CAULIFLOWER! It is my new favorite vegetable. Sorry carrots, brussels sprouts, asparagus, and everything else.  It is really tasty.

I realize that in looking at this meal that it doesn’t look super tasty, but it really was. I have a BUNCH of cauliflower left and am so excited to experiment with it some more.

Rice: 100 calories

TJ’s sweet chili sauce: 50 calories

Stiryfry (with cauliflower, orange pepper, shallot, garlic and mushrooms, and a splash of olive oil): 150 calories

Total: 300 calories

Asparagus with lemon and garlic: 40 calories

Stirfry with a whole red pepper, three large crimini mushrooms, a shallot, a few slices of zucchini, and a splash of olive oil: 120 calories

Trader Joe’s Rice Medley (1/2 cup): 100 calories

Total calories: 260

I’m going to skip lamenting about my eating habits as of late and just tell you that that this was a super tasty meal.

Gilmore Girls is my favorite TV show ever. I could go on for pages about the many things I love about it, but instead I’m going to rant endlessly about the one thing I really hate - the way the Gilmore Girls eat. They regularly eat at “Luke’s Diner” and much to diner owner Luke’s chagrin, the girls almost never eat fruits, vegetables, or anything healthy. Their diet consists of French dip sandwiches, french fries, tater tots, cupcakes, frosting, and coffee. And these women are THIN. Not just regular thin, but hollywood actress thin. If you saw either one in person I’m sure you’d be astounded by how small they are. 

What really bothers me about this is that it presents something that I believe doesn’t actually exist in the real world - the super thin woman who eats copious amounts of junk food without getting fat*. Doesn’t exist. If you are eating 3000 calories a day you will get fat, I don’t care how fast your metabolism is. If the Gilmore girls were real women ordering pancakes and sausage for breakfast and chesseburgers for lunch and dinner I can guarantee that there is no way that they are eating even half of what they order, unlike what is part of the fictional Gilmore girls quirky personalites - that they order super unhealthy meals and finish every bite.

I understand that this is fiction and it really shouldn’t matter that much to me, and it really doesn’t, it will not stop me from watching and appreciating this show. It just bothers me that it presents an unattainable ideal - the thin and beautiful woman who gets to eat cheeseburgers and french fries without getting fat. I’d really love the opportunity to ask Lauren Graham or Alexis Bledel what they think about their characters eating habits. I’d guess that they also find it frustrating because they know that there is no way they could eat like Lorelei or Rory and maintain their hollywood figures.

Ok, rant over, thanks for listening. New posts to come soon. Dieting is hard.

*(I had originally written this sentence as “the super thin woman who eats whatever she wants without getting fat.” This woman does exist, however the foods that she wants are healthy and well proportioned.)

Ah, nutrition. There is a glut of information available about food and nutrition on the internet. Sometimes it’s true, sometimes it’s false, and often times different articles and reports contradict each other. I’m going to focus on what is generally considered to be a hard truth: we need more vegetables and fruits in our diets. The great thing about this advice is that it is the best way to reduce calories in your meals. Vegetables are naturally low in calories and can easily fill your plate without adding copious calories.

I’m going to focus on “serving size” in this entry and try show you exactly what a serving looks like. I was inspired by this post and handy chart (PDF) posted on chow.com. 

Green Beans: 35 calories

Red Pepper: 29 calories

Chicken Sausage (1/2 link): 55 calories

Pasta: 105 calories

Pasta Sauce: 30 calories

Olive Oil (1 tsp) for stirfrying vegetables: 40 calories

Garlic: 10 calories

Shallot: 14 calories

Total: 318 calories

Another lazy meal. Feeling like a bum. After the pizza yesterday I was determined to start right today. Especially cause my cousin insisted that I take home one of the extra pizzas. My plan was just to give it to my boyfriend but in taking it over to his house I was still in close proximity of it and I ate 3 more slices.

And then I broke up with my boyfriend. I can’t really say why, but I can say that I am feeling self-destructive and that I live in walking distance of a LOT of unhealthy food (there’s a great restaurant next door to my apartment that makes a REALLY GOOD B.L.T). But, I am determined to meet my goal by June 30th. So this meal, while compromising on the servings of vegetables I strive for, was still relatively low calorie.

