No More Experiments

I spent all of last week trying to eat wheat-free, since I felt so good during Unprocessed Week, but I gave up on Friday.  It hadn't been a particularly successful experiment, and I decided (finally) that maybe a doctor would have better insight as to what might make me feel good.  I can be pretty stubborn, so it took me a while to get here, but I now accept that I can't figure it out alone.  On the up-side, I am now once again eating whatever I want.  Yesss!  Sure, I felt good during Unprocessed Week, but I ultimately found it unrealistic as a lifestyle choice anyway.  Especially if I want to continue to eat in restaurants, which, obviously, I do.

Friday I was in a slow mood, and decided that I would go into the office on the late side.  I watched Top Chef while I ate my leisurely bowl of oatmeal (HOW is Robyn still there?!), packed up a "I have no interest in making lunch" type of lunch, and got to work a little after 10. Knowing that the weekend is imminent, I find Fridays much more bearable, which in turn means I need far fewer snacks.  I guess that reveals how much of my eating is psychologically provoked.  Although, honestly, I really do less work on Fridays, so I need less brain food.  Also helps when you don't get to work until 10... :)  Anyway, this was my food bundle for the day: plain Chobani, PB Puffins, a pear (which I unsuccessfully tried to cut up with a plastic knife), a banana (wrapped in foil... helps keep them from bruising in transit), and a Pistachio Larabar.

FYI, Pistachio was totally disappointing.  My Larabar Hot List: PB&J, Ginger Snap, Key Lime Pie, Coconut Cream Pie, Cocoa Mole, and PB Cookie if PB&J is unavailable.  Please share your favorites!  (Of any bar!)  My new friend (read: only friend) in Dallas, David, spoke the wise words: "No matter what the label says, Larabars should really be called 'Dates with a Twist'."  I couldn't agree more, but it turns out I sure do love dates and twists.

After work on Friday, I met up with Rachel for a drink at 'inoteca in Murray Hill.  I have been to the original one on the Lower East Side, and I actually found them to be extremely similar in terms of overall vibe and even clientele, as unexpected as that may be for two such extraordinarily different neighborhoods.

Rachel and I each enjoyed a very large glass of their 2002 Petraro wine.  Rach, did you like it?  I really did.  I thought it ended up going well with the food we ordered, but it also stood up on its own.  We ordered a small dish to share, the Salsiccia skewer (sausage), which was served with gigante beans.  At least, I think that's an actual type of bean.  Maybe I'm making it up?  I'm not!  Martha confirms.  Our host mom in Spain used to use these, and sometimes alubias, another white bean I really like.

So, some poor planning ensued, and I ended up needing actual dinner right after we left the restaurant.  Amanda had met up with us to give me my stuff for the 5th Avenue Mile race on Saturday morning.  She had registered for the race but couldn't make it, so I ran in her place... as her.  (Amanda, I got you a 7:32 mile!  I have NEVER run that fast ever.  I was pretty happy.)  Anyway, Amanda came with us in search of a place to eat in Murray Hill, and we settled on a diner.  I learned my lesson long ago to only eat breakfast foods at diners UNLESS you see something that someone else has and it looks good.  I have had a lot of bad diner salads.  And pancakes are hit or miss.  Eggs are always safe, so I went that route.  2 poached eggs, WW toast, and a baked potato because they didn't have home fries (?).  Does that strike anyone else as odd?  If they had potatoes and onions and fire...  Whatever.   It was probably healthier.  We debated ordering drinks -- what was that one?  the Cold Hard Screw? something hilarious -- but we all decided that the comedic value of ordering a cocktail at a diner was outweighed by the fact that we didn't actually want to drink.  Then Joanna and Ariel met us!  I feel like that doesn't happen much anymore... that spontaneous weekend "let's all meet up!"  But it was really nice.

