Cucumber Chicken Salad

Tonight's supper is a test for Saturday. Saturday, we all head to Portland for cello, guitar, and piano lessons. I don't want to risk getting up there to the city and not being able to find what I need to have for lunch. And maybe for dinner, too.

So, I'm planning to do the recipe below for lunch and to make the meatloaf for supper. I think. Anyway, regardless of what I come up with, YOU get to have the recipe sharesies!

Cucumber Chicken Salad (139 calories)

100g chicken (110 calories)

1 1/2c water

1T chicken boullion

4T loose leaf vanilla mint tea

5 cloves garlic, chopped

salt to taste

1T whole dried rosemary

2c cucumber (29 calories)

Put chicken into pot with everything except the cucumber and cook over medium heat until done. Refrigerate overnight.

When it's time for the meal to be eaten, chop up the cucumber, top with the chicken and use Walden Farms dressing (the Chef recommends either Honey Dijon or Asian).

Lunch Repeaters

We were still unprepared for lunch today so we had a repeat. I know, I know, we're Lunch Repeaters! Mom varied it with a bowl of fresh cherry tomatoes from our garden and added some spices to the shrimp, but it was very similar to yesterday. I suspect it's got something to do with lounging around enjoying tea all morning and the lunch hour sneaking up on us. I enjoyed a wonderful pot of Honeybush Vanilla tea (I use loose teas - they taste better).

Breakfast menu:

Honeybush Tea (0 calories)

1 T Honeybush Vanilla loose tea

10 drops Vanilla Stevia

Heat water just to the boiling point. Add tea and stevia to teapot, then add the water. Let steep for 5-10 minutes. Relax and enjoy the whole pot out on the deck while watching a green frog crawl up the side of your house.

Here's the lunch menu:

Better than Standard Cucumbers (58 calories)

4 cups cucumber

salt to taste (better than vinegar, I think!)

Add cucumbers to a bowl and toss with celtic sea salt (YUMMY). Enjoy whilest watching a pleasant movie like Miss Potter.

Balsamic Vinegar Cherry Tomatoes

2 cups cherry tomatoes

Balsamic Vinegar to taste

Add cherry tomatoes to a bowl and add enough balsamic vinegar so that it's precisely right for your tastebugs. (Yes... That's what taste buds are called when you're a 9 year old girl.) Allow to rest in the bowl for at least 10 minutes, then enjoy while lounging on the couch in front of a movie.

Spicy Braggs' Shrimp (90 calories)

100g shrimp (about 16)

Creole' seasoning

1T Braggs' Liquid Aminos

In semi-heated dry pan, add shrimp and pour Braggs' over shrimp; "fry" in Braggs' until shrimp are cooked.

And, let's not forget the sad and lonely bread stick, for 20 calories. :) I'll have to figure out a way to incorporate that into and be part of lunch, rather than be a side of lunch. Perhaps I'll just put that thought into my Mom's head and see what she stews up. She's wonderfully clever with food and most of my fondest memories begin with something that she made in the kitchen. That's probably why I'm so rotund. Hahaha!

I've discovered over the years that the setting in which you eat is just as important as the food you're eating.

So, here's the latest on us:

Me:

Started: 327

End Phase 1: 332

Today: 325

Total: -2

Mom:

Total: -3

Yae us!

Supper Menu

Tonight, we're having Roast. I've decided to go for the cucumber thing again (I seriously love cucumbers), while Mom is doing steamed broccoli. Normally, a roast dinner includes baked potatoes, onions, cooked carrots, and some sort of sweet jelly stuff Mom makes and cans.

Roast (150 calories)

100g roast

salt and pepper to taste

1 T Braggs' Liquid Aminos

1/2 t rosemary

1/2 t garlic (or more if you like)

sprig of fresh basil

Create a rub with rosemary, garlic, salt, pepper. In an 8" (or so) square of foil, rub the seasonings onto the roast. Pour Braggs' over the meat, lay basil on top and fold foil closed. Put in toaster oven at 350* until the meat is as you prefer.

3 cups Cucumbers ( 45 calories)

Grissini Breadstick (20 calories) <--found at Safeway in both Sea Salt and Parmeasean flavors!

1/2 orange (30 calories)

That puts me precisely at 500 calories for the day.

Everyone who's done a 500 calorie diet before kept telling me this was going to be so hard. I just don't agree. This is, especially after the very prominent memory of those loading days, wonderful!!

Phase 2: First Meal

Well. We had a pretty simple first meal. Even though I found all those recipes, we were unprepared because we didn't even want to think about food for the last couple days. Here's the lunch menu:

Balsamic Vinegar Cucumber (45 calories)

3 cups cucumber

balsamic vinegar over it to taste

Braggs' Shrimp (90 calories)

100g shrimp (about 16)

1T Braggs' Liquid Aminos

In semi-heated dry pan, add shrimp and pour Braggs' over shrimp; "fry" in Braggs' until shrimp are cooked.

It was all delicious and so wonderfully light after all that nasty fat. We had *a* melba toast with the lunch - it was sort of a pitiful silly thing next to the heap of cucumber. I wondered why we needed to eat it, but I'm not going to question the process, just follow it. It leaves 95 calories for the fruit that I plan to eat as a snack. No clue what the fruit will be yet, but that's saved for it, regardless.

So far, I'm at 155 calories for the day and it's 2 in the afternoon. Nice.

This is the easy part, isn't it? This phase 2 thing isn't hard at all so far. Phase one was much more difficult.