The Happiness in Health

Monday Munchies

Ω September 3rd, 2012 Ω Tagged banana, blueberries, chia seeds, China, Chobani, full-fat vs nonfat, Golden Harbor Champaign, Monday Munchies, Noosa yoghurt, okra, Scotland Ω 14 Comments

I must admit something right off the bat — this post is a lie.

Below is a photographic record of what I ate over the course of one day. While I don’t plan to do this often, I understand many people are curious about how dietitians eat. I know this because invariably when I meet someone, the second question they ask me (after “what should I be eating?”) is “what do YOU eat, oh wonderful, gracious, supreme Jessie, RD?”.*

*Question paraphrased to reflect common sentiment.

So! For one day, I toted my bulky camera around to photograph every bite — just for you, dear reader. Where does the lie come in? That one day was not today (Monday), as the title of this post would suggest, but was, in fact, a Sunday.

Phew. I feel better getting that off my chest.

I feel it is important to show both weekend days and weekdays, since many people, including myself, tend to eat differently on each type of day. Therefore, I present,

Sun-day, SUNDAY, Sunday!

Breakfast, approximately 8 am:

Yogurt, 1/2 sliced banana, 1/2 cup frozen blueberries, 1/2 tablespoon chia seeds. Coffee with about 1 tablespoon skim milk (plus another swig of milk for good measure). Missing: one Brazil nut.

This is actually not my typical breakfast. I’ll feature a typical breakfast in a future Monday Munchy. I made this bowl of deliciousness because I wanted to dig into one of my favorite yogurts:

I first discovered this yogurt at a farmer’s market in Boulder, Colorado and have been dreaming about it ever since. When we discovered that a grocery store out here carries it, I did a little celebratory dance right in front of the dairy case, then turned to Peter and said “I’m so glad we moved here!”.

Noosa makes full-fat yogurts only. I have no problem with enjoying them sometimes. They remind me of eating yogurt in China and Scotland, where nonfat doesn’t seem to exist. When eating full-fat yogurts, I just serve myself less (say, 1/2 cup instead of 1 cup nonfat). If I eat a full cup of full fat (and I have), I tend to feel a little funny. My body is telling me “Jessie, this is a sometimes food. Yo.”.

Lunch, about 12 pm:

Leftover food from this Asian restaurant and leftover roasted sweet potato over a nest of fresh spinach (sneaky way to eat more vegetables without even thinking about it). The leftovers were a spicy Singapore rice noodle, kung pao chicken (a dead ringer for the one I had in China!), and a couple of pieces of squid. A glass of skim milk.

Finished with a bite of Peter-made chocolate bar:

Mid-afternoon snack, about 4 pm:

Chobani yogurt, apple cinnamon flavor. I’m not a huge fan of flavored yogurt (Noosa yoghurt notwithstanding). I don’t like fruit on the bottom (too sweet) and I prefer to add my own fresh fruit. Still, this one looked tasty and was on sale. Verdict? Not my fav. Besides the plain, the only flavor of Chobani I like is the passionfruit.

Dinner, about 7 pm:

Pork and noodle dish from one of Peter’s new cookbooks, sautéed okra on the side (note how I follow MyPlate). A glass of skim milk.

Noodle closeup:

I’d planned to give you recipes for both the noodles and the okra, but the noodles were just … bleh. Not much flavor. They’re not ready to be shared yet. Peter made a spicy sweet sauce to pour over the noodles, which gave them a little more flavor.

So the okra recipe it is! Okra is not easy to find in our home state of Connecticut, but here in Illinois, it’s everywhere. I know some people don’t enjoy okra for textural reasons — for those, I urge you to try this recipe, where the okra turns out crisp and flavorful. It’s from James Peterson’s Vegetables, with the optional addition of anchovies and toasted pine nuts. Instead of my usual kicked-up recipe title, I left the original recipe title because there is a large amount of respect for Mr. Peterson in our household (or “my friend James”, as Peter likes to call him).

Happy Labor Day!

Q: What’s your favorite side dish?

