Pizza Diet: Week 3

Feelings after 2 weeks: I knew that my traveling this week would prevent me from eating pizza for lunch and dinner (as lunch has been included in most of my graduate fairs and has mostly consisted of salad or sandwiches).  I also have my monthly friend with me this week which makes me nauseated at even my favorite foods sometimes so it has been a little tricking finding things to eat that won't make me feel sick.  I still love pizza though.


10/22/15: Tonight I was in the Peoria area.  I was actually staying in Pekin and after a 25 minute drive from Peoria to my hotel, I wasn't feeling in the mood to drive back to "town".  After browsing Yelp for like half an hour at all of my restaurant options, I finally placed a carryout order from a place called Monical's Pizza.  When I got to Monical's it reminded me of a smaller Davanni's.  Monical's is a chain around Illinois, it seems, as I passed many more on my way out of the state.  I read a review that the breadsticks were like giant pretzel sticks and tasted great with nacho cheese sauce so I got those and a thin crust sausage pizza.  The pizza was nothing to be marveled at.  The breadsticks, while they did have a pretzel-like quality to them, weren't that great.  I was pretty underwhelmed.

10/23/15: I ate in the cafeteria at Millikin University today in Decatur, IL where I enjoyed one piece of cheese pizza along with mashed potatoes and a milkshake.  It made me miss caf food and at the same time, made me happy we don't have an all-you-can-eat caf at St. Kate's like we did at Winona.  I literally ate nothing but pizza for about a year's worth of lunches in Winona because I didn't love my other options (although they were vast and there were many other things I should have eaten).  The milkshake was a nice touch.  On my way home I had McDonald's breakfast (for lunch!) and Culver's cheese curds for dinner.

10/24/15: Home sweet home!  I threw a Red Baron sausage and pepperoni pizza in the oven for lunch.  I forgot to take a picture of it but it was pretty tasty.  I've actually been impressed by the Red Baron frozen pizzas.  I had LeeAnn Chin for dinner- I was really craving Chinese food.

10/25/15: I made PastaRoni shells & cheese for lunch today.  It was pretty gross.  My intent on making the mac & cheese was to use the leftovers for pizza for dinner sometime this week but since I didn't really like it all that much, I was worried about how it would taste on pizza.  The good news is that my motto remains true- if you put enough cheese on it, anything will taste good.  I used a pre-made thin pizza crust, brushed it with olive oil, put down a foundation of shredded mozzarella then topped it with the leftover mac & cheese.  I then chopped up a bunch of white cheddar Ellsworth cheese curds and sprinkled those on top with the remaining mozz.  When the pizza was done, I sprinkled my Tastefully Simple pizzeria seasoning on top and voila!  It was SO GOOD.  I impress myself sometimes.

10/26/15: Red Baron sausage & pepperoni leftovers for lunch.  For DINNER I made a delicious half & half pizza- half baked potato, half cheese curd.  I "baked" potatoes in the microwave then mashed them up with butter and a little cream.  I then dusted the pizza dough with mozzarella, smooshed the potatoes over half the crust, added bacon and cheddar cheese then topped it with Tastefully Simple Onion Onion seasoning as I had no onions.  For the other half, I tossed a bunch of cheese curds on the dough and dumped the rest of the mozzarella cheese on it.  I sprinkled Tastefully Simple Pizzeria seasoning on top of that for some extra flavor.  I enjoyed fresh baked potato pizza with a dollop of sour cream for dinner!

10/27/15: Leftover day! Mac & cheese pizza for lunch.  Cheese curd pizza for dinner.

10/28/15: Leftover day part 2!  Baked potato & cheese curd pizza for lunch.  Red Baron sausage & pepperoni pizza for dinner.   As I was falling asleep last night I realized that while I've been eating pizza as I planned, I definitely haven't been working out as planned.  I looked online to see how much I need to exercise to burn off the calories from one piece of pizza (~275 calories).  It looks like I have a lot of running (47 minutes/550 calories), biking (59 minutes/550 calories), walking (72 minutes/550 calories) to do in my near future.  One site suggested 60 minutes of fast-paced ballroom or swing dancing to burn off 290 calories (one slice).  I haven't weighed myself in a while- I'll check on that and incorporate some exercise into my daily routine ASAP.