I would have thought that by now I’d be immune to mistakes, but nope. A couple weeks ago, I almost accepted a potato chip at happy hour when the bag was offered to me, but realized in time that I was doing experimonth. Somehow both of my actual mistakes took place with this realization fully in effect. Yesterday, I got an iced coffee when out at a work-related lunch, so that I could be good and stay on my 5 or fewer. Yet somehow I spaced and added Splenda instead of sugar (and I wasn’t tossing out a $3 coffee over the wrong sweetener). Then today, when I stopped home between meetings for a 5-minute lunch, I accidentally put the wrong mustard on my chicken-wrapped-in-lettuce (and didn’t have time/patience to wash everything off and re-do). Other than those two slips and my pre-planned brunch #1 (of 2), I’ve been faithful. It hasn’t been too difficult, and has made for some interesting conversations. Plus, I’ve found the best peanut butter ever, and for this month I have not felt guilty at all about eating peanut butter and honey straight from the containers, which I usually feel is a bit decadent (honey is expensive). With no cheap sugary alternative, I’ve relied on honey and pineapple for most of my sweet cravings, and they’ve done me right for the most part.

Kale & mushrooms with garlic and sesame seeds cooked in sesame oil and soy sauce

Thank goodness they translated so I know there’s only 4 ingredients.

And I appreciate that they use the tasty salt.

I went to the Durham Farmer’s Market this weekend and it was a very unpleasant shopping experience, with the exception of running into a couple of friends. Way too crowded, impossible to do any real price/quality comparison, and full of extraneous non-farm craft stuff that got in the way. 

In contrast, a trip to the korean grocery store on 15-501 was a pleasant shopping experience as have been recent trips to Compare Foods on Avondale/Roxboro (I’m still amused that the salon in there always has at least one person getting their hair done). For the most part the stores seem less expensive too, and a friendly customer at the KoGro helped me figure out which kind of seaweed to buy to make a good soup stock. 

I’m going to try the farmer’s market again during their Wed afternoon hours and see if it’s a better experience, because I really like the concept and want to support them.  They all seem like good people and they even put recipes from local chefs focused on local farm ingredients on their website.  I just can’t stand the crowds.

Leftover pork loin with a zucchini panfried in olive oil and pepper. Sometimes it’s all about the presentation.

I’m liking 2 dinners a night.

i had this dream that i found an old fast food bag with a doublecheeseburger still in it.  i unwrapped it and it looked like it was still good, but i felt bad because of experimonth.  i gave in and decided to eat the burger but toss the bun.  i woke up feeling guilty.

it took at least 2 weeks of quitting smoking before i had this kind of dream.  and i didn’t have any (that i remember) when i quit fast food for january 2009 (experimonth in the raw solidarity).  

today = lots o coffee, oatmeal w/mango, pork loin leftover w/ fresh squash&zuch, beer tasting, peanuts, yogurt&honey&mango

so i guess i had fooled myself into thinking that plain yogurt would be like vanilla yogurt. forgot how nasty that stuff is without a bunch of sweetener. yowza.

i sliced up a clove of garlic and inserted the cloves in thin slits, then rubbed the whole thing with mustard powder, sea salt, pepper, organic soysauce and evoo and let it marinate/sit for 20 min or so before putting it in the oven (450 for 15 min then 325 for 1.5 hours) and pouring white wine over it every 15 minutes. basically a combination of my pork tenderloin experience and bittman’s how to cook everything app. 

skipping bfast and lunch was bad, and of course i cursed my inability to stop in and grab some fast food when i was out. but let’s be real - i skip breakfast and lunch in favor of coffee at least once a week on a normal week anyway. but dinner and second dinner and first snack were all good, though i’m going through an awful lot of unsalted peanuts in a short amount of time.

So right now I’m feeling mildly deprived and grumpy on evening two, after a stellar day one.

Saturday I had late brunch plans, so i had a small bowl of actual oatmeal, rather than my usual instant flavored oatmeal with a little bit of the actual sprinkled in to make a bigger portion size.  I had some mango in it (they’ve been really cheap lately, especially at the Compare Foods) and it was pretty delicious.  I also had some flavored coffee which may be against the spirit of this thing but really is it going to make a difference? I’m definitely not giving up coffee.  I had skim milk in it rather than flavored creamer - did you know there are 3 ingredients in skim damn milk? 

