[Shello]

W2D2 - Tuesday

 

Event Calendar - Nothing! 

Nothing planned and boy was that exciting!  I left work early for class and then taught class too.  It was ridiculously hot so we decided again going for a walk.  We spent the evening relaxing and finished up Westworld.  I did the absolute bare minimum in tidying and put a few things away that had been sitting.  Calorie burn was too low but it was glorious. 

 

Dinner was chicken bacon pitas.  We had store bought pitas and had trouble opening them again.  This time I put them in the oven with some boiling water hoping they'd steam but we still had trouble.  We tried stuffing them like the Pita Pit and they end up stuffed and rolled.  DDG's had chicken, bacon, lettuce, cheese, and mayo.  I had the same but with caesar dressing.  They didn't look pretty but boy were they good!  I did snack a little at work unnecessarily and then had a couple mini Reese's for dessert.  Overall though I'd grade the day as Lean 🥙!

 

 

[Snarkyfishguts]

Having a quiet day is wonderful! I'm so glad you enjoyed yours <4

[Shello]

9 hours ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

Having a quiet day is wonderful! I'm so glad you enjoyed yours <4

Thank you!  I ended up with another quiet day too!  They are so lovely! 

[Shello]

W2D3 - Wednesday

 

Event Calendar - Nothing! 

Other than a couple slices of pumpkin chocolate chip bread that someone brought into work it was a perfect day.  I stuck to dark chocolate after lunch.  I was hungry when I got home from work and class and I had half of a toasted english muffin with peanut butter and chokecherry jelly.  DDG and I debated a walk but it was sprinkling, he had just mowed the yard, and I just simply didn't want to do anything so we stayed in.  We chatted in bed for a bit and then relaxed on the couch all evening watching Schitt's Creek.  

 

Dinner was stuffed pitas again only this time I steamed them using my bamboo steamer.  They were a little gummy but they opened up much better and we were able to stuff and roll Pita Pit style.  We had baked potato chips with them and I had mine with french onion dip.  Grading the day and Lean and Then Some 🫓

[Snarkyfishguts]

OOOO a bamboo steamer! Do you like yours? I've been tempted to get one, but then I have no where to put it. (cries in dumpling) 

 

[Shello]

14 hours ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

OOOO a bamboo steamer! Do you like yours? I've been tempted to get one, but then I have no where to put it. (cries in dumpling) 

 

I like it a lot.  It lives on top of my cabinets.  I like to use it when I'm steaming multiple things that can be separated on each rack or when I steam something that needs more space than just in a pot on the stove.  I've been meaning to try to make some steamed buns but haven't yet.  

[MaeradCase]

I miss the Baozi I'd get from street vendors, and none of the restaurants make them the same way. I can get authentic food, but I can't always get what I'm craving. May have to use my parents' steamer basket some time.

[Shello]

1 minute ago, MaeradCase said:

I miss the Baozi I'd get from street vendors, and none of the restaurants make them the same way. I can get authentic food, but I can't always get what I'm craving. May have to use my parents' steamer basket some time.

is it the filling that's different or the way they are made?   I've ever made any myself but they are delish.  I want to try making some bao buns too.  

[MaeradCase]

4 minutes ago, Shello said:

is it the filling that's different or the way they are made?   I've ever made any myself but they are delish.  I want to try making some bao buns too.  

The filling. I liked the soup ones best even though you're bound to scald your mouth or hand one way or another. Still, they were the tastiest.

[WhiteGhost]

On 9/24/2022 at 12:00 AM, MaeradCase said:

I liked the soup ones best

I used to really like those, but then I went to the street market in Kaifeng (Zhengzhou) and they ruined them for me (because now nothing can ever compare...)

[deftona]

Wandering in late but I'm loving your challenge, it's making me feel all cozy with the autumn vibes and excellent food! 

[Shello]

On 9/23/2022 at 11:00 AM, MaeradCase said:

The filling. I liked the soup ones best even though you're bound to scald your mouth or hand one way or another. Still, they were the tastiest.

On 9/25/2022 at 3:25 AM, WhiteGhost said:

I used to really like those, but then I went to the street market in Kaifeng (Zhengzhou) and they ruined them for me (because now nothing can ever compare...)

I've never seen these and it sounds problematic to have soup filled steam buns.  But now I really want to try some.  

 

7 hours ago, deftona said:

Wandering in late but I'm loving your challenge, it's making me feel all cozy with the autumn vibes and excellent food! 

Welcome back!  It has been a lovely autumn so far!  

[Shello]

W2D4 - Thursday

Event Calendar - Nothing!

