Day 6- Settling into routine

I did a lot better on day 6 than the last 2 days, eating at least something at each mealtime and even fitting in a snack. I think I have now arrived at the point in every diet where the dieter develops a regimen of fallback foods that fit the diet and are delicious, but aren't varied. I know there are virtually unlimited combinations of marinades, cooking methods, and ingredients available to me on this diet, and I am mostly falling back on three particular proteins as vessels for different flavors; chicken, turkey, and eggs. These are, obviously, the least expensive animal proteins available and conveniently some of the leanest ones. The great thing about eggs is that there are so many different things you can call something that is essentially the same dish, your diet can look varied to onlookers even when you do fall into a rut; Scrambled, Pan-Scrambled, Omelet, Frittata, Egg Stir-Fry; Fried Eggs, Over-Easy, Over-Medium, Over-Hard; then there are Poached, Boiled and Baked. So somedays I'll make my scrambled eggs with turkey or ham frittata style, adding the turkey when the eggs are almost totally cooked, and flipping the whole mass over for a few seconds before flipping it back onto the plate, turkey side up. Other days I'll add the toppings a little sooner and eventually fold the whole thing in half into a lovely omelet, but it has no textural of flavor difference from the frittata. Anyway, I will work on adding some excitement to my diet, in the meantime here is the Day 6 Menu:

Breakfast: Red Delicious Apple (which lived up to its name completely)

Snack: Half of a banana

Lunch: Two grilled chicken breasts from some chicken restaurant near my mom's work, with a side of baked sweet potato (plain) and mashed butternut squash (also plain)

Dinner: A fat turkey sandwich from Panera sans bread, sauce, cheese, or chips on the side. (but with lots of tomato and romaine lettuce)

I am seriously looking forward to day 8 when I will start allowing myself a small amount of vinegar to cook and dress my food with- of all lemon juice can compensate for the missing ZIP in a dish, but I have not found anything on paleo that makes up for the TANG that vinegar adds.

By the way, anyone who is missing things like ketchup, mustard (if you aren't doing vinegar), relish and salad dressings, I highly recommend you experiment with replacing those condiments with different types of salsa- you can find flavors that range from sweet to hot, smoky to essentially tomato juice, crunchy and chunky to pureed and smooth. Just be sure to check the labels, many sauces have hidden ingredients like dairy and soy. The great thing about salsa though is that anyone with a blender, food processor, or a strong arm can make their own and know exactly what went into it! BEWARE sauces that are in principle innocent, such as pestos: they are not cream sauces, but CHECK THE LABEL; most store-bought pestos contain quite a bit of parmesan and other cheeses. Pestos are incredibly easy to make and I plan to post some scratch recipes on this blog in the near future, but in the meantime, if you feel your sauce will be too oily or herbal without the parmesan, add some artichoke to the recipe: it will add a surprising element of creaminess and another dimension to the flavor.