Wednesday

Breakfast:
2 Wholewheat rotis with my fusion SouthIndian-KungPao chicken ;) Loved it!!!

Lunch:
The same south Indian kung pao chicken, dressed in a new avatar - a glorious soup! Ah! So good to drink it, with this stuffy nose and bad cold.

Dinner:
New year eve's party. I made chicken kababs and cookies for kids.
I did eat some rice and a small bhatura (deep fried bread made of maida/all purpose flour), along with chicken curry, the kababs and chickpeas.
one small gulab jamun (fried milk sumpling in sugar syrup)

Tuesday

Breakfast:
- Wholewheat rotis
- stir-fried sprouted green mung beans
- stir fried green beans

Lunch:
- goji berries
- cashews
- 3 cummin cookies

Dinner:
- a bowl of a fusion chicken curry with chicken thighs, green peppers, mushrooms and cashews... really spicy south Indian style kung pao chicken? lol ... I just made it up as I went and it turned out pretty good!

- two bites from that luscious pizza (partially homemade - wholewheat) that DH and DD were having!

Exercise:
no exercise today :(

In retrospect:
good day!

Monday

Breakfast:
WholeWheat pancake - 2

Lunch:
- 1 cup of kefir
- An apple
- cashews

Afternoon snack:
- almonds
- goji berries
- 3 cummin cookies that I baked yesterday

Dinner:
- a bowl of stir fried sprouted green mung beans
- stir fried green beans with onions

Exercise:
YES! I followed through.

35 mins
- 20 mins of treadmill
- 15 mins of floor exercises + stretches

In retrospect:
Super Good day! :)

Sunday

Breakfast:
Quinoa upma/pilaf cooked in water spiked with homemade chicken broth.

Lunch:
a few cashews
handful of goji berries

Afternoon snack:
- a muffin.... I baked some wholewheat carrot muffins for Mischief and I ate one of those. Eating that wasn't a good idea. :(
- handful of dry roasted almonds

Dinner:
- Turkey Kheema with broiled green peas. [Minced turkey with broiled green peas]
- Cummin cookies - 2

Cummin cookies
Just to keep the pantry loaded with something that I CAN eat, I baked some of these cummin cookies by Lakshmi. I used spelt flour instead of maida/all purpose flour and kefir instead of milk. Reduced the ghee to 2 tbsp. Instead of rolling them out, I just shaped into small round balls and flattened them and baked for 25-27 mins. These were very good! And soft! Thanks Lakshmi. Next time around, I might try to reduce some more of the ghee/oil and use applesauce partially, just to see if I can get away with it. And I will reduce the salt to half the amount.

P.s: Spelt flour is a wholegrain flour that can replace measure to measure of maida/all purpose flour without compensating the softness or taste.

Exercise:
YESSSSSSS!!! Finally!

35 mins
- 17 mins on treadmill
- 18 mins of floor exercises and stretches

In retrospect:
Good day!

I felt very good after I worked out. After 4 months of not working out, I did it today. Hopefully I can do it tomorrow.. just taking one day at a time for now.

Saturday

Breakfast:
Yesterday's cracked wheat/sunshine blend upma/pilaf - I had saved a small cup of that for my breakfast.

Lunch:
2 small rotis (homemade wholewheat tortillas) with a big serving of 12 bean curry. I used the beans I got for the 12 bean soup, soaked it overnight and pressure cooked with spices. This was very good with the roti.

Dinner:
2 tbsp goji berries
2 tbsp roasted unsalted cashews
Chicken wings
An apple

In retrospect:
Not bad at all, considering the sugar loaded previous week or two. Good day!

Friday

Brunch:
- WG cracked wheat + sunshine blend (blend of buckwheat groats, bulghur, cracked red rice, flax seeds and something else) upma/pilaf
- thengai podi (spiced coconut mixture / Indira's kobbari kaaram)
- spiced okra on the side

Afternoon snack:
2 more besan laddus
1 cup of dry roasted chickpeas

Dinner:
Chicken wings that DH made

Puffed millet- walnut squares
I made some walnut-puffed millet squares with jaggery for DD. Made a syrup with jaggery and mixed the walnuts and puffed millet (wholegrain) into that and packed it tightly and baked for 20 mins at 300 F. cut this into squares when hot and let it cool down.

