Updates on the New Year's Resolution!

So far so good! Dan and I have been sticking to our diet very well. It's been a little tricky, and we found we are starving ourselves more than necessary but at least we figured it out early :)

Side note: my current snack of pepperjack cheese is way spicier than I thought it'd be and I'm regretting eating a large chunk of it all at once.

I'd like to share a couple things, like our meal plans for this week and the grocery list for it. I've also put all the meals into myfitnesspal if anyone uses that or would like the calorie counts. Breakfast and lunch are simple, 100-200 and 200-300 calories respectively. I am doing a soup/salad combo for lunches. I made onion soup this week, eaten with a mixed greens salad that was topped with cashews and a vinegarette. Lunch was about 300 cal, and we just had coffee for breakfast mainly. That left dinners which were between 500-800 calories. If you're starting to freak out about the calorie deficit (OMG you're staving yourself!) we splurged on New Years Eve. Plus, Dan had quite the surplus of Christmas candy to consume. Saturday's are reasonable cheat days, i.e. not eating at a super low deficit. So all in all, we're hovering around 1500 cal average.

This week we ate the following recipes, which can be found in my previous post:

Sunday: Black Bean Soup
Monday: Bok Choy over brown rice
Tuesday: Roasted chickpeas, broccoli and garlic cloves
Wednesday: Saag Paneer over basmati rice
Thursday: Cod Chowder (quick version)
Friday: Avocado egg rolls (found the recipe after a friend of mine made them for a holiday party)

Grocery List:

*I haven't included everything, as I have a lot of spices and cooking oils, vinegars, etc. already. You may want to invest in olive oil, vegetable oil, various vinegars (rice, white, wine, etc), sriracha, soy sauce, etc. I use these to flavor many things. On top of that, a well-stocked spice cabinet is essential. I'd be happy to give suggestions.*

Week 1

*Black Bean soup recipe has been cut in half.

Bacon

bag of onions

2 heads garlic

1 can of diced tomatoes

32 oz. black beans

cilantro

2 limes

sour cream

bok choy

brown rice

large can chick peas

1 crown broccoli

Half gallon whole milk

1 lb spinach

green chile

heavy cream (½ cup, think about an avocado next time)

1 lb red potatoes

clam juice (8 oz)

12 oz cod (sub in for halibut in chowder)

egg roll wrappers

eggs

2 small avocado or 1 large (enough for 1 cup)

honey

roasted cashews (½ cup)

Results and Discussion:

Sunday: Great recipe, filling and tasty. A small dollop of sour cream on top is a perfect garnish. Fresh cilantro is a must, and adds a ton of awesome flavor. The bacon is soft since it's simmering for awhile. It's still very cooked and yummy. If you like your bacon crispy, you may want to cook it separately and add at the last moment with the cilantro. Crunchy bacon may be a bit weird though with the other textures. This is kind of like a chili rather than a soup due to the nature of the ingredients. If you blend it, you'll definitely get a soup though.

Monday: More than one bok choy is needed. I didn't realize how much it'd cook down. However, it was really good and easy to make. It could also serve as a side dish to some kind of meat but I don't like to eat a ton of meat so I kind of avoid it at times to Dan's dismay.

Tuesday: Holy roasted vegetables from heaven! I saw a post from one of my friends, was inspired and roasted chickpeas, broccoli and whole garlic cloves. I drained and rinsed the chickpeas and patted them dry a bit. Tossed them in olive oil with the broccoli and garlic cloves. Mistake: throwing them in with the broccoli. Broccoli roasted faster so I had to take it out after 30 min (around 400 F I believe for temperature). The garlic varies based on the size of the clove, but another 10 minutes and the chick peas were good to go! They had a crispiness like potato chips, but were soft at the same time. It was a perfect snack as we finished the last season of Breaking Bad then rang in the new year. I made a lot of chickpeas so it was a satisfying meal.

Wednesday: Making paneer is really easy, and Dan actually enjoyed cooking for once ;). The recipe could not be simpler. Only issue with this recipe was the amount of dishes we had to wash afterwards. However, it was really good and spinach-y. I noticed that it tasted more like spinach than the dishes I've eaten at indian restaurants. It was also really green in comparison. I'm talking fresh green veggie green. Maybe the spinach wasn't cooked long enough? It was soggy like cooked spinach though. I'm not quite sure. Also, you need a ton more cream if you want it "restaurant style" so I'm happy I stuck with the recipe. It balanced healthy and unhealthy for us :) FYI: found the cheesecloth at walmart near the jar/canning supplies.

PANEER!

Thursday: Found a chowder that I will be making tonight. Includes bacon, fish and tomatoes. I think it'll be good :) Tip: if you buy milk for recipes and you buy almost the exact amount needed, remind your husband not to use it in your coffee everyday. Otherwise you will be very confused as to what happened to all the milk! This was my mistake, and using the leftover cream I had wasn't an option as I had decided to shake it and try to turn it into butter with no success... A little chicken stock always helps fix these problems though... just not as thick a soup! Thankfully I had some on hand.

Friday: Will edit once it's Friday :)