I’m learning a great way to start
your day off is a fruit blend (plus exercise and tea) and the Great Green Fruit Blend was no exception. I mean surprise, surprise: I, the guy with a crazy
sweet tooth, likes the fruit blends more than the vegetable juices: who
would’ve thought? But all kidding aside, I can’t get enough of these fruit drinks.
Between the banana, pear, apple, coconut water and strawberries, you can’t get
much sweeter. A fruit blend means it’s going to be a great day, and the diet
continues. We’re five days in and about to embark on a whole new adventure
(just juice), but before we do there’s a couple meals left.
Mid-Morning Juice:
The Mid-Morning Juice was Refreshing Fennel-Pear and for me, Fennel brings to mind one
thing and one thing only: black licorice. If you were to ask my brother (go
ahead ask him) he would tell you that you he loves black licorice and it’s all
because of me. See, I don’t like black licorice, I prefer its sweeter cherry
cousin, so I would avoid eating any kind of black licorice and the most common
one I’d come across would be black licorice jelly beans at Easter. My brother
swears to this day that I’d eat all the jellybeans minus the black licorice of
course and he would be stuck eating all of the black jellybeans. Well I guess
after years of this, he discovered he likes black licorice and it’s all thanks
to me… I like to think this story is semi-embellished but I guess there could
be some truth to it (no matter how small). So long story short, I was a little
worried about this particular juice because fennel was one ingredient and pears
were the other. As it worked out this juice was refreshing and the pears were
very sweet with only a mild and pleasant black licorice after-taste. I like
this juice and I’m sure my brother would love it.
Lunch:
Baked Zucchini with Tomatoes and Herbs
and a Reboot Green Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette. The zucchini reheated fine
the next day and still retained its natural buttery goodness (how could I have
ever not liked squash?). The green salad I made was pretty massive and
definitely filled me up and the salad dressing made all the way back on Day #1
held up nicely. I’m really getting used to eating all these salads again, it’s
just too bad that soon all this will change. When I was trying to lose weight
originally back in 2006 when I first got back from Iraq, I ate salads almost
every day and it wasn’t a big deal. It seems like only recently I’ve turned
away from the light and started snacking in the dark side. Not that my meal
choices are necessarily unhealthy, they just don’t add up to my recommended
vegetable servings a day (so I guess that would be unhealthy) and that’s what
I’m really hoping to get out of this, eating more vegetables and enjoying it
again.
Afternoon Snack:
Speaking of eating more vegetables,
the Crunch & Munch was exactly that: raw carrots, celery, cucumber, broccoli
and cauliflower (bleck!). For the most part I was loving this snack, with the
exception of the cauliflower; there are just certain vegetables I don’t get
along with and cauliflower is one. I blame it on the South Beach Diet that
convinced my wife to make a mashed cauliflower side dish to replace mashed
potatoes that had the very distinct smell of rotten garbage. I can’t say I’ve
ever had the pleasure of drinking the liquid that congeals at the bottom of a
large green dumpster but I can only imagine if I did it would taste a lot like
that side dish. So me and cauliflower are not exactly best buds, but luckily I
still had some of the Mustard Vinaigrette to mask the flavor and help me
soldier through it.
Dinner:
For dinner I was on my own. Jaclyn
had clinical until 10pm so it was on me to stick to the plan and create a meal
rather than buying one (I get lazy when cooking for one, it’s depressing). Not
only was I cooking for one, but I was making Garam Masala Spiced Collard Greens
and Sweet Potato and Bok Choy Soup; both sounded scary to me (not the meals,
just making them). I think the Collard Greens scared me more than anything, mainly
because I didn’t have the slightest clue how to prepare them or even what they
looked like (Jaclyn had done the shopping while I was at work). I started with
the soup that for most part was cut and dry. I guess the only part that was truly
scary was the Bok Choy and a quick Google search and YouTube video cleared up
the mystery. Then it was on to the Collard Greens. Once again, with the aid of
YouTube I was able to figure out where to start and what I was doing. On my
own, dinner well… it took a bit longer than I expected. It’s always nice to
have a partner in the kitchen and the hole was definitely felt with Jaclyn’s
absence. But I can say that after the smoke cleared I made a pretty tasty meal
for myself (and hopefully for her, too). The Sweet Potato and Bok Choy Soup is
a keeper recipe. My family already makes a Vichyssoise (potato leak soup) that
I grew up loving so it wasn’t a hard jump to this one. The sweet potatoes lived
up to their name and were just that sweet, and the leaks and onion gave the soup
a nice flavor that was complemented by the Bok Choy. I thought the Collard Greens
came out alright tasting, sort of like a mix between spinach and Indian food,
but the soup made this a fantastic last meal considering it will be my last…
That is until Day #11 and right now
that seems like light-years away (okay not really but I’m a sucker for being
dramatic). After I finished my dinner my night wasn’t over, actually far from
it. I had to work in the morning and so did Jaclyn so there were juices to be
made. That’s right, tomorrow marks day numero uno in our straight juice diet.
It took awhile to knock all the juices out (matter o’fact that’s why this blog
is late), but I managed and now I need to get some rest for the first day of
the rest of my diet…
Day #5 Complete!
Total Cost of Diet for Two: $75.30*
*This is actually the cost for days
#5 & #6
No comments:
Post a Comment