Vacation Inspiration

I enjoyed a combination science conference and anniversary celebration trip with my husband last week in the San Diego area.  On our last day, just before we went to the airport, we had lunch at the famous Prado Restaurant in Balboa Park.  I was delighted to be able to get what they call the "Market Salad," teasingly pictured below behind my husband's paella. The salad was a gorgeous creation of plain but beautifully arranged golden and ruby beets, diced tomato, diced avocado, green beans, and fresh-cut sweet corn atop mixed baby greens.



These were dressed very lightly with a dressing that could have been improved--it seemed more straight olive oil than the "cracked coriander vinaigrette" the menu promised.  But it inspired me for my latest batch of nut-based creamy salad dressing.

Creamy Almond-Coriander Dressing

3 oz. lightly toasted almonds
Juice and flesh and a little zest from one lime
1-2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp. coriander, freshly-ground and sifted, if possible
1 slice candied ginger (fresh would be fine, but you might want to add a date for a touch of sweetness)
water to make 24 oz.

Combine all in blender and whirl until smooth and creamy.

Verdict: Very Good.  This is a very mild dressing, and I think it could use more ginger and more coriander, to really bring out that exotic flavor. The great thing is that 1/4 cup dressing is just 1/4 oz. nuts.

Real-Life Survival and Celebration on Vacation

Hubby and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary (today!) last week with a wonderful trip to the Boston area. We had five full days of eating out in one form or another, and I thought I'd cover some things that worked well for me without mentioning too much about getting off-track from nutritarian eating.

In my carry-on I had two clementines, two apples, a sandwich bag of almonds, and a sandwich bag of several types of dried fruit, plus a small bag of green grapes.  When I returned I had one of the apples in the car on the way home from the airport, and the other is still withering in the bag.  We had the citrus the first day, and most of the grapes (discarded the others), and a few pieces of the nuts and dried fruit through the days.  I liked the feeling of knowing I had these things for when other choices weren't good ones.

We found a grocery the first evening and I bought some nice peaches and a box of Hodgson Mill muesli, plus some strawberries, I think, plus a little jar of peanut butter and I think some crackers to put it on (we had such a good time I've forgotten!). I also got sugar snap peas and carrots combined in a little bag, and I kept them on ice. Even without a fridge in our room we had a little coffee maker, and for breakfast three days I added hot water to a little muesli and a cut-up peach and was good to go for many hours. The fourth morning our hotel (Best Western Plus Plymouth) provided breakfast (and I was out of peaches), so I had their lovely untreated melon fruit bowl with a boiled egg and a slice of whole wheat toast.

Don't trust the waitress or the chef. In one family-type Italian restaurant I ordered a veggie-strong chicken dish (and it did have a lot of veggies) but asked that it be prepared with as little additional oil as possible. No go. It was covered with sauce (kind of a garlicky one, but not an Alfredo). On the other hand, at Sam Diego's Plymouth I ordered a vegetarian burrito and asked that they omit the cream cheese inside and the cheese on the outside, and the chef took the clue and also left off the sour cream, giving me extra guacamole, I think. A nice touch!

Fish is often the best choice in a restaurant, if you can get it without added oil or as little as possible for the recipe.  At Legal Sea Foods at Long Wharf in Boston I had a deliciously light luncheon-portion Cajun-spiced pollock with diced mango, pineapple, and jicama, alongside asparagus and some jasmine rice.   Yes, I noticed that Legal Sea Foods had a "vegetarian box," but I was at Long Wharf in Boston on the first day of my anniversary trip! :-)  At The Franklin Cape Ann (which we kind of stumbled into when another great restaurant we'd enjoyed 18 months ago seemed to have disappeared) we shared the amazing Grilled Asparagus Salad and I got the Pan Seared Atlantic Haddock.  Only now as I look at the website do I see that they have a vegetarian menu, too.  If I were visiting again, I might try anything on that menu (though skipping the mozzarella salad).  On the other hand, they have an English pea soup listed there with both crispy bacon and creme fraiche!  So perhaps they don't know what they're talking about when they say "vegetarian."  Probably my favorite find as a nutritarian from the sticks (and an hour from the nearest Whole Foods Market) was the WF directly next door to the Cambridge church we visited on Sunday morning, so I experienced the "Whole Paycheck" phenomenon with a big salad bar container that cost me $15!  I couldn't finish it, but it was delicious and about 95% nutritarian.  That was nice. Now that I've mentioned just about every other place we ate, I have to mention Rang Indian Bistro in Stoneham. Gorgeous, delicious food, including Aloo Tikka Chat for an appetizer, and I think I got the Dal Makhani.

