Monday Munchies, Part 2

Before I get to today’s post, a note about yesterday’s post concerning weekly menu planning: in her comment, Andrea brings up a great point.

I plan five meals for the week, but I don’t plan them for a specific day. Otherwise I feel too “restricted” and start to rebel.

I may have bitten off more than I can chew, so to speak, in assigning particular meals to particular days. Flexibility is an important quality to have, especially with food. We’ll see how it goes. Tonight’s meal: Asian noodles with cashews!

On to today’s post:

Just like my previous Monday Munchy, this post chronicles everything I ate over the course of a single day. A day which wasn’t a Monday. (I promise, I’ll work on the whole lying thing.)

The last Monday Munchy took place on a Sunday, so in the interest of showing you weekends AND weekdays, this Munchy covers a weekday — last Friday, in fact.

Are you confused yet? Because I am.

Let’s push on!

Breakfast, circa 8:00 am:

Unlike last week’s unusual breakfast, this week I present my typical breakfast: a smoothie made from

*3/4 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt (I prefer Trader Joe’s or Whole Food’s brand, neither of which I can get here 🙁 )
*1/2 cup frozen blueberries
*1/2 fresh peach
*1/2 banana
*couple tablespoons uncooked oatmeal (’cause I know you’ll ask)
*1/2 tablespoon chia seeds
*handful raw spinach
*enough water to make it not a semi-solid
*Unpictured, on the side: Coffee with a splash of skim milk, brazil nut, spoonful of peanut butter

The measurements are all approximate. I almost never measure anything, which you would think is a problem when I’m baking, but surprisingly has never been an issue (…except for the time I forgot the sugar in a bittersweet flourless chocolate cake recipe. But that’s another issue entirely). I mix up my ingredients based on what’s available or in season. For example, I’ll often switch kale for spinach, or flax for chia. I even tried frozen goji berries instead of blueberries once, and let me tell you, there’s a reason why goji berries are not usually found alone in smoothies.

I wanted to make the smoothie more visually appealing. I’ve seen other bloggers use granola, which looks smashing. I soon discovered that the only cereal we have at the moment is Rice Krispies (for Peter’s Rice Krispies treats).

For some reason, it just doesn’t look as classy as crunchy granola. I wonder what this reveals about my psyche.

Lunch, about 2 pm (yikes!):

That would be leftover homemade pasta alfredo over chicken and whole grain pasta, with sauteed summer squash and onions on the side. And a glass of skim milk. The alfredo has a very secret ingredient in it … which I’ll share with you later this week 🙂

I don’t usually wait until 2 pm to eat lunch. My body starts getting hungry 3-4 hours after a meal, so I’ll have a snack or meal then. However, on this day I was out running errands that took much longer than I thought they would, and I didn’t bring a snack. Tsk tsk, Happy Jessie.

Dinner, about 6 pm:

Two slices of pizza Peter-made whole grain pizza crust, crisped to perfection on the Big Green Egg. With a glass of skim milk.

Goat cheese, toasted pine nuts, prosciutto, caramelized onion, red pepper flakes, and a dab of pesto:

Tomato sauce, mozz, red pepper, and sausage:

Square of chocolate date cake:

This dinner was kind of loose because we had friends over. Coincidentally, I also had a few glasses of wine.

Recipes for pizza crust and chocolate date cake forthcoming!

So there you are: a dietitian’s weekday eats. Not perfect, but no one needs to be perfect when it comes to food!

Happy Monday!