Another Lost Weekend! (kind of)

Hello, faithful readers! 

I spent the weekend in New England, visiting my bestie Katie and her sweet family. Katie's a vegetarian/darn-near-vegan, so I wasn't too worried about slipping too into processed food land. Plus, you may remember, I set out to do Unprocessed Weekdays only. 

I spent most of Thursday in airports, but I brought snacks to sustain me and was really happy not to have to buy shitty airport food. All in all, I was about five hours delayed to Boston, so when Katie picked me up armed with a leftover piece of pizza wrapped in foil, I thought nothing of gobbling it up. It was a slice (or two?) of veggie pie from Trader Joe's, so I choose to believed it was as unprocessed as frozen pizza could possibly be. 

The next morning Katie made us all oatmeal with walnuts, banana and honey. We took her baby girl to the pediatrician and then treated ourselves to the Whole Foods salad bar. I was on vacation so I didn't pay attention to the weight of grape tomatoes or anything (I'm usually pretty skimpy on the weightier toppings in an effort to save cash). I was pretty hungry so any food that looked remotely good went into my cardboard carton.

My favorite find was a Mediterranean tuna salad, which I think I'll make at home as soon as I remember to buy capers. Other goodies included cranberry quinoa salad, marinated mushrooms and shredded beets. 

Friday night I had my first experience with brown rice pasta. We tossed it with chickpeas and sun-dried tomatoes. I'm making a similar dish at home tonight and still find brown rice pasta a fascinating concept.

Saturday we went apple-picking! It was a quintessential New England experience, and the weather couldn't have been better. 

We picked a bunch of varieties and sliced some up when we got home. They paired perfectly with almond butter and crackers. I've really missed crackers, by the way. I'm sure I can find some decent unprocessed ones, but I love stone wheat thins and they have all kinds of mysterious ingredients. 

Dinner Saturday night was a mushroom burger at a local bar. It wasn't the best thing I've ever eaten, but I was getting my once-a-week red meat fix and it did the trick. I ate the bottom bun but not the top, and I helped Katie go to town on some sweet potato fries. 

Sunday I had a delicious Chicken Cuban sandwich from a local bakery. Not the worst thing I could eat but it broke some rules. Then I caved at the airport and ate dinner at Subway. 

Not the best track record I've recorded, but I still feel good and am back on the wagon: I had my usual breakfast, a big salad with chicken, chickpeas and tomato for lunch, and brown rice pasta, sauteed mushrooms and kale are on the menu tonight. 

And now for a gratuitous photo of the star of the weekend, Baby E! She sticks her tongue out when she smiles, and it's pretty much the best thing ever. 

Cheater cheater, pizza eater.

So, about that pizza…

Yesterday was a little rough on me. Part of it was my fault, as I stayed up way past my bedtime the night prior to watch Terminator 2. I studied it like I was going to be tested on plot, characters, symbolism, etc. It was actually pretty fun to approach a viewing that way. But it was also tiring. I didn't let myself sit on the couch for fear of nodding off, so instead I sat/lay on the hardwood floor, sometimes kneading my back and leg muscles with my trusty foam roller (still working on some ailments) and sometimes using it under my neck as a sort of uncomfortable (read: non-sleep inducing) pillow.

Anyway, my alarm yesterday morning went off way too early for my liking. As I mentioned, this Unprocessed October business is helping me sleep more soundly, but that deep sleep means it's a lot harder to wake up in the morning. I felt like I had a T2 hangover.

I had an unprocessed breakfast of steel cut oats with honey and strawberries and a fried egg, did a little work at a coffee shop, then headed into the office for a meeting with a Cashew Cookie Lara Bar in hand. Lunch time rolled around, and since it was Wednesday, my (lovely, generous) company was treating us to pizza from one of my favorite pizza places in town. I did my best to avoid the kitchen where the pizza boxes were, and I settled in to my desk with leftover quinoa with Sicilian chick peas and kale (are you tired of me talking about this dish yet)?