I ate two of these squares.

Exercise:
I should!! All the sugar is making me go crazy. Big time mood swings.

In retrospect:
Breakfast was good! yesterday's one besan laddu was good..I should have stopped there. But still eating those. And the puffed millet walnut squares?? TWO ?? Something's wrong with me!

Thursday

Breakfast:
Wholewheat pasta from yesterday's dinner. It had lot of broccoli, carrots, garlic, wholewheat rotini and some cheese. Not a lot of cheese, just a light coating.

Lunch:
1 bowl of garbanzo bean soup from yesterday's dinner.
Besan Laddu made by a loving friend.

Afternoon snack:
Garbanzo beans sundal (stir fried soft-cooked-garbanzo-beans with spices!) It was soooo good!

Dinner:
A bowl of spicy okra
5-6 pieces of chili shrimp - with a bend of Chinese and Indian spices

A tiny piece of Dairymilk fruit and nut. Just one of those small squares.

In retrospect:
no fruits, no dairy, no seeds, no nuts ......

The besan laddu was from a loving friend from US, who took so much pain making it and sending it with a bunch of goodies. No guilt eating that... But the dairy milk??? I persuaded (read: guilt tripped) DH to share his chocolate from the stockings.

What's with me and sugar? I have never been a person with sweet tooth. But this month, I have been eating sweet stuff, just because. I don't even crave for it. I eat it because it's there. And this month, this has become a habit. STOPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!

Wednesday

Breakfast:
I made french toast for DD, who is on a winter break. Hers was typical french toast with milk, egg, sugar and cinnamon powder. For me, I made a spicy toast with egg, a dash of water, coarsely crushed black pepper and salt. The bread I used was a wholewheat bread I baked yesterday.

Wholewheat bread Yesterday evening, I had made some rose petal flavored wholewheat bread with sesame seeds. The dried rose petals didn't really do anything. I thought they would flavor the bread a bit, but nope! Maybe fresh petals might make a difference. This is the recipe I used yesterday and like always, I adapted it to suit my fancy.

• 1 1/4 cups milk (warmed in microwave)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons organic cane sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoon honey
  
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
  
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup of gluten flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons flax seed meal [for that egg like effect and extra nutrition]
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Put everything in the bread machine in the order specified for your machine and set it for Wholegrain setting. When it beeps to add nuts/seeds, add

• 4 tablespoons of sesame seeds
• 2 tablespoons of rose petals (optional, didn't do ANYTHING! no flavor or color)
  

Let it rise..... and then shape the dough into two loafs - I shaped them like huge dinner rolls - in artisan style and baked in the oven at 375 for 35 mins.

I think I'm slowly getting a hang of this rise in BM and bake in the oven thingie. :)

Lunch:
- 1/2 cup of Puffed wheat + 1/2 cup of french lentils with onions, garlic, spices (yesterday's dinner) + 1/2 cup of stir fried beetroot

- homemade plain yogurt

Dinner:
- a big bowl of chickpea/garbanzo beans soup with carrots, peas and chicken broth with some spices for me while DH and DD enjoyed Wholewheat pasta with broccoli and carrots.

Exercise:
Totally behind it... soooon!

In retrospect:
pretty good day!

Tuesday

Breakfast:
Oatmeal with some coconut, flax seed meal, almonds cooked in water and creamed with a tiny bit of both milk and sugar.

Lunch:
White rice, Rasam, 2 salmon pieces - roasted in the oven. White rice!!!! Maybe I should make some extra brown rice and freeze it for such cravings. And stop making extra white rice. Who said 'I can resist everything except temptation?' Well, He was right!

Dinner:
- A bowl of french green lentils, cooked with onions, garlic and lot of spices.
- Stirfried beetroot with spices

In retrospect:
Veggies - good, protein - good, breakfast - good (if i can excuse that bit of sugar)....

White rice - REAL BAD.

I found a nice recipe for crackers with oatmeal, etc. I should make that to snack on, incase I feel like snacking.

