Quick stretch, 10 minutes of yoga changed all that, and put me in the mood to try my first ever … GREEN MONSTER!

I’ve been eyeing these on a couple of my favorite blogs, Eat Live Run and Oh She Glows.  Green drink?  Spinach smoothie?  I was wary, to say the least.

But when there is a whole web site *dedicated* to Green Monsters, bringing together people around the world, you start to wonder… Maybe there really is something behind all the hype…. and after trying my first Green Monster, I’d say, there is!

I started by making a small shake.  It was soooooo YUM that I made another!  All together, I estimate (of course I didn’t measure anything!!!) my shake had:

1 frozen banana
3/4 cup mango chunks
3/4 container nonfat plain yogurt
3/4 cup soy milk
1-2 Tbsp flax meal
2 cups raw spinach

I foresee many of these in my future

It totally satisfied me this a.m.

Quite simple to prepare, start with a toasted English muffin (whole wheat is best).  Add a mixture of:

- cottage cheese (about 3/4 cup)
- chopped tomato (1 small)
- chopped parsley (1-2 Tbsp)
- drizzle of olive oil (1 tsp)
- salt and pepper to taste

The above mixture did not all fit on the English muffin.  So, just eat a few bites muffinless.

A word on cottage cheese:  YUM!   OK… so, a few more words on CC…  this time nutrition-related….

If you are looking for calcium, you won’t find it here.  You would think cottage cheese would be a good source, but – SURPRISE – no.  Unlike other cheeses, cottage cheese loses its calcium in the manufacturing process.  Oh well!  Still a scrumptious source of protein.

Also, please note that cottage cheese is a hidden source of salt.  So get a low sodium version, if you can.  Notice I add salt in the above recipe… you see, I’d rather be in control than to leave it up to the cottage cheese man.

The olive oil I find near-essential, to balance the low- or no-fat cottage cheese.  Using olive oil adds healthy fat where you have previously removed saturated fat from the cottage cheese.  Fat, I feel, also helps with the satisfaction factor of the meal.

Add cottage cheese, and you got one filling breakfast!

My favorite brand of cottage cheese, by the way, is Friendship:

Creamy, thick, smooth. mmmm….

I’m sorta sad now that I used up all my cottage cheese this morning.  Thankfully, I have another taste-tantalizing breakfast planned for tomorrow.

3 weetabix with soymilk (unsweetened, since refined sugar isn’t on the diet), and strawberries.

Innocent enough…

But then I was worried about my lack of protein in yesterday’s selections, so I had egg whites of 2 eggs:

That’s Penzey’s seasoned salt sprinkled on top.  Honestly, it was a bit strong for the eggs.  Just a touch of regular salt would have done fine.

Then about 10:30 I figured it was OK to have a snack.  I’m supposed to be hungry on this diet, right?

So I had 3 prunes and BOTH my little baggies of Barbara’s Shredded Spoonfuls.  I think I was just munchie, or maybe the lack of protein in the snack was making me feel unsatisfied.

For lunch, ~1:15, a salad from the salad bar at work with lots of veggies in a whole wheat pita.  Nothing really notable, except there were some pickled beets.  Protein choices were cannellini beans and tofu.  Also had an orange.  And a little walk !

Unfortunately, though, I was not satisfied after returning to my desk.  I definitely felt I’d waited the 20 minutes, and was still hungry.  So I went down to the cafeteria and got a small bag of pretzels.  Half of the bag held me, but I must admit it had added fat and therefore was not really on the diet.  Supposedly, only fat-free pretzels are allowed, and these were the Rold Gold ones, made with some corn oil.  I forgot that not all pretzels are fat free until after I’d bought them.  They did fit the ‘less than 2 g fat per serving’ rule though.

Dinner was the same as Sunday’s lunch:

If you haven’t checked out Brazilian Beans, I highly recommend them!

Followed by some fruit, including a handful of blueberries, a couple strawberries, and this:

Pineapple!

So, how am I feeling after 2 days on this diet?  … Blah! ….  I am not so crazy about it ….

I mean, I’m so not enjoying my food.  To me, that’s not healthy eating.  I think I ate too much today just for lack of satisfaction from my meals.