More Happy 'n' Healthy:

• A Day in the Life of a Private Practice Dietitian
• Food Service and the Dietitian
• Monday Munchies, Part 8
• Monday Munchies, Part 9 ... Sort Of

» Filed under Monday Munchies » 14 Comments

Scotland the Great

Ω December 5th, 2011 Ω Tagged 1890s mountaineer, Ben Nevis, black pudding, callanish stones, cullins, Edinburgh, Edradour distillery, haggis, Isle of Harris, isle of lewis, isle of skye, Luskentyre Beach, old man of storr, Scotland, Talisker Distillery, travel, Uig Beach, whiskey Ω 36 Comments

Before we get to the greatness that is Scotland, I’d like to thank all of you for your insightful comments in my last post about eating “real” food. I enjoyed reading about your food philosophies – a selection of comments (bold by me):

While I am a huge fan of many processed foods (ahem, peanut butter, canned beans, canned soups, etc) I thank my mom for getting me started young at taking whole and fresh ingredients and cooking with them and using them any recipe. I honestly think it’s lack of cooking skills that prevents so many people from buying fresh foods, and resorting to packaged pre-made foods. It’s tough when you’ve never learned how to even use a stove! (The Candid RD)

I heard [Michael Pollan] speak about two years ago, and I really liked that he was “real” and admitted to not being “perfect.” He also made a real big point about cooking real, healthy, and cheap foods like beans, etc. I think too often people say eating healthy foods is too expensive and too difficult. But it really doesn’t have to be. (Andrea’s Wellness Notes)

I have something more to add in the food philosophy question: eating while relaxed and calm is hugely important to me. I never have lunch in a hurry or standing or at my desk while working if I can avoid it (and I am planning my day in a way that I can), because the time pressure and stress make me not eat well at all. (Christa)

Keep the great comments coming!

On to today’s post: Many moons ago (and by “many”, I mean “three”), my family and I traveled to the west coat of Scotland, including the Outer Hebrides. Why did I wait three months to share my pictures with you, dear reader? I’d like to write that in the midst of various projects of dubious importance and uncertain relevance, I lacked time; but, the truth is … I forgot. Oops.

Let’s look at those pictures!

I didn’t realize that the knee-high leather boots I brought to hike in were so unusual until we were hiking down Ben Nevis (the tallest mountain in the British Isles) and a man who had passed us earlier in the day came up behind us and commented, “There’s the lady with the great boots!“  I thought I looked pretty snazzy myself – or, as my sister D said: “You look like a 1890s mountaineer.”

[source]

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Yeah, okay, I guess I can see her point.

A few more highlights of western Scotland and the Outer Hebrides:

Gallan Head, Isle of Lewis:

Luskentyre Beach on the Isle of Harris (yes, Scotland has wonderful beaches!):

“Cave” on Uig Beach, Isle of Lewis:

Near the Old Man of Storr, Isle of Skye:

On the Isle of Lewis:

Yes, I went inside the abandoned stone house – in retrospect, perhaps that was a poor idea (note the collapsing stone roof – I won’t post pictures from inside the house, because I want to preserve the illusion that I have some common sense (hint: see gallery below for evidence that I do lack sense)):

Callanish Stones on the Isle of Lewis – unlike Stonehenge, you can actually walk up to these (as evidenced below):

A gallery of more Scotland images (Note: The pictures should have captions, but apparently they don’t show up unless you click the “i” icon in the upper right corner of the gallery):

And, a gallery of what I’m sure you’re most interested in: FOOD! I’ve noticed that whenever I travel to a new place, many of my travel plans revolve around trying local foods – what better way to learn about a new locale than to sample its delicacies? For more examples of eating my way through new locales, check out THIH’s Travel Page.

As seen in the album above, I sampled several Scotch whiskies at the Talisker and Edradour distilleries and found that after a dram or two, all whiskies taste pretty much the same. I also had the opportunity to try both black pudding and haggis (black pudding = delicious! haggis = okay). Recently, I acquired some canned haggis (yes, canned) so that I can cook it up over the holidays with some neeps and tatties (that’s rutabaga and potatoes, cooked and mashed separately). Stay tuned for my disastrous attempt at cooking haggis!

In the meantime, click through the album below for some delicious meals I enjoyed while in Scotland:

Finally, during our Scotland trip, I had the opportunity to swing down to London and meet a dear friend with whom I’ve corresponded for seven years, but never met in person until this past summer.  Hi, Christa!

Take care, gentle reader!

Q: Have you been to Scotland? (I know YOU have LeQuan ;) ) Have you ever tried black pudding or haggis?

AND

Where is your dream place to visit?

More Happy 'n' Healthy:

• Leave it to Maddies
• Skiing with the ONE Truth!
• Babbo and a Flashback
• Why Eating Out With My Husband Is Problematic

» Filed under Favorites, Life, New Foods » 36 Comments