Reboot Standard Plan Day #2

Breakfast:

A smoothie for breakfast? Now you’re talking. Today started with a nice refreshing Blackberry Kiwi Blend that was everything I wanted it to be and more. It was sweet and delicious and also pretty filling considering all the fruit involved (see website for details). The only thing that had me worried was the fresh mint - I’m not a huge mint fan. I mean sure I love mint gum, and candy canes during Christmas, but this was different. I’ve had fresh mint in Mojitos before and didn’t really like it, but luckily the fruit flavors overpowered the mint and breakfast was awesome. This is something I could see having for breakfast a lot more often.

Mid-Morning Juice:

I’ve never really been a fan of tomato juice; to be honest I’ve never really been a fan of tomatoes. I mean, I love marinara sauce (more to come on that) and ketchup but that’s where I used to draw the line. Jaclyn got me to try the South Beach Diet with her probably little over a year ago (little did she know I’d have this lying in wait) and during that time I had to drink a lot of low sodium V8. Funny thing about that was; all of a sudden I could drink tomato juice no problem (even could enjoy a Bloody Mary but that’s a different blog). So when I read the name V28 for my Mid-Morning Juice I was kind of excited. It had a fresh Jalapeno in it; it had to be good, right? Right? But it wasn’t to be; I’d hit my first wall and the walls’ name was beets. I was always a big fan of the Nickelodeon show Doug but clearly it was misleading. The V28 (thanks to the beets) smelled like a moldy basement and luckily (sarcasm alert) had a taste to match. The saving grace was the Jalapeno (muchas gracias) because it gave the juice a spicy aftertaste, but unfortunately not spicy enough to make you forget what you just drank. The most appealing part of this drink would be the deep magenta color, which in my humble opinion is the best thing the beets brought to the table (okay, okay besides nutritional value).




Lunch:

For lunch a Carrot-Dill Salad and Dried Apple Rings. We don’t have a food dehydrator but thanks to the power of the Internet (thanks Google) we were able to find an easy way to make these little babies. Forewarning though, if you don’t have a dehydrator it took some time (three hours) so plan ahead. We got the apple rings started early and they were a tasty treat to go with lunch. Hey, I just gave up candy so I’m going to be leaning hard on the fruits (nature’s candy, right?). Carrot-Dill Salad was also prettying refreshing. The fresh dill was really tasty and also gave the salad a nice bouquet if you will.

Dinner:

Once again we missed the afternoon snack (just not hungry enough I guess) only this time we didn’t get out of making it because you need it for lunch on day three. But as dinner was rolling around I found myself fighting cravings for the first time. “For the first time?” you might be saying to yourself. “But you’re only less than 48 hours in”. This is true but I’m trying to stay truthful here and tell it how it is, so yeah I had some cravings. I could almost taste our homemade marinara sauce (see told you I’d mention it again). But that wasn’t on the menu tonight. Tonight we were having Roasted Acorn Squash stuffed with Mushroom & Sage and Green Vegetable Soup… I was one of those kids that never really liked squash (I do now but bare with me). In fact, at one point when I was visiting my relatives and my Aunt served me Zucchini I might’ve faked a heart attack. And as you know heart disease runs rampant in most eight to ten year-olds. So whether it’s the residual stigma from that or the fact that I wanted homemade spaghetti so bad I could taste it, I was reluctant to sign on to the dinner menu. But begrudgingly I did and started with the squash and stuffing prep. The squash was pretty cut and dry, it was the stuffing that killed me. Not because it was different, but because of its similarities to making something else. Let’s see if you can guess. First you take a medium saucepot and add olive oil. Then you dice up an onion and mince some garlic and add it to said saucepot… Did I give it away? This is the same way you start a marinara sauce! I was dying. But when the stuffed squash did come out of the oven I have to say (even though I burnt the edges a little) it was pretty fantastic. The stuffing was really flavorful with the garlic, onions and portabella mushrooms and the squash was naturally buttery and was all together awesome. Green Vegetable Soup, well, I can’t really complain too much, I mean the cooked spinach scared me (might have been another heart attack vegetable from my youth) but really if anything it was kind of bland and honestly, after my beet fiasco bland is fine with me.

Day #2 Complete!

Total Cost of Diet for Two: $99.97