Update on Maria's Cleanse

So I completely blew it on keeping you posted about the next phase... but I will update you now!

After I finished the cleanse, I started on the next "phase" and then in the following weeks I spent some time at home and also drove to Colorado with my bitch/sister. Let me tell you, the highway is no place to follow any sort of food regimen. Unless that regimen is big macs and chalupas. When I got back I decided to do the cleanse again, except I didn't have any artichokes. And I drank coffee. And I totally cheated like every day. But that's okay. After that I followed the next "phase" and have been really quite good about it since. Better yet, I have been going to the gym a lot! I also have been drinking the lemon water and green tea every day, both of which are remarkably refreshing. I drink the lemon water with a straw and sort of drink it in the back of my mouth so I don't ruin my teeth. I am not following the day-to-day menu because it's just too hard to keep up with it, but I have been taking a lot of recipes from the O2 book, many of which are really delicious.

So, I'm still at it, I am eating really well overall, and I am exercising a lot. Let me know if you have any questions about the cleanse!

The Bitch Stopped Feeling Fat and Tired - End of the Cleanse!

I finished the four-day cleanse! The final day was quite similar to the one prior, roasted vegetables and all. I spent part of the day getting food for this week because..... I have decided to go forward with phase two of the cleanse/diet/become-as-fabulous-as-Gina-plan. Speak of the devil, Gina and I went to Allandale Farm in Brookline to get some fresh and delicious produce. There are a lot of opportunities in the summer for city-dwellers such as ourselves to get fresh, local produce. You just need to know where to go. First, there is Allandale Farm, which opens in April. There is also Marshall's Fenway Farm Stand which has, in addition to delicious fruits and vegetables, the most delicious chocolate milk I have ever tasted in my entire life. And lots of yummy prepared meals. Another good option is Russo's in Watertown. Always really busy but if you can handle that and pick the right fiddleheads at the same time, all the power to you. All of these are good options where you can get yummy local produce almost all year long. There are also farmer's markets in each part of town throughout the summer, there just weren't any when we went shopping. I encourage you, fellow Bostonians, to visit these farmer's markets and rely on them for your produce and let them rely on you for your dollars. You'll both be much happier. Another path you could go down is becoming a member of a CSA. Read all about CSAs here.

Anyways, here I am telling you where to get your peaches and asparagus and expecting you to listen to me. Why? Because you should. Because I'm Fabulous now. Because I can wear pants that have been hanging up in my closet, knowing they are too small, crossing their legs every time the Goodwill truck drives by. Not anymore, pantaloons. You're mine forever. I lost six pounds doing the cleanse. Although I am not entirely sure where it came from, I do feel a lot better, and the fact that I could even button those pants makes me know it came from somewhere. Dan told me my skin looked radiant the other day, and Dan doesn't tell anyone that anything looks radiant. So I guess this isn't all a crock of shiitake as I was secretly predicting.

I felt really empowered being able to change something as "simple" as the food I eat and then feel so much better (science!). I decided that I am going to go forth with phase 2 of the O2 Diet. With caution. I really don't want to turn it into something that I fight with, grow to hate, and then spite with cheeseburgers. I want it to be something I follow -not necessarily swear by- but guidelines by which I will try to dine. This was tested my first day of phase 2 when I unexpectedly made dinner plans with a friend in need. She's a friend, indeed. We went to one of my favorite restaurants in the universe, the Parish Cafe, and instead of ordering my fa-vo-rite steak sandwich ever, I decided I could be a little more sensible and have something a little more healthy. I didn't want to get a salad since I had been living off that for days, so I settled for a chicken dish, swapped out the garlic mashed for rice, and only ate half of it. I ate until I was full, not until I was Thanksgiving Full, as I usually do. It was delicious! And satisfying! And I left the stupid leftovers in my car! I even had a glass of wine. I decided, from that meal forward, that I wouldn't make myself feel guilty about it because a. that will only make me hate it, and b. it is so freaking annoying listening to people complain about how they violated their diet. So here I am, liking phase two as a friend.

Phase two adds more dairy, fat, and carbs to the diet. It lasts for two weeks. There is a recommended meal plan and then also guidelines for doing it yourself. I am going to follow the recommended meal plan because I love the idea of someone just telling me what to eat. I have really enjoyed the ability to eat really varied things after eating the same exact thing every day for four days. I have also been really open minded about trying new things. Like the recommended breakfast for today was a smoothie that had fruit and yogurt and juice and other normal stuff in it, alongside avocado and grapeseed oil. Weird. But it was delicious. As long as I didn't think about it.

