Day 2, Month 2, The Diabetic Food Stamp Project

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I woke up to the smell of rich ham stock.

Last night I cut the rind and bone out of my house cured ham and put it in the crock pot with water. In another bowl I have red beans soaking.

I am going to leave it for a few more hours before straining it and skimming the fat.

My day's eating began with a 1/2 of a free bagel leftover from an event and a banana.

Bagel Free
Coffee with cream .15
Banana .19
Total .34
Carbs 58 grams, top of my limit

I had to wait a few hours before eating again to give my body time to cope. Fortunately I ate this at about 6 a.m. so at 10 I can have a snack.

I am not immune to all the internet food stories about ball game snacks. I won't be watching but I had creamy bean dip the other night and today a version of nachos will be had soon.

The power of suggestion is strong.

It is just as well I don't have a tv. I download a program on the computer if I want to watch it or I watch at the gym while doing cardio (usually Paula Deen so I can live vicariously)

I had my second course of the day....Nachos.

I finely chopped some of the ham, sprinkled it on chips and added cheese making hot in the oven.

Wonderful.

Chips .50
Cheese .20
Ham .25
Total .95
Carbs 44

Then there was my real lunch.

I took 5 of the Chinatown dumplings and some water and spinach and fashioned a soup.

Spinach dumpling....I think when these dumplings run out I will make my own again. Mine are worth the extra .02 per dumpling, however these did just fine as a lunch fill in.

I had them with a smoothie, a puree of one apple and one orange. The apple was leftover from a meeting and free, but mushy. I dislike an apple that is not crisp but no food gets wasted, so a smoothie it was to be. 

5 dumplings .90
Spinach (from frozen).25
Orange .25
Apple, event leftover free
Total 1.40
Carbs 46 grams

I did okay. After I drank my smoothie I got worried about whether I had calculated a small apple and orange correctly in my head, but all was well.

AFTER I had my dinner I checked e mail and saw a note from the nutritionist I have been consulting with.."I need you not to rely on pasta, I know you are measuring the portions carefully but your reliance on pasta is not spurring creativity, which is part of why you are doing this."

Keeping in mind I read this after my dinner of pasta...should I feel guilty?

It is very hard to feel guilty after even a small bowl of spaghetti carbonara, especially when it has been loaded with greens and flax seeds for nutrition and fiber.

I used the remainder of the Gai Lan leaves (stalks are for Sunday dinner) 4 yes 4 slices of bacon, my 1.5 ounces of spaghetti, cheese, egg, fresh basil from the windowsill and flax seeds.

A little bowl of heaven.

Spaghetti .12
Gai Lan .40
Cheese .20
Egg .21
Flax .10
Bacon .68
Total 1.71 (an expensive indulgence)
Carbs 51 grams

I am pleased that for the first day since I have been doing this I broke 2,000 calories. My goal was to get 2,400, but that is pretty impossible on this budget if you want any pretense at healthy food.

Let's see how I did with my dollars. I had 1.48 leftover so I began the day with 5.73. 4.40 was spent giving me 1.33 to carry over.

Let's check the nutrition for the day.
Finally almost as much fiber as I like,however the trade off is that I went over in carbs for the day.