Uncle Ben and Aunt Stacie left today…. boo. BUT they also took our snacks with them… YAY!

For a last hurrah I took them to Toast for breakfast. They were planning on leaving while Bridget was in school so we woke up early and went before we had to drop her off.

I ordered a veggie omelet and green tea. I made sure there was no cheese involved. The waiter assured me that it didn’t come with cheese anyway. Needless to say, I would have never ordered it unless I was doing this challenge. However, I was pleasantly surprised… it was delicious!

Everyone else ate my potatoes and Penelope snacked on the toast and a few of the veggies I picked out of the omelet. I did accidentally eat a pinch of the toast   out of habit. You have no idea just how much you eat when you feed a baby. One for you… one for me… one for you… two for me…

We ate at about 7:30 and I was satisfied until noon. I normally get all jittery and need to snack somewhere in between.

Once Ben and Stacie left I put Penelope down for a nap and ate my lunch outside. It was my dinner from last night that I couldn’t eat because I felt weird. I have no idea what my problem was because it was super good today.

I love butternut squash and onions roasted in balsamic vinegar and olive oil. You know it’s good when people walk into your house with a pizza in hand and stop in their tracks to tell you that your alternative dinner smells yummy. I ate it with left over grilled chicken and baby greens tossed with a little more balsamic vinegar. I never just put vinegar on my salads but I liked it a lot so this may be a new trend for me.

Penelope got hungry for dinner around 4:30 so I snacked on carrots and hummus again but got bored pretty quickly. So I switched to ham slices and pickles halfway through the snacking session. Then I got the brilliant idea of wrapping a slice of ham around a mini pickle and dipping it into the hummus… it’s my new favorite snack. I didn’t take a picture of it because I was feeding Penelope at the same time and she has a tendency to try to jump out of her high chair if I turn around for more than 3.2 seconds. Plus, we were in a hurry to get Bridget to swim team practice.

I still had grilled chicken left over that I could have eaten for dinner but to be honest I was getting pretty tired of chicken. I had no idea what to eat for dinner but threw an artichoke in the steamer because I love artichokes and thought it would be good to snack all while I watched a little TV tonight. (I never ate it. I was too full from dinner.)

While that cooked I scoured through the fridge to see what else I could whip up. That’s when I saw the cherry tomatoes shoved in the corner threatening to go bad on me.

Then I created my own recipe… I never do that!

Sauteed Tomato Basil Shrimp

Warning: The skin on some of the tomatoes got a little tough.

Additional Warning: It may be wise to never eat anything that I made up on my own.

You’ve been warned.

I sautéed 2 cloves of garlic in 1/2 tbsp of olive oil on medium heat until fragrant. Then I added the tomatoes (sliced in half) and sautéed them with the garlic until they just started to get a little wrinkly.

Once the juices of the tomatoes started to release I threw in a pound of shrimp and cooked it until the shrimp was no longer opaque and started to curl in. It was the quickest meal ever.

I threw it on top of more baby greens with balsamic vinegar. (I told you this was my new thing.)

Oh and I can’t forget the fresh basil! My little basil plant has finally recuperated from being mauled for the roasted tomato soup and basil fontina chicken grilled cheese sandwiches I made about a month ago. I plucked the crap out of her… I wasn’t sure if she was going to make it.

So, I know what you’re thinking… Nina! Tomatoes are actually a fruit. (I know that’s not what you’re thinking but just play along.) I know they are fruit, but they don’t count as far as this challenge is concerned. Why? Because I made up the challenge and I can do what I want!

No, that’s not true…

I based this decision on the meal plan Kelly made for me not too long ago. She let me have tomatoes so I feel confident that it is okay. She also told me it was okay to eat meatloaf at night even though it usually contains some breadcrumbs. She said the amount of breadcrumbs dispersed throughout the meatloaf would not amount to much in one serving.

Today I feel great! Although I am concerned with how neurotic I am getting about what I’m putting in my mouth. I am determined to successfully complete this challenge! If it makes me weird that that’s just the price I’ll have to pay.

I will say that I do look forward to Friday when I can stop taking pictures of everything I’m eating, it’s pretty tedious. I am also super excited to see what happens on the scale.

Two days down three more to go… and then nine more weeks of the challenge. Whoa! Let’s just take that one day at a time.