I am going to keep blogging through phase two and I will keep you posted about the funny things I eat and the love-love relationship I am going to maintain with this diet. I have had a number of questions from people who are interested in starting this, so I will answer them next time I post, but I currently have a suspected sinus infection to attend to. (I never said this diet was magic!)

The Bitch Stopped Feeling Fat and Tired - Part Three

The third day of my cleanse went quite well. I had the whole day off so I was able to spend more time preparing my food than I had the two days prior. I said to hell with the eggs and had the apple, the prescribed midmorning snack, for breakfast. Considering I slept until 11, I felt that this was an appropriate choice. Now I am going to talk about cinnamon for a hot second. I had absolutely NO IDEA the havok it can wreak on your mouth. The cleanse calls for a teaspoon of cinnamon on a sliced granny smith apple. Totally seems doable, right? It's not!! It's horrible! On the first day I did exactly that and I was scraping cinnamon off my apple slices with the ziplock bag it was in. I was plugging my nose just to get the slices down. I was sweating. My eyes were watering. It took me an hour to eat the apple. Needless to say, I put an end to such torture on the second day and only put in a half teaspoon of cinnamon with my apple. The other half I mixed in with a glass of lemon water. The apple experience was only slightly improved and the water only brought back flashbacks of Granny Smith and her masochism the day before. Third time's the charm. I realized that I didn't go to college fer nuthin and poured myself a shot of lemon juice mixed with a teaspoon of cinnamon. Down the hatch. No chaser. Problem solved. Now let's do green tea keg stands.

Lunch was delicious. I made salmon again but instead of having it over raw spinach I sauteed the spinach with the pecans in some peach balsamic from Gustare. a-m-a-zing. I am always fascinated by the shrinking power of spinach when you cook it and I think I probably ate about a pound of it. It smelled and looked so good that Dan wanted some. Jumping at the opportunity for him to be the earthy-crunchy-big-mac-refusing organivore that I have always dreamed of, I made him a plate too. Minus the pecans; I didn't have time for anaphylactic shock. He loved it! Amazing!

Having bought four artichokes before starting this whole cleanse hoopla, I really didn't want to waste them, despite my Artichoke Comprehension Disorder. So I looked at ten more youtube videos about how to prepare and eat a goddamn artichoke and I found something that appealed to me. Roast it! Maybe THEN the heart will appear and save me, antioxidants pumping through its ventricles. No such luck with the heart, but the 'choke itself was pretty delicious. I sacrificed some of my olive oil from dinner and drizzled it over the artichoke and topped it with some ground black pepper and a dash of cayenne before roasting it. The olive oil made my fingers messy and I almost thought that I was eating something with butter on it. Almost.

The roasting of the artichoke, along with the oven that was still on, inspired me to roast more. So I threw in some cupcakes. Just kidding. I threw in all the vegetables that my dinner salad calls for, tossed them with a touch more olive oil and black pepper, and charred 'em up nice and good. While they were cooking I George Foremaned (sorry mom, I know verbing weirds words) some chicken with lots of seasoning on it. When the veggies were done I chopped up the chicken and tossed it in. On the side I made a salad with romaine and tomatoes and pomegranate vinegar. It was a little different than I had prepared this dinner in the past three days, and it was SO delicious.

Annnnnd the best part of my day, the blueberries. They are JUST SO GOOD. Can't get enough of them.

I was so excited for my cardio today because I was planning to take a free Zumba class at Healthworks in Cambridge. The class was at 5:30. I left my house at 4:45. It's a 15 minute drive. I got there at 5:40. SO disappointing. So then I was too stubborn to leave Porter Square without having done a thing. I popped into Cambridge Naturals to look at all the delicious foods I couldn't eat. They are so nice in there and I really wanted to support them after bringing all my negative moping energy, so I bought some green tea and some face mask. I even signed up for their email list. I'm supposed to get a free tote bag for that one. The face mask is so nice! It's Burt's Bees Pore Refining Mask. It was really fun to do. It is just a powder and you mix it with water, green tea, tomato juice, or carrot juice, depending on your skin type. I just squeezed out one of my tea bags into the powder. I couldn't decide whether my skin was more mature or troubled. So you mix in your liquid of choice and then put it all over your freshly cleaned face. I put it on with a spoon. It was like painting. It was so much fun. It has some peppermint in it so it felt really cold on my face. I filled up a basin and soaked my feet in that luxurious soap my mom makes and sat there with the face mask on, trying to enjoy pampering. The mask was so interesting. I felt it drying while it was on my face and I completely expected that when I looked in the mirror my face would look like Benjamin Button. In his early days. It didn't. When I took it off I can't say I felt any explosions of cleanliness or pore refinedness, but it certainly was nice.

