break-in process. Didn't eat before I left, and foraged for eats while Edie snacked away. She ended up eating a huge portion of the mac n' cheese, a very kid friendly food.

I think the good iced green tea is going to make a come back, if I am going to be waking at 7:15 every morning from now on.

BRUNCH: 10:45am, slice of cold pizza, kraft mac n' cheese, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, potato knish, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8:30pm, large green salad, multigrain tortilla chips, hot dog, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, peanuts & chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Weighty thoughts

I've noticed my triceps have grown stronger, bigger and harder than any other muscle since starting a more disciplined weight regimen over the winter. I think it's because of forcing myself to to push ups -- I now do 25 to a set (10 was the most I could do when I was 17) -- I suspect because of my large girth, it is like pushing a weight much bigger than for my other lifts. So today was an experiment -- instead of doing 10 reps on each muscle, I did only 5, but with between 10 and 20% more weight. It definitely hurt more, and it was quicker. If I'm appropriately sore tomorrow, this may be the way to go for quicker 2x a week lifts.


BREAKFAST: 10:30am, half a slice of pizza, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Tired, dazed. Left the house at 9am with Edie for the playground without eating anything. We came home to collect the bike to go food shopping, stuffed this down just so I wouldn't be too hungry while shopping.

LUNCH: 2:15pm, fresh onion bagel with cream cheese and home-cured salmon, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5 

PM SNACK: 5:45pm, chocolate cakey bites, a few random cookies, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
At the parent's reception for Edie's preschool.

DINNER 1: 9pm, breaded shrimp, large bowl of health salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, peanuts & chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER 2: 10:30pm, 2 bean burritos, multigrain tortilla chips, water

9/11

Went to a 2 year old's party in the morning, fell asleep on the couch in the early afternoon, B's family came over and we ordered in pizza and watched 9/11 anniversary coverage. I remember being stuck at Newark Airport, calling my parents and having a hard time with jammed phone lines. A lot has changed since then, we're all 10 years older. Crappy eating day.

BRUNCH: 10:30am, bagel with cream cheese, half a chocolate muffin, small piece of birthday cake, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LINNER: 4pm, 3 slices of pizza, brownie, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Mellow

Took Edie out to various playgrounds in the morning while B slept. Had a bunch of friends over in the afternoon for knishes and salmon, was nice. Mellow day over all.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH 1: 1pm, small amount of left over pasta and sauce, nutella with pumpernickel pretzels, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH 2: potato knish, wedge of chocolate cheese knish, 2 slices of home-cured salmon, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7:45pm, large green salad, singapore mei fun, roti canai, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, peanuts & chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Love Life

Left out early to the Prospect Park Zoo to meet up with C and her daughter Autumn. After the zoo and some lying about in the park, we walked over to Prospect Heights to a nice homey restaurant, then to an ice cream shop after. It was a nice day out with my daughter with a life-long friend who also has a baby daughter. I love living in NYC at this time in my life.


BREAKFAST: 8:30am, organic chex with organic dead milk, banana, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2:30pm, BLT, small side salad, diet coke, scoop of chocolate ice cream, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, pasta with sauce and grated parm, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, watermelon, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Pretty pictures

The highlight of the day was picking out the prettiest knishes and try to get some good pictures of them before Edie inevitably busted into frame and pushed her hand through the chocolate-cheese knish.


BREAKFAST: 8:45am, organic chex with organic dead milk, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 12:45pm, breaded shrimp, large green salad, bite of chocolate-cheese knish, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, spaghetti & meatballs, garlic bread, water, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Didn't feel like cooking after the big cooking days, ordered in a cheap meal from a local pizza & stuff place. I should have known better, it was pretty awful, though a large portion. It annoyed me that I can make meatballs soooo much better, garlic bread soooo much better, sauce soooo much better, even cook dry pasta soooo much better. I guess sometimes you just need someone else to cook for you, and Betsy is NOT that person, he he he. At least not right now, with all she's juggling.

Knish 4.0

Woke up late, as Edie was up in the middle of the night in need of milk and comfort. Lifted weights finally, and then went out to an amazing meal with a friend I haven't seen in about a year. Took care of some shopping on the way home, took a conference call on the bus in regards to the class I'm teaching this fall, and when I got home busted out about 40 individual knishes and one sweet knish loaf.


TODAY'S COOKING
Knishes: Three trays of potato, spinach-potato, broccoli-cheddar-potato, kasha-mushroom and cabbage. Rolling out the dough, shaping the knish, baked at 425 for about 30 minutes seems to fit. Upon tasting the broccoli, made me wonder if baking the potato instead of boiling was a good choice -- the potato seemed a bit lumpy, not as smooth as I'd like. Gotta eat more to make an executive decision.

I also made a chocolate cheese loaf. Winged it, based on a brownie recipe. Melted a stick of butter with about a cup of unsweetened chocolate. Turned off heat, cup of sugar, 16 ounce of farmers cheese, scrapings of 3 vanilla beans, pinch of salt, 4 whisked eggs. Tasted, not chocolaty enough, added about a 1/2 cup of dutched coco, definitely amped up the chocolate. Put in a loaf pan lined with the potato dough, covered totally, brushed with a milk and egg wash. Baked at 375 for about 40 minutes. It expanded a little and cracked the top, will have to account for that if I do this recipe again.


Cured Salmon: Put up a side of fish for brunch this Saturday. About 2.5 pound side, in a dish wrapped in plastic, dill, parsley, cilantro, brown sugar, a lot of salt, creme de cassis, all under about 20 lbs of pressure. Will flip in Friday morning.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, prosciutto wrapped cabbage, lobster finger sandwich, shot of tomato broth, assorted rolls with lardo, pork sausage lump with lentils and stewed veg, raw & poached seafood in a spicy tomato water, chocolaty thingy with olive oil gelato, various petite fours, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Went to Del Posto, very very impressed, the most I've been impressed with a restaurant in a long time. I try to avoid being an amateur restaurant critic here, and especially an amateur critic talking about such a known star like Batali, but I gotta say something. The room was beautiful and understated, the main aural component was a live piano player tinkling in the background, the service was attentive but not overbearing. The food was pretty much perfect from the get go. A few nice touches, like lardo (rendered pork fat) along with the butter for the bread was fun. The broth of my entree was achingly perfect -- I sometimes get annoyed with restaurants because I feel I can make the same exact dish for a lot less money at home, or I can do it a lot better, but this broth -- it was the perfect balance of fresh vegetal notes, salt, acid and spice -- any one of those notes would have made this soup taste anywhere from humdrum to just nasty, but this was balanced, perfectly, complex, wonderful. Two other good things -- it was just enough food to feel very satiated but not stuffed, and because it was lunch during the week, all three courses, and all the in between amuse bouches and petite fours, were $29 all in! I really expected it to be closer to double that, and I feel like the combo of food, service and atmosphere justified it. Gottta take my wifey there ASAP.

