Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Third day

Paul rode his bike to work, 8 miles each way, and so he needed more calories than I did. I walk a couple of miles a day, but not in a head up, shoulders back churning along sort of way. More of an amble, so I can look at flowers. Paul had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast. He took enough ground coffee to make his own pot at work. I had buttered toast and tea. For lunch Paul had our first day dinner leftovers: chicken and rice with a bit of carrot and onion. I had a grilled cheese and onion sandwich and a used teabag. Dinner was rice pilaf and frozen fish sticks (pollack) and peanut butter cookies.
Recipe: Rice pilaf
1 teaspoon oil
2 teaspoons butter
2 onions, chopped
1/4 red pepper, choppped
1 can stewed tomatoes + enough water to make 2 cups
1 cup dry rice
1 teaspoon hot pepper flakes
1 teaspoon dried basil
Salt and pepper to tast
Grated cheese
Heat the butter and oil in a lidded saucepan until foamy. Saute the peppers and onions until soft, add the pepper flakes and basil. Stir for a minute, then add the rice and stir until the grains are coated. Pour in the tomato mixture, and bring to a boil. Cover the pan and place in a 350 degree oven for half and hour. Serve with grated cheese at the table

What I learned today: Teabags are bad, cheap teabags are worse, and there is no using them twice. Since I am not drinking my usual quart of skim milk and my endless cuppas, I had to drink lots more water. Cheap fish fingers are mostly breading.
Marilyn

I didn't notice a lack of calories today at all. My breakfast of a P&J sandwich was typical and my lunch of previous dinner leftovers was typical (and really good ... even better reheated, as we like to say). My carafe of coffee was about 4 cups and pleanty to get me through the morning and lunch. Dinner tonight was sufficient enough that there is a future lunch for me left over. My biggest challenge today was that we threw a pizza party for our student employees (college) who are nearing the end of the term. There was enough pizza left over to feed the multitudes. Doing this diet quite vividly reminds me that we put too much food out and we have too much just sitting around ... but we all know that, right?

I baked some more bread this morning (retarded it in the fridge over night). I made 2 lb. of dough and I now think that we will run out of bread before the end of the week. We still have $1.40 to spend and if Marilyn doesn't need milk we can buy more flour. Saturday, the last day of our week, should be interesting.

My bread is simple, by the way. I have a starter so it is just 3 oz starter, 3 oz water, 3 oz flour ... mix and let work until doubled. Add this refreshed starter to 7 oz water and 16 oz flour and 2 tsp salt. Mix in bowl and then kneed for a few minutes until smooth. Let rise until doubled and then shape into a ball. Let rise in a collander lined with a floured towel until doubled (or let rise in the fridge overnight). Let come to room temp, turn out on to a baking sheet (or on to a stone in the oven if you have one) and then bake for 50 minutes in a preheated 375 oven. Put some ice cubes into the oven when the bread goes in for steam.

Paul