Monday

Breakfast:
1/2 cup of homemade yogurt
A toast of the Wholewheat/rye/cinnamon flavoured/pumpkin seed bread I made.

Lunch:
Handful of cashews
Two homemade cookies
(because I was out all day at the doctor's and missed lunch)

Dinner:
- A piece of grilled salmon that I made
- Grilled chicken from Afghan takeout

In retrospect:
Missing a meal makes me eat something that I shouldn't. DD isn't well and I had to take her to the pediatrician who has moved across the city. Both of us missed lunch and had cashews and homemade cookies for lunch!

Tomorrow I can eat more veggies and a fruit.

Sunday

Breakfast:
Sweet potato parathas - I had a cup of mashed sweet potato +spices that I used for yesterday's stuffed parathas. I did not want to make any more stuffed parathas today, so I just did what Indosungod does. :) Mixed wholewheat atta (flour) with the mashed sweet potato mixture and made thick rotis out of it. :)

Lunch:
I made these wholewheat/oatmeal/coconut cookies by Sunita Bhuyan today. I substituted almond butter for peanut butter. Since the almond butter is sugarless, I increased the sugar by 2 tbsp and added 2 tbsp of maple syrup. The cookies were very good! Very mildly sweet and full of good stuff like flax seeds, oats, wholewheat flour, coconut, milk etc.

As per my diet, I cannot eat these because of the sugar/maple syrup in it. But I ate two. ;) Very good! I loved the taste.

Then late afternoon, I made these spiced beauties, again from Sunita's blog!! An adaptation of the ginger snap cookies. Oh my goodness! They are so good. I loved it.. DD and DH loved it too. I had one of these. Again, very healthy, wholewheat stuff... no butter, just 3 tbsp oil and very less sugar (4 tbsp) and so easy to make. Jeez, I sound like a commercial. But these were the best ginger spiced cookies that I've ever tasted. The only sub I made was - I didn't have brown sugar, so I used 4 tbsp cane sugar+1 tbsp molasses.

Both recipes are keepers, I should write them down in my 'Tried and Tested' notebook. :) Thanks Sunita!

Dinner:
A cup of cubed chicken breasts cooked with lots of onions, ginger, garlic and lots of spices - garam masala powder, black pepper powder, chilli chicken powder, turmeric powder and salt.

- 3 tbsp of tomato rice (my weakness!) in 6 tbsp of homemade FRESH yogurt. Mmmmmmm!!!

In retrospect:
I had a good day today.

Three cookies in the place of lunch was an overkill. A protein based lunch plus a cookie or two would have been a better thing to do.

I should make Tomato rice with Brown Basmati ala Alton Brown and see how it turns out. Then I can have it without guilt.

Saturday

Brunch:
Three wholewheat parathas stuffed with sweet potatoes and spices.

I made Aloo Paratha [Parathas stuffed with potatoes] for DD and DH. Why sulk when those two are having a great breakfast? I made some sweet potato parathas for me :) and the parathas were delicious!

Lunch:
1/4 boiled potato, mashed, with spices :o [The potato masala from alu paratha - hehe!]
2 pieces of mackerel in Tamarind based curry
3/4 of an apple

Dinner:
nothing.......................
But I was so hungry at 11 PM that I went looking for something to eat. :o
I toasted a slice of the wholewheat/bran/rye/cinnamon/pumpkin seed bread that I had baked in the morning and ate it... Lesson of the day? Eat something for dinner!

In retrospect:
Not bad!

Friday

Breakfast:
Wholewheat squares - 1/2 cup

Lunch:
Frozen raspberry smoothie

Afternoon snack:
Medu vada (okay, it was a bonda)... and paasiparuppu bonda - I ate about 2 of each.

With a raging snowmageddon outside my window, and a friend reminding me on bajjis and hot tea, the tiny container of extra meduvada batter from Sunday that was in the refrigerator - came handy yesterday.

I also made some paasiparuppu bonda (green moong flour, onions, green chillies, a dash of rice flour and corn flour - about 1/2 tbsp each - deep fried in oil)... It was okay - not bad.. But the meduvada was GREAT! :)

Dinner:
Fish curry in tamarind based sauce - Mackerel from tin.
This is my first time using tinned mackerel. It sucked! :( It was just edible. Fresh fish tastes GREAT! Frozen fish still tastes good. Tinned fish? Not so much! Two more tins to go through and then I'm done with tinned fish business once for all.