PM SNACK: 7pm, bite of cabbage knish, small broccoli-cheddar-potato knish, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, small bowl of health salad, potato chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK 11pm, pumpernickel pretzels with nutella, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Potato Memories

While cooking today, I had a strong food memory pounce on me, unexpectedly. As an experiment, instead of boiling peeled potatoes, I baked them whole for 2 and half hours, then split them while hot to let out steam before discarding the skins and sending the flesh through the food mill. The smell of the steam coming out of the over-baked potatoes sent me back....

It was in the kitchen of the house I grew up on Staten Island. My mom was making some sort of chicken or lamb chop, along with mashed potatoes. This evening was a little unusual, because my mom had a friend over from work, it was her assistant or secretary, maybe one and the same. My brother was there, too. For some reason, I told my mom that I wanted baked potatoes, not mashed potatoes. I didn't have some big preference for one or the other, but for some reason I insisted that THAT was what I wanted. She took one of the potatoes she was going to peel, boil and mash, and placed it in the oven. Being that dinner was 2 hours out, this was probably the longest that Mom would ever bake a potato. I remember when we sat down at the table, she was just finishing cooking but my potato was the first thing to come out. I cut it in half and a fragrant poof of potato steam came out of the spud, giving a wonderful scent all over the kitchen. Mom's friend said, "That's the potato yeast", and I could see her staring hungrily at my potato. I started eating it immediately, I think I was 4 or 5 and had no great desire to be polite or classy. I did know that I enjoyed my baked potato more than anyone enjoyed the mashed.

I was not a big pain in the ass when it came to food and special meals, but I guess getting my mom to bend to my will in front of one of her professional friends was some how exciting.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Knishes: Prep for potato, sweet potato, cabbage, kasha, spinach, broccoli cheddar and the dough.  Dough needs to rest upwards of a day. Baked 5lbs of potato, caramelized 5 lbs of chopped onion. Found I didn't have enough potato, so got more potato from today's CSA, peeled and boiled them and used them for the broccoli and spinach fillings. Cooked up a cup of kasha, added the sauteed onion as well as garlicky sauteed mushroom. Sauteed 1/4 of a cabbage with a little vinegar, salt and sugar.

Heath Salad: Used 3/4 of a head to make the standard recipe, definitely need more raw veg in me soon.

BREAKFAST: 9:45am, good granola in organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:45pm, breaded tilapia, 2 ears of boiled corn, can of grape soda, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, large green salad, potato chips, frozen pizza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
I was going to have gnocchi for dinner, but for whatever reason, boiling them from frozen turned them into a homogeneous mush. When I boiled them the day I made them, they retained their shape. Oh well.

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

Mainecentric

The weekend was nice, we were in Portland (Maine) for the wedding of a good friend, and stayed in the home of B's cousin, who was out of town. My eating habits were a bit crappy, as options were limited, but the food at the wedding was spectacular, very-Mainecentric: lobster and corn boiled up together, clam chowder, mussels, cornbread, whoopie pies, too much alcohol.

Today, B was off and we had a nanny looking after Edie, so we took a date day -- a vacation away from our vacation. We walked to Union Square for a movie, stopping in on Odessa off of Washington Square for a late breakfast. I was greatly disappointed to find they did not have ANY Polish food on the menu, just a short crappy diner menu. Cheap, but not good at all. After the movie we walked  a bit then took a cab to Chinatown for massages. By the time the massage was over, I was hungrier in a way like I haven't been in a long time. Maybe the massage and high humidity didn't help, but my legs were were rubbery, my head was feeling light, and I needed something immediately. On the walk east, we passed a gelato stand and I scarfed some. We passed a little cart making tiny little egg cakes, and I scarfed a baggie. B had a big snack after the movie, so we went to one of my favorite holes, C&L Dumpling, and I gorged on rice and dumplings. Still felt beat up, but functional.

Went grocery shopping in the evening, looking forward to getting back on a better eating track. Didn't lift weights, woke up too late.

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, pancakes, bacon, homefries, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LINNER: 4pm, shrimp fried rice, pork chive dumplings, egg cakes, chocolate gelato, sugary apple juice, 2 bowl, hunger 5/5


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


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

Gnocchi & Really Big Babka

A good day of shopping in the morning, cooking with my friend DJ from Cali in the afternoon, a walk to the swings with Edie after, then more friends over in the evening for a nice mid-week dinner.

Tomorrow, the family & I leave for Portland, Maine, to attend the wedding of the friend who actually introduced us. I guess this time is as good as any to pause and relax. To all 2 of my faithful readers, I'll resume writing on Monday, and weigh-in then, too.


TODAY'S COOKING
Gnocchi: Made gnocchi in c-school, but these were better. The thing is being strict about very little moisture in the dough -- baking the potatoes instead of boiling them, and peeling them and chopping them up when they come out of the oven to let out a lot of steam.  From there, some flour, a little egg, minimal mixing then off to rolling tubes, chopping, indenting & rolling with a fork, boiled for less than 2 minutes. Light, fluffy. I had some problems with my home's plumbing which caused the gas to be shut off for a few hours, and the result was the potatoes were a little underbaked, so there was slight lumpy/grittiness to the gnocchi, but not enough to make it bad -- I'd be disappointed in a restaurant, but a good first try for home cooking.

Babka: Have done this recipe many times now, this time we just did two really big babkas, lowered the temp to 325 from the go, and let them bake for about 90 minutes. Came out pretty good.