When I was done I realized that bumming around Porter Square still didn't count as cardio, no matter what my intentions had been. So I sat on the couch and watched a couple workout videos, well aware that that also did not count. I finally found one that wasn't too annoying, too intense, or called Cardioke. I did the whole 30 minute video and then I did situps for as long as it took Not Siobhan Magnus #1 to sing Come to My Window on American Idol and the judges to, well, judge it. As soon as Not Siobhan Magnus #2 piped up I decided to call it quits, and that 35 minutes or so was just enough exercise for me.

Oh, yeah, also. Coffee. Two cups today. Not even considering abstaining. At least I'm having it black. Unsweetened. With cinnamon, of course.

One more day!

The Bitch Stopped Feeling Fat and Tired - Part Two

Yesterday was TOUGH. I had to get up really early so I had even more trouble with the eggs. I ate about half of them, though. This time I put some asparagus and spinach in there, which helped a little, but I just really don't like eggs by themselves. End of story.

When I was in the shower in the morning I pampered myself, just like they tell you to. I made a facial scrub that called for yogurt and coffee grounds. It was nice. I sort of wanted to scrub the inside of my mouth because it felt so good, but I refrained. I was thinking that maybe the coffee grounds would go into my brain and make it feel like I had a cup of coffee. No dice.

I didn't have time to have my midmorning apple snack so I had it at lunch after I ate everything else. This time I put about half as much cinnamon on because the first day the cinnamon had me in tears. The other half teaspoon of cinnamon went into one of my lemon waters. It wasn't bad. The apple with cinnamon was good but it was still really cinnamony. My lunch was good. I had salmon again on a bed of fresh spinach and eight whole halves of pecan.

I had class in the evening so I had brought everything with me early in the morning. I tried my hand at the steamed artichoke again but I still couldn't find the heart!! I swear I didn't cut it off this time. Perhaps I purchased heartless artichokes. When I was sitting in class I was really tired and I had a headache. I made myself a cup of green tea and it really didn't help. SO I CAVED. I had a cup of coffee. Black, unsweetened, horrible coffee that you make out of packets in the lounge at my school. It was the most delicious thing I have ever had. I perked right up, my headache went away, and I felt so much better. Apparently I looked better as well. So it turns out I can't live without coffee. Fine. With. Me.

My dinner was delicious last night. I put the asparagus in with my salad this time, which was yummy. I did find myself wishing there was more chicken, but perhaps that was just because there was so much of everything else. I think I am discovering that I don't like yellow peppers. I had no idea. I thought I loved them. Maybe I just don't like them in salads.

When I got home I poured myself a glass of blueberries and sat down to watch an accumulation of tivo-ed shows with Dan. I started getting really hungry about a quarter of the way through Modern Family and by the time Claire put mud on Gloria's dress I was almost in tears. I sent a desperate text to Gina, who encouraged me to have some protein. It was okay, after all, since I didn't eat all my eggs in the morning. So I made a salad with romaine, tomatoes, chicken, and pomegranate balsamic vinegar from Gustare Oils and Vinegars. It was so good. It 90% hit the spot. The rest of the 10% of the spot was hit with........

A BITE OF DAN'S CHICKEN SANDWICH. ON POTATO BREAD. WITH CHEESE. AND MAYONNAISE. AND MUSTARD.

I'm sorry, cleanse gods. I couldn't help myself. I was so hungry and the way the mayo oozed out the sides was too much for me to handle. It was the most delicious thing I have ever eaten. I only had one (or three) bite(s), though, so I think it's okay. I mean, I know it's not ideal, but I think it's okay. Maybe I'll count that as my pampering for the day.

I totally failed on the exercise front. While I did do a lot of walking and stuff during the day, I really didn't exercise. I didn't have time during the day and then when I got home at 9 I just wanted to watch tv and drool. But I'm okay with that.

Today I drank a lot more water than is prescribed. I had my eight cups of lemon water and probably had an additional three or four cups. Also, I woke up with really dry skin. And the humidifier was on. Granted, I have been nursing a cold for about a week.

Overall I am feeling pretty good being halfway done. I weighed myself this morning when I got up and I have actually lost four pounds. I'm not sure if this is just my IKEA scale being fickle, or if I really have, but that is very interesting. Perhaps because so much sodium is cut out that I am losing water weight. Who knows.

Well, halfway done is good. I have screwed up a couple times but not with anything huge. Other than my sandwich bite(s) I haven't eaten anything that isn't allowed and I have been putting in a good effort for the rest of the lifestyle stuff. I think that if I had a normal 9-5 job then it would be a LOT easier.

Happy weekend, everyone!

