What a depressing weekend.

Not sure what it’s been doing outside in your neck of the woods, but it has rained pretty much non-stop and usually pretty heavy for the biggest part of the last three days in Knoxville. I threw myself a pity party last night when, after working 9 hours of OT, I couldn’t do either of the things that make me feel better after a shit day: shopping (it was pouring rain, I wasn’t going out there!) or cooking/baking (I screwed up dinner, but that’s all I’m saying about it). So in an attempt to get my rainy, depressing Sunday off to a better start, I’m spinning some Dylan and am ready to tell you about a dinner I did NOT screw up over the weekend.

We’re approaching the end of week 2 (repeated) of the 4 week “heart healthy” eating plan put in place by my doctor / wife in an attempt to make sure I don’t die before I turn 40. It’s not been horrible – I’ve lost nearly 15lbs, blood pressure is normal for the first time in 15 years, Erin is down to high school Prom Dress size. It’s not been particularly sexy, however – the food has been good but boring to look at if made while following the recipes exactly, which, in an attempt to say I followed this plan exactly, I’ve been doing.

Something I’ve enjoyed on this plan thus far are the attempts to replace my love of Indian food with healthier, home-made alternatives. Up until now nothing has been able to come close to what I’ve eaten at Indian restaurants, but then again, my favorite Indian joint in town just received a 52 on their health department score, so I think I’ll just deal with it. I’d like to feature the Orange Shrimp Curry I’ve made a couple of times on here, but for now I’m talking about the Ground Turkey Curry I made on Friday night.

Served over steamed brown rice, this dish was made with very lean ground turkey fried up with some peas in a sauce made from sautéed red bell peppers & onions, garlic, jalapeño peppers, chicken broth, curry powder, coconut milk and various other spices.

…Oh yeah – and half a banana.

This dish was supposed to be served up with steamed asparagus, but at the request of the wife (and in the interest of getting rid of leftovers in the fridge) we opted to re-heat some Brussels Sprouts from dinner a night or two before.

While not as flavorful or filling as lunch at previously mentioned poor-scoring favorite local Indian restaurant, this dish was quite good and an easy way to throw in a nice serving of whole grains, about two servings of vegetables and nice, lean protein.

https://www.instagram.com/p/bZ2k_bL2dU/ https://www.instagram.com/p/bZ6Z6fL2TZ/

This all makes it sound like I’ve gone all “Mr. Healthy” or something, and I guess to an extent I have, but make no mistake – the first chance I get to get down on a pizza again, I’m taking it. In fact, my friend Dan who works hard for Pizza Plus back home began discussing with me via Twitter yesterday the possibility of delivering a “Take & Bake” Pizza Plus pie to me. I’m in the process of cashing in my piggy bank because I promised a 200% tip + gas money should he make it happen.

Finally, when I started this blog, it was an attempt to stay creative every day by posting something I had created, be it a digital illustration, a drawing on my notes during a meeting, a video I’ve created, a song I’ve recorded, a painting I’ve completed, a story I’ve written, etc. Realizing there would be days I didn’t do either of those things, my main criteria was to include a haiku in my blog every day for 365 days. Now, thanks to a recent Twitter goal (by the way, Follow me on Twitter), I’ve started writing a daily haiku again. I’m thinking about putting them here again, too. We’ll see what happens.