Nothing planned after work and no teaching either.  We took the opportunity to head out for a walk after a mostly lazy week.  5k walk around the lake.  It felt nice.  Dinner was chicken pitas again and they were the best ones yet.  We steamed them in the bamboo steamer, filled and rolled them, then tossed them in the oven for a few minutes to warm them back up and get a better texture.  They were divine.  I don't remember much of what else I ate but in my spreadsheet I graded it between Lean and Extra Lean so there must have been a little extra snacking.  Lean and Then Some.  🥙   

 

W2D5 - Friday

Event Calendar - Nothing Again

We relaxed after work for a bit and then popped a pizza in the oven for dinner.  We split the pizza so it wasn't terrible but I noticed I was full right as I was eating the last piece.  I just continued eating it because pizza.  Other than a few poor but small snack choices it was a decent day.  Lean Enough 🍕🍇  We spent the evening watching Schitt's Creek.  We're trying to get through the whole series again as it appears Netflix is dropping the show out of rotation this weekend.  No fitnessing happened and calorie burn showed it.  

 

W2D6 - Saturday

Event Calendar - Firepit at the Pumpkin Patch!

I also had a hair appointment in the early afternoon.  I didn't wake up in time to get a walk in, clean up, and get some food before the appointment so no proper fitnessing happened.  Luckily we got a lot of walking done at the pumpkin patch so calorie burn was favorable.   We have a bag of potatoes to get through so I baked a couple Friday night just so we could fry them up for breakfast Saturday.  We made a giant breakfast skillet with the fried potatoes, some breakfast sausage crumbles from the freezer, bacon, and cheese.  We had some cheez toast on the side to use up the sourdough bread.  

The pumpkin patch is huge with lots of food venues.  We didn't have a solid plan so we just ate Fair style and grabbed things that we wanted to try when we came upon them, regardless of hunger.  We obviously started with apple cider donuts but their donuts are not as good as the ones at the Applefest from the weekend prior.   I had some mexican street corn, then some shaved fried potatoes.  We were hosting people at the fire pit so I picked up a bucket of cheesy popcorn and snacked on that mindlessly.  DDG also picked up some kettle corn that was snacked on.  I didn't see much other food that really appealed to me, especially considering the prices and the lines, so we just grilled some hot dogs over the fire.  Oh but then we grabbed some pie from the Pie Barn.  We shared a slice of peach and a slice of salted caramel apple.   Food food of substance was consumed.  Grade for the day Living My Best Life! 🥧

 

W2D7 - Sunday

Event Calendar - AppleJack Festival Day II (Or Day I for 2023)

Peach and planned to get back to the Applejack festival to do what we were planning to do next year.  Since she will be off at college we won't get a chance next year.  We couldn't go until afternoon so I had a half grilled cheese and turkey sandwich with an apple for brunch.  

 

Peach and I had a great day.  We stopped at an orchard first since that's what we missed the last time.  We perused the shop and found some jams and syrups we wanted to try.  Then We went out to the hayrack ride at the U-pick apple field.  At first we found a lot of rotten apples but as we explored other rows with different varieties are picking was much more fruitful.  We planned to be careful and not to pick more apples than we could eat before they go back but we ended up with more apples than we needed.  They were all quite cute and it was a lot of fun.   I did eat one right away.   They also had some grapevines so we picked some fresh grapes too.   Very fruitful indeed!  The orchard was out of apple cider donuts so we headed into that town to the main street market.  We picked up a a half dozen for DDG and then another for ourselves.  Then we grabbed some maple frosted sprinkle donuts too.  Peach got a glazed donut and a lemon poppyseed muffin and I grabbed some pumpkin monkey bread.  We ate a few donuts each and brought the rest home.  We found our meal lacking in protein so we hit up McDonald's on the way out of town and I grabbed a double cheeseburger.  No fries!  

Then we remembered we had planned to hit Dairy Queen to try out the fall flavors but we were stuffed.  On the drive back home (about an hour) we decided to stop at Target for funsies and there was  DQ nearby.  By then we were in good shape for mini blizzards.  I got the pumpkin pie blizzard and grabbed one to take home to DDG.   It was already a fully packed fun filled day but we both wanted to see Don't Worry Darling so we booked tickets for that evening and ran back out of the house and hit that.  For no good reason whatsoever, I decided to get some nachos at the theatre.  I would have been just fine not eating any other food but they were tasty and I enjoyed them.  And we enjoyed the movie.   No fitnessing happened but we got plenty of steps in, calorie burn was high, and I was beat!  Grade for the day: Living My Best Life 🍩🍎

 

 

 

[Snarkyfishguts]

‘Living my best life” grade is a fantastic score! 💜💜

[Shello]

19 hours ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

‘Living my best life” grade is a fantastic score! 💜💜

Thanks!  It helps to put a positive spin on days that are not near hitting my goals!   