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


AM SNACK: 11am, brown rice California roll, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


AM SNACK: 11:30am, ritz crackers with freshly ground peanut butter, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 3:30pm, kraft dinner with sauteed veg, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:30pm, moz & heirloom tomatoes with olive oil and balsamic, gnocchi with tomato sauce, sauteed spinach, babka & orange sorbet, 2 glasses of wine, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, small bowl of potato chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Unhappy Meal

Needed a day outside. Did not sleep much, but managed to get out with Edie on the bike (with stroller attached) and pedalled over to the Prospect Park Zoo. Felt nicely sore from yesterday's workout, but not out of control like last week. Spent a solid 2 hours before taking a walk into the neighborhood bordering the east side of the park -- yick. Just fastfood.

So I hit up McD's with Edie. I got myself my usual 2 tiny hamburgers with fries, this time with diet coke because I was sleepy. While in there, Edie looked at me and asked, "Pizza?" because I guess the only time I've ever gone for fast food with Edie has been to indie pizza joints! I got her a "happy meal", something I've never bought before. Food wise, it was 4 chicken mcnuggets, a bag of peeled apple slices, 2 packets of corn syrup dressed up like "caramel dip", and 8oz of 1% milk. Packaging wise, it had a toy "twinkle toes" shoe on a key chain that lit up (brought to us by Sketchers, collect them all), stickers advertising the shoes, and a box that on one side had a McD logo, one side had a "I love apples with caramel!" thingy, one side for girls that was basically an ad for Sketcher's Twinkle Toes shoes, and one side for boys with some sort of Nickelodeon cartoon thing. Ick.

By the time we got back to the park, Edie fell asleep, and I corrected the "happy meal". I ate the nuggets, threw away the caramel stuff and all the packaging, and placed the milk on the ice that came with my soda to keep it cold until Edie woke up. Jeez. I read through all the packaging. Despite the diet coke, I ate about 50% of fat and salt for the day, and 40% of my calories. Edie's food would have been about 20% of all of that....FOR AN ADULT. Damn. 20% for a 180 lb adult is like 120% for a 30 lb Edie!


TODAY'S COOKING:
Kraft Dinner with Sauteed Veg: I guess this is my version of that horrible "Semi-Homemade" show. Caramelized a boat load of onions for a few hours, added sliced mushrooms and a couple of peppers from the CSA. Substituted butter and whole milk for margarine and skim in the kraft dinner, and gave the whole mix a solid grind of black pepper and a shot of siracha hot sauce. Really good, though the peppers gave a weird crunchy texture. Unfortunately too spicy for Edie & B, will cut back on that next time.

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, organic whole grain cheerios with organic dead milk, banana, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: noon, 2 hamburgers, fries, 4 chicken nuggets, diet coke, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 3:30pm, watermelon, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, kraft dinner with veg, handful of baby carrots, large chocolate chip cookie, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5 
Unsurprisingly, this meal prevented me from desiring sweets in the evening.

Oven back on

Our nanny didn't come today because the subways were still wonky this morning, but I had a good day with Edie. Oven fixed in the morning, went to the local diner while the laundry was in the wash. We road around the 'hood and checked out the fallen tries before nap time. Went out again in the afternoon to the playground by South Street Seaport.


TODAY'S COOKING:
Granola: The oven got fixed in the morning, so gave the refrigerated raw granola the sniff test then baked it for 40 minutes at 300, stirring every 10. Came out nice and golden and smelling like it should. Cut up some dried apple into it at the end.

Utilitarian Spinach: Put a bunch of frozen chopped spinach in the pot, a little water, a shake of powdered onion, a shake of salt, a couple of fresh cloves of minced garlic, a drop of olive oil, heat to low, covered and let cook for about 20 minutes. Pretty good for a no-work spinach.

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, BLT on rye, homefries, diet coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2:30pm, breaded shrimp, cooked spinach, huge piece of watermelon, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Bought this breaded shrimp product as an experiment. 2 lbs for about $15. Unlike the usual freezer section breaded shrimp, this shrimp is raw and the baking both cooks the shrimp and crisps the breading. Precooked reheated shrimp is always tough, and while breading my own shrimp before baking is relatively simple, it involves several moving parts. This is all about convenience without sacrificing TOO much quality. Instructions says 400 for 12 minutes, turning once. It was a bit mushy in the coating, gonna try 450 for 10 minutes next time. If it doesn't improve, it might make sense to just use better quality raw shrimp and process it myself. Gotta think of a simple breading style.

DINNER: 6:45pm, hotdog, potato chips, pickle, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

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

EVENING SNACK: midnight, orange sorbet, potato chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Bunker Style.

Slothful. The storm started early, around 4am and by the time I woke around 9:30, it was all over, no rain, just a little wind and clouds. Edie slept through the night. We took a walk in the stroller around the hood to see a few downed trees and happy people out, stretching their legs.

Food-wise, still eating in a bunker-style, all carbs and fat and little else. We indulged in ordering in Chinese in the evening to make things easy and help make things feel celebratory. Mind and body definitely feeling the results of it, the same way I feel when travelling abroad for a while and all I want is some fruit and veg and water and little else. I suspect tomorrow, the ship will start to turn back to a better healthier style, though I suspect I'll be on the heavier side for the upcoming weigh-in.

Regardless, the family is healthy, happy and safe.


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

PM SNACK: noon, potato chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4.5

LUNCH: 1pm, toasted bagel with cream cheese and onion, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7pm, lomein, shrimp toast, grape soda, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, veg dumplings, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Rain, Wind

Did not sleep well, got to bed around 4, woke a little after 10. Good thing both B and her mom are here to cater to Edie's wants and needs. Rain started this morning, growing to a light weight storm in the evening, though the hurricane eye is suppose to blow over us around 8am, which should be exciting. I did not leave the house today, though the three ladies took a walk to the corner CVS to bring me cookies (and B snarfed down a pint of ice cream by her self.) Not a good eating day, in fact this past week has been pretty gruesome -- eating poorly due to sickness and soreness rolled right into the stress of thinking of how potential loss of power and running water will effect my ability to keep my beautifully unaware toddler comfortable and happy.

God, it was great to be a kid, it only started sucking when I wanted control of things for myself.


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


PM SNACK: 12:30pm, chocolate chip cookies, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2:30pm, rustic pasta, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 5:30pm, chocolate chip cookies, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8pm, falafel balls, hummus, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, popcorn, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

There is a storm a-brewin'

Plans got cancelled today, as the whole city is gearing up for Hurricane Irene which should be hitting us tomorrow night. My Sunday Northfork Century has been officially postponed. B's mom, who lives far uptown on her own, came down during the day and will be staying with us until Monday or Tuesday. Instead of doing family stuff, I spent a few hours at the local supermarkets picking up some basic stuff, particularly geared torward's Edie's needs. Everything should be fine. The only real bad thing that might happen is that we'll lose electricity, and if that goes on for a while might make it difficult to restock on things by the time we run out mid-week.

