April 29th

Okay so I ate like total crap yesterday.  But I guess this is where the rubber meets the road...I have to keep updating, even when it's embarrassing because I ate so badly and ate so much, right?  So here we go.
Breakfast: Part one was eaten before hitting the gym, and part two afterward.


Frozen grapes, veggie sausage (before), banana, eggs, roasted veggies, salsa and iced coffee (after)


Lunch: once again totally forgot a picture.  Had a Lean Pocket and a salad and mango.

Dinner: Pesto pasta with chicken and roasted veggies.  Need to make another pan.


Snacks: Ok, this is where it gets bad.

• 2.5 Matzo crackers with 1 tbsp nutella
• Luna bar
• yogurt
• 1/4 c cereal
• banana with 1 tbsp peanut butter
• string cheese x2
• Lemon 100 calorie bar
• Thin Mint
• 1/4 c almonds

So there you go.  

April 28th

I just could not have been worse at pictures today.  Sorry.


Breakfast: English muffin with egg whites and string cheese and a banana


Lunch: Chicken parmesan sandwich with roasted veggies


Dinner: Tuna salad with crackers


Snacks: Almonds, strawberries, matzo cracker with nutella, granola bar and mango.


Two new things I learned today:
1. No one benefits from staring a problem set for longer than 4 hours.
2. Do not try to go to the gym and run when you're totally unmotivated and also starving.  You'll end up eating a chicken parmesan sandwich.


And before I forget, here is the recipe for cinnamon cookies.  They're really good and pretty low calorie, since they use apple sauce and a little oil instead of butter.

1 cup applesauce 1 tbsp corn oil 1 cup brown sugar 1 egg 1 cup oats 1 cup flour 1 tsp salt 2 tsp baking powder 1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine applesauce and oil with brown sugar. Beat in egg. Add oats, then flour, salt and baking powder. Mix in cinnamon. Drop by spoonful on cookie sheet, two inches apart
Bake for 10 minutes.

April 27th

Boring day, once again. Basically at class or work all day.

Breakfast: unpictured because it was eaten on the bus on my way to school. I was about 45 mins late. I had a banana and some cheerios.

Lunch:


Turkey burger, a salad from Mixt Greens and a Clementine.

Dinner:


Chicken fettucini Alfredo with roasted veggies, veggie chips and string cheese.

Snacks: iced coffee, mango, java chip light frappuccino, yogurt x2 and cinnamon cookies. I'll post the recipe for those tomorrow!

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April 26th

Today was pretty simple and boring...tried to up my fruit and veggie intake since yesterday was so carb-y. Hand pies are already gone, thanks to my lovely roommates. See, they're popular, you should try them!

Breakfast, part 1: this was pre-gym. I need a little shot of protein to get me through my workout.


Veggie sausage and strawberries.

Breakfast part two: at work.


Banana and yogurt with corn flakes.

Lunch: totally forgot a picture, but I had a chicken salad and clementines. Use your visualization skills.

Dinner: I only got home from school at around 9:30 so those roasted veggies really came in handy. That's why I love making them at the beginning of the week: they serve as an easy way to make every meal seem more hearty and filling.


Mac and cheese and roasted veggies.

Snacks: yogurt parfait, apple sauce, granola bar, 1 cup popcorn, sugar free hot chocolate and an iced coffee.


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April 25th

I baked today! I will put a picture and the recipe at the end of this post. First, le food.


Breakfast:




Egg whites and potato scramble, strawberries and mango and a cup of tea.


Lunch:




Beef chow mein with a giant salad, banana and a yogurt parfait.


Dinner:




Salisbury steak with potatoes and roasted veggies. Yes, this was a prepared meal. Because does anyone really make Salisbury steak themselves anymore?


Snacks:




Frozen yogurt with strawberries, mango, coconut and waffle cone pieces. For some reason, the combination of strawberries, chocolate and coconut made me instantly remember Zimbabwe. Still trying to figure out why.


Unpictured: string cheese x2, another yogurt parfait, hot cross bun, nutella, granola bar and half an apple. Don't judge me, my new level of my couch-to-5k program really kicked my butt today.


Last snack: hand pie.
 I got the recipe for this from epicurious.com, but I adapted it a little bit, so I'll put my version here.