In retrospect:
Good day!

Thursday

Brunch:
Pancake puffballs made out of WW flour, wheat bran, rye flour, yogurt, salt and baking soda - No milk, no sugar...which means I can eat this one. :) I had this one for breakfast, with a bean dip.

Afternoon snack:
goji berries
1/2 cup of Indian style - dry roasted chickpeas/garbanzo beans/ Brown channa

Dinner:
Chicken wings

In retrospect:
Not bad!! But there's another food group called vegetables. :) And seeds...and nuts! The yogurt in the puffballs can be hardly called a serving of dairy. I notice that if I eat all food groups, then I feel very energetic and feel really good and the weight comes off easily. But if I start forgetting to eat some of those, then the body goes into starvation mode (very less food intake makes the body do this!) and the metabolic rate goes down....and well, the weight stays.

Time to eat, eh! :)

Wednesday

Breakfast:
Brown rice + Blackeyed peas in tomato based curry!!
Wooohooooo, I had rice today and don't have to feel guilty because it is wholegrain brown rice after all! :)

Lunch:
Not hungry

Afternoon snack:
Goji berries

Dinner:
DH and DD ate WW macaroni with peas and cheese and some curry powder..... I had some of those black eyed peas in tomato curry. I think I made way too much of that.

In retrospect:
Good day!

Another 2 lbs down!

It's hightime, eh! I'm 138 lbs now. That is 62.59 kg!

:) I love it when the scales move in the right direction!




My Weight Chart:

Brown rice - I love thee!!! Thank you Alton Brown!

I have had a few episodes of brown rice - gone bad! Pressure cooker? tried that...didn't work. Rice cooker? Tried that...didn't work. Stove top? Tried that... didn't work.. Which made me almost give up the idea of giving it another try. Almost. I did what I usually do and googled to see how everybody else who rave about brown rice, cook it. that's when I found these two.

Cooking brown rice in the oven - The Alton Brown Method
http://www.recipezaar.com/177017

Cooking brown rice on the stove top.
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/366044

Now I am a South Indian - who likes her rice softer. Not mushy.. just soft. Flaky, yes! but still soft. I should be able to mix it with sambar or rasam or thayir (that's plain yogurt) and flaky enough to make stirfries. I wanted to give Alton brown's method a try yesterday. The stove top method - well, I knew for sure that my curiosity would get the better of me and I'd peek in and give it a few stir (which was a total NO-NO!)..the first method seemed easier.. put everything in the oven and take it out after an hour or so.

I wondered if I need to tweak the oven timing/amount of water in the recipe to suit my personal preference. I tweaked both a bit, and still got very good, flaky rice but still soft enough to mix into a curry/sambar. Exactly what I was looking for. This is how I did.

Brown basmati rice - 1 and half cup [I used IndiaGate Brand]
Water - 3 cups [I used homemade broth + water 50-50%]
Jeera/Cummin seeds - 1/2 tsp [optional]
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp

Preheat oven at 375 F. Wash rice and put that in a casserole dish. Boil water, ghee, jeera and salt on stovetop and pour over the rice. Cover with Al foil. Bake for 50 mins. Switch the oven off and leave it inside for another 10 mins. (Adjust the cooking time according to your oven.)

Perfect brown rice! I'd leave the jeera and broth out for traditional South Indian meal.

Thank you Alton Brown! It was just great! The recipe is a keeper!
I shouldn't have been surprised... It is 'Brown' rice after all! :)

I have read that cooked brown rice freezes beautifully. Now that I've discovered this method of cooking wholegrain brown rice, let there be rice in my world! :)

Tuesday

Breakfast:
3 WholeWheat Rotis + Chinese eggplant/green garbanzo curry

Lunch:
One bowl of Cream of mushroom soup - with cashews instead of cream

Early Evening:
- a handful of cashews
- Egg podimas (Scrambled eggs (with 2 eggs) - south Indian style, with onions, green chillies, cummin seeds and black mustard seeds)

Dinner:
A cup of black eyed peas in tomato based curry.

