To fry or not to fry

After living in Panama for 3 months now I can officially say with confidence that Panamanians love their fried food!  Eggs.........fried, bread...........fried, chicken...........fried, fish...........fried, plantains..............also fried.  Basically my fried food intake has increased 99% since being in Panama.  Now I wouldn't consider myself a  health nut or anything, but I rarely ate fried food in the States.  Brennan and I were fairly health conscious of what we put in our bodies and where our food came from.  We haven't completely lost our food values since being in Panama, but it's just much harder to practice healthy eating habits when the options are limited. 


We've been living with a host family who owns a restaurant and doesn't have a kitchen in their house so we eat all of our meals at their restaurant.  Since there isn't a refrigerator in the house we can't store any of our own food to eat, for example if I just wanted a bowl of cereal with milk for breakfast or to store some jelly for a sandwich.  This makes our ability to choose healthy options vs fried options close to impossible.  In a small way I can relate to the guy from Super Size Me.  We've gone from rarely eating  fried food to the complete opposite extreme of eating it everyday for every meal.  

Breakfast

Lunch option #1

Lunch option #2

Dinner option #1 (we got a special surprise of salad and avocado this night!)

Dinner option #2 (non fried out of the ordinary)

Now let me make it clear that our host family is so generous with feeding us and the food is generally really good (which makes it harder not to eat) and we feel very blessed to be well feed. Though we miss the luxury of endless food options in the States,  Brennan and I are extremely grateful for our families hospitality and generosity.  That said, I do want people to know how every aspect of our experience is affecting us and that includes food. It's been a month and a half now with our host family and this eating style is affecting me.  My energy level has been low, my body never feels great after the meals, and lets just say my pants are tighter than when I first arrived in Panama (Brennan has probably put on some pounds too but he's not complaining). Anyway, my dilemma is that I don't want to offend my host family with always turning down meals, but on the other hand I'm a little paranoid about my health.  Where do you draw the line when it comes to your health?


As for now all I can do is to continue to be grateful that we are being fed while dreaming of what we'll eat once we move into our own place and have our own kitchen (which is in June!).  


Some of the first things I'm going to make are: 
Breakfast: oatmeal, chai tea, hard boiled egg, french toast, granola and yogurt
Lunch: gigantic salad, fruit salad (there are so many yummy fruits to choose  
from), banana bread
Dinner: steamed veggies, fish tacos, baked chicken, quinoa (if I am lucky enough 
to find it in the grocery store)


If any of you have great healthy recipes (with basic ingredients because I have no idea what I'll be able to find in the grocery stores) please send them my way!