Reboot Day 12

Today is Sunday, which means it's a church day.  Normally we go to our service at 9:15, but I completely forgot that I turned my phone off last night, and neglected to turn it back on, and thus my alarm didn't go off and so at 9am when my 7 year old came in asking me something and I realized the time, I was slightly irritated that no one woke me. We went to the 11am service instead. My morning didn't start off so great.
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Breakfast at 10:30am

Today was another 'wing it' day because as I mentioned before I had yet to go shopping for days 11-15. Luckily I have enough vegetation in my house yet to get creative. 4 carrots, 1 golden delicious, 3 kale, 1 orange through the juicer later, I added a banana with my immersion blender, and had a nice healthy and fast breakfast. Not fast enough it seems because I only managed to get about 3 sips in before my 7 year old asked if she could try a sip while I was frantically getting myself ready to head out the door, and next thing I know half of my drink is gone and I have to forlornly leave it in the fridge as we rush out the door.  At least my kids are getting healthy when I'm not getting fed.
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Mid-morning snack?  Please! Who needs that?

...besides me...
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Lunch at 1pm

Salad seemed pretty detestable to me at this point. My stomach was running on negative E and what I really wanted was a burger to shove down my pie hole.  Here's the thing though.  One of the lessons I've learned thus far on this reboot, is that I will NOT die if I don't eat when my stomach is making obscene sounds. There is always time to make something healthy.  I've also learned that food waited for tastes so much better than instant gratification. Lastly, it is fully in my capability to resist temptations.  Sadly these are all things I tell my kids all the time, but funny how I forget them when it's ME.

So here's the scoop. I basically cleared my fridge of any vegetable that I've heard can, or possibly can be, roasted.  I ended up with 1/2 fennel, 2 bunches of broccoli, 1/2 a cauliflower, 1 onion, 1 small package of mushrooms, 1/2 a red onion, 4-5 cloves of garlic, and, wait for it......BEETS....evil, vile beets. As it turns out I broke down and bought another bunch of beets.  I thought maybe I would try dropping them in boiling water to get the skin off and THEN juicing them to see if that would help the dirt flavor improve any. I bought these about a week ago. I've not been brave enough to test it yet.

Whatever could be in that mystery package on the left?!

So here I'm looking at these 3 foul creatures and thinking, "Maybe if I roast them and maybe like them, I'll be more accepting of their nutritional offerings in juice form." I cut everything up (except The Evil) into bite size pieces, piled them all on a baking pan, drizzled with olive oil, and sprinkled with salt and pepper.  The Evil I scrubbed till they could bleed if they COULD bleed, and then put in their own little package so they wouldn't contaminate the rest of the goodness. I drizzled olive oil on them too and sprinkled with salt.  Into the oven they went at 375 for 45 minutes. 

I remembered that last time I roasted veggies, the directions said only 30 minutes for mushrooms and onions, so after 30 I pulled the pan out and found that everything was done to satisfactory standards, except possibly The Evil.  I tossed them back in for the remaining time and proceeded to chow down on 1/2 my pan of veggies.  FYI Fennel tastes sort of like black licorice.  I don't like black licorice, but this was happily mild enough to taste acceptable when eaten with other veggies.

Om nom nom nom nom

When I was done with that, it was time for the ultimate challenge.  I rubbed the skin off one of the beets and cut it up into nice thin slices.  While my first thought was to drizzle something on them, I am by nature a somewhat adventurous and daring sort. I decided to first try a piece plain.  A very small piece.  As it turns out it's hard to get a real feel for the flavor with a piece that small, so I tried a larger piece, and then an even larger piece.  Evel Knievel ain't got nuthin on me.

It's all about baby steps.

Hey, this is impressive for me.

As it turns out, they weren't that bad.  In fact, I might have even liked them! Someone suggested once that I try drizzling (I think) a soy sauce mixture on them so I snagged my soy sauce and tried it.  Not too shabby.  Then I remembered the awesome salad dressing and tried that next. Low and behold, I ate the rest of the beet! I could almost hear my cardiovascular system sighing in happiness.

I approve of this vegetable!

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Since I ate so much veggies, I wasn't hungry for a good while after. Instead I made my grocery list for the last few days. Then...oh man...THEN!?  We went to Jungle Jims! *happy dances with little hearts circling her head* Seriously, if you have never been to this place, I feel for you.  It's like...grocery store mecca. It's like bounding slow-mo through a field of daisy's on a sunny day with blue skies and bright sun and temperature juuuuust right. It's that awesome.

Not so much though when you have diet limitations.