The Bitch Stopped Feeling Fat and Tired - Part One

Jeepers creepers I’ve been so busy cooking that I haven’t had time to blog! I made it through the first day of my cleanse! It was actually rather easy and sort of nice to already know what I was going to be eating for every meal, and to already have it prepared and with me. I will say that the cooking took a long time… but I also had to prepare lunch, dinner, and snacks ahead of time because I had class all day and night.

I did make a valiant effort with the eggs. In the morning. Off a plate. I used one egg and two egg whites instead of three egg whites, added a little extra black pepper, and gagged down about half of it. I think the whole point was to have a. the protein and b. the basil. So later in the day I used an extra half teaspoon of basil in my salad. I didn’t make up for the protein but I probably could have. I didn’t find myself particularly ravenous all day, although I did want something delicious like bread or pizza.

The lemon water wasn’t too bad. I ended up bringing a straw with me at the last minute and I am really glad I did because it is SO sour and when I am one of the Beautiful People I’m gonna need to still have teeth.

The artichoke was…. Interesting. I steamed it the night before and I really didn’t know what to do with it. My dear friend Marisa, who happens to be an Licensed Artichoke Expert informed me that I need to peel off all the leaves and then peel off all the fuzzy stuff to get to the heart. Turns out I cut off the heart when I was attempting to prepare my artichoke. Whoops. But I did eat all the “meat” out of the leaves. That was good. And time consuming.

My dinner exhausted me. First of all I ate it in my disgusting Dysphagia (swallowing disorders) class so we were talking about gross stuff and seeing videos of dead bodies and their tongues and mouth mucosa. So that put a little damper on my dinner. I think I may have brought too much. You’re supposed to eat as many vegetables as you want and I guess I was anticipating being starving so I brought a ton. I couldn’t finish it all but I did eat a lot. Don’t get me wrong, it was delicious, but it was just a lot.

Coffee, coffee, coffee. I tried to replace my caffeine with the prescribed green tea and ended up drinking about six cups of it in order to stave off a withdrawal headache. It worked until about 9pm and I was hit pretty hard with a headache. I was also pretty lethargic all day and sort of sad. All I wanted to do was come home and hang out with Dan. Maybe I have an emotional addiction to coffee. I am going to try one more day without coffee and then I might have to have a cup of unsweetened black coffee the last two days.

You’re supposed to “pamper” yourself twice a day. I did double pampering just one time, in the evening. After I had gotten everything done around the house I made a face masque that the nutritionist recommends. It uses yogurt, oats, and honey. I made it and put it on, and while wearing it I soaked my feet with hot water and this heavenly soap that my mom makes. And I sat there for about fifteen minutes reading and hoping Dan wouldn’t walk through the door and get frightened by the fact that I had breakfast all over my face. I sort of just got anxious about the fact that I wasn’t doing anything and I had a lot to do, along with the fact that I hadn’t grabbed a towel before soaking my feet. Pampering is for the birds.

In addition to pampering, you're supposed to do 45 minutes of cardio. I did.... maybe 25 minutes (on the wii). BUT I did jumping jacks a few times throughout the day. And I took the stairs whenever I could. And parked far away. So I am counting it.

You are also supposed to set some personal goals, which I did. You can see my little checklist of things I am going to try to do for myself while cleansing.

So, pardon my tardiness in posting this, but that was day 1. Stay tuned for day 2, which is actually today. BIG SURPRISES await you, readers. Big surprises.

The Bitch Stopped Feeling Fat and Tired - Part Zero

Tomorrow I (Maria) am starting something that is extremely uncharacteristic and foreign to me.

I have been feeling really uninspired by food lately, I’m sick of all my recipes, and I keep just buying food and letting it go bad in my fridge. I have also been feeling pretty low on energy and I feel like my skin and my waistline have also been feeling a little low on energy. When I was in college I could eat whatever I wanted and I would never feel the difference, but lately I haven’t felt so lucky. In order to bring back my energy and perhaps feel a little better in my bathing suit this summer, I decided to try a cleanse. Don’t stop reading just yet!

I can still eat FOOD and I don’t have to drink maple-syrup-cayenne-pepper-and-cat-litter concoctions all day every day. This all started when I hadn’t seen my friend Gina in about a week and I had class with her last week and she sauntered in with a new glow, great hair, and a water bottle with some yellow stuff in it. With concerns that she was now way out of my friend league, I asked how she was looking so damn fine. She told me she had started this cleanse I was very skeptical. Then she told me more about it and it turns out you can still eat, it’s only 4 days long, and you don’t have to get obsessed with calories. I can do that. The cleanse turns out to be “phase one” of a 3-phase antioxidant-based diet plan called the “o2 diet”.

