Lunch yesterday!
Day 14 September 28, 2013
It is hard to believe – we are on day 14 – 2 weeks!!! Amazing! Had my doubts during week one, but the menus have gotten so much better that I’m really enjoying the whole thing.
Yesterday we ate the best thing we have eaten since we started. And to my amazement it was eggplant! I thought I would never have to eat eggplant again after RoRo passed away and her garden was no more. She would about 5 eggplants – and they were very prolific. Now RoRo was not one to throw away anything!!! So she would insist we eat the eggplant – everyday – it was awful. And she try every recipe she could find – but enough is enough. So yesterday for lunch we had broiled eggplant with grape tomatoes, feta cheese, and fresh basil. It was absolutely amazing!
Today my friend, Susan – yes, Susan – came for lunch. She took a few bites, looked up at me and said, “I think I’m at Whole Foods.” Pretty impressive! Our hot vegie plate today was swiss chard, carrots and asparagus, and cashews with a lovely ginger sesame seed dressing. Delicious!
Teresa when to her paint class today. I walked early this morning, came home, ate breakfast and then headed off to yoga at the CHC Wellness center. Haven’t done yoga in years so was a little hesitant that I would be able to do much of anything. The classs is “mixed” as our teacher, Lisa, said, so she was very gentle. It felt so amazing to really stretch and then stretch some more. A wonderful hour of relaxation. Will definitely go back next week.
Tonight’s dinner was a lovely surprise…….we actually had pasta! Broccoli and feta cheese with pasta and grated cheese on top. We scarfed it down, I can assure you. Like I said, the meals are defiinitely getting so much better and so much more tasty.
By the way, we shopped this afternoon and went into Kroger for a couple of things before going to Whole Foods. We ended up doing most of our vegie shopping there. We didn’t realize what a big organic produce section they have. Lots and lots of vegies and some fruit. And it all looked really good. So I
September 26 Day 12
Now you can see what the kitchen looks like every morning around 6:00 am. Teresa gets up before me and works away getting breakfast and lunch prepared. It is no easy task. And this week it has been more difficult with our huge upgrade in food – including actual recipes. Yes!! Ingredients instead of week one with only steamed vegetables. I feel like I am eating at the Ritz!!
The photo of lunch was yesterday. Probably the best overall meal we have had. Beautiful crunchy salad of romaine, carrots, cauliflower, grape tomatoes, red bell pepper with a simple but delicious olive oil and lemon juice dressing with a little salt and pepper. Yes! and we have the salt and pepper shaker out this week. God is good!!
Today’s menu includes our oats and fruit this a.m. Lunch is another lovely salad like above, greens and sweet potato steamed, snacks – carrot sticks this a.m., and this afternoon fresh guacamole on a rye crisp. Delightful.
Needless to say – I feel great. Especially my stomach. And my energy level the last 2 days has been so good. It is really hard to put into words. I just feel an overall feeling of wellness. Physically, mentally and emotionally! A bit part of that is that I booked a ticket to go to Bacalar, Mexico to Teresa’s beautiful home for the first two weeks of January. And my dear Sarah will be joining me. That alone is enough to give me a feeling of wellness!!! What a wonderful trip to look forward to!
Days 8-10
Where did the last two days go? It has been a little crazy at the house with Therese added to the mix. A great crazy!! So didn’t get any blogging done. Sadly said good-bye to Therese this morning. It is always such a blessing to be with her.
Day 10 today!! Really? Day 10!!!!! Wow!! And we are doing great. The food this week has vastly improved. For instance, yesterday afternoon for my snack there was this amazing fruit in goat yogurt with a tablespoon of maple syrup. It was divine. The best I have eaten so far!! The day before we had pain (ha-ha I typed pain – meaning plain, however, pain would work) goat yogurt – Yikes!! It was awful! It’s incredible what a little fruit and syrup can do.
