What's on your menu today (Monday) RNYers?

When I toss food I pitch it right into our municipal compost bin -- it's outside with the flies and bugs and other stinky things. Won't be rescuing anything out of there. I don't think I've ever actually taken anything out of the garbage, but somedays I wonder if I would...

LOL: Icky stuff in the garbage over the cookies! I had this leftover salted caramel dip that someone had left and was calling to me that I put in the trash last week, WITH a used doggie pee pad inserted partly inside...

Good morning everyone! I had a pretty good weekend. Stayed on track pretty well, though breakfast had a twist yesterday on a little road trip, when my wife and I split a Timmy's B.E.L.T. Since bread is more or less off the table for me I did have a bite but just used the rest as a "plate" while I drove for the good stuff in the rest of the sandwich. That egg, bacon and tomato though? Oh heck yeah that was alllllright. A half open-faced bagel on a napkin on my leg was good for a laugh in the van at least. The rest of the day was fine food-wise and I finished off the outing by dropping my wife at home while I took the kids for a swim at the beach.

Today's menu is pretty standard. Boosting the protein up a little bit but not much different than usual.

B: 2 finger-sized meat sticks while walking the 70 minutes to work, followed by a protein shake.

MS: 1/2 cup 1% cottage cheese, 1.5 oz strawberries

L: Protein shake

AS: Same as MS.

S: I'm not sure, but I see some sort of pork tenderloin thing on a plate in the fridge. I'm guessing that will be in the crock pot with some veggies.

I've got 2 little 1.5 oz containers of tuna that was "getting long in the tooth" that I've brought to work as well. That might get mixed in with the cottage cheese.

All water, vitamins etc. will get in. Halfway there now and it's only 9:30 am. Really focused at work on water consumption, easy to do at my desk.

Today I walked to work like I do a lot, and I'm hoping my bike, my noble steed, aka Stella, that has been in the shop for some much-needed repairs is ready for me to ride home. If not that's fine, I enjoy the walk. 5.5 km each way is a pleasure. I'll be able to walk home, have supper and time enough to prepare for 3 drum lessons I teach in the evening. Looking forward to hanging out with my drum minions for a while. They're fun.

qotd: I used to be a winter guy because spring is usually too wet for my liking, and I hated sweating in the summer heat just by walking outside and sitting in a lawn chair in the shade. My entire life I've HATED the heat because I could hardly breathe. Now, I can't get or stay warm so I'm not sure how I'll feel about winter. So I think I'll be a "fall" guy now until further notice. Lee Majors would be proud. I know where I can get that brown truck. That would be awesome.

Cheers!

Morning!

Happy Birthday Teena! I hope you have a great one.

QOTD: Fall! From basically end of August all the way to Christmas. Haha. There's just so much good stuff that happens in the fall. Me, my older brother, my younger sister, my best friend all celebrate our birthdays in October (technically my sis is in November, but just barely). Halloween: aka the best holiday ever! Good smells like leaves and apples. Rewatching Gilmore girls. Aaah.

Menu: I have a hard time tolerating neat, but want to keep up my protein so I've been relying on plant based protein. One thing I've noticed, while higher in calories and carbs than meat, I really can't eat much of them. So recently as I've transitioned back onto soft food, my calories and my carb intake has dropped. I'm getting maybe 25 grams of carbs in which is half of what I was having. So yay!

M1:1/2 cup edamame steamed

M2: Protein coffee

M3: Homemade "mac" and cheese. Which is: Red lentils, nutrional yeast (which is amazing!), cheese, and full fat sour cream. I also added half scoop of isopure to the mix for added protein. 296 calories, 31 grams of protein, 13 g of fat, and 13 g of carbs.

M4: Chicken bone broth

M5: Depends. Maybe cottage cheese and veggies that family eats.and olives!

M6: I have egg drop soup left over from yesterday. Maybe that.

E: bike ride

V: good! I finally moved my iron pills yo my bedside table, so now I'm doing Great at taking them.

Your mac and cheese sounds awesome! I used to live next door to a vegan soul food restaurant that had amazing vegan mac and cheese and apparently the nutritional yeast and garlic was the key. I dunno, it was weird how good it tasted!

I see that you are four months out and can't tolerate meat. Do you eat all types of meat and fish? (for example I don't eat beef so I have no advice for that). At four months out I struggled sometimes with dry meats like chicken breast or reheated ground turkey. But as long as my meat was "saucy" I was ok, and I always did really well with flaky white fishes like tilapia and cod, tuna from a can or packet, crab (amazing price at Costco!). Moist salmon always sat well too, and you can buy the canned stuff and make salmon patties (bind it with egg, parmesan, maybe a tbsp of bread crumbs, some finely chopped onions and red peppers). I also did well with ground turkey (NOT 99% lean, but 93% lean) made with marinara sauce or taco seasoning/water. Thankfully never had a problem with bacon LOL. I hope you find a way to tolerate meats at some point :)

Fish is the easiest on my stomach. I love tuna. I actually had a can of it this weekend. I was eating meat, but then I got a stricture. Since then it's been harder. Food in general hasn't been sitting as well since, but meat is the heaviest and makes me sweat lol. Hopefully in time though!

Also, I have this weird thing where I really crave meat. Like I love to make this chicken with bell peppers, onions, garlic, and pineapple. It smells great, it looks great, my head WANTS it. But then I take a bite and the chicken just tastes kind of gross. Not sure if my tastebuds have just changed or maybe a few bad experiences turned me off of it.

So my tastebuds went through this thing where I couldn't stand wings...

And it made me so sad...

Happy to report that now, at 16 months out, wings are I are friends again.

Give it some time, your tastebuds do change at first for sure... but it appears they switch back to their old ways soon enough.

Hi DCgirl...I make similar fish patties only I use ground flax seed instead of bread crumbs...not sure if there is an advantage but it works like an ok alternative.

Is this vegan soul food restaurant you speak of in DC?

Yes! It's not far from Howard University - it's called NuVegan. They have a super popular food truck too. Their fried "fish" is amazing and their Mac and cheese is awesome and their garlic kale salad is incredible. My vegetarian and vegan friends love it. I had zero expectations and was so surprised how delicious the food is!