Where's the Foie Gras and Duck Confit?

For those of you that don't know, I have enrolled in a Culinary Arts degree program at my local junior college. The impetus was to begin a transition into recipe development as an occupation at some point; either that or next Top or Iron Chef... we'll see. I am taking one to two classes a semester because I still work full-time in my adult-job and am in no hurry to leave. At this rate it should take me five to six years to get the degree. Perhaps, I can delay a little longer until my mid-life crisis kicks in so that I can begin my fun non-adult job to cope rather than purchase a Porsche or get an earring. If I do get an earring I promise it won't be a douchey gold hoop and I still might get a Porsche because, let's face it, they're rad! Okay, back to reality. 

This semester I am taking Sanitation & Safety and Nutrition. The former feels as though I'm jumping through a giant three hour hoop every Tuesday, although I'm mildly fond of my quirky and forgetful professor (she is a foodie after all). On the other hand, my nutrition class is very informative and has inspired me to examine, very closely, what comprises my typical daily intake. As much as I enjoy rich and flavor loaded cuisine, I am very conscious of what we eat on a regular basis. My basic, self-imposed, dietary guidelines go something like this: only whole grain, low starch veggies, a variety of lots and lots of vegetables, very little meat, low fat dairy, and two to three servings of fruit a day. We usually indulge one day on the weekends but try to remain cognizant of proper portion sizes. So hear I go, with a confident ignorance, to complete a Nutrition assignment to track our daily intake and compare it to the USDA recommendations. Sure I'm consuming just enough calories and all of the proper nutrients, I start the count and MAN do I put the calories down. Most of my nutrient sources are good choices; my total calorie intake, not so good. I wanted to see what my daily recommended intake physically looked like on display so that's what I did this weekend.

whole-grain bread, woven wheat crackers, quinoa, tomato, red onion, carrots, cucumber, lettuce, yogurt, feta cheese, jack cheese, milk, cannellini beans, eggs, pinto beans, hummus, olive oil, blueberry pomegranate juice, apple, plum, banana

It looked to me like this should sustain me for an entire day... the problem is that I really enjoy eating and tasting. My theory for my frequent calorie overage is that I am not getting enough carbs. You can see that I have about 150 more grams of carbs for maneuvering, granted I decrease in other areas to maintain the 3000 calorie limit and make sure they are complex carbs. I'll get back to you about this experiment after some time. On another note, I made some delicious beet chips from these beautiful organic beets from Amy (thanks again!). I was planning on taking some beets to work with me on Monday for her to try but they didn't make it. One batch was olive oil and sea salt and the other was olive oil, chili powder, and brown sugar. Sorry Amy. If you didn't give me such delicious beets they may have made it to work with me for you to try... and be underwhelmed with. I've got one more beet and intend to make another batch, I'm not promising they'll make it to work with me but I'll try.