May 19
Breakfast: water with lime, black coffee (sometimes I feel like drinking it black now, it's weird), smoothie containing RiceDream horchata, hemp protein powder, a little maple almond butter, plain Greek yogurt, mango, banana, frozen mango chunks, and romaine lettuce.  I left out the prune juice because I am afraid my husband will get fed up with me.  This smoothie was still very sweet, but at least tasted mostly like fruit in a conventional smoothie fashion.  I kind of miss our old, thick-but-not-very-sweet smoothies.

Lunch: ham and swiss sandwich on rye from Starbucks, plus a small bag of potato chips, at the Joyce Kilmer rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike.  I am on my way home to Massachusetts to see my family and attend my friend's book party (see photo at right).  I eat my sandwich outside at a picnic bench, and read.  The whole thing seems far more wholesome than it would have if I'd gotten Burger King and eaten inside with the crowd of other people.  I approve of myself at this time.

Dinner: Ugh, this journey is taking forever: over 4 hours from the Joyce Kilmer, on one side of NYC, to Bridgeport, CT on the other.  In Windsor, CT, only about an hour from my parents' place, I give up and eat a Subway sandwich: a 6-inch "rotisserie chicken" on whole wheat with veggies and mustard.  This was completely bland and flavorless.  I also had a side bag of Cool Ranch Doritos, not flavorless.

Snacks: 3 cups coffee, 1 regular, 2 decaf, with half and half.  2 small chocolate chip sandie-type cookies and 1 weird Kirkland-brand truffle candy, with black tea, at my parents' house after arrival.  I was just planning to have the tea, but my parents requested that I bring out the sweets, and then they were sitting right in front of me.  The candy was sort of gross and at least I won't be tempted to have any more.

May 20
Breakfast: At my mom and stepfather's house.  A leftover chicken thigh from the dinner my parents prepared last night, but which I didn't make it in time to eat; english muffin with butter and blackberry jam; tangelo.  Coffee with half and half.

Lunch: With my dad and his wife, at the Book Mill in Montague.  I had some hot dog or sausage-like item, on a brioche bun with some various homemade condiment-type things, and coleslaw.  The coleslaw looked ordinary, but was not sweet at all.  I didn't realize how much I expect coleslaw to be sweet.  Coffee.  I drank it black because the waitress didn't offer me any cream and, nowadays, I don't seem to mind black coffee.

Dinner: With my (ex-) stepmother, at her house in Conway.  That makes five parents in one day.  We did not eat dinner until 10:30 at night because we were talking so much (as well as snacking: see below).  Dinner was: a sheet pan concoction with chicken thighs, sliced fennel, winter squash and grapes (!), sprinkled with what seemed to be brown sugar mixed with spices, perhaps cumin.  Potatoes boiled with vinegar and then fried with salt.  Salad with lettuce, arugula, and grape tomatoes, and balsamic dressing.  Two glasses of red wine, the second of which was a local red made right here in Hadley, MA.  It was pretty good, but sadly I don't remember the name of it.

Snacks: Decaf coffee with half and half from the Black Sheep in Amherst, on my way from Mom's house to Dad's, when I stopped in town to buy coffee beans, wine, and chocolate for my stepmother.  Several slices of baguette with triple creme cheese, and several bing cherries, at my stepmother's house before dinner.  One square of Ghiradelli mango dark chocolate with the last of my wine before bed.

​May 21
Breakfast: Late in the morning, with my stepmother.  She makes a big fruit salad and cooks scrambled eggs with goat cheese, tomato and basil, toasts some toast.  It's a perfect breakfast.  Coffee with soy creamer-- my favorite Black Sheep blend that I bought.  The coffee is perfect too.

I don't exactly have lunch, but instead nosh at my best friend's book party (see below).

Dinner: After the book party, when most of the guests have gone home, my friend and I drive to Greenfield to pick up lots of gourmet pizzas for her parents, brother, husband, kids and me to eat at the "afterparty."  I have a slice of rosemary potato pizza, a slice with roast meats and pickles, and a slice that just has a big pile of raw arugula on top.  The pickle pizza was the best.  Also a little bit of Greek-ish salad, and a glass of red wine.

Snacks: morning coffee with soy creamer.  A square of mango dark chocolate when getting hungry for a late breakfast.  Party snacks: a couple of crackers with guacamole, a couple of crackers with cheese, a paper cup of lemonade, a piece of amazing strawberry-and-lemon curd cake, plus another mini-slice of the same cake, and one of chocolate cake.   I wish I'd known about these cakes, I would totally have bought my wedding cake from them five years back.  A decaf Americano from the Starbucks in the middle of Amherst, on my way home (to my parents' house) from the afterparty.  For some unknown reason the barista refused to charge me for it, no matter how much I protested.

May 22
Breakfast: I've been told we are having bagels for breakfast, but 8:30 rolls around and no one else is awake yet, let alone ready to drive into town and pick up the fresh bagels.  So I have a nectarine that appears to badly need eating, and an English muffin with butter and fig jam.  The bagels can count as lunch. 

Lunch (though it probably takes place about 10:30): one and a half bagels, with cream cheese and smoked salmon.  Coffee with half and half.  The outing into town, with my stepfather, to pick up the bagels at Bruegger's and smoked salmon at the Big Y, was pleasant.  I made the mistake of asking for a salt bagel for myself, which was so salty I could barely eat it.

Party/Dinner (with my friend's family, same as yesterday): snacks including several crackers with cheese or guacamole, several vegetable sticks with guacamole or hummus, a small glass of lemonade and another small glass of lemonade mixed with sparkling water.  Dinner (at perhaps 4:30 pm?) consisting of hamburger with tomato and onion, potato chips, and fruit salad.  Half a glass of pink-ish sparkling wine after dinner, left over from the book party.  Large piece of chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting after that (to celebrate the birthdays of my friend's husband and son).  I am full.