Besides that, it’s extremely limiting… nearly impossible to find anything in the cafeteria that fit the bill.  And it’s a hospital cafeteria that specializes in ‘healthy’!  It feels silly that I’m shunning veggies because they are roasted in olive oil.

By the way, I found a good list of items allowed on the Ornish Diet here and some recipes here.  I will re-iterate that the diet was initially developed for people with heart disease, and that it was effective.

But for everyday use?  No….

And for the day’s final scores: 73% carb, 16% protein, and 11% fat.  Calories – over 2200!  Yikes!  On reflection – too much fruit, if there is such a thing.

Hoping your meals today  were more enjoyable than mine,

-Emily

It was mixed veggies on a Trader Joe’s habenero lime tortilla with a little mustard and dried oregano.  There was a little more salad that didn’t fit on the tortilla.  No culinary masterpiece, I’m afraid!  And the mustard was hot, which had me crying!!!

OK, so technically speaking, the tortilla is not on the diet because it has 4 grams of fat.  According to the diet, I’m not supposed to have anything commercially prepared with more than 2 grams of fat.  But since everything else was totally whole food, I figured I’d let that one slide…

By the way, those tortillas are good!  Trader Joe’s habenero lime… only 150 cal each, too.

So at this point, my eggs were boiled.  I had the white of one egg and about 4 of these green beans from the farm share, great raw!

I was really was scrounging!

Then I remembered the ear of  farm share (:D !!!) corn that I had microwaved, so I sprinkled that with lime juice and chili powder – great combo!   Sorry, at it up so quick that I forgot to take a picture….oopsies.

For dessert, more of the mango/berry mix and some fresh grapes and cherries that my roommate had leftover from a party:

At this point, I’m at 2,097 calories for the day.  According to Fit Day, my diet today was 78% carb, 8% fat, and 14% protein.  My one downfall was the cereal I had for snack – Barbara’s Shredded Spoonfuls.  I ended up going back for more… to the point where it made up almost 1/3 of my calories for the day!

In theory I could eat a little more - I did some exercises today, so I have up to 2,485 calories in my “salary.”  But, my tummy is pretty full now, and to tell you the truth… all these carbs are making me gassy! :O

So, one day down, two to go.  I’m doing OK, but my food is a little bland to say the least.  I’d like to throw in a little more yogurt, but that is one of those “eat in moderation” foods.

Allrighty then, I’m calling it quits for the day, as far as my stomach goes …. Fingers are crossed that I don’t crave ice cream later tonight!

‘night,

Emily

So, today is Ornish Diet, Day 1.

What is the Ornish diet?  In short, it is a vegetarian diet with emphasis on whole grains and complex carbs.  Fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes are free foods.  Nonfat dairy is allowed, in moderation.  No meat, fish, or egg yolks (egg whites are OK) or low fat/full fat dairy.  The kicker?  No oils, nuts, avocados, etc.  That means I had zero peanut butter on my banana this morning…. waaahhhhh!

A good thing about the diet is that you aren’t supposed to need to measure or count anything.  You just eat the right foods, until you are full but not stuffed.  The idea is that you’ll get around 10% of calories from fat.  It’s also expected that you’ll feel hungry, so the diet recommends smaller, more frequent meals.  (= guiltless snacking!)

I, of course, am measuring because I am a nutrition NERD!!!  And I think it will be interesting to see where I end up in terms of the % carb, protein, and fat, and calorie-wise.

Breakfast was:
- 1 banana
- 2 weetabix
- 1 cup skim milk
- 1/2 cup high fiber cereal

Snack was:
- 6 prunes

Lunch was:
- 1 cup cooked bulgur
- 3/4 cup black beans cooked with flavor cubes!  (see Brazilian beans)
- 2 small beets
- 2 tablespoons of homemade tzaziki

This was sooooo good and pretty, I’m sorry I didn’t take a picture of it.  But there’s more, so I’ll snap it next time!

Snack was:
- 2 cups of Barbara’s Shredded Spoonfuls, multigrain
- 1 cup of frozen mango/berries from Trader Joes

calories so far: 1,178

tolerability: not bad!  I actually feel like I’ve been eating all day, so I’m surprised my calories aren’t higher.

