How'd We do? It's Friday

Well, it has been a long week. Changing our diet is turning out to be a real struggle. I was just telling Phil about a patient of mine who sent me a chili recipe that sounded delicious. He also spent some time on the phone talking about the best way to purchase beef; not the best thing for me to hear the week I have decided to stop eating meat.

The week began by meeting a friend for coffee Monday. After that I had to run an errand and being starving, thought it best to eat something. The conundrum is to find some fast food that is good for me. I decided to stop by an Indian restaurant. I ordered some Samosa and Palak Paneer. Delicious. Not vegan, but no meat. Grocery store stop included:

• mushrooms to stuff
• spinach 
• acorn squash
• celery - chop into sticks for snacking
• canned beans - garbanzos, kidneys
• canned tomato
• kale (remember to check it closely and buy it as you can find it)
• cauliflower

Dinner Monday: steamed cauliflower, leftover Paneer, miscellaneous other leftovers, and rustic sourdough bread. I may have made a tomato, red onion, and tomato salad, as well (successfully snuck in some beets).

Dinner Tuesday: Spinach-stuffed mushrooms, kale salad, leftover Ancient Grains. I took leftovers for lunch the next day. Later that evening I had Phil cut the squash in half, cleaned it, put it into an oven-safe pan, and added a 1/4 inch of water. Phil, as instructed, popped it into the oven Wednesday at 5.

Dinner Wednesday:  acorn squash, leftover brown and black rice (not the best frozen and reheated), and something else. Acorn squash was kind of bland and I will need to find an great recipe to justify cooking it again.

Dinner Thursday: Tired of thinking and working two days in a row. Phil popped a pepperoni pizza in the oven. I stopped and got some packaged salad mix. Dinner. For better or for worse.

Dinner Friday (tonight): Chili beans and foccacia bread with tomato and mushrooms. I am weak about totally removing meat from our diet. Although I did only have one piece of pizza last might, I didn't remove the pepperoni, either. Today at Costco, I purchased 4 pounds of stew meat. I separated and froze it into 1-pound portions for use later. I think a little meat a couple of times a month, should be a good compromise.

Referring back to the chili recipe my patient sent me, I was really interested in trying it. It called for hamburger and sausage. I had not fully read the recipe, so purchased the stew meat thinking I would use that. It was great. Added a lot of flavor and still had lots of beans and tomatoes. I also cooked a whole bag of beans with the intent of freezing some. I have frozen some in 2 cup batches. I can use them later when I make Mexican food.