Day 9

Breakfast (10:30 a.m.):
1 1/2 c. Kellog's Special K Red Berries
1 c. skim milk

Lunch (1:15 p.m.):
1 acorn squash stuffed with wild rice stuffing
1.5 c. wild rice stuffing
    1/2 c. wild rice
    1/8 diced granny smith apple
    1/4 c. golden raisins
    3/4 c. low sodium chicken broth
    salt & pepper to taste
1/2 tablespoon grated parmesean
2 tablespoons roasted squash seeds
2 c. coffee w. f.f. hazlenut creamer

The stuffed squash was AMAZING! It was also pretty easy to make.

First, cut the squash in half and remove the seeds. Rub the flesh with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the stuffing. In a small pot with tight-fitting lid, mix 1/2 c. wild rice mix (unseasoned), 1/8 cup diced granny smith apple (or other tart apple), 1/4 cup raisins and 3/4 cup low sodium chicken broth. Add salt and pepper to taste (for me, a dash of salt and a liberal amount of pepper). Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and let cook for 15 minutes.

When the rice and squash are finished cooking, spoon rice mixture into the cavities of the squash halves. Sprinkle with freshly grated parmesean. Return to oven and bake for about 10 minutes.

If you're vegetarian, substitute vegetable broth. If you're vegan, sub veggie broth and leave out the parmesean.

I also roasted the seeds from the squash, but unfortunately I left them in the oven a bit too long. I tried a few, but they really were burnt. Just seperate them from the squash goo, rinse, let dry on a paper towel, then mix with olive oil, salt, and any other spices you'd like and roast at 375 for about 8-10 minutes (apparently 20 is way too long).

Snack (4:00 p.m.):
2/3 c. f.f. no sugar added peach yogurt

Snack (5:15 p.m.):
2 oz. smoked almonds

Tonight for dinner I was invited to join the Kansas Main Street Conference for a mini "Taste It" Downtown Hutchinson. Typically "Taste It" is a quarterly event where people buy tickets and visit 10-12 restaurants downtown to sample food. Food is included in the price of the ticket, but people pay for drinks. Tonight they did a smaller version just for the conference with 6 restaurants. I missed out on two restaurants because I attended another event.

So, we traveled around to different restaurants - dinner took about 3 hours.

Dinner (6:15 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.)
10 wheat tortilla chips (Anchor Inn)
3 tablespoons salsa
1 mini bbq sandwich (Danny Boy's)
1 oz serving baked beans
1 small slice pepperoni pizza (Carl's Bar)
1 small slice hamburger pizza
1 Ginger Bee beer
2 oz beef fillet (Marcella's)
1/2 tablespoon blue cheese sauce
1 very tiny roasted potato with sour cream
1 glass Riesling white wine
1 individual pumpkin tart (Jillian's)
1 "Cougar" cocktail

So I added up my food calories for the day and came up to 2587. Not bad, right? Oops, forgot to add in the alcohol. Final count? 3012 calories. I definately need to watch my calories the rest of the week. Yes, I did some walking this evening, but not 400 calories worth. FYI, before "dinner" I had only consumed about 1400 calories.