In retrospect:
Great day!

Cream of mushroom soup - without cream

Heat olive oil in a pressure cooker, add 2 cloves, 8-10 pepper corns and 2 bay leaves. Saute for 10 sec, add 1/2 an onion, chopped roughly, 2-3 garlic cloves, chopped roughly, a few coriander leaves. Saute for a few mins and add about a 8 oz box of button mushrooms..... you don't have to chop the mushrooms. just clean them and add to the pressure cooker... Add 2 cups of broth [I used a combination of homemade+storebought organic chicken broth... You can use veggie broth to make Vegan Cream of mushroom soup] and some water. Pressure cook for 2 whistles in medium heat.

Remove the bay leaves and pour everything into the blender. [If your blender can't handle hot stuff, let it cool down before you use the blender.]...throw in about 5-6 raw cashews. Add some salt. Blend everything together. Adjust salt and pepper.

Serve hot!

Note: I might add some celery stalks or a pinch of celery seed powder next time around to make it even more flavorful. It is very good as it is and it can only be even better with some celery. If the cashews in the recipe bother you, substitute with some cream or a splash of milk. I'm allergic to milk and can't use milk or cream, so I used cashews instead.

It was sooooo good that my DD2yo went for second helpings and was licking her bowl clean! :) I liked it too! My first mushrom soup turned out real good and yummy! yippeee!

Monday

Breakfast:
Wholewheat+wheatgerm rotis + vendaikai poriyal (okra with spices!)

Lunch:
almond + goji berries

Afternoon snack:
some more vendaikai poriyal (some days I hog veggies!)

Dinner:
A curry made with tons of chinese brinjals and frozen green garbanzo beans. DH and DD had it with rotis, I had it like a soup.

ETA: A bowl of mushroom soup.. I forget very often these days... I also made this really good mushroom soup for dinner yesterday! Cream of mushroom soup without any cream! Look for the recipe in my next post.


Exercise:
still thinking about it..

In retrospect:
Great day!

Sunday

Breakfast:
4 small Medu Vadai (lentil fritters)
I made this out of urad dal (lentils), onions, one green chily, ginger, coriander leaves and 1/2 tbsp of rice flour+cornflour and a pinch of salt. Very good, absoluely no oil at all. I still dont get the holes in the centre... so I made the vadais into really small roundish bondas. ;) lol

Lunch:
Lunch was at a friend's place. She is an absolute sweetheart. She knew about my diabetes and that I can't have white rice. So, She had made baked salmon with spinach and mushrooms et al.. :) So sweet of her to think of me and my diet with limitations and to go out of her way to do that.

so yeah these are what I had for lunch

- ETA :: a mixed berry+apple smoothie - didn't need sugar, it was sweet by itself. Good!
- 1 serving of baked salmon with spinach and mushrooms. GREAT!!! :)
- 1 tbsp beetroot poriyal
- 4 tbsp paasiparuppu kulambu (green mung dal)
- 4 tbsp rasam (tamarind and dal based soup?)
- three more of that small roundish medu vada

= BIG LUNCH!!!

Dinner:
Pollock (fish) that DH made for dinner
2 tbsp of chakkara pongal - prasad from Hindu temple (rice/jaggery pudding)

In retrospect:
Good day! I didn't have any grains for breakfast... or lunch. so I ended up with a nasty headache by dinner time. so I tell myself - Eat a WG breakfast!! It's the most important part of your diet... Don't skip that!

Last week was a sweet week ---- starting with the energy bar with honey... then the payasam and now the pongal! No weight-loss since November last week... but no weight gain either!! I don't regret giving in this week.. No regrets at all! Though I don't have a sweet tooth, I really enjoyed those sweet stuff this particular week. I didn't mindlessly binge. Everything was in moderation. Now I should just make sure not to have any more sweets... from now on till I see my naturopath again in mid January. And I should start working out.

Saturday

Breakfast:
Wholegrain Buckwheat+ Oat flour dosa (which also had lot of yogurt in it) with mutton curry + Thengai podi (spicy coconut powder) based on this recipe by Indira. I reduced the red chillies and used dried coconut. It was excellent!

