All-In 2016: #24DC Day Five/Six/Seven/Eight

I've browsed around the All-In group over the past few days and read a lot of comments from people complaining about not losing weight on the Cleanse portion.

This is my third cleanse, and given that I lost 12 pounds on my first one and just one pound on my second, I can at least feign some expertise in experiencing both emotions that typically pop up around this point in the 24DC, so here's a few things you (myself included) should keep in mind:

1. Think about where you started.  Before starting the cleanse, how much water did you drink?  How much fiber did you manage?  What were your eating habits like?  How were your energy levels?  How much of your diet featured processed foods?  The primary goal of the cleanse is to give your innards a fresh start after months or years of bad habits built up inside of it, not to shed weight.  And, although that's often a side effect, it's not the most important side effect, by a long stretch.
2. Think about everything else the cleanse gives you.  De-toxifying, restoration via probiotics, cleansing via fiber, the right amount of water.  If you're following the plan, you're giving your body a chance to start over, and Rome wasn't built in a day (I like that idiom because I like the idea that our bodies are empires).
3. The Challenge is just the start.  How much weight can one person possibly lose in 24 days?  Even 30 pounds (without sacrificing muscle) seems very aggressive.  If the Cleanse phase is rebuilding your empire, the Max phase is installing a functioning government, adding some infantry to the army, keeping your civilians happy, and re-positioning yourself as a global force.  You're going from Nero to Caesar, and Caesar's in it for the long haul, not just for a few weeks.  
4. Have faith.  There's a reason your coach tells you not to weigh in until Day 10...there's a lot of crazy stuff going on inside your body right now, and it takes time for all your systems to get simpatico and work together.  

Onwards and upwards!

The weekend was lost to my daughter's birthday, so let's just pretend I took some nice pictures of food and found some stupid pictures to add to the top of the post and we'll start with Day Eight.

Breakfast was the ol' Avocado Toast standby, using Eureka "Seeds the Day" (CLEVER) bread, which I adore because it's a) organic, b) chock full of seeds, and c) vegan. Plus it gets just the right amount of burnt in the toaster.

I got a new packet of recipes from Happy Herbivore on Friday, which means Sunday was largely spent making a billion meals (I'm exaggerating, it was seven) ahead of time, including today's lunch:

Spanish Chickpea Stew!

Software:

2/3 c dry couscous

1/2 small red onion

2 tsp minced garlic

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 red bell pepper

14 oz can diced tomatoes

3/4 c chickpeas, drained and rinsed

6 oz fresh spinach

Code:

1. Mix 1 cup of hot water with couscous in a small bowl, set aside to absorb
2. In a large pot lined with water, saute onion and garlic until onion is translucent
3. Add spices and stir to combine (add a bit more water if things get sticky)
4. Add bell peppers and cook to soften slightly, about 1 minute.
5. Add tomatoes, cover, and simmer until peppers are very soft, about 5-10 minutes.  Add more water if things seem dry.
6. Use an immersion blender to roughly pulverize peppers and onions (or you can use a blender)
7. Add chickpeas, cover and cook for another 2-3 minutes
8. Turn off heat, uncover, and add spinach, stirring until the spinach wilts
9. Serve over fluffed couscous (top with hot sauce if you want a little bit more punch)

Serves two!

After a rousing afternoon of 120-minute-long conference calls and scrambling to finish a payment file, I was torn between "should I just reheat one of the meals I made yesterday?" and "should I make something from scratch?" with a smattering of "should I take a nap while I think things over?"

The middle one won.  One won.  English, man.

HH calls this "Maui Luau BBQ Tacos".  I don't like non-descriptive names, so I went with...

BBQ Cauliflower Tacos with Pineapple Salsa!

Software:

3 cups cauliflower florets (about 11 oz)

1/2 cup bbq sauce

6 corn tortillas (not recommended, I'll explain later)

1 cup shredded cabbage

4 oz guacamole

4 oz pineapple chunks

1/4 medium red onion, diced

1 lime

cilantro

Code:

1. Line a large pot with 1/4 c water and steam cauliflower until tender and water has cooked off
2. Mash cauliflower with a potato masher (or whatever gets you little bits of cauliflower)
3. Stir in BBQ sauce and cook on low for 5-10 minutes until sauce has reduced/thickened
4. In a small bowl, mix the pineapple, diced onion, lime juice, and cilantro.
5. Layer each tortilla with cabbage, then cauliflower, salsa, and top with guacamole.

