Food lately

I've been busy and will be even more busy the next 10 days.  Fortunately food prep is pretty much a breeze these days.   Here are some snapshots I took this week.

This is something I like for breakfast or dessert or a snack:  frozen fruit and home made soy yogurt.  I like how the soy yogurt freezes onto the fruit.  This batch was particularly good because the mangoes and blueberries were quite good (from a very good local produce store):

Here's a more hearty breakfast with buckwheat groats.  I like this a lot.  You can soak the groats overnight or just cook them in the morning.  I usually soak them overnight, then rinse off the gooey water, then heat in the microwave for a minute, then let sit for a bit, and then it's ready to eat.  I add soy yogurt (or not) and frozen or fresh fruit, and when I remember, cinnamon (need to remember that more).

On to lunch.  I made this salad a few days ago.  It's tomatoes, cucumber, kohlrabi, soy yogurt, and dill.  The cucumber was a little bitter but the kohlrabi was good.  It might be too crunchy for some people.  I had part of this for lunch, part for dinner.

You might get the impression that I eat a lot of soy yogurt.  Actually I only use a small amount on most dishes.  I probably average 1/2 jar a day so that's only 2.2 oz of soy milk.  Some days I eat a whole jar, others none (like today).

On the weekend I talked about food prep I did for potato and kohlrabi hash browns and greens (which I'm not thrilled with, see below).  Here it is cooking up with onions.  I browned the onions first, then added water, the potatoes and kohlrabi, then greens on top, and let it cook.  Oh, freezing the greens is great because you just crinkle them and they break into small pieces--no chopping.  Freezing the potatoes and kohlrabi, I'm not so sure.  I have to use a hammer to break off a serving for cooking (and then microwave to thaw).  And the preparation was kind of a mess and involved cleaning the food processor (I don't have an automatic dishwasher so prefer fewer dishes to wash).

Here it is cooked up, with corn on the cob.  oh cool, it's Green Bay Packers colors.  That drink by the way is veggie broth.  Whenever I steam veggies, I make "tea" out of the water.  I don't know what I steamed this day.  Maybe I just used the water from boiling the corn.

Now, I'm not a big fan of the hash browns and greens.  I think mixing greens with things can ruin them.  Next time I will try cooking them separately and see if I like that better--so hash browns get their own spot on the plate.  I like greens by themselves anyway--you can add vinegar if you think they need something. 

Today I finally had mashed potatoes!  This lunch was so good and healthy compared to the usual version (no butter, salt, milk).  I cooked up onion, garlic (just 1/2 clove so as not to overwhelm), potatoes, drained the water (used it for "tea" again, along with corn water), then added some soy milk and whipped them up.  The onion and garlic added a nice flavor, along with some fresh parsley and no-salt seasoning.   It helps to brown the onions so they get a sweet flavor.   I thoroughly enjoyed this comfort meal.  I wish I had eaten it more slowly!  Hey, more Packer colors.  Maybe that's why I like this meal so much.

Okay, now dinners.  I usually have two dinners.  Well, I have 4 meals a day, none of which are very big. I have my first dinner about 5 pm, at work.  Then my second dinner about 8 pm when I get home.  My first dinner has the most calories probably.   Yesterday I had burger collard wraps.  I love these!  I cooked up the burger in my new grill pan, which I also love!  I love how it makes grill marks.  Silly, but fun.  Okay, the toppings for the burger were, from left to right, mustard (no-salt), soy yogurt, 2 grapes and some cherry tomatoes slices (I call that ketchup!), and in the bowl, sliced cucumbers and red onions soaked in d'angou pear vinegar (with dill if available).  This is easy to prepare and enjoyable to eat.  I boil the collards for a bit to soften them up.

That was my 5 pm meal yesterday.  Today it was tofu jambalaya.  And I usually have a lot of raw carrots--we get them fresh from the farmer's market now and about half of them are super sweet.  It's funny when you bite into one, you don't know if it will be normal tasting or candy tasting.  

