Mel's Daily Grub / January 3

8:30 AM -- Breakfast -- An orange that I brought from home with the last packet of hummus at work, plus four stale crackers.  No bad, for a completely unplanned meal.

Lunch never happened.  I had no food plan and didn't want to order another Jimmy John's sandwich. 

7:00 PM -- Dinner -- Personal naan pizza with the last of the jarred alfredo sauce from a few nights ago, five Tobasco-tossed shrimp, and mozzarella cheese.  Tasted outrageous, but I was starving by then and not very picky.

Mel's Daily Grub / January 2

Breakfast -- 8:30 AM at my desk at work -- Fruitcake.  No bread or English muffins at the house.  No time for an egg.  Bad planning.  I ended up grabbing the small tin of fruitcake and bringing it to work to eat with my coffee.  I like fruitcake, but not for breakfast, I guess.  Too sweet.  Intensely spiced--ginger and clove and cinnamon.  Lots of nuts.  Candied fruit.    

Lunch -- 1:00 PM at my desk -- Beach Club (turkey, provolone, veggies, avocado) sandwich from Jimmy John's on whole wheat bread.  And packed with so much lettuce, I had trouble getting it into my mouth!  Ended up deconstructing it, setting the sweet soft commercial bread and overly mayonnaised lettuce aside and just eating the meat, cheese, tomato, cucumber, and avocado spread.

Dinner -- 8:00  PM -- Rerun of Paprikash and Collards.  Enjoyed it.  I had made the paprikash with a mix of hot paprika and smoked paprika, which was great, and the addition of leeks and mushrooms was surprisingly perfect.

I need to create an actual recipe of this version of paprikash, and scale it down to feed just one or two people.  As it is, I've eaten it three times and have at least three, probably four, more servings left.  If it it weren't so deliciously unusual, I'd be tired of it by now.  

Mel's Daily Grub / January 1

New Year's Day 2019

9:00 AM Breakfast -- Blueberry Pound Cake with whipped cream.  I put too many blueberries in the batter, so of course it falls apart when you try to take it out of the pan.  Sad baking failure, but it tastes fine.  There's just too much of it.  It made about 12 servings, and this is only my second serving.

1:30 PM Lunch -- Toasted brie sandwich on Panera's sourdough bread.

9:30 PM Dinner -- Reheated Chicken-Leek-Mushroom Paprikash and spaetzle noodles and Southern-style Collard Greens.

My original plan for New Year's dinner included Hoppin' John, Cornbread, and Cajun spiced Shrimp Scampi, but for whatever reason, I couldn't get inspired to cook.  I made the Collard Greens but didn't make anything else, and in the late of the day, I just warmed up leftovers from a few days earlier.

It was a good meal nonetheless.

Mel's Daily Grub / Introduction

Part of an Edible Arrangement sent to the office in December 2018.

Since Thanksgiving 2018, I've been taking daily photos of the food I eat. Every day. I've been doing this for two reasons: 1) Documenting what I eat seems to keep me from grabbing fast food every chance I get, and 2) taking pictures makes me think about documenting my struggles as a single person trying to eat an interesting and basically healthy diet.

For decades, I cooked fresh food for my family, but now that I'm into my second decade of living alone, with fewer people to cook for and more and more difficulty finding quality ingredients in my food-desert neck of the woods, I've just about given up. Packaging is also a headache, with many things pre-packed for a family of four.  And then there's the problem of appetite.  Unless it's easy and interesting, I've noticed, I have trouble putting down the book or turning off the video stream to walk into the kitchen and rustle up some grub.  I have gone whole days without more than a cup of coffee and a few crackers.  Other days, I will eat nothing but chips and dip for all three meals.  That's not good.

I can't keep mismanaging my diet.  Or ... I guess I could, but I shouldn't.  My health depends on regular meals.  But even more important than that, my mental health suffers when I fail to feed myself and when I feed myself junk.  

So, for 2019, I'm challenging myself to take a photo of every meal I consume.  Sometimes I will write about it, but mostly I won't.  Just photos and food names and times of consumption.  Maybe a few excuses/explanations when I feel like it.  My hope is that the discipline of keeping tabs on what I eat will move me toward a better system for planning, shopping, and cooking for one.