May 25
Breakfast: coffee with half and half, smoothie made with prune juice, RiceDream horchata, hemp protein powder, avocado, perfectly ripe cantaloupe, a kiwi that I bought two weeks ago which never got ripe, and romaine lettuce. This is "back to normal?" But, yet, it feels good to be back here.
Lunch (after work, 2:45): Leftover chili, one fried egg.
Dinner (kinda late, prepared after I get home from yoga at 7:30): two pieces of Rudi's multigrain bread, with slices of swiss cheese melted on top. Sauteed sugar snap peas, sweet peppers, and (farm!) asparagus. Salad of romaine lettuce and grape tomatoes with balsamic vinaigrette. Even though I was hungry two hours later, it again feels good to get back to eating more vegetables and fewer cookies. The asparagus tasted extra-special; I don't think it was just our imagination. Kid agreed. It was a lot younger and fresher than what we tend to buy at the store.
Snacks: 3 other cups of coffee, 2 decaf, 1 regular, with half and half. Two rice cakes when I had the munchies before bed.
May 26
Breakfast: water with lemon juice in it, coffee with half and half, smoothie made from a little bit of RiceDream horchata, lemonade, hemp protein powder, avocado, cantaloupe, farm strawberries, and farm spinach. This was one of my favorite smoothies ever. The lemonade was an awesome base (although maybe I could achieve the same thing with less sugar by just adding some lemon juice??), the cantaloupe (as previously mentioned) was perfectly ripe, and the strawberries and spinach were super-fresh. The spinach, especially, seemed to create a brighter, greener smoothie than bagged spinach. Yum!
Lunch: An impromptu pasta dish made from a) some plain noodles my kid cooked while I was gone, which were now languishing in the back of the refrigerator, b) butter, c) sliced carrots, and d) a sprinkling of ancient feta cheese. Plain, but surprisingly delicious. Side of cantaloupe.
Shopping (HMart): quart of Dannon plain yogurt, 6 individual La Yogurts, Cheerios, tampons, 3 rolls toilet paper, can of coconut milk, pomegranate juice, green tea Pocky, craisins, Kasugai Mame mix (yum, Japanese junk food), ziti pasta, Jif natural peanut butter, package of house-made injulmi, package of house-made kim-bob, 3 lemons, bananas. $53.
Dinner: I'm kind of full from all the sushi and injulmi (see snacks below), but eat one of what my husband and I tend to call "Indian burritos," which I'd asked him to put in the oven when he got home from work, 3 kim-bob, and 4 slices of orange. Then I am really full.
Snacks: 3 other cups coffee, 1 regular, 2 decaf, with half and half. A couple of pieces of swiss cheese before morning yoga class (when I arrived back at work after my trip, a customer had left me a block of swiss cheese, reportedly brought back from a trip to the midwest. It had a post-it with my name on it, in his spidery old-man handwriting. Advantages of working at a neighborhood joint for a long time). At mall food court with kid, at 6 pm after grueling shopping trip: shared sushi combo, shared steamed dumplings. Mall food court sushi was not that bad. Approximately 7 pm, after stopping at HMart for groceries, while driving home: about half a dozen injulmi (kid ate the entire rest of the package, spoiling their dinner). Small glass of lemonade before bed, because it is hot in the house and I am incredibly thirsty.
May 27
Breakfast: water with fresh lemon (how much better this is than bottled lemon, or lime, or plain water); coffee with half and half; smoothie made from lemonade, pomegranate juice, plain yogurt, hemp protein powder, peanut butter, cantaloupe, banana and spinach.
After breakfast and before yoga I make an extensive shopping list, consulting recipes and not just inventorying pantry basics. So excited to get cooking again! But worried that I have three different desserts in the works. I'll need to make a plan to get rid of the excess. (Seriously, a birthday cake? But then I'll be finished with Jennifer Reese's book and I can start something new! Maybe Indian curries. They are probably healthier, sorry Jen.)
Lunch [photo: I eat yellow and orange foods. 2nd photo: whoops, I forgot the toast!]: baby carrots, mini sweet peppers, Rudi's multigrain toast with butter and local strawberry-rhubarb jam, orange, banana, Japanese snack mix.
Breakfast: coffee with half and half, smoothie made with prune juice, RiceDream horchata, hemp protein powder, avocado, perfectly ripe cantaloupe, a kiwi that I bought two weeks ago which never got ripe, and romaine lettuce. This is "back to normal?" But, yet, it feels good to be back here.
Lunch (after work, 2:45): Leftover chili, one fried egg.
Dinner (kinda late, prepared after I get home from yoga at 7:30): two pieces of Rudi's multigrain bread, with slices of swiss cheese melted on top. Sauteed sugar snap peas, sweet peppers, and (farm!) asparagus. Salad of romaine lettuce and grape tomatoes with balsamic vinaigrette. Even though I was hungry two hours later, it again feels good to get back to eating more vegetables and fewer cookies. The asparagus tasted extra-special; I don't think it was just our imagination. Kid agreed. It was a lot younger and fresher than what we tend to buy at the store.
Snacks: 3 other cups of coffee, 2 decaf, 1 regular, with half and half. Two rice cakes when I had the munchies before bed.