I have yet to plan what I’m having for dinner… will probably scrounge the kitchen and see what fit’s the bill!

Happy Sunday,

Emily

This one is quick and easy.

Melon & Mint Salad

You need:
-cantaloupe
-blueberries
-ginger
-sugar
-fresh mint

Cube cantaloupe and mix with washed blueberries.  Place in bowl.

Boil up a little chopped ginger in water and equal part sugar to make a simple syrup.  Key here is to only prepare a little bit, relative to the amount of fruit.  Fruit is naturally sweet, so it pains me slightly to add sugar.  But, the ginger syrup is special…

Pour syrup over fruit.  Add chopped mint.  Refrigerate until the salad is sufficiently cool.  Enjoy!

Now if I may whine…

I haven’t posted much recently. Embarrassingly, I am still adjusting to my new schedule as a dietetic intern.  (By the by, a dietetic internship is a required step to becoming a registered dietitian.   It’s like school, because I have homework and I pay for it (eek!), but it is like work because it is hands-on and full time.)

So, after living the flexible student life for ~4 years, as of June 15th, I am like most people out there, trying to fit it all in a limited amount of time.   Can I whine now?  I miss sitting in a coffee shop all morning!  Going to the gym at 3 p.m.!  Being able to make it places during their business hours!   Cooking at any hour of the day!

At least it’s going by fast… already been a month and a half!

On a positive note…

It’s farm share season!

I have been cooking, albeit a little less than usual.  But not just any kind of cooking.  I am now picking up a farm share – a weekly influx of delicious fresh veggies!

So, stay tuned to see what I do with my farm share.  For example, the M&M salad, made with Farmer Dave’s FRESH MINT.

Enjoy Sunday!

Emily

It’s my version of frozen yogurt

And there’s only three ingredients!

1 frozen banana + 1/2 cup non fat plain yogurt + dash of cinnamon  = YUM!!!

Directions: Blend (preferably using a high-powered electrical appliance).  Pour into a dish and pop in the freezer.   Stir every 5 minutes, leaving in the freezer for a total of ~30 minutes, or until mixture is at desired consistency.

As you can see, it can get quite stiff.  The spoon in the pic above is standing in the mixture, and here’s another view:

I used the Magic Bullet, but if you have good results with another device (immersion blender?), I’d love to know.  I find that the Magic Bullet works best when there is at least a little liquid, more than the yogurt in this recipe provides.  But it was definitely doable for this recipe.

I keep bananas, halved, in the freezer just for this kind of thing. It’s a great alternative to banana bread or, (worse), letting bananas rot because you forgot to eat them.

Enjoy!

-Emily

Brazilian Beans, adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe:

This dish was absolutely as easy to make as the recipe makes it sound.  You just boil the beans with the beets, sauteeing up a bit o’ flavor at the end.  The one thing it takes is TIME – the dried beans need to simmer for at least 1 hr 45 min.  But, hey, how hard is it to boil beans?!

I did make one change to the recipe, and that was at the flavor step at the end.   You see, I have these cubes of sofrito in the freezer:

The sofrito cubes have been there since LAST SUMMER (!).  Never heard of sofrito?  It was new to me, too!  Sofrito is a condiment of Latin cuisines consisting primarily of peppers, onions, and garlic.  It is chopped together into a fine sauce, like a salsa.  It can be made with tomatoes, but the Puerto Rican version, which I made, did not.  I learned of it on a Food Network show last year, and subsequently received the key ingredient – aji dulci peppers – in my farm share (aka CSA).  This is what they look like:

These sweet li’l guys are about the size of a golf ball, and they are a key ingredient for sofrito.  So naturally, I had to try this dish!  Now, finding the other key ingredient, culantro (which is not the same as cilantro) was another challenge!  I finally found it at the Hi Lo Foods in Jamaica Plain (thanks to a tip from the Web! – so I continue to spread the hint!).  