When I get home at 7:30 pm or so, I just want something light and easy.  Salad fits the bill usually.  Today it was lettuce, tomatoes (from the garden!), mushrooms cooked in the microwave with date syrup and ground flax seeds, a little red and green bell pepper, and a little parsley (leftover from lunch).  It was very enjoyable.

I'm not sure where to begin

My tooth hurts.  I got a temporary crown last week and have not been following doctor's orders to eat soft food.  I eat too many crunchy raw foods and it hurts the tooth and I get food in there and I'm worried it's getting infected. That's not what I was going to talk about but when I wondered where to begin, my face told me it was hurting.  so let's get started:

I've been enjoying home-made soy yogurt!   A group of us from the Fuhrman forums are exploring this and having much fun with it.  I got this yogurt maker.   It's so easy!  you just take a quart of unsweetened soy milk, mix in yogurt starter (this or this or 4 oz of unsweetened Whole Soy yogurt), pour into containers, turn on the machine, wait 8-12 hours, put the lids on and refrigerate.  It makes creamy tart yogurt, way better than store-bought.  I've been having it over strawberries and lettuce/spinach/kale for breakfast.  It is also great with frozen (or fresh, when in season) sweet cherries for a dessert.  It would probably be great in salad dressings and dips too.  I've never been a big fan of the silken tofu for this purpose because it is so flavorless.  But the soy yogurt adds a great flavor and creamy texture to foods. 

I've been reading up on sugar and refined grains.  I guess it's bad for you.  You probably knew that.  bummer.  But isn't it weird how everyone eats it all the time?  no, because it's addictive.  we're all addicted even after we give it up (I am anyway).  No wonder it's so hard to quit it.  here's a few articles about it:

http://www.peertrainer.com/cleanse/there_is_no_such_thing_as_healthy_sugar.aspx

http://www.peertrainer.com/health/complete-guide-to-sweeteners.aspx

http://drhyman.com/blog/2012/04/03/diet-drinks-helpful-or-harmful-to-kick-the-sugar-habit/ (check out the 60 minutes segment linked from there)

http://drhyman.com/blog/2011/02/04/stopping-addiction-to-sugar-willpower-or-genetics/

I came across this health program run by a evangelical church that looks really good in my opinion.  It's called the Daniel plan. It cracks me up that one of the organizers is Dr. Daniel Amen.  I laugh every time I see his name.  Anyway they seem to cover all the bases, not just what to eat but the psycho/social issues.  It looks like a very supportive environment from which to learn from.  I think you could follow Dr. Fuhrman's eating program without conflicting much with the recommendations here.  There are a lot of good articles on all topics related to healthy lifestyle.  I actually tempted to sign up and find out more about the program, if it's free.  I am not sure how much religion is involved in the program--I'm not a conservative evangelical myself so I don't know how I'd react to it.  But there's only one way to find out, haha.

My interest in sugar led me to read some of Dr. Hyman's work.  A lot of his recommendations conflict with Dr. Fuhrman, and his recommendations for supplements seem overboard and expensive to me.  But there are some things that suit me, maybe even a little better than Dr. Fuhrman.  I plan to stick to Dr. Fuhrman's food recommendations but here are some of Dr. Hyman's recommendations that I may incorporate:

• eat protein with every meal (for me that's beans, greens and soy yogurt).
• limit the sugars and refined grains, including sweet fruits.  (these days I'm mainly eating 1 lb of strawberries a day because they are in season and on special at the store)
• eat smaller meals more frequently (what?!)
• don't eat within 3 hours of bed

The third one directly contradicts Dr. Fuhrman's recommendations.  Here is what I find appealing about it: 1)  I won't get too hungry or too full which physically and psychologically feels better for me;  2) socially, it's easier on me because people are always eating around me and I can snack on healthy things with them; and 3) it keeps the metabolism running higher which aids in weight loss.  Dr. Fuhrman would like you to keep your metabolism low to extend your life.  He wants you to live in the catabolic stage often for lots of cell repair to do its wonders.  I can verify that following Dr. F's recommendations lowered my metabolism because it made me cold all the time.  I think I'd prefer running a little warmer (sacrilege!).   I think I will try this out as an experiment.  Of course, I won't be posting this on the Fuhrman forums, haha.

