Lousy Smarch Weather

Thursday & Friday (Days 12 & 13)

Breakfasts: Strawberries and a banana

Lunches: Leftover soup and chili

Dinners: Tofu Lettuce Wraps and Potbellys (Fail)

Well, I made it (sort of). I didn’t cheat all that much, and as of today I’ve lost 10 pounds total since January. Now it’s just a matter of keeping up the will power. I think I will attempt to eat clean more often; I bought my first spaghetti squash, which I will try next week. I’ll keep you posted on the results of that. Otherwise, I think it’s really just a matter of portion control. The tofu lettuce wraps were actually really good, but my husband marinated the tofu so I have no idea what was in it and so, unfortunately, I can’t share the recipe.

This weekend was an epic fail as far as the diet goes. Saturday we went to this amazing hole in the wall Cuban/Colombian restaurant in the back of a grocery store where I had chicken with yellow rice and fried plantains, and an empanada on the side. I was so full from this that I didn’t actually eat dinner, so maybe Saturday wouldn’t have actually been that bad if I hadn’t gone out Saturday night and had like 6 beers. Sunday I ordered Thai for lunch and Jimmy John’s for dinner. I guess I’ll be back on the wagon Monday; I have more strawberries and chili.

In other news, my March Madness bracket this year was anally raped this weekend. There’s 10 bucks I’ll never see again. Oh, and it’s snowing. Like….a LOT. It’s March 23^rd. I get snow in March, I’m from Buffalo; it’s not that surprising. But this is a LOT of snow in March. I’m talking several inches, and it’s still really coming down out there. Lousy Smarch weather.

Lessons for the week:

1. Fatty can’t resist the lure of yellow rice and empanadas

2. I actually know someone who was on Intervention, and it turns out that her episode is my friend’s favorite episode. He was super excited that I knew her. Why I am friends with a person who has favorite episodes of Intervention is beyond me.

3. Apparently Barbie and Ken broke up and Barbie is dating some Australian dude named Blaine? This information was bestowed upon me by the same friend who loves Intervention. He is a many-faceted individual.

Echo Tria Archidea

Tuesday and Wednesday (Days 10 & 11)

Tuesday:

Breakfast: Overnight oats with blackberries (half recipe)
Lunch: Leftover chili
Dinner: Chicken souvlaki and quinoa tabouleh salad

Tuesday was pretty solid, diet-wise. Souvlaki is one of my favorite things ever, I make it even when I'm not dieting:

Marinade/Sauce for Tabouleh Salad:

1/2 c olive oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped
Juice of 2 large or 3 small lemons, plus zest of one
1/4 c chopped oregano
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
salt & pepper

Whisk all ingredients together in a large bowl until combined. Divide in half. I used half of this to marinate about 1 1/2 lb of chicken (boneless skinless breasts sliced into about 1 inch strips), and the other half for the tabouleh salad. Let the chicken marinate for at least an hour, longer if you can, but not overnight. Skewer those bad boys and grill them. If I wasn't avoiding bread, I would normally serve this over a salad with greek dressing, feta, and tzatziki, with warm pita bread.

Quinoa Tabouleh Salad

1 c cooked quinoa
1 c chopped cucumber (seeded)
1 c grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
Feta cheese (I probably used 3 tablespoons-ish, but throw in however much you like, just be aware that it's salty)

Combine all ingredients with remaining sauce from above recipe, refrigerate. Add more salt if needed. I was surprised at how good this was, honestly.


Wednesday

Breakfast: Banana
Lunch: A whole bunch of crap from my boss' party
Dinner: Potbelly's

Diet: FAIL. My boss' last day was today, so I got elected to co-chair her going away party, which I HATE, by the way. All things considered, it turned out pretty well in the end. Our supervisor gave us $100, with which we acquired a cake from Sam's Club (which was excellent, actually. I don't love cake, but they have this whipped cream frosting that's really light), a $25 gift card, and a ton of appetizers including guac, salsa, hummus, a cheese plate, taco dip, a veggie tray, and chips and crackers. Other than the cake, I don't think this would have been horrible for my diet. Guac, hummus, cheese, salsa, and veggies are definitely allowed. Dinner, however...I was just too exhausted to do anything. We had our first day of bird rescue today also, which means I was up at five and downtown until 8 walking the city looking for injured birds. Of course there weren't any. Then the stress of planning this party and the trek to and from Jewel....there was no way I was cooking when I got home. We tried to order Jimmy Johns but their fucking website was down so I got a wreck from Potbelly's. Oh well, hopefully I'll be back on the wagon tomorrow.

Lessons for the days:

1. Jewel's spicy guacamole is really fucking good. Seriously. I was surprised too.
2. I'm still mad at Jimmy John's.
3. It's amazing how quickly 15 adults can down an entire sheet cake. A bunch of them are in my weight loss group. Apparently I'm not the only one having a cheat day.