TODAY'S COOKING
Rustic Pasta: Had an excess of onion and plum tomatoes from the CSA, so I sweated the onion cut into half moons in olive oil, minced 4 cloves of garlic and rough chopped tomatoes along with chopped CSA basil. Poured an 8 oz bottle of champagne into it and cooked off the liquid. Added dried thyme and oregano, a bit more salt. Simple, but fragrant and happy-tasting.

BREAKFAST: 9am, brown rice crispies with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3pm, rustic pasta, emergency pie, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, pizza, 1 glass wine, water, orange sorbet, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Better

Still feeling ill, but a bit better. B had a doc appt in the morning, but was able to cover Edie in the afternoon while I glued myself to the couch. Ordered in Chinese for lunch, which also became dinner. Legs still sore, but better -- I guess the Monday work out combined with a bug made recovery very difficult for them.

BREAKFAST: 9am, organic chex with organic dead milk, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


AM SNACK: 10:45am, 5 falafel balls with hummus


LUNCH: 3pm, sesame beef with white rice, shrimp toast, water. 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7pm, sesame beef with white rice, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


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

Sickly

Tried to wake at 8:30 to cover Edie until the babysitter came, but felt destroyed and B hung out. Finally woke up at 12:30, feeling tired, sore all over and cloudy in the head. Never been sick like this. Gastric system seems to be fine, don't have a temp, just worn down for no particular reason. Legs very sore.


BREAKFAST: 12:45pm, brown rice crispies with dead organic milk, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 3:45pm, cashews & chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LINNER: 5:30pm, 1 2/3 slices of streetza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 7pm, watermelon, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Engagement Liver

Last night, I found out my close friend E got engaged to her steady. About a week ago, we had this email exchange:

From: e gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 2:22 PM
Subject: Re: both jewy and waspy
To: Norbert <norbert@gmail.com>

devilved eggs w/ chicken livers http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Toltott-Tojas-Chicken-Liver-Stuffed-Eggs
looks delish!

From: Norbert <norbert@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 3:14 PM
Subject: Re: both jewy and waspy
To: e gmail.com>

U placing an order? :). I'll make em for your engagement party, he he he

Sent from iNorbert

So this afternoon I made them, and brought them over to her house in the evening! Fortunately it just required a saute pan and a food processor because...my oven doesn't work! The burners and broiler works fine, but the oven won't get hot -- probably the element burned out. Have an appointment on Friday, but until then, no baking. I was planning on doing sweet knishes today, hopefully the dough will hold out until then. Additionally, I was about to pop a sheet of granola in the oven when I found it dead. It's sitting raw in the fridge until the oven is back up.

In the evening, started feeling unusually tired and sore in the legs -- usually soreness from a morning work out peaks the next morning when I wake up, but this soreness seemed to be getting worse the following evening...

TODAY'S COOKING:
Orange Vanilla Sorbet: Mixed the ingredients with three more vanilla bean scrapings, ran through the ice cream maker, waiting for it to set. Tasted some of the loose batter, oh my, very vanilla-y.

Chicken Liver Deviled Eggs: I tasted a bit of the mousse for salt, but holy crap do I hate this stuff. Tastes minerally, funky, eggy, yucky!

BREAKFAST: 10am, good yogurt with honey, peanuts and vanilla, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, falafel balls, hummus, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, boxed kraft mac n' cheese, a beer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5 
Starting to really feel tired and off. Despite making salad from CSA veg, needed something fast, easy and filling.


EVENING SNORT: 7:30pm, 1 beer
In Brooklyn with E&T, celebrating their new engagement. Feeling tired.

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, watermelon


EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, chocolate chips and peanuts, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

My hot greasy balls

I don't know if my weight will be up or down this month, but this is for certain -- I now have small, hard muscles underneath my flabby midsection that never existed before. As I was stretching this morning in preparation for one of my new more intense 2-a-week sessions, I felt a few more muscles I never felt before, and again my first thought is, uh oh, is that a hernia? A bit of my intestine poking out? If it was, I would be in intense pain, and not raising the number of sit ups by a full 1/3...

By evening ends, my shoulders and legs were sore and stiff, usually it takes a night's sleep before that kicks in....



TODAY'S COOKING:
Falafel: I've made this twice in c-school, and twice at home. Once in c-school it failed, and both times at home it failed -- all because the batter was too wet and in the deep frying, it became hollowed-out falafel skins. I followed the recipe again, (20oz onion and 12 garlic cloves processed to liquid, bunch of parsley and bunch of cilantro processed to past with cumin, cayenne, turmeric and salt, then 4 cups of chickpeas processed to pebbly, then all mixed together with flour and baking soda.) THIS TIME I used whole wheat flour, and instead of sticking the recommend 4-6 ounces, I just kept adding until the consistency looked nice and firm, probably about 16 ounces of flour in the end. I refrigerated the mix for an hour or so, then scooped into balls and fried in 400 degree peanut oil.

First did 2-ounce scoops, but they were not cooking in the middle, so ended up doing 1/4 of that (which is a tablespoon, as we all know) which cooked to the center while getting nice and mahogany on the outside. They stayed intact, and while a little bit too spicy for my palate, were just right in terms of chickpeaness, aromatics, seasoning and greasiness. Over all, a success. Glad I went heavy on the whole wheat flour. And they're vegan! Did not need any egg to hold them together.


Sorbet Components: Made meringue again, as well as a quart of the basic sorbet syrup, this time with vanilla sugar in each, and in the syrup I added the husks of a bunch of spent vanilla pods that the vanilla sugar was resting with as well as the zest of a full orange as the mixture came from room temp to rolling boil. I figure building as much flavor into the components will make the final product all the more strong when I toss in the freshly squeezed juice (of orange, with a little lemon for snap.)

