Saturday 18 November - Iowa Odyssey

Part of the reason for choosing the Super-8 Motel was that I could get a room with a microwave and fridge. There were several reason for wanting this:

• Iowa is not very veggie friendly; you don't find many meals that are not meat oriented
• wanting to eat more veggies and fruit. Most Iowas seem to eat potatoes. Uh, that's it.
• wanting to control better what I eat
• wanting to save some money by not eating out at every meal

Super-8's have something called a "SuperStart Plus Breakfast including Fresh Belgium Waffles" included in the price. This is fairly typical of the preponderant Iowa attitude towards food (except minus the big ticket meat items).

The breakfast selection comprised

• said Belgian Waffles which you bake yourself from premade batter
• individual portions of Kellogg's' cereals
• bread, English muffins, bagels
• doughnuts, pound cake, Danish pastries
• coffee, tea milk
• apple or orange juice
• oatmeal

I was actually surprised to see the oats, as they were the real McCoy as well - not some sachet if instant crap, but real oats. A challenge for microwave cookery!

Super-8 Breakfast Room

Anyway, there was virtually nothing fresh to eat. There were a few apples and oranges, but they looked like they had been there since Hector was a pup.

Anyway, I had a plain bagel with some Philadelphia, a maple iced doughnut (yummy but nutritionally void), lashing of coffee and part of an apple that turned out to be old and mushy.

Met up with brother and then went to see Mum in the nursing - doing much better, thank goodness.

Then we went to a supermarket called Fare Way which Ian likes 'cause it's cheap. And is is, and the selection was OK, so I went shopping and loaded up on fruit and veggies and a few items like bits of cheese, tins of chick peas etc.

Back at the hotel, I had a salad of lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and some cucumber with Kraft Fat Free Ranch, my dressing of choice when in the US is various hotels (had the same when in NYC in April and when back in Davenport in January, too).

I had something called Michelina's Budget Gourmet Fettuccine Alfredo with Four Cheese for the main. Not bad calorie wise (300 calories in a 227g/8 oz packet), but it was pretty bland. I guess that is what you get from nuked "ready meals"; I don't normally eat them and don't have a microwave at home.

Dinner was a big salad of lettuce, cherry toms, chick peas, spring onions and broccoli slaw with a decidedly unhealthy bag of Fritos Chili Cheese Flavored Corn Chips.

Yum - Frito's always remind me of my Mom's standard Friday supper which was tuna fish salad and Fritos.