As always, the original assignment is posted at Outpost Mâvarin. Write about it in your journal or blog, and then go over there and leave a link in comments.

Weekend Assignment #201: To promote a new cooking show, a TV station is going to pay you $500 to eat the same basic meal every day for a week, prepared with only minor variations by their on-screen host. What’s on the menu? (Now, when I say “same basic meal,” I don’t mean a chicken Caesar salad one night, a cob salad the next. I mean seven of the same kind of salad, with maybe different croutons on Day Five, and a different variety of lettuce on Day Six.)

Extra credit: Do you tend to eat the same thing all the time anyway?

“Are we eating that again?”

If that’s a problem, you’re free to find something else to eat, because yes, we’re eating that again.

I do tend to eat pretty much the same things most of the time. Breakfast is usually yogurt, oatmeal, and a banana. The lunch I pack for work nearly every day has a sandwich (on whole-grain bread, with low-fat cheese and lean cold cuts), a “100-calorie-pack” bag of chips, and a couple of pieces of fruit. Having been a Weight Watchers member for over four years now, I’ve pretty well acclimated myself to the philosophy that “it’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle.” For me, adhering to that lifestyle most of the time requires a fair amount of consistency and predictability in my food choices. I’ve learned what foods will satisfy me without blowing my “points plan,” and I’ve learned that some foods aren’t worth going off the wagon for. (Some are, though – I call them my favorite mistakes.)

However, ever since I was a kid I’ve said that I could happily eat pasta every day, so it looks like this will be my chance to test that out. I’ll ask the chef for pasta – multigrain, please, just to rein in the carbs a little – with chicken. The variations would be in the shape of the pasta, the sauces, and anything else mixed in with them. The pasta might be part of a side dish to the chicken one day, they might be combined in a casserole another day, or tossed with vegetables on yet another day. I’d also like a simple mixed-greens salad to accompany it – vinaigrette dressing on the side. May I have dessert with that too? I’d like a brownie – I’ll happily jump right off the wagon for a brownie.

I think the best part of this would be having someone else do the cooking…that’s a very small price to pay for eating the same thing every day for a week. Well, honestly, the best part would be getting paid $500 to have someone else do the cooking for a week!

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