This was the recipe I had been looking for, for ages and have finally found it. :)

Lunch:
Dry roasted garbanzo beans - 1/2 cup or more..
1/2 cup of payasam (yellow mung bean custard made with a splash of milk and some jaggery?)

Late Afternoon snack:
lots of goji berries + 1/2 an apple

Dinner:
an omelette with 2 eggs

In retrospect:
good day!

Friday!

It was a GREAT day!! :) I had fun!

That's all I'm saying....

back on diet from tomorrow.

Thursday

Whine alert!!! If you are allergic to whining, now is the time to close this post. :)

Breakfast:
homemade energy bar which has honey in it

Lunch:
Yellow peas with fenugreek leaves from yesterday's dinner

Afternoon snack:
goji berries and an energy bar (which my daughter fed me, with so much love!!!!)

Dinner:
Rice - 2 tbsp WHITE RICE!!!
with ridge gourd sambar + brinjal vadakkal! Brinjal vadakkal was so yummm!

In retrospect:
Once I have some sugary stuff, this time it's honey (read: energy bar, cookie from yesterday), I start craving for sugar and I can't seem to stop it... Easiest thing would be to avoid it altogether! Craaaaaaaaaaaaap! Why? Why can't I just avoid making yummy things?? Or make some energy bars for me without sugar??

Now my head spins with all that extra sugar!!!!!!

Wednesday

Breakfast:
Yesterday's energy bar - With so much of the good stuff in it, and the bad bad honey!!! Honey isn't really bad, but it is bad for me. I should make some of those energy bars with stevia.

Lunch:
An omelette with two eggs!

Afternoon snack:
goji berries with almonds

Dinner:
- kothavarangai/gavar poriyal... If you want to see what gavar looks like, here is a nice picture. I didnt make it as lipsmacking as that one. Mine was very simple with onions, red chillies, cummin seeds and asafetida with a pinch of salt.

- A bowl of yellow peas with fenugreek leaves.
Dried yellow peas - soaked for 24 hrs and cooked with onions, garlic, tomatoes, spices and added to wilted fenugreek leaves... I have these frozen fenugreek leaves (Shana brand) in the freezer, that I can nuke in the microwave for 2 mins and add it to any curry or dal n the end. works easy for me and adds a lot of nutrition. Ofcourse, nothing like fresh fenugreek leaves, but I'll trade freshness for convenience for some things! ;)

Now comes the bad part... I was at a friend's place babysitting her sleeping kids, watching a movie 'Curious George', with my daughter. And Mischief was eating some cookies. I ate one cookie, and before I knew it, I had eaten quite a lot. :( what does the cookies have? unbleached AP flour, wheat germ, honey - no additives. the honey and AP flour are totally wrong for me and to eat them after dinner, well, my self control sucks!!!

In retrospect:
If I crash breakfast, then the day is a big candidate for the diet to go wrong. :(

I shouldn't be offering her cookies in the evening ;) on a day when I don't feel very good about the diet..esp. if I had crashed it during the breakfast time.

Tuesday and an Energy bar!

Breakfast:
wheat squares

Lunch:
shredded chicken with spices
almonds
goji berries

Afternoon snack:
almond butter

Dinner:
Radish sambar [Lentil stew with radish] + stir fried beetroot

I made an energy bar for my DD and DH out of this recipe from Mothering magazine. I omitted the sugar and increased the honey to 1 cup. I used wholewheat flour for the flour. I didnt put raisins or nuts but added 1/2 cup of dry shredded coconut, 3 tbsp of sesame seeds and 3 tbsp of pumpkin seeds. So, Why am I mentioning this here? because I ate a small squarish piece of it, to taste it. ;) Pretty good!!! The coconut was a LOVELY addition! I need to write this recipe down. Keeper!!

In retrospect:
Good day! no dairy...other wise good.

I'm not supposed to have that energy bar, because of the honey in it... but I ate a really small piece... I have a feeling, tomorrow's breakfast is going to be interesting!!