The recipe I used was reprinted in my CSA’s newsletter, but the source is here.  And let me tell you, the recipe made a boatload!  Hence, the frozen cubes the better chunck of a year later!  Now, I know what you’re thinking – who’s got time to make sofrito?  Well, as you can see, just a little investment of quality time with your chef’s knife and your Cuisinart can last for months.  But, if you still aren’t convinced, sofrito is sold in jars in the international section of the grocery store.  I’ve not tried it myself, but I wouldn’t expect it to pack the same flavor POW as the homemade version.

To complete my version of Martha’s Brazilian beans, I added *3* sofrito cubes to the black beans during the second hour of cooking in lieu of the sauteed cilantro and garlic - marvelous!  And soooooo easy!

I served this dish with the beets, absolultely gorgeous contrasted with springy green peas, alongside leftover cooked barley, instead of the white rice.  And let me tell ya, cooked barley – YUM!  Whole grain goodness!  I recently unloaded myself a 16 oz container of this joyful little grain from the bulk bins at my local crunchy grocer, and I’ve become a big fan.  The flavor is not to far from the light smoothness of oats, and the texture, quite chewy.  I definitley plan to incorporate it into my cooking!

The whole thing was topped with just a bit of shredded sharp cheddar, white of course and from Vermont – only the best!  Cabot’s 60 aged 60 days, to be exact.  It didn’t take much cheese to complete the dish, which all in all, it was a deliciously nourishing meal that left both my tastebuds and my tummy happy.  Quick, healthy, and delicious – this one gets filed in the mental stack of favorites.  I definitely recommend it!

Dinner was un-amazing, but satisfyingly simple and delicious. Two slices of sprouted grain bread (TJ’s) with cashew butter and a sliced banana. I fancied it up with a glass of white wine

I was inspired by the blueberry granola at Whole Foods today, so after dinner I decided to make my own! Granola is SO easy to make, and inexpensive too – especially when you buy your ingredients in bulk like I don .  You’ll never want to pay premium for it again, and you’ll have the added bonus of endless customization possibility.  

Em’s Blueberry Almond Granola

3 cups oats
1 cup oat bran
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
3 Tbsp canola oil
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup dried blueberries 

Directions: Mix dry ingredients (oats, oat bran, flax seed, wheat germ, and salt) in a bowl.  

Heat remaining ingredients except for the blueberries (vanilla, dark brown sugar, honey, oil, and water) in a sauce pan over low heat until bubbling.  Remove from heat and pour over oats mixture.  Spread onto an ungreased, rimmed cookie sheet.  Bake at 300 for 20 minutes, stirring twice in between.  

Let cool completely.  

Stir in blueberries and store in a sealed container.  Enjoy with milk or plain yogurt with the satisfaction that you made your very own granola!

Try this, you won’t be disappointed !  Let me know how it goes…

Tomorrow I work EARLY so I am not sure when I’ll be posting.  Till next time, Good night!

Emily

An omelette with sauteed red peppers and feta.  First, I sauteed thinly sliced red pepper in a little olive oil over low heat.  Next time I will saute onions too – I just forgot this morning!  On the side, a toasted whole wheat bagel from TJ’s, cubed pineapple, and a cup of skinny milk.

I had a scoop of PB and a little more pineapple afterwards! :O

For lunch, I was in a simple salad mood.  I had a lovely head of red leaf lettuce (only 89 cents at Market Basket!)

Carrots, cucumber, swiss cheese, a sundried tomato chicken sausage, and some sauteed red pepper leftover from breakfast.   It looked prettier before I added the meat!  To dress my salad, I whisked together olive oil, white wine vinegar, maple syrup, dijon, S&P – Amazingly yummy!  I actually did not end up eating all the swiss cheese because it just wasn’t appealing.  The veggies and the dressing were so harmonious that the cheese just wasn’t needed!

I also had more pineapple (not pictured), and a RHUBARB MUFFIN!  I made these about mid-morning:

The recipe came from Simply in Season, only I used apple sauce instead of oil and  1/3 cup honey instead of the 3/4 cup sugar called for.  As you can imagine, they were only slightly sweet as a result.  Oh, and I also sprinkled some slivered almonds on top!  crrrunnCH!   I was quite happy with how fluffy they turned out