yummy breakfast and my love of homemade soy yogurt

Strawberries have been on special at my co-op for almost a month now and they are fabulous.  Thank you Driscoll farms!  They grow very sweet strawberries.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been making home-made soy yogurt and I just love it.  It fully satisfies all my creamy food desires.  I find the tart yogurt and sweet fruit mixture to be perfect.  I've been enjoying strawberries and yogurt for breakfast for weeks now.  Today I made it even better with the addition of buckwheat.  

Every day lately my eyes have glanced by the grain drawer in the fridge and I've been thinking I want to incorporate these more into my diet. I'm planning to sprout some grains and make some manna bread but haven't gotten around to it yet.  I've got some things I'd hardly ever eaten like buckwheat and amaranth.  Last night it occurred to me to try adding them to my strawberries and yogurt.  So I soaked 1/4 cup of buckwheat groats overnight.  This morning I rinsed them, added some more water and microwaved them for a minute, then let them cool a little, also added cinnamon to them.  (Ceylon Cinnamon is apparently really good for you so I'm keeping it out on the stove to remind me to add it to things.  I added it to my cooking beans today).  I added the buckwheat to my strawberries and yogurt and it was great!  It added a little crunchy taste.  Plus it added protein and calories for more staying power.  Total protein was 13 g, 3 from the strawberries, 5 from the soy yogurt, and 5 from the buckwheat.  Total calories 330.  Yum!

I never posted a picture of my yogurt maker which I love!  Here it is with two of the 7 jars of finished yogurt.

As an aside, here is a really quick lunch I made last week before going mountain bike riding.  I wanted energy and was in a hurry.  This was beans, banana, and yogurt.  not the most fabulous meal I ever made but it was good enough.  I should have added cinnamon and then it probably would have been fabulous.

Soy Yogurt in the Instant Pot

Nowadays whenever I make soy yogurt, I do it in the Instant Pot pressure cooker. It's super easy.  You take a glass bowl, fill it with soy milk, as little or much as you want, add yogurt starter, whisk to mix well, put the bowl in the Instant Pot.  Put on the lid and turn on the yogurt setting.  I up the time to 12 hours.  How long depends on your tastes and your yogurt starter.  I use this for yogurt starter.  Only 1/8 tsp is needed for 1 quart of soy milk.  I use Edensoy unsweetened for the soy milk.  Westsoy also works well, it's just not as thick as Edensoy.  The soy milk should be room temperature--no need to boil it first like you have to do with cow's milk (to sterilize it).  There are other brands of yogurt starter you can use, or you can use store-bought yogurt for starter.  Whatever you choose will affect the flavor of the yogurt, so experiment for yourself to see what you like best.  Some are more sour than others.  I tend to like a less sour taste.

Calories in the 6 week plan

I have had this feeling that Dr. Fuhrman's 6 week plan could be too high in calories for some of us older women so I decided to do a quick analysis of the calories.  Below is a list of items that many people on the Fuhrman forums would say is consistent with the 6 week plan, and my estimates of the calories.  I'll put calories in red:

1 lb raw veggies.  150 (can be 100-200 so I picked the average).
1 lb cooked veggies.  150
1 cup cooked beans.   250
at least 4 fresh fruits.  400.  this is very uncertain.  fruits vary widely and people vary widely in their interpretation of how much counts as 1 serving. this is a danger zone if you ask me.   I used 2 large apples and 2 large oranges for this number.
1 cup cooked starchy veggie or whole grain.  200
1 oz nuts and seed.  180
1 Tbsp ground flaxseed.  50
2 oz avocado  90


total:  1470.

That's more than I want when losing weight.   It's fine for a man or a young woman but not most of us women 50 years and older.   This is why it's not such a horrible idea to count calories just for a few days.  This diet could be tweaked in many ways to get down to 1300 calories:  e.g., by limiting the fruit to1 lb of low-sweet fruit, e.g, strawberries, which are only 150 calories per lb.  Then the total is 1220.