Serves two!  In hindsight I think you'd want to go with either a flour tortilla (which is more robust than its corn counterpart), or use corn tostadas and layer everything like a cake.  The sauce seeped into the tortilla immediately and left me with a very messy (although still tasty) meal.

Today's Final:

Calories: 1657

Carbs: 273

Fat: 44

Protein: 54

Sodium: 605

Sugar: 71

Steps: 9,568 (and counting, hooray for laundry day!)

All-In 2016: #24DC Day Four

Just a reminder to you lovely folks...or rather a reminder to your lovely stomachs.

Too hectic yesterday for recipes or pics.  Onwards and upwards!

All-In 2016: #24DC Day Three

It's a day of reruns, food wise, so for my benefit and yours this will be a relatively short post.

But, breakfast features a new player: Chia Pudding!

Two things I'll say about Chia Pudding:

1. It's an acquired taste.  Chia seeds, on their own, are basically poppy seedlike in texture and taste, which is to say that they taste like just about nothing.  But! Soak them in liquid overnight and the seeds expand and soften and you're left with this gelatinous mixture that's half pudding, half soggy cereal.  At it's most basic level, chia pudding is slow-moving milk.

2. That said, your customization options are nearly endless.  Add oats, flax seed, nuts, berries, peanut butter, chocolate, nutella (if you aren't cleansing).  Use chocolate almond milk, or cashew milk, or coconut milk...or even regular milk, or water, if you're a soulless robot with no sense of taste.  Really, whatever you're jonesing for.

The very basic recipe is incredibly simple.  This serves one huge appetite, or two slightly more normal ones.  Are you ready?  Make sure you write this down so you don't forget:

Software:

1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk

1/4 cup chia seeds

1-3 tsp sweetener (agave, honey, liquid stevia)

Code:

Add everything to a bowl, mix thoroughly with a whisk.  Cover and refrigerate, stirring again after 30 minutes to ensure even distribution.  Leave in the fridge overnight.

The sweetener is optional, but I find that even if I add some fruit or peanut butter to the mix it still needs a little bit of honey or agave to make my taste buds sing (not literally).  In today's breakfast I mixed the chia and milk with two servings of PB2 and topped it with honey and cherries and...wow...wish I could have it for lunch.

The Final Score:

• Calories: 1806
• Carbs: 238
• Fat: 68
• Protein: 58
• Sodium: 988
• Water: 120oz
• Steps: 5489 (womp womp)

All-In 2016: #24DC Day Two

Coughing counts as exercise, yes?

The funny thing about chest colds is how much worse you sound as the cold improves.  As everything gets more productive (from a "blasting disgusting stuff out of my lungs" goes, not from an efficiency or work standpoint), I tend to cough roughly once every four nanoseconds.  On the plus side I was able to spend most of a conference call on mute while I hacked up a lung.  On the down side I wasn't able to finish a rant to my manager before completely losing my voice.  I hope it sounded like I was about to cry.

Breakfast:

I finally made my Oh She Glows Oatmeal!  

Recipe is here, since I didn't change a thing.  I went with some dried and unsweetened bing cherries from Trader Joe's as my topping, which probably pushed the calories a bit overboard (469 calories, with 120 of that coming from the cherries).  What I love about this oatmeal is you put everything together the night before, and then in the morning just zap it in the microwave or heat it up on the stove for a few minutes.  Way better than instant, and takes pretty much the same amount of time in the morning as instant.

Tomorrow I'm going to give chia pudding a shot, with my own little twist...since I have about five hundred pounds of chia seeds knocking around my pantry.  They're fascinating little buggers.

Lunch:
Lunch was...mediocre.  I've used this recipe before while camping, but I think this time I overdid it with the ketchup and mustard, which really turned the "burgers" into "mushy globs of not-very-pretty beans and oats".

Quick Burgers (here on a 100 calorie sandwich thin with ketchup and hot sauce)

Software:

15oz can of black beans (drained and rinsed)

2 tbsp ketchup (I eyeballed this...probably a mistake)

1 tbsp yellow mustard (ditto)

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 c instant oats (I only had old fashioned on hand)

Code:

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Mash black beans with a potato masher thoroughly.  A few stragglers of intact beans are fine.
3. Stir in condiments and spices
4. Add oats and use your hands to mush everything together, forming four patties about 1/2 inch thick.
5. Place on parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, flipping once, until crisp

Serves Four!  I'd recommend trying this with instant to see if it better incorporates with the bean mixture.  I've seen variants that add chili powder or hot sauce to heat things up a bit as well.