Monday

Breakfast:
1/2 cup of WholeWheat squares... with almost no sugar.. no additives

Lunch:
1 slice of WW bread
7 almonds
handful of goji berries

Afternoon snack:
1/2 an apple

Dinner:
- I roasted a whole chicken in the crockpot today. I shredded the meat and flash froze most of it and froze the bones to make soup stock. I made Spicy chicken with some of the meat from the roasted chicken. Lots of onions, fennel seeds, curry leaves, a tomato, chilli powder, turmeric powder and garam masala with some salt. Yummy!

- a cup of plain yogurt diluted with water

In retrospect:
A good day! no veggies, but everything else covered.

Sunday

Breakfast:
no breakfast ...woke up pretty late and went directly to lunch

Lunch:
- 2 slices of WW bread that I baked with yesterday's Thattapayir karuvaatu kulambu [cowpeas+anchovies in a tamarind based curry]

- Tindora/gherkins/kovakkai stirfried with cummin seeds, garam masala and salt.

- 2 tbsp of yogurt

Dinner:
An omelette with 2 eggs
a BIG bowl of beetroot poriyal - stirfried with onions, red chillies, curry leaves, cummin seeds and salt!

In retrospect:
good day!!

Saturday

Breakfast:
Ragi kanji (porridge made of sprouted Indian millet - wholegrain) with yogurt and a pinch of salt. I used to hate this... and loved to drink this with milk and sugar (both of which I can't have now!) but I loved this drink with yogurt on Saturday. Maybe my tastebuds are learning to love what they can have?? :)

Early Lunch:
A wholewheat bagel from a columbian bakery in Aurora - toasted and lightly buttered! The best ever bagel I've tasted!

Evening:
I ate 3-4 tbsp of white rice with yesterday's mutton curry. :( [white rice!!! argh!]

Dinner:
- 5 almonds
- Thattapayir karuvaatu kulambu [stew made of cowpeas and anchovies] Adapted from Paati's recipe. Thanks Paati! It was very good!

In retrospect:
3-4 tbsp of white rice.... that's bad!! I had dairy!!! finally!!! Tomorrow I'll think of some veggies! :)

Friday

Breakfast:
a slice of Wholewheat bread that I baked

Lunch:
another slice of Wholewheat bread that I baked

Afternoon snack:
5 almonds
1/2 tbsp almond butter

Dinner:
Boneless mutton fry (not fried!! It's just a really dry curry) with LOTS of spices, onions, ginger and garlic! Lip smacking, finger licking good!!! It was the most simple recipe ever and I'll be making this very often.

I also made some curry with the mutton pieces that had some bones in them but I didnt have the curry, just the above fry!

In retrospect:
No veggies/fruits/dairy/seeds yet!!! I was busy during breakfast and lunch but managed to grab a slice of WW bread. I could have made it more filling, by making a sandwich..

Thursday

Breakfast:
a bowl of kamut fusili pasta [wholegrain] cooked with curried okra. Awesome!! I didn't use any sauce on this and it was just a saute-pasta.

I make pasta as per instructions.. and make a dry poriyal with baby okra, with some cummin seeds, salt and some kitchen king masala. When done, I throw in the pasta and saute for a few more mins. Yummy saute-pasta with curried okra! :)

I made it for DD's lunchbox [She LOVES it!] and made some extra for me too.

Midmorning snack:
one thick slice of Wholewheat bread - homemade

Lunch:
1/2 cup of pottukadalai [dry roasted lentils]
1/4 cup of goji berries
an apple

Afternoon snack:
1 cup of cheese straws :(

Dinner:
a small piece of grilled chicken
an omelette
5 almonds

In retrospect:
did I cover all food groups? dairy - no, seeds, - no, greens - no! :(
cheesestraws was a bad idea!!

Wednesday

Breakfast:
None!! I had to be out of the door by 8 AM this morning to be a part of a very important cause that I'm passionate about.

I had made this really awesome WW bread yesterday - Tried a new recipe that doesn't require milk or eggs to bake bead ... I let the bread machine do all the hard work - the kneading and rising. I then shaped the loaf and baked it in the oven. I should have just eaten a slice of that for breakfast... but I totally forgot about that and was almost dizzy before I could get something to eat.

Late snack at 12 noon:
A wholegrain bagel from TimHortons - toasted and buttered up.

Late Lunch at 2.30 pm:
A sandwich made of wholewheat bread and butter at a friend's place.