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, brown rice crispies with organic dead milk, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: noon, 1.5 pieces of tomato and moz focaccia, water, one chocolate street cone, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 4:15pm, nutella & whole wheat pita chips, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:15pm, large green salad, 8 or so falafel balls, one ear of boiled corn, 1 beer, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Haven't had beer in the house for casual drinking in the longest time. It's Rolling Rock, a crappy industrial brew, but I drank it a lot in college and it has a very light, sweet taste that is enjoyable with heavy food. Really made the meal special.

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, watermelon

A Favorite Underrepresented Food

Baby party in Prospect Heights in the morning, a nice bike ride with Edie there and back. Stayed local with Edie in the parks around the building while B slept the afternoon away.

Ordered in some Malaysian food in the evening as a special treat -- their version of Singapore Mei Fun has little bits of sweet Chinese sausage, which is definitely one of my favorite underrepresented foods. I remember making it in c-school: it's dry sausage that is sweeter than most, but the sweetness is balanced with soy and other dark, rich flavors. Hmmmm, maybe I should attempt to make some, though I don't know if B would be down with me hanging sausage links around the house, waiting for them to get nice and hard. It's not a smell-free process...

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, organic whole grain chex with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


BRUNCH: 10:30am, whole wheat bagel with cream cheese, salmon & trout, small chocolate coconut milk, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1:30pm, bean burrito, large green salad, pita chips with nutella, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 5:30pm, half a kasha knish, a little lime sorbet, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7:30pm, singapore mei fun, roti canai, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


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

Laid Back on a Bike

A bunch of friends, some with babies, rode bikes with me up the summerstreets event in the morning, and we picnicked in the playground near the 72nd St. entrance of Central Parks, as the heavy rains yesterday left the grass soaking. Edie babbled through her nap, but I fell fast asleep for a few hours after snarfing some nutella. Edie & I got on the bike again in the afternoon to Prospect Park to hang out with E&T, and a dog named Oreo. By the time we got home I was quite ravenous and made myself an over-sized bowl of pasta. Got to bed around 10. A good laid-back day on a bike with my daughter.

BREAKFAST: 7:15am, brown rice crispies with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


BRUNCH: 9:15am, a couple mini knishes, half a ham & cheese sandwich, a donut & a half, a breakfast sausage, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2pm, whole grain pita chips with nutella, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:30pm, pasta with homemade sauce and freshly sauteed shrimp, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Knish 3.0: Kasha, Broccoli Cheddar

B claims that our favorite brand of Greek yogurt's fat-free version is just as tasty, if not more so, than their full fat version.This flies in the face of human biology, as our bodies are programmed to seek out certain things, sugar, salt and above all fat. It's why these things make food taste good. Remove one, two or three of them, and things just don't taste right. I suspect B's sense of femininity and body image has something to do with fooling herself into this yogurt deception, but what do I know.

I bring this up because I noticed I used plain AP white flour in my knish dough today. Otherwise, I've been eating almost exclusively whole grain breads, whether made at home, at the falafel joint yesterday, the brown rice in my rice n' beans and rice n' lentils, the pita chips I buy for my family, the pretzels, and on and on. I think I became conscious of whole-grain products years ago as a health measure, but I do believe I like the taste of (most) whole grain products more than their refined grain counterparts (one glaring exception -- any grain product from the sweet side of life, from cookies to pancakes, are kinda ick. An exception to that exception - graham crackers) Am I Betsying myself into thinking this actually tastes better? I don't think so. Whole grain is WHOLE, it's not removing fat or sugar or salt, it simply is not removing the bran (fiber) of the bigger grain. This actually does bring some flavor, a certain nuttiness in some grains, a rich leafy undertone in others.

I gotta make another stab at graham crackers, replace the molasses with more brown sugar...

On a side note, not as sore as I hoped from yesterday's upper body weight lifting. Think next week to go from 3 to two times a week full body, with more reps across the board.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Knishes: As I went along, I kept thinking about how to do this x10. That's a lot of potatoes to peel and chop and boil, that's a lot of onions to cry over while dicing and slowly caramelizing. Made double batch of dough, used half of it, the other half for some sort of sweet knishes later in the week. Cranked the oven to 425 this time (recipe calls for 375) and checked occasionally -- 28 minutes gave some nice browning to the tops. I think I may even go hotter next time. Potato knishes came out good, I'm happy with the potato-onion balance, and dough has a nice thinness to it. Needed a little more salt and a healthy dose of freshly ground black pepper would help, too. The kasha was good, cooked with water, a little butter and salt, a little pepper, and sauteed fresh mushrooms with a little garlic. Needed a little more salt. After it cooked, I mixed in two eggs, which helped firm up the mix in the final knish -- it had a little bit of firmness when bitten, instead of just crumbling. I also made a handful of broc-cheddar knishes. A cup of broccoli quick-steamed, chopped, and mixed with equal amounts potato mixture and shredded mild cheddar (left over from burrito making.) They came out rather attractive, and the cheese gave a nice saltiness to it.

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, toasted pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese, onion and tomato, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, breaded tilapia, 2 bean burritos, pickle, large green salad, watermelon, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5 

DINNER 1: 5:30pm, broccoli cheddar knish, kasha knish, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5 
Broc-ched knish better than expected. It is very American, and has a sheen of health to it, I think this could be popular.



DINNER 2: 7:15pm, hot dog, a little lime sorbet, peanuts & chocolate chips, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, watermelon, whole wheat pita chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Testicles

Had dinner with friends at M. Wells this evening, a fine-dining diner in LIC that's been getting a lot of press, first for their menu, now because they lost their lease after 1 year and must close. The food was good, if a little precious (the duck testicles in the casoulet were barely distinguishable from the white beans) and I really did not enjoy the shabby railroad-style diner while paying fancy-pants prices. But it was nice to get out.

Lifted weights on the upper body today -- did 25 push-ups, a new personal lifetime record. However, I tried to double the reps and found because I wasn't pausing my normal half to full second between actions, 10 reps felt a lot harder, he he. Instead of increasing weight on on some of this weight-lifting, going to focus on uninterupted motion and increasing reps.


