So, I am going to join the MWL forum for March, and to fend off the inevitable "diet mentality" where I go berserk in the days preceding (better have two milkshakes and some fried chicken, because starting on Monday, I'm on a diet) I am getting my kitchen ready for MWL. I need to have a clear broth veggie soup already made, and I'll need to keep a supply of fresh raw veg on hand, for front loading.
And my entrees themselves, I am going to keep simple as can be. A starch and steamed or sauteed veggies. I'm remembering a video presented by the Vegetarian Society of Hawaii, where a man spoke about preparing a meal for himself and a guest. It amounted to zucchini fingers and onion, sauteed and served over rice. And the point of his lecture was, we can eat simple. Every meal does not have to be a venture into gourmet cuisine.
Having said that, I also want to prepare a large batch of gravy, and something not-cheese saucy to have on hand. Simple is wonderful, but I know myself and I'll want something creamy and luscious to spoon over my starches after some time has passed. I am aiming for a month of Unprocessed (aka no sauces, which are blended or flour based) but my last try at 10 days ended on day 7 and threw me into several days of almost SAD eating. The *plan* is to go for a month 100% non-processed. The "reality" could well be me after a week or so saying "I want something rich and creamy!" and I'd rather have some low fat gravy to put on my rice and veg, than say screw it and go to Panda Express, you know?
Okay, so here's the plan. Today I'll buy the ingredients for cabbage soup. Tomorrow I'm going to make a huge batch of the stuff, and freeze most of it in smaller sections, where I can get some out later on. Front load soup.
I'm not a salad gal, unless it's drenched in Ranch, so instead of salad, I'll have some easy prep fresh veg like celery and cucumber available. Won't buy that stuff just yet, since Mar 1 isn't until next Monday. Front load salad/veg stix.
I already have rice and potatoes stocked. I'm not going to do anything experimental with the starches. I know how to prepare both rice and potatoes. Polenta? Not so much. I do have lots of spinach in the freezer, and some stir fry veg as well. So I'll be able to 50/50 my plate.
On Saturday I am commandeering the kitchen to make those sauces I mentioned. I can also freeze those in smaller portions, for when my feeble brain thinks it needs something addictive. A good fake cheese sauce will go a long way to satisfying THAT particular foible, eh?
And today, I'm sticking to the program. There is some EXTREMELY good chocolate that I bought myself for Christmas, only a few squares left, and I'll finish that off over this next week so it's gone from my environment on Mar 1. There's some granola bars that I'll need to toss or give away. There's Starburst and Skittles as well. They can go. The one thing I'm hesitating on is the chocolate covered espresso beans. I have a bit of a supply in the cupboard and I'm not tossing them. I think what I'll do is seal them up and stuff them in the back of a bottom drawer. Make them a huge hassle to access.
Need to think about that. They sort of get me through my stultifying, boring, depressing side gig. Keep my spirits up. Boost my morale while I sit for five hours captioning telephone conversations. Anyway, they're high quality and I have a lot of them. Not tossing them. Not going to eat them, though. Not in March anyway. I already tend to limit myself to my PT shifts on Fri, Sat, and Sun. Maybe putting them aside for a month will show me that I don't ACTUALLY need them.
Okay. Getting myself psyched up for this! It's gonna be good!
Not fair. And my scale stays stuck. *shrug*
and I did have a serving. Lemme tell you, there's 1 tsp of salt in a huge pot of the stuff. Like 10 or 12 cups of food and DANG it was salty. I would have rather had it without the salt in the cooking, so I could adjust the salt content for my own palate. But otherwise it had a good flavor. There was a natural spice from the lentils, a little bit of heat from black pepper, and loads of veggies. Celery, carrots, and onions GALORE. No lie. The recipe calls for 8 stalks of celery, 3 large onions, 6 carrots. 
and Wylie got to use his snowblower at long last! I must say, all the white everywhere is prettier than the brown and gray we'd been subject to. But I haven't gotten out and walked in it. 