I think that the structure will be helpful for me because my lack of culinary inspiration has made me put off eating until I am starving and then eat something bad for me that I probably spend money on. With the cleanse, you eat the same thing every day for four days and I went to the grocery store today and bought everything I will need. The next “phase” lets you eat more quantity and variety, but the focus is still on antioxidants. We’ll cross that bridge (or perhaps stay on this side of the river) when we get to it, but I wanted to blog about the cleanse for two reasons. I want to stay motivated to do it by writing about it (because I know our thousands and thousands of readers will yell at me if I don’t) and I also want to let you all know about it in case it turns out to make me look as wonderful and feel as fabulous as Gina. Because if it does ya’ll will have some catching up to do.

Here is how it goes. Every day for four days I have to eat the following:

Throughout the day:

8 cups of water, each with 1oz lemon juice and some lemon zest

2 cups green tea

Breakfast:

1 whole egg and three egg whites*

1tsp basil

Snack:

Granny smith apple with 1tsp cinnamon on it

Lunch:

Spinach (as much as my little heart desires) with 4oz salmon, oil, vinegar

8 pecan halves

Snack:

Steamed artichoke. Yeah, I’ll let you know how that goes.

Dinner:

Romaine salad with 4oz lean protein, oil, vinegar, veggies

Steamed asparagus

Dessert:

1cup blueberries

*Hey, do any of you have any thoughts of what I can do with the egg yolks I don’t use every day? I could make something delicious for Dan, perhaps. Ideas?

Note that there is no dairy, sodium, or sugar. I'm going to get so clean inside! We’ll see if that all keeps me full. Note that two things near and dear to my heart are missing. Coffee and red, red wine. I think green tea miiiight stave off caffeine withdrawal headaches, and I think it is the whole curling-up-on-the-couch-with-a-glass-of-wine-at-the-end-of-a-long-day thing that I like the most, so maybe I’ll just put my blueberries in a wine glass. Turns out both coffee and red wine are high in antioxidants, so if I do continue with it then I can consider bringing them back into my life.

I am sure I will be fine without the wine, but I am actually a little concerned about the coffee. I might have to resort to drinking 750 cups of green tea per day; I did the math and that is how many I would need to match the caffeine I regularly get from coffee. I am also a little concerned about this thing you all call breakfast. I can barely brush my teeth in the morning without gagging and the thought of straight eggs makes me cringe, but we’ll see how it goes. Maybe I can switch the mealtimes between the blueberries and the eggs. Although I don’t really want to eat scrambled eggs out of a wine glass.

There are some other components of the cleanse. You are supposed to take good care of yourself by pampering yourself, getting 7-8 hours of sleep every night, and it turns out that making whoopie (the no-calorie kind) is good for you, too. You’re also supposed to get 45 minutes of cardio. Not sure if those are one in the same. I’m going to use the wii fit every evening (after curling up with a glass of scrambled eggs, of course) for cardio at least for the first couple days because I won’t have time to ride my bike and I am allergic to all other types of cardio. I think the wii fit will also be helpful because then I can monitor my weight as well.

So, I’ll try it, I’ll keep you posted (literally), and if you don’t hear from me for a while it’s safe to assume it’s because I’m going to be so gorgeous and energetic that I’ll be off on some tropical island with Gina and all the other Beautiful People.

Maria's Challenge - The Aftermath

So I finished my challenge and was feeling pretty good about it. I made my own coffee on Monday, brought some lunch, and then things started to taper off. I bought iced coffee on Tuesday, then was at school for 12.5 hours and brought NOTHING to eat... So I ate out. And then Wednesday was my birthday so Dan brought me breakfast and I bought myself iced coffee. THEN we went out to dinner on Wednesday night to the Atlantic Fish Company and right after we sat down, the smoke alarms starting going off. No, not going off, BLARING. So we sat there... and waited... (no one got up! did these people not go to elementary school?!) We finally employed sign language to order some drinks, and then sat there looking over the menu, unable to converse (it was SO loud.) I kept expecting it to just turn off the next minute, which is why we didn't leave, but it went on for FORTY FIVE MINUTES. We realized that it was probably the eating-out gods and goddesses punishing me for trying to eat out. It was pretty funny. We enjoyed our dinner... ate lobster and steak until we couldn't move, and then ate some dessert until we really couldn't move. It was all delicious (although Dan's filet tasted so much like the smell of IKEA that I couldn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to) and despite the sensorineural hearing loss we had a great night.

Another exciting thing is that for my birthday my friend Gina gave me a Dunkin Donuts gift card so that now I can buy REAL iced coffee in REAL cups without being plagued with guilt. Thanks Gina!

