Bragging Rights

Bad news first: according to the SOD, I gained three pounds overnight.

However, since I know I did not consume 3,500 calories x 3 in 24 hours, I'm basically ignoring the scale reading from this morning. Sod off, SOD.

Please indulge me for a minute and let me brag about how delicious, truly, truly, delicious, my salade nicoise was Tuesday night.

I got the recipe off the web (bien sur) at epicurious.com, and it was a basic nicoise salad, but the vinaigrette was made with champagne vinegar.

So, in a nutshell, I left work late, but decided I had to walk from 47th St to 96th St to the Whole Foods to get in extra exercise (I also walked to work that morning). It took me about 45 minutes, I ran in and out of Whole Foods after buying basil, french bread (small loaf), nicoise olives, small potatoes and green beans, and some very expensive tuna steak (wow -- I had no idea it cost that much).

Ran home to discover BF stuck at work, so I had to clean apt, then quickly get the potatoes and eggs into boiling water.

I worked up quite a sweat, I can say that.

Boiled the potatoes, eggs, and green beans. Let them sit at room temp when done.

Then I made the bruschetta appetizer -- the same recipe I used for my super bowl party. So delicious. Everybody loved it.

When we were ready for the main meal, I went back to the kitchen and put some olive oil in our wok, then seared up that tuna.

Tossed the eggs, potatoes and green beans with shredded butter lettuce (yum, that's good lettuce), threw in tomato wedges and a few nicoise olives, then coated it all with the champagne vinegar vinaigrette (basically dijon mustard, the vinegar, a shallot, salt, pepper and olive oil whisked together).

The cooked pieces of tuna steak on top, and we were done.

And oh my oh my oh my, was it good. I'm sure that vinaigrette made the dish, and also had all the calories. Nearly 1 cup of olive oil -- next time I'm going to find a way to minimize that.

The bruschetta is pretty low-cal, I think, because I don't use any olive oil in the tomato mixture and just lightly brush the bread before toasting. But it's certainly not without calories, so I really tried to keep myself from indulging too much.

There's something so lovely about putting together a truly fantastic meal that everyone enjoys and doesn't make you feel like you are doing something "wrong."

Even my boyfriend -- who didn't for a minute want to eat salade nicoise but was too polite to kick up a fuss in front of company -- admitted that it was a spectacular meal.

Ok, so enough about the food. It was also a great night just in terms of enjoying my friends.

Wednesday morning I got up, saw I'd "gained" three pounds, logged it in physicsdiet.com, and walked to work.

Had a biz lunch today at a steakhouse -- got a greek salad, avoided the rest of the menu. No bread.

Trail mix at 4pm. 180 cals

Soy chips at 6 pm. 130 cals.

Walked home again.

Quinoa and beans for dinner, trying not to eat too much. I think I survived this day without a post party binge.

Tomorrow is the BF dinner. Special surprise for him at Lincoln Center; we're meeting there at 6:30. He's going to be floored.