Snacks: cup of coffee with half and half, and unadorned cup of tea (I'm not sure what kind, as many of my parents' tea bags are unmarked) before finally caving in and eating my English muffin in the morning.  Cup of decaf coffee with half and half at the Black Sheep, picked up on the way from my parents' house to the party.  2 sips of red wine in the evening with my stepfather: the wine is raisin-colored, a little vinegary, and tastes unpleasant.  I ask how long it has been open and my stepfather says not very long, a week or two, and my mom says no, no! It was already open in the cupboard when I got it out!  Nevertheless, they both act impatient, like I am imagining things, when I say the wine has gone off.  It has a price sticker on it: it was $6.99 to begin with.  My stepfather stubbornly drinks his glass of wine and my own.  I switch to an airplane mini-bottle of cognac that has reportedly been in the cupboard 20 years.  The cognac is still good.
 
May 23
Breakfast: coffee with half and half, half a poppyseed bagel with cream cheese and jam, pineapple.  I am feeling overfed and am eating breakfast late, so saving room to eat lunch sooner rather than later.  Everybody here eats very early, it seems.

Lunch: I am assigned to eat a Trader Joe's vegan tikka masala frozen meal that my stepfather wants to get rid of.  It is fine.  It would have better if the chunks of vegetable protein had been chicken, which was apparently also my stepfather's opinion.  I throw a handful of salad greens in the bowl too, so that I will be eating some extra vegetable.

Dinner: at approximately 4:40 pm, my Mom suggests we start getting ready to go out for supper.  "Mom, it's 4:30," I say.  She argues that, by the time we are finished getting ready and drive to the restaurant, it will actually be "more like 5:30" before we eat.  I bargain for 6:00 and she agrees.  We go to the Ginger Garden, my favorite Chinese restaurant in Amherst.  Our server, I must mention, is perfect.  He should train all the servers of the world.  Unfortunately, we order things that I turn out not to like all that much.  A scallion pancake to share-- as soon as it arrives, I realize I've ordered it for takeout before, and found it tough and leathery.  This time, it is at least hot, and therefore a bit better, but I would not get it again.  I also order some thick noodles with pork, which are bland but not bad.  My mom gets a dish with some kind of soft, braised white fish and lots of mushrooms, in a sauce that she likes and declares gingery but I think tastes like nothing at all.  She doesn't care for some of the mushrooms that she thinks are "too tough," so I eat some of those.  My stepfather goes a different direction and orders some very spicy breaded shrimp served on a bed of very spicy minced vegetables.  I find that mixing some of these spicy vegetables into the bland, vaguely sweet pork noodles yields the best results, so I mainly stick with that.  Again: great restaurant, risky ordering.  Uneven results to be expected.  Black tea, fortune cookie.

Snacks: cup of mystery tea with almond milk.  After dinner, we stopped at a new local donut shop called Glazed, an enticing downtown storefront that had been gently calling to me for the entire length of my visit.  When I finally confessed this to my parents, it turned out they felt the same, so we picked up three donuts to eat for dessert at home.  My choice was a chai glazed donut.  It was okay.  It might well have been better first thing in the morning instead of at 8 pm, after having sat around all day.  On the other hand, their case was still quite well stocked at 8 pm-- were they going to throw all those donuts away?  Or just keep on selling them the next day?  How does that work when you are a local joint that charges 2 bucks per donut instead of a cheap mass-producing chain outlet?  I hope they make it, but looking at their prime retail location, expensive-for-what-it-is-but-still-inexpensive product, and minimal clientele (at the time I was there), I am not convinced.
 
May 24
Driving home day.

Breakfast (at parents' house, before leaving): slice of rye toast with butter; a plum; caramel-flavored Liberte yogurt.  Coffee, with half and half.  Apparently, after reading this post about how much I love caramel Liberte yogurt, my mom assigned my stepfather to buy 4 of them for my visit.  I only managed to eat this one.  I do like caramel Liberte, but I don't actually eat that much yogurt.  However, this is one of the weird ways in which parents show their love.  My mom stopped offering me any "bars" because I made fun of her here and she read it.  It's kind of disappointing.  I don't want the bars, but I also don't want her to change. 

Lunch: at a Starbucks in Fort Lee, New Jersey, a heavily Korean enclave just outside of New York City.  In fact, I stopped at this particular strip mall partly because it had one of my beloved H-Marts.  Many of the signs were in Korean, and many of the customers were speaking Korean.  A group of Korean teenagers were playing guitars outside on the sidewalk and singing songs about Jesus to raise money for their "mission."  At the Starbucks, I ate some kind of panini (turkey and avocado, perhaps? I can't remember) and chips, and drank another cup of coffee with half and half, and finished the book I was reading.  Incidentally, I don't think I was meant to be in Fort Lee, NJ at all.  My dad gave me directions for an alternate route to Maryland that he said was more pleasant and bypassed New York City.  I believe the bypassing New York part would have worked better if the directions he'd written down had been accurate, but he mixed up (I think) the Palisades Parkway with the Sawmill Parkway, and the route I took ("I'll just trust Dad," I said to myself, like that has ever been a good idea) ended up being rather unusual.  It was still more pleasant (and, bizarrely, not any more time-consuming) than taking I-95 the whole way, though.  So, in a sense, Dad was right.  And next time I can adjust the route so that all the roads he wrote down (except the Palisades Parkway) actually intersect, and it will be a good route.  Dad has always been more of a fiction guy than a fact guy.

Dinner: leftover vegetarian chili that my husband cooked the night before for himself and kid, warmed up after I arrive home from my trip and he arrives home from work shortly thereafter.  Shredded cheddar cheese on top.  I am very grateful that he made it.  He does not cook much and doesn't have a lot of confidence in his skills, but honestly a) the chili is pretty good, and b) I wouldn't mind whether it were good or not.  There is a value to somebody serving you dinner regardless of quality. 