Last week seemed like boot camp compared to this week. Everything is better. The other night we had potatoes and broccoli and blue cheese (1 tbsp)! And we had our second piece of bread this morning with a soft boiled egg (thanks, Leandro, for telling us how to cook a soft boiled egg: boil water, put egg in for 7 minutes – boom – it’s done!). We are eating spelt bread. Never heard of it? Neither had I. It is very good. Spelt is an ancient variety of wheat with its roots some 9,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent (a cresent shaped agricultural region of the ancient Near East beginning at the Mediterranean Sea and extending between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers to the Persian Gulf). How’s that for a geography lesson – thanks, Google! It is more widely used in Europe where it’s knows as dinkel in Germany and farro in Italy. While high in protein than commonly used wheat varieties, the nature of its proteins results in less gluten formation when making bread dough. Spelt is known for its health benefits. Many people with wheat allergies can eat bread made with spelt flour. The best part for me is the lovely nutty flavor.
Teresa is riding her bike everyday on the green line. I am continuing to walk everyday at lunch time. I walk on the treadmill at our Wellness Center. I would much prefer to walk outside in the lovely fresh air, however, the cement and my knees are not good friends. The cement is mean to my knees. So the treadmill is where I get my exercise. I am happy to report I am not having any knee pain – and am walking faster each day. Also, there is no swelling. Some of this has to do with the Mobic medication my ortho gave me. I also credit healthy eating – since I have had no swelling even with strenuous exercise which normally have even with the Mobic.
Tonight’s dinner – after our carrot/beet cocktail ( I have to admit I’m still asking Teresa if it has a shot of vodka in it), we had delicious pea soup with mint. Lovely. We also had butternut squash and spinach. Quite a great dinner.
On to day 11 – which will put us over the halfway mark.
Day 7 – September 21, 2013
No photos today – really didn’t think about it. Have to brag that I was the chef this morning. Teresa had her water color class this morning and had to be there at 9:30. So she went riding on her bike at 7 am – and I told her I would be the chef – get her breakfast ready and lunch and snack ready for her.
So I started cooking about 8:15 a.m. It’s not the cooking that takes so much time – it’s the damn chopping!! Holy cow! Everything needs to be chopped!! So I got the steel oats cookings, and almost forgot the date. ( I swear, I know it sounds crazy but that one little date makes all the difference!) The lunch menu today was a repeat of another day – so for the salad it was shredded carrots, shredded romaine lettuce, garbanzo beans, and slivers of red pepper. The steamed vegies were a potato, carrots, and asparagus. It took forever to get everything chopped – and then I remembered we needed the broth heated up – it just felt totally uncoordinated. However, everything got done and Teresa flew out of the house at 9:15 with all her painting stuff and her lunch box! Whew!
Therese and I went to the gym at the clubhouse for some good exercise. That felt really good! Then back to the house for my breakfast. When I went to eat my oats I realized I had not put 2 dates in the oats earlier – so I didn’t have one for me. Poor me!! So got one and from the pantry. It was quite hard – so I had the brilliant idea to put it in the microwave to soften it up. Believe it or not – the damn thing (the date) started smoking and almost caught on fire. There was actual smoke coming out of the microwave – and of course the smell of food burning! Weird. I’ve never had that happen before with any other food in the microwave. So I ended up putting it in a pan of water and boiling the stew out of it. Not quite the same as putting it in the oats to begin with.
Did some errands – laundry – and lo and behold it was freaking time to make MY lunch!! It’s like you’re in the kitchen all day. I swear, Teresa gets a big gold star. And she swears she LOVES it!! So I managed to make my lunch – chopping and steaming again.
I went to the grocery story to get a few things we couldn’t get at Whole Foods yesterday. Did you know that pine nuts are $31 a pound??? They were $31 a pound at Whole Foods yesterday – so since I had to go to Kroger today anyway, we decided to compare prices. It was the same at Kroger. Do the math sometime when you buy a little package of them. They are delicious I have to admit – but the price is exorbitant. I had never done the math before! Now I wish I hadn’t.
The weird thing about the grocery store – like yesterday, I reallly wasn’t tempted by anything. Didn’t think about getting anything other than the few things on the list. I’m amazed! It’s like I’ve zoned out as far as food is concerned.
Even with all our planning – we forgot to get artichokes for tonight. So we had asparagus instead with our sweet potato. My day of eating started so late – breakfast was at 10:30 – lunch at 3 – that I really wasn’t that hungry. I managed to eat a little of each though.
Tomorrow starts week 2 and I have to say I’m all about it!! Bring it on!!