Then I got a phone call from a customer and it was just plain tough. I'm still processing (heh, no pun intended) the experience and picking out things to learn from it, but in short, it was confrontational, uncomfortable and frustrating for all involved. It completely drained me, and before I left the office for a quiet night at home, I sat in the empty office kitchen gnawing on room temperature pizza and reading a waylaid Reader's Digest. Not pretty.

I know I shouldn't beat myself up over two pieces of pizza. But I would be way prouder of myself if I had a shitty day and *still* took care of myself by sticking to the Unprocessed challenge. I'm not proud of giving in to pizza yesterday, but I am proud of the fact that I put some thought into getting back on track today, even though I'm spending most of the day in airports.

This morning I woke up and had another delicious, hearty breakfast of steel cut oats (with honey and strawberries) and a fried egg. After a coffee meeting I reheated a small bowl of my vegetarian chili (which was way more tasty after sitting in the fridge for a day) and prepared some snacks for the airport:

+ Cashew Cookie Lara Bar (duh)
+ hard boiled egg
+ corn tortilla chips
+ apple

On the way to the airport I got a text alerting me that my flight was delayed, so Neil and I went to Frothy Monkey and I ordered the Royale, which is smoked turkey and swiss on multigrain. I am sure that sandwich wasn't completely made of whole foods, but Frothy has pretty high standards for its menu offerings and I trust it was close enough to meeting my parameters for Unprocessed October.

Lots o' delays in air travel today, which is kind of a bummer, but I'm Boston-bound to squeeze babies and enjoy fall in New England. If I could just get out of the Philly airport...

I just scarfed two pieces of pizza.

...but I'm not ready to talk about it just yet.

Whole foods October

My pal Matt says it all. "Unprocessed" October is a misnomer. I'm eating all kinds of processed foods, like tortilla chips and honey (but not together) (but I might). I like to think of it as Whole foods October, with a little "f" in foods to keep it from sounding like I'm advocating a particular grocery chain. For the record, I haven't set foot in that place since starting this experiment. You can buys whole foods at Kroger, you know.

One of the reasons I decided to take on this challenge is because I knew I was doing too much mindless eating and making excuses to eat dumb stuff that I knew wasn't good for me. And the challenge is working. I'm not sampling baked goods in the office kitchen (you know, just to be polite), I'm not eating white rice just because it's in the rice cooker, and I'm not putting sugar in my coffee just because it's easier than buying a bottle of honey to keep at work. Oh, and I'm not eating out just because I'm too lazy to prepare something for myself.

Today at lunch a colleague asked if I felt any different -- like if I was sleeping better or felt more focused or something like that. I replied that I thought I was sleeping better but it still felt too early to tell. I've been thinking about that question all day, though, and I will say I am getting more comfortable with notion of not feeling full. It's hard to get that "stuffed"feeling when you're mostly eating vegetables and whole grains. You end up just feeling nourished and not much else. And I think I'm sleeping better because I stop eating earlier in the evening.

Food choices for today:

Breakfast: Steel cut oatmeal with honey and a fried egg
Coffee with honey and milk (like three cups)
Black bean and sweet potato tacos (yum!)
Cashew Cookie Lara Bar
Vegetable Chili

If the bread I bought last week is still edible, I might make myself an open faced sunflower seed butter and honey sandwich to close out the night. While I watch Terminator 2, because (confession time) I, um, haven't seen it. And I think I need to see it to be able to fully appreciate a performance of Terminator the 2nd on Monday night.

Day o' veggies

Here's a peek at the Sicilian chickpeas and kale I whipped up last night. Onions, garlic and raisins add a bunch of flavor.

I was planning to eat that for lunch but lunch bunch was a butternut squash dish I couldn't pass up. And it was supposed to be served on top of couscous, but I has some leftover spaghetti squash that needed to be eaten, so lunch was...squash on top of more squash.

And it was delicious.

I also snacked on some apple slices, but it didn't keep me full all afternoon. I ended up snacking on some leftover quinoa and chickpea n' kale goodness around 4:00 p.m. Then I came home and decided to try the vegetable pancake recipe I found. Here's a shot of the batter:

I used bagged broccoli slaw (mostly because it was on sale at the grocery store on Sunday) and added sweet potato and and onion. It was...not bad. Next time I'll saute the veggies before adding them to the batter, because they're difficult to cook evenly. I squeezed a little lemon on the pancakes and topped 'em with a dollop of Greek yogurt. No photo because they just didn't look too pretty. 