Snacks: decaf coffee with half and half, and a chocolate croissant, from the Black Sheep on my way out of town in the morning.  I didn't intend to get the chocolate croissant but, at the last minute, I caved.  It was so flaky and messy that I had to sit down and eat it and read for a few minutes, because there was no way I could eat it in the car.  It was delicious, but I didn't really want it.  Random fail.  Or tradition (I pretty much have one croissant at the Black Sheep every time I come home).  Second random fail: when I stopped in the afternoon for a decaf americano at another Starbucks (in a Camden, NJ rest stop), I bought a package of their madeleines, which for some reason I find irresistible.  Tomorrow I will get back to normal, I swear.  Enough with the donuts for dessert.  After I have sworn this, the minute I arrive home my kid gives me a big cookie.  They baked it themselves while I was gone and saved it for me, so how I could I say no?

Oh and this evening after dinner we picked up our first CSA farm box of the year, from this guy's farm.  This is a new farm to us, and it is exciting.  Our box contained lettuce, spinach, oregano, strawberries, various kinds of young onions with scapes, and asparagus.  It is not a ton, but usually these things get a slow start for the first couple of weeks, and I am happy to start earlier and get some real spring vegetables (and fruit!) like these.

​May 15-- oh, boy.  No restrictions.
Breakfast: lemon water, coffee with lowfat lactose-free milk (bleah.  I like black coffee better than coffee with lowfat milk), smoothie made from rice milk, hemp protein powder, plain Greek yogurt, canned coconut milk, juice of one orange, 2 dates, and spinach.  It was thin, sweeter than we've been accustomed to, and tasted like a creamsicle.

Lunch: Brunch at the Parkway Deli, our compromise arrived at after the argument yesterday.  They serve "normal breakfasts," but have a greater variety of options on the menu, including some fruits and vegetables.  (Nick's is pretty much a meat, eggs, homefries, and pancakes kind of place.  I think their vegetables are limited to potatoes, onions, peppers, and perhaps mushrooms.  They do have the best ham and perhaps I will relent and we can go there next time.)  Anyway, I ordered the normal-est breakfast of all: two fried eggs with choice of side and choice of toast.  My side was sliced tomatoes, and my toast was a bagel-and-cream-cheese, so basically I had a bagel with cream cheese and tomato (which I love), with a side of eggs.  That was exactly the right amount of food; it felt kind of indulgent without my having to stuff myself.  My husband, who-- as previously established-- did NOT want a big, greasy meal, had an omelet with Canadian bacon and cheese, some fruit, and his own bagel-and-cream-cheese.  A little greasier than mine, but not excessive.  Unfortunately, more than half his fruit consisted of grapefruit, which he does not like, so I ate that too.  It was some of the finest, sweetest grapefruit I have ever had.  Also, coffee, with half and half!

Dinner: For myself and kid, I made some frozen shrimp shumai that I have had in the freezer for months, waiting for me to be allowed to share them; white rice; and stir-fried broccoli and sweet peppers.  My husband does not eat shrimp, so I made him a pork chop instead of shumai.  Kid had some kind of allergic reaction to something in the dinner (presumably an ingredient in the shumai, which tasted pretty processed and not as good as those you normally get in a restaurant), and had to take some Benadryl.

I also tried to take some pictures of my cat while I was making dinner (she was pestering me about the raw vegetables as she so often does, and then doing her cat thing all over the dining table), but she is in such constant motion that every photo is a blur.  Here is a selection:

​Snacks: 1 cup decaf (black), 1 cup peppermint tea, 1 caramel-flavored Liberte yogurt before bed, because everybody was doing it.  Also, because dinner wasn't very filling.
 
May 16
Breakfast: water with lime, black coffee, small smoothie made from chocolate almond milk, hemp protein powder, maple almond butter, a kiwi that turned out to be underripe, 2 dates, and spinach.  This would have been good except for the after-taste of unripe kiwi that set my teeth on edge.  I also had a small serving of leftover pasta with vegetables from last week.

Lunch (after work, 2:30): white rice, 1 egg scrambled with Romano cheese, mini sweet peppers.

​Shopping (Co-op): plain Greek yogurt, can of organic mandarin oranges, 1% lactose-free organic milk, organic half-and-half, romaine hearts, RiceDream Horchata, organic prune juice, honey wheat bakery bread, 3 coconut-flavored Liberte yogurts, prepared California roll, prepared curried rice with tofu and vegetables, prepared vegetable spring rolls, prepared mixed sushi platter, organic frozen mangos, cherry tomatoes, organic blueberries, bananas.  $85.

Dinner (after I got home at 8:15 from my yoga class): we each had different prepared foods that I had bought at the Co-op.  I had vegetable spring rolls (the kind that are just raw vegetables wrapped in rice paper, with a sweet sauce for dipping), and 6 out of 10 pieces of my California roll.

Snacks: 2 cups decaf coffee (1 with half and half at work, 1 black at home), 1 cup regular coffee with half and half (at work); 1 tiny end-slice honey wheat bread with melted feta cheese and 1 regular slice honey wheat bread with melted swiss cheese as fortifying snacks before a 6:15 pm yoga class.  The last 4 pieces of my California roll before bed, because it turned out I was still hungry after all.
 
May 17
Breakfast: water with lime, coffee with half and half, a couple of swallows of the smoothie I made for husband and kid (it had an excessive number of ingredients today: chocolate almond milk, prune juice, plain Greek yogurt, hemp protein powder, avocado, blueberries, banana, spinach, and 1 date.  The prune juice tasted weird.  Kid seemed to like it); also, for my own breakfast, half a lingonberry-jam-and-maple-almond-butter sandwich on honey wheat bread, half a dozen cherry tomatoes, a banana and an avocado.

Lunch: maple almond butter sandwich on honey wheat bread, 2 dates.

