Lunch: April 27

Lunch today was an attempt at a variation of red beans and rice. Black beans and brown rice. Included some endamame, spinach, onion, bell pepper, and celery. Opted to go meatless. Had some chili powder in the mix but most of it boiled away.

Need to add spices later in the process because this was a bit bland.

Estimated nutritional content: 300 calories, 53 g carbohydrates, 3 g fat, 16 g protein, 13 g fiber, 205 mg sodium, 685 mg potassium 

Someday I will do some real cooking rather than simply boiling, stir frying or combining a random set of ingredients.

Lunch April 25

Today's lunch was whole wheat linguine with chicken, spinach, onion, mushroom, bell pepper, and Butoni marinara sauce. The chicken and pasta were the dominant flavors; the sauce was secondary. Only used a half cup. Tasted good with no side effects so far. The marinara was in the back of the fridge for a while and looked a bit questionable.

Estimated nutrition information: 457 calories, 56 g Carbs, 10 g fat, 40 g protein, 622 mg sodium, 1106 mg potassium.

Food Preparation Adventures

Today's homemade lunch was a salad. Salads are hard to mess up.

This is a spinach salad with tuna (Starkist tuna pack), grapes, pineapple, walnuts, celery, bell pepper, mandarin oranges, a dash of red pepper flakes and a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar.

Didn't use salad dressing because each ingredient has enough flavoring on its own and the vinegar and flakes took the edge off the spinach. The dominant flavor was whatever was in that particular bite. I'm not a fan of salad dressings for salads with flavorful ingredients. Especially, ranch dressing. After all the stuff I put on this salad, topping it off with ranch dressing would have been like taking a giant shit on it. If I want ranch dressing, I'll drink it straight from the bottle.

I'm not a foodie but ranch dressing is wrong for most occasions. It drowns out all other flavors. It is salad dressing version of glitter. Glitter is the herpes of crafts.

Ranch dressing is appropriate for salads consisting of nothing but iceberg lettuce, a bit of red cabbage and some carrot shavings. This is not a salad but a dressing delivery system. It provides a good excuse for consuming a lot of ranch dressing without drinking straight from the bottle because either the bottle is unavailable or you're with people.

I also prepared my own yogurt - Dannon plain yogurt with frozen blackberries (thawed by lunch time). I wanted to cut down on my sugar intake and save some money.

Yes, there is two cups of spinach under all that.

The numbers for this lunch: 548 calories, 84 g carbs, 16 g fat, 40 g protein, 530 mg sodium, 1,576 mg potassium

Adventures in food preparation

This week I'm experimenting with making my lunches rather than using prepackaged food.

The first experiment is replicating the Simply Asia noodle bowls. The experiment is pictured below.

Did use one pre-made ingredient, pre-cooked chicken breast. Ingredients: 2 oz. of whole wheat linguine, 1 tbsp of low sodium soy sauce, one stalk of celery (chopped), 2 tbsp of chopped onion, 1/4 cup of chopped bell pepper, 1/4 cup of edamane (soy beans), 1 tsp of Tabasco, a pinch of red pepper flakes, 1 pre-cooked chicken breast (diced), 1 tbsp of almond butter. Stir-fried the vegetables in soy sauce & Tabasco while linguine was boiling. Heated up chicken. Drained noodles, stirred in almond butter, added vegetables and chicken. Stirred some more. Added a dash of red pepper flakes. Estimated nutrition content: Calories: 437, 36 g Protein, 13 g Fat, 51 g Carbohydrates, 727 mg Sodium, 489 mg Potassium

I didn't work off a written recipe, just threw together the ingredients.

Tabasco and soy sauce were the dominant flavors with a hint of celery. The noodles had an interesting texture. I thought it tasted as good as any of the pre-packaged meals with the added benefit of less sodium.

Cutting down on sodium was the main motivator for this experiment. I trade some time for expense. I enjoyed doing this.

Over two hours since eating this and have not suffered any ill effects.

Maybe I should get a parsley plant for the office to garnish these photos.