TODAY'S COOKING
Burritos: Had a big container of black beans and brown rice I cooked a while ago. Bought a 24 whole wheat tortillas, shredded 3/4 of a pound of mild cheddar, and made a simple guac in the food processor (2 onions to liquidy, then two heads of cilantro, juice of two limes, a little salt, a little olive oil and the flesh of 5 avocados, all pulsed until relatively smooth -- came out more like an avocado mousse than what I was hoping for, oh well). Upon eating them, I found the soft smoothness of the cheese and guac, agains the overly-soft beans and rice (I think I didn't cook it down far enough) made for a very soft burrito lacking texture. I suspect Edie & B will dig them, though.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla and peanuts, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 12:30pm, large green salad, 2 bean burritos, watermelon, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, falafel sandwich on whole wheat, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8pm, duck-testicle casoulet, escargot & marrow, cesar salad, rib-eye steak, mackerel with spatzle and ratatouille, banana cream pie, angel food cake with whipped cream and blueberries, maple pie, ice cream, 1 beer, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Staten Island Ur-Ride

Took a loop around Staten Island on the bike. Changed up the route a little, so the last leg was my "ur-ride" -- the first long ride I ever took. When I was 9 or 10, I got on my blue Ross no-speed and rode to the SI Mall for a McDonalds chocolate shake, then home -- as it turns out, that's 14 miles round trip for my little self!

Did a little food shop at Wholefoods after, picked up a Chinese brick in honor of my parents on the way home. Thought I was gonna do some cooking, but just conked out. Still pleasantly sore from Monday's workout, looking forward to pushing it on the upper parts tomorrow morning.

BREAKFAST: 8am, organic whole grain cheerios with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


BIKE SNACK: 11:30am, Gatorade, coffee cake, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

BIKE LUNCH: 2pm, 6" veggie burger sub, a few corn chips, cherry coke, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:30pm, curry chicken with pork fried rice, egg roll, slice of cheese cake, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, lime sorbet, .5 bowl hunger 4/5

Thinking of more sorbet

Chill Tuesday with the Ediegirl. Playground in the morning, a visit to Y at her new office in the afternoon followed by a nice playdate with a mom friend after. Picked up some nice CSA stuff on the way home, food shopping in the evening.

Pleasantly sore from the lower work out on Monday, nice to be sore again.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Lime Sorbet: Mixed the three components together in the work bowl of the kitchen aid (1.5 quarts of slightly gelatinized simple syrup, 4 oz of cooked stiff meringue, a pint of lime juice), strain out the remaining lumps of meringue and fed into the ice cream maker. Incredibly smooth and supple, very sweet. Basically the best lime Italian ice you'll ever have, gotta do this again with freshly squeeze orange juice and a jigger of vanilla!

AM SNACK: 9am, bite of banana


LUNCH: noon, sardine & avocado on homemade whole wheat bread, a few whole wheat pretzels, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 5:30pm, slice of streetza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8pm, mashed potatoes with sauteed chili vegetables, lime sorbet, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, nutella with whole grain pretzels, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Easing into Monday

Spent part of the day in the movie theater, another part at home cooking up some random things. I think I need to cook some knishes and other savory things ASAP, the fridge is looking bare...

Changed up the weight regimen this morning, did only muscle groups below the chest, and doubled the reps -- the exercises I could complete the reps, I'm going to up the weight, the ones where I can't, the weight will remain for now. Thursday I will do the same for chest/arms/shoulders. Probably take a month to cycle through the whole routine, and will probably up my soreness, but the 1-time-a-week on each group instead of three should ease with recovery.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Lime Sorbet Components: Had all these extra limes that B picked up, so I busted out a c-school recipe. Three components: Pint of freshly squeeze lime juice, 2 ounces of cooked meringue (1 egg white, 2 oz sugar, whipped in a double boiler until very hot then finished in the kitchen aide until doubled in volume), and 5 cups of sorbet basic syrup (quart of water, pound and a half of sugar, 6 oz of corn syrup and 2 oz of gelatin brought to a rolling boil then refrigerated). Once chilled, the three components will be thoroughly mixed then sent through the ice cream maker.

Graham Crackers: Found graham flour in the supermarket randomly, so I indulged myself in the afternoon with this recipe. Came out very very molassesy, but I love the gritty texture-- usually grit is nasty, but something about graham grit that is actually quite nice. Might either adjust molasses down and increase brown sugar, or find a different recipe all together.

BREAKFAST: 8:15am, organic chex with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 12:30pm, good peanut butter on homemade whole wheat multigrain bread, potato chips, 2 pickles, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Probably the healthiest lunch in the entire theater, once again.



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


DINNER: 6:30pm, pasta with sauce, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


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


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

Sunday Rain & Work

Rainy Sunday. B & E went uptown to visit grandma while I hunkered in and popped out a large but hearty presentation for a LS all about her knish life, for a lecture she's giving in a week. It was nice to do that kind of work again, it made 5 hours fly by like it was nothing.

Got out of the house in the late afternoon and picked up some Subway -- yes it's fast food, but at least I didn't have it delivered, he he.

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


LUNCH: 1pm, mashed potato with chili veg, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, peanuts and chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:15pm, foot long veggie burger sub, potato chips, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Definitely Indulgent

Due to B's sore throat and Edie's multiple poos yesterday, our overnight trip to CT was cancelled (along with my plans to ride my bike there today and home tomorrow.) I woke late, then packed Edie on the bike and we road the Summerstreets event to Union Square for a little shopping in the Farmer's Market.

In the afternoon, we three made it to the Hester Street Fair and spent a fair amount of time in a playground. We did some food shopping on the way home for the evening's dinner, and got to bed before 10pm.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Mashed Potato with Chili Veg: Made potatoes with the technique I learned in C-school: Boiled the peeled, cut up spuds until soft, baked them for 5 minutes to make them totally dry, ran through a food mill, a small amount of hot heavy cream, melted butter and salt, folded in minimally and poof, perfect mashed potatoes. Softened onions in peanut oil, added bell pepper and mushrooms, added a few tablespoons of chili powder then half a head of crushed garlic, a bit of salt. It was a nice dinner.


BREAKFAST: 10am, toasted bagel & cream cheese, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:45pm, breaded tilapia, brown rice & lentils, 2 ears boiled corn, large green salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, bite of a Mexican ice pop


DINNER: 6:15pm, sauteed mushroom, peppers and onions in chili sauce, mashed potatoes, cookies, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Bought a box of shmancy cookies to share with B while watching TV, definitely indulgent.

