What I Ate Yesterday

This blog seems to be read by people following a variety of diets, from Paleo to Vegan (okay - I only know one vegan who's ever visited) and, after posting a few times about food, people have asked me what I tend to eat. Sometimes, it's complete garbage (remember Stick Quest?), but usually I eat well and, since I make my own meals - and no one else's - and want something that doesn't take any time, I end up eating a lot of the same things every day that don't require recipes. If cooking for others, I tend to be elaborate and fussy and make things that are more decadently celebratory than the gruel I serve myself.

Yesterday was an unusually good day, nutritionally speaking. I had 5 meals:

Meal 1
Oatmeal made from 1 c. steel-cut oats, with 1 Tbsp. honey, 1/4 tsp. iodized salt, 1/4 tsp. cinnamon.
1 egg (scrambled)
8 oz. skim milk with 1 Tbsp. cocoa
3 cups coffee

This amount of oatmeal would make most people go screaming into the night. Skim milk just doesn't cut it for me, but the added cocoa adds just enough good fat - and life without some chocolate is only half a life. The egg is an every-other-day thing for me.

Meal 2
brown rice, made from 1/2 c. dry rice
8 oz. skim milk plus 1 Tbsp. cocoa
12 almonds (about 1/2 oz.)

I often eat quinoa, amaranth, raw buckwheat (when I can find it), hand-picked wild rice or teff (an Ethiopian grain invariably made into bread, but delicious on its own), but brown rice is cheap.

Meal 3
pasta (al dente) made from 1c dry whole-wheat macaroni, 2 Tbsp. tomato paste, 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil, 1/4 tsp. dried basil.
1 glass red wine (about 3.5 oz.)
1/2 gallon water - this meal was right after running

This is my one high glycemic load meal, which I use to replenish glycogen stores after exercise.

Meal 4
4 oz. Greek-style yogurt made from skim milk, with 1 c. blueberries
apple (Braeburn), orange (navel), banana
1.5 oz. sock-eye salmon, grilled

This is such a small portion of fish, people may ask why I don't just go vegetarian. Besides being a source of omega-3 fatty acids, it's a good source of calcium (I use canned), vitamins D and B-12 and has the antioxidant astaxanthin. If I have absolutely no time, I resort to herring (usually kippered), sardines or other small cold-water fish that don't require cooking.

Meal 5
curried lentils, made from 1/3 c. dry red lentils, 1 clove fresh garlic, 1/2 tsp. flax oil, 1 tsp. homemade curry powder (turmeric, cumin, ginger, black pepper, cayenne pepper, coriander, fenugreek, fennel, nutmeg, cardamom, cloves, horseradish, ginseng, sesame seed)
small handful (about 1/2 oz.) nuts: walnuts and sunflower seeds
about 3 c. mixed boiled vegetables (spinach, broccoli, artichoke hearts, celery, cucumber, sweet potato, avocado, shiitake and button mushrooms, edamame, kombu)
3 c. black tea

The only beans I can tolerate are red lentils and black beans (not black turtle beans) and the curry helps. The nuts are varied - I sometimes substitute cashews, brazil nuts, pine nuts (when they aren't $10 per ounce) or hazelnuts, but walnuts and sunflower seeds are most common. I find I don't eat my vegetables if I have to spend any time on them, so I cook a huge pot once per week, divide them up, freeze and then microwave them when wanted. The combination works well for me, as the textures vary and some I otherwise find objectionable are okay in a mix. The avocado completely disappears in the cooking, but I think the fat from it makes the rest more palatable. I've tried switching to green tea, but I like black.

I didn't crunch the numbers, but I think it comes out to about 2500 calories, about 15-20% calories from fat and about 20% from protein.