I’ll preface all of this by saying that I’m not unhealthy. But improvements could be made. Primarily, I’d like to return to a plant-based diet. Back in 2008 I started eating animals again (and blogged about it here).
Most of my complaints about the vegetarian diet were that it was expensive, difficult to buy fresh produce, and I found myself eating high carb meals that consisted of pasta and potatoes.
So starting with dinner last night, I’m switching to a plant-based diet. Notice I didn’t say vegetarian. Notice I didn’t say vegan. I have no intention of giving up meat now. And those three complaints from before (cost, difficult to keep fresh produce, high carbs) are now my challenge. I will start eating affordable, fresh, low-carb, veggie-based meals.
Last night I spent $4.77 at the grocery store.
I bought:
1 box of pasta ($1.39)
Mushrooms ($1.69)
Red Onion ($.73)
Orange Bell Pepper ($.33)
Italian Squash ($.35)
Roma Tomatoes ($19)
Some of the produce (like the tomatoes) was on sale, so I know that my meal was a bit cheaper than normal. And I only cooked half the pasta. I was really happy with how the meal came out:
And then I used the super handy RECIPE TOOL over at CALORIE COUNT to figure out the nutritional information for my dinner. It was kind of hard to estimate the amount of pasta I ate since I didn’t measure before eating. So the number of carbs is an estimate.
To go back to my 3 challenges (affordable, fresh, low carb), this meal was incredibly affordable. The ingredients were all fresh veggies with the exception of the pasta. The only area that I struggled in with this meal was the carbs.
Ideally I’d be eating about half this many carbohydrates in a meal.
I do think this was a solid first try at my new plant-based, affordable, fresh, low-carb way of eating.
I also need to work on finding new ways to cook vegetables. I’m good at roasting vegetables, but that’s about all I know.
And this is just further proof that my $5 went a really long way…look at what I’ve got for lunch today:
Want to hear me talk? As part of the Diabetic Heroes series (hero…wut???), I was interviewed by VJ over at Diabetic365.com. The videos are below and in two parts.
Earlier this week I posted this picture to Facebook:
It’s a cute little one-egg frying pan. I frakin’ love it.
On Facebook a few people commented about how it would be difficult to flip the egg. Some suggested that I might need a min spatula. But that’s ridiculous…and I told the Facebook commenters that. All you have to do is flip it with a little wrist action. Sara suggested (perhaps jokingly) that I video this wrist action. So here you are. It’s just a 30 second video:
It’s not a resolution. I just started thinking that since it was a new year, and it feels like a new beginning, I’m going to make more of an effort to cook good meals for myself.
I”m a fairly decent cook. And for some reason I enjoy cooking a bit more if I know that I’m going to blog the recipe afterward. Some of my past blooking (the verb I created for blogging and cooking simultaneously) recipes include No-Noodle Lasagna and Tofu Nuggets.
So tonight I gathered these ingredients for my original recipe that I’m calling Mike’s mouth-watering Mexican Meatloaf.
You need 1 pound of ground beef, a packet of taco seasoning, 1 egg, some tortilla chips and Parmesan cheese.
Preheat your oven to 400.
In a mixing bowl (or a brownie pan if you don’t have a clean mixing bowl), press the meat and add the egg.
Add about 2/3 of the taco seasoning. Don’t add the entire package! Then smash-up a handful of tortilla chips – these replace the bread crumbs that you’re used to in traditional meatloaf. I use a ziplock bag, but I don’t get them too fine because I like the tortilla chunks in the finished loaf. I also add a handful of the Parmesan cheese.
Form this junk into a loaf and place it on a lubed-up baking sheet.
Then I top the log with more tortilla chips (again not crumbled too finely because these mothers are going to suck up some of your meat juices), more Parmesan cheese, and the remaining of the taco seasoning.
You have to cook this thing for a long time. About an hour! The Parmesan and chips are going to get super crispy. If you don’t like crispy, maybe you should put them on halfway through the oven time.
Yum! If you make this, take pictures and tell me about it.
For Christmas, Dan got a book called Chow Hound. And this morning I decided to give one of the recipes a try.
I chose Here Kitty, Kitty Tuna Pie (don’t let the name fool you…it’s a dog treat). I picked this one simply because we had all of the ingredients in the house already.
Start by gathering your ingredients:
1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil
2 Eggs
1/2 Cup Low-Sodium Chicken Broth
2 Cans of Tuna
2 Tablespoons of Dried Parsley
1/2 Cup of Bread Crumbs
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Coat a 9-inch pie plate with Olive Oil.
In a medium-sized bowl, beat together the eggs and the chicken broth.
Throw in the Tuna. If you’re using chunky (like me), I’d suggest you fork all of the pieces into smaller chunks.
Add the Parsley. Mix it all together.
If you’re doing it right, your dogs should be standing at your feet already salivating over the treat you’re creating.
Pour the mixture into the pie plate, and sprinkle the bread crumbs evenly over the top.
Bake the pie for 45 minutes…or until the eggs are set and the bread crumbs turn golden brown.
Remove the pie from the oven and allow it to cool. You can serve it warm or at room temperature.
I woke up this morning to the great smell of bacon. Daniel was downstairs frying up 2 pounds of bacon.
On Monday we went grocery shopping and bought stuff to make breakfast burritos. Too often Daniel skips breakfast. And too often I find myself searching for something to eat in the morning (I never skip a meal). After he made the bacon, I threw potatoes into the oven and then fried some eggs.
The result is a dozen aluminum-foiled burritos in the freezer.
And then I used the super handy RECIPE TOOL over at CALORIE COUNT to figure out the nutritional information for my dinner. It was kind of hard to estimate the amount of pasta I ate since I didn’t measure before eating. So the number of carbs is an estimate.
You need 1 pound of ground beef, a packet of taco seasoning, 1 egg, some tortilla chips and Parmesan cheese.
In a mixing bowl (or a brownie pan if you don’t have a clean mixing bowl), press the meat and add the egg.
Form this junk into a loaf and place it on a lubed-up baking sheet.
Then I top the log with more tortilla chips (again not crumbled too finely because these mothers are going to suck up some of your meat juices), more Parmesan cheese, and the remaining of the taco seasoning.
You have to cook this thing for a long time. About an hour! The Parmesan and chips are going to get super crispy. If you don’t like crispy, maybe you should put them on halfway through the oven time.