While I had planned to eat whatever the hostess offered so that my experimonth not tarnish others’ plans and efforts, i was offered a meal almost entirely made from scratch - my only transgression being a couple of sausages patties. I had the best pancakes I’ve ever tasted - scratch-made buttermilk pancakes with toppings of butter, pure maple syrup, fresh strawberries and blueberries. Also some very fluffy scrambled eggs with some salt and pepper and some more coffee and some water. 

The water reminds me that I’m lucky that I kicked the soda habit a year or two ago.  

So, excellent brunch and then a trip to the store to get a bunch of groceries.  I got some MBA chicken tenderloins but paused to consider whether the logo constituted cartoon packaging.  But since the drawing is fairly realistic and descriptive of the product - and since it was on sale and is a healthier grade of meat (and I believe the company is more ethical/responsible than others, though I need to look that up) - I went ahead and got a couple of packages thinking that they’d make good quick snacks (instead of a sandwich or quesadilla, have some chicken tenders and broccoli).  Also lots of fruit and vegetables. And a pork loin that was on sale and was from somewhere named Niman Ranch gave the impression of being a happy place run by hippies. These sorts of things are stuff that i can cook and then eat over several days.  I also got lots of eggs an egg whites.  I bought some special soy sauce because my usual brand is written in another language and therefore definitely unpronounceable.  I spent a little over $50 yesterday and then went back for another $15 today.

so breakfasts won’t be a big deal - oatmeal with fresh fruit will take a tiny bit more time but taste as good as most of the prepackaged flavors. lunch will be good given that it can usually be dinner leftovers.  but i’ll be doing an awful lot of cooking, it seems.

Then there’s the snacking. I’ve eaten two apples already, probably will have a third tonight.  They are a poor substitute for chocolate. Pure honey is the only thing that’s really satisfying my sweet tooth so far, in the department of dessert-type snacks. And I’m having daydreams of the kimchi bulkogi hot dog I got from the korean taco truck on Friday night - a perfect last meal, and maybe the first thing I’ll eat on June 1st.

So I’m the one who initially suggested this.  I’m not sure where I read it - I think it was in one of my alumni magazines - but it was suggested as a simple, no-nonsense way to eat healthy.  I do like having simple guidelines for eating healthy, but given the cultural and market forces in play I doubt that we’ll come to any consensus on what we should eat in the next few centuries.  From a little googling to try to find the source of this advice, it seems to be linked to stuff that Michael Pollan and others are saying.

This was the second most popular experimonth in terms of votes. In the midst of the suggestions and early voting, my friend Adam commented that “everyone wants to tell you what to eat” and then clarified that he wasn’t talking about my experimonth specifically but society in general.  I do tend to eat a lot of crap.  Fast food from the dollar menu 1-4x per week, usually in unhealthy quantities. Lots of stuff that’s easy to make, from heatups (think hotpockets) though usually enhanced with extra protein and taste enhancers (think Pasta Roni with added salmon from a pouch, red onions and capers). 

I took a walk through the grocery store last week and freaked out finding that some of the simplest things like bread have more than 5 ingredients. Most of my staple foods/meals are now off limits. And snacks, other than peanuts, are a total rethink. Thankfully, co-experimonther Larry assures me that most beers should be fine, according to the spirit of the month. 

The rules and exceptions: I do have two meals (a brunch that happened yesterday and a brunch to come later this month) that were previously planned, where I will not stick to this.  Otherwise, I plan to stick to this for the remainder of the month, which I think means that i won’t be eating out much at all. I’m also not eating stuff in my pantry/fridge bought previously that wouldn’t fit the rules.

The hypotheses: I’m guessing that my food budget may go up a little from buying so many more fresh fruits, meats and vegetables, even taking away my restaurant expenses. I’m also guessing that I’ll have a little bit more energy from eating healthier, and a little bit less time to screw around with the internet because of the extra time spent cooking. I’m guessing that the month leads me to do more cooking in the future, but that I’ll still go back to the convenience and thrift of fast and prepackaged foods when the month is over.