In reading and mentally preparing for this big eating change, I had thought I would really have to stick with whole type days. So for instance I had felt I would need to just have "S" days and "E" days and that I wouldn't be successful at mixing it up. But I have to say that I've enjoyed the different types of meals throughout the day!
E Breakfast: Two slices of Ezekiel Bread (sold on the shelf at Trader Joe's, but also available in the freezer section of most all Publix stores), topped w/ 2 tsp. total of Polaner's All Fruit Raspbery spread + fresh raspberries + fat free cottage cheese. Loved-loved-loved the Ezekiel bread! So thrilled to have this bread option on the plan AND two slices at a time. Makes my midwestern heart glad :-) The raspberries were delicious and I had a cup of Tazo Awake tea, sweetened with Truvia. The only Blah moment for me was the fat free cottage cheese. I think I will either have to bump it up to 1% (totally allowed, but I guess I was trying to "win" by going fat free...) or just skip and do light Baby Bell cheese round instead, because the texture of this just gagged me. I choked it down but only barely.
S Morning Snack: Half an avocado w/ sea salt and fresh black pepper + one 100-calorie pack of roasted, lightly salted almonds. I am definitely seeing a trend here that I will need a snack a couple hours after an E meal. Usually I would not have the handy 100-calorie almond packs, but there were some left over from a recent trip and I took advantage of the helpful portion control - vital since I love almonds!
S Lunch: Fried Salmon Cakes + Tossed Salad. Oooh yeah. These were outstanding! My grandma (who lives with us and puts up with my culinary escapades) and I were drooling over these salmon cakes - think crab cakes but better. The recipe can be found in the book, but the gist is two cans of drained wild-caught salmon, one whole egg, a palmful of flaxseed flour and season to taste. I added in some diced green onion and fried them in coconut oil for about 5 minutes on each side. It's hard to keep salads interesting - don't get me wrong, I love them! But making each one different is nearly impossible, so I stick with the basics and just add in whatever sounds complimentary to the meal. This one had the usual suspects of romaine and spinach, plus a couple thin strips of orange pepper, a bit of purple onion, half of an avocado (again, this was to serve two people) and tossed in just a tablespoon or slightly more of Ken's Ranch.
FP Afternoon Snack: Thin Mint Smoothie. This was just really, really good! Even my husband loved it, and all the kids enjoyed a sip as well. I did not have rolled oats nor sugar free chocolate syrup, so I just used what I had. I blended up the steel cut oats for about a minute and they worked perfectly. Also, I have both vanilla and chocolate whey on hand, so I did half a scoop of each instead of a full one of vanilla as the recipe calls for - this gave it that hint of chocolate that the syrup probably would have. This is another smoothie that if you drink the entire thing by yourself, you're probably closer to an E snack (due to the oats). But I split the serving - still had a full cup to drink! - and thus it was a FP.
E Dinner: Tikka Tikka Chicken + Quinoa + Tossed Salad. It's rare enough to have a meal that everyone (4 adults, 3 kids and a baby not yet eating) enjoys, and this one was really a hit! I served the chicken mix over white rice for the kids, because baby steps here, and on a bed of about 2/3 cups cooked quinoa. I was pleasantly surprised - having NEVER cooked with it before! - at how very quick and easy the quinoa was to make up. I took the package's suggestion and instead of cooking it in water, I used a fat free, organic chicken broth. It was so creamy and fluffy all at the same time. I made the recipe exactly as called for, other than I somehow failed to notice the 1 cup of tomato sauce clearly listed on the recipe when making my grocery list. As a result, I had to sub with a low-sugar marinara sauce, but I don't think there was much of a difference in taste, because oh man! It was yum :-) Salad included romaine, spinach, red and orange peppers, light feta crumbles and tossed in a fat-free, naturally low-sugar Cranberry Vinaigrette (also from Kroger).
FP Evening Snack: Blackberry Cake + 3 oz. red wine (still working through the pinot). Now, I will say that I once again missed some of the planned ingredients in my shopping, so I had to fudge this recipe as linked, but it worked out great. You'll note that the link is for a Pumpkin Pie Cake... well, I set out all the ingredients to whip this up right after the kids went to bed and lo and behold I had forgotten to get any pumpkin! But at this point, I had gotten out all the ingredients and was not giving up :-) So I mashed up four blackberries to equal the two tablespoons of pumpkin the recipe calls for, and subbed a hearty shake of cloves for the pumpkin pie spice. I also haven't had the chance to order any glucommanan, so I used a slightly smaller amount of xanthan gum and I think I achieved the right texture - possibly a tiny bit less would have been just perfect. The recipe as made yields enough for two small ramekin-sized cakes, and one person can have both however my husband and I each had just one.
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