Day 1: In which I realize that I've been spending way too much money on mediocre yogurt

Day 1 went pretty well, but I never expected this day to be the real challenge. I'll know what I'm really made of when I'm staring down a marscapone cannoli in Isgro's bakery on Good Friday, desperate to buy a dozen, but settling for just the incredible smell.

One thing this project has already begun to teach me is to become completely dependent upon my cooking skills, and especially later on, my creativity with the ingredients that I already have. Today, for instance, I made four quarts of organic yogurt, two quarts of homemade granola, and a large batch of sauteed broccoli rabe with loads of garlic. I've got to admit, to say that I was impressed with my first gallon of homemade organic yogurt and my two perfect quarts of granola is putting it mildly. I was actually bouncing when I showed my friend Mike my culinary accomplishments, saying, "See?! Isn't this impressive? And this is just Day 1, Mike!" To which he responded, "Greeeeaaat..." But I come from a long line of adventurous cooks. My sister Kim actually made an entire vegan "turkey" out of vital wheat gluten and wrapped the whole thing in the skins that formed on the top of cooked soy milk. It sounds gross, but it actually tasted fantastic. My sister Christina is infamous for having made soup using pretzels instead of noodles. That tasted...interesting...

The broccoli rabe kind of backfired on me, though. When you take a burp-inducing vegetable, saute it with lots of garlic, and then go to work out for an hour, you will _NOT_ be popular with the gym crowd. It doesn't matter how many times you discreetly blow said-garlicky burps out of the corner of your mouth...that stuff peeeeeermeeeeaaaates. But I really can't feel too bad about it because the dish itself was worth every look of disgust that the Villers shot my way.

Anyway, here's what I ate today:

Breakfast: Oatmeal with maple syrup
Lunch: Peanut Butter sandwich with Ezekiel bread; apple
Dinner: Sauteed broccoli rabe with garlic and chili flakes served over brown rice fusili and topped with parmesan cheese.
Snack: homemade organic yogurt topped with frozen blueberries, frozen cherries, and a sprinkling of homemade granola and honey

In case you're wondering, homemade yogurt is totally worth the effort