If You Like Carne Asada, Gettin Caught in the Rain

Day 9 (Monday)

Breakfast: Blackberry chia seed pudding

Lunch: Leftover chicken soup

Dinner: Carne asada and quinoa lettuce wraps

I ran out of one color of quinoa, so I had to combine some red and some regular quinoa to get (almost) a full cup total. It seems to me that if the directions tell you to make a cup at a time, the package would contain full cups of quinoa. I guess that’s how they force you to buy more. Sssstupid.  

Anyway, I made a pot of quinoa and my husband marinated some steak (recipe below). We skewered and grilled the steak and I put a little quinoa, some cheddar, salsa, and sliced avocado on leaves of butter lettuce instead of tortillas. Pretty solid meal. I suppose I could have made some kind of Mexican quinoa, but I plan on using the rest of it on Wednesday and I need it to be plain. I think the salsa gave it enough seasoning.

Steak Marinade:

3/4 c Orange Juice
1/2 c lime juice
1/3 c lemon juice
1/2 c soy sauce
4 cloves minced garlic
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, chopped
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp dry oregano
cilantro
honey
ground pepper

Lessons for the day:

1. I should always let my husband marinate steak.

2. Lettuce wraps are good, but I think I need to lay in a supply of those cauliflower tortillas, or at least figure out how to make them out of some kind of whole grain. They come in very handy.

3. Warm weather sucks all motivation to exercise from me. I just want to go find a patio somewhere and have a daiquiri.

Happy St. Patrick Swayze Day

Day 7 & 8 (Saturday and Sunday)

Well, Saturday was St. Patrick's Day, so that was obviously a total loss. Breakfast was eggs, hash browns, ham and toast….and a shitload of green beer. After that, we went to Chipotle, where I somehow mumbled out enough instructions to the annoyed employees behind the counter to acquire a burrito (I have no memory of what kind, but I pounded the entire thing in five minutes flat). After wandering through the drunken mess that was Wrigleyville at 1:30pm, I decided it would be wise to call it a day and head home, where I promptly fell asleep for three hours. When I woke up I felt surprisingly good, and probably should have attempted to eat better for dinner, but at that point I figured why bother and we got Dominos. 

The good thing about drinking early is you’re usually not hung over the next morning. Sunday was fine and I actually even managed to work out. Lunch was leftover potatoes and Brussels sprouts from a couple nights ago with an egg on top (sort of a hash/skillet kind of thing. It was good). I made turkey chili for dinner. Basically I just followed the directions on the packet of McCormick’s tex mex chili spice packet (I’m not sure if those are clean or not….probably not, but it’s just spices, so whatever). I used a can of kidney beans, a can of pinto beans, two 14oz cans of diced tomatoes, and 2 pounds of ground turkey. I also used about a half an onion and two cloves of garlic, and then threw in about a quarter of a chipotle pepper in adobo sauce. It was pretty damn good, and I now have a metric fuckton of it to see me through lunches this week (and probably next, I may freeze some actually). 

Lessons for the weekend:

1. I think I may officially be too old to start drinking at 9am on St. Patrick’s Day

2. That McDonald’s at the center of Wrigleyville is like a hub for criminal activity: http://www.cwbchicago.com/2015/03/yuck-of-irish-wrigleyville-binge-spawns.html. No surprises there, really.

3. Dominos is never a good idea.

Do you Wanna Taco Bout It?

Day 6 (Friday)

Breakfast: Mango Chia seed pudding

Lunch: Napa cabbage salad

Dinner: Fish tacos with cauliflower tortillas

I decided to attempt this cauliflower tortilla recipe, mostly out of curiousity: http://www.recipegirl.com/2014/05/05/cauliflower-tortillas/. It's a pretty weird recipe, but in the end, I think the tortillas came out ok. You can't really taste a tortilla most of the time anyway, it's kind of just a vehicle for whatever you're putting on it. The only noticeable difference was that these are a bit sweeter than flour or corn tortillas, but I think they actually worked well with the fish. I don't have a microwave, so I boiled the cauliflower, drained it, let it cool, and then squeezed the water out of it. I tried to mix it with the egg by hand, but it wasn't blending well, so I just threw the whole mess in the blender, which seems to have worked much better. The only problem was that the 'batter' or whatever you want to call it is really not thick enough to form any sort of a patty, so just spread it on a heavily oiled sheet pan and tried to get it as large and thin as possible. I made a half recipe, so I ended up with three pretty small tortillas. I would definitely suggest making the whole recipe, which would probably give you about 4 medium sized tortillas. Maybe I just didn't use enough cauliflower. Anyway, like I said, all things considered, these were actually pretty good:



My husband marinated some Mahi and, miraculously, he wrote the recipe down this time (!!!), for which I am extra grateful. It was fucking GOOD.

Fish marinade:

1/4 c Olive oil
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tsp lime zest
1 1/2 tbsp honey
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp old bay
1 tbsp hot sauce
Salt and pepper

We had two pretty big Mahi steaks, we cubed them, marinated them for about an hour, skewered them and grilled them. Seriously. Really fucking good.

Broccoli cole slaw:

8oz greek yogurt
1/4 c chipotles in adobo sauce
2 tbsp lime juice
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp old bay

Combine ingredients and toss with shredded cabbage or broccoli slaw.