Since I didn't make my pasta sauce for dinner as intended, I decided to cook up the ingredients when I got home anyway, just so I had them if I wanted to eat on a whim. Unfortunately, I did end up eating them on a pretty gross whim at 2am on Saturday night.  Ew.  My "sauce" was based on a Spanish dish my host mom used to make for us called pisto, which she stuffed into eggplants with cheese.  It included:

2 small tomatoes (needed more tomato to be more sauce like, and maybe tomato paste)
1/2 baked eggplant (slit and rubbed with EVOO, baked face down for 15-20 minutes at 425*)
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 yellow onion
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup spinach
3 white mushrooms, sliced
1 very small zucchini
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp oregano
1/8 tsp salt

All cooked up in a pot with EVOO.  I wanted basil too, but I didn't have any fresh, so I left it out but picked some up from the farmers market on Saturday and will add to what's leftover.  And then it was early to bed for the race!

PB&O

Wednesday morning I had all of you faithful blog readers in mind, and I brought my camera with me just in case. Well, I actually took pictures! This is a little something I picked up at WF to make my morning oatmeal feel more like home (sniffle):

They also make Maple Almond Butter, which I've had before as well. I love the little squeezy pack, and I make it last 2 days. I added this and some Starbucks dried fruit to my oatmeal. Now if only they were real oats...

My co-workers left me around lunchtime to attend a 3 hour meeting -- a meeting, mind you, that I was originally expected to attend until my manager said not to bother. I wavered between being offended and relieved, but I think I'm settling with relieved. It's not like I would have had anything to contribute, but it WAS one of three very important meetings over the next 2 months.

Insulted or not, I was able to photograph my lunch for you, since there were no co-workers around to judge. Small salad:


Olives, artichokes, string beans, sunflower seeds, tomatoes, and cukes. This was a very good day at the salad bar. I get small salads and make them totally overflowing to spite the cafeteria and their absurd prices. (It's priced by container size and not weight.) I also could swear that depending on who is at the cash register, my lunch costs something different. I considered asking why, but opted not to. I would care more if it were my own money.

I also had a baked potato with a little sprinkle of cheddar cheese, but it looked really ugly beneath the glow of fluorescent lights, so no picture. But it was surprisingly satisfying. Sometimes I feel more like I'm done with a meal if I've had something warm.

I had my ginger snap Larabar in the middle of the afternoon. I opened it up and it seriously smelled like I was baking cookies. Mmmmm... It was a good one, up on my faves list now. I am considering buying in bulk, especially for the elusive PB&J. Hanukkah gift, anyone?

Typical Tuesday: Ode to Whole Foods

Why is Tuesday night different from all other nights? Because on this night we go to Whole Foods! I like to go to WF on Tuesdays to stock up on snacks for the week and to get dinner. I had a deeeelicious black bean soup and a mess of a salad bar concoction, as it always seems to be. The WF stores in Dallas (I've been to 3 of the 4) are a little different than the ones in NY. There is more prepared-meal type stuff in Dallas, which is nice for mish-mosh prevention, but there isn't an Asian bar or an Indian bar the way there is at Union Square. And yes, there is often a Tex-Mex station. I really love eating dinner at WF at least once a week, because it feels like real food, as opposed restaurant food. It's as close to cooking for myself as I can get while on the road. I realize that with $40 a day I could get something more high class, but it works for me.

This week's snacks: ginger snap Larabar, blueberry Pure bar, dark chocolate, apple, plum, white peach, bananas. It's kind of fun to try to buy local foods in a different state because they're all different than what's local at home! While still not local, I'm much more ok with buying fruit from Cali when I'm in TX vs when I'm in NY.

I brought my glorious dinner back to the Executive Lounge at the hotel and had a nice big free glass of wine (tell me that isn't baller), and blogged! I like going to the Executive Lounge because there's wireless, and I like being around people. Not like I'm chatting people up, but I get lonely otherwise. Also there's only wired internet in the rooms and I get restless just sitting at the desk.

Now I give you photos of my room this week (experimenting with lighting). Keep in mind this isn't even the nice section of the hotel.





Tuesday night also happens to yield my favorite TV event: The Office on TBS from 9 to 10pm Central. I love it! I only started watching regularly last season, so I have a lot to catch up on. This week's new episode was great, by the way. My favorite line was when Jim said that they were playing the game correctly "if Point A is delusion and Point B is the hospital."

Ohhhhh Jim Halpert, why aren't you a real person?