Challenging the Bitches: Maria's Challange - Day 7&8

I’m done! After Friday’s mishap, I redeemed myself on Saturday and Sunday. We went down to the Cape on Saturday and in the morning, for the first time ever when going to the Cape, I didn’t get iced coffee in the morning. I MADE iced coffee again! Check out how delicious it looks. I brought some for the ride as well, in those handy Au Bon Pain cups. For breakfast I had some peanut butter and crackers and some dried cranberries. I think they put drugs in the dried cranberries. Crackberries.

When we got to the cape, my mommy made us French toast. She is the best French toast maker in the universe. As you may know, the is the original bitch that stopped cooking, so this was extra special. For dinner we had delicious baked scrod. Again, the bitch momentarily started cooking again. And it was so good. My sister Julia and her boyfriend made the Dr. Pepper chocolate cake from the Dinosaur BBQ cookbook. So good. I was expecting it to taste a lot like Dr. Pepper, but it didn’t. It was so good. My other sister, Hannah, made a berry and custard trifle. So good!

The next morning for breakfast we had a delicious brunch of an egg scramble, crepes, and Belgian waffles and bacon and sausage. So amazing. That also counted as lunch. We left in the evening and were still pretty full from brunch (and the extra pound of trifle I ate in the afternoon). Around 9 we had some frozen pizza. This whole challenge I was wondering whether frozen pizza was acceptable, but I think it is. It is $5 for one, and it feeds two people, so if we had gone out instead we would have spent so much more money.

All in all, this challenge was really interesting and actually not all that hard. Given, much of my motivation came from the idea of the challenge. In real life, I would probably break down at many points. I am now much more aware of how much money I spend on eating out and I think that this challenge will definitely make me cook a whole lot more at home. I think one of the most important things to consider is the amount of money you spend on this food that is so temporary. In a week, you will completely forget your $11 lunch today, and you might as well have brought a peanut butter and jelly.

I am definitely going to continue to try to cook more things at night that I can bring leftovers of the next day. That’s a huge money saver. I am also going to make big batches of soup, lasagna, etc. and freeze them in individual portions for days when I have nothing to bring for lunch.

And I am going to try really hard to cut down on the iced coffee. Really. I am probably not going to bring that ridiculous orange cup with the baggie over it again, but I am going to tone it down on the coffee purchases. You can hold me to that.

Challenging the Bitches: Maria's Challenge - Day 6

It was a challenge, not a promise.

I don't know if you've ever had cheese steak spring rolls from Burtons Grill, but you'd blow it too. More on that later.

Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous out again, so I knew iced coffee was inevitable. I still had some left in the fridge from the day before. BUT, my wonderful boyfriend has this horrible tendency to load the dishwasher until it is completely full, and then shut the door. and walk away. So I go over and I'm like, Sweet! the sink is empty! Dan did the dishes! and I open the dishwasher and it's all food-y and dirty-y. Maybe he thinks the dishwasher has a sensor and when it senses it is full it turns on. What he doesn't know is that sensor is named Maria. (Now I will find out if he really reads our blog like he says he does.) So anyways, I have plenty of iced coffee, but those cool iced coffee cups I got from Au Bon Pain are dirty. (I have had a dishwasher my entire life, and it is just occurring to me now that I could have just taken them out and washed them by hand. But then I wouldn't get to show you this silly picture.) Any other day I would have abandoned the idea and gone to Dunkin Donuts for my fix. But you won't let me. So I found this ridiculous plastic orange cup that I probably bought in college and I found a complementary colored elastic and affixed a baggie over the top. I took a yellow straw and poked a hole in the baggie and was on my way. All the other kids laughed at me when I got to school. The coffee was delicious, though! I also had a TJ's greek yogurt for breakfast.

I had TJ's dried cranberries and a Nature Valley peanut butter granola bar for snacks.

For lunch I had leftover pasta and sauce and sauce-age from the night before. It was okay. I either have a cold or allergies, so my appetite and taste buds are shot, so eating was sort of just a chore. If I hadn't brought lunch I don't think I would have bought lunch. I probably would have just not eaten and survived off of post nasal drip.

And there ends the success with my challenge. I went home and then went back into the city to get my hair done. They have complimentary champagne there, which I had, but I don't think that's cheating. Then I went next door at met some friends at Burtons. My boyfriend is a bartender there and he bought my drink*. Then we went and sat down at a table and when it was my turn to look at the waitress and say something, somehow the words, "Philly cheese steak spring rolls and a mojito" came out of my mouth. The previous activities may have been excusable, but I absolutely violated the challenge here. The spring rolls were delicious. And the mojito was PERFECT. And I spent $25. My friends all said they wouldn't tell on me, but this is a challenge, not a look-at-me-I-can-do-everything-enge. So yes, I blew it. BUT, I am going to extend the challenge one extra day to make up for it. Also, what was I expecting, meeting friends at 8pm? NOT to get something to eat?