Or, say you have some extra fruit one day, then maybe nix the avocado, or the starchy veg.   I don't think I need an entire oz of nuts and seeds + 1 Tbsp of flaxseed plus 2 oz avocado for my healthy fats every single day, especially since I eat about 5 oz of soy yogurt every day which has a lot of healthy fat.

My point is, for older women, you might have to mix and match the fruit with the starchy veggies and healthy fats--i.e., not eat the full "recommended" amount all in one day.

For jollies, here's what I've been having lately:

3 lb raw veggies.  450  

1/2-1 lb cooked veggies.  100

1 cup cooked beans.   250

1-2 lbs fruit (1 lb if I eat a starchy veg).    150-300. 

1 cup cooked starchy veggie or whole grain (sometimes).  0-200

1/2-1 oz seed (depends on if I eat a starchy veg that day).  75-150

soy yogurt (also good healthy fat source)  50

total:  1400.

I mix and match my fruit and seeds and starchy veggies; that is, I don't eat the max amount of all three.

So say you don't want to count calories.  It seems to me the recommended amounts should be bit lower on the high calorie foods.  Dr. Fuhrman has said you can include your flaxseed in with your 1 oz nuts and seeds, if trying to lose weight.  How about 1 lb fruit maximum, and if you want avocado or soy products (edamame, tofu, soy yogurt are all high in healthy fats) one day, lower your nuts and seeds for that day.  Then you get:

1 lb raw veggies.  150 (can be 100-200 so I picked the average).

1 lb cooked veggies.  150

1 cup cooked beans.   250

1 lb low-sugar fruit.  150.

1 cup cooked starchy veggie or whole grain.  200

1 oz nuts and seed (including 1 Tbsp flaxseed).  180

0 oz avocado  0

total:  1080.

Fortunately this is too low for most people.  Now you can add in some extra things you like, but not all on the same day:   a serving of fruit (maybe even a sweet one), a small amount of avocado, soy yogurt, a date, etc.  My go-to treats are soy yogurt (on my strawberries), and lots of carrots and sugar snap peas. I also love sweet potatoes, and sweet corn in the summer.  

Berry banana yogurt chia pudding

A friend visiting me today mentioned that she would like to give up dairy and sugar someday, and I said I know how hard that is, but I'm making this great fruit mix that tastes like dessert to me, and I gave her some and she agreed.  It reminds me of this dessert we used to have when we were kids with vanilla wafers and pudding and bananas and whipped cream, remember that?   Right now, the berries from California are good, and when the bananas are good too (ripe), I mix together sliced bananas, berries, 1-2 tsp chia seeds (depending on the amount of fruit), and 1 serving of soy yogurt.  I do that in the morning, and then by lunch and dinner, the chia seeds have expanded and gelled with the bananas and that's why it reminds me of pudding.  So that's my dessert for lunch and dinner.   It's also good without the bananas but not as sweet.

And since people also often ask me about how to make soy yogurt, here's a reminder of that.  I use this yogurt maker and this yogurt starter, and a quart of unsweetened soy milk.  I open the soy milk container (keep it at room temperature), pour in a bowl, add 1/8 tsp of the yogurt starter, and stir with a whisker.  Then add the milk to each of the jars, put them in the yogurt maker without their lids, turn on the machine, wait 12 hours, and then it's done. 

Put the lids on and refrigerate.  This is the best non-dairy yogurt I have ever eaten.  It's a good sour cream substitute so good with veggies, in mushroom stroganoff, on tacos and other Mexican-style foods.  It's probably good in potato salad.  And of course it's great with fruit. 

catch up

Wow, so much has happened in the last 3 weeks, I haven't had a chance to post.  I have so much to write about but 1) maybe it's not that interesting after all, and 2) it might be hard to remember it all.   So I'll just give a photo tour of the last month, starting from today and going backwards.

