Party Like It's... Wait, What?

I'm coming around to the fact that I can no longer stay up until 5am and bounce back with no more than a nap. I went to a fun little gathering of friends last night. We had a wonderful meal (grilled pork loin, whole wheat mac and cheese, brussels sprouts), home made ice creams and sorbet (vanilla bean, cookie dough, and grapefruit sorbet, which was my favorite), along with some of the cookies baked from said cookie dough. There may have also been some vodka (first in a specialty cocktail with cucumber and pineapple, then with diet tonic). We ate, drank, chit chatted and played games (mostly Spades and Celebrity), way into the evening. It was definitely an indulgent night. I got home in the wee small hours, and was sleepless for another hour or so.

It's now early evening and, even after 6 hours of sleep and a nap that followed, I'm still feeling being off my internal clock. My eating has been just as compromised.

I've still been fighting off a cold. I thought I'd beaten it after my last dose of Dayquil yesterday morning, after which the hacking cough subsided. This morning, it had returned, so apparently I have a bit more fighting to do. It's okay, it's at least improved over yesterday morning (which seemed to be the worst of it).

So, being in lazy mode, I turned to Seamlessweb. I figure I can live on cereal, fruit, jerky, and microwaved freezer leftovers, or I can order in some delicious and nutritious food. I ordered a good dose of Indian food. Why cook when feeling sub-par and you can have succulent, spicy meats and vegetables? I splurged a little on a mango lassi and gulab jamun. If you've never had gulab jamun, give it a try (I didn't need to know, from that article, that gulab powder is available).

I love that most Indian restaurants have a plethora of healthy options. First off, I order roti instead of naan. They're similar flat breads, traditionally baked in a tandoori oven, but roti is made with whole wheat instead of white flour. Tandoori chicken offers a lean, but flavorful choice. Daal (lentils) is pure comfort food, with all the benefits of eating legumes (fiber, lean protein, etc). I love palak paneer, too (mustard greens or spinach with paneer-- an Indian fresh cheese). According to an Indian friend, palak is mustard greens and saag is spinach, but it seems they seem to be used interchangeably in a lot of restaurants. Check on whether or not a particular restaurant uses cream in the preparation. It varies. The restaurant from which I ordered does a wonderful mango lassie (a mango and yogurt drink), too. It's lighter on the sugar than some, leveraging the actual mangoes for sweetness.

Since I've been congested, I decided to order everything with "medium" spice. I generally go with "mild", which has hardly any heat (my stomach prefers it), so figured medium would be totally fine. Whoo! It's definitely a cold buster. I think my sinuses will be clear enough for a good night of rest.

The gulab jamun really hit the spot. The cardamom-infused syrup, the lovely dough the consistency and size of small, cakey donut holes... but something unusual happened. I opened the single-serving container of 3 and heated them up (they're sometimes served cold, but I've never understood that). I then proceeded to eat 2 of them and realized I was completely satisfied and didn't even want the third. First, "too much bacon", then "too much cheese", now this? There have definitely been some changes. Even though I ordered a single meal special, with the bird-like servings I doled out, I'll have leftovers for at least 2-3 more meals.