Lunch: March 29

Simply Asia Sesame Teriyaki Noodle Bowl.
Package versus reality
Beginning to realize that this just upgraded ramen.

Today's Lunch: Package vs. Reality

Lean Cuisine Sweet & Spicy Ginger Chicken. It was quite good. I didn't taste any water chestnuts.

The package:

From Drop Box

Reality from roughly the same angle as the package:

From Drop Box

The reality from above:

From Drop Box

I like how these photos turned out. Used natural light.

Today's Lunch: Package vs. Reality

Lunch for 1/12/2011: Healthy Choice Portabella Marsala Pasta

The package:

The reality photographed from the approximate angle of the package. I don't keep a bottle of olive oil on my desk.

The reality photographed from above.

The general layout is similar but the noodles are different. Not bad for a microwave meal.

Today's Lunch: Package vs. Reality

Today's Lunch: Healthy Choice Lobster Cheese Ravioli.

The product on the package:

The product in reality after cooking:

To be fair, I should have photographed from the same angle but then the picture would be mostly black plastic container.

It tasted pretty much how it looks, not nasty but bland. It was a source of carbohydrates, protein and fat. I kind of feel sorry for the lobsters that were killed for this.

I also ate some yogurt and a pineapple product from Dole.

Package v. Reality: the backlog

A backlog of package vs. reality. The backlog exists because the memory card in my cell phone that stores photos is a bit of a pain to remove from my phone. I will receive a new phone this month. Hopefully one with a more accessible card.

I actually ate these things for lunch. Not too much deviation between package and reality with this lot.

Amy's Bowls Santa Fe Enchilada - package:

Reality after microwaving:
Amy's is named for the daughter of the founders. They wanted good, easy to make organic food. I hope they do not feed their daughter the amount of sodium in their meals. Not as much as non-organic foods but still the numbers seem a bit high.

I'm slowly coming to realization that the only way to cut back my sodium intake is to prepare all my food myself. I found the time for exercise and tracking my calories so I should be able to find some time to prepare meals. The only sign I show so far of excess sodium consumption is slightly swollen ankles.

Lean Cuisine Traditional Roasted Vegetable Pizza - the package:

The reality:

Amy's Bowls Pesto Tortellini - the package:

The reality:

I take in 2,500 - 5,000 mg of sodium a day. The recommended max is 2,300 mg. My doctor noted the ankles and asked about my sodium intake.

The perfect UU holiday hymn

If it does them I'm the most ethical eater ever even if I refuse to eat tofu.

From Medium Large, a brilliant comic from the writer of Sally Forth:

I think we have the perfect all-inclusive holiday hymn that some UUs have been on a quest to find. The fact that it comes from a non-UU source increases its perfection.

Identify the food

Let's play identify what's on that plate!

Maybe Drew seems distant and non-forthcoming because he followed your advice, Mary, and ended up doing work he was not called to do. Did you ever think of that, Mary? Probably not.

Both Dr. Coreys are unhappy but Mary cannot see that.

Thanks Karen Moy for reminding me why I hate Mary Worth - not the comic - the person.

Apathitis

I experienced a small bout of "I don't give a damn." Had it since Friday and I think I finally got over it today. I was able to function enough to do important things like visiting family but I just did not give a damn about routine stuff - updating my website, this blog, exercise, drawing and scanning. I let several things slide so now I play catch up. I needed some rest. As to whether or not I earned it - I don't care. Who decides whether or not I deserve a bit of rest or blow off a few little tasks for a day or two anyway?

I bought the elements for sandwich wraps and lunchables and ate my first self-made wrap for lunch today. I even added spinach. Take that South Beach!

On the work front, last week, I answered the question, "Do you need my name and phone number" several times without an ounce of sarcasm.

I warned my fellow church board members that all that repressed sarcasm might leak out during the meeting last week.

I need to vent some more sarcasm before the congregational meeting. There is a proposed policy on the agenda and some anxiety about it has already floated up. Rev. Eric and some of the Board members hopefully dealt with it this past Sunday. I was out of town visiting family so I missed the forum.

