Day Four

Today was a bit tougher - I was rushed when I was making breakfast and preparing my snack and lamenting that I couldn't just shove something fatty in my mouth. I had a terrible headache and was horribly hungry when I got home from class - I ended up wolfing down some graham crackers. Oh well.

Breakfast

• ham & cheese sandwich with yellow mustard
• skim milk (not pictured)
• green grapes

Good, but hurried. I mostly had to shove it in my face as I showered, which is obviously not the most ideal circumstance for enjoying breakfast. It was still tasty, though, and a nice filling meal which lasted me most of the day.

Snack

• half peanut butter sandwich

I made this while I was preparing breakfast and tucked it into my satchel to have between classes, which worked out pretty well. I have to figure out which meals would be more portable, as I was really hungry for lunch by the time I ate this. It's a bit odd - I chose a combination convenience and recipe-based meal plan, but it seems most of the "convenience" meals involve microwaving something frozen. While this is certainly more convenient than cutting up and sautéeing fresh ingredients, it's still not exactly portable.

Lunch

• veggie burger with barbecue sauce on a whole wheat bun
• fresh herb salad and diced cucumber with lite creamy Parmesan dressing
• sliced kiwi
• skim milk

As my milk glass would indicate, we're overdue on washing the dishes. I really enjoy this meal and would like to get a bulk package of veggie burgers (I know Costco carries fantastic portabello mushroom and garlic ones) so that I can always have this as a stand-by.

I'm also really enjoying this salad - I bought a package of it thinking it would be bitter mesclun greens (which are merely decent), and instead I've found it to be fresh, flavorful, and unexpectedly bright flavors in a great variety. I will look for this type of greens from now on.

Dinner

• Asian beef stir-fry with broccoli and yellow pepper in teriyaki sauce, over white rice
• fresh herb salad with lite creamy Parmesan dressing
• sliced kiwi

This was a tasty meal, if a bit preparation-heavy. There was so little rice (2 tbsp uncooked) that I almost thought it wasn't worth lugging out the rice-cooker for it.

Then again, I'm sure I'm conditioned to out-of-control portions of rice if one goes by take-out standards, so I should probably quit my griping. When I lived with my parents, they would usually make a full pot of rice in the beginning of the week and we would scoop it out during the weeknights. Since so many of these meals call for pasta and rice, maybe this is not a bad idea - I don't mind reheating it.

The recipe for this dish called for snow peas in the stir-fry. I couldn't find any (fresh or frozen) at the grocery, then it occurred to me that I had a bag of broccoli florets rapidly approaching its freshness expiration date in the fridge, so I used those. I cooked them with the floret end down in the teriyaki sauce so they would soften - I like mushy beef and broccoli - and this also intensified the teriyaki flavor. Quite nice.