​Dinner: lentils cooked with spinach, parsley and a tarka of garlic and spices, then mixed with quinoa; half an avocado on the side; salad of romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and a little bit of minced sweet pepper, with balsamic vinaigrette.  My kid had one of their friends over, a girl we like a lot but have not seen for a long time, and we had fun joking around as well as enjoying a few musical numbers.  Kid Rick-rolled us by playing "Never Gonna Give You Up" on the ukulele, and both kids performed a choreographed dance to Ukraine's 2007 Eurovision entry, Dancing Lasha Tumbai.  We spent a lot longer at the dinner table than usual.

Snacks: 3 other cups coffee, 1 regular, 2 decaf, with half and half.  I was worried about the additional calories represented by all this half-and-half, but now I see that coffee (or maybe the cream) suppresses my appetite enough to snack less, so it probably all evens out.
 
May 18
Breakfast: water with lime, coffee with half and half, smoothie made of (get ready for this) prune juice, RiceDream horchata, plain Greek yogurt, hemp protein powder, maple almond butter, canned mandarin oranges, frozen mango chunks, and fresh blueberries.  It tasted like liquid plum pudding and was bizarre.  I don't think my husband thought much of it.

Lunch: maple almond butter sandwich on honey wheat bread, blueberries. 

Shopping (Co-op-- a trip to make sure my family has plenty of food while I'm away in Massachusetts): 2 packages Amy's frozen black bean & veggie enchiladas, conditioner, Matthew's honey 12-grain bread, organic bulk peanuts, 4 Amy's frozen Indian wraps, 4 Sukhi's frozen Indian wraps, 6 individual Fage Greek yogurts, 6 individual Chobani Greek yogurts, Barbara's cheese puffs, Terra spiced sweet potato chips, Santa Cruz lemonade, 2 cans Wolfgang Puck chicken with wild rice soup, coffee, black forest ham, bag of mini sweet peppers, wild rice ricecakes, 2 bunches bananas, 3 rolls toilet paper, baby carrots, sugar snap peas, organic whole milk, grape tomatoes, olive oil, cage-free eggs, organic dried mulberries, 4 oranges.  $142.

Dinner: I got take-out from Kin Da to eat between yoga class and the Survivor finale (incidentally, OMG, the completely wrong person won.  Do not read if you are worried about spoilers).  Personally, I had the 3-mushroom soup, 2 little fried spring rolls (I'd intended to order the raw vegetables rolled in rice paper, but obviously selected the wrong menu item), and shared an order of basil and chicken fried rice with my husband.  The soup was not my favorite, definitely a sweet-and-sour flavor with only mild spiciness.  Too sweet.

Snacks: 3 cups coffee, 2 decaf, 1 regular, with half and half.  Small dish of cheese puffs before early evening yoga.  Fage honey yogurt at 10 pm, while watching Survivor finale.

​May 13-- coffee!!!!!
Breakfast: lemon water, COFFEE (black), shake made from hemp milk, hemp protein powder, canned coconut milk, frozen strawberries, fresh strawberries, fresh blueberries, and spinach.

When you haven't had coffee for a significant period, for the first couple of days it becomes a fun recreational drug.  While drinking my coffee this morning, and again at noon, I felt giddy and talkative at first, and then, by the end of the cup, actually a bit high.  Sadly, I know that soon I'll go back to dependency: no noticeable effect except the relief of unpleasant withdrawal symptoms like grogginess and headache.  I hear it is similar with heroin.

Lunch: blueberries, blackberries, carrot sticks, mini sweet peppers, celery sticks, avocado, pecans.  I am very lucky.

​May 14-- coffee
Breakfast (before work, 6:30 am): lemon water, coffee with hemp milk (not a good idea: it curdled and also tasted weird), shake made from hemp milk, hemp protein powder, avocado, strawberries, and spinach.

Lunch (after work, food brought home from restaurant, 3:15 pm): chicken, asparagus & mushroom omelet with sides of carrots and broccoli.

Shopping (Co-op): Seventh Generation pantiliners, 2 cans cat food, Tom's sensitive toothpaste, white cage-free eggs, Woodstock California Supreme trail mix, 1 pork chop, broccoli, 2 oranges, 6 avocados (they were on sale for 89 cents!), 2 kiwis, 2 limes, 1 mango.  $44.

Dinner: Last Clean dinner, again at Sweetgreen.  Salad of mesclun and kale, tomatoes, carrots, broccoli and mushrooms, with almonds and avocado and a spicy cashew dressing.  Decided to skip the meat tonight, since I had lunch so late and I have had to stuff myself in order to finish my salad on my past couple of visits to Sweetgreen.  Without the chicken, the quantity felt about right.  Also, 1 can of lemon Spindrift seltzer.

Snacks: 2 cups decaf coffee, 1 cup regular coffee (at work), steamed carrots (at work).  I'm afraid that the unaccustomed coffee may have made me an impatient bitch to the less-experienced young folks at my job.  That is to say, I felt super-amped-up and stressed, and what I perceived as the excruciating slowness of certain people and activities was driving me so crazy that I was not able to control the expression of my irritation the way I normally do.  This is unusual and I feel really badly about it after the fact.  People are doing their best.  I also had an argument with my husband in the early evening about where to go to brunch on Sunday morning, which seems stupider than it should have been.  Husband blamed this on his own low blood sugar, but I'm not sure the coffee (and consequent work stress) wasn't still a factor.  Paraphrase of argument:

​May 9-- grains!
Breakfast: green tea, small shake made from quinoa milk, hemp protein powder, sunflower butter, frozen blueberries, a couple of fresh strawberries, and lots of spinach.  This shake became extremely gloppy and gelatinous after sitting for a bit-- kind of gross, actually.  I have no idea why.  I also had two thin slices of plain rye toast, from the bread we got at the farmer's market.

Shopping (Co-op): 3 avocados, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, blackberries, hemp milk, 3 rolls toilet paper, roast beef, peppermint tea, salted cashews, pecans, almond butter.  $62.

