My daughter studied nutrition at college, after a year of journalism, for two years. Then she dropped out. Urge to kill took me a year to overcome. She ended up working in an eating disorder clinic planning menus for people overcoming anorexia and bulimia. Her job was to plan out huge calorie menus, and to sit with them while they ate two meals a day.
She had started out at Pizza Hut and was quickly trained as a manager, she left that job with my grandfather’s adage my tip to her, “don’t burn your bridges”. After she had the baby this fall, the promise from the clinic of certain days a week work was switched to the days she wasn’t available, and she had to quit. But Pizza Hut hired her back immediately and she is managing there about 25 hours a week.
She is helping me with menu planning at least until I go to the clinic on Friday. Or anyway in general because she knows I like to eat clean, low meat and low dairy, fresh and wholesome foods. She suggested Buddha bowls for lunches, high fiber carb, legumes or low fat protein (eggs, tuna) and veggies. I did this and the first week the gym teacher made fun of me.
What makes a person go out and buy that? He asked of my soba noodles.
They are buckwheat pasta, I said, it tastes delicious.
Why not just regular pasta?
You know the conversation, it is calories in calories out, small meals, lots of exercise, if you would exercise more your body wouldn’t hurt so much. You know what Mr. Gym Teacher, about to retire, you haven’t kept up on the latest nutritional information, and you are a trained chef and you think Soba noodles are unusual?
Why are gym teachers such jocks? 🙂
I want to try PLUS pasta with Wegman’s frozen roasted veggies and chickpeas, with a little olive oil, some lemon juice and asiago cheese.
I cook a section of soba noodles and split it three ways .75 servings, I add shelled edamame to cook while I am making the noodles in the same water, meanwhile Wegmans Japanese Stir-Fry veggies about a half a bag sautéed in a tbsp of sesame oil, with fresh scallions and canned mushrooms, the saltiness of the mushrooms is essential it makes it feel like a special treat and sure as hell beats frozen diet meals and is lower in sodium. I put it in three separate lunch containers on Sunday evening, sprinkling each with Tamari sauce and laying fresh ginger slices on top. Delicious.
Sundays are key too for washing and chopping fresh veggies for the week, and cleaning and preparing the strawberries and whatever other berries are on sale. Expensive I know but better as far as processing sugar for my body.
My only other fruit is my daily banana, usually in a spinach, almond milk and if I have it avocado shake. (One cup spinach, and almond milk, a whole banana, and if I have it about a third of an avocado) press button and mMMMM MM. If the berries are getting yucky I will throw them in too at the end of the week. I have old bananas chopped and frozen if I run out of bananas. Maybe I could do this with the avocado? Since they get mushy so fast.
I cut out breakfast juice on day one.
But despite all this, on the weekends, and now as I sit her first day of break, I cannot manage to eat these things when I am not at work. At home I am a forager. Eating constantly from things that are easy to grab, and not bothering with the healthy stuff. By about three in the afternoon, I am eating a root beer float, or a half a bag of chocolate chips, or wondering if it would be okay to eat another fancy yogurt. I am hopeless.
Short Fat and Crazy 