June 8
The usual kind of before-work morning. Breakfast is lemon water, coffee with half and half, and a smoothie made from grape juice, goat kefir, hemp protein powder, almond butter, dates, strawberries, blueberries, and CSA lettuce. I really need to use up some CSA lettuce.
At work, I have a cup of decaf coffee in the morning when it is slow, and a cup of regular at noontime. After that, it gets busy, and I forget the fact that I am hungry.
Back at home, 3:00, it is time for lunch: leftover pasta from last night, a slice of multigrain toast with melted swiss cheese. Decaf coffee with half and half.
I have arranged to meet my husband in Silver Spring for a movie this evening. I leave some Whole Foods sushi for my kid to eat for dinner, and plan to meet my husband at the Panera by the movie theater at 6:30. However, the metro is experiencing big delays because of repairs, and my husband is late; I end up eating at Panera by myself. I have a whole-grain bagel with cream cheese and tomato, and a decaf coffee which I end up hardly drinking. I get another bagel for my husband and hide it in my purse for him to eat during the movie. Once we get to the theater, I also buy us a bag of Reese's peanut butter cups to share. The movie is rich in melodrama, and by the time we leave we are exhausted.
June 9
No work today. Instead I badly need to make some preparation for a backpacking trip my kid and I are planning in three weeks. Breakfast is the usual: lemon water, black coffee, smoothie made from grape juice, goat kefir, lactose-free milk, hemp protein powder, almond butter, farm strawberries, frozen peaches, and farm lettuce.
Afterwards, decaf coffee with half and half, and three hours on my computer in the easy chair.
Lunch is half a dozen little CSA farm strawberries, half of an enormous grapefruit, some CSA shelling peas, and six almond-butter-and-blackberry-jam saltine cracker sandwiches.
The usual kind of before-work morning. Breakfast is lemon water, coffee with half and half, and a smoothie made from grape juice, goat kefir, hemp protein powder, almond butter, dates, strawberries, blueberries, and CSA lettuce. I really need to use up some CSA lettuce.
At work, I have a cup of decaf coffee in the morning when it is slow, and a cup of regular at noontime. After that, it gets busy, and I forget the fact that I am hungry.
Back at home, 3:00, it is time for lunch: leftover pasta from last night, a slice of multigrain toast with melted swiss cheese. Decaf coffee with half and half.
I have arranged to meet my husband in Silver Spring for a movie this evening. I leave some Whole Foods sushi for my kid to eat for dinner, and plan to meet my husband at the Panera by the movie theater at 6:30. However, the metro is experiencing big delays because of repairs, and my husband is late; I end up eating at Panera by myself. I have a whole-grain bagel with cream cheese and tomato, and a decaf coffee which I end up hardly drinking. I get another bagel for my husband and hide it in my purse for him to eat during the movie. Once we get to the theater, I also buy us a bag of Reese's peanut butter cups to share. The movie is rich in melodrama, and by the time we leave we are exhausted.
June 9
No work today. Instead I badly need to make some preparation for a backpacking trip my kid and I are planning in three weeks. Breakfast is the usual: lemon water, black coffee, smoothie made from grape juice, goat kefir, lactose-free milk, hemp protein powder, almond butter, farm strawberries, frozen peaches, and farm lettuce.
Afterwards, decaf coffee with half and half, and three hours on my computer in the easy chair.
Lunch is half a dozen little CSA farm strawberries, half of an enormous grapefruit, some CSA shelling peas, and six almond-butter-and-blackberry-jam saltine cracker sandwiches.
 |  |
After an afternoon of shopping at REI and some other places, including Giant, I come home and have some decaf coffee and talk to my kid. Also, I eat the last four mini-Reese's peanut butter cups over the course of the afternoon and early evening.
Shopping (Giant): 2 packages English muffins, free-range eggs, lactose-free 2% milk, 8 AA batteries, natural dish soap, Cascadian Farm oats & honey granola, coconut water, tart cherry juice, bananas, 3 small yellow mangos, salted cashews, 2 pints blueberries. $48.
About 5:30, in the midst of my cup of decaf, I start dinner and dessert more or less simultaneously. I am making the Mushroom and Burrata Lasagnette from October's Bon Appetit (the recipe also provides for a kale salad on the side), and Molly Yeh's recently posted Whipped Yogurt Cheesecake with Roasted Rhubarb, which my husband has selected (loosely) as his "pie-of-the-month.". Bon Appetit has listed their lasagnette in a group of dinners-for-two ("You and Me"), and then gently given away that it does not fit there ("Listen, this dish is indulgent, and makes a bit more than two responsible adults should finish in one serving. But for crying out loud, live a little.") It seems to me that you would have to live a lot. I planned this meal for the three of us, and it still looks like too much lasagna to me. Maybe four servings with just kale on the side, or six with additional side dish(es)? Whatever. They had to make it fit their gimmick.