I'm glad I'm not a "drinker."  Hubby and I shared a glass of wine at one dinner and a glass of sparkling wine at another, and we even had a first for us and each had a mixed drink in a hotel lounge one late afternoon. I'm glad to have enjoyed these drinks but also glad to have them be so special and not a routine part of life. I have enough challenges with other calorie options out there!  Weight Maven has a good post on this idea of specialness here.

My eating degenerates over the days of a trip.  I start with the best of intentions and practices, and the availability of amazing fun foods and the celebration mentality kind of get to me.  So I had a wrap (grilled veggies with some cheese) sandwich in the airport on the way home, and a donut from the airport Dunkin Donuts afterwards, then both a Diet Coke (my first of the trip!) and salty packaged snacks on the plane. My last hurrah, I guess.  The scale was up a few pounds the first day home, but I'm thankful that just a week later I'm down a pound from when I left.  I'm especially thankful that because I eat mostly nutritarian I didn't have a lot of detox to go through upon my return to nutritarian eating.

It was fun, but it's good to be home!  Our grocery stores (even in the sticks) are paradises of produce compared to what's "out there" on city streets and in restaurants and airports!

My New Cookbook

Yesterday I had a lovely outing in a community about 25 miles away for supper and book-browsing with a group of lady friends. You see, we live in and on the outskirts of small towns and have to do without Target, Starbucks, interesting and healthy restaurants, and even Super WalMart!  So a trip to the exurb of Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania is quite a tame little adventure for us. And of course the company makes the outing--seven in an assortment of married, single, and widowed, with children ranging from toddlers to one about forty. Thanks, ladies!

We gathered at Aladdin's Eatery and had a wide range of things from hummus and falafel through soup and salads and lamb entrees to some take-home desserts (for those who were too stuffed to eat cake there).  I had V-9 soup, a clear-broth veggie soup in which we identified peas, celery, onion, pepper, yellow squash, tomato, parsley, and I've forgotten what else. I also got the almond salad--a bed of romaine, mostly, with mushrooms and cucumbers and some slivered toasted almonds, with a dressing of buttermilk, sour cream, almond paste, and sauteed almonds I just had to try. I had about half my dressing and brought the rest home to enjoy on something another day. It was very interesting, and creamy was good, but only in small doses for a nutritarian, don't you know!  I had a pita, two, which I wrapped up and brought home for a family member (whoever gets to it first). And since hubby was home alone for the evening, I brought him a little pastry I thought they called a baba, which is a sticky-sweet hard shell of phyllo-like dough around a filling of Turkish pistachios. I had a tiny fragment of this to taste, and it was very nice.

Anyway, when we got to Barnes and Noble, supposedly for coffee, though I skipped it after three mugs of herbal mint tea at Aladdin's, I headed back to the healthy/vegetarian cookbooks section and browsed through a few. I'm not into fake meat things like seitan and too much tofu, so some things didn't appeal at all because of heavy use of these ingredients. Others use a lot of syrups and other sweet things--nope, didn't want that, either. Nor too much of grains. I was not really wowed by the famous Veganomicon, but then I spied a winner: Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites.

I have loved the original Moosewood Cookbook since I think my sister gave it to me a decade or two ago, and, as a friend says, there's nothing bad in it--everything is delicious.

So I browsed through the Low-Fat Favorites book and saw some potential winners, though I was surprised at a fish section.  For Sunday dinner I'm going to make Fish Tagine with Chermoulla (this link is exactly the same recipe except  for the swordfish or halibut in the Internet recipe), white fish baked on top of a bed of carrots and onions, with a sauce of blended cilantro, garlic, ginger, cumin, lemon juice, chile, and tomato, then served on couscous, which I just happened to buy the other day.

Since we have a lot of peppers around, still, I think I'm going to try soon Middle Eastern Tofu-Stuffed Peppers, which include carrot, tomato, tofu, soy sauce, dill, lemon, couscous, and currants. Maybe I'll even skip the tofu. A Mexican stuffed pepper recipe uses corn and black beans. How about Garlicky Black-Eyed Peas 'N' Greens? To use some nice cauliflower in the fridge I might try Lentil Sambar, which includes some exotic spices like coriander (just harvested from our garden) and fenugreek (never used it--might look for a substitute).

