As you read this, I’m probably getting trampled to death in the madness of the Macy’s 4th of July fireworks. (Grrr, I hope they move the fireworks back to the East River for next year. The Hudson is SO inconvenient!)
Picking up where I left off yesterday, I’ve been sitting on [not literally] this packet of scariness ever since the health event two weeks ago:
So, I’m obviously not trying to manage my weight (have you seen the kinds of things I eat every day?!), and even if I were, I sure as heck would not want to manage it with a shake … let alone a shake composed almost entirely of chemicals. Note how the first ingredient is entitled “carb blend.” Yummmmm!
However, I am physically incapable of throwing away something nutritious (even when the nutrition is this questionable), so I needed to figure out an alternate arrangement. I dumped the powder into a bowl.
I stuck my finger in for a lick, and it was wayyyyyyy sweet. But it smelled like vanilla cake mix, and that’s something I can handle. I mixed the powder with about 3 cups of plain yogurt, 1/4 cup goji berries, 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, and 1/4 cup chia seeds. I let it all marinate and thicken together in the fridge for a few hours.
In the meantime, I got dinner underway with the star of my meal: chayote.
I’ve only had chayote as part of a pile of steamed veggies before — never on its own and never raw. But, once I cut into it, I realized how pleasant the chayote’s texture is raw (maybe even better than cooked!), kind of a cross between cucumber and apple with a good, watery crunch to it. I scooped out (and ate) a little well in one half and filled it with a mix of mashed avocado and salsa.
Over a bed of mystery rice:
And back to the weight management powder trainwreck, I froyo-ed about 1/2 cup of the mix and then immersion-blended to cream it up a bit.
This was actually quite good! I am grudgingly a fan of weight-management-shake ice cream 😛
I topped it with SOTBPPBDCS butter and a chopped square of Newman’s Own Organics dark chocolate:
Mmmmmmmmmm …
What is/was your fireworks plan? And have you seen anything horrifying on a food label lately?
Tales of Expansion: Baby Butternut Edition 
Holy crap, those are a TON of chemicals in that shake! I’m glad you turned it into something tasty, though. Your dessert combo looks yummy.
We saw fireworks July 3, and tonight my dad and I walked around the block to see what kinds the neighbors had. I hope your fireworks were good (and that you didn’t get trampled too badly!)
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Carb mix…mmmmm. I can’t stand throwing things away, either! Yo were certainly innovative with your creation 🙂
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Oh wow there are definitely some weird things on food labels, but the worst I came across was in a toothpaste. It proudly claimed to contain “colostrum” and while I was brushing my teeth I tried to remember where I’d heard that term before. Then I (chokingly) realized: it’s the first batch of mother’s milk to be produced after a baby is born! Obviously for all mammals it’s called the same, and I’m sure there are all kinds of milk things that are also gross, but this just gave me the chills!
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LOVE what you did with that shake! I eat protein bars a lot and some have some very questionable ingredients that require a PHD in chemistry to understand. Though what weirded me out more was a strawberry chocolate protein bar containing beef. I have nothing against beef, and nothing against meat with fruit combinations, but kind of threw me a little 😛
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Wowzers, that label is full of crazy words/ingredients. But if it smelled like white cake mix, I mean, it must be good! 🙂
I’ve seen plenty of scary labels lately, but nothing specific jumps out at me. I try not to obsess over nutrition labels because I know so much about nutrition and food science sometimes it can get in the way of enjoying food!
Your dessert looks/sounds amazing. I hope you had a great fourth!
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That’s definitely a scary list. I try not to eat many things where I can’t pronounce the ingredients (altho I don’t always follow that rule). But if it tasted good, I doubt it will kill you to try it once in a while 🙂
Your chayote meal looks great.
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Ha, I can’t believe you turned that shake into something good. Do you want mine? I watched some Fireworks in Clifton, PA yesterday. And today, the scary food label was the Peanut M&M’s I picked up a NJ Turnpike rest stop when I need a snack. The serving size was only 1/2 the pack and it had 240 calories and 14 g of fat…so really, the whole pack had double that! EEEK!!
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I love all of these pudding-like foods! I’ve a personal weakness for mush 🙂
Enjoy your Sunday, dear Sarah!
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