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.