Snacks:
I'll spare y'all repeats...I mean...at some point you take your 50th picture of an orange and wonder what am I doing with my life? But hummus is my friend.  Hummus is always there for me.  Hummus gets me.

Dinner:

The strangest thing just happened.  I made tonight's dinner and, staying true to my hipster tendencies, took a picture of the end result and posted it on Instagram.  Among the likes?  Happy Herbivore...you know...the awesome woman that created the recipe.

So here's to you, Ms. Nixon: Greek Rice Salad!

Software:

2 tbsp pine nuts

1-2 garlic cloves, chopped (I used 2 because...c'mon)

4 sun dried tomatoes, chopped

2 cups baby spinach

2 cups cooked brown rice

3/4 cup chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1/4 cup kalamata olives, sliced

1 1/2 tsp dried oregano

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

Code:

1. Put pine nuts in a small sauce pan over medium heat, tossing occasionally until toasted
2. Soak sun dried tomatoes in 1 cup of hot water, for 10 minutes
3. Pour about 1/4 cup of soaking water into skillet on medium heat
4. Add garlic to skillet and cook for 2-3 minutes
5. Add spinach and toss in skillet until wilted
6. Transfer spinach/garlic mixture to a mixing bowl
7. Add rice, olives, chickpeas, tomatoes, oregano, and vinegar, toss thoroughly
8. Top with toasted pine nuts

Serves two!

The Final Score:

• Calories: 1910
• Carbs: 309
• Fat: 50
• Protein: 64
• Sodium: 1325
• Water: 104 oz
• Steps: 8500

All-In 2016: #24DC Day One

I spent all of last week looking forward to today.  I'm not joking.  Early in the week I hunted down cleanse-friendly (and, not-so-coincidentally, vegan) recipes for lunch and dinner, and I rediscovered my favorite non-shake breakfast: overnight oatmeal from Oh She Glows (recipe/pics will come when I actually make it).  I sorted out the supplements by phase and organized everything on top of the microwave, and wrote out my grocery list.  I plotted out the next month of workouts (alternating lifting and cardio), and printed everything to put on a clipboard I carry around with me constantly.

Then I got sick.  Not like Swine Flu sick (that's a story for a later time, if you ever want to hear about That Time Tim Almost Died From the Flu), but sick enough that I left work early and spent most of the weekend overdosing on Tylenol Severe Cold and puffing on Albuterol while binge-watching Top Gear on Netflix.  By Sunday the combination of cabin fever and feeling-sorry-for-myself-ism urged me to at least head to the grocery store and feign a sense of preparedness.

The end result of my Day One, after my haphazard preparations over the weekend: totally nailed it...somehow.

Breakfast:
In the past I've always used Advocare's Meal Replacement Shakes during the cleanse.  I've liked every flavor I've tried so far, and it's a crazy easy way to start off the day with carbs and protein and healthy stuff.

That said, here's what I ate on Day One:

I was wondering if I should caption this, or let the audience wonder.  Did he sneeze on a bagel? Is peanut butter not photogenic?  Relax, relax.  It's a 100 calorie container of guacamole spread out on a 100 calorie multigrain sandwich thin.  Lacking a bit in the protein department, but a good way to pick up some "good" fats and complex carbs without breaking the calorie bank.  In hindsight I would've added an egg or two for a protein boost.

Lunch:

It wouldn't be an All-In blog without a recipe, right?

Mexicali Couscous!

Software:

1 small onion, diced

2 tsp taco seasoning

1/2 cup dry couscous

3/4 cup salsa verde (or whatever salsa you have around)

3/4 c vegetable broth

3/4 c black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 cup corn (thawed)

Code:

1. Saute onion in a bit of vegetable broth until translucent
2. Add taco seasoning and stir to coat
3. Add couscous and mix in well with the onion/seasoning, cook for about 1 minute
4. Add salsa, broth, beans, and corn, stirring well
5. Cover and reduce heat to low
6. Cook until the liquid has absorbed (took mine about 15 minutes)

Serves Two! I had mine with (surprise) guacamole and a side of broccoli.

Snacks:

While I don't typically trust fruit bars, given the tendency to pile on unnecessary sugar or preservatives, I totally dig Trader Joe's fruit bars, since the ingredients on the label match, verbatim, the name of the bar.  Below you'll see my afternoon pick-me-up: a clementine with 1 oz of raw cashews.  I don't eat fruit with any meal, really, so you'll probably see a lot of fruit-heavy snacks on here.

