Monday, April 26 - Week 17, Day 2

BREAKFAST:

Original:

• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 serving hot cereal (3/4 oz dry)
• 1 tsp. reduced-calorie margarine
• 1 cup skim milk
• coffee or tea

My adaptation:

• 1/2 cup apple juice
• 1 serving cream of wheat
• splenda and cinnamon
• 1 cup skim milk

I forgot to buy orange juice, so apple juice is just fine. There is nothing new here. I like cream of wheat, but usually with pounds of brown sugar. I did oversalt it by accident, so it was quite a bit more savory than I was used to. I dribbled a bit of my apple juice into it as an experiment. I'd rather just drink the apple juice. It didn't add much to the cereal. Oh, and it feels every bit as pathetic in my stomach as it looks in this picture. 3/4 oz is exactly HALF of what the Cream of Wheat box calls a serving. 1 1/2 tablespoons dry. Who eats that much? That's pathetic. It could have fit in an applesauce bowl with plenty of room to spare. Good thing I put breakfast off until 10:30, so there's not much longer until lunch.

******************

LUNCH:

Original:

• 3 oz. broiled chicken
• 1/2 cup steamed green beans
• 1/2 cup steamed mushrooms
• green salad with sliced tomato, savory vinaigrette, and 1 tsp. imitation bacon bits
• 1 slice whole wheat bread
• 1 tsp. reduced-calorie margarine
• 1 small apple

My adaptation:

• 3 oz. baked chicken (meat from 2 drumsticks)
• 1/2 cup canned green beans
• 1/2 cup carrots
• green salad with sliced tomato, lite Italian dressing (I just realized I forgot the tomato.)
• 1 whole wheat breadstick
• 1 small apple

This was a LOT of food for a lunch. The chicken was just baked drumsticks that I had lightly rolled in bbq sauce before baking. The breadstick was wheat, leftover from yesterday's lunch. I've never been a big fan of chicken dark meat, but it was nice and moist, and the "dark meat" flavor was nicely disguised under the barbecue sauce. A good lunch! I'm full.

**********

DINNER:

Original:

• Ham Strips with Rice and Water Chestnuts
• 1/2 cup cooked yellow squash
• 1/2 cup cooked asparagus tips
• sliced cucumber and radishes on lettuce with tarragon vinegar
• 4 oz. red wine
• coffee or tea

My adaptation:

• Ham Strips with Rice and Water Chestnuts
• 1/2 cup zucchini
• 1/2 cup cooked asparagus tips
• sliced cucumber and radishes on lettuce with light dressing
• water

The store was out of yellow squash, so I got zucchini. I don't even know what tarragon vinegar is, so light dressing is fine with me. And again with the budget ... no wine.

This was a hard meal. I believe I overcooked the zucchini and asparagus. They were very mushy. Had a hard time with them. But I ate them anyway. Well, all but one bite of each, which I offered to one of the kids, who chewed it up and spit it back out. I wasn't about to eat it at that point.

About the water chestnuts ... I went into this meal with preconceived notions about water chestnuts. But everyone was right - they DO have a bizarre texture. I didn't care for it a lot, but the ham and rice were good enough that I was able to get through it. The ham and rice were quite good, actually!

And I just wasn't in the mood for yet another salad, so I picked at it and ate about half of it, scraped the rest in the garbage.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow. Normal food that I'm sure I'll like! :-)