Fresh, Local, Seasonal Menu

This month's "Go Ahead Honey, It's Gluten Free" event is being hosted by Cheryl at The Crispy Cook and the theme is seasonal veggies. Since this week is my last chance to enter something (I'll be away the following two) I hit the Green Market in Union Square on Saturday.

I found some great stuff, and if you've never tried ground cherry tomatoes I highly recommend them. They taste like tomato and pineapple together. Lots of vendors had fresh herbs and loads of heirloom vegetables. Check out these sexy veggies I found.

So, this week all the vegetables I'm using, aside from the lemon, lime and ginger, are fresh, local and seasonal. I would like to submit my whole menu, but I think I might just have to choose one dish.

Monday:
Breakfast- Tortilla Roll-Up
Lunch- Beef Burger lettuce wrap and peas
Dinner- Shrimp Cakelets with Grilled Peach Salsa

Tuesday:
Breakfast- Tortilla Roll-Up
Lunch- Pollo Ropa Vieja with Tomatillo Salsa
Dinner- Beef Burger lettuce wrap

Wednesday
Breakfast- Tortilla Roll-Up
Lunch- Beef Burger lettuce wrap and Grilled Peach Salsa
Dinner- Ginger Glazed Salmon and salad

Thursday:
Breakfast- Tortilla Roll-Up
Lunch- Shrimp Cakelets with dipping sauces and peas
Dinner- Beef Burger lettuce wrap

Friday:
Breakfast- Tortilla Roll-Up
Lunch- Pollo Ropa Vieja with Grilled Peach Salsa
Dinner- Whole Foods

Saturday- Take Toni to the Vet and finish up left overs, make burgers for the trainer.

Sunday- Pack for trip, finish anything that's left.


Sent from my iPhone

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**

A New Toy, A New Snack and a New Menu

Well, I've been playing with my newest you for the last week (this ones not a kitchen gadget, surprisingly) and it looks like the only thing I can't do with the iPhone, besides julianne potatoes, is post to this blog. If you're reading this, I figured out a way to write on the iPhone and email it to myself to post.

On Friday the Trainer and I went to Whole Foods for groceries and dinner. This is as close as we get to going out to eat these days. We figure it's cheaper and healthier. And at least Whole Foods lists all the ingredients in thief salad bet offerings.

I had a coupon for Mary's Gone Crackers and after checking the nutrition and ingredients we decided that they were acceptable to try. I'm trying to move away from overly processed items, who wants crackers made from chemicals, even if they do taste like their gluten counterparts? And the Trainer is very anti carb, especially for me.

The verdict? The Trainer didn't try them, but I thought they were great. They're more like a conglomeration of grain rolled thin and baked, rather than the more traditional cracker I was expecting. Nice and whole food-y with lots of whole seeds and crunch.

After a baking debacle this weekend, I think it's time I went completely grain free. Does anyone want most of the box of Mary's Gone Crackers? Let me know.

And now, without further ado, my tentative menu plan for this week.

Breakfast: ricotta cheese and homemade granola or eggs and teff-quinoa pancakes

Lunch: Beef, chicken or turkey burger lettuce wraps with boiled egg whites

Dinner: Home-roast beef with grilled onions
Pan roasted Sea Bass with wilted spinach and adzuki beans
Horseradish Dill Salmon salad with peas and Mary's Gone Crackers Caroway crackers.

Between-Meals: Dedicated Woman shake with Green Vibrance and homemade granola bars.

Have a great week!

Sent from my iPhone

Menu Plan Monday...er, Tuesday

Things have been a bit busy around here since Toni broke his arm. Shortly after that I started to feel poorly, on closer examination of his new food, I discovered, and it shouldn't have surprised me, that gerbil food is not gluten free. I thought perhaps that's what was making me so blue.

Then the itching started. Turns out the good word is: I have scabies. So that's what all the horrible itching was all about. Now I just have to take care of that. Anyone have any herbal remedies for scabies? I'm not such a big fan of over-medicating myself.

On a happier note, I keep seeing everyone else's menu plans (and I can't quite get the banner for myself) and I thought I'd follow my fellow bloggers lead and try my hand at it. Since it's supposed to be a way to share with our fellow gluten free folk I decided that someone might benefit from my rather unconventional meal style.

As some may know, my boyfriend is a personal trainer and I am trying to lose some weight and tone up, so that I can look like a gym-rat too. Following his advice we eat about every three hours. Between that and being gluten free we have to plan to take food with us too eat at specific times and meet our nutritional requirements. In doing this I eat pretty much the same thing everyday, but it does require some planning. My daily diet goes something like this:

Breakfast 8am: 1 cup of ricotta cheese and 1 teff quinoa pancake

Snack 11am: 1 Dedicated Woman protein shake with Green Vibrance

Lunch 2pm: 1 4oz turkey, beef or chicken burger and 1 boiled egg white

Pre-Gym Snack 5pm: 3 hard boiled egg whites and 1 piece of granola bar (a recipe I'm still perfecting to post later)

Post-Gym 7:45ish: Dedicated Woman shake

Dinner 9pm: Dinner varies depending on what's in the house, but is always some type of
protein and brown rice.
example: tuna with egg whites and brown rice
shrimp scampi (watch for this recipes) with brown rice
poached salmon with onion, tomato and brown rice
grilled chicken breast lettuce wrap
scrambled eggs, 3 whites and 1 whole egg

Weekend meals don't really vary much from this, but I often fix something fresh.

My gym routine usually includes 30-45 minutes of strength training and 1 hour of cardio.

(And if anyone is wondering, this routine and eating schedule is working for me quite nicely. My boyfriend and I are happy to answer any type of "diet" or workout questions too)

P.S. As so many of my fellow bloggers do, I am going to give my boyfriend a pseudonym. Rather than use his initials (MM) he will be known as The Trainer.