So then we went down to Game On and Katie bought me a drink and then the second round I wasn't drinking anything** so I bought her drink. Maybe excusable, since my drink was sort of paid for through an IOU?

Our waitress at Game On (yeah, you, grouchy gretta) totally sucked and then she threw our bill at us so we left and took a couple cabs home.

So I was not successful in not eating or drinking anything from a restaurant. But now the challenge will be 8 days instead of 7. Also, I think bringing that ridiculous homemade coffee cup thing to school scored me some challenge points.

One important thing to think about is not only the money I have saved not getting coffee every day, but also the plastic cups. I am definitely going to try to tone down my iced coffee buying.


*Some drink quantities may be altered due to blog's audience.

**Some shots may be omitted due to blog's audience.

Challenging the Bitches: Maria's Challange - Day 5

Yesterday was a good day. I woke up sniffing for java, to no avail. (You all must think I am some kind of idiot for not being able to figure out this coffee maker). As soon as I woke up I went into the bathroom and opened the window. (we just got one of those nightlights in the bathroom with the light sensor so I have been trying to remember to open the bathroom shade so that light comes in and the nightlight doesn’t turn on and so we will save $.02 per year on our electric bill.) When I opened the window, I saw a group of about six landscapers sitting around drinking medium iced dunkin donuts coffees. I am pretty sure they have been reading my blog and were just there to tempt me. It was like a commercial.

My delicious iced coffee dreams were shattered and I trudged downstairs to face that reality. I couldn’t get the image out of my head of their clear cups, dripping with condensation and filled with ecru goodness quenching their thirst while fulfilling their need for caffeine. I bet it smelled like fresh cut grass out there, too.

I decided that hot coffee just wasn’t going to cut it, so I would have to find a way to have iced. Then I realized it was the perfect opportunity to use The New Pitcher.

(When we first moved into our condo, we went to IKEA for a whole bunch of stuff. Of the $1,000 we spent, I was the most excited about this perfect little glass pitcher that was $2.99. It is perfectly constructed and the optimal size. I spent all of last summer coming up with new delicious things to fill it with. Then, in the Great Cupboard Collapse of 2009, we lost The Pitcher, along with All The Dishes and Any Hope of Ever Walking Barefoot in Our Kitchen Again. So for about a month, I tried to find a time to go back to IKEA and get a new one. I finally was able to, and drove the 40 minutes just for a $2.99 pitcher. So, as you may imagine, I use The New Pitcher at every chance I get.)

I put The New Pitcher in the freezer, along with two of these plastic cups that I bought from Au Bon Pain during an iced tea kick last summer. I then brewed some extra strong coffee and then poured it into The (chilled) New Pitcher, and added some ice. It was not as bad as I was expecting. I had two cups, one for the ride in and one for as soon as I got to school. It was quite satisfying. Still didn’t solve my afternoon iced coffee craving, but it was sufficient.

For breakfast I had a TJ's Greek yogurt and a granola bar. I have been really into Nature Valley Peanut Butter granola bars lately. I have also been really into dried cranberries. $1.99/bag at Trader Joes! Much juicier and more delicious than Craisins.

I guess I didn’t have lunch yesterday. I have Neuroanatomy at lunchtime and one time we dissected brains on the desks, so every time I try to eat on them I feel like I am eating oligodendrocytes and drinking cerebrospinal fluid. Grossss. Also we were getting back our midterms so I figured I wouldn’t waste food that I was just going to throw up anyways. Then directly after Neuro I have clients until 5, so there really isn’t any time to eat.

I had to babysit at 6:30, and on any other day I would have stopped somewhere to grab something to eat beforehand. However, the people for whom I was babysitting live just a mile from my house, so I went home first. I decided to make pasta and sauce. I usually leave pasta as a last resort, when all the beans and cereal have been eaten up and we are physically unable to leave the house to get anything else. We had some sausage in our freezer that some friends left, and I decided to cook some of that too. I am just getting out of a ten-year sausage aversion, so this was a big step for me. It turned out to be quite delicious. I had it with grated parmesan and some fancy vodka sauce that was on sale. I was really lucky that this week I was babysitting for this family on Thursdays. Every other Thursday of my life I babysit for a family that lives between my school and my house, so I would never have the opportunity to stop home and make dinner. I suppose I would have had to bring something for dinner to eat in the car on the way over there or something. I lucked out on this one.