I'm looking forward to this!

Nutritarian Nirvana

I'm not into Eastern religions (nor even some of the Western ones!), but this post title just works.

Emily Boller has posted a great glimpse at the food served at a recent Health Getaway with Dr. Fuhrman.

Click here to see the whole thing.  Amazing--makes me want to pull out that book of recipes!

Why Drugs Won't Work in the Long Run

Thanks to Yoni Freedhoff of Weighty Matters (7-24-10), here is a sensible article about the drug approach to weight loss: "Weight Loss and Wonder Drugs: Something is Fishy."   Dr. David Katz says that when we gain weight on the diet and inactivity of our modern life our bodies are not betraying us but doing exactly what they were meant to do--storing up in time of abundance for a time of want.  The problem is that we never really come to that famine time so we just keep adding to our stores. It's a natural survival mechanism of the body, betrayed by our prosperity.

And when we turn to drugs--to raise our metabolism, to block our hunger, to control our insulin--of necessity we have to introduce powerful pharmaceutical changes to counteract the way our bodies are designed by God (or "Nature" or evolution) to function. And those drugs have potentially and have demonstrated repeatedly to cause very serious side effects. An excerpt:

When one considers that the problem we are asking weight control drugs to fix -- a body turning surplus calories into an energy reserve -- is normal human physiology, the conclusion that they may prove to be elusive not just now, but forever, is hard to avoid. . . .

None of this is to deny the important insights that will doubtless derive from the scrupulous pursuit of scientific details relating to weight control. Rather, it is to note we miss the forest- the fundamentals of human metabolism in native context -- for the densely clustered hormonal, neurochemical, and genetic trees- at our evident peril.

In a word, the ease with which many of us gain weight in our culture (I've noted a lot more heavy brides  lately than when I married 24 years ago, and though I was "overweight" at the time I was slimmer than most of the current chubby brides I'm thinking of.) has a lot to do with our individual responses to our culture. Advertising and abundance can suggest that we really do "deserve a break today" and need to "indulge" and luxuriate in the foods that only kings and queens could have had in years gone by--ice cream, for one! But I think our amazing prosperity can be used to benefit our health if we take advantage of the opportunity and learn to really value the rainbow of produce available at even a modest modern grocery store. I'm learning not to look at the prices of the upscale salads in fast food restaurants because I know that a couple of dollars more will get me a really healthy choice. I deserve THAT break today! And that is part of my survival strategy.

Lentils and Leftovers Lunch

I visited a cultured grocery store, McGinnis Sisters, with friends on Saturday, and I got some treats, including red lentils. Today for lunch I wanted to start with those and add things as the inspiration (and inspection of the fridge and pantry) came to me. I post the ingredients first, but I really only added things as I went along.

RED LENTIL LUNCH

1/2 cup chopped canned tomatoes and their juice
1/3 cup dry red lentils
About 2/3 cup water
Tablespoon of dehydrated minced onion
Salt, pepper, and a teaspoon of Garam Masala
Tablespoon or two of raisins
2-3 big leaves of kale, snipped into ribbons with scissors

Put tomatoes, lentils, water, and onion into a small pot and bring to a boil, then a quiet simmer. Add seasonings and stir in raisins to soften. Top the simmering mixture with kale and cover to steam the kale on top. When the kale is done, stir all together and serve with a topping of your choice.

TOPPINGS

I think diced cucumber and mint or a full-fledged raita would be good on this.
Or sauteed zucchini and onion
Or chopped cooked green beans (cold) and walnuts with raspberry vinaigrette
Or any of a number of things
But I cubed up cold leftover potato and baby carrots from a pot roast last week

VERDICT? Very Good. I wanted something healthy and flavorful and filling, and this fit the bill all around. I have enough left that I can have a smaller serving tomorrow, maybe with the raita, or I can treat hubby with it when he comes home for lunch.

Speaking of hubby, he bravely and happily ate my leftover Emerald Tofu from Thai Place Restaurant. I had the vegetarian Tom Yum, Emerald Tofu, and brown rice. Delicious and very healthy!

Simple Substitution

I was tempted to have a Wendy's Frosty today at lunch, and when I got home I made an alternative that was very satisfying on many levels. It is utterly simple.

