Monday, January 22, 2007

Cravings

It's cold, cold, cold, snowy and cold out, so of course I packed a cold lunch for myself. Nonetheless, it's something I've been craving since December--cucumber sandwiches. Because my starches are so restricted since the surgery, I had resigned myself to no more sandwiches of any type. Then I discovered that at least one grocery store near me carried loaves of that itty-bitty "cocktail bread" I thought had gone out of culinary fashion in the 1970s. So I snagged a loaf, and found that on one of those little slices of bread I can fit three or four cucumber slices and half an ounce of cream cheese. Voilá, cream cheese sandwiches for lunch!

On Friday, I caved to the craving for chili cheese fries from the diner downstairs. As I picked through the disgustingly generous portion (seriously--about four meals' worth of food for someone on a 2K calorie diet), I realized that what I was really craving was the chili, not the fries. So tonight on my way home, I stopped and bought the smallest amount of ground sirloin I could (a pound & half), plus tomato sauce, and there's a huge pot of chili simmering on the stove right now. I'm going to be freezing a lot of it, and eating the rest for dinner every night this week, but it's so worth it when it's snowing outside. The house smells warm and delicious, and I'm rather pleased with myself for craving the spices and not the carbs. Oh, and despite growing up with stern admonitions from my mother not to waste food, the remainder of the fries from Friday's lunch wound up on the compost heap. Better fat raccoons than a nauseous me.

5 comments:

Imp said...

Fries are just carriers for the good stuff (cheese, bacon, salt). Most starches are just carriers. Nobody wants them in isolation (potatoes, pastas).

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I'm the weirdo who grew up eating raw slices of potato. Then again, that's both Hillbilly and Irish.

And I'm making potato soup again this week ;)

Anonymous said...

Ok see - this is the thing that completely fascinates me about you. There are not many people I know who can do from cucumber and creme cheese sandwhiches to chilli cheese fries and then just chilli in the space of the same day.

(Although one time i did eat waffles and syrup for dinner and then had a spam sandwhich later on that night.)

Jay said...

Alessia is just a carb-hater... which worked for her so I'm not going to say anything against it other than, not all eating habits work for all people. Personally, I like my pasta and a good bread or potato with little to nothing on it. A pasta with only a touch of olive oil, salt & pepper, possibly with a hint of garlic, is fabulous. Potatoes with nothing but a bit of butter are divine. Fresh baked bread, just ripped open and eaten is as close to heaven for me as one can get through eating!

All that aside, however, because one also must only eat what their bodies tell them is okay... and I applaud Jammies for recognizing the signals and not eating something simply because it was what she bought! *GO GIRL*

Anonymous said...

Mmmm. Chili.

I feasted on it tonight.

Great minds think alike.

Rob