Dinner:

Happy Herbivore's specialty is to create comfort food with the absence of meat, dairy, and added oil.  I actually bought her first book based on a vegan egg salad I ran across, made, and decided it actually tastes better than the real deal.  Rarely does she miss the mark, and tonight is no exception.  I like these sorts of meals for dinner because I don't mind spending 30 minutes preparing something tasty, and despite the decadence of having TWO dipping sauces and "french fries", this meal clocks in at just over 400 calories, with 26g of protein and just 5g of fat.

Buffalo Bomber Fries!

Software:

1 large potato, cut into fries

2 celery ribs, diced

1/4 c Frank's hot sauce

1/2 c almond milk

2 1/2 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 1/2 tbsp flour

1 tsp onion powder, divided

1/2 tsp garlic powder, divided

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp chili powder

3 oz vegan sour cream

1/2 tsp dried dill

Code:

1. Preheat oven to 425
2. Soak fries in water for 5-10 minutes
3. Drain, shake excess water off, and arrange in a single layer on parchment-lined cookie sheet
4. Bake for 10 minutes, flip each fry over, and bake for another 10 minutes.
5. While fries are baking, saute celery in 1/4 water or veg broth until tender
6. Add hot sauce, stir, and reduce heat to low until sauce reduces slightly
7. Whisk almond milk, nutritional yeast, flour, half the onion powder, half the garlic powder, cumin, paprika, and chili powder in a saucepan over medium heat.
8. Bring to a boil, stirring often, then set aside when thick (like a dip consistency)
9. Combine sour cream with remaining spices, store in fridge until fries are done.
10. When fries are ready, take out and put them in a mixing bowl.  Pour in the hot sauce mixture and toss to coat.
11. Serve with "queso" and ranch dip.

Serves One!  You can make the queso and ranch dip ahead of time, but the twenty minutes of baking usually gives me plenty of time to put the rest together.

Note: While I'm never one to advocate adding oil to ANYTHING, I think maybe some spray oil to coat the potatoes would add a lot to this dish.  The potatoes came out crispy but missing that charred layer of deliciousness.

Dessert:

Brown rice rice cakes are boring.  Brown rice rice cakes are slightly less boring with a few tablespoons of reconstituted PB2.

The Final Score:

• Calories: 1632
• Carbs: 269g
• Fat: 39g
• Protein: 68g
• Sodium: 560mg
• Sugar: 62g
• Water: 120oz
• Steps: 8529

All in all, a good start.  Looking forward to knocking out this cold and heading back to the gym sometime this week, though.

All-In-2016: BBQ Bean Stew (Vegan-ish)

While my mini-rant yesterday over is-honey-vegan is an oft-discussed topic among the vegan community (I assume...we're not Masons so we don't congregate regularly), I feel a bit sheepish to say that today's entry is also Vegan-ish, but definitely much more black-and-white.

That's because Worchestershire Sauce is chock full of fish..

That stuff you're using to marinate your steak or to add some flavor to your meatloaf?  It's basically pickled anchovies.  SORRY!  There are vegan alternatives to Worchestershire, both homemade and in the grocery store, but laziness occasionally gets the best of me, and I'm left with something that would be vegan except for the stuff that's definitely not vegan.  Which is like saying "I don't smoke, except for cigarettes."

Anyway, if you're going vegan, either omit the Worchestershire, substitute (browning sauce is vegan), or replace with a fish-free alternative.

Onwards, to BBQ Bean Stew!

The beans would like to apologize for not being particularly photogenic.

Software:

1 small onion, diced

15-oz can cannelini beans (or kidney beans, or black beans...whatever's in your pantry, really)

14-oz can diced tomatoes

1/2 c barbecue sauce

1 1/2 tsp molasses (do NOT buy blackstrap...if you don't have this use an equal amount of brown sugar)

1 1/2 tsp Worchestershire sauce

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp chipotle chili powder

Code:

1. In a medium pot, saute onion in a thin layer of broth or water (this is a common process for this chef -- "frying" vegetables in broth -- really reduces the fat from any oils and doesn't take away from the flavor.
2. Once translucent, add beans (undrained), tomatoes, and spices.  Mix thoroughly.
3. Simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes (I did this to thicken things a bit, feel free to cover it if the consistency is to your liking)

Serves two!  Try it poured over a baked potato, or just do like I did and eat it out of an orange fiestaware bowl, hoping to god you don't spill some on your clean shirt.