Lunch: two more pieces of rye bread, leftover split peas and quinoa with cilantro-mint chutney, leftover stir-fried beef with broccoli.

Dinner: small meat patties made of ground goat meat with onion and parsley, white rice, cilantro-mint chutney (which is perfect with the goat); side salad of perfect butter lettuce from the farmer's market, cherry tomatoes, shredded carrot, pea shoots, and pecans, with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing.  This was a very pleasant dinner.  I have missed rice more than bread, I think.

​Snacks: cup of rooibos tea, cup of green tea, cup of peppermint tea, 1 hard-boiled egg in the afternoon, few cashews before bed.
 
May 10- grains, day 2
Breakfast: green tea, shake made from rice milk, hemp protein powder, almond butter, frozen blueberries, fresh strawberries, and a few pea shoots.  Not my best work.  Husband had some toast too.

Lunch: roast beef sandwich on Pepperidge Farm bread, with cilantro-mint chutney.  Something about this tastes weird.  Oh, the bread is full of sugar, that is what.  This did not occur to me.  Also, carrot sticks, blackberries, and strawberries.

​Shopping (Co-op): frozen strawberries, frozen fish fillets, organic whole milk, dijon mustard, 2 lemons, dish soap, frozen peas, ground turkey, organic penne pasta, yellow cherry tomatoes, herb salad mix, organic cauliflower.  $52.

Dinner: penne pasta with the Spanish-style Garlic- and Parsley-flavored Olive Oil that I made for Madhur Jaffrey's Spanish-Style Grilled Portobello Mushrooms the other night, mixed with collard greens, purple carrots, green peas, fresh pea shoots, and cherry tomatoes.  Side salad of herb salad mix topped with avocado and pecans, with balsamic vinaigrette dressing.  Very nice meal.  The pasta had a subtle but excellent flavor from the garlic-parsley oil and the liquor from the greens.  And just having pasta was a wonderful treat after all this time.  Back to the clean slate diet tomorrow, though, for a little longer.

​Snacks: 2 cups peppermint tea, 1 cup green tea, 3 little goat patties with cilantro-mint chutney for dipping (mid-morning).  Small handful of cashews on my way out the door to yoga class.
 
May 11-- clean slate
Breakfast: lemon water (yes, we bought some more lemons, because we miss them, but are cutting them into smaller wedges than before).  Green tea, a very little bit of breakfast shake (hemp milk, hemp protein powder, almond butter, frozen strawberries, fresh strawberries, herb salad mix), but my kid drank some shake so I didn't get much.  The herb salad mix was not such a good idea anyway-- the smoothie tasted of parsley and dill.  Also, carrot and celery sticks dipped in almond butter.

Lunch (after work, 2:45): cherry tomatoes, whole avocado, carrot sticks with almond butter.

​Dinner: salad of herb salad mix, shredded carrot, cherry tomatoes, roasted cauliflower, green peas, and ground turkey patties, and a dressing inspired by this one, except I changed the proportions, substituted lemon for lime (though lime would have been better), and added olive oil to thin it to a pourable consistency.

Snacks: 2 cups green tea, 1 cup peppermint tea.
 
May 12-- clean slate
Breakfast: lemon water, green tea, small shake made from hemp milk, hemp protein powder, almond butter, frozen strawberries, and fresh strawberries; also celery sticks with almond butter.

Shopping (Co-op): organic medjool dates, decaf coffee, regular coffee, 4-pack of clementine-flavored Izze sodas, 4-pack of chicken thighs, organic pecans, Field Day toasted O's cereal, hemp milk, unsweetened chocolate almond milk, organic quinoa, can coconut milk, organic spinach, 6 Liberte yogurts (assorted flavors), mini sweet peppers, mushrooms, blueberries, organic blackberries, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, 3 avocados.  $90.

Lunch (before work, 11:15 am): sparkling water with berry flavoring, 2 fried eggs, 2 slices roast beef, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries.

Dinner: chicken thighs cooked in garlic-parsley oil (as mentioned above), then braised, with fresh mint; plain quinoa; grilled (in the oven) mushroom and cherry tomato skewers.  These last were to try to approximate my husband's experience at Middle Eastern Cuisine on Sunday.  While he was touched by the effort, they didn't taste at all the same, due to my lack of proper grilling or broiling technology.  Oh, well.

​Snacks: 2 cups green tea, 1 cup red zinger tea, 1 cup peppermint tea, side of steamed carrots (at work), 2 mini sweet peppers, small glass of chocolate almond milk before bed.
​
Coffee tomorrow!

An hour or two ago, I was looking at Yelp reviews for the restaurant Traders, which we visited this weekend in Chesapeake Beach.  Traders has 3 stars on Yelp (which is not very good) and was panned by me.  Imagine my delight when I came across the following review, from last month: 

A drink cup lid!  I love it!  I noted in my post that the lights were kept strangely low in this restaurant, so low that even the waitress was complaining about it.  Perhaps, if the lighting were better, the server (or the cook!) might have noticed the drink cup lid before serving it to the customer.  It's these little details that matter.

​So, I now feel inspired to find and post some of the best-worst Yelp reviews of places we have visited on this blog and been unimpressed by.  (Out of fundamental loyalty, I will leave out my own restaurant, which has some doozies of its own, believe me.) 

These are just a few links to articles that have stuck in my mind over the past few weeks.

What's for Breakfast?  How About Some Monsanto Weed Killer?
​Measurable levels of glyphosate (aka Roundup) show up in almost half of breakfast foods-- including organic breakfast foods-- tested in this study.  The cage-free organic eggs they tested exceeded federal limits for this chemical.

US Government to Crack Down on Imported Olive Oil Fraud
I guess I missed the memo.  Apparently regulators have been aware for some years that cheaper, nutritionally inferior, or adulterated oils are being passed off and bottled as extra-virgin olive oil by foreign producers, often under the influence of the Italian mafia.