Tonight's dinner was leftovers from yesterday's cookout and whatever veggies I could find in the fridge.  The veggies were surprisingly good:  1/2 onion dry fried, to which I added water, then beet greens, zucchini, and at the end, red bell pepper.  I seasoned with date balsamic vinegar.  Wow, was that good.  It was like a really good stir-fry.  It would have been good over brown rice but I wasn't hungry enough for that because I also had an ear of corn and a collard wrap with 1/2 of a veggie burger in it (more on that in a sec):

Today's lunch was also leftovers from yesterday's cookout.  I made Jeff Novick's "burgers and fries" from his Fast Food 2 DVD.  I love these!  The burgers are a bit bland on their own, but when you top then with "pickles", salsa, mustard, tomatoes, sautéed mushrooms, and soy yogurt, and wrap them in a parboiled collard, they are quite yummy!  plus they have a smoky flavor from grilling.  The fries are outstanding!  I highly recommend JN's way of making oven fries--best I've ever had, and to me better than french fries.  Here's my lunch with the partially eaten corn on the cob.  The home-fries are topped with the salsa and soy yogurt.

The other excitement for today were the first tomatoes from our garden, and they were good!

Here's the spread from yesterday's cookout.  It was so fun!  Oh, the "pickles" I made were simply cut up cucumbers soaked in d'angou pear vinegar and fresh dill (length of time doesn't matter, 0 minutes to 2 days).   I made home-made salsa with canned tomatoes, onion, cilantro, bell pepper, and the secret ingredient:  chopped grapes.  well, the store-bought salsa (and ketchup) often has sugar in it so the grapes are my substitute.  Of course, you'd want peppers too but our guests don't like peppers.

Here's my JN burger collard wrap.  I learned from this that 1/2 burger fits better than a whole.  Today I made 2 collard wraps from one burger and had one at lunch and one at dinner.  This was much more eatable:

Sweet corn season started this week for us when we got back from the golf tournament.   It is picked daily and is part of our lunch most days.  It is fantastic.  On this day, we also had kale, summer squash and onion on one side of the plate, a little potato salad (potato, soy yogurt, dill) and cucumber tomato salad (similar) on the other side of the plate.

Here was another day this week with kale, onion, potato, green beans, and corn:

Now for a couple of pictures from last week's golf tournament (US Women's open in Kohler WI).  The food at the tournament was all inedible for me (hamburgers, hotdogs, ice cream, chips), and you can't bring in food, so I usually biked in the morning, ate lunch, then joined my friends at the tournament for the afternoon.  We stayed with family so I had a kitchen and could prepare my food the night before: baked potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets, kohlrabi, cooked kale and onions and zucchini, and JN burger collard wraps with soy yogurt.  Worked good.  Breakfast was oats, fruit and soy milk.  One day I rode my bike by the farmer's market downtown.  I love the festive atmosphere of farmer's markets, but I often feel left out because the prepared food is all off limits for me:  pastries, cookies, sausages, fried this and that.  So I was momentarily mopey until I saw the roasted sweet corn!

Then I spotted the watermelon!

So I was quite delighted, and got to eat my yummy food and listen to the music with everyone else.

Before the golf tournament was the Farms to Forks weekend immersion!   This was WONDERFUL.  Rip Esselstyn was a great master of ceremonies (and extremely handsome!).

Caldwell Esselstyn explained how to prevent and reverse heart disease:

 

Ann Esselstyn had great advice about food shopping and prep.  She describes Rip's book (Engine 2 diet) as Plant-strong, and Caldwell's book (Reverse Heart Disease) as Plant-perfect.

 Jeff Novick gave outstanding lectures about why we're fat, calorie density, reading labels, and fast food demos.  He's my hero!

Doug Lisle gave us lots of great advice on psychology.  I am in love with him.

Here we are having dinner on the farm:

No midwest outdoor summer event would be complete without a severe thunderstorm:

There's a funny story there with my friend Gail who spent the storm in a lean-to with a donkey and a lamb.

