Day 16

The menu for the day is:

Breakfast:
Green Glamour Breakfast Smoothie (recipe)
Apricot Oatmeal (recipe)

Lunch:
Lentil Soup
Green Salad with Creamy Chipotle Dressing (recipe)

Dinner:
Fettuccine with Grilled Asparagus, Peas, and Lemon (recipe)
Fresh blueberries

As I'm posting this later in the day, I've actually completed today's menu plan already.

I ended up pressing the snooze button one time too many this morning and was in a bit of a rush to get to my 8 am class. The other day I found a coupon for Dole's new frozen smoothie cup (just take out of the freezer, add juice, shake, and go) and I picked on up at Krogers. I decided to take that with me this morning instead of making the odd kale smoothie on the menu, but I didn't realize when I got it that it had yogurt in it. I didn't have time for anything else and I knew I'd be hungry if I didn't take it, so I ended up drinking it anyways. We'll chalk that up to a little slip up that can be easily avoided next time. Besides, the smoothie was pretty nasty so I'd never want to get one again anyways.

I tried out Amy's brand canned soup for lunch, and it was pretty good. I didn't get to make the salad yesterday, so I tacked it onto today's menu. The can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce smelled so wonderful that I got a dollop on my finger to taste--bad idea, it was insanely spicy! One of these chipotles went into the blender with some pepper, coriander seeds, Pace mild salsa, and vegan mayo. The dressing wasn't as hot as I was fearing it would be (I scraped out the seeds before I put the pepper in the blender), but the vegan mayo did give it a rather odd flavor. I can't really describe it. Once I got used to it, the dressing really didn't make a half bad salad.

Remember that fiasco with this pasta recipe last time? No way, no how was I making that again. Instead I decided it was time to pay Chipotle a visit.

Why yes, that IS guacamole.

Perfect Portobello Burger

This was my lunch for day six of the 21-Day Weight Loss Kickoff. Carla, Helen, and I are going out to dinner at supposedly very nice Asian food buffet tonight, so I decided to keep lunch light and skip the Sweet Potato Fries (again, argh!). This recipe was quick, easy, and small enough to be a nice sized portion snack, so it was the perfect choice.

While I did really like this sandwich, it didn't really photograph very well. The whole wheat bun was dark brown, the portobello was black, the caramelized onions were dark brown, and the lettuce was a very dark purple. Not to mention that the whole thing got kind of soggy and messy immediately. So, unfortunately, no pictures for this one.

I was a little nervous about that great big mushroom since I had never had one before. I love mushrooms, but I recently got a bag of shitakes that were infested with mushroom fly maggots (which you could not tell by looking, only breaking into) so I'm a little weird about the larger ones now--who knows what nasty surprises could be hiding inside! I ended up breaking this one in half once to inspect for any holes, and it turned out to be sound. In the end there was nothing to worry about at all, and I thoroughly enjoyed the mushroom.

The portobello went in a pan with a quarter inch of water, some halved garlic cloves, salt, and smoked paprika. It was done when the water had completely evaporated. I slapped that on a toasted whole wheat bun with the other ingredients and that puppy was good to go. The sandwich originally had roasted red pepper on it as well, but I picked that off half way through because it didn't really fit and it covered up the mushroom flavor too much. I thought I would miss some sort of condiment on mushroom burger as well, but it turned out just fine without it. I would most likely make this again.

This is what I imaged the Perfect Portobello Burger should look like.
Picture taken from http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/portobello_mushroom_burger/.

This morning's breakfast was alright. I made the scheduled pancakes with strawberries and Caribbean Passion Smoothie. The pancakes, being only whole wheat flour, soy milk, and baking powder, were not at all delicious. Last time the mango added some sweetness while the lime added flavor, whereas this time it was basically like cardboard. I ended up eating the strawberries off the top and drenching them in maple syrups, and even then I couldn't even finish the two of them. Next time the menu calls for plain pancakes, I think I'll add a tablespoon or two of cane sugar and some vanilla extract.

The smoothie was interesting. I almost didn't like it at first, but it grew on me over the course of the morning. I bought a smoothie blender yesterday with a travel lid so that all you have to do is blend, pop on the top, unscrew the base, and go. It was very convenient as I was rushing to get ready for my 8 am Organic Chemistry. The smoothie consisted of one banana, one orange, one mango, some pineapple, a cup of soy milk, and some cinnamon. I forgot to freeze the fruit last night so I had to blend some ice with it as well. Pretty tasty, and very filling!



This is actually the Mango Spice Smoothie, but the Caribbean Passion was almost the same except that it had cinnamon in place of serrano pepper.

Day 5

Today didn't go quite as planned.

This morning's menu included a Breakfast Burrito, which I made along with (what was supposed to be yesterday's) a Mango Spice Smoothie. The burrito was filled with fried potato, onion, and kale, and it was quite bland. Perhaps some pico de gallo could liven it up a bit? The smoothie has the word "spice" in the name because it literally included a hot pepper. It wasn't bad, but it isn't a flavor combination that I will be using again.

Potato & Kale Breakfast Burrito

I had a lab for my Fisheries class today which didn't get out until almost evening. That, plus the fact that breakfast was very filling, contributed to the fact that I didn't have lunch today. I was actually supposed to go shopping yesterday but didn't have the time, so I didn't really have the ingredients for today's recipes anyways. I ended up going to Kroger's, but forgot to get something for tonight so I just ended up eating odds and ends like toast and hummus with cucumber. I decided to try some rather expensive vegan dark chocolate sandwich cookies from the store, which turned out to taste wonderful and made an excellent impromptu dessert.

So, sorry for the slacking--I promise to be more on track with the meal plan tomorrow!

To be honest, I'm getting a little sick of the Latin flavors. I feel like I'm getting mostly the same variations of rice and beans with salsa, and am getting bored with it. What I really want are some good Asian flavors. Where is my morning bowl of miso? There are quite a few of these types of recipes later on in the book, so I briefly considered switching around some days. I decided to be patient and just wait it out, however. I'll be happy to delve into some curry, ginger, mushroom, and rich umami flavors in a few weeks.

Due to the fact that I don't own a scale, I thought I would keep track of weight loss by taking measurements, which I recorded on day three. My reading for today asked me not to do that, so I headed out after class to purchase a bathroom scale. While testing it out in the kitchen when I returned home it read 252.8 pounds. I'm normally about 255. I'd say that 2.2 pounds in five days aren't too bad of results! I'll be weighing myself every Sunday and measuring progress that way. This is starting to get exciting!