[Shello]

W3D1 - Monday

Event Calendar - Office Hours 

I left work early for class and then stayed after class to meet with a student.  I was supposed to have a virtual meeting with another student after that but it got rescheduled for Tuesday.  Because of all the meetings and batch cooking still needed to get done so we didn't plan any fitness.  The day was busy enough to hit the minimum calorie burn.  

 

I had the usual for lunch and I had fruit from the orchard for snacks!   For dinner I had some pork chops that had been marinating in some soy sauce.  I threw them on the grill and mashed some potatoes.  I used up some leftover sour cream and some half and half because that sort of thing always spoils before I finish them.  We made some frozen peas with them and it was all very good.   I must have snacked on something a little too much because I graded myself just shy of Extra lean so let's call it Quite Lean 🍎🥩.  Wait, I remember.  There were leftover apple cider donuts so naturally some of that happened too.  🍩

 

W3D2 - Tuesday

Event Calendar - Virtual meeting with a student

Since I only had the one virtual meeting we had time for a walk around the lake after work.  The fall weather is gorgeous and the 5k walk was very enjoyable. 

 

I had what I thought was the final apple cider donut for breakfast even though I didn't need breakfast.  For dinner I sliced some chicken smoked sausages and mixed with some cut potatoes and some orchard apples.  I tossed it all in some olive oil, a bit of mustard, rosemary, and italian seasoning.  It was very tasty and fun to use the orchard apples for something other than snacks or baking.   I also baked some pumpkin chocolate chip bread.  I made 1 regular loaf to take to a family thing Wednesday and then I have a smaller loaf pan that I used and made 2 muffins with the remaining batter.  DDG and I split one of the muffins for quality control.  Oh, and Peach brought home more apple cider donuts so I also had a couple of those.  This is getting a little out of hand.   Dinner was quite lean though so I split the difference and graded the day as Just Lean Enough 🍩🍎

 

I haven't been reporting on daily tidying or purging but only because I haven't really been doing it.  

[Shello]

W3D3 - Wednesday

Event Calendar - Dinner with DDGs family

I left work early and then gave a test at class.  There's always that one student that takes the entire time for the test so I didn't get out early.  DDG and I head straight to his sister's for a gettogether.  No fitnessing but activity was high enough.  

 

I packed 2 apple cider donuts for breakfast for good measure.  I didn't need both of them but ate them and regretted them anyway.  I was mostly behaved the rest of the day until dinner.  I brought the pumpkin bread and had small pieces.  There were also chocolate chip cookies.  Dinner was brats and dogs, of which I had 1 each.  His sister also has a fancy drink machine that's like a Keurig but for adult beverages so I had one of those too.  I was pretty full and regretful by the end of the day.  Living My Best Life again. 🍩🌭🍷

[Shello]

W3D4 - Thursday

Event Calendar - Last Minute Food Truck

We planned to go for a walk and eat the leftover sausage with potatoes and apples (healthy) but I found out that one of the food trucks I wanted to try was out so we decided to do that instead (less healthy).  We did have time for a walk around the lake first and we finished the 5k walk with a pretty good pace for us.  We went to grab dinner from Wonton Jon's food truck but when we got there the menu didn't match what I saw online.  They had only 8 different wonton's with their unique flavor profiles but the samples all looked like dogfood and nothing appealed to us.  Turns out the other menu was available at this drive up place that multiple restaurants share.  We decided to grab dinner from there and sample a breakfast burrito from Wonton Jon and a breakfast cheddar biscuit sandwich from the Gravy Boat all from the same place.  It's drive through only so we had to eat in the car in the parking lot.  The burrito had sausage gravy, eggs, potatoes, cheddar cheese, and chorizo.  It was good enough but we wouldn't go back for another.  The biscuit sandwich was excellent though.  It had a cheddar buttermilk biscuit with an over easy egg, a sausage patty, gouda cheese, and some sauce.  We also got some fancy alphabet tots but they only had T's, L's, and S's.   We shared both dishes and both stopped when we were full.  Food the rest of the day was pretty decent so I'm grading it as Decently Lean 🌯

 

 

[Shello]

W3D5 - Friday

Event Calendar - Food truck for dinner

I need to do better about logging over the weekend.  Now I don't remember much from Friday.  I think food during the day was quite reasonable in order to balance out the food truck. 