That was about it for my day. Had I eaten three actual meals, it would have been a little more difficult, but it worked out the way it was. For some reason I wasn’t that hungry. Must have been all those dried cranberries. However, if it had gotten out of hand I would have probably bought something. All the money you save not eating out is no fun if you starve to death. Then you can’t even use it.

Tonight I am going out with some friends. I think I am definitely just going to play the it’s-almost-my-birthday card and get drinks bought for me. Or just bat my eyelashes. Any suggestions? I’ll let you know how it goes.

I have had a lot of people asking about my lunchbox. I got it from Naturally Felt, a storefront on Etsy.

Challenging the Bitches: Maria's Challange - Day 4

It is GORGEOUS out and there would be nothing more delicious than a medium iced with skim milk and one sugar. But then you would have nothing to read about today.

Yesterday went well… I ran into one minor glitch in the evening (more on that later) but I am still successful with my challenge! Yesterday I didn’t have class until1, so I got to sleep in. I made coffee at my leisure (I didn’t try to preset it this time!) and had a Trader Joe’s Greek yogurt for breakfast.
I brought leftovers from the mustard-crusted chicken for lunch, but there weren’t any leftovers for the vegetables or starch, so it was just the chicken. Sort of boring and not a complete meal, but I managed.

Last night I had to babysit. I picked them up from school we made a frozen pizza for dinner with some salad. Even though frozen pizza may sort of seem like cheating, I didn’t buy it, and I was instructed to make it for dinner.  After dinner we were playing a ball game that we made up and I told one of the girls that if she scored a goal on me I would take them out for ice cream. She did (I let her, i’m actually unstoppable at base-ket-hock-bike-ball). So then I realized I sort of dug myself into a hole. If I explained to them the challenge, they would never accept that as a good enough reason not to get ice cream. If I backed out on the offer, they would have hated me forever. So, we piled into the car and headed over to J.P. Licks. Back when I ate out and got coffee at places, I was at J.P. Licks and got a “cow card”, which is like a member card or whatever that gives you free stuff and takes up space on your keychain. When we got there I realized that with the cow card I was entitled to a FREE SMALL ICE CREAM! I got them kiddie cups and got myself a small cup (they were so jealous and then I made them try my ice cream – coffee – and they got over it real quick.) So, I did pay for theirs but I did not pay for mine. I felt like I was violating my challenge, and maybe I was, but I just couldn’t not take them out for ice cream. What do you think, readers? Did I violate my challenge? (If you say yes maybe I can quit and run to Dunkin Donuts!)

Another exciting thing about the cow card is that I am entitled to a free coffee!!! And YES, IT CAN BE ICED!

So, in theory, yesterday went well. Technically, I may have slipped up a little. Tonight when I am babysitting I am going to keep my mouth shut and maybe skip making bets I can't keep in base-ket-hock-bike-ball.

Challenging the Bitches: Maria's Challange - Day 3

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I hope you're doing something fun, and maybe cooking our St. Patrick's Day menu!

This whole not spending money on food thing is getting tricky! Yesterday morning I had a very early class, and once again I tried to make the coffee machine turn on at the preset time. Yet again, there were not any coffee aromas floating up to awaken me. I trudged down and turned it on and was soon on my way. For breakfast I had a granola bar again, and for lunch I brought leftovers from the gumbo the night before.

My sister was picking me up in the afternoon and I had to wait a little bit. It was gorgeous out and sitting in the sunshine I would have done just about anything to be able to buy an iced coffee. I refrained…. although I still think this would have been a reasonable purchase.

We went to visit some family outside of Boston and got stuck in quite a bit of traffic on the way home. If it hadn’t been for my challenge, we probably would have stopped and picked up take-out on the way home. Instead we went to Trader Joe’s and got some food. We made the Mustard-Crusted Chicken recipe that is on our website. (have you tried this, readers? it's the best!) It was delicious, but I was really hungry when we were making it and when I am really hungry I am really grouchy, so that wasn’t fun. It would have been a lot easier just to get takeout. But…. It was delicious and inexpensive and now I have lunch for today.

If I wasn’t doing this challenge, today could have been more convenient. I guess you have to think about what convenience is worth to you, and how much you are willing to spend on it. When I think about it today, it was fine making dinner and not getting take-out last night, but at the time I would have preferred just to pick something up.

I am starting to think that the hardest part of this challenge is not getting iced coffee. And no, I can't make my own. It's just. not. the. same.

I am going out with friends on Friday night and with this challenge I can’t buy any drinks! I guess I will either have to look phenomenal or talk about how my birthday is next week and hopefully I will get my drinks bought for me. J