Here's the farm peacock.  (Gail, what was his name again?)

Finally, going back further in time was our emergency trip to Colorado to ferry a family member home.  That was a fun little unexpected adventure.  I cooked up a bunch of starchy veggies to take with me--potatoes, sweet potatoes, jicama, and carrots:

This was supplemented with large salads.  I should have brought oatmeal for breakfast.

Whew, so that was the last month.  I have some more things to post about--maybe tomorrow.

potatoes, veggies and yogurt

Wow, was this ever good and it was easy to make.  You can see I'm playing with yogurt in recipes...this was a great lunch after a good workout.

Ingredients:

• 1 potato (I used yukon gold)
• 1 onion (the sweet vidalias are in season so I used that, otherwise, any kind)
• 1/2-1 lb vegetables  (I had some cabbage to get rid of and I like kale, so for me it was mostly cabbage with some kale).  
• 3-5 oz homemade homemade soy yogurt  or 2-3 oz of WholeSoy plain unsweetened soy yogurt (it's stronger than home-made)
• some fresh dill, cilantro (optional), rosemary or something else you prefer (or have on hand)

Dry fry the onion (heat the pan on medium heat, throw on the onions--they should sizzle--put the lid on to trap the moisture, stir occasionally, let them brown a little, then add water); add the potato and water, cook for 10 minutes while chopping the veggies and herbs.   Add the veggies and rosemary and cook another 10 minutes, until the potatoes and veggies are done.  Add the herbs, let cool some.  Serve, pour the yogurt on top.

Here the nutritional information with 1/2 lb of veggies and 3.4 oz soy yogurt:
Calories 329; protein 13 g (12%), fat 3 g (7%), carbs 69 g (81%).

here's what it looked like before stirring:

macaroni and...creamy orange sauce (or cabbage and creamy orange sauce)

I gotta write this down before I forget!  

This was invented out of ingredients I'm trying to get rid of from my fridge before I go out of town.  There was a butternut squash, a head of cabbage, onion, and a lot of home made soy yogurt.   I also was inspired by the vegan macaroni and cheese posts on the blogosphere, many of which use butternut squash.  They add things like lemon and mustard for tartness and non-dairy milks for liquid, so I figured yogurt would make an excellent substitute (even better in fact).  They also add a lot of salt, so I wasn't expecting mine to taste good without it.  That's why I was so surprised when I tasted it and liked it!  If you add salt, I know it will taste even better but this still tastes good without it.  Also I tend to go light on the spices so you will probably want more.

Ingredients for the sauce:
1 butternut squash
1-1.5 cups soy yogurt (to taste)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp smoked paprika (note the word "smoked", this adds a nice flavor)
1-2 Tbsp nutritional yeast (I was closer to 1, others will want more)
~1 cup veggie broth or water, as needed to thin the sauce

The "noodles":
cook up noodles of your choice
or
cook up cabbage and onions in a pot or pressure cooker

Preparation:
I baked the butternut squash last night, cooled it in the fridge overnight, then cut it in half and scooped out the seeds.  The skin peeled off easily with only a little help from me.  Cut that up  and put it in the blender with the soy yogurt and broth.  I used the liquid from cooking up the cabbage and onions and that tasted good.  Then add the spices and blend some more.   I tasted it and exclaimed "wow" because as I said before, I was expecting to be underwhelmed without the salt.  It was good on noodles, but guess what, it was even better on the cabbage and onions!   The noodles have some nostalgic appeal (reminiscent of macaroni and cheese), but the cabbage and onions have more flavor.

