Snapshot of a week

It occurs to me as I look through these posts that a lot of what appears is either really heavy dishes from meals out or my really time-consuming cooking projects. From what’s represented you might think that I spend all of my time in the kitchen and you might wonder how I don’t weigh 400 pounds. The truth is that while food is my passion, and though it does occupy a lot of my time, I really don’t eat or cook this way all of the time.  So, to prove this to both you and me I thought I’d track my meals for one week to get a snapshot of what things really look like. Maybe I’ll do it again from time to time. I’ve also had a few friends ask about simpler cooking at home, and I thought this might give a starting point. Not every meal has to be elaborate or work intensive to be tasty.

In reality, it’s all a balancing act.  What I eat is a mixture of dining out, take out on busy days, large cooking project, and more often, quick meals at home that mix real cooking and pre-prepared foods, mostly from Trader Joe's-- we use TJ's a lot.  Like most of you, I’m busy and don’t always have time to make everything from scratch.  When I cook at home or get take out, I try to keep thing healthy so that I can splurge when we got out to a nice restaurant.  I’m sure things will shift around a bit as I go through culinary school, so it will be interesting to see how things change.

I also workout quite a bit to help keep the pounds in check.  I usually run about two to three times a week for about an average of five miles per run, and do yoga, pilates, or take walk most other days.  (I usually lift weights too, but have become lax in this area in recent months.)

I recorded from the Wednesday before last up until this past Wednesday. It is a random span of days, because it was right between trips.  After we got home from LA last Monday, I spent most of the day sleeping-off our red-eye flight and scavenged from our half empty fridge and cabinets until I finally motivated myself to go shopping on Tuesday.  Then we hit the road again this past weekend.

Because this was a week between trips, there were a couple of slight aberrations from a normal week.  We relied a little bit more than usual on easy meals like sandwiches and semi-prepared foods, as I didn’t want to buy an abundance of fresh foods and have it go bad if we couldn’t eat it all.  I also usually only eat steak very occasionally and somehow ended up eating it three times on this particular week.


Here’s the week’s menu:

Wednesday

Breakfast:
2 egg omelette with onions and green peppers
1/4 cup cheddar cheese
coffee with a splash of whole milk and stevia/sugar blend

Lunch:
Veggie wrap w hummus from Trader Joe's
1 cup of TJ's lentil soup w. veggies
seltzer w. fruit elixir

Dinner:

Salmon (seared on one side, then poached with balsamic herb marinade in the oven for about 4 min)
Cauliflower from TJ's

large glass of wine
grapes

Thursday

Breakfast:
1 cup cereal with sprinkle of dried cherries
1/2 c milk
coffee with 1/2 c milk and tsp of sugar/stevia mix

Lunch:

Chicken wrap with cherry tomatoes and salad tossed with a little dressing, roasted red pepper spread, and sprinkle of goat cheese
lentil soup
2 clementines

Snacks:
wasabi peas (1/4 cup)
7 Everything crackers w. 1 tbsp edamame hummus  (all from Trader Joe’s)

Dinner
whole wheat English muffin tuna melt (prepped by Greg – He usually mixes in a little light mayo and/or sour cream and curry powder.) Light on cheese -- would say less than ¼ cup)
green salad lightly tossed in goddess dressing
kiwi fruit
chocolate square

Friday

Breakfast:
sunny side up egg on whole wheat english muffin with 2 tbsp bruschetta (store bought) and goat cheese
2 clementines
coffee w. 1/2 1% milk

Lunch:
leftover chickpeas and tomatoes with 1/2 cup  brown rice (I’ve been storing these leftovers in the freezer)
lightly dressed green salad

Snacks:
7 Everything crackers w 1 tbsp edamame hummus
small yogurt w. dried cherries
small handful of wasabi peas


Dinner:

Salmon salad:
leftover salmon (flaked)
cherry tomatoes
light sprinkle of goat cheese
1 tbsp almonds slivers
large tbsp goddess dressing

1 chocolate oatmeal cookie


Saturday
We were babysitting our niece for most of Saturday, so I got a tiny glimpse of what it’s like to eat with kids around. I’ve determined that when we decide to have them, I will probably switch to an all smoothie diet that will require only one hand.

Brunch at Good
Omelette with mushrooms, spinach, and gruyere
w green salad
and 1/2 the home fries

small samples from the bread basket - biscuit, corn bread, and the doughnut
coffee

Small froyo with strawberries from YoGo Truck.

Snacks:
fruit juice popsicle
Goldfish -- about 1/3 cup
kiwi fruit

Dinner:

Energy Kitchen Thai Chicken Wrap
and edamame and corn salad
(Energy Kitchen is getting to be one of my favorite quick take out spots in NYC. Everything on the menu is under 500 cals)

Sunday

Breakfast:
English Muffin Egg Sandwich with grilled tomatoes and goat cheese
2 clementines

Lunch:
Chicken and salad Wrap prepared by Greg
Kiwi fruit

 7 Everything crackers and edamame hummus

Dinner

Trader Joe's Bool Kogi Steak
on polenta rounds with leftover corn and edamame salad
salad with spicy peanut dressing

This was one of those meals that was completely thrown together at the last minute. I started cooking the steak and then realized that I had no idea what I planned to do with it. I scrambled to grab things from around the kitchen and Greg and I made it up on the fly, hence the eclectic mix.

chocolate chip cookie and 1/2 glass of milk

Monday:

Coffee
Toast w. Peanut butter and dried cherries sprinkled on top

7 Everything crackers w. edamame hummus

Lunch:
Split with Greg and Les Halles
Beet Salad
Escargot
Steak and frites with Salad
beer

Dinner:
Lentil Soup
7 Everything crackers w. edamame hummus
2 glasses white wine

Tuesday

Breakfast
sunny side up egg on whole wheat English muffin with 2 tbsp roasted red pepper spread  (store bought) and goat cheese
2 clementines
coffee w. 1/2  c 1% milk

Lunch:
chickpeas in tomatoes with brown rice
salad with oil and vinegar
kiwi

Snack
7 Everything crackers w. edamame hummus

Dinner:
Met up with my friend Lu at Haru, our neighborhood sushi restaurant.

Calamari salad

The salad was mediocre, but I their sushi is a pretty good value.

Split a rainbow roll and spicy tuna roll

chocolate chip cookie
1/2 glass skim milk


Wednesday

Breakfast:
Egg on English Muffin w. bruschetta and goat cheese
2 clementines

Lunch:

Wrap made with leftover steak tossed in spicy peanut dressing with greens and tomatoes
kiwi

Dinner:
Shrimp quesadillas with roasted red peppers and onions and cheddar
salad with olive oil and balsamic
beer
grapes