Shopping (Giant): 2 packages English muffins, free-range eggs, lactose-free 2% milk, 8 AA batteries, natural dish soap, Cascadian Farm oats & honey granola, coconut water, tart cherry juice, bananas, 3 small yellow mangos, salted cashews, 2 pints blueberries. $48.
About 5:30, in the midst of my cup of decaf, I start dinner and dessert more or less simultaneously. I am making the Mushroom and Burrata Lasagnette from October's Bon Appetit (the recipe also provides for a kale salad on the side), and Molly Yeh's recently posted Whipped Yogurt Cheesecake with Roasted Rhubarb, which my husband has selected (loosely) as his "pie-of-the-month.". Bon Appetit has listed their lasagnette in a group of dinners-for-two ("You and Me"), and then gently given away that it does not fit there ("Listen, this dish is indulgent, and makes a bit more than two responsible adults should finish in one serving. But for crying out loud, live a little.") It seems to me that you would have to live a lot. I planned this meal for the three of us, and it still looks like too much lasagna to me. Maybe four servings with just kale on the side, or six with additional side dish(es)? Whatever. They had to make it fit their gimmick.
Burrata.
Up close and personal.
Making dinner is a little bit of a whirlwind, what with trying to prep the lasagna and prep the cheesecakes at the same time. Poor planning. I do manage to fit in a glass of red wine, and my husband calls to say he fell asleep in his office chair and will be late, so everything works out okay.
 |  |
Okay, 1/4 of the lasagna apiece, which is what I plated up, is still too much. I finish my serving but am overly full. Half the lasagna, which is the serving generously suggested by Bon Appetit, would have covered an entire dinner plate. Maybe hung off the edges a little. Are they nuts? The flavor is pretty good, not amazing. It is a fairly dry lasagna. I would like more sauce, some form of moisture. Also more salt, but that is my own fault. I should have put more salt in the ricotta. The raw kale salad is chewy.
As for dessert, which we eat not long afterwards, it is okay, but I am not wildly thrilled with it. Once again, Yeh's dessert is very low on sweetness (even though she refers to the 1/2 c. of sugar added to the roasted rhubarb as an "ass-ton"). The only part that is distinctly sweet is the crumb crust, and that, due to the addition of what seems to me like too much coconut oil, has become a kind of hard brick at the bottom of the glass instead of a crumbly layer. I have to stab at it, hard, with my spoon in order to break it up. Visually, though, the layered glasses are very pretty. I will have to try a few more of her recipes, but I am wondering if the gorgeousness of her blog means that her interests lie more in design than in flavor. Design-wise, her website is my very favorite!
In the wee hours of the morning, my throat is really scratchy. It's too close to alarm-clock time to take an antihistamine, so I go into the kitchen for half a glass of full-fat milk, which usually helps. Pour it in the dark, take a couple of big swallows before brain catches up with mouth to figure out what is wrong. The milk is really thick, tastes bitter. It's gone sour... really sour. I don't drink milk much-- this carton is more or less allocated to my kid-- but how have they not noticed before now?? Uck. I rinse out my glass, pour the carton of whole milk down the sink, take a little of the lowfat lactose-free stuff to wash the flavor away. It helps enough that I can get back to sleep for a couple more hours.
As for dessert, which we eat not long afterwards, it is okay, but I am not wildly thrilled with it. Once again, Yeh's dessert is very low on sweetness (even though she refers to the 1/2 c. of sugar added to the roasted rhubarb as an "ass-ton"). The only part that is distinctly sweet is the crumb crust, and that, due to the addition of what seems to me like too much coconut oil, has become a kind of hard brick at the bottom of the glass instead of a crumbly layer. I have to stab at it, hard, with my spoon in order to break it up. Visually, though, the layered glasses are very pretty. I will have to try a few more of her recipes, but I am wondering if the gorgeousness of her blog means that her interests lie more in design than in flavor. Design-wise, her website is my very favorite!
In the wee hours of the morning, my throat is really scratchy. It's too close to alarm-clock time to take an antihistamine, so I go into the kitchen for half a glass of full-fat milk, which usually helps. Pour it in the dark, take a couple of big swallows before brain catches up with mouth to figure out what is wrong. The milk is really thick, tastes bitter. It's gone sour... really sour. I don't drink milk much-- this carton is more or less allocated to my kid-- but how have they not noticed before now?? Uck. I rinse out my glass, pour the carton of whole milk down the sink, take a little of the lowfat lactose-free stuff to wash the flavor away. It helps enough that I can get back to sleep for a couple more hours.