I would have never thought in a million years.......

My nights between five and eleven are starting to become predictable and some might say mundane. But, I do not seem to mind very much. Ideal Protein has given me a regulated meal schedule, so when five o' clock rolls around my stomach provides an internal dinner bell. I'm lucky that my boyfriend is enjoying my dinner creations (for the most part) so we don't have to deal with making two meals and two messes in the kitchen. Last night though, we were on our own. He made scrambled eggs with veggies for himself and I opted to have leftover grilled pork and sautéed red cabbage. Nothing very exciting nor that appealing to the taste buds, but I was absolutely famished. I've never been a big fan of red cabbage, but my diet doesn't allow for the green variety.

I shredded a half a head of the red cabbage and simply sautéed it with some olive oil, sea salt and black pepper. When it was about done, I added about 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar and continued to cook it until it was tender. I should qualify by saying that I really like vinegar, so if you're not a big fan you should probably steer clear of this one.

I prepared my dinner plate with about a cup of cooked cabbage and the re-heated pork. Everything tasted so good, that I decided my night wouldn't be complete without a second cup of cabbage. This incidentally would have covered my two cups of veggies for my meal.

After working my way through the second helping of my purple and vinegary creation, I felt stuffed. The kind of stuffed that the old me would have felt after eating five (or on a bad night more) pieces of Godfather's pizza. I would have never guessed in a million years that I could overdose on vegetables. I just never considered veggies to be filling and satisfying, but boy was I wrong. Needless to say, my stomach was not pleased with my choice and instead of saying, "Thank you, I was hungry", I heard and felt something more like "Don't ever do this again!" The rest of my evening was spent attending to groaning and moaning sounds that were billowing from my abdomen while lying in bed reading a book.

Note to self: NEVER overindulge in cabbage, especially of the red variety.

So the moral of my story is that overindulgence of any kind may give the illusion of satisfaction for the moment, but we rarely feel that way later on. Mae West said, "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful!" I can think of some things that may fit that bill here, but I can safely say that she wasn't referring to red cabbage!

Tonight, I'm trying two new recipes. I've been having powerful cravings for Mexican food. Instead of wonderful Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas, I'm going to try making a jalapeno chimichurri sauce for some grilled sirloin steaks and spicy mashed cauliflower on the side. The meal sounds more Argentinean to me, but it should definitely have some spice!