Lessons for today:

1. Apparently yes, you can skewer and grill fish
2. Cauliflower is a many splendored thing
3. I really should stop eating cabbage for lunch. I think my coworkers are starting to notice.

None of the Feels

Day 5 (Thursday) 

Lunch: Sandwiches

Snack: Half an avocado with lime and salt, one leftover cookie

Dinner: Steak, roasted potatoes, and Brussels sprouts.

I’m not going to tag this post as ‘clean eating’ because I’m not 100% sure it qualifies. I mean, I think it technically should, except the small amount of butter I used, but Buzzfeed’s definition of ‘clean’ is pretty strict. I guess I’ve been going with ‘nothing processed’, and ‘whole grains only’. I did manage to talk my husband out of putting bacon in the Brussels sprouts, which was an accomplishment.

The lunch was not my fault. I had this DiSC/emotional intelligence training at work from 9-2, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to be ‘that guy’ and bring my own lunch.

As for lunch, honestly, I think the sandwiches were pretty clean other than the bread. They were from Corner Bakery, and I had roast beef (not processed) and it had mixed greens and tomatoes and no condiments. I also had some spinach salad with a strawberry vinaigrette. I guess I could have not eaten the bread but again, I don’t want to be ‘that guy’. I avoided the chips, and skipped breakfast, so I actually ended up with a pretty low calorie count for the day. Here’s what we did for dinner, clean or not:

Steak and roasted fingerling potatoes:

2 tbsp each of chopped garlic, fresh thyme and oregano, divided

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Combine herbs and garlic in two separate bowls, add enough olive oil to coat the potatoes/steak, and salt and pepper to taste. Toss potatoes and steak in the olive oil and herb mixtures (separately). Dump potatoes onto a sheet pan and roast at 350 for at least a half hour. Just poke them with a fork to see if they’re soft. Grill the steaks.

Brussels sprouts:

1 medium shallot

1 medium clove of garlic

About 4 cups Brussels sprouts, quartered

Chicken stock

Butter

Salt and pepper

Put some oil and butter (I used about a half tablespoon) in a pan, melt the butter. Throw in the shallot, garlic, and the Brussels sprouts. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until Brussels sprouts start to turn golden brown.  Pour in a little chicken broth (maybe like ¼ c), cover, and let simmer until sprouts are done to your liking. I like them a little crunchy still, so they only took about 5 extra minutes, if that.

Lessons for the day:

1. Apparently I am a ‘C’, which means I’m questioning, skeptical, cautious and reflective, so I would make a good editor. Duh. And I have low empathy and emotional expression. Also duh.

2. Brussels sprouts are an underrated vegetable

3. Apparently I am not the only one who thinks the cartoon fox version of Robin Hood is sexy. See number 33: http://www.buzzfeed.com/jennaguillaume/what-is-that-tingling?bffb&utm_term=4ldqpgp#.teBZyL1Dj. Also, how young are some of these people?? This one girl was 8 when LOTR came out. And 5 when X-Men was released. I want to cry.

Hump Dayyyy

Day 4 (Wednesday)

Breakfast: Greek yogurt, blueberries, and honey

Snack: Pear, half an avocado with salt and lime juice. Two cookies.

Dinner: grilled mustard/honey/sage pork loin with goat cheese mashed cauliflower

Well, it’s Wednesday. I think I did pretty well today actually, except for the cookies. My coworker’s birthday is Thursday, so I had to bring something in (we do a mini pot luck). I was going to be at a leadership training seminar all day (funnnn), so I had to bring in something that didn’t need to be refrigerated. Everything I could think of dip/appetizer-wise needed to be chilled, so I was left with cookies. Of course I’m not going to make cookies without eating some of the dough, and I mean, you HAVE to taste the finished product. I can’t just assume they’re edible. Oh well. Again, I think this may depend on what your definition of 'clean' is, but I think this qualifies. There's nothing processed, and buzzfeed lets you eat feta, and feta is goat cheese. Tomayto tomahto. I also don't really consider pork to be all that high in fat, especially this cut of it. Obviously stay away from the bacon, but pork loin is pretty lean. Anyway:

Pork loin:

1 pork loin (I think mine was about 2 pounds? It doesn’t really matter how big it is (that’s what she said?). If you have a huge one, or a pork roast, just double the sauce amounts)

¼ c Dijon mustard

¼ c honey

2 tbsp fresh chopped sage

Salt and pepper

Whisk together the mustard, honey, sage, salt, and pepper, and let the pork loin marinate in the sauce for about an hour. Grill it or roast it until it’s done (use a meat thermometer if you’re not sure).

Mashed cauliflower with goat cheese:

1 head cauliflower

½ log of goat cheese

Salt and pepper

This is legit the easiest thing ever. Chop the cauliflower into small florets. Boil until soft but not complete mush. Drain, return to pan, stir in goat cheese, salt, and pepper. It’s glorious.

Lessons for today

1. Reese’s pieces are the devil. I don’t even like peanut butter, but I swear, they’re like crack.

2. God, I love goat cheese.

3. Friday cannot come fast enough.