Day Nineteen: JK I'm hungry

As soon as I typed "day nineteen" this popped into my head, of course.

Now that I've relieved my attention deficit, if today's food consumption was ranked on a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being filet mignon, lobster tail, and sour cream and chive mashed potatoes and 1 being a rice cake, I'd say it was a bland 3 (rice cake with a schmear of peanut butter?).

I got to sleep in a little today. We had a two hour delay because it's so cold, the salt couldn't even melt the ice in the school parking lot. For breakfast I reheated a serving of pumpkin spice oatmeal - I didn't add anything this time. I remembered to eat before I left for work and took my standard coffee to go.

I had lunch at a normal-ish time (11:27 as opposed to 10:27) and I had my leftover vegetable stir fry from last night's dinner. See what I mean? Ho hum.

For my snack I had three celery stalks and some white bean hummus. That was the high point of the day. Celery! The high point! Pre-lunch I had had 3-4 kernels of caramel popcorn that Erika brought in from her cousin's popcorn company in Chicago, Let's Get Poppin. It was hands-down the best popcorn and quite possibly the best caramel anything I've ever had, but then I started to worry that it might have butter in it. OMG I want more NOWNOWNOW. Oh crap, I looked online. There is butter in it. Now I have to add another day to this experiment. Now I smell caramel in my apartment. I'm suffering from the "am I hungry or am I bored?" dilemma - especially because I'm watching a movie. I have no calories left for snacks. This is how I feel:

I went to Trader Joe's after work to pick up some stuff for this week (I realize that it's Thursday and didn't I just go shopping?). I have a few recipes I want to try from Vegetarian Times: vegan burgers and satay noodle salad (why does everything have to be called a salad?). I was really looking forward to making vegan burgers for dinner.

Well, all of the "soy cheese" at TJ's had casein in it. I was on my way home thinking "where the hell can I buy some Daiya?! Do I have to stop at Stop & Shop on my way home too?! What is a burger without cheese?!" when it hit me: I have to have a friggin' smoothie for dinner.

Nooooooooooooooo. Today was one of those days when all I can think about is dinner. I actually haven't had a day like that in a long time. I really, really, really wanted a cheeseburger.

Well, when I got home, I realized that my Ninja was in the dishwasher...no biggie, right? I opened the dishwasher and then realized that the stuff in the dishwasher was dirty and it wasn't even half full. Being lazy, I decided to run the dishwasher rather than wash the pitcher by hand, which I knew would take at least an hour (we're on, like, almost hour 2 now).

I decided to have a salad to hold me over before dinner. This wouldn't really count as dinner, since the smoothie is supposed to be a meal replacement. I put together 3 cups of baby arugula blend, a half cup of shredded red cabbage, a half cup of shredded carrots, a half cup of cooked whole wheat couscous (big mistake there at 110 calories), a quarter cup of pea shoots, 2 chopped green onions, 5 sliced Cherub (grape) tomatoes, and 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar (perfect ratio). I wolfed this down ravenously. Still hungry. I ate a vegan cookie. Still hungry. I preemptively logged in my smoothie (with no extra ingredients) and I have 101 calories left. I'm sitting here trying to watch a movie over the roar of the dishwasher, pondering what I can add to my smoothie to make it tolerable. I did stock up on 19 cent bananas at TJ's, but those have a lot of calories.

I'm also going to make a smoothie for breakfast tomorrow for three reasons: 1) Then I can actually enjoy my dinner tomorrow night, 2) I am proctoring the SAT on Saturday morning and I don't really want Friday night's dinner to "take effect" while I'm there, and 3) I have one midterm exam first thing tomorrow and there are 2 other teachers with me so if this happens, I should be safe:

Sorry for being gross.

Pink cup, pink robe, blue smoothie

Anyway, my smoothie is ready! I don't know if it's because I was super hungry or if it's just that good, but IT'S GOOD! Blueberries are clearly key. This time I mixed the protein, super greens, almond milk AND a teaspoon of imitation vanilla extract, a teaspoon of (real!) almond extract (another factor in this smoothie's awesomeness - I freakin' looooove almond), 3/4 cup of ice and a cup of frozen blueberries (hoping the ice would add extra volume). 

So this is where I am today:

Totals	1,161	200	21	52	1,398	50
Your Daily Goal	1,200	150	40	60	2,300	45
Remaining	39	-50	19	8	902	-5
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar

Not too shabby. I guess it's healthier than eating 750 calories. Well, I'd better go get ready for tomorrow...meaning I'd better get horizontal on the couch and finish this movie that's way too long for a school night. 

