Day Three hundred and seventy-nine

Pink breakfast: Bob's Red Mill hot (gluten-free) cereal with strawberries and a drizzle of chocolate syrup.

School lunch: Cottage cheese, popcorn with almonds, a blueberry lunchpail muffin (from the freezer; recipe: Eat Clean Diet for Families and Kids), celery, and prunes.

Day Fifty-three

Preserving herbs: Basil (in olive oil). This is the last of my basil plant for the season... I'll miss fresh herbs!

Lunch: Pizza muffins (whole grain english muffins, tomato sauce with pureed butternut squash mixed in, and light mozzarella), salad, and prunes

Dinner: Chicken rice soup (crockpot; recipe: Make it Fast, Cook it Slow). This recipe didn't work out for my crockpot, which tends to cook too hot. The brown rice dissolved into a blob and it came out more like mush than soup. Thankfully, my kids liked it anyway.

Day Forty-nine

Dinner: Spinach salad (hard-boiled eggs; croutons made from the whole wheat bread I made a few days ago; steamed carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower; red pepper; chinese noodles, and avocado. Afterwards: grapes and prunes.