Day 4. Eating out.

Yesterday was a challenging day on this detox diet plan, because I didn't have time in the morning to prepare anything for lunch, and I went to a movie after work, so dinner was also going to be an eating out adventure. I had taken some snacks to work - hummus & carrots and an orange. Unfortunately, I was so busy with work stuff that I didn't end up eating them. But I did visit the salad bar in the Time Warner Cafeteria for lunch. They had several safe options (beets, spinach, orange wedges, grilled eggplant, cucumbers, carrot shreds, red onion, and a touch of oil & vinegar) that fit right into my plan, and there was even a quinoa salad that I used to round out my meal.

Dinner was trickier, because I had an hour to kill in between when I left work and when my movie was supposed to start. And of course, one of my favorite Chinese restaurants is literally across the street from the theater. As I was trying to think of what I could possibly eat at Ollie's that wouldn't derail me completely, I spotted another option.

There, just a block away (but on the same side of the street!), was a Mediterranean hummus bar called Nanoosh. This is a Manhattan chain restaurant that I'd never tried before, so I ventured in very carefully and sat down. What I ended up ordering was the mushroom wrap plate without the wrap (pictured above). They did give me a soft, warm piece of whole wheat pita to dip in the giant mound of hummus, which I carefully placed at the back of the plate and avoided. The meal consisted of marinated, sauteed mushrooms on a bed of mixed greens, a giant mound of hummus with a beautiful pool of olive oil taking up half the plate, a small bowl of tahini sauce, and a small bowl of tabouleh. Did I mention the giant mound of hummus?

I made one rookie mistake with this meal, though. Since I was not getting the wrap, I had the option of ordering a side salad of tabouleh, quinoa, or greens. I went with the tabouleh completely forgetting that it is a grain salad made of cracked WHEAT, herbs, and vegetables. (I'm supposed to avoid wheat on this diet.) Never mind that, this salad was delicious. It had tiny squares of apple mixed in with parsley, cucumber, and tomato. Nice touch, adding the tart apple bits in there, Nanoosh! I am going to recreate that with quinoa today, and I think it'll be delicious. I'm not sure I'll be able to cut the apple pieces into quite such a fine dice, but I'll live.

(Side note: I finally saw Mission Impossible 4 in IMAX. It was the final IMAX showing in the city last night. I guess they are making room for The Journey 2 in IMAX which is opening today. MI4 was a fun action movie, and some of the IMAX-specific scenes were pretty amazing.)