May 26
Breakfast: water with lemon juice in it, coffee with half and half, smoothie made from a little bit of RiceDream horchata, lemonade, hemp protein powder, avocado, cantaloupe, farm strawberries, and farm spinach. This was one of my favorite smoothies ever. The lemonade was an awesome base (although maybe I could achieve the same thing with less sugar by just adding some lemon juice??), the cantaloupe (as previously mentioned) was perfectly ripe, and the strawberries and spinach were super-fresh. The spinach, especially, seemed to create a brighter, greener smoothie than bagged spinach. Yum!
Lunch: An impromptu pasta dish made from a) some plain noodles my kid cooked while I was gone, which were now languishing in the back of the refrigerator, b) butter, c) sliced carrots, and d) a sprinkling of ancient feta cheese. Plain, but surprisingly delicious. Side of cantaloupe.
Shopping (HMart): quart of Dannon plain yogurt, 6 individual La Yogurts, Cheerios, tampons, 3 rolls toilet paper, can of coconut milk, pomegranate juice, green tea Pocky, craisins, Kasugai Mame mix (yum, Japanese junk food), ziti pasta, Jif natural peanut butter, package of house-made injulmi, package of house-made kim-bob, 3 lemons, bananas. $53.
Dinner: I'm kind of full from all the sushi and injulmi (see snacks below), but eat one of what my husband and I tend to call "Indian burritos," which I'd asked him to put in the oven when he got home from work, 3 kim-bob, and 4 slices of orange. Then I am really full.
Snacks: 3 other cups coffee, 1 regular, 2 decaf, with half and half. A couple of pieces of swiss cheese before morning yoga class (when I arrived back at work after my trip, a customer had left me a block of swiss cheese, reportedly brought back from a trip to the midwest. It had a post-it with my name on it, in his spidery old-man handwriting. Advantages of working at a neighborhood joint for a long time). At mall food court with kid, at 6 pm after grueling shopping trip: shared sushi combo, shared steamed dumplings. Mall food court sushi was not that bad. Approximately 7 pm, after stopping at HMart for groceries, while driving home: about half a dozen injulmi (kid ate the entire rest of the package, spoiling their dinner). Small glass of lemonade before bed, because it is hot in the house and I am incredibly thirsty.
May 27
Breakfast: water with fresh lemon (how much better this is than bottled lemon, or lime, or plain water); coffee with half and half; smoothie made from lemonade, pomegranate juice, plain yogurt, hemp protein powder, peanut butter, cantaloupe, banana and spinach.
After breakfast and before yoga I make an extensive shopping list, consulting recipes and not just inventorying pantry basics. So excited to get cooking again! But worried that I have three different desserts in the works. I'll need to make a plan to get rid of the excess. (Seriously, a birthday cake? But then I'll be finished with Jennifer Reese's book and I can start something new! Maybe Indian curries. They are probably healthier, sorry Jen.)
Lunch [photo: I eat yellow and orange foods. 2nd photo: whoops, I forgot the toast!]: baby carrots, mini sweet peppers, Rudi's multigrain toast with butter and local strawberry-rhubarb jam, orange, banana, Japanese snack mix.
 I eat yellow and orange foods. |  Whoops, forgot the toast! |
Shopping (Whole Foods): coffee filters, coconut oil, instant espresso, agave syrup, carrot juice, 4 lbs. spinach (!), canola oil, whole wheat pita breads, oats, cage-free brown eggs, sugar, house-made tequila-lime corn chips, unsalted butter, cream cheese, lip balm, whole wheat boule, whole-grain dijon mustard, 2 lbs. yellow onions, dried chickpeas, vegan dark chocolate chips, pint of vanilla ice cream, sliced almonds, asparagus, 3 peaches, 3 avocados, guacamole, 2 cans cat food, organic strawberries, organic tomatoes. $132.
Dinner: A couple of suggestions made by our CSA farmer regarding the use of this week's vegetables resulted in the following meal: ziti pasta, with bright green ziti-shaped chunks of fresh onion scape, plus a few shiitake mushrooms, and served with fresh oregano pesto (oregano, almonds, parmesan, olive oil, garlic). Side salad of farm lettuce with sweet peppers and balsamic vinaigrette. It would never have occurred to me to make oregano pesto-- don't I have to cook the leaves first, I thought, won't they be fuzzy?-- but it was absolutely fine. I only ate a small amount of pasta, then ate a little more before bed.
Dinner: A couple of suggestions made by our CSA farmer regarding the use of this week's vegetables resulted in the following meal: ziti pasta, with bright green ziti-shaped chunks of fresh onion scape, plus a few shiitake mushrooms, and served with fresh oregano pesto (oregano, almonds, parmesan, olive oil, garlic). Side salad of farm lettuce with sweet peppers and balsamic vinaigrette. It would never have occurred to me to make oregano pesto-- don't I have to cook the leaves first, I thought, won't they be fuzzy?-- but it was absolutely fine. I only ate a small amount of pasta, then ate a little more before bed.
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Snacks: cup of peppermint tea, 2 cups of coffee (1 regular, 1 decaf) with half and half. A bunch of Whole Foods house-made tortilla chips and some guacamole, first while driving home in the car after shopping and then after unpacking the groceries. I like those chips a lot, but more to the point I was starving. However, it is so hot outside and in the house that my stomach starts cramping up and I don't feel like eating, anymore. 93 degrees. Small dish of additional pasta before bed, as previously mentioned-- I got hungrier once it started to cool off.