Chobani Could Make Some of Its Workers Millionaires
I had mistakenly assumed that Chobani was just another brand name under the big umbrella of one of the handful of big food companies, like Kraft or General Mills.  Not so.  Chobani was founded only 11 years ago by Hamdi Ulukaya, a former sheep dairy farmer from Turkey, who moved to NYC in 1994 to study, and ended up buying an old Kraft yogurt plant with an SBA loan.  And his yogurt is taking over the world.  I feel a little better now about buying it so regularly.

If You Are What You Eat, America is Allrecipes
Worth reading just for this: "...at a time when readers of aspirational food websites are used to images of impossibly perfect dishes—each microgreen artfully placed by some tweezer-wielding stylist—Allrecipes offers amateur snaps of amateur meals. The site is awash with close-ups of sludgy-looking soups; photos of stuffed peppers that look like they’ve been captured in the harsh, unforgiving light of a public washroom; and shot after shot documenting the myriad ways that melted cheese can congeal."

I think of that "public washroom" remark every time I post flash photography on this site.
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​May 7-- clean slate (no dairy)
Breakfast: green tea, shake made from coconut milk (from the carton), coconut water, quinoa milk, hemp protein powder, canned coconut milk, frozen blueberries, strawberries, a few gooseberries, and spinach.  It didn't come out all gloppy like the last time I used gooseberries; in fact, it is one of the best shakes we've had. 

After breakfast, my husband and I decide to take a drive to the beach.  I pack snacks, in case there is nothing we are allowed to eat on our travels.  Largely, it turns out that there isn't.  Of course, I forget to pack my camera.

Shopping: In the small town of North Beach, MD where we end up, there is a market that sells only locally-produced food.  It has a small selection but is pretty neat.  We buy some strawberries, a package of frozen ground goat meat, and two jars of jam (for later).  $31.

Lunch: none of the restaurants in cute North Beach (at least the area we found) serve things we can eat today, so we go over to Trader's in Chesapeake Beach, which advertises steaks and seafood.  I am anticipating having to spring for a pricey surf-and-turf-type meal, but at least we can probably order steak and vegetables, or chicken, or something.  Inside, though, the restaurant seems quite different than advertised, almost a slightly upscale diner foodwise, but with the lights turned down absurdly low, and the Kentucky Derby playing on the giant TV.  My husband and I both order the large garden salad with a 6 oz. filet mignon on top, which for $13.95 sounds a little too good to be true.  It is.  The salad is diner iceberg-style, the oil-and-vinegar just vegetable oil and cheap red wine vinegar, and the steak... I'm not sure how to describe the steak.  First of all, they had seasoned the hell out of it (or perhaps it came that way) with a powerful and artificial-tasting steak seasoning.  Intense.  Secondly, the texture was so soft and tender as to be unnatural.  Yes, filet is supposed to be tender.  But this was not normal.  We weren't sure what to make of it, but we ate it.

Dinner (at home again): I cooked Madhur Jaffrey's Stir-Fried Fresh Shiitake Mushrooms, along with some stirfried NY strip steak and broccoli.  Yes, that is two steaks in one day, and we didn't even want any more, but that was what I had ready to prepare for dinner.  The shiitake mushrooms were okay, but nothing I would go out of my way for.  Jaffrey calls them "exquisite."  To each their own.

Snacks: 2 cups rooibos tea, 1 cup green tea, a handful of almonds in the car, a handful of my husband's salted mixed nuts that he bought at a gas station, a boiled egg in the car.  One of the local strawberries we bought at the market, except it turned out to be covered in gritty sand and I didn't eat any more until we went home and washed them.  They remained a bit sandy even after that.  I also packed some raspberries and gooseberries in the car, but we did not eat them, so we had them for "dessert" after dinner.
 
May 8-- clean slate and Mother's Day!
Breakfast: green tea, shake made from quinoa milk, hemp protein powder, avocado, lots of strawberries, and spinach.  The shake was a little sandy because of the strawberries.

Lunch: Husband and I went downtown, seeking something we could eat for lunch/brunch where the place wouldn't be packed with Mother's Day celebrators (kid was not home yet from Dad's house).  We discovered that our local Middle Eastern restaurant has just started offering a "Tapas brunch" on Sundays, and ordered two mini vegetable kabobs, a plate of two mini lamb chops, a plate of two hard-boiled eggs with za'atar, and a tiny plate of roasted cauliflower with some kind of tahini dip.  We shared everything and I had some spice tea.  A great new option for Sunday morning!  We were excited.  Affordable, too.  My husband raved about his single grilled mushroom and two grilled cherry tomatoes on the vegetable kabob.  Maybe I should cook those things at home for him.

Shopping (farmer's market): eggs, cherry tomatoes, head of butter lettuce, loaf of rye bread, bag of small collard greens, bag of large pea shoots, bag of purple carrots.  $32.

Dinner: Because of our current dietary restrictions, I chose Sweetgreen again for Mother's Day dinner.  I had a salad of spinach, kale, and arugula, with asparagus, roasted broccoli, marinated mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, pecans, avocado, and chicken, and a balsamic dressing.  Also a glass of jasmine green iced tea.  My kid had just been to Sweetgreen the night before with their girlfriend, who is a vegan, on their one-year anniversary.  They're ninth-graders!  Congratulations, guys.

Snacks: 1 cup green tea, 1 cup rooibos tea.  Cherry tomatoes, a carrot, and a strawberry while playing Betrayal at House on the Hill with my family in the late afternoon.
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It was a very nice day, foodwise and otherwise, and not once did I say to myself, "oh, I wish I were going out for proper tea and pastries on Mother's Day, or a big honking brunch with bacon and pancakes."

