Good Morning! A 3-day weekend, or 3-day challenge?

This Friday morning I am contemplating what foods I will come across during this weekend filled with festivities....hmm?  I am spending the weekend at cookouts, parties, gatherings you name it!  Well not so much, parties as events, and not so much gatherings as a clocked-out 1/2 hour break.  I will be spending much of my 3-day weekend at work celebrating with all those lovely people that planned in advance to celebrate the gorgeous weather at my place of work.  

The challenges one would typically face at a weekend like this is the interactions with food.  Of course when there is a party there is always food!  My challenge this weekend is food but it's more so a challenge because of my hectic schedule.  

Can I stay on track spending hours upon hours at work?

Can I make the right choice and plan ahead?

What if I am starving do I have a go-to food that I can munch on?

All these worries plague me and often I feel the pressure of trying to make the best choice and plan ahead and stay on top of my diet.  But then again, there are weekends when we want to throw our cares to the wind and say "to heck with it," and eat fruit salad, potato salad, desserts galore!  

I leave the stomping grounds approximately 11am today and will not return until Monday late afternoon.  My quest is to stay on track, plan ahead, make smart choices and duh, utilize the Walmart and Target grocery stores on every corner in case I get into a bind.  

I know what to eat, how to stay on track but it's much easier said than done.  This weekend concludes the end of my second weekend of this plan and I hope to continue my success under the pressure of a holiday/work weekend overload!

Let's review!

I want to point on these items that I have had success with through these past 2 weeks.  I have been reviewing as many products and trying everything in sight but I do want to point out that I had a few trusty touchstones already in my pockets when I started this.  

#1. Veggies!  I absolutely love vegetables. These are key to my list of groceries, day in and day out!  Tomato, zucchini, celery, carrots  you name it.  Steam it, saute' it, baked it or spread it.  No matter what vegetables are a staple in gaining success in this diet.  

#2. Vegenaise!  I love this product.  I discovered it back when I was at Kripalu and researching a recipe for a African Salad.  A little bit of champagne vinegar, apple cider vinegar, strawberries, mango, dates and jasmine rice and dollop of this guy and all was right in the world.  Of course now I cannot do fruit or vinegar but I am determined to find alternatives to fill in for this great option for food.  

It has a sweet taste, similar to mayo but there is just something about it when you pair it with these ingredients.  I would recommend this to anyone.  It fits for sure the "home-run" criteria!

#3. Earth Balance.  This is thee best thing next to butter.  It is lactose, gluten and egg free, and it tastes exactly like butter.  I used to eat this before I "had to."  I love it.  Earth Balance has three different kinds I believe of this.  A soy, soy-free and olive oil.  The kind that I have is similar to original except that it is whipped.  Awesome product.

Now let's conclude the weekend post with a few foul hits this week.  

I tried this Brown Rice Yeast Free Loaf.  OMG! is all I have to say.  On the back of the bag it actually instructs you when toasting to stand nearby, in case of fire.  It burns very easily,except that when I was toasting my two slices I stood there for about 5-7 minutes and the toast was not toasting, setting no fire, not doing anything, it was simply warming the bread.  I did not quite understand it.  After my warmed bread came out of the toaster, really I gave up on standing there, I took the plunge.  All I have to report is....don't do it.  It was very chewy, very unbalanced in taste and texture was not to my liking at all.  

Brown-Rice Yeast-Free Loaf: 1 bad carrot

Next up is the famous "Rice Krispies, gluten-free."  Okay so first of all I am a fan of any and all cereals.  This we know.  This is a fact.  When looking for a cereal I wanted something familiar that I knew tasted good.  I turned to many of my "rice-products" to find some options.  Although this reports to be gluten-free, this however is not a healthy choice for two reasons.  It does not fit the home-run criteria of dairy, gluten and yeast free.  The third ingredient is sugar, plain old white granulated sugar, so that fails there.  Second it has sugar already added.  Did I mention this?  Why aren't there cereals that are great tasting but sugar free to start with?  I can pile the teaspoons of sugar on myself, by adding some fruit, or sugar itself, but I was disappointed to see that plain old crisps of rice are already preloaded to taste better with none other, sugar!

So at the end of the day, Rice Krispies Gluten-free gets a bad carrot from me!

Rice Krispies gluten-free: 1 bad carrot