After this congregational meeting, Walter and I will become common members. No more titles for either of us.

Lunch - 5.6.2008

Central Market Pad Thai. The package:
The reality:
I poured the peanuts. This was quite tasty. I did have a problem with the tails on the shrimp. I know it's an Asian thing but I prefer my shrimp without the tails. I picked up the shrimp and pulled the tails off.

Lunch - Cinco de Mayo

For lunch today, I gave Mother Earth the finger in the form of a South Beach Living Deli Ham & Turkey Wrap Sandwich Kit. Surprisingly it contained no sodium.
The aftermath:
The South Beach kits were bought for Walter but he found the wrap kits to be too messy to eat at his place of work. He works at a kiosk in the mall that does not have a microwave. He either has to brown bag it with food that does not need cooking or eat at the food court. He also eats store brand Lunchables.

I'm thinking about buying a Bento Box for him and purchasing the elements of a Lunchable separately.

The South Beach Wraps were pretty good, so I will just buy the elements separately and prepare lunch the evening before.

I welcome any recipe suggestions for portable meals that do not need heating. Walter hates tuna. He does have a cooler that he carries to work.

Sylvia and Baked Ziti

If this were a real t-shirt line, I would have my Christmas shopping finished very early.

Other warning t-shirts:

• Easily offended
• Incapable of looking at things from an other's point of view
• Does not know how to extrapolate facts to other situations
• Willfully retarded
• Political and socio-economic views formed by Carlos Mencia
• Does not retain information
• Thinks it's unfair that only black people can use the n-word without negative repercussions
• Pins responsibility for own feelings on you
• Doesn't really want your opinion even if solicited
• Only wants what is on the test
• Won't STFU, ever

Feel free to play along in the comments.

Today's Lunch: HEB Classic Lean Selections Baked Ziti
The package:
The reality:
Reality looks a bit better than package. Canadians can prepare a mean frozen entree. Yay, Canada!

Lunch - 4.29.2008

HEB Classics Lean Selections - Chicken Parmesan or Pollo Parmensano. Hecho en Canada. I can learn Spanish while eating lunch.

The package:
The reality after microwaving:
The zucchini hides in the corner in an attempt to escape its fate.

I have trouble believing that making this meal in Canada and shipping it is more cost-effective than making it in Texas or Mexico where it is distributed. I don't grasp the economics unless this Canadian factory produces the same meals for other grocery store chains throughout the hemisphere but in different packages.

Lunch - 4.28.2008

HEB Classics Lean Selection - Ginger Glazed Chicken. For Spanish speakers, Pollo al Jengibre. HEB is a regional chain of grocery stores based in San Antonio, Texas with stores located in Texas and Mexico. More information about HEB can be found here, including why the company opted to use the founder's initials rather than full name.

The package:
The reality after microwaving:
In English and Spanish the box says that this is a product of Canada. NAFTA food.

Today's Lunch: 4.25.2008

Kashi Chicken Florentine, the package:

The contents inside the package melted a bit and made the package wet.

The actual product after microwaving:

This is the last Kashi meal in my stash. I've documented all the Kashi entrees except for the Lemongrass Coconut Chicken. The Chicken Florentine is the most visually unappealing of all the Kashi meals and not all that tasty. I ate it but did not enjoy it.

I should have had what this guy is having:

It may lack visual appeal but at least he's enjoying the heck out of it. This image needs a slogan. Feel free to suggest one in the comments.

Lunch for today - 4.23.2008

Kashi Chicken Pasta Pomodoro, the package:
The reality after microwaving:

I received some cookies, lotion, shower gel and a Chick-fil-A gift card for Administrative Professionals Day. All of this came in a purple metal pail.

The shower gel is pineapple scented and Walter bought coconut scented conditioner and ocean breeze scented shampoo. I now have everything I need to smell like a great vacation.

Huh?

This photo accompanied an article from an e-Diets e-mail about Worst Food Hall of Shame. I still quite figure out what she is licking. I think it's a plate. I did not read the article but i could not stop staring at the picture.