What it looks like so far

I was worried about what I was going to eat during this nutrition challenge. Basically, for me, everything but fruits and vegetables are out. I did a lot of research ahead of time and that helped. I’ve cooked and frozen food to make it easy to eat when I’m pressed for time.

I was fighting a cold for the first few days and I think that helped me. I wasn’t as hungry as usual. (I was also living on ginger tea. I heard about this during my Chinese medicine classes. They said that at the first sign of a cold you should grate ginger in to a cup, add hot water, let it seep for 20 minutes. Then strain it and add honey and lemon. Everyone in my office was coming down with a horrible plague. When I felt it starting in me I used some ginger tea bags I had and drank it often. I never got the full sickness that everyone else had. Amazing!) I had headaches but I’m not sure if that was sickness or detox.

Meals I’ve had so far:

Spaghetti squash can be made ahead of time and frozen. One big squash makes enough for several meals. I cooked one in the oven for an hour on 350 and then divided it up into several serving sized freezer bags. When I wanted to eat it I baked it straight from the freezer with tomato sauce and veggies.

I made this with one baked sweet potato per person being served. Scoop out the flesh and then mix with flour (I’m using chickpea flour to be WLC compliant) until it forms a dough that you can form into gnocchi. This may not stay together if you boil it so I’ve had it sauteed in rosemary butter and baked. I think the sautee was better. Also served with tomato sauce

I’m using No Meat Athlete’s veggie burger formula. I’m not loving the combination I made. They don’t have much taste or a very good texture but smothered in salsa with some veggies on the side, they are fine. Super healthy with all the beans and veggies in them but not something I’m going to be craving.

I also have portions of cooked wild rice in my freezer and frozen bananas to make banana soft serve. I’ve been alternating being egg muffins and smoothies for breakfast. I snack on carrots, cucumbers, and fruit as needed throughout the day. I have a gallon ziploc bag of produce that I carry to work. I haven’t eaten it all yet but it is there as a security blanket in case I get hungry.

The weekly challenge this week is to talk to three restaurants and see what is challenge compliant. I scoffed at this because as a family with a vegetarian and a person with severe food allergies we question everything we get. I did find out some new stuff though. I asked Applebee’s about their tomato basil soup. Turns out it is made with beef broth so there is nothing for me to eat there. Subway’s oil is possibly olive oil mixed with an unknown other oil. That may or may not be ok to use as a dressing on salads since all the rest of the salad dressings are out. Likewise Panera’s salad dressings are out for soy and/or sugar. The vegetarian black bean soup is ok. I got the fuji apple salad with no meat or dressing. Turns out that has cheese so I just picked through it. (I brought some salsa with me to use as a dressing.) I ate the dried apples on top. Bad – someone else found out that they are coated in high fructose corn syrup. Minus 1 diet point for me yesterday. That made me mad. If I’m going to lose points I want to lose it on something super yummy!

Right now I’m making my own tomato basil soup for lunch and roasting eggplant to make a dip for my veggies.