i added some green beans in last night, and it just took me forever to make the meal and eat it. this is also becoming an expensive meal. on top of that, it's really only the pasta bowl that's causing me digestive issues. so, i'm coming to the conclusion that maintaining this pasta bowl is more trouble than it's worth, and i'm better off just sticking with the eggs.

what that means is that, rather than add items to the pasta bowl one by one, i'm going to start eating my eggs with a side salad and adding components to it, one-by-one. these components will be taken out of the pasta bowl and put into the side salad, instead. some of these items will be left out - it will depend on what i end up with, in the end. i'm pretty sure i know what will get dropped and what won't, though. and, the remaining bits will get used up slowly, as additions to the salad, until they're gone.

so, the eggs meal currently consists of the following:

1) four extra large eggs fried in two tablespoons of fortified (vitamins a, d & e) olive oil margarine

2) 2 pieces of flax bread, each with an additional teaspoon of the same margarine

3) 2 teaspoons of nutritional yeast on the "buttered" bread

4) about 65-70 g of high retinol cheddar cheese on top of the yeast (30-35 g, each)

the eggs are then placed on the cheese, two eggs per slice of bread.

in the past, i have sometimes put caesar salad dressing on the eggs; i'm currently sticking just with pepper.

5) 1 glass of grapefruit-apple juice. it's about 20% grapefruit, 80% apple. this is for inositol & vitamin c.

this very simple to make meal gives me the half-day requirements (the other half is from the complete fruit bowl) for :

- a, b1, b2, b3, b4, b5, b6, b7, b9, b12, b13, b16, d, e, f1, f2, k2,

- f (from coffee), na, p, ca, mn, se

i also think, but have not calculated, that it is sufficient for:

- b8, b14, c....b, cl, si, cr...all amino acids

i have not calculated, but suspect it is not sufficient for:

mg, k, ni, mo, i......lutein, lycopene, chlorophyll, flavonoids

i am sure it is not sufficient for:

b15, b20, f3, f4, k1,s...., fe, cu, zn......allicin

not all of the above are equally valuable, but these are therefore the nutrients to isolate for as i add items to the salad:

- b8 (inositol - grapefruit juice)

- b14  (taurine - check total cysteine in eggs & yeast)

- b15 (betaine - spinach)

- b20 (l-carnitine - keep low, though)

- c (grapefruit & apple juice)

- f3 (epa) (?)

- f4 (dha) (?)

- k1 (spinach)

- s (salicylic acid) (need to add spices)

- boron (produce, in general)

- magnesium  ("")

- chlorine ("")

- potassium ("")

- silicon ("")

- chromium ("")

- iron (add spices for this)

- nickel (produce, in general)

- copper (produce, in general)

- zinc (fish?)

- molybdenum (produce, in general. bread?)

- iodine (produce, in general. also added to salt.)

 

- all amino acids  (eggs + nutritional yeast should be very good for this - and i may add fish)

- allicin (garlic)

- lutein (spinach)

- lycopene (only actual source is tomatoes)

- chlorophyll (spinach)

- flavonoids (?)

i'm going to start with a basic update (because i'm eating this and don't want it to be too bland) and then post one update for this per day until it's done, and then this is done, subject to further modifications regarding beneficial metals. it will be some fish in the side salad, maybe...

i already added 30 g of spinach, so let's start with that. i'm also going to add garlic to the eggs in between the margarine and the yeast (because it's actually better tasting that way) and i'm going to add a cup of soy milk (for minerals & proteins), tomatoes (for lycopene), red peppers (for c, pseudo-a and other things), hemp seeds (for minerals), paprika (for lutein) & oregano (for salicylates) to the spinach, to start. that's my base salad, and it's not that different than the peppers-tomatoes base i used to use in my pasta (i even had oregano in there for a while). that said, i'm not going to calculate any of this except the first line item, which is vitamin a (i'll calculate calories and cost last); and, i'm just going to build the chart, first. so, today's update is fairly minimal, but it is definitely substantive, to immediately start. it should get me most of the way there, right away.

but, i have a ton of vegetables to eat, and they'll need to come in one at a time in order to eat through it. i mean, these are all nutritious foods, they've just become overkill with the change in direction.

we're keeping these ones for sure:

- red peppers are here to stay; i've always eaten peppers, i'm just moving from green to red

- garlic is here to stay. my dad cooked with a lot of garlic, but i never did. it's really overdue.

- tomatoes are back in

- spinach is replacing the beets

...but....

- beets are probably done for. i was initially digesting them, but i don't seem to be, anymore. maybe i overdid it, but i think i need to pull back. spinach is also high in betaine, and higher in lutein, so let's try that for a bit, instead. my b9 levels were very high when tested, so losing a little in the beets doesn't seem to be something i need to worry about. the only other thing i'm looking at is total potassium, and we'll see what makes the most sense for that, in the end.

- the carrots seem like empty nitrates in a side salad for a main plate of eggs, but we'll see if they become valuable or not. again, the most likely thing is extra potassium. and, i may want to keep something crunchy for my teeth. if it's carrots v beets, in the end, beets probably win. for now, i'll be adding a little of one or the other until they run out and then go from there.

- lime is iffy. i could stick with it for inositol, and even just for taste. i'm sidelining it to start, though.

- broccoli is probably out, but i'll take a close look at it and i'll be keeping up with it because it doesn't keep.

- the green beans weren't the best idea, really, and i'll just add a few in per day until they're gone. i should get enough inositol from the grapefruit juice & peppers together, and i'd rather stick with limes than jump to beans, if i have to make that choice.

if i cut all of those out, i'm reclaiming $50-75/month, and it won't cost that much to switch to eggs, instead.

the pro-biotic yogurt is also probably out, although i'll keep with it until it's done, and the sunflower seeds don't seem necessary in the side salad - i can save them for the fruit bowl. both may have value for amino acids, when i get there. i'll have to look at the other spices as they come up, but these are all mostly here for carotenoids or iron and i'm expecting i should keep most of them.

i may even add the pasta back, in the end, as it's fortified with iron, but i'm just not going anywhere with this pasta salad as a main meal, in the long run - it's too much food, and costs too much and takes too long to make. and it takes up too much room in my fridge, too. the eggs are simply more efficient, and just need a small side salad, instead.

that means that i may actually screw myself over this month as i bought a bunch of food i don't need and not enough of what i do, but my grocery bill should be a little more manageable next month. i'm not used to running out of money because i spent too much on food; i need to scale back.

this is a decision i had already made, it's just taken me a while to flip over and implement it.

but, we're here now - we're doing fruit bowls in the morning & eggs + side salad at night. same thing, every day. and, what's left to work out is what's in the side salad and what isn't.

i'm going to post this first, and then go back and paste it into the main update post, which was focused on a total amino acid update the last time i did it. i'll have to adjust that. and, i have a number of other half-finished posts to look at as well.

i'm doing this tonight instead of cleaning because i'm feeling a little tired due to smoking too much over the weekend. of course, i might have also picked up a virus - i have what seems like a smokers' cough. but, i want to take it easy and sit and type tonight, and will get back to cleaning tomorrow.

so, that's what's coming up in the next post - a new combined matrix for a side salad and eggs meal to replace the previous eggs & pasta matrices.