All-In-2016: Chinese Crunch Salad (Vegan-ish)

I am both slightly chagrined and slightly amused at the public outcry of some vegans over consuming honey.  Yes, an animal creates it, but do you know how bees make honey?  You can find the unabridged process here, but I'll spare you some light reading: they suck nectar into their stomachs and then throw it up into another bee's mouth, over and over, until it turns into honey.  In one final purge, they vomit it into honeycombs for storage.

Disgusting?  Sure.  But bees are just doing what they were designed to do.  I disagree with PETA on this one: by and large, even commercialized beekeeping isn't particularly inhumane, except in the most extreme circumstances.  Still, if you're vegan and you feel differently, substitute agave nectar.  But, as it stands, this dish is technically vegan-ISH, thanks to the bee barf.

The last recipe of the day: Chinese Crunch Salad

Software:

3 oz dry pasta (I used some buckwheat soba I had leftover from an earlier recipe)

1 c shredded cabbage (the same stuff I used for my Pad Thai Pizza...Meal Mentor is really big on not wasting ingredients)

3/4 c chickpeas, drained and rinsed (leftover from the Curried Rice Bowl...see what I mean?)

1/2 c sugar snap peas

1/5 c shelled edamame

1 carrot, shredded

1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced

2 green onions, chopped

4 tsp honey/agave

1 tbsp rice vinegar

1 1/2 tsp soy sauce/tamari

1 1/2 tsp lime juice

1/2 tsp ground ginger

(Note: the last five ingredients are for the dressing.  I don't usually use exact measurements and just go by taste.  Feel free to experiment.  Also, fresh ginger works very well instead of the powdered stuff)

Code:

1. Cook pasta in a small pot.
2. While pasta is cooking, zap the snap peas and edamame in the microwave, just to thaw).
3. Whisk together dressing ingredients (honey/agave, vinegar, soy sauce/tamari, lime juice, ginger) in a small bowl.
4. Toss carrot, cabbage, chickpeas, snap peas, and edamame in a large bowl.
5. When pasta finishes, drain and rinse thoroughly under cold water, then add to the bowl.
6. Toss all the ingredients together (kitchen tongs work best to get everything distributed).  Pour dressing over and toss again.

Serves Two!  This can also be made ahead and stored in the fridge for up to a week.  I had mine for lunch today with half of a pita bread, just to make it as ethnically obscure as possible.

All-In-2016: Pad Thai Pizza (Vegan)

One more since I'm about to spend the next 30 minutes at work just copying huge files from one place to another.

Pad Thai Pizza!

Software:
2 tsp peanut butter
6 tbsp hummus
1 tsp lime juice
1/2 tsp sriracha + extra to drizzle
1 pita
1 cup angel hair cabbage (like the stuff Primanti's uses on their ridiculous sandwiches)
1 shredded carrot (I just used a vegetable peeler)
1 green onion, chopped


Code:

1. In a small bowl, zap the PB in the microwave for 20-30 seconds, until runny (this will make it way easier to whisk)
2. Add hummus, lime juice, and sriracha and whisk until smooth
3. Toast pita slightly on skillet, flip once so it's warm on both sides.
4. Move to  plate, spread hummus mixture on pita and top with cabbage, carrots, onions, and sriracha to taste.
5. Use a pizza cutter to break into four sections (or fold it up and eat it like a sandwich, you neanderthal)

All-In-2016: Curried Rice Bowl (Vegan)

After a moderately thorough Google search copyright laws, I decided that I probably won't go to jail if I post recipes on my blog.  I was concerned because my vegan recipes are almost always courtesy of Happy Herbivore's Meal Mentor: a paid subscription service that doles out a week's worth of recipes at a time for $7.00/week (or you can buy a year subscription at a discount, which is what I did).  But, apparently ingredients and instructions are not subject to copyright law (though I tend to slightly modify both anyway).

SO!  Long explanation aside, here's what I ate for lunch yesterday, The Curried Rice Bowl:

Software:

1/2 cup uncooked wild rice

1 cup vegetable broth

2 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1 tsp chili powder (or less to taste)

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp tumeric (adds the yellow tinge typical to Indian cuisine)

2 tsp tomato sauce (I just swiped some from a jar of spaghetti sauce)

1 c frozen stir-fry vegetables (thawed)

3/4 c canned chickpeas

1/2 bag baby spinach

2 tbsp roasted cashews

Code:

1. Add rice, broth, and all spices to a medium saucepan
2. Cover and boil, reducing heat to low and simmering for 30-40 minutes (or until rice is cooked)
3. While rice is cooking, in a separate pan, pour a thin layer of broth, and add baby spinach, heat to medium and cook as desired (I let mine wilt a lot but not so much that it turned to mush)
4. After rice finishes, add the tomato sauce and stir in the thawed stir-fry veggies and chickpeas
5. Layer the spinach on the bottom of the plate, scoop rice/vegetable mix on top
6. Sprinkle with crushed cashews.