Strawberry-Apple Hand Pies
1 cup strawberries, roughly chopped
1/2 apple, peeled and roughly chopped
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon whole wheat flour
Recipe for one pie crust (any recipe you like, but this is one of my favourites because of its simplicity)
1/2 tablespoon of milk
1 tablespoon raw sugar

Place chopped apples, strawberries, sugar, cinnamon and flour into a small saucepan and cook until apples are soft and juices start to boil - about 5-ish minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Roll out pastry dough to be 1/8 inch thick and use a 5-inch biscuit cutter to cut out circles.  I used a ridged one to get the pretty scalloped edges.  Cut out 6 circles, and lay them out on the parchment paper.
Once the fruit is cooked, spoon it evenly across the 6 circles.  You should put enough to make a little lump on one side, with about a 1/2 inch border.  It's okay if some is left over (it may or may not be delicious to eat all by itself...) It is way better to throw out some filling than to overfill the pies and make them impossible to close.  Fold the other half over and use a fork to seal them shut.  I used the extra pastry to make little shapes to put on top.  Cut a slit on the top of each pie for steam to escape.
Brush each semi-circle with milk and sprinkle with raw sugar.
Put in oven for 15 minutes, then turn baking sheet around so pies will bake evenly.  Bake another 7 minutes, or until pies are browned and you can see juices bubbling.

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April 24th

Today has been pretty boring food-wise...once again a lot of writing taking up most of my day. I'm excited to have more free time this summer to try out some new recipes.

Breakfast: apparently I only wanted round foods.


Half grapefruit, English muffin with egg, cheese and salsa and a hot cross bun.

Lunch:


Baked potato with broccoli, salsa and fat free sour cream and a salad.

Dinner:



Farfalle with marinara and chicken and roasted veggies. And blood orange soda from World Market. Highly recommended.

Snacks: eaten throughout the day, but gathered for a recreation tonight.


Banana, Clementine, hot cross bun, almonds, string cheese, strawberries with granola and Greek yogurt and a brownie. I snack a lot when I write...

Rest of 4/23

The rest of the day was spent writing, but I did manage to squeeze in some good cooking. And a lot of snacks.

To give a general time frame, I ate dinner around 9:30, so you can do the time spacing between brunch and dinner.

Lunch (yes brunch is supposed to be breakfast and lunch. I have no excuse except that coffee cake is not super filling)

Turkey sandwich with salsa and bread and butter pickles and a salad.

Snacks. Spread through the day, but I gathered recreations this morning and got a pic.




Apple, banana, Clementine, 1.5 hot cross buns and strawberries with nutella.

Dinner. This is kind of a two-parter. The pasta was pretty simple, but I gave the recipe for the veggies below. I usually make a big pan of roasted veggies to get me through the week.

Pesto and chicken pasta with roasted veggies

Roasted Veggies
1 zucchini, chopped into large chunks
1 yellow squash, chopped into large chunks
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 bunch asparagus, cut in thirds
1.5 cups diced butternut squash
1 bunch broccolini, ends trimmed
1.5 cups snow peas
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Garlic salt
Italian seasoning
Red pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 400. Line a 9x13 baking dish with foil.
Put zucchini, both squash, mushrooms and asparagus into plastic grocery bag. Add 2 tbsp olive oil, pepper, garlic salt, red pepper flakes and Italian seasoning to taste. Twist the bag closed and toss vegetables until coated.
Pour coated veggies into baking dish; hold on to the grocery bag.
Put baking dish in oven for 20-25 minutes, or until squash is tender but not squishy.
Meanwhile, put snow peas and broccolini in bag and add more seasoning to taste - residual oil from the bag will coat vegetables.
When veggies in the oven are done, remove from oven and mix in snow peas and broccolini; stir until peas and broccolini are covered. After about 5 minutes the new vegetables will be cooked by the steam and contact heat, and you're done!


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Mini love

Yesterday was Good Friday, and in celebration I baked some hot cross buns. Boring. More interestingly, I had pastry crust left over from the crosses and one apple from the farmer's market in my cupboard. My roommate has a mini-muffin plan. There seemed to be only one solution.


Recipe:
1/2 pie crust
Mini muffin pan
1 apple
1/2 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cold butter

Preheat oven to 400.
Use biscuit cutter or round cookie cutter to make circles in pie crust, and press into 12 wells of the mini muffin pan - this should use up about 2/3 of your crust.
Thinly slice apple and cut slices in thirds or fourths (depending on size of apple).
Mix apple slices with cinnamon and sugar.
Divide apple mixture evenly between muffin wells
Cut butter into 12 cubes. Press one cube in each well.
Cut 12 smaller circles (I used a mini-apple cookie cutter) out of the pie crust and place on top.
Bake at 400 for 8 minutes, then reduce to 350 for another 15. Pies are done when the crust is brown and you can see some juices bubbling.



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Brunch 4/23 12:00

Strawberries are in season here now and I am thrilled. The strawberries here are no match for English strawberries in London in the summer, but they work just as well for filling a champagne glass. So for breakfast I had a piece of blueberry-cardamom coffee cake (recipe here)with some apricot jam and an enormous pile of strawberries. And a cup of Five Roses tea, of course.



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Starting this thing off right

I wanted some way to document a huge part of my life: food.  Yes, in part, this is a weight-loss, accountability-building aid.  Mostly, though, I want to show all the pretty food I get to eat because I live in such a foodie city.  So here we go.