Day 4

Another milk day.  Either milk days are easier in general, or I'm just really adjusting.  No real hunger pangs today aside from the typical "it's mealtime, gimme ma food!" pangs.  Soothe the savage beast with a little bit of milk and/or tea and it's happy.  Today's meals consisted of a glass of milk at noon, a chai tea latte in the afternoon, and another tea latte thing for dinner.  I think splitting it into three makes for the best use of the milk - 8oz in the morning, and 2 6oz servings throughout the afternoon. Oh yes, and I've lost an inch from my waist!

I had another revelation today for how to deal with the fruit/veggie days.  Vegetable stock.  Yup.  Now, I haven't consulted with Andre to ensure that it's ok to use, but I don't really see any reason why not.  While I could have made my own stock, I decided to see what was on the shelves first.  Meijer (local grocery store) has its own branded "natural" vegetable stock, and looking at the ingredients, it's just carrots, celery, onion, honey (!), salt, and water.  Nothing on the No list in there.  The only thing I want to ask is if this means I have to count it as carrots and celery for two of my three daily items, or if it's kind of a free thing, since it is just stock.  What makes the Meijer brand stock unique from others is that it uses honey instead of sugar, and there's absolutely no oil involved.  Plus a lot of others have tomato, which is on my No list.  So I'm pretty excited about this find.  It's also cheap enough that I probably can't actually make it myself for cheaper.  Sweet!  And now I have a world of opportunities available to me for making food.

When I got home, I decided it was time to make tomorrow's food.  I think that's going to be a  pattern - evenings on the day before a fruit/veggie day will be spent preparing the next day's food so that I can just bring it to work and be done with it.  No idea what to call this recipe, so please feel free to suggest something.  For now, we'll just call it Spinach and Turnips.  It's almost soup-like, but not quite.  I haven't decided what my third item for tomorrow will be - the avocados are ripe now, so I may go with one of those, but since I'm trying to keep at least one "super" item each day, I might just have a mango.  I think tomorrow night I'll make a carrot soup... hmm, stay tuned for that.

Spinach and Turnips
1 Tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 red onion, diced
2 turnips (or 1 rutebaga), diced
3 Tbsp mixed dried herbs (basil, thyme, oregano, rosemary, parsley)
2 cups vegetable stock
10oz baby spinach
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, combine honey, vanilla, garlic, salt and onion over medium-high heat.  Saute until onions are caramelized, about 5 minutes.  Reduce heat to medium and add turnips, stirring occasionally, for 7-8 minutes, or until edges of turnips are beginning to soften.  Add herbs and stock, reducing heat to a simmer.  Cover and simmer for 7-8 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add spinach and cover, allowing to cook for about 5 minutes, or until spinach is wilting, then stir to complete cooking.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Makes 2 servings.