Day Eleven

Made it through the day intact. Feeling like I almost have this bug beat -- almost. Had a bowl of mixed berries with honey for breakfast, but I think it was too much sugar. It was all natural sugars, but it was a lot of them. It made me a little foggy and made my eyes blurry. I need to tone down the sweet and find a way to add some protein at breakfast. Unfortunately meat is my only source of protein currently, and it's already hard for me to put meat into every meal. I was vegetarian for 15 years and, though I do eat meat, I don't usually eat it at every meal. Maybe I can incorporate it at breakfast and have a vegetarian lunch once in a while. Not tomorrow though, already have lunch packed for tomorrow.

Lunch was a burger patty and a sweet potato. 100% grass-fed, organic beef seasoned with basil and rosemary, I put it on the grill at work (we have a full catering kitchen at work, which means I can cook fresh on slower days). I also sliced up the sweet potato into fries, tossed it with olive oil and rosemary and popped it in the oven while the meat cooked. Nothing fancy or exciting, but it filled me up. More importantly, I wasn't starving at 2:30 in the afternoon when I found myself working alone in the Rabbi's office staring down the big bowl of candy she keeps on her table. I opened the lid, looked inside, and then closed the lid and went back to work.

Dinner tonight was a total experiment. Not an abject failure, but not a raving success either. It tasted better than it smelled (thank goodness) but it looked better than it tasted. Nevertheless, I think it could be tweaked a bit and come out really good.

The side dish (on the right side of the picture) was baby bok choy. I heated some olive oil (I know, I know) and sauteed some garlic in it to give it the flavor. Then I removed the garlic and discarded it. I tossed in the sliced up baby bok choy, let it sautee for a few minutes. When it was starting to get tender, I sprinkled it with some coconut aminos. This was really good, I liked it a lot.

The main dish was cod cooked with olives and rosemary. I put it in the pressure cooker for 8 minutes (from frozen), but it could be done in the oven as well. It was cooked well but not too overdone. One or two minutes less would have been perfect. I used olives that were packed in water and salt only and, because I needed to add moisture for the pressure, I used some of the water from the olives. I think a bit of chicken broth would have been way better and given it more depth of flavor, but my broth was all frozen in a big chunk. I also tossed in a few baby carrots, and those were the best part. They tasted really good, I wish I had added more of them. I put it over mixed greens and sliced cucumber. About halfway through, the flavor had become really one note and monotonous, so I heated up some raspberries and poured over the top of it. That improved it somewhat, but what it really needed was a kick of citrus or vinegar. I will probably try this out again when I have more flexibility in what I add.

Addendum: I took an HCL about 20 minutes after eating due to bloating. I've been having a bloating issue for a couple of days, but with the virus it's really hard to tell what symptoms are a reaction to food and what is from the bug. I'm not going to stress about it until the virus is completely gone. I just took the HCL to see if it would help.