What did you eat today?

[Catrin]

B: chicken salad made from 1 chicken thigh with a boiled egg and a few veggies
1-hour group session (quite different today!)
L: scrambled eggs with baby kale, 1 slice fresh side-pork, coffee with cream
S: a couple of meatballs - just testing them as I cooked them
D: chili over spaghetti squash

I am headed to a friends house to watch at least the first half of the Super Bowl. I am taking Czech meatballs (from Well Fed), and I KNOW there will be things there that I don't eat. It seemed good to eat first.

For those who just bought the Well Fed cookbook, I made both the Czech meatballs and the Citrus Carnitas and both are AWESOME!

[Owlie]

Catrin, I have to ask: If you need a neutral-flavored cooking oil, what do you use? Canola or peanut are the only two that I can think of, and peanut is probably out, and apparently canola is too (too processed? wrong mix of fats? sticking it to the big-agribusiness man? ). Coconut oil certainly isn't neutral-flavored, and I can taste ghee.

I'll have to head over to TJ's sometime, then, since we don't have a Whole Foods in Dayton...and never mind the delicious snack food that TJ's has.

[Becky]

Baking my Czech meatballs right now, in preparation for recovery after this: http://trainright.com/2013-cts-super...ainer-workout/

[Crankin]

Coconut oil IS neutral tasting. Really. I use it for all cooking now.

I ended up kind of cheating at dinner tonight, but I'm right back on the bandwagon.
B:endive, stuffed with light veggie cream cheese and pesto, 2 turkey sausages, an orange, coffee,half a cup of almond milk
45 minute minute yoga-spin DVD, included 5X3 increasing endurance intervals
L: low salt turkey breast over sliced tomatoes, sprinkle of cheddar, cup of low salt butternut squash soup, bowl of blueberries
D: went out with DS and DIL and we went to a real neighborhood Italian restaurant in his town. I started with a few olives to avoid the bread. I ordered veal piazziola, which had just the right amount of veal in marina, with pasta. I did have one forkful of the pasta and left the rest. My downfall was ordering vanilla gelato.

[Catrin]

For cooking I use coconut oil (both refined and un-refined. Cold pressed refined coconut oil is fine, and if I don't want any hint of coconut flavor then I will use refined coconut oil. Trader Joe's sells unrefined coconut oil at a lower price than Whole Foods - still not cheap but well worth it. It also has a kind of fat that is good for you (middle-chain triglycederides - MCT) and is hard to get.

Canola is highly refined/processed - probably the most processed out there. Here is a brief summary on Mark's Daily Apple that discusses some of the problems with it.

[Owlie]

I'm starting to feel like a minority in here. Guess what? I eat bread, butter, sugar and canola oil. I don't think coconut oil is a miracle substance. And I damn well enjoy my food and cooking it.

Also, I'm poor. I'll see if I can find some around here. If nothing else, I can cook some more Goan food. Only place that coconut oil makes sense to me. I love coconut, but that flavor doesn't belong in many things.

Anyway:
B: 3 slices bacon, small piece of sourdough toast with butter, tea with half-and-half and sugar
S1 (at work): 4 gummy worms, 2 pretzels. (You'd think that we'd have slightly healthier options at a bike shop...)
S2 (on way to lab): Bag of "potato skin"-flavored chips. Apparently my memory of how these things taste is significantly at odds with how they actually taste.
D: Pasta with a whole can of olive oil-packed tuna, spinach, grape tomatoes and Parmesan. (Also lemon juice, S&P and red pepper flakes.)
Dessert: 2 small cookies (trying to get rid of them!) and a blood orange.

[spokewench]

B: 1 bowl shredded wheat, coffee
Played 2 1/2 hours of tennis from 12-2:30
got home around 3: had a handful of walnuts
Wow, no wonder I was so hungry when I ate dinner!
D: Fajitas grilled sirloin steak slices, sauteed red onions, red and yellow bell peppers, gaucomole, salsa, cheese with beans on the side on a flour tortilla, 1 glass of wine
1/3 slice of tirimisu

[GLC1968]

Ditto Catrin - refined (cold pressed) coconut oil is flavorless (and odorless). The unrefined stuff tastes like coconut and I really only like that flavor in sweet things, so I don't use it much.

