A New Munch Box and Menu Plan

New York is not a place to go if you're seeking calm and inner peace. It's a pretty hectic place, and my life here is too. One would think, in a city this size, inter-library loans would be fairly timely, but alas, Queens still seems behind the times. I finally got the SCD books I requested and am looking forward to reading them. My future menus will follow the SCD strictly, but in the mean time, I will attempt to use up the last of my forbidden foods. (Even if they are forbidden, the wasting of foods is anathema so, waste not . . .) Saturday is no different, it's really my busy day, the day I try to get everything done, fix any type of complicated food I want to make and stock up the freezer for the Trainer and myself.

But this Saturday, somewhere between taking the gerbil to the Vet, preparing my Burger Mix, retrieving Toni from the vet and finishing all the cooking I had a precious moment of calm with the Trainer. When I got home with Toni, he said put him to bed and come here and patter the bed. I went and laid my head on his stomach. A feeling of peace engulfed me and all the little hamsters running in my head stopped one by one. I remember thinking to myself this moment is precious, don't let it go. The next thing I new I was waking up as the Trainer tried to slip away to eat one of his numerous mini-meals.

Along the way this weekend I also found a new Munch Box. I've been enamoured of the concept of the Japanese Bento Box, but unable to find one that suited me, I found this combination at a local dollar store that seems most suitable. I am inordinately pleased with this new Munch Box. As the Trainer points out, I'm taking lunch and dinner, so I can't really call it a lunch box and it's not really a bento box either.

Here it is all packed for Monday (the little cups do have lids too): Today, Sunday, I caught up with Alyssa and went to the matinee of the new Stars Wars animated movie, The Clone Wars and had a nice early dinner before hitting the gym. She, a Star Wars aficionado, found many faults with the movie. I went to watch a movie and I enjoyed it. The new Jedi student Ahsoka is really cute, and in a way, inspiring.

And now, without further ado, my menu for this week. Notice how I'm getting better at this?

Monday:
Breakfast- egg whites with flax and blueberries
Lunch- Beef Burger lettuce wrap and Carrot Ginger Soup
Dinner- Lemon Dill Salmon Salad with peas and Nonna's Antipasti


Tuesday:
Breakfast- egg whites and Carrot Ginger Soup
Lunch- turkey burger lettuce wrap with Simple Pea & Basil Soup
Dinner- Jalapeno Cilantro Chicken with Spicy Sweat Potato Rounds

Wednesday:
Breakfast- Breakfast Tortilla Roll-Up
Lunch- Sea Bass Papitolle with wilted spinach and Carrot Ginger Soup
Dinner- Beef Burger with Adzuki Bean Egg Salad

Thursday:
Breakfast- egg whites with Carrot Ginger Soup
Lunch- Jalapeno Cilantro Chicken with Simple Pea & Basil Soup
Dinner- Tuna Salad Lettuce Cups and Spicy Sweet Potato Rounds

Friday:
Breakfast- egg whites, blueberries and flax
Lunch- beef burger lettuce wrap with Simple Pea & Basil Soup
Dinner- Whole Foods Surprise

Saturday & Sunday:
Fly by the seat of my pants!

**By the way, my mother never call them left overs, she always insists that they are Planned Overs**

Toni

As I may have mentioned before, we have two gerbils. One of them just became one very expensive Pocket Pet.

This is Toni, and along with his twin brother Tavo, these two little guys rule the roost here in Queens. Everyone in our household loves these little guys. My boyfriend says that they have changed the whole atmosphere of the family.

So, it comes as no surprise that, when he fell off the kitchen table Wednesday morning and hurt his leg, I took the day off work and took him to Vet. To the tune of I-don't-even-want-to-talk-
about-how-much.


When I was finally able to bring him home in the evening he had been through anesthetic, x-ray, digital x-rays and he now has a cast and "Elizabethan' collar so that he can't chew his cast.

The brothers now have to be separated because Tavo also wants to chew on the cast too. Hopefully we'll get a screen up between them so they can at least talk to each other.

Right now this little guy is the center of my life until he gets better.

I'll get more reviews up soon, and this months Go Ahead Honey It's Gluten Free (the one where no one cooked) is looking pretty good when my time is devoted to Toni.