Other than oatmeal, honey, bananas, a fried egg and a Cashew Cookie Lara Bar, that's it for my food choices today.

Craving dark chocolate, but trying not to think about it. 

The First Lost Weekend

That Coke was damn good...

It did the trick, and I don't think I'll be needing another one for a while. Friday night I snacked on tortilla chips and homemade hummus before heading to the waffle party, and as a result, I wasn't too hungry when I arrived. I sampled some sausage chili topped with cheddar and sour cream and had a few bites of a Belgian waffle topped with apple compote and whipped cream. Yum.

I was up early the next morning and had a fun day of shopping for gifts in preparation for a trip to visit babies next weekend, Oktoberfest in Germantown (braaaaaatwurrrrrst!) and beer drinking on a patio. What did I eat, you ask?

Well, here are my Saturday food choices:

Breakfast: Toad in the Hole (unprocessed) and a veggie sausage patty (pretty much the most processed thing in my kitchen)
Coffee with honey and organic milk
Snack: Hummus and tortilla chips (unprocessed)
Lunch: Bratwurst with peppers, onions and mustard (most likely pretty processed, but it was from a high end restaurant, so maybe it wasn't so bad)
Snack: Butter pecan ice cream (all natural, but chock full of refined sugar, no doubt)
Beer: Fall Lager from the Yazoo taproom, in case you were wondering (unprocessed)
Dinner: Whole wheat linguine, kale, egg, parmesan and scrambled veggie sausage (not so bad until you get to that processed-to-bits veggie sausage)

Today I lazed about in the morning, catching up on recorded TV shows, and then I grocery shopped. Stupidly, I left my water bottle at home, and by the time I got to Kroger I was thirsty and craving something fruity. After checking every label on the fruit juice and smoothie bottles in the produce section, I gave up. I ended up with a cart full of unprocessed goodness, though.

I felt okay about veering from Unprocessed October for the weekend, but since I started cheating on Friday I told myself I'd get back on track Sunday instead of Monday. I'm proud to be able to say I did it, as illustrated by my Sunday food choices:

Breakfast: Steel cut oats with honey and sliced banana, poached egg, green tea (unprocessed)
Coffee with honey and organic milk (unprocessed)
Snack: Hummus, salsa and tortilla chips (unprocessed)
Lunch/Dinner: Wedge salad and a grass fed burger patty from BurgerUp (unprocessed)
Late snack: Greek yogurt with honey and homemade granola (unprocessed, with perhaps just a bit of refined sugar)

I also spent some time planning meals to make this week. Here's the rundown:
+ Sicilian chickpeas with escarole and caramelized onions (adapted: I skipped the sugar and subbed kale for escarole)
+ Slow cooker chili (I think I'll add sweet potato or pumpkin)
+ Vegetable pancakes
+ Unprocessed mac & cheese

The chickpea dish is about the easiest dish to make, ever, and it should go great atop the leftover quinoa in the fridge.

Here's to a good week of good eatin'.

Friday Night Cheater

I just made a decision. I am going to drink a Coke.

When I agreed to this Unprocessed October business, I only agreed to weekdays. But then my pal had to go and throw a waffle party at her house tonight, so I decided at of now, 6:00 p.m. Central, all bets are off for the rest of the evening. I need the caffeine to put a little pep in my step before party time, and I think I miss high fructose corn syrup. There. I said it.

I have no every intention of getting back to my Unprocessed ways pretty quickly over the weekend. Because really, it's not that hard.

Oh, quickly, here are my food choices for the day thus far:

Breakfast: a piece of unprocessed toast with sunflower butter and honey

Coffee with honey and milk

Snack: Lara Bar (Cashew Cookie, what what)

Lunch: Leftover quinoa stuffed pepper, broccoli, and a few tortilla chips with salsa

Next up, Coca-Cola Classic, waffles (which I'm told are made with buckwheat, but also probably sugar.

See you on the other side, friends.