Day 1 - Food

It's not quite 8pm but I'm ready for bed. I can barely keep my eyes open. I don't know if that is because of the change in foods, the exercise or me. And, I realise that I could technically cave between now and whenever bedtime really is, but I'm doubting it.

I'm calling this one and it was successful. Not necessarily easy. Though, not hard either.

Let's just say that I now officially hate shopping. 80% of the supermarket is made up of foods I cannot eat. Sure, I could eat them Saturday, but Saturday is so far away at this point as to not even exist. And so, when it comes right down to it, I cannot eat so many delicious things. Even if they are "healthy" or whole foods.

By the time I had made it across the entire store and was passing the bakery on my way to the checkout, I was ready to call it quits on the whole thing, order a cake and have a shame party. "I can order a birthday cake for myself on Saturday!" I declared with false bravado. My birthday is nearly two months away.

I didn't buy any cake. Or soda pop. Or fruit.

I bought beans.

Here is what we ate today.

Breakfast was an omelet with spinach, French cream mushrooms, green onion and 1/3 cup of chevrette cheese. No beans anywhere!

I tried using cinnamon in my tea for the first time today. I'm a big fan of chai, but this wasn't much like chai. It made sugar-less tea tolerable but, well, it wasn't the best thing I've ever drank. I suppose, after some time, I will come to prefer this, the same way I came to prefer black tea after a lifetime of drinking it with milk.

Since we had a very late start to the day, our breakfast was actually our lunch. So, when we were at the grocery store around 4:30pm, I started to get shaky and distractible. It was kind of strange. I got clumsy and a bit panicky. I had bought raw almonds and roasted cashews as a snack so while my husband paid up, I ripped into the bag and gobbled back a handful. It seemed to help.

Also for snacking, I picked up a jar of hazelnut spread. It's made of just roasted hazelnuts so it's compliant. Other folks are eating "natural" peanut butter, but - maybe because of my impending case of the hungries - when I stood staring at all the options - almond butter, cashew butter, pumpkin seed butter... - I couldn't help myself and went for the hazelnut butter. Maybe I'll add cocoa powder to it for a compliant "nutella"!

I had a TBSP of that when I got home, too.

Dinner was easy tonight. I made my easy-peasy chili. You can find the recipe here. Scroll right down to the bottom of the post to find it. Instead of two cans of soup, use a large can, or two, of tomato sauce and add extra cans of beans. This is going to be an easy meal to re-heat this week and to pack off with my husband for lunches.

I'm trying to keep up with my water intake. We bought these large litre+ bottles from WalMart the other day and they are perfect.

In the morning, I'll probably go back to scrambled eggs, but then I'll have to make a packed lunch for my 7 year old. Can I keep my hands off his grapes and oranges? Will I be able to resist a sampling of the kiwi-jam my baker sent home to us this weekend? When will I stop feeling deprived?

Breakfast: 4HB Huevos Rancheros and a Recipe

Though we are in holiday mode right now, normally breakfast is a hurried affair. I have to make breakfast for my husband and the little at 7am so that they can be out of the house at 8am. I am not a morning person.

Over the last few months I've generally made oats, most often Scotch and steel cut oats (or Scoats) and then like a sundae bar, there are a number of things to add: cinnamon, shredded coconut, raisins, chocolate chips, various seeds and nuts, etc. Everyone had their own preferences and it was easy to throw a cup of soaked oats into a pot with some milk and let it go while I made lunches and got people dressed.

Now I can't eat grains. And a full fry up is out of the question for a weekday so scrambled eggs and omelettes it is. The easiest of all is Huevos Rancheros style eggs. So yummy!  Whether I can eat that for half of all my breakfast for the next month, six months, year, lifetime... Well, that'll remain to be seen.

I scramble whole double-yoke eggs - two each per adult and one each per child - with a slurp of milk and a good dollop of butter. Over the top I add a tablespoon or two of black beans (though it could be pinto or whatever is on hand) a couple tablespoons of mild salsa and a couple tablespoons of guacamole.

If I had refried beans on hand, I could use them. I could even add some meat like a small handfull of chorizo, pulled pork or shredded chicken.

The key to it all is pre-portioning things like the guacamole, beans and any leftover meats. I use little containers meant for handmade baby food, freeze them and pop them in the microwave while I scramble the eggs up. It couldn't be easier!

Easy Guacamole

2 large, ripe avocadoes
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 tsp sea salt
1 TBSP lemon juice (or the juice of half a lemon, fresh)

Mash all the ingredients together (after peeling and pitting the appropriate parts). Done.