April's CR Diary

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January 22, 2007

Salsa Bar

One of the strange things that happens on CR is that you start to want to eat what other people think of as garnish.

Example: today I accompanied my to a place called Baja Fresh, a takeout Mexican restaurant that really does have quite decent food. He was picking up a huge order for the rest of our office, and I already had my salad and yogurt and almonds (lovingly packed by MR, yes I know I'm very lucky!) and I went along to raid the salsa bar. They have amazing fresh salsas, in four varieties: pico, verde, roja, baja, and one other I can't remember. Also, they have little pickled hot peppers on the salsa bar. So I was filling up multiple containers with much salsa when I noticed the garnish surrounding all the salsa bowls.

Kale. Green kale. Fresh, beautiful green kale.

If you had dumped all the salsas out of their bowls and onto the green kale, I would have put up my hair in a ponytail and proceeded to dive, face first, into the kale and salsa salad.

"Look at the kale!" I said to Edward.

"Isn't that decorative kale?" he asked, scanning the crowd to see if anyone was looking.

"No, that's the stuff planted outside our office. This is real, edible kale!"

"I'll get the sodas and wait outside."

And then my boss proceeded to pretend he didn't know me while I filled the rest of my salsa containers. I blew his cover by announcing, as I left the restaurant, "I know you're pretending you're not with me because I took most of the salsa on the salsa bar!" I think he was genuinely afraid that I would start nibbling at the garnish. And you know what? He wasn't that far off! The kale looked so fresh, so healthy, so delicious... with just a few scoops of salsa... well, suffice it to say I didn't want to take my chances with the restaurant security cameras so I filled my salsa containers and left the garnish kale alone.

I enjoyed a sampling of roja, baha, verde, pico, and whatever the other one was on my quotidian salad with yogurt. Then I really impressed Luke by drinking some of the hottest salsa straight from the container. He was still suffering from a close encounter with a hot pepper. I said to him, "You hold your peppers about as well as you hold your liquor." We got a good laugh out of that.

Then something else weird happened. I discovered that Edward drinks tea. Our office manager had purchased a variety pack of Tazo teas, and I was about to make a cup of "Awake" for an after lunch treat (I had already consumed my thermos full of fancy Japanese green lovingly packed by MR). Edward said he wanted some tea. I had no idea Edward drank tea. I made him tea. Weird.

So today has been pretty normal, except that I had the megamuffin for breakfast and about a gallon of salsa with lunch. I'd say 50 calories worth, if the standard 15 cals per two tablespoons holds true. That's a lotta salsa!

Now it's back to work for awhile before dinner, and back to work on the phones after dinner. Tomorrow I may be off to Scranton, but I won't know until I make some calls tonight. My megamuffins are ready if I need to go on a trip.

For dinner I made MR a tatta, this one with pumpkin, spaghetti squash, Quorn, and chipoltle Tabasco, chili and garlic for spice. I made it last night and he put it in the oven while I was at work. Broccoli and olive oil on the side, flax on the tatta. Nuts for added fat. I'll probably make myself a good old boring veggie soup, which really hits the spot on these cold days.

I'll save time at the end of my night to catch up on all the newbie blogs... it's incredibly gratifying to see so many new people doing so well. It literally brings tears to my eyes to read about how y'all are changing your lives for the better. I am so honored, humbled, shocked, pleased to have been a part of your process. To quote Michael Jackson, "You rock my world you know you do!"

Here's my crunch du jour:

General (76%)
Energy 1287.9 kcal 64%
Protein 58.1 g 116%
Fat 30.6 g 47%
Carbs 136.0 g 45%
Fiber 33.5 g 134%
Water 1862.8 g 124%
Vitamins (91%)
Vitamin A 16942.9 IU 565%
Folate 548.7 mcg 137%
B1 (Thiamine) 2.0 mg 163%
B2 (Riboflavin) 2.9 mg 226%
B3 (Niacin) 18.9 mg 118%
B5 (Pantothenic Acid) 6.1 mg 122%
B6 (Pyridoxine) 2.6 mg 154%
B12 (Cyanocobalamin) 2.6 mcg 107%
Vitamin C 206.7 mg 230%
Vitamin D 6.2 IU 2%
Vitamin E 13.6 mg 91%
Vitamin K 451.4 mcg 376%
Minerals (100%)
Calcium 1406.1 mg 117%
Copper 2.1 mg 229%
Iron 15.1 mg 189%
Magnesium 513.6 mg 122%
Manganese 5.8 mg 252%
Phosphorus 1825.7 mg 261%
Potassium 5382.6 mg 115%
Selenium 69.2 mcg 126%
Sodium 4663.7 mg 359%
Zinc 13.0 mg 118%
Lipids (14%)
Saturated 3.6 g 18%
Cholesterol 29.8 g 10%

Wine at dinner, a brewers yeast and veggie soup with flax, and a bedtime snack of grape tomatoes and a fat free single, in addition to everything you've read about already.

Meanwhile, I'm not going to Scranton tomorrow, so I'm taking the seven thirty am meeting about an hour from here. That means: megamuffin for the road! MR will toast it in the toaster before I head out. Then to the gym before I head into the office because I have got to stop letting work interfere with my workouts. Bone health is important for us CR girls, and the stress reduction of exercise is very important to me.

Happy blogging to all, and to all a good night!

Posted by april at January 22, 2007 9:43 PM

Comments

Posted by: Andrea at January 22, 2007 6:32 PM

Posted by: sheila at January 22, 2007 9:40 PM

Posted by: thatgirljj at January 23, 2007 12:00 PM

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