I have a long history of dislike for whole wheat bread but Nature's Own wasn't too bad. I was going to make my own, but I was able to get such a good deal on this that I got it instead.
With eggs and salt it was quite good.
Spaghetti squash with "cream" sauce
This was terrible! lol. The fake cream sauce may work as an alfredo substitute on real pasta but it was awful with squash. Both were very mild in taste and it was just a tasteless goopy mess. I'm not really sold on the sauce at all. I'm not sure it actually worked.
I salvaged the squash a little bit by roasting the seeds.
Cauliflower tater tots
These were really good. The only problem is that when they said to drop them into very hot oil my oil was too hot. They cooked to black in three seconds flat before I can snatch them out!
Bacon, Egg, Leek Risotto
This was delicious but took a long time. I guess I should have known that but I've never made risotto before. It's a very long process. Even longer with the brown rice. I couldn't find short grain brown rice so I went with long grain. It was still a tad bit crunchy when I ate it.
I probably should have done this meal on a day I didn't have work.
Will try this again with more time for cooking. As with my previous bacon recipe, bacon makes everything delicious!
Because I forgot to get pepperoni, the pizza bites didn't happen. Will have to save that for next week. Instead I had my graham crackers with chocolate chips and nuts and raisins.
Mon 4/13
Breakfast: Eggs on toast
Lunch: spaghetti squash with "cream" sauce
Snack: cauliflower tater tots with ranch dressing
Dinner: spinach salad with nuts
Grocery List:
Eggs
Whole Wheat Bread (deal on Nature's Own bread next week at Weis plus coupons)
spaghetti squash (2)
big tomato
apples (for waldorf salad, apple snack)
provolone cheese
pepperoni slices
cauliflower (have some but not enough)
milk
short grain brown rice
Already Have:
cottage cheese (?) check pantry
walnuts (?)
yogurt
tuna
mayo
onion
pickles
brown rice
thin beef
parmesean
spinach (?) still good?
leek
bacon
white wine
parmesean
stock (can make from leftover turkey bones)
soy sauce (?)
cheddar cheese
Good Coupon Deal:
General Mills Cereal one box
Free Jiffy cornmeal mix on savingstar
Redpack tomato cans (buy $10 use coupon on three cans)
Gerber graduate grabbers? (baby food as grown up snacks)
Arriving at my parent's place, we decided to go out to eat that night. It was the first time for me going to a restaurant since I started this diet last week.
Usually the "health" options on the menu are not very appealing. Who wants grilled chicken with vegetables? Not me, anyway. It doesn't get more boring than grilled chicken in my opinion.
But this restaurant had a grilled salmon and that was a whole different story!
I happily ordered salmon with asparagus and grilled tomatoes and switched the broccoli side for cole slaw (I like broccoli but only cooked particular ways and I rarely like it at restaurants).
I avoided potato, breading, and we didn't have dessert. Though we did eat some dark chocolate cookies at home.
So that was a pretty good success!
The next day was a brunch and pot luck event. I didn't do quite as well there. Had some brownies. But for the most part I made good choices like wheat toast with almond butter and apricot jelly.
So far for this week we have the following meals planned that I'll cook for my family:
Creamy grits with asparagus and poached egg
Spaghetti squash with regular pasta sauce (my parents were curious to try the spaghetti squash)
Butternut squash zoodle mac and cheese (I don't have a zoodle machine so I'll just be cutting small pieces of squash to be the macaroni noodles)
sweet potato falafel (falafel is one of my dad's favorite foods)
almond crusted chicken tenders (still need to get ingredients for this one)
This week was an odd one because Friday morning we're flying out to visit my parents for a week (and celebrate my mom's birthday!). I'm waiting to plan the meals for those days until I get there so I can plan with my parents and cook for them. They've always loved health food so I think they're going to really enjoy my meals!
