Nearly everyone that I talk to, here in Italy, asks me “what do you miss the most about America?” . My response is always the same. “I miss Mexican food”. That usually floors people and storts their look for a minute.
But, it’s true. The first time someone asked me what I missed I really had to think about it. And if I remember correctly, I said “I don’t know”. I remember thinking about it for a while. I mean besides the obvious of missing, my parents and some people. I miss the hell out of Mexican food.
And that leads me into this week of food. It will mostly be Mexican based recipes this week. I’m trying to be pro-active and making recipes ahead, and scheduling things in a planner I haven’t used since I bought it. Look at me being productive! ha!
My second big question these past weeks of post-lockdown hangover is… was eating all of that food really worth it?
It was in the fact that for the almost 3-4 months we had of lockdown, we made 3 meals a day, and ate like royalty. But, it was all fun and games while I had on yoga pants. But now, hell my pants are tight, I mean fat girl ate her heart out tight.
So I’ve been trying to think about what I want to do. I really don’t know. I thought about being keto, and doing the intermittent fasting. But I’m hungry, I don’t want to fast for 16 hours a damn day. And Keto, that was all fine and good when I lived in America because the bread and pasta sucked there anyways. But, here I am. In a place that has the best of the best food and carbohydrates in the world. I don’t want to limit myself. And being a medical professional I know better than to stay on a long term keto/atkins type diet. And that brings me to remembering that one time (at band camp) I was following the weight watchers thing.
Then I started thinking about having to download a program, and having to track all my food. And oh my God the anxiety of having to track all the dang food you eat in a day, and my butt is hungry. But, my work with the weight watchers program was so far long ago, I didn’t remember much about it, but I remember being happy, mainly because I got to eat fruit until my hearts content.
That being said, I got to looking on the weight watchers site, and now there are new programs. Interesting. I did find a .pdf file from them for free!
And I got to looking at that, holy crap. I could eat off of that list of 0 point foods and be a happy happy girl. But, I read all of them.
3 plans to choose from that go by colors, Blue, Green, and Purple.
Blue – This is the current Freestyle plan. 200+ zero point foods, with a minimum of 23 daily points (this varies on age, weight, height, and gender). These are still considered Freestyle Smartpoints.
Green – Fruits and veggies will be zero points as long as they are fresh/frozen and no added sugar, syrup, etc (the same rules that are currently in place with the Freestyle program). The minimum amount of Smartpoints that will be allowed daily is 30. So essentially you will have to track everything besides those fruits and veggies.
Purple – A variation of Simply Filling. This plan was around about the same time as Points +. So for these people, there will be a list of 300+ zero point foods and a minimum of 16 points a day that you can play with. So basically if you eat anything other than those 300 foods, you have to deduct from your daily points.
I choose the purple. It’s the most like what I used before. And yesterday I went to the grocery store, and bought a hell of a lot of fish and fruits. Vegetables are still coming out of the garden so I’m good with that.
Then I did some research of commonly tracked foods and made a text file on my phone for that. Mainly with things like: Olive oil, red wine and the such.
So today, I am happy to say that my food diary would read something like this:
Breakfast: 1- 6 person moka of coffee. 0 points
Lunch: an omelet with 2 eggs, spinach and tomatoes + 1 tsp EVOO 1 point
baby corn, sauteed with seasonings + 1 tsp EVOO 1 point
After lunch beverage: some more coffee.. ahha 0 points
Snack: 1 apple 0 points
Dinner will be shrimp on the grill and steamed veggies. so probably out of the 16 points you can have in a day, I will use like 8. which leaves room for some wine!
Also, yesterday I bought a vegetable steamer pot. I didn’t have one, I mean I had one, and then I didn’t have it after I moved. I don’t know if I just didn’t bring it or what happened. But, I bought one made in italy and it’s sturdy and good. I like it, I’ll know for sure after I use it today.
What else did I want to include……
Oh I personally hate when people write a whole bunch of crap before they post a recipe, so I’m trying to just post a recipe and maybe something about it after the recipe. But the recipe always first. And write longer things here in this section I like to call “è la vita” it is life.
There was something esle….. sto pensando….
Ah! I want an air fryer. I need to go to the store that sells little electric appliances like that. The elettrodomestici store.
And lastly, I had the “I’m going to start a diet tomorrow” meal with my friend Katrin. She has never had Mexican food. That’s weird right? I thought so too, but, think about it. How far is Italy from Mexico?
So stay tuned this week for my Italian version of some mexican food!