Good morning, bleah day

I was planning to ride this morning, but when I woke up at 6, I just felt like hanging out with Edie more, and Saturday and Sunday had riding plans anyway which would minimize my Edie time. So I fired up my old cast iron waffle iron and was in mid-waffling when Edie woke. I was able to whisk her into the kitchen for fresh waffles whilst Lady B slept away. Once waffling was done, Edie & I spent a nice couple of hours outside around the building, in the garden, in the playground.

Unfortunately, that was the high point of the day. Both Edie and B seemed to be a little ill in the afternoon, plans cancelled. I felt grumpy and did a fry-up for lunch. A lot of sugary snacking in the afternoon, culminating in a lazy order-in in the evening.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Waffles: The c-school recipe, doubled, with three vanilla beans scrapings. The main challenge is working with the 1918 campfire waffle iron, an old caste iron beast that is very temperamental, but fun because you never quite know what your gonna get. I end up eating the burnt ones on the spot, so the 7 or 8 that get to go in the freezer look reasonable.

Corn Tortilla Chips: A pack of corn tortillas cut into 6 wedges each, fried in peanut oil around 400 degrees. I let them go a little too brown, I found that when I took them out of the oil they continue to brown a little - lesson learned. I forgot to tell B, but the only way to make these cost effective is to strain the oil and keep it in the freezer until the next fry-up. Oh well.

BREAKFAST: 7am, 3 waffles, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 12:30pm, corn tortilla chips, health salad, pickle, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 3:45pm, peanuts & chocolate chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 5pm, bites of assorted donuts, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 9pm, roti canai, Malasian style shrimp and stringbeans with white rice, chocolate donut, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Streetza for Dinner

Had a hard time falling asleep last night, life on my mind. Got through it with just a snack of watermelon, so that's not too bad!

Seriously reconsidering my weight regimen -- may go from three times a week to two times a week, but greatly increase a combination of weight and reps -- maybe even split it so one day is from the abdominals down, one day is from the chest up.

TODAY'S COOKING
Rice & Lentils: An experimental batch, to be adjusted then made later in larger quantities to live off for a week. One cup of long grain brown rice, one half cup of green lentils, simmered in 3 1/2 cups of water, a dash of salt, a drop of olive oil, some freshly chopped up dried porcini's from Tay-Tay's stash, a little dried taragon. Simmered about 40 minutes until the moisture was absorbed. Tasted ok, tenderness right, probably could have used twice the amount of all add-ins.

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, brown rice crispies with organic dead milk

LUNCH: 12:45pm, shrimp, rice & lentils, health salad, pickle, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:15pm, large green salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:15pm, 2 slices streetza, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, chocolate chips & peanuts, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Papa Corn?!

Had a check in with a dermatologist in the morning (all is well), a meeting at the high school about the coming 2 semesters of the culinary class I'll be teaching. Though I served Edie pasta for dinner, which she likes, when she saw my corn, her eyes lit up and basically started pointing and chanted, "Papa corn?!" over and over again until I got up and cut off a third of an ear and put it on her plate. She finished that, maybe another 1/4 of another ear, all her pasta, and almost an entire "ice cream" (smoothie) frozen pop. Ahhhh, I love her so much, she's a good eater.


TODAY'S COOKING
Hamburgers: Got 1/2 pound of organic, 85% lean local beef from WF, wanted to grind my own but the chuck I saw didn't look very fresh. Mixed in one grated onion, a shot of Worcestershire, a small shot of Tabasco and a pinch of salt. According to FDA, you need to bring ground meat to 160, which I did in my caste iron pan with a electronic thermometer. Got a nice seared crust on the the burgers, sauteed in butter. I found it a bit overcooked -- 160 is definitely well done. I really gotta grind it myself, so I can more comfortably eat it at a medium temp.

BREAKFAST: 8:15am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 12:30pm, 1 plain slice, 1 square slice, diet coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


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


DINNER: 5:30pm, 2 hamburgers, 2 ears of corn, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, dark chocolate chips & peanuts, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

 EVENING SNACK: midnight, watermelon, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Sweet attack

Tried to go without sweets, and it just made me feel urgggg and I ran out to the corner shop to pick up some sweets. Part of it was the meal prior -- pasta has a high glycemic index, the other part was since I didn't have anything sweet on hand where I could have had a small amount and cut it with nuts or peanut butter, instead I ate a lot more sweets. I need to keep chips or the like on hand, but keep them hidden from my ravenous wife! Unfortunately, all she has to do is read this blog if she wants to know if there are sweets in the house. Hrumph.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Tomato Sauce: Experimented a little on this batch. While cooking my aromatics -- onion, carrot, thyme, roasted garlic -- I added a tiny can of tomato paste and cooked that, too, before adding the whole canned tomatoes through a mill. Seasoned with salt, a little Tabasco, a little Worcestershire.

When making beef stock in culinary school, some tomato paste would be added and roasted on the bones to add richness. Even my dad would always add tomato paste to his sauce. Here in this sauce, I could taste it....and I don't like it. Yes, it gives a certain richness, a certain umami  edge to the sauce, but it also gives a more cooked, almost canned flavor to the sauce that is counter to the bright freshness that I like about making a homemade sauce -- it should taste like it's proud not be from a jar, not just a better version of a jarred sauce, if that makes any sense.


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


PM SNACK: 12:30pm, large piece of watermelon, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2:30pm, breaded tilapia, health salad, water,  .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:15pm, handful of sunchips 

DINNER: 6pm, pasta with sauce, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, 2 cheap ice cream cones, small pack of chocolate chip cookies, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Kraft Fail n' Cheese

Spent the day in chore-mode, shopping for food, diapers and the like. In the evening, I attended a test run of a knish lecture for a conference in California, it was a small, informal group of friends of the lecturer, writers, food-mavens and the like. For some odd reason she chose to serve pizza, which was all very nice but not a knish!


TODAY'S COOKING
Homemade Kraft Dinner-style Mac n' Cheese: Used this recipe. Came out...disgusting. I did eat a bowl, but trashed the rest -- I'm not a fan of throwing out edible food, but this stuff was just wrong. The main problem was the cheese: I used a low-quality sharp cheddar and it's off-notes were amplified by this recipe. There was too much mustard in it. And when it slightly cooled, the cheese sauce started coagulating at room temp into a very unappetizing paste. Oh well.