COCOA-BANANA FROSTY

3 frozen bananas, slightly softened
3 tablespoons or so cocoa powder

Combine in the blender until perfectly smooth, then top with nuts if desired.

Verdict: Excellent. I wasn't sure this would quite do the trick for my craving, but it did, really, and with virtue to boot! This makes two good servings.

Side note--I had the Mandarin Chicken Salad at Wendy's, using less than half the dressing, for a total of about 400 calories--romaine and spring mix greens, mandarin orange pieces, grilled chicken breast, sliced toasted almonds, crunchy noodles for the top (only about 60 calories). Not bad for eating out.

Another Tuesday, Another Restaurant

TODAY'S MENU

Breakfast--Oatmeal with peaches frozen from our garden, cinnamon, nutmeg, and toasted pecans

Lunch--At the Iron Bridge Inn, one of a very few good restaurants in our area, I had a lunch menu item of Asian Stir-Fry vegetables with an orange sauce, minus the rice. I could tell there was oil on it, but the veggies were nice--a mix of green and red peppers, broccoli, mushrooms, and I cannot recall what else--maybe carrots, celery . . . ? I had hoped they'd give me extra vegetables in lieu of the rice but they didn't, so the veggies looked kind of lonesome in that giant platter. Our waitress agreed and brought me the side of the day, brussels sprouts. Not my favorite, but healthy and decently done. I had about four of hubby's amazing fries and a couple of bites of his prime rib panini and a few sips of his Lobster Ale. I love the atmosphere in that place, especially with all the Christmas decorations! Good memories of good times there, too.

Snack--Ounce of roasted peanuts, most of a Harry and David pear, two-plus squares cherry-chili chocolate

Supper--Giant salad of mixed leaf lettuce and dark romaine, tomatoes, red onion, tablespoon ranch with tablespoon or two of lowfat plain yogurt for dressing; bowl of MOTLEY CHILI SOUP

Indian Outing

WHITE BEAN TAPENADE

1/2 cup cooked navy beans
a half dozen assorted olive bar olives and mushrooms, sliced or chopped
salt to taste

Mash beans with sliced olives and spread on your choice of substrate.

Verdict--Very Good. I needed a substantial snack before going out to a restaurant this evening, and I needed some beans for the day, so I enjoyed this on an Arnold's Sandwich Thin (100 calories)

Going with my friends to Tamarind: Flavor of India in Shadyside, Pittsburgh this evening. In checking out the menu I think I may order either Bisibella Bath (rice with vegetables and lentils) or Biryani (basmati rice with special spices, vegetable variety). The former is pretty cheap, so it may be fairly small. I'll inquire and go with the one that has more veggies in it. :-) Dal Fry and Veg Kofta are two other possibilities . . . remember I'm working on nutritarian, which minimizes starches and fats and sugars other than from natural produce.

I'll update this evening or tomorrow, reporting what I had. Any counsel? :-)

TODAY'S MENU

Breakfast--Steel-cut oats with home-dried sugared tart cherries (these are impossible without sweetening!) and toasted almond slices

Lunch--Spaghetti squash topped with RATATOUILLE SAUCE (large serving--I'm hungry!), navel orange

Snack--WHITE BEAN TAPENADE on an Arnold Sandwich Thin

Supper--I chose the Bisibella Bath, which was mostly rice, with lots of lemon grass inedibles to pick out, but the flavor was nice. My friend Marci got the Biryani and I tasted it and was glad for my choice, as hers was too hot for a full meal. I ate a cup-plus of mine and brought home a third to half of it for later, when I can look at it in good light to determine how many lentils are actually IN it. :-) My plate came with one of those crispy things that usually have lentils in them, but this one didn't and tasted really of pork rind. Hmmmm. I tasted a couple of things others had ordered and just plain enjoyed my evening out. Later at Starbucks I had a decaf with half-and-half and two little Walkers shortbreads (179 calories) for a splurge. At home I had a couple of squares of dark chocolate with cherries and chilis and shared with the family (thanks, Marci!). Fun evening out.

On the Road Today

I knew I'd be facing dining out in Grove City again today for lunch, so daughter and I determined to go to McDonalds, where I was pretty sure I could get a decent salad (with darker greens than iceberg lettuce!). I was given the crispy chicken on mine and didn't realize it until I'd eaten my portion (slightly less than half the chicken), so it was more fat than I'd intended for lunch. To prepare for this lunch I made sure to have a substantial breakfast, and I didn't have time until afternoon to get in any fruit!