June 11

Day 29 of my "diet."   Here are my food log, weight, exercise, and thoughts.

breakfast, 8 am: 0.1 serving of housemate's smoothie; buckwheat berry breakfast. I had the same breakfast as yesterday except I cooked up a combination of grains that I can eat over the next few days:  forbidden rice, red quinoa, buckwheat and oat groats.   It was festive looking and yummy:

Forbidden rice is neat:  it's velvety black and smallish grains, very pretty.  It has a nice flavor.  I used 1/2 cup of the cooked grains, 8 oz of strawberries, 3 oz of blackberries, a couple spoonfuls of soy yogurt (about 1 oz).  I think I'll start putting flaxseed on this to make sure I get it on a regular basis.  I usually put seeds on my salads too but maybe I won't have a  salad every day.

snack while preparing lunch:  2 carrots, handful of sugar snap peas.

lunch, noon:  big pile of veggies:  fried onions, mushrooms, celery, fennel; added spices (cumin, cinnamon, graram masala, sweet curry), stirred; added cabbage, cauliflower, bok choy; cooked until reasonably tender; turned off the heat, added 1/2 cup beans, fresh herbs (cilantro, dill, a little mint) and the rest of my soy yogurt (about 4 oz).  A little soy or nut milk could replace the soy yogurt.  This was very good.

snack, 4 pm:  the rest of my lunch veggies, half a baked sweet potato

snack, 7 pm:  3 carrots, handful of sugar snap peas, handful of cherries

dinner, 9 pm:  big salad made from romaine lettuce, jicama, fresh herbs (cilantro, dill, mint), ground flaxseed, and d'angou pear vinegar.    some orange remainders.  dessert:  a big bowl of frozen peas and corn with d'angou pear vinegar.  may not sound like dessert but it's really good.

Weight:  126.2

Exercise:  too tired to exercise this morning.   bike commuted 14 miles.

Thoughts/notes:

• I slept poorly last night.  I woke up hungry at 2:30 am.  I suspect it was the lack of seeds yesterday.   
• I'm trying to add a little bit of starchy veggies and grains to my diet, to increase my calorie density and decrease my volume of veggies.  Today I did part 1, but habitually cooked up too many veggies for lunch and made too big a salad for dinner.  So I overate today.   Tomorrow and Wednesday I'll be too busy to do much food prep so that will be a good opportunity to teach myself to scale back on the veggie portions.
• I didn't monitor calories.  I'm tired of doing that.

July 17th food logs

Here's what I ate today.

Breakfast was cooked quinoa, buckwheat and amaranth, with blueberries, mango, cinnamon, and a dash of soy milk.  The cooked cereal was too gooey.  I need to experiment more to see what textures and flavors I like best.  I'm thinking the buckwheat might come out on top when I figure out how I like to cook it.

Here was lunch:

That's a collard wrap with Jeff Novick's kasha burger (yum yum yum), oven fried potatoes with some soy yogurt, and kale, onions, and zucchini.

Here's a close up on the yummy potatoes.  These are baked first, then cut, then broiled until brown.  I added my favorite seasoning, Penzey's mural of flavors, before broiling.    I love these:

Here's assembly of the collard wrap:  boiled the collard, 1/2 burger on top,

Then top with my yummy condiments:  "pickles" (cucumber with d'angou pear vinegar), salsa, soy yogurt, onions (also marinated in d'angou pear vinegar), sautéed mushrooms.  Then roll it up.

Dinner was the same except a baked sweet potato replaced the oven fries.

Snack was a baked beet and kohlrabi.

okay, all was well until I ate too many of the profits from our purchase today.  I bought 10 lbs of blueberries from a local produce store.  They are really good.  I ate some in the car, I ate some in the office, and I ate a whole bunch when I got home and was filling up the freezer bags.

Then while housemate enjoyed some blueberries and ice cream, I enjoyed some blueberries, mangos and soy yogurt.

And if that wasn't enough, I had a second helping, this time with half a banana instead of mango.

So I don't know how many blueberries I had.  I was logging my food in cronometer until the blueberries started pouring into my mouth.   I don't want to know what damage I did.  I am going to bury my head in the sand.   However, I can say that my starches and grains totaled 932 calories, my veggies were 315 calories, and I ate 2.3 lbs of veggies.  My fruit proportion may have dominated the calories (I don't want to know!).    One thing to note is my potatoes are pretty small, and my sweet potatoes are pretty big, so I think I'll cut my sweet potatoes in half for a daily portion.    I might go without the beets too--I think that oxalic acid bothers my throat a bit.   We've been missing sweet corn this week because of being away at lunchtime.  Tomorrow I hope to score some corn and maybe not bother with the sweet potato at all.

