Day 8

I had a packet of Kirkland Signature (Costco brand) instant oatmeal, Apples & Cinnamon flavor, with a splash of organic skim milk for breakfast. Both the milk and orange juice are Central Market Organics brand. I'll do some research into Central Market and add a post about their products for a later entry.

I was in the car with my roommate around lunch time, so ended up going to TerraBurger. It's not inexpensive or good for my waistline, but at least the food is all natural, it's humanely raised beef and incredibly delicious.

I made a tofu stir-fry for dinner. I marinated the tofu overnight (actually two nights) in water, soy sauce, tarragon, oregano and thyme. I meant to get extra firm tofu and got just firm though, so it was a little too soft for my taste. I served it over brown rice.

For dessert I had a Healthy Choice fudge bar. I bought a big box of them at Costco because they are only 100 calories and delicious (and I had a coupon). However in researching for this post I discovered that Healthy Choice is a Con-Agra company, so it's very likely that some cows were harmed in the making of these things. I'll look for a natural, low-calorie dessert replacement at Wheatsville tomorrow. I also learned that Morningstar uses eggs in their "veggie" sausage patties and I found no evidence that the eggs they use are natural or uncaged, much less pasture-raised. Ugh.

Day 4

My first meal back in Austin was a breakfast taco from the cafeteria at work. I chose the one with a whole-grain flour tortilla, egg and ground turkey sausage. I try to avoid turkey since reading (in Foer's Eating Animals) that a majority of the turkeys used for food in the US are so genetically modified that they are no longer capable of sexual reproduction. That just ain't right. However I've tried the taco sans turkey and it just doesn't hold my appetite until lunch. So yes, I avoid eating breakfast at the cafeteria but when I do that's my usual choice.

I had lunch at a restaurant with some co-workers. One of our former colleagues passed away over the holiday break, so a few of us got lunch together on our way to the funeral. I got carnitas on corn tacos and an inordinately huge side of rice and black beans. I also grazed on some chips and salsa (and guac) not pictured. That beverage is horchata, a drink made from sweetened rice milk.  

My dinner was a bowl of chili and rice that I pulled out of the freezer. I made it before the holiday break so I'm not positive what was in it, but my standard chili recipe is natural ground beef, Westbrae Chili Mix beans, canned tomatoes and tomato sauce, onion, chili powder and jalapeños. 

I had to pick up my roommate from the airport at about 9:30 and rationalized that the holidays weren't quite over until he was back home so I could stop at Wendy's. There are so many things wrong with eating at Wendy's I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I am who I am.

Day 2

I spent the second and third days of the new year with Amtrak, so pardon the blurry pictures.

First, a microwave egg & sausage sammich with coffee on the Ann Arbor > Chicago train. Not much to say about that.

Lunch was fried rice and some kind of sweet and sour type chicken from a stand in Chicago's Union Station.

For dinner I had salmon, rice and green beans on the Chicago > Austin train. I forgot to bring my camera to the dining car, so I ordered the same thing the following night and copied the photo. When I'm in a situation where all the food is likely to have come from a factory farm, I will often choose a fish entree instead of beef or chicken. It's probably not from a sustainable source but at least it was probably wild-caught or raised/killed in a more humane fashion than your average factory-farmed chicken, pig or cow.