For supper I wanted a lot of veggies done in an interesting and satisfying way, for one of the few times this week our whole family will sit down to supper together. I had spaghetti squash on hand, already cooked, and wanted to do something with that. One recipe that tempted me is "Spaghetti Squash I," with feta and black olives and tomatoes. But I wanted more veggies than that, and I had zucchini and eggplant on hand, so I did this instead: "SPAGHETTI SQUASH WITH RATATOUILLE SAUCE."

This dish includes no oil but I put in a tablespoon or so of olive oil, and I added some sweet white wine, too, to mellow the expected harshness of the flavors. I also added some frozen dried-tomato (and basil) pesto lurking in the back of my freezer, in lieu of the fresh basil in the recipe.

Verdict: Excellent, and everybody else liked it, too. I have leftovers I know I'll enjoy in the next few days.

TODAY'S MENU

Breakfast--South Beach Multi-grain Wrap (100 calories, 9g fiber?), 1/2 teaspoon butter to sautee one green onion and scramble one medium egg and two whites

Lunch--McDonalds Southwest Chicken Salad with Lowfat Balsamic Vinaigrette (all shared with daughter, so I calculate I had about 275 calories from my portion, including a couple of ounces of the chicken)

Snack--Leftover strawberry smoothie (includes some spinach and flax seed meal) with additional banana added; half to 3/4 ounce roasted edamame

Supper--SPAGHETTI SQUASH WITH RATATOIULLE SAUCE (I had about a cup of squash and one to 1-1/2 cups of the sauce. The family had some of this as a side dish with their braised steaks and leftover mashed potatoes and rice.) ; apple with peanut butter

Diner Blues

Well, at the famous Main Street Diner (no web site) in Grove City today I had very little to choose from. I have had the flavorful chili in the past, but I know it's full of meat, and today's other soup choices were chicken noodle and cream of potato. Nahh. I ordered the baked cod with baked potato and salad with ranch dressing on the side. Other choices might have been applesauce (sugared, no doubt), cottage cheese, chicken noodle soup, fries, that kind of thing. I don't think they know the color green there! However, the cod was good and well-cooked, with almost no seasoning, and I brought home half of it for another time.

TODAY'S MENU

Breakfast--1/2 cup oatmeal (everybody else ate it up!) with 1/4 cup frozen blueberries and 2 tablespoons sliced almonds

Lunch--3 oz. baked cod, 1/2 baked potato with 1/3 oz. cheese, iceberg lettuce salad with token tomato, olive, onion, and pepper slices, 2 tablespoons ranch dressing (a bit of it on the potato), two bites of hubby's hamburger, three french fries, and one bite of garlic bread; apple when I got home, two bites of Toll House pie

Snack--1-1/2 cups MINESTRONE SOUP

Supper--Salad of really nice dark, crisp romaine with red cabbage shreds, matchstick carrots, four or five olive bar olives, tablespoon basil/tomato feta, and low-fat Italian dressing; half a clementine

Challenges of Travel, Progress Report

On my three-day first-time-ever trip to New England, I started very strong and ended kind of weakly, with renewed cravings (see note on potato chips in today's menu!). Here's a rundown of how it went:

Thursday--Smoothie at home for breakfast, Taco Bell "Fresco" chicken burrito, apple and nuts, two bites of hubby's turkey sub at the airport, ounce or so of roasted edamame, then a late-night Mexican salad at a Sonic (chicken, black beans, corn, cucumber, a bit of tomato, light ranch dressing)

Friday--Bowl of mixed fruit and one egg at hotel with one bite of daughter's bran muffin; Gordon College cafeteria excellent salad bar salad of dark greens and healthy veggies on top, including garbanzos, with fat-free balsamic dressing; Gordon College "Vegan Gumbo" with red beans, okra, celery, tomato-type broth; banana; ounce or so of roasted edamame. For dinner an amazing dinner recommended by a local at Passports in Gloucester, MA. I definitely had the fresh popover the waitress put on my bread plate before we ordered, and a couple of sips of hubby's white wine. I ordered the sesame-crusted yellowfin tuna with stir-fried vegetables and a ginger-type sauce. I requested additional veggies in lieu of a potato or rice. I could tell the sauce had some fat in it, but the fish had very little crust on it and the whole of it seemed pretty light. I was really hungry but still took home a good little leftover portion daughter enjoyed the next evening. I enjoyed a couple of bites of hubby's paella, too. :-)

Saturday--Bowl of mixed fruit and one egg with a small bran muffin at hotel; half ounce or so of mixed nuts; mid-afternoon lunch at Gloucester House -- I had the Greek-Style Seafood Scampi with just shrimp (allergic to scallops) and a small piece of cornbread. I ate almost all of this--left behind some of the pasta. It was definitely fatty but also very good. Later as we relaxed in the hotel I had some nuts and an orange. In the late evening hubby got a pint of ice cream for the three of us to share and I had no more than three ounces.