Meal plans, a salad dressing, and some thoughts on eating out

1)  I took a second part-time job, which I'm excited about, but I'm going to be busy now and I need to be efficient with my food prep.   Here's my idea for a plan:   Cook a big pot of soup on the weekend and split into 5-7 bowls for the week (at least 5 for the weekdays).   Cook a big pot of greens and onions and mushrooms (I still have lots of kale and collards in the freezer from the garden) and split into 5-7 bowls for the week.  Freeze some of them for the later days of the week.  Make a batch of soy yogurt (1 qt of soy milk conveniently makes 7 servings).  Then each weekday I just have to prepare breakfast, a big salad, and carrots and celery for snacks  It will look something like today's food:

Breakfast was the first organic strawberries of the season from California!  --along with some frozen (thawed in the microwave) blueberries, mango and cherries topped with home-made soy yogurt.  it was excellent!

Morning snack was carrots and celery:

Lunch was my favorite salad right now:  lettuce, a little raw spinach, red bell pepper, frozen corn (thawed), edamame (optional, didn't have any today), and "salsa salad dressing" (at left):

2)  Here's the salad dressing recipe.
Ingredients:
1 can tomatoes
1 Tbsp seeds (my mixture is flax, sesame, chia and hemp hearts)
small amount of raw onion (really small for me, about 1-2 Tbsp chopped)
1/2 garlic clove or less
cilantro (to taste, optional)
1 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp high-quality balsamic vinegar (sweet tasting), or 1 oz lime juice
sprinkle of chipotle powder

Blend part of the tomatoes and juice, onion, seeds, garlic at high speed.  Then add the rest of the tomatoes and cilantro and seasonings and cilantro and just blend for a few seconds to coarsely chop.
Enjoy!

afternoon snack is more carrots and celery (my favorite snack and the carrots are one of the other few local foods available in Wisconsin this time of year).

Dinner is soup over lettuce and spinach, topped with soy yogurt.

I forgot to snap a picture of my bowl of cooked broccoli.  I really love refrigerated cooked broccoli.  That is cooked, then cooled.  It's sweet tasting.

3)  Here are some thoughts about restaurant eating.  It is still a problem for me.  This is because I imagine that people think I'm weird and crazy on the one hand which makes me feel weird and crazy, and on the other hand I don't want to compromise my diet just to please others (thought I will compromise to please myself unfortunately).  I don't want to eat oil and salt, which makes most restaurant food off-limits.  My strategy lately has been to order a salad with no dressing and top it with contraband that I bring into the restaurant.  I had some success last week when an old friend visited.  I enjoyed my salads and was happy.  But afterwards, I wanted to pig out and go off plan, partly because I used to party with this guy, eating, drinking and being merry.  And I did pig out on nuts and go off plan a little bit on chips and hummus.  It's ironic that I behave in the restaurant and then misbehave afterwards.   I had better success yesterday when I was out with some good friends that I don't have a history of partying with.  We were at a Mexican restaurant and I ordered a plate of lettuce and tomato and avocado (which was quite good and nicely plated), and I added some split pea soup (that's just what I would have had anyway).  It was really good.  Now the real success was that I had almost no urges to pig out or go off plan when I got home (maybe just a slight pig-out urge but it was easy to ignore).  Maybe this is because I had earlier apologized to my friends for being so weird about food and they said, you're okay, you're normal, and anyway, what's normal and who wants to be normal in this screwed up society that values consumerism and selfishness etc? And that made me feel better somehow. I'm going to have a lot more social events in the next few month,s as I'm on the search team for a minister at my congregation and we will be wining (maybe) and dining candidates for several weekend-long visits.  My desire not to compromise is bigger than my desire not to be weird, but I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable and I don't want to make myself uncomfortable either.  I like my salad plan and think I can make it work.