I got to work from home since DDG needed the car for an appointment.  There was still half of a baked potato in the fridge so I sliced it and fried it, then made some eggs and bacon and we made some breakfast burritos. I love wfh and being able to cook a hot lunch.  I also whipped up a pie crust in the afternoon to chill.  I had an open can of pumpkin that needed to be used so I baked a pumpkin pie in the evening.  

 

For dinner we were off to the food truck.  This one was The Corndog Company.  We both got the Epic corndog (not quite a footlong but definitely a meal).  DDG had the fried mozzarella on a stick and I had the babybel cheese pop.  The Babybel cheese pop was the winner!   The corndogs were excellent as far as corn dogs go but it wasn't wedding food.  They made the list of trucks we'd try again but didn't make the wedding list.  I graded the day at Lean Enough.  I think I made good choices and never overate but you can't call a day lean when you eat a giant corndog.  🌭🍎

No fitnessing happened.  The timing just didn't work out with the food truck and we quite enjoyed just relaxing all evening.  

 

W3D6 - Saturday

Event Calendar - Junkstock and a soccer game

Peach and I were off relatively early to Junkstock.  It's basically a crafter vendor fair disguised as a hippy commune.  We started the day with the best apple cider donuts (they were fresh and still hot!)  We got a lot of walking in, Peach bought some jewelry, I bought some halloween decorations, and I bought DDG's wedding band.  There were food trucks and there was one I was testing out for the wedding.  The Paddy Wagon.  It's Irish and since DDGs family is irish we thought it would be a good fit.  And we'd had their Irish nachos before and they were very good.  I had a perfectly mediocre cheeseburger so they didn't make the list.  However, the food truck parked next to them had some amazing looking food that kept walking by as people left.  They had smoked pork and smoked beef in sammies or over mac and cheese.  They made it to the wedding list and I didn't even have to taste it.  I had plans to try other food trucks too but the lines were all long and I was full enough after my burger and a few bites of Peach's chicken fingers.  We threw out most of the fries and chips.  

 

I went home when she went to work and DDG was in the game room playing the new Fifa game so I joined him and watched trash TV on the other TV and just vegged on the couch.  It was a perfectly lazy afternoon.  We did snack smartly with an apple and peanut butter.  We went to the game in the evening and I grabbed 2 slices of pizza.   Then we finally got to enjoy some of the pumpkin pie baked the night before.  Yum!  Despite the poor nutritional value of my food choices I think the quantity was spot on so I'm also rating it as Lean Enough.  🍔🍕🥧  

 

W3D7 - Sunday

Event Calendar - Another Food truck

There was one more food truck we wanted to try and they were out for brunch.  The Modern Waffle.  DDG and I took Peach and her Bestie with us and we each enjoyed a different flavor.  I got to try all 4.  Churro (cinnamon, strawberries, and chocolate syrup), Nutella (nutella and strawberries), The Kong (bananas, peanut butter syrup, whipped cream, and mini chocolate chips), and the banana split (banana, whipped cream, caramel sauce, chocolate chips).    They did have a savory option as well. As we were discussing whether the food was wedding worthy the owner walked by.  She told us that May is filling up quickly!   DDG and I narrowed it down to 4 trucks, including the waffle joint then we picked our final 2 and our back up options.  The waffle place didn't make the cut but they are still in as an alternate.  I sent out a couple messages to the top food trucks.  Our favorite is now booked! (well they haven't confirmed but they are free that day and we discussed pricing)

 

DDG and I spent the afternoon in the game room.  The room had become a dumping ground so that needed to be fixed.  I did a lot of tidying up and purged 10 more items.   I watched some trash TV while I worked.   DDG played Fifa and helped when he could.  We didn't make it out for fitnessing as DDG is having some foot trouble.  I could have gone on my own but that isn't anywhere near as much fun.  We snacked on some grapes and baked chips in the afternoon and then finished off the sausage with potatoes and apples for dinner and then had more pie.  It was a glorious day and Lean Enough 🧇🍇🥧

 

 

 

[Snarkyfishguts]

Oooh this is exciting news about potential booked food trucks!   It's amazing how busy they get- May filling up already! Wow! Glad you're doing the research now!

[deftona]

Exciting! Which food truck did you go for in the end?

[Shello]

16 minutes ago, deftona said:

Exciting! Which food truck did you go for in the end?

We have booked Izzy's Pizza Bus!  We are also hoping to book The Cheese Life but they haven't gotten back to me yet.  

 

 

 

 

 

[deftona]

Good choices!

[Snarkyfishguts]

That food looks amazing! Yay!!!

[Shello]

On 10/3/2022 at 12:53 PM, deftona said:

Good choices!

+

On 10/9/2022 at 7:12 AM, Snarkyfishguts said:

That food looks amazing! Yay!!!

 

We are excited!