Chicken Sausage: 100 calories

Green Giant microwave veggies: 120 calories

Pasta w/sauce: 120 calories

Total calories: 340

(picture quality is so low because it was taken from my phone, breakup induced depression made me too lazy to get up and get my camera)

Lazy meal forthcoming. This is what happens when I skip breakfast and walk to Target on an empty stomach. As far as I’m concerned there is nothing wrong with the occasional Lean Cuisine, but the problem is they are packed with sodium and the volume of food is often low. This meal did nothing to satiate my hunger and later at the birthday party of my two six year old cousins I ate 4 slices of pizza. Oops. Here’s the breakdown:

Spinach, Artichoke and Chicken Panini: 320 calories

Green Giant Antioxident Blend frozen veggies: 100 calories

Salad with dressing: 20 calories

Total: 440 calories

So, not only did this meal leave me hungry  but it was way over my goal of 300 calories.

This was a yummy 300ish calorie meal. It’s from about a week ago and I can’t find where I wrote out my breakdown (or remember if I even did one), so this is an approximation of how many calories it is. It’s good to be exact, but it gets easy to be lazy when you’ve done it for a while.

Veggie sauté with half of a TJ’s chicken sausage: 95 calories

Asparagus with lemon and black pepper: 35 calories

1/4 cup of rice: 50 calories

Little bit of avocado (sigh, don’t remember how much): ~60 calories

Total: 240 calories

I’m not really sure if it’s still dinner if you eat it at 10 pm, but here it is. I had some of my sauté left over from my meal earlier so I reheated that with half a chicken sausage, added a much bigger salad, and boiled some green beans. Honestly, the green beans were just meh. I didn’t want to add any extra calories so I just did lemon and pepper. However the salad and the other vegetables were great so I am still satisfied.

Sautéed Vegetables: 45 calories

Trader Joe’s Spicy Jalapeño Chicken Sausage (one half): 50

Green beans with lemon juice: 45 calories

Salad with tomato carrots and red onion: 30 calories

Paul Newman Lite Balsamic Dressing (1 tbsp): 22 calories

Total: 192 calories

So far today I have consumed a total of 952 calories which is really excellent. That leaves me with about 250 extra calories I can consume for a midnight snack!

I think I am really getting into this. This was a DELICIOUS meal. It made the house smell fantastic and tasted really great. There was a mix of textures, flavors, temperatures, and vegetables. The sautéed vegetables were really fun and easy to cook. I started by slowly cooking the onions on low heat. This gave me time to chop the red pepper and mushrooms and prepare everything else. 

Trader Joe’s Spicy Jalapeño Chicken Sausage: 100 calories

Vegetable Sauté (white onion, red pepper, mushrooms, garlic, spash of olive oil): 60 calories

Asparagus with lemon and black pepper: 35 calories

Salad with tomato and carrots: 20 calories

Paul Newman Lite Balsamic Dressing (about half a tbsp): 20 calories

Total: 235 calories!

Once again I have discovered that my previous pickyness has been holding me back from trying foods that I actually love…and I love MUSHROOMS!  Mushrooms are low calorie, tasty, and easy too cook. Combined with another new favorite of mine, shallot, mushrooms make an excellent and low calorie side. 

Breakdown:

Mushrooms: 35 calories

Shallot: 21 calories

Olive oil: 60 calories

Asparagus (and a bit of leftover broccoli) with lemon juice: 35 calories

Pasta (whole wheat, 28g): 105 calories

Pasta sauce (Trader Joe’s Spaghetti Sauce with Mushrooms, 1/2 cup): 45 calories

Total: 348 calories

Yes - this is greater than my stated goal of 300 calories and is due mostly to lack of planning. I got hungry, things started cooking and bam, over budget. Next time I will definitely use less olive oil and less pasta sauce and should be able to come in at or under 300. 

The downside of my lapse in cooking low calorie? I kinda forgot how to do it efficiently which resulted in a sink full of dishes.