This serves two, but you can make a batch and store it for up to a week in the fridge.

#6: Olé!

Despite Neil deGrasse Tyson's annual reminders that January 1st is a completely arbitrary moment in time (we wouldn't have this sense of endings and beginnings if we had a calendar that ran on continuously, although it would probably be cumbersome to remember the date if it was something like "4,543,588,234 days since the beginning of time"), I've been bred with the tendency to write New Year's resolutions.  Actually, I just like lists.  Notebooks litter my house like some weird nerd frat party, although most of them only have one or two pages filled in.  Knowing that I have anywhere from ten to thirty notebooks/notepads/post-it notes/scrolls/etch-a-sketches in my possession, I still tend to run around the house on a frantic man-hunt for a notebook every time I go grocery shopping.  And pens, which are everywhere, but nowhere.  Pens disappear from this house like socks in the dryer.

I also just turned 36 (hold for applause), so maybe The Case of the Missing Ballpoints is really just the first glimpse of my eventual dementia.

While I'm sure my goal for the next 366 days (leap year holllaaaaa) will bleed into these posts, I typically play things close to the vest, mostly to avoid the inherent shame of declaring that THIS YEAR I'M GOING TO TRAIN MONKEYS TO CREATE A TO-SCALE REPLICA OF MANHATTAN and by the end of the year I've only managed to train one monkey, and his shoddy Rockefeller Center will never stand in even a light breeze.  

I, like most humans who have ever been in a relationship, prefer actions over words.

This is why I feel relatively comfortable in revealing that one of my resolutions is to make my family Sunday dinner every week this year.

Living in a house with a) a daughter that claims she'll eat anything but has been known to deconstruct sandwiches because "I just felt like eating cheese and mayo", b) two parents that are basically paleo but more restrictive...kind of like cavemen who didn't farm but looted the same village over and over again ("shit, MORE sweet potatoes?"), and c) me, who hovers between vegetarian and vegan with the occasional smattering of seafood (smaller carbon footprint, often wild-caught, other hippie excuses) makes it difficult to create a meal that would satisfy everyone's personal preferences.

Still, there's plenty of rewards and very little risk.  Having an interesting meal every Sunday creates some anticipation to get me through a week's worth of less-inspired fare.  It's easier to eat Salad #10 on Saturday if I know Sunday is going to be something more flavorful.  And, when I cook, my daughter always gets involved.  Sometimes she's helpful: measuring out spices, stirring every few minutes, etc.  Sometimes she'll pretend she owns a restaurant and create a menu, and table setting, and light some candles.  I'm not saying this isn't helpful, too...but one time she did "fire" me after I forgot to make dessert.

And, more than anything, I like to cook.  It's cathartic.  It's fun.  I feel slightly more accomplished when I eat a meal that I've also prepared.  And it's always, always, always, always cheaper than something you'd order in a restaurant, that may or may not have been pre-cooked and flash-frozen (I'm about 75% sure Chili's kitchen is just one huge microwave).  

This week I figured the drop in temperature demanded something warm and spicy, and after typing "warm and spicy" into Google and avoiding all the porn sites, I discovered Caldo de Camarón: a Mexican soup with shrimp.  To turn it into a meal I'm adding my take on elote (corn on the cob done all "Mexican street food" style...except mine's without the cob), recipe co-opted from here, and some refried beans.  

One quick note on the recipe: what in the hell is a chayote?  Wikipedia says that it's basically a Costa Rican squash.  According to the produce clerks at Market District, it's a "we don't sell...what did you call them?  Chay-oties? Yeah, no."  I decided that a squash is a squash and substituted zucchini, since it's also green with a fairly exotic (albeit more familiar) name.

I'll spare yinz the making-of photos, since you've already had to endure several hundred lines of rambling, but here's the input/output.

Here's the before (minus the corn ingredients):

And the after.  The entire house smells like ancho peppers...or what I'm now calling Mexican potpourri:

One down, 51 to go!