Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Good Ideas and Very Bad Ideas

I thought I was so smart. Healthy chocolate in my lunch. Monday I had a somewhat familiar lunch with a volatile twist:
  • turkey salami (the best find ever!), low-fat provolone, light mayo on Trader Joe's sandwich thin/round/flatbread thingy
  • mini salad (mixed greens & bell peppers); I used the dressing I keep in the office fridge
  • fat-free Greek yogurt
  • cubed fart bars
That's right! Stupid fart bars that I bought on a whim in an attempt to make tangy/gritty/sour Greek yogurt more palatable. I've been trying to like Greek yogurt for over a year now and the only way I can stomach it is if there is something super sweet with in in each bite. I usually pour about a gallon of honey on it but loading up on all that sugar kind of defeats the "healthful" benefits. So I saw these:
and thought I'd beat the system. Only 90 calories and all that fiber! Well, friends let me tell you, I fought the law and the law won! These things are so weird and chemicalized that as soon as you eat them your stomach starts to give you what for. There was a rumble in the jungle for HOURS after I ate this thing. And it's not that it's too much fiber in one item because I eat broccoli and oatmeal and other real/natural foods that have at least 5 grams of fiber (the amount in 1 fart bar) and I never feel like a windbag with those. It's the weirdo synthetic fiber they put in these things that make them so awful for human consumption. I bet they just pour heaps and heaps of Metamucil in a big vat of processed oats and chocolate and then shape it into little rectangles and release it into the public. Anyway, rant over. Don't buy these. Breezing on...
I'm still trying to ween myself off the salad habit. Tuesday I indulged in one again. Pretty basic:
  • mixed greens
  • yellow bell peppers
  • broccoli
  • sugar snap peas
  • 1/2 cup garbanzo beans
  • 3 Tbsp fat-free feta (another great find)
  • balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing
Not much to say about this guy. Filling, delicious, and crunchy.
Today I went back to the drawing board and gave up on Greek yogurt all together and snazzed up an old stand by:
  • sugar snap peas
  • turkey salami sandwich (like on Monday)
  • watermelon
  • fat-free vanilla yogurt with cocoa powder
So the vanilla yogurt has a lot more sugar than the stupid Greek yogurt, but at least I can swallow it without gagging. But, I decided to gild the lily a bit by trying to make a sort of chocolate dessert with this stuff:
It worked! No extra sugar and it's a nice little treat after eating pretty healthy lunch. I'm liking the sandwich lunches this week. I'll probably stick with them. Unless, that is, I come up with some more brilliant ideas.

4 comments:

  1. Making plain greek yogurt palatable. Ah yes. Well, for one, I use it in place of sour cream, which I love, and which it tastes an awful lot like. For eating it like yogurt, both cinnamon and vanilla will up the sweet flavor of a food, so you shouldn't have to add as much honey. I prefer vanilla, myself, just put a little extract in, voila. Also, I like to top it with some homemade (so it has no sugar) muesli, which includes some date pieces and also some puffed wheat, both of which add some sweetness (even though the puffed wheat has no sugar). And finally, fruit -- bananas do wonders, and apples work well as well. If you add frozen blueberries and/or raspberries, it helps keep your yogurt cold, but you will want to add some honey with them because they themselves are tart.

    And of course, with time, you get used to it and your sweet tooth diminishes.

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