Tue 3/31
Breakfast: Breakfast cookies
Lunch: Spaghetti squash carbonara
Snack: apple and nut butter
Dinner: leftover waldorf salad
Wed 4/1
Breakfast: Fruit Smoothie
Lunch: leftovers
Snack: hummus and crackers
Dinner: Spinach salad
Thurs 4/2
Breakfast: Fruit Smoothie
Lunch: Fried brown rice with veggies
Snack: clementine
Dinner: leftovers
Friday 4/3
Since we are going to be in an airplane I am making snacks for today: Cucumber crisps, green bean crisps, and buffalo cauliflower
(Usually I plan Monday to Sunday as a week but this week I'll wait and probably eat food prepared by others on Saturday and then plan out Sunday and the rest of next week from there)
How is it going?
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookies
These were edible! The chocolate isn't ideal for the diet but it made the cookies yummy and I used semi-sweet. I think morning is the best possible time to eat a little sugar since I'll have a chance to burn it off during the day.
I didn't have protein powder so I just skipped it. That was a bad idea. One, protein rich is the principle for breakfast and Two, the cookies were very mushy and my husband pointed out that the protein powder probably acted like flour. Next time I'll use it.
I already had canned pumpkin from the pumpkin sweet potato leek soup last week and I already had oats and most of the ingredients except the chocolate chips (can't keep sugar around this house. I eat it all).
Fish Tacos
A favorite food of my husband's and me as well. I assembled this from various Internet recipes. I had cod leftover from last week so I breaded that and baked it. Ideally I would have used grilled fish but I just love breaded fish too much! So I breaded it in urad flour which is an Indian flour made from lentils and also some flaxseed meal. I also considered using besan flour and semolina for healthier options than breadcrumbs.
The breading mostly fell off while cooking. I've never been able to get something breaded to bake and look like the pictures. Very frustrating. I wish I knew what the secret was to a nice breaded crispy fish or chicken.
There were a number of carb-free or low-carb tortilla alternatives on Pinterest but the one that caught my eye was this one made from plantains. It calls for three and Weis had a sale 3 for $1 so it was perfect. Although, they only had greenish ones and I really wanted to try it with blackened or darkened ones.
I seriously need a food processor! I don't remember how I got by without one!
For the sauce I mixed half mayo and half sour cream then added a dash of Siracha sauce. Not the healthiest thing ever, but being able to eat foods I love is crucial to staying on this diet (and I've already been going without all my beloved desserts like ice cream, fro-yo, and candy bars for nearly two weeks!)
I also had an avocado left from the failed breakfast of last week so I made guacamole from that by smashing it with some lemon juice and salt. And shredded lettuce instead of cabbage or cole slaw.
It was good and I even liked the cod, though that's because it was smothered in the sour cream/mayo sauce! I wish the fish had been crispy.
Waldorf Salad
This was fantastic. I always forget how much I like this. Crisp red apples with yogurt sauce and walnuts. Couldn't be more perfect! The only thing I will change for next time is I'll leave out the parsley.
I had some leftover parsley so it seemed a great opportunity to use it but I really don't like it.
Waldorf salad, crackers, hummus, and clementine in lunchbox ready for work!
Spaghetti Squash Carbonara
I've never been a fan of squash. Okay, that's putting it mildly. I've avoided squash all my life. I have an irrational fear of it. But then this year I was out to dinner with my father-in-law and my dish came with fried butternut squash that looked and smelled wonderful. I was tempted enough to try it and I liked it!
That opened me up to trying other squashes. Though not summer squash. That still looks really gross to me!
I first heard about spaghetti squash at Weight Watchers. Since then I've heard about it a lot as a substitute for pasta. I've been really wanting to try it.
The first thing I discovered is that it is super hard to cut. I was afraid I had bought the squash for nothing and I wasn't going to be able to do it. But then I looked up a YouTube video and it worked perfectly.
My next question was whether I was supposed to pull all the pulp out when I removed the seeds. That pulp looked like the stringy stuff I'm supposed to end up with. But it seems that it is removed based on my Google search. Reminds me a lot of carving pumpkins as a kid!
The other thing to keep in mind when doing this meal is that it will take a lot of time. Roasting the squash first takes about an hour and a half. I'm lucky that my work shifts are mostly in the evening (4 to 10 is a typical one) so I have time in the mornings to make meals.
When finished this meal was absolutely delicious! I loved it. The bacon and caramelized onions really help!
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