One of the most ironic days I can remember as of late happened this Friday.
I was sitting in a meeting, singing the praises of FreshDirect and how I couldn’t wait to get my groceries delivered to me later that day, since my fridge was completely empty.
Fast forward 12 hours, and my fridge is now only half empty. Only half of our grocery order got delivered. Long story short, the rest of the groceries weren’t coming until Sunday morning, so we had to call an audible for dinner with what was delivered.
I don’t normally love to eat pork, but it was on sale, so I bought it to make what is essentially grown-up and healthy shake and bake, which is also one of the few ways I’ll eat pork, and pretty much the only way I’ll eat a pork chop. They get tossed and crusted with panko, paprika, salt and pepper, and baked in the oven. Because I feel so “meh” about pork, I generally smother them in applesauce like I did when I was kid — but it’s organic no sugar added applesauce, so it’s healthy right? We served that up with brussel sprouts and another v healthy component of Annie’s mac and cheese that Adam made upscale by broiling in the oven for a little bit.
One of my favorite things about FreshDirect even though I’m still a little bitter about the delivery faux pas, is that you can buy already-ripe avocados. It’s probably really East Coast liberal elitist of me to say, but it’s so great to get avocados and not have to play the “are they ripe yet?” game. On Saturday morning, I had some whole wheat avocado toast along with an egg fried in coconut oil (along with coffee, of course). Once I got my day started (it’s so hard to get moving on Saturday mornings), I finally got dressed and did some yoga in my apartment. I’ve been trying to, well for starters, to work out more, but also to diversify my work outs more, especially in doing some strength and balance stuff — so, yoga it is. After that, I showered, did some chores, and did some wedding planning. I nibbled on a small bowl of Special K Chocolate Delight – which I know is not healthy but I love it anyway. I knew it was going to take me a while to make dinner, and I was already getting hungry, so I munched on some carrots, cucumbers, Triscuits and hummus before getting started.
Adam is training for a marathon, so we have to eat pasta at least once a week before he does his long runs. I know, it’s such a tough life. Since he was going to do his long run on Sunday instead of the typical Saturday, and we had some more time to make dinner, I decided to make something fun and that would render leftovers. We landed on making baked ziti — although technically, it was penne. I’m partial to using ziti (or as my dad would say “stove pipes”) with the diagonally cut ends since they hold a little more sauce, but they didn’t have them on FreshDirect, so we got penne, which is prime for holding sauce. I used this recipe to make the marinara for it, and this recipe for the baked penne. It was delicious — I highly recommend these recipes. We also had a side salad, ya know, for health.
I woke up Sunday needing something a little lighter after indulging in my weight’s worth of pasta, so I decided to give it a go at making my own smoothie bowl. It turned out… okay. I realized that there was a reason the recipe said to use a frozen banana in place of the fresh one that I used. I threw a banana, ice, Siggi’s vanilla yogurt, chia seeds, almond milk, cocoa powder and peanut butter in the blender. I blended that until smooth and put it in a bowl and topped it with some sliced banana, granola and more peanut butter. Again, would recommend the banana be frozen next time. Still tasty though! I ate this while waiting for the second half of the FreshDirect order that went missing to arrive. It finally arrived, I put it away, and I went for a run per my quest to work out more.
When I got back from my run, I took a quick shower and hopped on the phone with a potential wedding photographer. A thing no one tells you about looking for a wedding photographer is that it’s basically an interview process, because they want to get to know you, ask you about your wedding, etc. I get it, but it was totally not something I was anticipating. After that call, we were both hangry, and we happened to have a bunch of Mexican ingredients, so we made breakfast tacos for lunch. They were so good. There’s a fantastic brand of corn tortillas on FreshDirect that don’t fall apart like most tortillas. We topped that was scrambled eggs, homemade pico de gallo, sliced avocado and black beans. I also had a leftover Mexican street corn from a dinner during the week, so we cut that off the cob and shared it as a side.
Dinner was incredibly disappointing, so temper your expectations, folks. I saw a Weight Watchers recipe for paella in the slow cooker, and thought we’d give it a try for an easy and healthy dinner. Healthy it was. Easy it was. But it was quite possibly the most bland thing I’ve ever cooked. And we had a ton of it leftover. Joy. We had some Halo Top after to make ourselves feel better.
