Seitan Restaurant
Day 6
Wieght: 224
Thought for the day: FluidCalories
I was thinking about my daily intake of calories and have been marking them down and noting them for a while now. What I hadn't realized was my consumption of fluid calories was a ridiculous amount. Most of the time I think nothing of it to go and get a cup of tea or coffee or drink some orange juice, a soda or soy milk but those drinks provide a very quick and large calorie intake. In a sample day I would drink a glass of soy milk and water at breakfast, followed by a tea on the bus, a coffee on the way to work, a tea in the morning at work, an americano with the editorial klatch at coffee hour, a tea in the afternoon, and a couple sodas (if we are going out) or orange juice in the evening. And that doesn't even include beer! It amounts to well over 1000 calories when added up! I have since been very careful with my drinking habits. I drink water whenever I feel hungry or thirsty and make sure I have a glass in the morning or before and after working out. Not sure what help it does, but I figure it can't hurt.
Rose and I went our with Lucy and Zach to the vegetarian restaurant Gobo in the evening. It had a nice decor of wooden paneling with some amazing wooden wall hangings. The place was half empty when we arrived but filled up very quickly, a quick glance around and I noted that 75% of the clientele were female ~ there were a few gentlemen scattered about all old enough to be my great uncle. I considered having wine but opted for sparkling water. There was so much on the menu to read it took me ages to decide. I finally settle on: steamed spinach dumplings as an appetizer (this was not the bacteria-ridden type that scared the nation last September), and they were really tasty with the dipping sauce. For the main course I had sweet and sour "Wheat-Meat" or seitan with mixed vegetables.
According to Barbara and Leonard Jacobs in their excellent book Cooking with Seitan, The Complete Vegetarian "Wheat-Meat" Cookbook, "seitan has been a staple food among vegetarian monks of China, Russian wheat farmers, peasants of Southeast Asia, and Mormons. People who had traditionally eaten wheat had also discovered a method to extract the gluten and create a seitan-like product.
I was a little worried with my choice but when it came out and I tried it, it was great. Since it was like a Chinese meal (and since most takeaway's have a poor excuse for meat) it actually tasted more like chicken than the 'chicken' (fill in the blank: pigeon, rat etc) I would usually order at those take out places.
For desert I had pineapple with soy vanilla ice cream, very tasty. My only regret was I the amount of calories I put into my body. Which probably exceeded 1500. Despite eating very little during the day it was still too much.
Sebastian (our cat) hates us. He hasn't had a chance at real meat in over a week. Since the pet food scare we have refrained from buying soft food so all he has is the Science Diet hard food. When we were having black beans on rice a couple of nights ago he was so desperate he jumped up on the table and ran to Rose's plate. He even ate the black bean I gave him. Poor lil fella. I found a pork chop we had forgotten to consume in the fridge and Rose cut it up into tiny pieces for the cats. Sebastian had a healthy serving of his own then pigged out on Ana's when she was done with some to spare. That should hold him over.... oh..... 34 more days. Is that considered animal cruelty?
Wieght: 224
Thought for the day: FluidCalories
I was thinking about my daily intake of calories and have been marking them down and noting them for a while now. What I hadn't realized was my consumption of fluid calories was a ridiculous amount. Most of the time I think nothing of it to go and get a cup of tea or coffee or drink some orange juice, a soda or soy milk but those drinks provide a very quick and large calorie intake. In a sample day I would drink a glass of soy milk and water at breakfast, followed by a tea on the bus, a coffee on the way to work, a tea in the morning at work, an americano with the editorial klatch at coffee hour, a tea in the afternoon, and a couple sodas (if we are going out) or orange juice in the evening. And that doesn't even include beer! It amounts to well over 1000 calories when added up! I have since been very careful with my drinking habits. I drink water whenever I feel hungry or thirsty and make sure I have a glass in the morning or before and after working out. Not sure what help it does, but I figure it can't hurt.
Rose and I went our with Lucy and Zach to the vegetarian restaurant Gobo in the evening. It had a nice decor of wooden paneling with some amazing wooden wall hangings. The place was half empty when we arrived but filled up very quickly, a quick glance around and I noted that 75% of the clientele were female ~ there were a few gentlemen scattered about all old enough to be my great uncle. I considered having wine but opted for sparkling water. There was so much on the menu to read it took me ages to decide. I finally settle on: steamed spinach dumplings as an appetizer (this was not the bacteria-ridden type that scared the nation last September), and they were really tasty with the dipping sauce. For the main course I had sweet and sour "Wheat-Meat" or seitan with mixed vegetables.
According to Barbara and Leonard Jacobs in their excellent book Cooking with Seitan, The Complete Vegetarian "Wheat-Meat" Cookbook, "seitan has been a staple food among vegetarian monks of China, Russian wheat farmers, peasants of Southeast Asia, and Mormons. People who had traditionally eaten wheat had also discovered a method to extract the gluten and create a seitan-like product.
I was a little worried with my choice but when it came out and I tried it, it was great. Since it was like a Chinese meal (and since most takeaway's have a poor excuse for meat) it actually tasted more like chicken than the 'chicken' (fill in the blank: pigeon, rat etc) I would usually order at those take out places.
For desert I had pineapple with soy vanilla ice cream, very tasty. My only regret was I the amount of calories I put into my body. Which probably exceeded 1500. Despite eating very little during the day it was still too much.
Sebastian (our cat) hates us. He hasn't had a chance at real meat in over a week. Since the pet food scare we have refrained from buying soft food so all he has is the Science Diet hard food. When we were having black beans on rice a couple of nights ago he was so desperate he jumped up on the table and ran to Rose's plate. He even ate the black bean I gave him. Poor lil fella. I found a pork chop we had forgotten to consume in the fridge and Rose cut it up into tiny pieces for the cats. Sebastian had a healthy serving of his own then pigged out on Ana's when she was done with some to spare. That should hold him over.... oh..... 34 more days. Is that considered animal cruelty?