Not gonna lie -- there was a lot of unnecessary eating going on at the house this past week. The week before Irma arrived it was "perishables week," which meant nothing from the pantry. Lots of omelettes, yogurt, things from the freezer. Fine -- so far we're doing well on the healthy scale. 

Cuban crackers -- zero fiber!

Then my sister and niece arrived with a bunch of groceries that included doughnuts, chips, and other assorted shelf-stable goodies. I had been on a mission to finish all my kale, which I did, but the desire for garbage got the best of me and I ate a doughnut and a couple servings of chips. At the same time.

Bleaaaah. Kale and junk food do not mix. I swear I've had a stomach ache for a week.

Every Floridian's favorite app this past week.

The next few days were a blur of chips and salsa, sandwich cookies, wind, rain and fallen trees. Aside from the trees and a green pool, there was no structural damage to the house. We only lost power for a day and a half, and I was able to wheel the contents of my fridge across the street to my neighbor, who had an extra fridge hooked up to a generator (MUCH THANKS!). I also took some brussels sprouts and carrots to a FWP's house (FRIENDS WITH POWER) where I performed a minor miracle and convinced a bunch of people that brussels sprouts were tasty. All I did was clean up the sprouts, cut the carrots the same size, sprinkled on some chopped scallions I found in my fridge, put everything on a sheet pan with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper and roast them in my friend's oven at 400 degrees for around 25-30 minutes. 

Florida avocados are a lot different than California ones.

My friend (hi, Ruth!) gave us a lovely parting gift of a bag full of Florida avocados, which are all now ripe, so I'm feverishly looking for ways to use them up. I think I may just freeze a bunch for smoothies.

Yay, lights!

That evening we returned home to see the lights shining through the front door windows, which was great because I DO NOT handle heat well. Perhaps it's all the extra insulation in my caboose. That right there was extra motivation to "un-insulate" myself. 

Once the power was back, we were able to eat more normally, although my stash of frozen bananas for smoothies is now a solid blob of frozen goo. I think I may have to dump it.

I made it over to the gym yesterday and it felt GREAT to get on the bike and the treadmill, and heave some weights around. 

But yeah, cookies have been eaten. Like demolished. Like I skipped breakfast this morning because cookies. Like, do I have a picture of the cookies? No, because they're gone.

I found that it wasn't really the stress as much as the boredom that set off the Cookie Monster in me, because when the storm was really bearing down, food was the last thing on my mind. So next time (and, yeah, there'll be a next time) I'll make sure I have more things to offset the boredom.

And less insulation on my caboose.

As hurricane Irma barrels through the Caribbean, we're getting ready over here. Water, protein bars, giant Ziploc bags, batteries -- all the fun stuff. And while it may be fun to subsist on bourbon and potato chips if the power goes out, I'd think that would get old really fast. 

My dietitian Meryl Brandwein, sent out a great email this morning with a healthy hurricane food prep list and some sample meals. You can read the entire article at her website, but I thought I'd share one of her sample days of post-storm meals:

Breakfast:

Apple with Nut Butter
Rice Chex

Lunch:

Black beans 1 cup
Canned diced tomato ½ cup
Canned corn ( organic) ½ cup
Unsweetened canned fruit ½ cup

Snack: 

Nuts and Dried Fruit
Protein powder mixed with non-dairy milk or water

Dinner:

Vegetarian chili- 1 cup
Corn chips (organic)
Unsweetened canned fruit ½ cup

We've got a bunch of Quest and Zone Perfect bars in the pantry, and I just ordered a case of Orgain Grass-Fed Protein Shakes as well as a case of High Brew Double Espresso cold brew coffee. Mama needs her chocolate and her coffee, and both of these are shelf stable and aren't full of garbage.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to put everything we own in plastic bags ...