Bad Salad, bad!

Dear Hudson Bay Cafe,

I love your big clear windows looking on to College Avenue.  I love your mint jasmine iced tea.  I even love (on occasion) your bagel egg and cheese sandwich.

But I did NOT love your yucky salad today.  Spinach drenched in sweet sticky dressing does not a salad make.  Why would I put sweetener on my salad?  I am not eating DESSERT!  I am supposed to torture myself with sweetened salad???  And almost no feta cheese to spice it up?  Even the onions so gooey I couldn't eat them?

So there you have it.  I am still hungry.

Sincerely,
Ounce

String Cheese

I am renewing my love affair with string cheese.  Here's why: it's strange, it's fun AND it's full of protein and fat, my two favorite things.  This morning I got to talk about things I love with interesting people.  It is always exciting and exhilarating to do that.  When I got home, I discovered that my roommate had left the gas on, so I am even more exhilarated, with all of the windows and doors open and cold air streaming in.  I need two string cheeses this time.

YOU eat this time.

Okay.  This is not my usual post.  I write about what I am eating and how I feel about it. Here's how you can write about what you are eating and how you feel.  To clarify any confusion:

1. You do not have to be LITERALLY eating when you post.  
2. You cannot technically "post."  But if you email me a post, I will post it.  (See all by ELK.)
3. You CAN post by commenting.  Read my post of the moment and then click 'comment.'
4. What you write is this:  what you are eating/ were eating/ are about to eat.  And how you feel about it!
5. Thank you.
6. By the way, I just had a chirashi bowl that consisted of various tunas (red, white, hamachi) and salmon over rice.  It was awesome.  I felt amazing and hungry.  I'm very energetic right now.  I might clean the house.  Oh! I also got that super experience when you accidentally eat a ton of wasabi and your sinuses explode into flame for just a sec.  Loved it.

Plate it

It's even better if you put your one square of dark chocolate on a fancy white saucer.

Dark Chocolate

Must be allowed on the health kick.  Just one or two squares of 73% dark.  Pungent, spicy, bitter.  Today's my first official day of my new job, and all this working from home and self-motivation is going to make me healthier no matter what.  Add to that the wonderful properties of dark chocolate and I am off to a great start. I feel envigorated, full and happy.

This salad is better than restaurant salad

I just got home from another almost 2 hour walk.  Feels like I need 'em these days.  I did stop at the market when almost home for some local red grapes.  Yum.  But all along this was my plan: huge salad of lettuces, carrots, avocado, chevre, tuna and a hot hard-boiled egg from local chickens.  What was I doing before eating hard-boiled eggs hot?  They are truly delicious.  And to think, this kind of lunch could be in my future more often now. . .

Please note:  the Coca-Cola glass contains only water!

I did cry when my book was finished this morning.  But since then, things have turned around.  A long walk, some juicy red grapes, water, and a great salad later, I feel pretty happy.

Breakfast in Bed

So far, it's just a rice cake with sunbutter and banana.  Milo is getting comfortable on my lap.  I am thinking about finishing my wonderful book.  Oh, the last days of vacation, I hope I do you right.

Good-bye sweeties

Get ready for this.  Seriously.  The health kick starts now.  Of course, this is my version of a health kick, in which many eggs and large quantities of butter still rule.  BUT.  Of cookies, I will eat none.  Of cookie-related objects, very few.  Of candy, none.  Of water, let it increase.  And of vegetables, they shall be eaten in large quantities.  Any help/ reminders that I am doing this, when I suddenly forget and drive to the ice cream store, are welcome.  MMwah.  Good night.

Mint Chocolate Chip

It's been a day of upheaval.  Trying to refocus my career, choose a new path, re-load my home, altogether make positive choices for the future and not feel too bruised by past mistakes.  I feel tired, fat, raw, and overwhelmed.  I will eat mint chocolate chip ice cream from Trader Joe's and read my book about the Amazon.  Calgon, take me away.

Tilapia

Note to self: If you make tilapia for dinner, you should make a lot. Still hungry. Quite.

Cookies Require Milk

Today we baked Joan's famous chocolate chip cookies.  First problem, we only had salted butter, not unsalted, and J Russell Mikkelsen is very particular.  This was easily remedied with a short trip to the store and a quick stop for burritos and salad for the starving chefs.  Next problem, he likes them soft, I like them crispy.  Easily solved.  These cookies are not for me!  After one serving today, I will be on a strict cookie cleanse.  Now, we taste.

I think they are absolutely delicious.  The chocolate chips are still melty, and even though they are not crispy, their edges have a faint crunchiness that complements the inner softness well.  Just the perfect amount of sweet and salty.  J Russell says, "Chewy, delicious, soft and gooey.  Like brownie cookie." And of course, after every bite, I need milk.  Cool, sweet, refreshing milk, I desire you almost exclusively for this purpose.  What a lovely early evening surprise from my dear J Russell!!

Kefir-y-nice

I've been drinking Kefir since I was a little girl.  My mother used to drive into Brookline to the Russian store to get it.  Back then, it was strictly plain.  None of this strawberry, blueberry, pomegranate (?) stuff.  Best was Kefir layered over whole red grapes after a run.  This morning I am drinking my Kefir straight from the cup.

It's gloomy here in the Bay area, and I miss the hot days of Hull where the question of "What should I do today?" was resoundingly answered with, "Walk 60 steps to the beach."  The Kefir is going down slowly because a hot drink is probably more appropriate in the cold apartment.  But I love the touch of effervescence and the tang.  I can almost imagine the road I see out the window is the beach, and the clouds are just gearing up for a short thunderstorm, and, in a few hours, we'll be in the ocean once again.  Salty, sandy and giddily happy.