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:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr0jFMlgUuk

And here’s the second part:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNGtUYWIdSc&

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.

Friday night I went out with Drew to Hula’s Modern Tiki…which their website describes as  “Great modern island cuisine and tropical cocktails in a casual, hip environment.”

After that we did coffee next door at Lola’s Coffee Bar.  Then met up with Catherine and Rueben for a gay drink at Switch.

And early on Saturday I went with my sister to California to drop off my nephew.  He’ll be staying at his dad’s house for a few weeks.  We ate at Omega Burger near the Orange Traffic Circle downtown (see photo).

When I drove in Saturday night, Drew was at a pool party and I met him there.  After a few drinks and awkward situation with a guy in Burberry swim trunks that showed his erection,  we ended up back at his place drinking margaritas and listening to my new favorite song on the Direct TV pop station.

Sunday morning I overslept, ate a crappy lunch/breakfast at Jack, and had a great afternoon hanging out with Drew’s huge family.

No fireworks.

And I learned how to play Egyptian War.

Monday I went to lunch with my dad and sister at a Diners Drive-Ins and Dives place called Chino Bandidos.  They cook a Chinese/Mexican mix.  I was skeptical, but loved it.  Here’s my meal:

After the meal I went home and had a most relaxing evening doing close to nothing.

What did you end up doing?

I’ve blogged about it before (here and here) I absolutely love Easter Peeps Candies.  And it’s that time of year again when Easter candy starts filling the grocery aisles of my mind and I find that I can’t concentrate at work because I can’t think of anything else.

Luckily last year we found sugar-free peeps at Walmart and other fine retailers.  When I went to pick up a package at Walmart yesterday I found out that the stupid things have almost 30g of carbohydrates in them.  And I’m not just sugar-free any more…now I’m practically carb-free too.

So if I want to have a sugar-free Peep for dessert, I can – just as long as my entire meal contains close to 0 carbohydrates.  Lame sauce.

And this conversation made me evaluate my own french fry preferences, and I came to the conclusion that I only really, truly like french fries from 2 fast food joints.

Del Taco and In N Out.

What about you?  Is there a fry that you’d kill for?