Two more days, and thinking of rewards

So, the last two days haven't been quite so busy. Sunday was a Church of Baseball day (i.e. we had tickets to the Mariners and therefore skipped out on the Church of Presbyterians). We slept pretty late--the one thing a cloudy summer day is good for, IMHO--and I experimented with a smoothie. I used farmers market blueberries and nectarines, strawberries from our Amazon Fresh delivery, vanilla yogurt, a few chunks of ice, and a smidge of maple syrup to up the sweetness, since the nectarines were tart and the strawberries from California. Nothing against CA, but to me strawberries need a little sweetening unless they're local. It was OK. I need to dig out the blender instead of using the food processor, because the nectarines were a little too chunky, and food processor bowls aren't designed for pouring into a glass. I then made some toast with the honey oat bread from the farmers market, because I just don't feel like I've had a meal unless I have something to chew.

There's really no way to stay on this eating plan at Safeco Field. Not in the 300 level, at least. But since the Food Matters plan isn't meant to be absolutist, I got my Polish dog and french fries and enjoyed them thoroughly. Kidd Valley makes some tasty fries.

Last night was my husband's turn to cook dinner, and since the basil from our container garden has grown lavishly this year, he made pasta with chicken and homemade pesto. The basil was tagged as sweet basil, but we think it had to have been mislabeled and was really lemon basil based on the flavor. Very delicate and lemony compared to other homemade pesto I've eaten, but good.

At 10 PM, after I'd finished the laundry and written my 1000 words on my novel for the day, I got back in the kitchen and prepped breakfast for Monday and Tuesday--a whole wheat blend couscous with raisins, almonds, dried cranberries, and a bit of maple syrup--and Monday's dinner of broccoli salad, your basic Southern potluck recipe but with 1/3 the bacon the recipe called for. I knew I wouldn't have time to cook after I got home from work tonight. My critique group meets on Mondays, and this week we met at a member's house instead of our usual Starbucks, so I had to drive farther than normal.

Today was the first day I really got hungry. The breakfast couscous and banana had worn off by 10:30, despite my not eating them till 8:30, so at noon when I stopped for my lunch of weekend leftovers, I was desperate enough to go ahead and buy my one junk food snack for the week, a bag of potato chips. Sigh. I was hoping to hold out till Friday and make it a treat. But now I know to either bring more food or to go to the cafeteria for some fruit or wholegrain cereal or something. Taking food along can be a challenge, since I commute by bus and have limited fridge space at the office. That said, my afternoon snack of a peanut butter sandwich (I used unsweetened peanut butter and whole wheat bread) and a nectarine proved satisfying, and the broccoli salad was delicious at dinner. We had snacks at writers group, reasonably healthy ones, and I ate them...in moderation. What a concept!

I've decided that if I stick with this plan for a month, I'm going to buy myself enough writing and research books to have a full bookshelf devoted to my writing. (I'm about 1/3 of a shelf away, so that's reasonable if I go bargain hunting.) I've been trying to get to that full bookshelf all summer, and I really thought my Powell's run when we were in Portland last week would put me over the top, but I came up just short.

Yes, I'm a geek. I accept that about myself.

Watch this space in the next few days for thoughts on healthy convenience foods and maybe a few more pictures.

First Day

Saturday is the University District Farmers Market. I got there about half an hour after it opened and bought blueberries, raspberries, apricots, nectarines, Rainier cherries, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and a loaf of honey-oat bread. July is the right time to start eating better in Seattle, with the sheer variety of fresh local produce available.

Since it was also a hot day by Seattle standards--I think the official high was around 85--I decided to make salads for lunch and dinner. Lunch was a BLT bread salad, made using elements of an old Cooking Light recipe and an Alton Brown one. Here's what it looked like in process:



You can sort of get a sense of how tight the quarters are in our kitchen. You can see the smidge of counter space to the right of the stove. There's a similar amount to the left. To the right there's our sink and counter space entirely taken up with a drying rack and a George Foreman grill, and behind where I'm standing is a butcher block currently cluttered to the point of uselessness with assorted food canisters, boxes of cereal, a bottle of wine, etc.

Here's the finished product:



I used butter bibb lettuce, heirloom tomatoes, and sweet onions from the farmers market, plus four strips of good but not especially fancy or organic bacon and lightly toasted cubed French bread. I suppose I could've/should've used whole wheat bread, but I didn't think the sweet taste of whole grain would mesh well with the other flavors, and this isn't supposed to be a diet of absolutes. Dressing has mayo, red wine vinegar, olive oil, and a little salt and cayenne pepper. It was good, if I do say so myself.

Dinner was a southwestern pasta salad recipe I found on AllRecipes.com:



About 8 ounces of ordinary pasta, not whole wheat, because we bought a lot of pasta last time we went to Costco, and I'm trying to be more frugal as well as more healthy. Black beans, corn, bell pepper, onion, and tomatoes. I was going to use the last of the heirlooms from the farmers market, but my 5-year-old kept coming through and grazing on them as I cooked, so I put them in a bowl and gave them to her to share with my husband and put in a can of diced tomatoes instead. Dressing is mostly lime juice, canola oil, and chili powder.

It wasn't as good as the BLT salad, but it was completely edible and left me with two or three servings worth of leftovers for work lunches this week.

For dinner I also threw together a spinach salad from a Fresh Express kit. I doubt Mark Bittman would approve, but QFC had sent me a coupon for a free salad, and did I mention I'm trying to be frugal? And that I'm not a good cook? Hey, it's another vegetable.