Monday

I had a fairly busy day, so I didn't do a lot of boredom snacking. I started off with the banana and had about a cup of blueberries for my mid-morning snack. For lunch, it was my favorite at-home salad.

A few words about salad. For years, I thought I hated salad. I don't hate salad. I hate salad dressing. Oh, and I'm not a huge fan of iceberg lettuce. So once I was out on my own and had enough money to buy premium lettuce, I discovered that salad can taste good. Here are the components of my salad:
• Earthbound Farms Organic Baby Romaine (or Baby Lettuces)
• A drizzle of O Olive Oil infused with blood orange
• some fresh ground pepper
• a sprinkle of Sargento 4 Cheese Mexican Blend shredded cheese (which doubles as my cheese of choice in burritoes)
• a handful of organic grape or cherry tomatoes

I eat the salad with a slice of Provence Organic Grains bread. For those of you wondering, the cheese and the whole grain bread provide plenty of protein for the meal. And buying good whole grain bread can be tricky (not all of them taste good), so that's why I stick with Provence (a local bakery here in Nashville). It's important to eat whole grain breads because white bread is just a waste of space and calories as far as anything in your body is concerned (past your tongue, that is).

I generally crave something sweet not long after eating this salad, so I ate a fresh peach that had been ripening for a few days in a brown paper sack.

For dinner, I needed to finish off a few Roma tomatoes, so I decided to make a pasta sauce. I must admit I apparently inherited at least some of my cooking ability from my great-grandmother because I rarely use a recipe. But here's a description: I slice and chop the tomatoes, add them to a hot skillet of olive oil (regular, not extra virgin), add in some crushed garlic, dried rosemary, dried oregano, freshly ground pepper and sea salt and then cook on about medium heat. Sometimes, I just barely warm the tomatoes (when I want a chunky, fresh sauce) and other times, I let it stew for a while so it's a little pasty. Tonight, I went for pasty and spread it over some whole wheat (never white!) rotini pasta. As with bread, whole grain pasta is a lot healthier and heartier than refined white pasta. I'd already hungry again if I'd used standard pasta.

The water today here in Nashville tasted like my mom's pool (lightly chlorinated) instead of a pond. It's a slight improvement and definitely a reminder to change out the water filter on the kitchen faucet.