This week there was a bit more prep than last week, and I got to make up an interesting breakfast to compensate for the loss of eggy protein breakfast from the previous two weeks. My prep included portioning grapefruits, making jello, and portioning chicken thighs.
To portion the grapefruit, I decided to cut them into supremes and save the juice from the process for adding to my jello. If you aren't familiar with supremes, they are basically just the tasty part of a citrus fruit. The process is to cut off all of the rind carefully, then cut down into the fruit toward the center right next to a membrane and sort of flick your knife toward the other membrane to release the segment. There are probably a ton of good videos on YouTube that can teach the technique.
If I had ended up with enough juice I planned to make grapefruit jello from scratch, but I didn't so instead I went with strawberry-grapefruit jello.
You can see that after one grapefruit I had a pretty decent amount of juice. That's just shy of half a cup after squeezing the leftover bits that didn't make it into my cups.
Here's my drawer of meat... I portioned out the package of chicken thighs I bought into 5.5 oz portions. This meant cutting up some whole thighs and adding pieces to the bags to make the correct weight, but baked chicken thighs come out great if you do it right, even when adding extra bits.
My method is to take the whole thigh, and lay it out flat with what was the skin side down. Then you take the extra bits and lay them out the same way. Season the underside of all the pieces, then stack them so the smallest pieces are on top. Then take the whole thing and roll it so the seam is underneath, season the top, and bake until the internal temp hits 165. Using this method I can bake my chicken thigh right along with Randy's chicken breast and both are done at the same time because they're about the same thickness.
I really enjoyed this week because I used a different set of seasonings every day on my chicken, so it was like different dinners all week even though they were essentially the same.
For breakfast the book called for 1/2 grapefruit (with no sugar) toast with jam, and coffee with sugar. After the changes I made to the overall menu, I was way too low on calories (it came in under 1k) so I adjusted a bit. I've taken the tomato from dinner, added vegemite spread, a slice of swiss cheese, and milk for my coffee. You can see my little milk pitcher in the background, I measure my milk allowance for the day into that and keep it in the fridge, so that one portion of milk gets split between breakfast and lunch about equally.
I personally love vegemite, and one serving comes in at 5 calories but adds a ton of flavor and a little bit of protein. I weigh my toast before adding the spread and then again after, and it turns out I don't even end up using a full serving (5g) on one slice of bread.
In this picture I decided to have my jello with my grapefruit at breakfast instead of at lunch, but I only ended up doing that one time.
Vegemite, tomato, and swiss toasty, grapefruit, coffee with sugar & milk - 285 calories.
For lunch I'm having ham & swiss on rye with mustard/mayo mix, strawberry-grapefruit jello, iced coffee with milk & sugar (and coffee ice cube) and chicken broth - 447 calories.
Seriously if you like iced coffee make yourself some coffee ice cubes, no more watery coffee in exchange for cold coffee.
The jello was made with their new "simply good" strawberry flavor which has no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives, and I subbed one cup of the water it called for with grapefruit juice. This brought the calories up a little but I think the flavor was much better so it was worth it. Next time jello is on the list I'll be more prepared and make it from scratch instead.
For dinner, the book called for 1/2 a broiled chicken or 8 oz coming in at 332 calories (seriously I'm not sure how that works, I've never seen a chicken that small at the store), so I subbed 5.5 oz of chicken thigh which comes in around 330 calories. It also called for 1/2 cup of carrots, bread and butter, and fresh pineapple. Instead of bread and butter I'm having 1/2 cup of peas with salt, and baked carrots. I like my carrots with a little char on them so I hit them with my culinary torch before serving. This eliminates the need to cook them in oil, saving some calories while adding roasty flavor.
Chicken, carrots, peas, and what I'm calling "cactus cooler sorbet" - 459 calories.
Let's talk about cactus cooler sorbet. I had oranges left over from last week, and some pineapple in the freezer from the week before, and when you add those two things to a blender with some ice it makes this little cup of sunshine for roughly 48 calories a serving.
One orange peeled and seeded, a bit of orange zest, about 3.5oz of frozen pineapple, and 8 oz of ice, blend until smooth, split between two cups, enjoy with a friend. This was by far my favorite part of this week's menu, but I enjoyed this week much more than the two before it.
Total day's calories - 1191.
Next week is liverwurst, prepare yourselves!
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