This week’s menu, and a short digression

Ever had one of those days during football season when there’s a big game on and you  eat way too much crap, maybe an entire large pizza over the course of the day, and drink too much beer, and you realize at the end of the day that the your actions have just capped off a month-long trend of eating too much crap and drinking too much beer, and your guilt and general feelings of grossness over the whole thing have you tumbling rapidly down a pit of self-loathing and despair?

No? Me either…but hypothetically, if this were to happen to me, I would want to remedy the situation. The situation being me barely able to button my pants.

Anywho, for reasons totally not what I just described in the above hypothetical situation, I embarked on the South Beach Diet (SBD) on Sunday. Many of you know I lost about 50 pounds on Weight Watchers in the 9 months or so after having Ryan and I have a few more to go. I was getting tired of counting points and had pretty much abandoned that method anyway. I was successful on SBD in my weight-loss efforts before my wedding, so I figured I’d give it a go again. So far so good!

Which brings me to this week’s menu. Phase 1 of SBD is restrictive in some ways, but it welcomes most produce (minus fruit). With a little recipe-searching I came up with some good, SBD-friendly ways to use this week’s box, which contained cherry tomatoes, Meyer lemons, broccoli microgreens, Bibb lettuce, cucumber, globe eggplants, Gala apples, pears, a mix of green and dragon tongue beans, okra, red onions, persimmons, and takuchoy. (As an aside, the sheet I get in my box every week that lists out the produce described takuchoy as a “plate-like vegetable,” which made absolutely no sense until I clicked the above link.) I’m saving the apples and pears until two weeks from now, when I can eat fruit again (they stay good in the fridge for a few weeks), and I’ll peel and freeze the persimmons for later use.

Here’s what I’m eating this week.

Herb-roasted turkey breast (using some leftover herbs from previous Greenling boxes)

Lunch salads with cherry tomatoes, red onion, microgreens, Bibb lettuce, cucumber, red pepper, boiled egg, roasted turkey breast, and Meyer lemon vinaigrette

Shrimp in lettuce leaves with mint-serrano sauce – using Bibb lettuce and subbing Splenda for the sugar. I’ve made this before and the sauce is delicious but runny, so there’s always a ton left over. To use it up, I made a side salad of chopped takuchoy and cherry tomatoes. For the dressing, I whisked a few tablespoons of sauce with some canola oil. Voila! Mint-serrano dressing. Delicious.

Sirloin steak with sauteed garlicky green and dragon tongue beans – for the beans, I just heated some chopped garlic over medium heat in some olive oil, added the beans and some salt and pepper, covered the pan and cooked until done.

Spaghetti squash with pasta sauce and eggplant sauteed with fennel seed

Spicy oregano chicken – made with chicken breasts instead of thighs, since that’s what’s in my freezer.

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Ryan identifies his first body part

We’re not sure how (daycare, maybe?) but today we realized that Ryan can point to his bellybutton on command. Observe:

Pretty cute, huh?

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A few Ryan updates

So, I haven’t seen my camera since Labor Day. I usually like to augment Ryan posts with pictures so I’ve been putting off posting about him till I find it, but since I have no idea when that will be I thought I’d just throw in a few bits and pieces here (thanks to Jen for that term). 🙂

• He says about 11 words now. The one we hear most often is “kitty cat?” Always said with that questioning inflection at the end, and often repeated over and over again while glancing at Mason and I and pointing to confirm that Atticus is, indeed, a kitty cat. Maybe by the time he’s in kindergarden he’ll be sure.
• His second-favorite word is “ball.” Although when he says it it sounds like “ba.” He has about five balls he likes to play with, including one that is actually not a ball, but a bath toy shaped like a pufferfish. But it’s round and bounces when you throw it, so I suppose to a toddler it still functions as a ball.
• He has progressed past mere walking to climbing. Once I caught him trying to use a diaper box as a step stool to get on the couch. How he was planning to get down, I don’t know. I should probably pick up the living room more often, but who has time to clean these days?
• Wait, I do know how he was planning to get down. Probably the same way he uses to BACK DOWN THE STAIRS. Oh, that’s right. Baby gate, thou art my best friend.
• He loves tomatoes. Last weekend he ate an entire beefsteak tomato by himself.
• He has two comfort objects, both Gymboree blankets. He drags one of them behind him at all times, much like Linus, and frequently plays with his toys while sucking on the blanket. I don’t know why the blanket-sucking is part of the process, but hey, to each his own.

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This week’s menu (10/4)

I’m finally caught up! Produce arrived Friday and I grocery shop on Sunday, so I just finished making my menu for the week. My box contained zucchini, okra, grape tomatoes, baby bella mushrooms, garlic, radishes, red potatoes, persimmons, meyer lemons, bibb lettuce, pears, green peppers, and rosemary. I’m making:

Summer squash gratin

Braised pork with persimmons (I’m adding pears since that’s what I have and I don’t have 1.5 lbs persimmons)

Asian chicken lettuce wraps

Butter lettuce and radish salad with lemon-garlic vinaigrette

Poached pears (I liked them so much a few weeks ago I’m doing it again.)

Fideos with chorizo and mussels

Bucatini with mushrooms

What about the tomatoes, you ask? Well, apparently tomatoes are THE BEST FOOD EVER to my child. He begs for them when he sees them on the counter. So I’ll probably just let him eat them all raw.

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