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.

Birthday Weekend

I had a wonderful long birthday weekend. I did go a bit crazy, food-wise, but it wasn't a full-on binge.

Friday, my wonderful boyfriend took me on a picnic in Central Park, followed by a cooling spin in a row boat. The picnic consisted of a whole grain baguette from Amy's Bread, Italian dry salami (one of my favorite indulgences), cheddar with onion, roasted garlic and herbs, fruit salad, spicy chicken and a purple cabbage salad from the Amish Market. He'd brought some tangy cranberry sauce that went beautifully with the spicy chicken. True serendipity! We also shared a split of a nice cabernet.

I was taken to Becco on Friday night, where I did indulge in their Sinfonia di Pasta. The mushroom ravioli was my favorite of the 3. I stopped short at a full stomach, though, and went for the berries and cream for dessert. My sugar was a bit elevated the next morning, but not as bad as I expected.

Saturday, the night of my actual birthday, we went to Eatery, the home to incredibly indulgent Mac and Jack, accompanied by a watermelon martini (muddled watermelon- how can that be wrong?). Wisely, I ate less than half of the entree, though I'm sure it was still nearly a day's worth of calories. I followed it up with a hot fudge banana split at Junior's (okay, about a quarter of the sundae, if that). Sadly, I've discovered there's something in the Mac and Jack I'm sensitive to (not just the richness- I had the same reaction when I had it a year ago), so it was a last hurrah, but that's probably a good thing, considering the big picture. After a night of my stomach in rebellion, the advantage was that my sugar was a healthy 88 the next morning.

Sunday night was dinner at John's Pizzeria. I love their whole wheat crust- a good balance of thin and chewy. After a large house salad, we had the margherita pizza with added roasted garlic. Mmmm. Feeling a bit cheated out of dessert the night before (since it was out of my system pretty quickly- not fun), I had a slice of chocolate cake. My blood showed it the following morning, but not to dangerous levels, just a little spike. Once more day and I was back to normal.

All in all, everything I put in my mouth was worth it. I think I crept up a couple of pounds, but I'm back on track, so hopefully that will be gone again soon.

Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries

Edit: Even though there was quite a bit of splurging going on today, I still managed to burn approximately 680 calories more than I ate. So, in the big picture, not so terrible!


Breakfast:
Home made oatmeal (1/3c. oats, water, cinnamon, ginger, agave nectar) with sliced bananas.


Lunch:
I was bad. Very, very bad. Know what? It felt gooood (and tasted even better). I was out running errands and the smell of Ray's pizza got to me. After months and months of ignoring its existence, I thought, "What the heck?". I figured I deserved a splurge. I had one plain slice (weighing in at approximately 577 calories). I ate it up as soon as I got home, long before I thought about picking up my camera, but this is the gist:


Afternoon snack:
A handful of fresh cherries I picked up from a fruit vendor yesterday. Juicy and sweet!


Dinner:
Tonight, I few friends and I are seeing a show and have reservations at a nearby restaurant. I've already *scoped out the menu and plan on having either the Salmone alla Contadina (Fresh salmon sautéed with capers, sun-dried tomatoes, and white wine served with a fresh vegetable medley) or the fish of the day.

Edit: I started with the caprese salad. It's one of my favorites. There was something extra zesty in the tomatoes, almost like they were marinated in something acidic. My friend (at another table) had commented on it, too. Whatever it was, it worked. Pardon the photo quality- they dimmed the lights and I didn't want to use the flash.


I went with the fish of the day. It was Black Sea Bass with roasted tomatoes, garlic, small potatoes on a bed of spinach. It tasted wonderful! I was so busy cleaning my plate, the camera was the last thing in my mind (the piece of fish was massive, so I held back from eating the whole thing. I practically licked the rest of the plate, however).

If we do dessert, I'll have what I always have there-- their berries and cream. Simple, somewhat healthy, and absolutely delicious.

Edit: I did go for the berries (strawberries and raspberries), though it didn't occur to me until half way through to snap a picture of their beauty. They tasted amazing, though.


The show we're seeing is cabaret-style, which means lots of flowing calorie-laden drinks. Here's where having both liver and blood sugar issues is a blessing in disguise. My club soda with a nice squeeze of fresh lime is not only non-impact, but good for me!

*Tip: Whenever I'm going out to dinner and know about it ahead of time (and, face it, I'm in NYC, so often have to make reservations ahead), I always take a peak at the menu online ahead of time. This helps Menu-Overwhelm Disease, as well as ensuring they have foods I'm willing to eat (or how specific I'll need to be when ordering slightly off-menu). It goes against my Foodie core, but it's all in the name of health and still generally nets a nice meal.

Moosewood!

Today was a travel day for me, so I had to prepare. Breakfast was at home, but I would be stuck on a bus for about 5 hours, so needed something that would sustain me through lunch time.

Dinner:

Since I'm in Ithaca, my awesome boyfriend took me to Moosewood restaurant. I've wanted to try it since my first Mollie Katzen book ages and ages ago. I've been really good on the blood sugar (and weight loss, etc) front, so the meal was indulgent perfection. With exception of the wine and dessert, everything was well within the bounds of "things I can eat", but I also cleaned every plate. Every bite was thoroughly worth it.

Rosemary crackers with medallions of goat cheese and grapes

A glass of pinot noir

A dinner salad with their house creamy spinach and basil dressing

Russian vegetable strudel, made with whole wheat (!!) phyllo dough, mushroom, carrot, cottage and cream cheeses, and other things I couldn't completely identify (zucchini?), along with a beet and red onion salad

Apple cake and banana pudding for dessert. We got one of each and there was lots of sharing.