Spring cleaning for my body

I’ve been having a PM slump lately.  Since I tend to eat lunch on the later side, it’s rarely a problem, but for some reason my energy has been dipping in the afternoons and I find myself needing to eat something to make it to dinner.  The problem is I can never seem to figure out the perfect snack.  Very few things sound good, and then I’ll finally come up with something and take a bite and it’s like…meh…maybe that’s not what I wanted.

I have a few photos of failed snacks, but really there are so many more bites of things that I changed my mind about after 1-2 pieces.  Does that mean I’m not actually hungry?  What snacks will make me feel good and satiated but not ruin my appetite for dinner?  Why is eating this complicated for me??? 😛

Remember when I discovered this at my parents’ house?  It was at our Costco too so I went for it.  It’s so much nicer than crumbling it out of those plastic wraps where you lose 15% of it in the corners.

And it’s especially nice to spread on crackers/flat bread. 🙂   The Norwegian crispbread from TJs is legit.  Don’t tell, but I like it more than Mary’s Gone Crackers.

Blurrrrryyyyyy.  I was in a rush I guess.

My lunches have been stellar for the record.  I can’t seem to get over the vegan Winter salad which is fine since Spring seems MIA for the time being.

As soon as I ran out of candied nuts and squash I immediately roasted more.

One day my mom came to visit and we both got Thai salads.

Which we added avocado to.

And sunflower seeds.

I also tried to give all the red onions to my mom (in exchange for her bell peppers).   It seemed like there was 1/2 an onion in there!

But that was my only deviation from my beloved vegan salad.

This avocado was the size of a mango!!  HUUUUGE.  And per usual I put half of it in my salad without adjusting for the abnormal immensity.  That was a mistake.  I never thought I’d admit this, but I had too much avo.  My gut was wonky for the rest of the day.

To be honest though, my gut has been off all week.  I know it’s hormonal and the reasonable thing to do would be support my GI system and not tax it unnecessarily, but I haven’t been doing that.  In fact, I’ve almost been leaning into the symptoms and just eating whatever because my gut was already feeling like crap, so why not.  I used to do that all the time, but since discovering FODMAPs I’ve been much better about it – being kind to my body and not engaging in self sabotage.  I’ll get back on track.

For now I just have to get through the week until Kyle gets back.

Now let me move on to dinners.

First, a disclaimer.  I didn’t photograph everything.  My gut was not in tip top shape by dinner so I ended up eating smaller versions of the dinners I made for them.  But then I wasn’t satisfied later so I ended up having big desserts.  You’d think I’d learn after the first or second time…

If I let them (and myself) we would each eat a whole tray and leave zero leftovers.

Brussels are our favorite.

JK Chocolate is my favorite.

While we are on the subjects of desserts, let me share this beauty…

Thomas Keller Armando Manni K + M DARK PERU whaaaaat!?!

My girlfriend got this $$$$ chocolate for her birthday and being the insanely nice and thoughtful person she is she SHARED IT WITH ME!  Who shares $13 chocolate bars?!  It was soooo good.  Dark without being bitter and so eatable.  Dark and deeply flavored with a melt in your mouth quality.  Wonderful.

 

Don’t let this picture confuse you.  This is not a lunch.  It’s a dinner salad.  That looks verrrrry similar to the vegan Winter salad, right?  Well it was on the day that I had the Thai salad for lunch and I was missing the candied nuts.  But at the same time, I knew I couldn’t handle more avo, so I tweaked it and had goat cheese instead.

Colorful no?

I had more chevre with Simple Mills crackers on the side.

This was my first time trying these and I’m sad to say they weren’t my fave.

The texture is a little brittle, but in a kinda stale way, as opposed to a crispy way.  Is that bad to say?  And the flavor wasn’t there either.  Womp womp.  I think I’ll use the rest in a recipe instead of eating them plain.  Like maybe crushing them and using them to bread chicken or something?  Just thinking out loud here.

I never eat exciting things when Kyle’s out of town, even though I tell myself this is my chance to go wild and eat all the dishes I bookmark that he doesn’t like (aka anything with zucchini and cucumber).  But then the time comes to cook something and I’m like pass.  I’ll eat random things in the fridge instead.  I know that may seem lame, but it is what it is.  I guess I like to cook for my man.  Wow.  That’s so surprising.  This is like a one sided therapy session.  I always thought I cooked for me (because nobody loves food more than me), but obviously I do it for my family too.  Because I show love through cooking.

There’s nothing glam about this meal, so I almost didn’t even show it, but here it is.  Tomato soup with ground beef and a hunk of pecorino romano on the side.  Guess what?  It was BOMB.  I had tons more cheese too.  And then chocolate.  Lots.  Man.  Seeing it all laid out is eye opening.  Now I have some thinking to do for planning out next week.

Moving on.  We had this lentil salad from the ATK vegetarian cookbook with leftovers Brussels and sweet potatoes.

I realllly thought all those carbs would fill me up.

But.

It.

Did.

Not.

My body is begging for spring cleaning.

And just in case you were thinking I was pregnant, let me just set that record straight right now and assure you I am not.  This is IBS.