Say Yes to Salad

My weekend was rather awesome. I went home on Friday night to New Jersey to finalize some wedding plans. Quick Friday recap…

Work. Oatmeal (I think?). Work work work. Salad from Organique (organic chicken, broccoli, and grilled onions with some Asian-ish dressing). Work… NJ! We took the train to NJ with Kate and Simon and chatted the whole way home. Red Lobster. Red Lobster let down. (Multiple) apples and Sabra hummus to make things all better. I think there was some walking at some point in there too.

Saturday was the first day of spring. My dad made waffles and I had them with some of my sister’s Artisana macademia nut butter (holy yum) and my dad’s homemade syrup (yes, he taps our trees every year and boils it down).

After breakfast we walked over to Rita’s for free water ice. Every year on the first day of spring, Rita’s opens and gives out free cups of their yummy flavors. I actually opted for sugar-free rootbeer, because I still can’t bring myself to eat/drink calories that are pure sugar (essentially soda). It’s one of my food rules. We all enjoyed our ices.

Bobby and I grabbed Edo’s takeout and it was strangely disappointing. Edo’s is one of our places that we go every time we’re in NJ and it just didn’t hold up this time. The soups were salty and my Buddhist delight was dull. Bobby said his salmon don was not that great either.

Dinner back in the city didn’t make up for the streak of bad restaurant meals either. We went to Aburiya Kinnosuke for Japanese food with some people who were in town. This place has a Michelin star and is very expensive. But… it’s tapas. I hate tapas. I hate sharing and family style. Long story short, I ended up ordering my own thing (so did Bobby; we got our own check). Bobby was amazing – earlier that day I’d had a bit of a meltdown specifically about this kind of situation and he indulged my finicky behaviors. I love that man.

After dinner I got ice cream at McDonald’s. That made my night. $1 ice cream cheered me right up.

Source.

Today my brother was in town (he actually came last night and brought our piano) so we took him to brunch at Quantum Leap as thanks. Another bad meal! I ordered the macro plate because I was sad about not going to Souen this weekend and it was so disappointing. The service was horrible too and they kept making excuses.

I just realized I said my weekend was awesome and then I went on and on about how horrible all my food was. Just goes to show that life can still be awesome even if the food is sucking!

After my brother left I made up for the bad meal with a Whole Foods coffee and a long walk by myself around Chinatown. Got lots of groceries, came back, hung out with Kate. For dinner I made corned beef that I had picked up at Pennington Market back in NJ. (It was a special packet that included the seasonings.)

Corned beef recipe – cover beef with water (1 inch above), add spice packet (looks like a tea bag), bring to a boil (uncovered), cover and simmer for 3-4 hours. Add cabbage for the last hour (chopped up roughly).

Eat with kabocha and mustard. I pulled a Heather and had my second bowl with whipped cream cheese. Oh. My. Goodness. That was the best.

Dessert was another McD’s ice cream cone, and exercise was a walk on the Upper West Side to look at a couch and arm chair (which I think we will get).

I am now officially over my rambling and I am off to bed. I hope your weekend was as lovely as mine. What did you do?

Here is a quick recap and then I’m going to snuggle and hit the hay.

Work. Oatmeal. Work work work. Chipotle. Work work work work work. (I like the work. Like, a lot.)

Hang out with Kate! Eat Kate’s yummy cooking. She made me tuna. Kate and I used to make tuna all the time when we were younger. We would go frolicking out in the woods and come in starved – then we would create a tuna concoction and eat it plain. Some of our favorite ingredients were…

• tuna (duh)
• mayonnaise
• mustard, especially the kind with seeds
• honey
• egg whites
• random spices

Even at age 10 we loved to eat.

She also made asparagus (with olive oil and soy sauce) and spinach (with olive oil and garlic). And there were crudites (carrots, peppers, cucumber) with a mustardy dip. After eating we talked about blogging and chatted and had a really good time together.

I walked home, which was a little over 2 miles. I actually walked to Kate’s after work while chatting with my mom, which was another 3 miles. Walking home was actually really nice. I haven’t been doing yoga much recently (because my mind is going too fast) but sometimes I need that time to let my mind go blank.

I’m having dessert now, which is a bowl of ripe kabocha!

What did you have for dessert today?

Quick and dirty post. I have a picture in my camera but it’s not here, and it’s actually not that pretty. It is GREEN though; I should have posted this for St. Patty’s day yesterday.

Maggie’s Green Mung Bean Seaweed Coconut Delight

Ingredients (makes 2-3 servings)

• 1 cup dry mung beans (mine were split)
• 3 cups of water
• 1-2 tablespoons coconut oil
• a few handfuls of dried seaweed (wakame is good)

Directions
Dump everything in a pan. Bring the water to a boil, then turn it down to a simmer. Cook, covered, until beans are done. Depending on the beans this could be 40 minutes or it could be an hour and a half. Just keep testing them.