Afternoon snack at 4.30 pm:
3 Chicken pieces and some curry from yesterday's dinner - like a soup
1/2 of an apple

Late Dinner:
baked+broiled chicken [thankfully I remembered to marinate some chicken pieces yesterday]
an omelette with 2 eggs!

In retrospect:
Too much butter for one day? I can eat butter because I'm not allergic to it (unlike milk!).... I was just worried about the calories. but I guess it's okay since I didn't deviate from my diet or binge on something bad!

I'm tired of seeing chicken again. :( maybe I'll sprout some beans... they taste a lot better than chicken to me, these days.

Tuesday!

Breakfast:
- Rotis made of 50% WW flour and 50% WholeOats flour
- Curried Black eyed beans + green beans saute-ed in spices

Good!!

Midmorning snack:
1 spoonful of almond butter

Lunch:
none!! :(

Dinner:
chicken curry with a coconut milk based sauce... deliciouso!!

In retrospect:
Veggies, chec,beans check, wholegrains check, breakfast check, nuts, check, protein check... fruits - none.. which is not a big problem! But missing lunch wasn't good. I was having hunger pangs while making dinner.

good day, dietwise!

Monday

Breakfast:
Chicken livers for breakfast! no grains!!
'I was busy' is a pathetic excuse :( This led to a snacking episode during lunch. :(

Lunch:
Two slices of Cakes... yep. wholegrain, low fat, homemade goodness, no frosting....but still cake, nonetheless!!! :(
- First one was a carrot cake using my recipe for Carrot muffins that I made on Sunday, with white wholewheat atta (flour).. It was made with maple syrup. I ate a small serving.
- Second one is the wacky Chocolate cake that I made today.... Wacky because it didn't need any butter, milk or eggs... this recipe is from my favorite LLL cookbook 'whole foods for the whole family' - which is made with wholewheat pastry flour and honey.... and raisins...... and cocoa powder...... and vinegar and well, water! Apparently it was a depression era recipe concocted by some really smart person.. to make a cake with really cheap ingredients and still come out with excellent results... Like they say... Vallavanukku pullum ayudham! [Translation:: To a mighty (wise) man, even a blade of grass can be a weapon!]

The honey was miniscule amount... Really.. about 1 and 1/2 cup of flour to 1/3 up of honey. I also added some sunflower seeds to substitute for the nuts.. [DD goes to a nut free school/daycare] I added about 1/4 cup of wheatgerm in there along with the flour, which threw the moisture balance totally off. Using the WW pastry flour from the fridge also had something to do with the dryness.. It should have been at room temperature. But the cake was very good when I sprinkled some apple cider on it. So, all it need was some moisture and some more sweetness, to make it taste like a real cake!! DD and DH LOVED it!!! And both asked for second third helpings!!! Next time, I'll follow the recipe as it is. No adding wheat germ... And use 1/2 cup of honey.

I am NOT supposed to eat both of these!!! Because of the maple syrup in the first one and honey in the second one, since both wreak havoc to my insulin levels. But I ate it! :( There's a lot more left. I won't eat it again.

Afternoon snack:
Goji berries - a life saver!
3 Cheese sticks. I had made them on Sunday for DD to snack on. Made of Unbleached flour+sharp cheddar+lots of butter - NOT GOOD FOR ME! but soooo good!

Dinner:
- A bowl of curried black eyed beans
- A cup of green beans

In retrospect:
It was a major bad day till 7 pm... dinner was very good and very healthy!

I missed grains for breakfast, so lunch was BADDD... and since lunch was bad, it's like I suddenly decided to be more bad and ate those cheesesticks. Easiest thing would have been to eat a decent breakfast early in the morning and be done with carb cravings!!

I have this sudden urge to bake a lot of yummy things.... And I end up eating some of it... small portion but still bad!!! Hmmmmmmm....... I should bake something for me.... Something that I can eat and still fit with my diet... like wholegrain bread or wholegrain crackers that I CAN eat.

It is not possible to keep yummy things out of home since DD is just 2 yrs old.... But if I stock on stuff that I can eat, then maybe I'll be less likely to snack on her stuff??