MmmCarb's Good Food Journal

[MmmCarbs]

Weird food day for me. The kitchen is a mess and I'm out of some staple foods. Didn't have enough lunch and had bread for dinner.

B: oatmeal, cherries
L: hash browns, veggies (tiny portion)
S: banana
D: 2 bagels, apple
D2: oatmeal, cherries
extras: 1/2 girardelli square

[MmmCarbs]

Another slightly unbalanced day. I'm having some GI issues which I suspect came from taking antibiotics recently. All my good flora is probably killed off. I wish things would get back to normal.

I've worn out my nonstick skillet since starting this plan so I went to BB&B looking for a new one. The old one had just lost its nonstickness entirely. So I got a pan, and also a new chef's knife and steamer basket.

I'd gotten way behind with dishes so had to wash 3 times because I didn't have enough drying space to do them all at once. There are still a few left to do.

B: oatmeal, cherries
L: potatoes, veggie stew
S: banana, bread
D: hash browns, veggies, pineapple
extras: dark choc, gin/tonic

I've almost finished the 3rd loaf of bread. I used the Artisan bread in 5 minutes recipe, which leaves you with enough dough for 4 small loaves.

[MmmCarbs]

Shopped and cooked today so this week should be better food-wise. I baked the last of the bread dough and gave the loaf to the DF. Also made rice, sweet potatoes, veggie stew, steamed carrots, and tried to make kale chips again but they got burnt. Last time I made them it took over 30 mins, so I wasn't watching the oven very closely. After ten mins they were burnt and inedible. I was bummed since I'd just paid four bucks for the kale. Oh well I had used a bit of it in my veggie stew so it didn't quite all go to waste.

B: oatmeal, cherries
L: hash browns
S: banana, apple
D: rice, veggie stew, berries, steamed carrots
S2 oatmeal, cherries
off-plan: 2 cupcakes, slice mushroom pizza, bread

[MmmCarbs]

Weight was 121.8 today. So either I've lost or the 123-124 readings were temporary water gain. I've seen this number so many times it seems like it wants to be the new normal.

Today's food
B: oatmeal, cherries
L: rice, veggie mix
S: apple, banana
D: raspberries, smashed potato, air-pop
off-plan: slice cheese pizza, salt on the air-pop

I tried the smashed potato cooking technique someone posted here. I nuked a big potato on my way home from work, then when I got home I smashed it into my new nonstick skillet and browned it. It was really good.

I haven't salted air-pop in ages. I used to think all the salt just falls off of air pop but it really tasted salty to me. Not sure if it somehow held the salt better or I'm just so much more sensitive to the taste of salt.

Hadn't exercised in several days (a week?) It felt good to do a little again. I did overhead presses with my 8 lb weights and bodyweight squats.

[MmmCarbs]

I had a no-junk day!

B: oatmeal, cherries
L: rice, veggies
S: banana, apple
D: sweet potato, air pop

Still hungry after that woefully inadequate dinner, I think I'll have another bowl of oatmeal or else hash browns.

[MmmCarbs]

Wt 120.8

B: oatmeal, cherries
L: chipotle bowl bean/rice/salsa/lettuce/guac
S: banana
D: hash browns, veggie mix
junk: salty-crunchy mix

Exercise: squats, pushups

The junk bowl is back at work! Turns out it had just been removed temporarily due to some construction work getting dust everyplace. It was so much easier not to eat salty-crunchy junk when there wasn't a big open bowl of it that I walk by several times a day.

The couple days lately that I didn't eat junk I noticed I felt a *lot* hungrier. I think I've gotten used to getting a couple hundred easy calories a day and when it's not included, I'm not eating enough volume of real food.

Added a dab of exercise. I'd nearly gotten out of the habit. I'm gonna aim to do something Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

[MmmCarbs]

B: oatmeal, cherries
L: Subway veggie delite with avo
S: banana, nuked potato
D: ww pasta, curried veggie/garbanzo stew
off-plan: martini

Tried frozen spinach instead of my usual collards. Seems a bit tastier than collards. I added beans to the stew because I was really hungry at dinner time.

I'm not missing bread this week. I had a Subway 6" roll today but haven't had any at home. Maybe I kinda burned out on it.

Really sorry to read of Nancy's passing. She seemed like a pretty cool lady.

[MmmCarbs]

B: oatmeal, fresh berries
L: rice, veggie stew, BBQ sauce, pineapple, berries
S: air-pop with salt
D: hash browns, veggie stew

Had a dinner party yesterday. The guests had steak but I stuck with on-plan foods (baked potato, broccoli, veggie stew, salad) except the salad had a bit of dressing on it and there was ice cream for dessert with berries. Then I consumed quite a bit more ice cream later. Kind of a shock to my system, both due to the fat content and the sugar. I haven't eaten ice cream in a loooong time. I sent the leftover ice cream home with the DF so I wouldn't eat more of it.