At the end of the Clean Gut diet (or any elimination diet), one experiments with potentially problematic foods (in particular, dairy and gluten grains), one at a time, while keeping the rest of the diet basically the same.  This allows a person to experience with more clarity whether a certain type of food is causing trouble.  For the next three days, my husband and I experimented with eating dairy products (but without muddling up the issue with sugar or grains).  Fermented dairy products like yogurt and cheese are often better tolerated than fresh milk, and-- since we buy lactose-free milk for some of our household use-- I also wanted to see whether the effects were measurably better than those of regular milk.

May 4-- dairy, day 1 (plain Greek yogurt, cheese)
Breakfast: lemon water (yes, I did that again), green tea, shake made from coconut milk (the thin kind from the carton), plain Greek yogurt, cashew butter, hemp protein powder, frozen strawberries, fresh strawberries, and kale.  The yogurt gave the shake a tart flavor that was not entirely pleasant without sweetening.  On the other hand, there was something more satisfying about it than our nut-milk shakes (the protein content, probably).  If I were to do it again, I would use less yogurt-- there was probably at least 1/2 c. in each smoothie.

Lunch (at home after work, 2:30): aged cheddar cheese, hard-boiled egg, smoked trout, 3 strawberries, cashews.  For some reason this seems like WAY too much food.  Is dairy really that filling?  

Shopping (Whole Foods): Lactaid 2% milk, prunes, roasted unsalted almonds, can coconut milk, travel-sized hand lotion, organic olive oil, lemonade, whole milk, unsweetened quinoa milk, NY strip steak, chicken breasts, brown eggs, smoked salmon, gooseberries ("golden berries"), bunch organic carrots, organic parsley, bunch organic red onions with stems, broccoli, basil, organic cilantro, mint, asparagus, 2 organic portobello mushrooms, organic shiitake mushrooms, organic celery hearts, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, baby heirloom tomatoes, organic ginger root, 3 avocados, organic garlic, berry granola.  $132.

Dinner: plain Greek yogurt with mixed berries (strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries); eggs scrambled with kale and pea shoots.  I really don't care for plain yogurt.  I like it sweet.  I was hoping I'd like it more, now that I am weaned off sugar, but I don't.  But it is only one day.  The eggs mixed with spring vegetables had a nice, fresh flavor.

​Snacks: 1 cup orange spice herbal tea, 1 cup green tea, 1 cup rooibos tea with coconut milk, 2 scrambled eggs with chili paste (at work), glass of coconut water.
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Nobody had any immediate ill-effects of the fermented dairy products.  This is good, because they are our favorites.
 
May 5-- dairy, day 2 (lactose-free milk) 
Breakfast: lemon water (probably for the last time), green tea, shake made from Lactaid milk, hemp protein powder, canned coconut milk, frozen strawberries, fresh blueberries, fresh strawberries, and kale.  The lactose-free milk tastes so sweet compared to all the various nut milks and such that we have been using.  In general, lactose-free milk tastes sweeter than regular milk, I assume because the sugars are pre-digested into simpler ones that our tastebuds are more sensitive to.

Lunch: 2 fried eggs, smoked salmon, smoked trout, raspberries, gooseberries.  I couldn't wait to eat this meal.

​Dinner: Madhur Jaffrey's Spanish-style Grilled Portobello Mushrooms, giant roasted bone-in chicken breast, roasted asparagus.  Lots of olive oil on everything.  The mushrooms were good because they are mushrooms, not really anything special about the recipe.  Asparagus was good because it was asparagus.  The chicken breast was enormous and I could barely get through it.  That must've been one huge chicken.

​Snacks: 2 cups rooibos tea with Lactaid milk, 1 cup green tea, almonds, 3 strawberries.

We still feel all right.
 
May 6-- dairy, day 3 (regular milk)
Breakfast:  green tea, a tiny bit of shake made from whole milk, hemp protein powder, avocado, strawberries, and kale.  We didn't quite have enough ingredients for the morning shakes, and then I gave most of mine to my kid, who had AP testing this morning and needed some extra breakfast.  I also ate some carrot and celery sticks with cashew butter, as well as a small glass of additional whole milk.

Lunch (after work, 2:45-- brought home from the restaurant): grilled teriyaki chicken, 2 fried eggs, roasted nori seaweed, broccoli.  This was my version of the "all-day breakfast," with substitutions.  I ate this while reading/watching local news on the internet: while I was at work and my kid taking the AP exam, a shooter had been running around our county, shooting six people (and killing three) at two different shopping centers and a school.  As of kid being released from school (early, after the exam) and my being released from work, this individual was still on the loose.  Kid had blithely gone off to the movies with their friends.  Fortunately, while I was eating my lunch, the police finally captured him.  Oh, America.

Shopping (Co-op): frozen blueberries, spinach, shower gel, toothpaste, strawberries, maple almond butter (oops!  meant to get regular almond butter.  Will save this for later).  $38.

Dinner: My focus for tonight was the Indian mint-cilantro chutney from Cooking Without a Net, which we ate atop quinoa and yellow split peas with vaguely Indian seasonings, with a side dish of roasted acorn squash sauteed with baby red onions.  My chutney differed slightly from the recipe in that, while toasting the coconut, I forgot about it completely and burned it to tiny coconut charcoal.  So I just left that out.  The chutney didn't seem to suffer.  Tasted on its own, it was wildly hot and intense, and I had my doubts about applying it to food in any quantity, but it mellowed tremendously once added to the split peas and quinoa.  In fact, I kept adding a little bit more.  The flavor is refreshing and complex, and I really loved it.  With dinner, we had tall glasses of whole milk, for experimental purposes.  I never simply drink a glass of milk, but it was pretty good.

​Snacks: 1 cup peppermint tea, 1 cup green tea, 1 cup rooibos tea, 2 scrambled eggs with chili paste (at work), I think some berries and almonds, but I am not really sure.
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All this milk-drinking did cause, ahem, a digestive slowdown for both of us that was notable.  I personally have no plan to continue using much milk, except in baking, soups, etc., but my husband drinks a ton of the stuff and he may need to cut down.