BREAKFAST: 8am, brown rice crispies with organic dead milk


AM SNACK: 11am, slice of homemade ww bread with freshly ground peanut butter, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH:1:30pm, mac n' cheese with mushroom & onion, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, watermelon

PM SNACK: 7:45pm, 1 slice of streetza, 1 pint of beer, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 10:30pm, shrimp toast, shrimp fried rice, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

On the couch

Woke up feeling tired, soon discovered I was a little off, and spent most of the day on the couch in and out of consciousness. Thank goodness for B to cover Edie, it would have been a nightmare if I had to rouse myself. Started to feel better by the evening and was able to get to sleep at a normal time.

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


LUNCH: 12:30pm, leftover shrimp vindaloo with rice, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:30pm, breaded tilapia, spinach knish, health salad, sun chips, small amount of chocolate ice cream, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

A compliment to me or an insult to pizza

Took Edie up and down the Summerstreets event. Swung by the Knish Knosh outpost by the 72nd Street boat basin around 10am, and those bastards told me they don't have knishes until 11am! What kind of knish vendor opens at 7am but doesn't serve knishes until 11? They had a lot of bagged chips, bottles and cans, sandwiches, and hot dogs....bleah, I guess they're there to serve the tourist community just as much as they're there to serve the knish.

Ended up with B and some f amily from out of town at H&H bagels before heading back home. Lazy afternoon taking Edie out. B went out with friends in the eve, so I pretended like I was single in my 20s after Edie went to bed and ordered in food and watched TV, he he.

Made Edie an English muffin with cheddar, melted nicely under the oven's broiler. She immediately called it "pizza!", which is either a compliment to me or an insult to pizza...


BREAKFAST: 8am, brown rice crispies with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


BRUNCH: 10:30am, onion bagel with cream cheese, LT&onion, diet sprite, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
I hate how bagel places always put too much cream cheese on the bagel, there must be a balance. I always give a small press, and all the cheese that shoots into the middle hole and around the edges gets collected in a paper napkin. What a waste.

LUNCH: 1:30pm, small amount of pork tenderloin, small potato knish, small spinach knish, health salad, pickle, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

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

PM SNACK: 7pm, roll of Chipsahoy cookies, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8:45pm, shrimp vindaloo with rice, nan, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Jeez, I miss English Indian food -- this stuff ordered from my local Indian is horrible, and for some reason every time I order from them, I'm surprised. The shrimp was overcooked, the vindaloo was overly vinegary and oddly bland.



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

Morning vs Evening cravings

Rode out to Coney Island in the morning, lifted weights right after while still warm in the body. Ate small when my body cooled down and tried to avoid eating until meeting people for veg dim sum, but started feeling a bit light headed and groggy by 3pm, so had a snack.

Again, sweets cravings got the best of me in the evening. Hunger in the evening and sweets cravings seem to go hand in hand -- hunger in the morning isn't so sweets-focused. Hmmm.


BREAKFAST: 7:45am, toasted bagel with cream cheese, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


BIKE SNACK: 10:30am, Gatorade


LUNCH: 12:45pm, large green salad, 1 small potato knish, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 3:15pm, slice of whole wheat bread with hummus, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 4:30PM, assorted vegetarian dim sum, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 7pm, 2 ice cream cones, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


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

Sweets again

Woke up slightly sore from yesterday's morning weights -- I think I may have hit it a little harder because I knew I'd be sitting around all day. Went to a nice surprise party in the early evening with the family, ate a little bit of everything, but was craving sweets when I got home.

TODAY'S COOKING
Mint Ice Cream: I slightly overcooked the custard and had to strain out a little bit of some scrambled eggs. Tasting it this morning, for some reason this batch tasted eggier than usual. The fresh CSA mint tasted really nice, but the eggs seemed to really stand up to the mint and the vanilla for some reason.

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

AM SNACK: 9:30am, a few spoonfuls of mint ice cream

LUNCH: 12:15pm, breaded tilapia, small potato knish, small spinach knish, health salad, pickle, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5 

DINNER: 5:30pm, bacon wrapped olives, stinky cheese on crackers, 1 beer, handful of carrots, cucumber and peppers, handful of nuts, a couple of chicken fingers, a snippet of steak, , .75 bowl, hunger 4/5 


EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, homemade mint ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, large wedge of watermelon

Sweets Will Not Be Ignored

Had a good eating day more or less, despite spending a good portion of the day hiding in a movie theater. I probably had the nicest meal of anyone sneaking food in! Knocked out some cooking when I got home.


TODAY'S COOKING:
Mint Ice Cream Custard: Had a huge bunch of mint from the CSA, simmered it's leaves in a quart of half and half and a cup of sugar for about an hour. Three vanilla beans and a dozen egg yolks thickened it up nice.
Health Salad: Had a head of cabbage from the CSA that had to go somewhere.
Roasted Fingerling Potatoes: CSA potatoes, halved and dressed in olive oil and spices with chunks of CSA garlic and onion. Threw in some random spices, cumin, coriander, chili powder, came out nice.

BREAKFAST: 9am, smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Frozen bananas are a bitch to blend.

LUNCH: noon, sliced roast pork tenderloin, 3 small knishes, 2 pickles, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 2pm, granola, small bite of chocolate, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7pm, large green salad, roasted fingerling potatoes, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, large piece of watermelon, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5 


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, peanuts & chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
I really hoped the watermelon would dampen my sugar cravings, but....it didn't.

Snatch

Good day, food shopping in the morning, out with Edie to Ikea via ferry in the afternoon, cooked a bit during nap time.

TODAY'S COOKING
Papa Salad: A proper chopped salad with red leaf, ice berg, carrot, pepper, cucumber, scallion and onion. Just like my dad used to make.
Pork Tenderloin: Did this recipe again, made a few little adjustments, came out damn near perfect. I gotta make this for people

Multigrain Wholewheat bread: In the bread machine, which hasn't seen the light of day in a while, but it sure is cheap, fresher and lacking in chemical ingredients that I'd get elsewhere.

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, 4 mini pancakes, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1:15pm, pork tenderloin, whole wheat bread, 2 pickles, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 5pm, large green salad, singapore mai fun, chocolate ice cream, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5 
Skipped meatballs at Ikea due to the porky lunch, but I've been kinda craving Chinese since last week's bike ride, so rather than call-in a brick, I picked up a pint on the way home and matched it with something healthy. Unfortunately, B requested ice cream and ended up eating it up after snatching it from her.

Umami Dinner

227.4--->221.0--->221.0

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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


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