Lettuce-less

We've invented a new type of salad here - the 'lettuce-less' salad. I have had one of these amazing creations for dinner the past few nights. Just veggies. Loaded with garbanzo beans, kidney beans, green beans, steamed (chilled) beets and carrots fresh from the farm crop we pick up every weekend. A sprinkle of seasoned croutons, some Johnny's Ranch dressing and WOW, what a great meal! I am full and satisfied and not in the slightest tempted by the other things around to eat - things that are loaded with carbs and I'm trying to avoid like the plague. Tonight, we heated up leftover pasta alfredo for the kids - and I'm completely full from my salad and have no interest in the cheesy, gooey, pasta-filled dish.

I make it through the day with a 1/2 cup of Cheerios for breakfast - two Splendas and a little fat free milk. It's a splurge, sort of 'cuz I usually have just a Medifast shake when I get to my desk. But when I get up really early, and I'm hungry, I give myself a little carb jump start with Cheerios. And then Medifast shakes throughout the day. Home around 6 this evening (11 hour day - 20 minute lunch) and made myself a huge salad. And savored every delicious bite!

Lettuce never keeps long enough for us to use it all up. Not to mention that J. likes iceberg, which is just water - no nutrition whatsoever. I like the 'greens' from Costco, but they never keep very long. So lettuce-less is the best way to go. And I don't mind a bit just eating salad for dinner as long as there are a few croutons floating around to give me a bit of crunch.

I'm really enjoying the farm-fresh produce. It's so interesting to be reminded that things don't grow the way they look in the grocery store. The carrots we have are bent in strange shapes, sometimes. And they aren't uniform in size, nor color. They aren't nearly as 'perfect' as the ones you buy at the grocery store. And yet, they are so much better! The taste really comes through. Delicious! And beets! I could go on and on about the beets. J. has always loved beets on his salad - but he gets the picked beets in the can. The beets we've been putting in our salad are farm-fresh, peeled, sliced and steamed. They take a long time to steam - far longer than I imagined. And then we put them in the fridge and chop them up just slightly - and include them in our salads. They are fabulous! especially because there's no pickled vinegary taste to hide the flavor of the beet. Just slightly sweet, and filling. LOVE THEM and can't get enough! There are lots of other interesting veggies to try - and I need to find some creative uses for onions 'cuz we get some every week and we don't use them much. J. doesn't like them - never has, never will. So they don't get used much. We're going to decrease our order to a 1/2 order which will help - the boys aren't eating many of the veggies (big surprise, right?) so we have way too much to use in just a week.

Tomorrow is the first day of school for the boys. Today was the first day of school for the district I work in. Tonight will be a flurry of readying backpacks, binders, etc. Organizing the school supplies we purchased on Sunday. And then making vain attempts to get the kids in bed and asleep by 10. They've been night-owls all summer so it's not likely they'll get to sleep early - but we're setting the expectations and we'll see how it goes. J. thankfully decided to work at home tomorrow so he can be here for the AM routine. Which I really think is his nice way of saying (without words) 'you go ahead and get up early and get the heck out of here so you won't have to be stressed out about them getting off to school'. I'll oblige him. I'm stressed out about a lot of things and will happily pass on the angst that will arise in this house tomorrow morning when the alarms start going off, and kids get snippy with each other about being ready or not.

You know it's busy when you have to think of a reason to go to the grocery store so you can see your eldest son - while he works. And you find yourself a little irritated at the person requiring his assistance - a handicapped person who certainly needed more help out to the car than I did. But gosh darn it! I hadn't seen him in days! it seems. But he's doing a good job! And I'm proud of him. But his schedule is jammed between work, social life, etc. And tomorrow, we add school in the mix - I probably won't see him until winter break!

We're out of beets for tomorrow's salad so I need to head into the kitchen for some peeling, slicing and cooking.