​April 29
Breakfast: lemon water, green tea, shake made from vanilla almond milk, chocolate almond milk, hemp protein powder, canned coconut milk, frozen blueberries, fresh strawberries.

Lunch: small glass of coconut water, 2 fried eggs, multicolored baby carrots with guacamole.

Dinner: I made the Spicy Thai Chicken Zoodle Salad from Nom Nom Paleo.  I don't have a spiralizer (what is that, even?), so I just used a vegetable peeler to shave long pieces off my zucchini and carrots, then julienned whatever I couldn't accomplish with the peeler.  The chicken was some boneless thighs that I baked, then shredded.  To my somewhat surprise, this salad was both delicious and filling.  And it had a flavor profile that was totally different from the salads with vinaigrettes that I've been making the past couple of weeks: sunflower seed butter, sriracha (which technically has a little sugar in it, but I cheated the tiniest bit), cilantro, sesame seeds, scallions, lime.  And, no lettuce, or spinach, or arugula, or any of the other salad greens I depend on-- the bulk of the salad is made of zucchini.  A nice change of pace!  It was pretty and colorful too.

​Snacks: 2 cups rooibos tea with chocolate almond milk, 1 cup green tea, package of sesame seaweed, small glass of chocolate almond milk (unsweetened! But the chocolate still tastes good), 3 strawberries.
 
April 30
Breakfast: lemon water, green tea, shake made from coconut water, hemp protein powder, avocado, frozen blueberries, fresh strawberries, kale and arugula.

Lunch (brought home from work, 3:30): grilled flounder with a sauce made from peppers, onions, and I am not sure what else.  Steamed carrots on the side.  There were also some grilled mixed vegetables but they tasted like they were going rancid so I didn't eat them. 

Shopping (Co-op): cashew milk, carton of coconut milk, cashew butter, balsamic vinegar, blackberries, dried organic mulberries, green pepper, 2 avocados, 3 small orange tomatoes, organic dried dates (for kid).  $38.

Dinner: We did have a big salad, but also a couple of side dishes.  One of the side dishes was Madhur Jaffrey's Spinach Bhaji.  It ended up with a lovely depth of flavor from all the cooked onions, garlic, and chilis, but I still have trouble with just how slow-cooked and mushy most of her Indian spinach recipes are.  You have to really like that gelatinous texture.  The other side dish consisted of some yellow split peas which I cooked, adding a tarka at the end of olive oil, cumin, ginger, and red chili.  This was so extremely simple, and yet the flavor was wonderful.  The tarka is a technique I learned from Jaffrey-- the taste is so much better than simply adding the spices to the peas while cooking, or even my usual method of panfrying the spices and peas in the oil before adding water. 

​,​Snacks: 2 cups green tea, 1 cup vanilla almond herbal tea, 1 cup rooibos tea with chocolate almond milk, 2 scrambled eggs with chili paste at work.
 
May 1
Breakfast: lemon water, 2 cups green tea, shake made from chocolate almond milk, coconut water, cashew milk, frozen strawberries, fresh blueberries, hemp protein powder, cashew butter, and a lot of romaine lettuce.  Think the lettuce sounds weird?  So did I.  But actually this was one of my favorite shakes.  The romaine gave it a lightness and freshness that we really enjoyed.  I'd do it again.

Lunch: we decided to invert our salad and non-salad meals today, and go to Sweetgreen for lunch.  Sweetgreen is a delightful local chain that serves top-quality, perfect choose-your-own salads, along with interesting, low-sugar beverages.  My salad contained spinach, kale, romaine, swiss chard, tomato, carrot and mushrooms, with avocado, pecans, and chicken, and a spicy cashew dressing.  I think, by the taste, that the spicy cashew dressing had some sugar in it, but it tasted really good and I did ask the restaurant worker to point me away from the sweetest dressings, so it was surely not the worst choice among them.  We also each had a flavored seltzer water, made with real juice.  Mine was raspberry-lime.  I love this place, but we spent $34 on two big salads and two cans of seltzer.  It might have been worth it, though, it was that good.

Dinner: Madhur Jaffrey's Greek Mixed Greens, quinoa mixed with french lentils, hamburger patties.  Generally unremarkable, except that Jaffrey had us oversalt the cooking water for the greens.  That woman does love salt.  Either that or she uses very coarse salt and neglects to tell us.

Snacks: 2 cups green tea, 1 cup rooibos tea with cashew milk.
 
May 2
Breakfast: lemon water, green tea, shake made from cashew milk, hemp protein powder, avocado, frozen blueberries, and romaine lettuce.  This was not my best work, being much gloppier and less sweet than the previous day's.  It was almost too thick to blend.  While avocado is a great thickener, I'm finding that the cashew milk also tends to thicken more than other nut milks.

Lunch (after work, 2:30): leftover Greek greens, leftover quinoa and lentils, leftover hamburger patty.  It's like the old days, when I used to eat proper leftovers for lunch! 

Shopping (Co-op): 2 boneless top sirloin steaks, organic baby kale, 3 rolls Seventh Generation toilet paper, very large container Fage 2% plain Greek yogurt, smoked trout, coconut water, six-pack of berry-flavored sparkling water, quart of Brown Cow vanilla yogurt, organic olive oil, sweet pea shoots, strawberries, frozen strawberries, roasted unsalted cashews, Tillamook 3-year extra sharp cheddar, 2 avocados, 2 cans tuna, 3 lemons, $93.

Dinner: salad consisting of romaine lettuce, broccoli sprouts, pea shoots, cilantro, green pepper and orange tomatoes, with 2 hard-boiled eggs apiece, avocado, green peas, and canned tuna, and a lemon-olive oil dressing.  For some reason, it had barely any flavor.  Needed salt badly, I think. 

Snacks: 1 cup peppermint tea, 1 cup green tea, 1 cup rooibos tea, cooked carrots (at work).