Sunday--Bowl of mixed fruit and 1-2 scrambled eggs, with small bran muffin (bet you can't guess this was at the hotel); after church lunch at Bertucci's, famous for not publishing nutritional information. But their roasted veggies are included in the posted recipes online, so I learned today I got more oil than I thought with those, and I ordered a bowl of minestrone and completely enjoyed the amazing roll on the table, plus I had the lunch salad we'd requested with light burgundy vinaigrette. At the airport I had a bite of a muffin and of a doughnut hubby had purchased for us three to share--I really could have done without those. And at home I had some leftover SATYAMMA'S FAMOUS CAULIFLOWER CURRY and some asparagus I found in the fridge from other daughter's dinner party Friday night.

In the wake of that increasingly non-nutritious eating over those days I have felt "needy" today (Monday) and grasping of treats I know are around, though the potato chips below are the only infraction I can think of right now. I'm trying to max out the good stuff today so I won't be hungry for the not-so-good stuff, and I hope to be back on an even keel by Tuesday.

There are times to enjoy celebratory, vacation-type food, and I think the dinner at Passports was just the thing for that, as was the small serving of ice cream. I'm not as happy about the "bite" here and there of non-optimal stuff, nor with the scampi at Gloucester House.

TODAY'S MENU

Breakfast--Oatmeal with frozen homegrown peaches, nutmeg, slivers of candied ginger, and toasted pecans

Lunch--Salad of romaine and spinach topped with black beans, onion, green pepper, salsa, and a tablespoon of ranch dressing; sweet potato with raisins and a few pecans broken up; unauthorized small handful of sour cream and onion potato chips (they're gone now, for which I'm thankful)

Supper--Yellow squash and onions; chard braised with garlic, olive oil (a tad), and lemon at the end; two ounces of pollack baked with a bit of olive oil and low-cal Italian dressing; orange

Snack (planned now as I'm posting)--Apple with peanut butter

PROGRESS REPORT

Well, after a difficult weekend I'm pleased to report being just one pound up from last week, and I hope that will resolve in a day or two. That's eleven pounds down in six weeks.

Subway Salad

TODAY'S MENU

Breakfast--Smoothie of banana, navel orange, elderberries (search for earlier post), spinach, flax seed meal, and water to blend

Lunch--Subway salad (50 calories) with roast beef (90 calories, according to their menu, but it seemed a bit skimpy for that calorie count) plus fat-free honey-mustard dressing (30+ calories); two bites of hubby's pizza; cup of leftover LENTIL SOUP; 2-inch segment of cherry-almond biscotti from my friend Amy in Maryland and 1-inch sliver of candied ginger from my friend Melissa in Jordan. Is that eclectic or what? :-)

Snack--Apple (Jonathan) and <1 oz. roasted cashews

Supper--Leftover stir fry with two meatballs (50 cal.) and added frozen green beans (no pasta), pear

Hungry Morning

OATMEAL WITH APPLE AND PECANS*

1/3 cup (dry) steel-cut oats (pellet-type grains, not flakes like regular oatmeal, which should cook less time)
1 cup water
1 apple, chopped finely or coarsely
a dozen pecan halves, toasted
dash of salt
sprinkling of cardamom

*This is just today's version--there are many variations, including with regular oats, or quick, if you like those (I don't)

Put oats and water together in a saucepan and bring to a boil, turning down to a simmer, then adding chopped apple according to how "done" you like it. Add salt and cardamom. Toast the pecan halves on a foil-lined tray in the toaster oven, on lightest setting, then stir and toast them again. (Or do it in a dry skillet if you prefer.) Break up the nuts with your fingers as you scatter them across the top of the oatmeal.

Verdict--Excellent. I really wanted this this morning, after a light day yesterday.

