(no subject)
So anyone who's seen me recently and isn't actually getting married has probably heard about both of my major obsessions right now. (Well maybe there are three, but one is a corollary).
1.) Hoops. Big heavy weighted hula hoops. As soon as my lunch talks about staying quietly inside of me, I'll probably got out and play for fifteen minutes. The good news is that I can keep the thing up and rotating around my waist in either direction. I also have not bruised myself yet (probably because my hoops are still lighter than the average adult hoops), although I did make a strong effort to bite my tongue off last night trying to hoop around my neck. And I can even walk a little bit with a hoop going. The bad news, is that I'm impatient and get easily frustrated if things don't get easier very quickly. I need to continue trying to keep this interest going.
2.) My CSA box. This is week three, and I'm already noticing a few things. I get a lot of salad now. I'm getting faster/smarter about my monday night meal prep. I have this complicated system, I find out on friday what items will likely be in my box. The next day or so, I figure out what I want to make out of those items. Sunday I hit up the grocery store. Monday I rocket out of work at 5pm, to go pick up my box. And then I rush home and start water boiling, the oven going, chopping, slicing, roasting. I'm adding more fresh herbs then I've used in total before this. I'm forcing myself to like tomatoes and some of my other dislike foods. (I've had more summer squash over the last few weeks, than I've eaten in total before). The first week I finished cooking at 10:30, last night I was done at 9. This is probably in part due to the repetitive nature of seasonality, so far while the boxes aren't exactly the same, they are very similar. So all three weeks I've mostly relied on very similar dishes, giving me a better chance to actually cook them properly, try out some modifications (some very unsuccessful), and see what there is to learn.
This CSA thing has caused some other changes. I'm back on the mostly vegetarian accidental wagon. When you have a box of veggies as big as your torso, and you cook for your entire week on monday night, using a vegetarian cookbook, you just don't add meat. I may try to work in more eggs, but I tend to beleive that between the mild I drink, the cheese, and the wide array of whole grains and veggies....I'm getting enough protein. And meat is just a pain, it has to be handled carefully, cooked carefully, stored carefully, etc. And I was never good with cooking meat anyway. So all my meat comes from meals out, a status that I am fine with. Since I do a lot of cooking, I've even started making my own bechemel sauces, poaching fruit, some real expansions (once again, made easier by not having to deal with meat safety). I also have a cute little lunchbox system. But since I eat so many veggies without a lot of stuff, I eat pretty big lunches now. I do get home cooked lunch every day at work, and I only have to spend about ten minutes every night, packing it up.
Poached Asian pears (in syrup and once in wine)
Fresh apples
tomato soup (finally got a palatable version last night)
lettuce all the time
Spicy corn and tomato pasta (liked the corn, will ditch the pasta next time)
Spinach and millet chowder
Summer Squash and brown rice gratin
Roasted carrots, potatos, and turnips with thyme
tomato and herb biscuits
Braised radishes
Marinated radishes
Grapes
Cauliflower gratin with onions and tomatillos
And I think that's all I've tried over the last three weeks.
Now I want to go U-picking some weekend. Chill out, get more produce. I've definitely been trying to focus on fresh veggies and whole grains that aren't wheat, and I feel pretty good (except when I crack and eat very poorly!).
1.) Hoops. Big heavy weighted hula hoops. As soon as my lunch talks about staying quietly inside of me, I'll probably got out and play for fifteen minutes. The good news is that I can keep the thing up and rotating around my waist in either direction. I also have not bruised myself yet (probably because my hoops are still lighter than the average adult hoops), although I did make a strong effort to bite my tongue off last night trying to hoop around my neck. And I can even walk a little bit with a hoop going. The bad news, is that I'm impatient and get easily frustrated if things don't get easier very quickly. I need to continue trying to keep this interest going.
2.) My CSA box. This is week three, and I'm already noticing a few things. I get a lot of salad now. I'm getting faster/smarter about my monday night meal prep. I have this complicated system, I find out on friday what items will likely be in my box. The next day or so, I figure out what I want to make out of those items. Sunday I hit up the grocery store. Monday I rocket out of work at 5pm, to go pick up my box. And then I rush home and start water boiling, the oven going, chopping, slicing, roasting. I'm adding more fresh herbs then I've used in total before this. I'm forcing myself to like tomatoes and some of my other dislike foods. (I've had more summer squash over the last few weeks, than I've eaten in total before). The first week I finished cooking at 10:30, last night I was done at 9. This is probably in part due to the repetitive nature of seasonality, so far while the boxes aren't exactly the same, they are very similar. So all three weeks I've mostly relied on very similar dishes, giving me a better chance to actually cook them properly, try out some modifications (some very unsuccessful), and see what there is to learn.
This CSA thing has caused some other changes. I'm back on the mostly vegetarian accidental wagon. When you have a box of veggies as big as your torso, and you cook for your entire week on monday night, using a vegetarian cookbook, you just don't add meat. I may try to work in more eggs, but I tend to beleive that between the mild I drink, the cheese, and the wide array of whole grains and veggies....I'm getting enough protein. And meat is just a pain, it has to be handled carefully, cooked carefully, stored carefully, etc. And I was never good with cooking meat anyway. So all my meat comes from meals out, a status that I am fine with. Since I do a lot of cooking, I've even started making my own bechemel sauces, poaching fruit, some real expansions (once again, made easier by not having to deal with meat safety). I also have a cute little lunchbox system. But since I eat so many veggies without a lot of stuff, I eat pretty big lunches now. I do get home cooked lunch every day at work, and I only have to spend about ten minutes every night, packing it up.
Poached Asian pears (in syrup and once in wine)
Fresh apples
tomato soup (finally got a palatable version last night)
lettuce all the time
Spicy corn and tomato pasta (liked the corn, will ditch the pasta next time)
Spinach and millet chowder
Summer Squash and brown rice gratin
Roasted carrots, potatos, and turnips with thyme
tomato and herb biscuits
Braised radishes
Marinated radishes
Grapes
Cauliflower gratin with onions and tomatillos
And I think that's all I've tried over the last three weeks.
Now I want to go U-picking some weekend. Chill out, get more produce. I've definitely been trying to focus on fresh veggies and whole grains that aren't wheat, and I feel pretty good (except when I crack and eat very poorly!).