Day Three: Part Two

I am really having a hell of a day. Tracking meals is proving to be really, really, really difficult and annoying, which is why I always quit doing it. I've never really been satisfied with the Lose it app and I decided to try Livestrong's MyPlate, but it will NOT save any of the custom recipes I am adding. I continue to have to rely on the nutritional data from the Kickstart plan, but it really seems off. Plus, every meal tracking app always has these wackadoo measurements, like grams and milliliters and kilometers and I'm like 

and like 

So I did the best I could today, but I'm pretty pissed off, so that wasn't very good. Here are today's totals:

Fat: 21 g

Carbs: 201 g

Protein: 40 g

Calories: 1,122 (292 under budget and yes, I know this is low)

Even though I have enough rage to melt ice with my eyes and pound out an hour on the elliptical (yeah, or not), I actually couldn't go to the gym today because I can't exercise after I get my allergy shot. Well, for two hours. Which means I could go now. But I'm not. I still have work to do for tomorrow. Grading research papers > gym? It's like choosing how you want to be tortured.

Here's my breakdown of the day -

Breakfast: Green Apple Oatmeal

Yes, leftovers from Sunday's breakfast. These are way better fresh. Oatmeal gets weird in the fridge and everything I save in plastic containers ends up tasting like dishwasher detergent. 

I also had my standard coffee (after a struggle with the Keurig, which only happens at the worst times) and almond milk.

Lunch: Hummus and Sun-Dried Tomato Wrap with leftover curried tomato lentil soup

I put this together last night and I was actually excited for lunch!

I made my first successful hummus by Ninja-ing a can of rinsed garbanzo beans, a clove of garlic, a tablespoon of tahini, 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, some salt, and water (I just eyeballed it until the consistency looked right). 

Look at me resisting the cupcakes in the background

Then I spread about 1/4 cup of hummus onto a Trader Joe's Middle Eastern flatbread and topped it with about 2 tablespoons of Trader Joe's sun dried tomatoes (they come in a bag, not a jar) and and sprinkled some pea shoots on top (the recipe called for sprouts, but I couldn't find them anywhere). This was really, really good and I'll probably have it again later in the week, or maybe even as a higher-calorie snack. I felt absolutely stuffed after eating this with the stew/soup, but I have to admit that I was pretty hungry soon after. 

I varied the recipe a little (with the pea shoots and the flatbread instead of a whole wheat tortilla), but the original nutritional facts are:

Calories: 242

Fat: 6.9 g

Sat Fat: 1 g

Cholesterol: 0 mg

Protein: 10.9 g

Carbs: 38.7 g

Sugar: 5 g

Fiber: 8.2 g

Sodium: 569 mg

Snacks: 

This is what I wanted:

I told you we love to eat

 And this is what I had:

A cup of pomegranate berry green tea and 6 grape tomatoes. 18 calories. Blah. This won't fly tomorrow. 

Dinner: Guacamole Quinoa and some crappy salad

I was craving tacos, so I did the best I could. Plus my avocado is ripening faster than my stomach starts growling, so time is running out. 

This recipe called for 3 cups of cooked quinoa - please be advised that 1 cup of dry quinoa = 3 cups of cooked quinoa before you go mixing things together and having to throw them away like I did. 

While that was cooking (also quite successfully, for the first time ever. I'm terrible at cooking grains), I mashed up the avocado with 3 tablespoons of lime juice, a garlic clove, and some salt. Then I added a diced tomato (recipe called for Roma; TJ's had beefsteak, so I used beefsteak). I also use the term "diced" loosely. The things I cut up are whatever shape they turn out to be; it's no wonder I haven't needed stitches yet because I SUCK when it comes to knives (I thought I would improve if I had brand new ones; nope). I also threw in about 1/4 cup of "diced" red onion (which always means there will be one huge strip of onion somewhere in the mix), 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin, and about 1/4 cup of "chopped" fresh cilantro. 

I omitted the called-for 1/2 jalapeno pepper. If you know me, you know I've had a lot of difficulty with using jalapeno peppers and having eyes lately. For about a week, I was pretty sure that my contact lenses were actually tiny slices of jalapeno. I also left out 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne for obvious reasons. 

Then I mixed it all together and portioned it out (4 portions). Note the giant hunk of tomato and the aforementioned huge strip of onion.

Thoughts: 

1) Why can't I melt cheese on top of this?

2) This might taste really awesome in a taco shell, like a taco substitute (I'm used to eating tacos once a week, which is probably why I got so fat).

3) No, legitimately, I'd cut back on the lime juice and maybe the cumin. I'd also maybe add a little salt (I never say that) and garlic (I always say that).

I was still hungry so I threw together some crap salad with a cup of arugula, about 1/4 of English peas, 5 grape tomatoes, and some pea shoots. I "drizzled" this with 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. I say "drizzled" because it was swimming in vinegar. I legit choked this down because I inhaled vinegar fumes with every bite, which induced a cough attack. 

I packed my leftover quinoa in divided lunchbox packs with arugula on the side. I actualy think it would be good served cold, all mixed together. I'll let you know tomorrow! 

I don't have nutrition facts for this meal because I had to enter each ingredient separately, which was a huge enough PITA (it's an acronym; I don't mean the bread).

And finally, I have to make a plug here. I am in love with a guy named Joe and he is a trader. All of this cooking has forced me to run my dishwasher basically every day and this stuff cleans nasty couscous-crusted cutlery better than anything I've ever used: 

Hey Trader Joe's, want to sponsor me or endorse me or something? Side note: I'm still open to Three Buck Chuck once a week.