It is AWESOME. I promise. Chockfull of (good) protein, vitamins, and minerals. It even has some healthy fats (coconut oil).

The trick about the oil is that it keeps the water from boiling over. You must use the (healthy) oil.

Yesterday - I walked to work (2 miles), then walked home as well (4 miles total). Sweet. I’m trying to get back into my walking habit; it seems like I am able to maintain my weight more easily when I’m walking regularly. Instead of sitting on my butt (which has grown, and is now a good cushion).

Breakfast was my bean concoction (above), lunch was chipotle (veggie with guac), dinner was from Gourmet Park, and dessert was kabocha. I think I had an apple in there too, and some diet sodas (can’t seem to kick this habit; oh well). Was definitely enough food, and it wasn’t too much eating at night. Oddly enough I wasn’t that hungry this morning. I like being hungry in the morning so I am going to try to shift it even more – less at night, more during the day. This is an ongoing experiment and this blog WILL keep me accountable. I am so tired of being tired of not fitting into my pants.

Tonight I’m going to see Kate and we’re going to strategize. She is going to cook for me. Great cook.

I’m back to work. What’s your favorite weekday breakfast? I think mine is oatmeal (which I had this morning).

Another eventful day at work. Can’t say I’m not busy!

I’ve been keeping a list of articles or links that I want to post about, but I keep forgetting. Here they are now:

To Drink Or Not To Drink?

Source.

This article talks about how it’s important to drink a lot of water… except just before and after eating. So many people (including myself) forget to do the simple things that make digestion easier. I may complain about my stomach, but I have to be honest with you – most of my belly troubles are my own damn fault. The lesson? Don’t drink 20 minutes before or after a meal. It’s that simple.

My next link – I have had cold hands and feet since I was in high school (way before I was ever eating disordered). I googled some remedies, and found this page:

Warmer Hands Naturally! Ten Easy Free Tips Help Cold Hands

Source.

Obviously an article written solely for the purpose of SEO, but actually useful and informative (unlike some of the articles I write for the same purpose).

The gist? It gave some physical things you can do that don’t really solve the problem (keeping covered, exercise, don’t smoke), but it also gave some other interesting insights:

• The wrong kind of calcium supplement can be bad for circulation
• Margarine is bad as well (duh)
• And some supplements can help (ginger, fennel, cayenne, potassium, niacin, iron, B C E vitamins, lecithin, Ginkgo Biloba, ACV, etc…)
• They note that eating meat could help as well.
• Then there are “warming teas” like sarsparilla root and fenugreek (neither of which I have tried, and I am a tea fiend, so I must!).

Another thing the article said that I thought was very important was that you *must* must must wait 30 days for a dietary change to have an effect on your health. You can’t just go around changing your eating habits willy-nilly and expect something to result in a week. It just won’t happen, especially if you are tackling an issue that has been around for a while.

More tips:

• Be aware of anxiety and other fear issues (ha) and deal with them (double ha).
• Try to breathe better (more deeply).
• And try to stop stressing.

The descriptions of reasons why a person would have cold hands and feet seem to describe… well, me. So maybe I’ll try the tips.

Onto foods and rambles and journalness. More links later!

This morning I walked to work. For the last week I was kind of in non-exercise mode (no reason really, aside from the fact that New York was rainy and gross and I didn’t feel like doing anything) but today’s glorious sunshine got me energized and happy. So I did 2 miles in the morning light while chatting with my dad.

The day was busy and eventful, and my lunch was a lovely break – a macrobiotic meal of random steamed veggies and roots with my favorite: miso-tahini dressing. This meal does not get boring to me because I am constantly changing the veggies. I have a nice rotation going on – spinach, broccoli, burdock, sweet potato (purple), kabocha, carrots, daikon, and probably some others I am forgetting.

I also made a delicious bean concoction earlier this week and I’ve been having it often – it makes an appearance at breakfast and either lunch or dinner most days. Recipe in the morning!

Since I’m still at work I don’t know what dinner will be, and I don’t know what else I will do tonight. Perhaps a leisurely stroll home (probably not – I don’t like lugging the computer more than I have to). Perhaps a snuggle on the couch with Bobby. Perhaps eating kabocha comfort food while watching Biggest Loser.

If you didn’t check it out already, Kate and I started up a cool concept for a blog. It’s about women and food and eating the damn cake.

I’m off to chug some water and wait at least 20 minutes before I eat. What do you do on the weekday nights?