Monday I made a smoothie for breakfast since we had a lot of fresh fruit delivered in the make-up grocery delivery. I made it with ice, banana, chia seeds, strawberries, almond milk, cocoa powder and peanut butter. I threw it in a travel mug and drank it on the way to work. Mondays and Tuesdays are always crazy for me at work, so anytime I can bring lunch on those days so I don’t have to leave the office is a blessing. Luckily, we had leftovers from the Friday pork chop experience, so I heated them up in between meetings. It was frankly, a less than desirable lunch. So, later in the afternoon, I snacked on an orange and a handful of this delicious trail mix from Trader Joe’s with pistachios, cashews, almonds, dried cherries, and dark chocolate.
For dinner, I made something a little deluxe since we now had a bevvy of ingredients to work with. I first, I roasted up some tri-color mini potatoes with olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder and oregano. Then, I steamed some artichokes and made a quick dipping sauce of mayo, lemon juice, salt and pepper and garlic. Then I oven roasted some flounder with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper and lemon. It felt like a feast and also v fancy — especially for a Monday. It was all really simple and really delicious and made up for the stream of subpar food I’d had over the last day.
In my quest to exercise more, I woke up the next morning to run. I had half a banana before getting on the treadmill. I’m honestly still shocked that I got up to exercise. After showering and getting ready, I slugged down a lot of water and a piece of avocado toast. I don’t believe it’s possible to get sick of avocado. It was a satisfying breakfast, which was good because I had a deeply unsatisfying lunch of the leftover “paella” that I tried to jazz up by adding some garlic-heavy broccoli. It didn’t really help that much. I tracked down a leftover fruit platter from a meeting to top off my lunch and that was frankly, more satisfying.
Tuesday night we went out for tacos at Cafe El Presidente by Tacombi. I got there late and our group had already consumed most of the guac because they all got there early. I found some at the far end of the table and gave it a try — tasty, and the chips were great too. They had a great texture and weren’t too salty. However, the same can’t be said about the tacos. They were pretty meh — our group tried a sampling of all different kinds and that was the overall consensus. If I went back, I would go back for the drinks and the guac, and wouldn’t bank so much on the tacos. As per our disappointing dinner on Sunday, we topped this night off with some Halo Top as well. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
On Wednesday, I ate. So. Much. Oh well! I had a bowl of my guilty pleasure cereal (Special K) since I knew I had to get in to work early and I needed something quick and easy. I had a client in for the day, and we had a special lunch for the members of the team who hadn’t met her yet, to meet her. I was starving, as I always am when I actually eat breakfast at a normal time, so I basically took one of everything. Some caprese pasta salad, some actual salad, a sandwich, and a brownie. I regret nothing. I had an orange later in the day since I was going over to my friend’s apartment around 8-ish for drinks and food.
I was going to my friend Matt’s house to watch the Real Housewives of New York premiere — a show we used to work on together when I worked on Bravo at my old agency. I felt like I should provide something, so on my walk from the office (I walked since I didn’t work out that day), I picked up a bottle of rose, and some chips and guac/salsa from Otto’s Tacos. Matt had a fantastic spread for the affair — hummus, crackers, cheese, dips, and pizza. But the shining star was the Housewives-themed drink assortment, including several bottles of SkinnyGirl, which I have to say, wasn’t bad! It went down smooth with the chips and guac. I stayed out too late, and ate and drank too much, but it was worth it.
To be a little more responsible, I woke up the next morning and had avocado toast while throwing together a salad to bring for lunch. Just a little detox from the night before. I also threw some snacks in my lunch bag from odds and ends left in the fridge. I cracked into my salad pretty early in the day, and followed it up with some crackers, carrots and hummus, which probably defeats the purpose of eating a salad for lunch. I knew I had to run that night, so I had an orange and a handful of cashews before leaving work so I wouldn’t be utterly starving by the time I was done running.
I was pretty starving though! I got home and went for a run but also threw in some laundry, but also was glued to CNN because Trump ordered a missile strike on Syria. An eventful night!
Amidst all of that, I threw the leftover ziti/penne in the oven and also roasted up some asparagus. I hoovered that down, then promptly passed out in an effort to get a good night of sleep after staying out too late the night before.
I’m old.
GruberStreet Diet 