Day 7

I didn't realize I was out of eggs until I already had things in motion to make an eggwich, so I went ahead with it. I also forgot to take a picture until I was half done so I had to cut off the bit part for the picture. :D

Lunch was another spectacular fail on all counts except taste. Chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes from the company cafeteria. Not nutritious, ethical or particularly economical but it did taste pretty good.

I had to make the same dinner I had the night before because I forgot to take a picture the first time.

Day 5

I started the fifth day of the year with one of my favorite breakfasts: the homemade eggwich. This consists of single fried egg, Morningstar sausage patty, slice of Horizon American cheese in an Orowheat Multigrain muffin. This is a relatively low calorie, filling and delicious breakfast.

Unfortunately one of the books I read last year suggested that Horizon's practices are hardly any better than factory dairy producers, but until I look deeper into that claim I'm going to believe it's at least marginally better. For the last few months I've been getting eggs from one of the managers where I work. She and her husband have taken to raising chickens, so I know they're being fed and treated well. When I can't get eggs from them I get them at the co-op who in turn gets them from a local farm called Vital Farms.    

My new team had their first bi-weekly lunch of the new year today and I went along. I wanted enchiladas but I ordered crispy tacos in an effort to be a little healthier. I ordered beef rather than chicken or pork on the ground that they were probably all factory farmed and beef is generally less inhumanely treated than chicken and pork. This doesn't sound as persuasive as I type it, but that's what went through my head. In any case the tortillas were so soaked in oil I probably could've gone with the enchiladas and had just as healthy of a meal.

I was craving steak for dinner so I gave in. I didn't even bother coming up with a rationalization for it, and I have no reason to believe that the restaurant I went to, Texas Roadhouse, uses local, humanely raised or natural beef. I went with the 6 oz filet cooked medium rare. I skipped dessert so I wouldn't add insult to injury by being grossly unhealthy in addition to ethically insensitive. Granted those buttered rolls (I ate two) are like a dessert in themselves, and the egg crumbled on the salad was a pile of unnecessary fat and calories. I only ate a few of the peanuts, though. I often go through half of that bucket at those places. 

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.