A few years ago, I used to stop for a fast food breakfast every day before work. I would usually get a sausage biscuit (or two),  a mutant form of potatoes and the largest cola they had. Then for lunch, I’d hit the same drive through and get a burger, fries and another 55 gallon drum of soda. I’d also occasionally get a pastry sometime during the day.

My gosh, that was some gross eating I did back then! Some of it might have tasted good, but I was feeding my body pure garbage every day. I really do like what I’m eating nowadays much better! I  actually do prefer a nice piece of fruit over a chocolate candy bar any day of the week now.

So, I guess, even though I am not (temporarily) not succeeding at losing weight, I am succeeding at changing what I eat.  When I started this post, I was kind of bummed because the numbers on scale didn’t go down. Now, after writing all this out, I’m feeling pretty positive. I’ll take my victories where I can find them, so instead of worrying about what the scale says,  today I’ll be glad about my freedom from unhealthy food. It’s time for me to celebrate “Donut Liberation Day”!

If you can’t get to Sunflower, Amazon has Zevia as well, but it’s about double the sales price at Sunflower, about a buck a can. But isn’t that about the going rate at most vending machines nowadays for all types of canned soda? Of course, it’s best not to drink any type of sodas at all, but if you’re at the point where you’re craving some fizz, then at least with Zevia, you don’t have to worry about harmful artificial sweeteners. In case you haven’t heard of it, it’s a zero calorie sweetener made from the leaf of the stevia plant. That’s right, NO CALORIES and it tastes just like sugar. I use it in powdered form in my oatmeal as well as my tea. I haven’t tried baking with it yet, but that’s because I haven’t researched that yet. Maybe I’ll pop open a cold Zevia and sit here looking for more recipes with stevia and post what I find.

I like eating big hearty breakfasts and light dinners, so when I woke up, my stomach was empty and grumbling about it. I was still a bit sleepy so I decided to grab a small bag of pre-made salad and jump right in.

Well, I ended up eating the entire bag of salad before I even got close to being full. I wonder if the human body is conditioned to want fats and protein first thing in the morning so in case we’re confronted with a heavy physical work load? I can’t imagine Laura Ingalls’ Pa going off to plow the north 4o acres after noshing on  lettuce and kale, so maybe that’s why most cultures have giant meals first thing in the morning.

Another thing.. salad is very crunchy and it just seemed weird to eat crunchy foods right after waking up. If you think about it. most breakfast foods are soft and mushy, like:
Eggs
oatmeal
pancakes
hash browns

I don’t know whether cold cereal should be counted as crunchy or mushy. Look at Rice Krispies.. they start off saying, “Snap!” “Crackle!” “Pop!” but they sure change their tune when the cold milk hits them.

Seriously, aside from oatmeal, I’ve given up on most traditional breakfast foods for breakfast. I just wish I could think of a way to easily add vegetables to my breakfast. Maybe tomorrow I’ll try a nice hot bowl of zucchini and see how satisfying it is.

It takes as long to eat chop up a zucchini as it does to grate potatoes fo hash browns, so the time factor can’t be the reason. I wonder if there’s some old wives’ tale out there, something like “If you eat carrots before noon, you’ll regret it soon”, or some nonsense like that. I may have to do a bit of research on this, or I may just start defying this unwritten “law”. I guess I’ll just have to be a rebel with a salad fork.

Let’s get the nutritional information out of the way first: One serving (a teaspoon) has FIVE calories, 100 mg of sodium and 1 g of sugar. Although, if you can eat more than a teaspoon of this in one serving you are far braver than I. This sauce has a great fiery kick, so make sure you start off slowly until you build up a tolerance for it. No need to slather your food with it at first, unless you’re on good terms with the local hazmat team.

All kidding aside, it’s heat level is comparable to most Tabasco sauces, but Huy Fong chili sauce is far superior to Tabasco, imo. To me, Tabasco just add heat to food, but Huy Fong adds layers of flavors that enhance food without overpowering. Huy Fong is kind of garlicky, kind of sweet, with a gradual lingering afterburn. To me, it’s heat compliments the flavor of the food instead of competing against it.

Tonight, I plan on having low-sodium soup for dinner. I think a couple drops of Huy Fong will change it from being dull as dishwater and add just the right amount of zip.  It tastes great on steamed veggies, raw veggies, just about anything you can imagine. Tomorrow for a snack, I plan on putting the chili sauce in a dipping bowl and then gingerly dip each popcorn.

I plan on doing more experimenting with this and if I come up with anything unique, I’ll post it here. For now, my motto is going to be “Out with the salt, in with the Huy Fong chili sauce!”