The Breakfast Bar Quiz

I’m sitting in one of those breakfast spots in the hotel we’re visiting while in Lubbock for Stratton’s graduation!  Here’s what’s offered, going from left to right:

A bowl of apples, next to a bowl of the greenest bananas you ever saw.

A bread tray, offering bagels and English muffins, next to the toaster.

A bowl of individually packaged cream cheese and peanut butters.  Jams and syrups are in the next bowl.  Packaged oatmeal in the next one are sitting next to the hot water dispenser.

The cereal gizmos, with Fruit Loops, Special K, Corn Pops, granola, rice crispies and Raisin Bran choices.

A tray of individually packaged Otis Spunkmeyer “healthy” blueberry muffins the size of softballs.  I use quote marks around “healthy” because that is what is says on the package.  Isn’t it CURIOUS the package doesn’t include any nutrition facts?  

A waffle iron and waffle mix machine (aha!  That’s why they offer syrup!)

The milk fridge with 2% and skim milk on one shelf and small Dannon yogurts on the other.

The juice machine, offering orange and apple.

GO.  

What would you eat?

Protein choices (and remember you should ALWAYS look for protein choices for breakfast!) are pretty slim.  Peanut butter, milk and yogurt are the only options.

As usual, most prominently offered are starches, and as I sit here watching hotel guests load up, they couldn’t be happier.  One lady just walked away with TWO muffins tucked up under her arms...I guess for later?

Fruit choices are an apple, a green banana or a cup of juice.  Not surprisingly, 99% of these folks are going for the juice.  ARE whole fruits too much trouble?  (I was told once by a client that she never eats whole fruits because it’s too much trouble.  I am still baffled by that statement....

Here’s one lady that has obviously been working out and she is just backing away, scratching her chin as she sums up her options.  What do you wanna bet she goes for the oatmeal?  Yep!  While she’s fixing that, another lady just walked up and put an OS muffin in her purse!  hahahahahahahah

This is real life, day to day, trying to figure out how to treat our bodies with respect through our food choices.  Throw in a little people watching, and I could sit here all day!  But I have a date to watch my brilliant, adorable, clever and awesome STRATTON walk the stage for his COLLEGE DIPLOMA today! Sighhhh....I'm a proud, happy mama.

Wait. What? Chicken and Waffles?

Today, I went out to lunch with my work pals to celebrate a sweet young friend’s birthday.  We went to a DELICIOUS place in Ft. Worth called Buttons, that apparently is even BETTER at night, what with the dressed up crowd and the Frank Sinatra singer workin’ the crowd.  You should go.

But naturally, this post is about food.  It’s not that I don’t get out much---actually, the truth is, I hardly go out for lunch because that is when I work out (if you can call it that.) My lunch is eaten sitting at my desk afterward. 

So it never fails to ASTONISH me what (and how much) people eat.  It bears repeating---this food was divine.  But imagine a round platter.  On it, picture 4 halves (not quarters) of inch thick waffles, stacked all fanned out and fancy.  Strawberries, butter and syrup rounded out the “and waffles” portion of the platter.  Then on the other half sat a large hunk of what was presumably fried chicken.  I say that with a question mark because it was indistinguishable in shape because of the fried batter.  But wait.  There’s more.  Sitting atop the chicken must’ve been at least 1/2 cup of fried shoestring sweet potatoes.  (That were maybe the best thing I’ve tasted in a while.)

It was so massive that my friend who ordered it asked me to take a picture.  If I can figure out how to upload it, you’ll see for yourself.

FOR LUNCH.  Can you imagine what the dinner menu must yield?

People.  Peeeeeeople.  Please tell me you think that’s outrageous.  If there’s one thing I’d like you to take away from my rants and raves, it’s PORTION CONTROL.  (Go back to my early post about this very thing.)  It is just silly to think you can eat what you are served with abandon, and not expect the health consequences.   4 halves of waffles (I’m waffling-pun intented-on the thickness because these were monster waffles) equals at least 2 starches.  The 1/2 cup of fried sweet potato shoe strings is another starch.  The batter on the chicken...who can count that high.  The chicken was larger than a deck of cards, so I’m going to say at least 6 ounces.  Strawberries are such a good choice, and butter goes with waffles.  But when the butter plop looks like a golfball, instead of a pat (you DO know what a pat of butter looks like, right) then I’m calling that at least 3 servings of fat.....

Let’s remember this:  no matter what meal, no matter what snack, no matter what drink, portions COUNT.  If you feel guilty for paying for that much food without eating it, share a platter.  Or take home 2/3 of it for 2 more meals.  Just don’t give into the “what the hecks.”  Practice some of your skills and order/choose the best option (and don’t be afraid to ask for a healthier version, as I did,) then only eat what you know to be the right amount.

My shrimp and grits (albeit ordered fussily---I asked if my shrimp could be grilled instead of fried) were served with an egg over easy on top.  I will be dreamin’ about it tonight!

Happy Birthday, sweet Kristi!

Clean Food

I was en route from Lubbock weekend #1 on our normal menu planning day, so I left Joe to his own devices with very little input from me, believe it or not.  The only thing I requested was salmon one night and spaghetti pile-on another.  Beyond that, I was just so grateful that I got a bye from the chore, and that he was such a good sport about doing it solo!

Even though I'm not his mother, for Mother's Day, the man treated me to shrimp and pasta with champagne cream sauce, salad and garlic breadsticks.  He even bought fat free cream to add to the sauce instead of the real stuff.  Monday night, he fixed breaded cutlet parmiagiano with a 3 bean salad.  Tonight, we had baked salmon dijon and with a broccoli and corn casserole....

All so good.  And so thoughtful.  And so sweet in so many ways.

But you know what?  I want some clean food.  Bad.

Clean food is not food that's gone through the wash.  Rather, it's food in its normal, un-tricked up state.  Grilled salmon and corn on the cob, for example.  Or a delicious shrimp boil with a fiery horseradish-y red sauce and a green salad with red onion and a sassy little vinaigrette.

What comes to mind when I say "clean food?"  Do you curl your lip because it sounds boring or reminds you too much of your last diet?  Have you talked yourself into thinking that if a lovely piece of salmon doesn't have a buttery yellow sauce on it that it's pitiful?

Take a look at your menu this week.  (You DO have a menu, right?) Are you more like Joe, where everything has a topper and a casserole side dish?  Or are you more like me, where I could almost eat out of one of those old school cafeteria trays with compartments?  How about taking a MODERATE approach (and you know I know when I point one finger at you, I've got 3 pointing right back at me!)  How about a compromise?

Share with me what you're eating these days, folks!  I'm back, and I'm focused on talking about real things we can all do right now, today, to change our habits and get healthy.

P.S.  Thanks for the encouragement, friends!