Sunday, January 11, 2009

Salad Days

Today was a work day for both me and Nate -- him officially and me unofficially. While Nate toiled at Whole Foods, I have been sitting in the couch writing stories for work -- Nate benefits from getting to be around coworkers and being officially paid for the day, but I get to have "The Empire Strikes Back" on as I write. Decide for yourself who wins in this scenario.

Anyhow, since Nate was away, making dinner for myself fell to, well, me. I had a few parameters:

1) It's incredibly cold in our apartment today, so I wanted something warm
2) We had delicious leftovers in the fridge that it would be a shame to waste
3) As has been the quest lately, I wanted something filling and delicious that would come in under 500 calories.



What I decided on met, more or less, all three. Using greens from the share as a base, I made a standard salad by adding chopped red onion, sliced celery, diced pecans and half of an apple from the share. I warmed up some of the blue potatoes from yesterday, as well as the remaining slices of pork, and put them on the salad. I also made a dressing for the salad with some of the plain yogurt, lemon juice, horseradish, a splash of hot sauce, a sprinkling of sugar and salt and pepper, along with a drizzle of olive oil. That, along with a sprinkling of some of the cheddar, made for a pretty good warm winter salad that was satisfying (at least so far, but it's only been 15 minutes or so), leftover-intensive, and, if my calculations are correct, a shade under 400 calories. Now, if the salad also put away the supplies used to make it and did the dishes it was made on, that would be the greatest ever. But you can't have everything!

5 comments:

caolan said...

These 400-calorie dinners are pretty intense! Are you guys trying to eat under 1,000 calories a day? Or are breakfast & lunch kind of hearty?

Jen said...

Oh, Nate is doing whatever he wants! But since I am completely, horrifyingly sedentary until I get some answers about my knee, I am trying to keep my daily caloric intake to 1300 a day. (I also must appease my lipid doctor, who wants to see my levels come down a little further! So I'm attempting to kill two birds with one low-cal, high-fiber stone.) The limit actually allows for fairly balanced and nutritious breakfasts and lunches, and one smallish snack in the pm. I could probably have a bigger dinner if I didn't find it absolutely essential to leave some calories at the end of the day for a chocolate-covered cherry, a glass of wine most nights and, when possible, some pre-bed yogurt. But needs are needs!

caolan said...

No, 1300 calories is normal! I was thinking you guys were going for, like, 900-calorie days and I was worried you would die.

caolan said...

But then again, you could be those weird super-low calorie guys who are eating carefully-balanced nutritional starvation diets and plan to live to be 200! I would probably think you were weird in that case, but you'd be laughing all the way to 2180!

Unknown said...

Sadly I think you mostly grumble, whine, and wheeze your way into 2180. I don't know if I'd want to live that long being constantly starving!