Day 6 – Friday Sept 20, 2013
Today started with a bike ride!! Just as we put the bikes in Teresa’s truck to go to the green line – it started sprinkling. I told Teresa not to worry since it had not rained since July – it would be gone in a couple of minutes. By the time we got to the green line about 10 minutes later, the rain was a nice drizzle but we again wanted to believe it would not be much of anything. So off we went. It was a beautiful ride – and the rain got a little heavier. I’m very slow on the bike – the knees you know – or lack thereof – so I told Teresa to ride on and enjoy herself. I would still be heading in the same direction when she came back! And I was! I made it about 5 miles total. I’m sure Teresa rode twice that far. She passed me on the way back, and before I got back to the truck (where she was sitting) – a real downpour let loose. So I was totally drenched. It was great!
Pick up my friend, Therese, last night at the airport. She is visiting from Ireland. She was in shock when I told her there was no alcohol in the house, and that Iwas on this detox health thing. She looked at me and said, ” No noodle soup at Pho? No Gus’s Fried Chicken? No Guadalapana??” Very sad. She did eat our oats and apple, but was glad to have found a couple of eggs and cheese in the fridge while we were riding and made herself a little breakfast first thing.
We went to Whole Foods today – all three of us – I had not been in a grocery store in 10 days!! So we stocked up on everything we need for the next week. Things are looking up, folks. We put CHEESE (goat) in the basket!! My favorite were 12 – yes – we counted them out – 12 cashews! It is a garnish for something next week…………44 cents. Absolutely the cheapest I’ll every pay for anything at Whole Foods.
We didn’t eat breakfast today until 11 because of the bike ride. Our usual delicious oats and apple with a date. We had lunch at 3:30 – my very favorite cabbage salad, beets and carrot salad, and zuchini. Delicious. I think it tastes especially good because of the sesame oil. It is now 8:20 – we haven’t had dinner – Teresa is painting – and neither of us were hungry at 7 – however, Teresa just said she is going to steam some vegies. All in all – a great day.
And thank you, God, for the rain. A lovely long day of soaking rain. Our good earth is very happy,
My Dear Friend and Personal Chef!!
Day 4 and 5!!
Are you asking what happened to Day 4? Well, to be honest, I forgot about blogging last night. To report in – yesterday was a good day – although I have to admit lunch was a little challenging for me – I think it was the celery root and chard. I did sleep really well last night – so well, that I overslept – somehow turned off the radio that is supposed to come on. I woke up to the aroma of food being prepared. I was in bed – my personal chef, Teresa was up and hard at work in the kitchen.
Here she is in the kitchen tonight.
I don’t think I have mentioned that my morning steel oats with cut up Fuji apple also includes one date. This sounds like a minor thing, but I have to tell you when I get towards the bottom of the bowl and bite into that sweet date, it is absolutely delicious! And I don’t even normally like dates – or sweets – however, I think because it is cooked and soft in the oats that it tastes so good.
Tuesday night Teresa and I ventured out to the International Market at Winchester and Kirby. For you Memphis folk, if you haven’t been there, it is a real adventure. The produce section is unbelieveable with veggies and fruit from all over the world. We only bought avocados – 99 cents each – because Teresa says she cannot find organic avocados anywhere. None of the food at the market is organic. I also bought a lovely large pot that includes a steamer. Teresa is having a grand time with that. And we got two lovely chinese soup bowls with red dragons.
We had to laught last night when we inadvertently started watching the movie,Julie and Julie. We both said how much we liked the movie – but we had to turn it off when she started cooking…..I was totallly overcome when Julie had about 2 pounds of butter in a pan melting and says, “You can never have too much butter.” My mantra for years!!
I forgot to each my half apple for my snack this morning. Lunch today was great!! I couldn’t even eat it all. The veggies had seasoning!!!! Yes! Seasoning!! The first this week! Cumin and pepper! It was so tasty. And the salad was so fresh and crispy.
Had a good walk at lunchtime today. Since my job is basically sedentary it is good to get up and move in the middle of the day.
Therese, my friend from Ireland, arrives tonight for a few days. She doesn’t know about my healthy eating regime – and I know she is expecting to kick back a few beers with me tonight. Yikes! She’s going to be in shock!!
smcghee333 