SKINNY SPINACH OMELETTE

1/4 onion, chopped
clove garlic
small handful fresh spinach
1 egg and 2 egg whites
Creole seasoning
1/2 teaspoon parmesan cheese

Dry-saute onion and garlic in skillet until slightly browned, then add spinach and cook until wilted. Beat egg and whites with a fork and a teaspoon or two of water, mix in seasoning, and add to skillet. Either scramble eggs or let set into omelette form, sprinkling on parmesan at the end.

TODAY'S MENU

Breakfast--OATMEAL WITH APPLE AND PECANS

Lunch-- Compadres Restaurant--Mexican Salad (lettuce, cucumber, tomato, onion, avocado, and lime, and I added salsa for more "dressing," as well as a couple of bites of Glenn's burrito, mostly beans), a dozen chips or so, and salsa

Early Supper--<1/2 can Progresso Creamy Tomato-Basil Soup with 2/3 cup light red kidney beans, 1/6 giant honeydew melon with half an orange squeezed over it

Later Supper--SKINNY SPINACH OMELETTE, leftover salad from previous day with low-cal Italian dressing (1 tablespoon = 13 calories, 10 from fat)

NUTRITION DATA

From Fitday.com, an analysis of the day comes up with about 1400 calories, 53g fat (9g saturated)--this is more than usual, from the chips and avocado at lunch, 53g protein, 200g carbohydrate (44g fiber).

Another Restaurant

TODAY'S MENU

Breakfast--oatmeal with cinnamon and nutmeg, tiny frozen blueberries, and lightly toasted almond slivers

Lunch--At Jordan's Restaurant in Grove City, I learned that the Filipino Lumpia (spring roll) was fried, so I ordered Jordan's Salad, a platter of mixed greens (mostly iceberg) with shreds of purple cabbage and red onion rounds, a dill pickle spear, and two tomato wedges. I asked for the balsamic vinaigrette (little or no oil that I could discern) and used just a couple of tablespoons, and I asked for the eggs and cheese on the side, putting a few slices of boiled egg white on the salad and leaving the rest of those things, including the garlic bread, for hubby and to take home. He ordered the Greek Pizza--very nice!--and I had the toppings from one small slice and one bite of the crust. The topping was red onion, Greek olives, fresh spinach barely wilted, slivers of sundried tomato, feta, garlic, and oil and was delicious. At home I had a cup of baked beans to finish things off--definitely hungry still before that!

Snack--Big, juicy pear (Kudos to Costco! I've been enjoying these for a week!)

Supper--Leftover CAULIFLOWER CURRY (about 1 cup), leftover SPINACH WHITE BEAN SOUP (about 1-1/2 cups, lots of broth), 3/4 of a pink grapefruit

Adapting at the Restaurant

Today Glenn and I went to a local restaurant, the Elephant and Castle, for lunch. There was absolutely nothing I could order as-is from the printed menu to conform to nutritarian principles, so I asked if I could get the Thai Chicken Salad at a reduced cost for leaving off the chicken. No go, but I could get all the toppings on the side, so I went ahead and ordered it. Here's the description:

Thai Chicken Salad 8.99 [I think it was 7.99 today!]
Grilled chicken with Thai peanut sauce, crisp greens, roasted red
peppers, red onions, water chestnuts, cashews, chow mein noodles
and cilantro garnish. Tossed in our homemade red wine vinaigrette.

It arrived with the chicken breast on top, so I just set it aside and brought it home later with most of the chow mein noodles (I ate a half dozen of those :-) ). They were out of Thai peanut sauce, and the vinaigrette came in a cup and could not have been made with red wine, but it was good anyway. I began by spooning off most of the oil from the cup of vinaigrette, then dressed the salad with that and a lime wedge, and I enjoyed it thoroughly!


TODAY'S MENU

Breakfast--Steel-cut oats cooked with homegrown honeycrisp apples, with raisins and walnuts

Lunch--ELEPHANT AND CASTLE THAI CHICKEN SALAD with variations as above

Rest of Lunch--1/2 cup CROCK POT CHILI mixed with half a can of red kidney beans, topped with chopped peppers and onions; pink grapefruit

Supper--Two small zucchini chopped and simmered in a couple of tablespoons of white wine, then a handful of fresh spinach added to wilt, then about a third of a cup of Ragu, then about a half to 3/4 cup of leftover filling from GARDEN STUFFED VEGETABLES, all heated together a bit. This was almost too much to eat.