I had to put my head down and practically run full speed through the cheese department.  The bakery...oh dear God in heaven...the bakery was just excruciating, made worse by the fact that the candy section is right there next to it and I was allowing my son to choose a treat. So many cakes and cookies and pastries and freshly baked breads all swirling and dancing their aroma's out of the kitchens and through the vast air and filling every crevice of the area with beautiful smells of heaven. Torture I tell you!

Finally making it to the produce section I gather my items and take some time to browse through the produce from distant lands that make me go, "What on EARTH is THAT?! Is it alive!?  Are you sure you can eat it!??!?!" (this is one of the many reasons I love Jungle Jims).  Then came my 3rd trial of fire.  The Japanese snack section. There is nothing I love more than Japanese snacks.  All their weird candies and gum and crackers, the Mochi ice cream, the Pocky's, the seaweed and salt flavored chips...I love them all. This is where my daughters decided to stop and choose their treats. I swear they're all trying to destroy me.

After an hour or so of giddy filled browsing and adding things to the cart that we didn't really neeeed per se *cough-seaweed-and-salt-potato-chips-and-Smarties-for-myself-for-day-16-cough* we headed to the exit and out the door. The thing about Jungle Jims, is that we can never leave and not touch things we bought till we get home. With all the weird and wonderful snacks we purchase there, they all must be opened, sampled, and passed around for the 40 minute drive home.  Here is what we consumed along the way...or rather..what THEY consumed as I sat whimpering:

1 package of fruit gels (small bite size servings of gelatin with bits of fruit in them from Japan)
3 torta de aceite (olive oil crisp bread rounds, sugared and with almonds from Spain)
4 Tamarind soft candies (from Thailand)
1 package of Good Good Eats brand noodle...cracker..thingys, soy sauce flavored (from Japan)
A few Hello Panda cracker snacks filled with something or other (from Japan)

And then later in the evening after everyone had eaten their .99 cent value meal dinners and I ate the remainder of my veggies:

1 shared persimoon
5 pieces of Gingerbon ginger candy (from an asian food company in Canada)

I will admit to having a nibble of the bread rounds, and 1 ginger candy.

I also ate 2 french fries.

I plead the 5th on anything else.
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Regularly scheduled meals for Day 12

Breakfast

Great Green Fruit Blend
2 cups Beet Greens, Red Swiss Chard, Kale, Spinach or a combination, roughly chopped and packed into the measuring cup
1 Banana
1 Golden Delicious Apple
1/2 Comice Pear
10 Strawberries, green tops cut off
1 cup Coconut Water
Add all ingredients to blender, set to liquefy
Calories: 337
Protein: 9 g
Fiber: 18 g

Mid-Morning Juice

Apple-Cabbage-Carrot-Swiss Chard-Ginger-Lemon
2 Apples
1 wedge Red Cabbage
2 Large Carrots
1 Piece Ginger (thumb sized)
6 leaves Swiss Chard
1/4 lemon
Calories: 321
Protein: 10 g
Fiber: 2 g

Lunch

Pumpkin Potato Bake (from day 11)
Per Serving:
Calories: 201 kcal
Protein: 2.5 g
Fiber: 4 g
Green Salad and Dressing
Add any veggies you like! Here’s a starter list:
2-3 cups mixed Greens
1/2 cup Red Peppers
1/2 cup Carrots
1/2 cup Cucumber
1/4 cup Red Onion
Calories: 232
Protein: 2 g
Fiber: 6 g

Afternoon Snack

Fresh Summer Veggie Mix (from batch Day 11)
Calories: 50
Protein: 1 g
Fiber: 1 g

Dinner

Roasted Veggies – Mushroom, Eggplant, Sweet Potato, Kale (makes extra for lunch Day 13)
6 Portabella Mushroom Caps or 1 package Baby Bella Mushrooms
1 Eggplant
1 medium Sweet Potato
1 Onion
8-10 leaves Kale
3 cloves Garlic
1 pinch Paprika
1/8 tsp. Fresh Ground Black Pepper
1/8 tsp. Mustard Seed
1/4 tsp. ground Cumin
Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Wash all ingredients well (except onion). Cut into medium sized wedges. Place on parchment paper. Spray with Olive oil, add seasonings.
Roast in oven at 450 degrees for 20 minutes. Add kale last 5 minutes of roast.
Place into bowl, squeeze garlic onto other veggies.
Makes 4 servings
Per serving:
Calories: 142
Protein: 7 g
Fiber: 9 g
Reboot Green Salad with mixed veggies and 2 Tbsp. Dressing
Calories: 278
Protein: 3.5 g
Fiber: 9 g