I also cook with clarified butter (less flavor than ghee - it tastes like butter), good bacon fat (only from known-source, ethically raised, sugar and nitrate free bacon) and olive oil. Olive oil is fine if you aren't frying in it (ie, not super high heat).

[Catrin]

Ditto Catrin - refined (cold pressed) coconut oil is flavorless (and odorless). The unrefined stuff tastes like coconut and I really only like that flavor in sweet things, so I don't use it much.

I also cook with clarified butter (less flavor than ghee - it tastes like butter), good bacon fat (only from known-source, ethically raised, sugar and nitrate free bacon) and olive oil. Olive oil is fine if you aren't frying in it (ie, not super high heat).

I do use unrefined coconut oil for eggs if I am not using butter or bacon fat (same source as yours) as I like the flavor. I make ghee for myself from grass-fed butter - it is less expensive than the store-bought version and I KNOW what kind of butter was used These days I reserve olive and avocado oil for salads - and I generally use walnut oil for making mayo with. For me olive oil is too strong to make mayonnaise with - at least for me it is. Walnut oil works great in mayo, milder flavor than olive oil, and it is less expensive than avocado oil.

[spokewench]

[QUOTE=Owlie;668563]I'm starting to feel like a minority in here. Guess what? I eat bread, butter, sugar and canola oil. I don't think coconut oil is a miracle substance. And I damn well enjoy my food and cooking it.

Don't fee alone Owlie - there do seem to be quite a few paleo eaters here right now; and of course, gluten free diets as well.

But, I'm not one of them either. I try to eat lots of veges and lean meats, but each sugar and other "bad" things. and, of course, I drink wine and beer and an occasional margarita. I cook most of my own food and dont eat too much in the way of processed foods.

I eat breads (mostly WG), I eat pasta, white rice when I don't have time to cook the brown, etc. I feel healthy, have no adverse effects from wheat so I'm lucky I guess and try to get my nutrients from my food. Of course, I fail some days and then realize I better get some more veges in and fruit.

[Becky]

These days I reserve olive and avocado oil for salads - and I generally use walnut oil for making may with. For me olive oil is too strong to make mayonnaise with - at least for me it is. Walnut oil works great in mayo, milder flavor than olive oil, and it is less expensive than avocado oil.

Have you tried extra light olive oil for mayo? I don't notice the olive taste with it like I do with extra virgin or blended olive oil and it's cheap! I'll have to try walnut oil sometime...that sounds delicious!

[Catrin]

Have you tried extra light olive oil for mayo? I don't notice the olive taste with it like I do with extra virgin or blended olive oil and it's cheap! I'll have to try walnut oil sometime...that sounds delicious!

Yes, but I just don't care for the flavor. Walnut oil is really good for mayo - though I DO add between 1/8-1/4 cup of extra-virgin olive oil - my recipe calls for 1 1/4 cups oil in total. That little touch of the stronger olive oil appears to strike a good balance without the mayo tasting TOO much like walnuts. Avocado oil is nice, but I really prefer walnut oil.

[Catrin]

Today:

B: scrambled eggs with watercress and citrus carnitas coffee with cream
1 hour group training session
L: blue-cheese burger (lettuce wrapped), sliced fruit (staff going-away lunch for a co-worker)
S: couple pieces carnitas and a few slices cucumber
D: sauteed watercress, snow peas, 1 boiled egg and two yummy Czech meatballs

[Crankin]

ate a few almonds before boot camp...
B: 4 oz. almond milk, coffee, egg whites, kale, avocado, 2 slices ham, an orange
L: left over chicken fajitas (chicken, peppers, onions marinated with lemon, cumin, other spices), an apple
S: handful of walnuts
D: home made butternut squash soup and rosemary aoli chicken salad, glass of red wine

[spokewench]

B: shredded wheat and 1% milk, coffee
Snack: banana and peach chobani yogurt
L: turkey and swiss sammy with lettuce and tomato on wheat
D: salad with leftover chicken/beef from fajitas of the night before, vinaigrette dressing, 1 beer