Stocked up at the grocery. I was out of the essentials. Unfortunately I had to throw out a big bag of russets that had sprouted. They had sprouts from about the 2nd day after I bought them. I probably could've returned them to the store & complained. Lesson learned, don't buy opaque plastic bags of potatoes. Got a few apples. I'm eating apples pretty regularly now. Sometimes apples don't seem appealing, and they can kind of upset my tummy, but lately I'd rather have an apple than another banana when I've already had one or two that day. Also really enjoyed the fresh berry mix leftover from the party (raspberries, blueberries, blackberries) mixed with some canned pineapple.

[MmmCarbs]

Watching Rip Esselstyn clean out somebody's refrigerator on Netflix Streaming. He's tall and handsome but this movie is a bit slow going. Oh well, perhaps the cooking segment will be more fun than the pantry-cleaning and shopping segments.

B: oatmeal, cherries
L: mashed taters, veggies, sweet potato
S: banana
S (off-plan): potato "puff" junk chips, smoked almonds
D: hash browns, corn/veggie mix, pineapple

[MmmCarbs]

Got my bloodwork results. My total cholesterol is 147. I'm happy to know that, although I have no idea what it was back when I was eating worse. My TSH was somewhat concerning to me, it's 3.94, but they didn't flag that as an issue.

I've had more personal stress lately, and it lessened my motivation to keep the junk out of my diet. Paradoxically I also lost a bit of weight, since I eat less overall when the stress is high. I get a bit of a tummy ache from the junk, so I'm trying to pay attention to that. If I can't motivate myself from weight and health perspective, you'd think a strong possibility of an upset tummy would do the trick!

[MmmCarbs]

Just peeking in here. I haven't updated in a while. I'm doing well lately, having many days of 100% compliance. I've gotten interested in early retirement through aggressive savings and expense reduction. Having that increased cost consciousness has helped me cut down even further on the restaurant lunches and processed food. I'm glad I found this WOE and had already established the habit of cooking my own meals.

[MmmCarbs]

Made some no-knead refrigerator bread again this week. I used maybe half ww flour, and it still rose up enough to be tasty. It's a bit dense but not too dense. The batch made enough for 3 loaves. I have to say I like the first loaf better despite the claim that the flavor improves as the dough ages.

Found a new frozen veggie mix and I'm just going nuts with it. It's broccoli, red pepper, corn, and black beans. I've been eating an entire 8 oz bag for lunches over rice or ww pasta.

Debating whether to get Fast Food 2 Burgers and Fries. I love Jeff and the original FF DVD, but I'm just not so big on either bean/veggie burgers or oven fries. But perhaps I'm missing some secret way to make them yummy!

[geo]

Hi! Noticed your comment about the no-kneed bread. I just got that artisan bread in 5 mins book and it looks soooo good. Does the bread come out as good as it looks? I'm going to try some for my family. I can't have it yet but I love the smell of real bread baking lol.

I've read that the only way to make a WW loaf that will actually rise and not be overly dense is to add some "vital wheat gluten" into it. Evidenly the gluten is what makes the difference.

Have a great day!

[MmmCarbs]

Hi Geo,
Yes I do find this bread delicious, especially the first loaf of the batch. My SO enjoys it too.

I used the recipe here http://jezebel.com/easy-bread-recipe/ which is a further simplification of the basic no-knead recipe that I've used a couple times before. The difference I noticed was that this variation leaves out the step where you use steam in the oven to form the crust, and instead increases the heat in the last few minutes. Of course I leave out the "oil the pan" step and instead use parchment paper.

With about 1/3 ww flour and 2/3 all-purpose, I was pleased with the texture enough that I don't think I'd bother to add vital wheat gluten (actually I'm not sure I've ever seen that in the store anyway). The loaves I made with 100% all purpose flour were definitely a bit fluffier and lighter.

I'd warn you not to cook a loaf directly on a metal surface. I tried a loaf on a metal pizza pan, it stuck so badly the bottom crust tore off. Tried another on a non-stick metal pizza pan, it stuck so badly it removed the non-stick surface! Since using parchment paper it's all been fine, even though the paper browns a bit due to the high temp.

[MmmCarbs]

Tried making a vegetable soup without any stock using veggies plus stuff I found in the SO's cabinets. It turned out pretty tasty:
- bag of frozen "vegetable soup mix" veggies (okra, carrots, onions, not sure what else)
- dried noodles (they probably had some egg in them)
- white rice
- enough water to barely cover it all
- salt, garlic powder, celery salt, pepper, dried thyme

It ended up tasting surprisingly like chicken soup. I accidentally overcooked it so the rice and noodles ended up a bit mushy. I'm not having any trouble finishing it though.

Also made the 3rd loaf of refrigerator bread. Next batch I'm going to decrease the salt a bit. I really enjoyed this bread with a bit of fruit spread. It just wasn't quite good enough to eat plan.