Slowing Down
So, I was really looking forward to having this whole week off (including Fri last week and Mon next week) - I never have that much time off without it meaning that we're traveling somewhere. I had all these grand plans, like Clean The Whole House! Start Setting Up the Baby's Room! Make All the Home Repairs You've Ever Thought Of! Things like that.

So far I have.... watched daytime tv, done a lot of laundry, cleaned up from all the holiday festivities, napped, and ate chocolate ice cream out of the container while watching the soap opera I used to watch in college (which, btw, I thought had been cancelled but was magically still on today!) I have also spent countless hours researching cloth diapers, strollers, car seats, and all the different contraptions for baby-wearing. Then I needed another nap.

So, not quite as productive as I had been hoping, but not terrible, either. We had game night at the house last night, which was fun, and tonight it's too darn rainy to go out and see a movie, so I think I'll stay home and maybe watch one of the DVD's we got for Christmas. Or, more episodes of How I Met Your M0ther, which is one of my favorites right now, and available on demand.

I do still hope to get my bedroom thoroughly cleaned this week, and a lot of stuff thrown away or put into boxes to donate. I am quickly moving into nesting mode, but I won't have access to the nursery until P moves out (in less than 2 weeks! I think we should all take a cruise to celebrate). THEN I can start nesting in earnest when I can access that room and start moving the furniture in there and figuring out what else I want to get/decorate/make, etc. That will be the fun part.

Also, I need to stop eating like it's still The Holidays and start a) eating healthier and b) eating stuff out of the freezer and pantry. Somehow we seem to have acquired a lot of random food things over the holidays and I'm feeling overrun with stuff. So, here is my plan for the rest of the week - since I'll be home all week, I'll probably end up snacking on random things throughout the day, so this list includes random things that I need to eat up that don't really fit nicely into a square meal (that's such a weird phrase). For instance, I have 2 bags of fresh cranberries from the CSA I need to do something with, so those will make a few appearances.

Breakfasts: scones with lemon curd, cranberry-apple crisp

Random snacking or lunch additions: broccoli slaw, carrot-raisin salad, all kinds of cheese with crackers and my Spanish fig and almond balls (leftover from Christmas party, and apparently can keep for 2 months), yogurt w/ fruit, clementines

Lunches: some of the random things above plus whatever I can find to clear out of the freezer and pantry: veggie burgers, etc


Dinner:
Tuesday: tilapia, mashed potatoes, peas
Wednesday: at trivia, maybe pulled pork sandwich
Thursday: broccoli and cheese quiche, baked butternut squash with cranberries
Friday: leftover quiche and squash
Saturday: I’ll see if I can make something fancy out of the contents of the freezer. Apparently we have no plans for New Years (what?!? I already bought a sparkly top!)

Waiting Game
So.... I made a report to the manager of staff and labor relations in the HR department of the organization that dismissed me from my job due to my pregnancy. That person is going to research what laws/statutes might apply in this case (I don't qualify for the standard family leave protections because of my very part-time status), and he is going to contact my supervisor to discuss it with her. We'll see what happens. If she is forced to keep me on for the spring, it's not really going to be a pleasant working environment for me, but if I'm fighting for that I guess I need to follow through and do the job. If she's not forced to keep me on but has to respond to an HR inquiry, she's probably not going to hire me back for next year. But really? I've decided that I'm willing to walk away from this because it's 100% wrong and discriminatory, even if it turns out to not be illegal. I don't want to work for someone who discriminates against women, even if it was a good job otherwise.

Really?!?
It's 2011. I was just told that I can not return to my 3rd (and least significant, financially speaking, but really enjoyable and satisfying) job in the spring because of my pregnancy. I protested, in writing. They said it's easier for everyone this way and they're sticking to their decision. But they do hope I'll return in September.

Seriously?!? Because the way I see it, I either walk away from this full of fury and disgust, or I freaking call your HR department and cause a big stink. Either way, I'm pretty sure I'm not working for you in September.

I think smoke may literally be coming out of my ears. Is that possible? I think it might be. I've seen it on cartoons.

So... yeah. And now, in an attempt to soothe my furious anger.... I am making my MIL watch the Daily Show. Schadenfreude.

Inching My Way.....
toward maternity clothes. I bought one pair of maternity jeans, one pair of maternity black pants, and one maternity dress over the weekend. As I was trying them on I was thinking "damn, these are some comfy pants!" Which, of course, is because it feels like you're wearing pajamas. Who wouldn't want to wear pajamas to work?

Still, I can't quite bring myself to wear them in public yet. I also ordered a bella band, which in my understanding allows you to wear your regular pants... unbuttoned. Which I also can not imagine doing in public. I'm sure my bella band would ride up and my pants would fall down and I probably wouldn't even know it. Lol.

Anyway, so..... tonight I am taking a step toward wearing maternity clothes in public. Tonight I am going to wear a new pair of pants to trivia...I don't even know what to call them. Refined Stretch Pants is what the catalog calls them. They're kind of like yoga pants, only nicer. I'm wearing them with my nice work shirt, so people probably won't even be able to tell that they're not my usual black work pants. They're kind of nice. And knit. With an elastic waistband. :) I've been wearing my regular jeans still, and last week at trivia I was just uncomfortable the whole night, so I'm going to try this. It feels wrong to be wearing elastic-waist pants somewhere other than my couch or the gym. I hope no one laughs at me. Except you guys. You can laugh at me.

In other news, our 5-year-long renter finally has a move-out date (Jan 7). Huzzah! Reclaiming of the rest of our house back! Yippee!

TGIThanksgiving Week
Things at work have been super busy and intense and requiring of extra hours in the evenings and weekends to respond to campus emergencies, which is fairly unusual for us. We typically have one issue per year like this, and for some reason we have had multiple events all at the same time (literally, within days). It's kind of exhausting trying to make sure I'm staying on top of all the details of each crisis. Last Monday I woke up and thought "phew, at least this is a short week." It didn't take long for me to realize that last week was NOT Thanksgiving week, and I actually had to put in another full week before we got a brief break. Sigh.

Anyway, NOW we get a short week. Whoo hoo! We're getting out early on Wed, and the seminar I lead has been canceled for this week, and there really won't be many students around at all on Wednesday, so I'm looking forward to using that day to catch up on paperwork and organize my office and wipe down everything with sanitizing wipes so that when I come back after the holiday everything will be ready to go for the mad dash to winter break.

Back at home, I'm still working my way through the freezer and cabinets, and just filling in with the fresh things we really need, like milk and some produce. The apples from the farmer's market every week are phenomenal. One vendor has 2 tables full of varieties I've never heard of, and I've been trying a few new ones each week. We don't have to cook Thanksgiving dinner this year, but my menu is still full of the fall/holiday flavors that I love: pumpkin, sweet potato, cauliflower, carrots, apples, etc. Yum.

Breakfasts: raisin bran muffins
Mid-morning snacks: apple w/ almond butter
Lunches: Pumpkin Soup
Afternoon snacks: double milk smoothie (milk, dry milk, yogurt, fruit)

Dinner:
Sunday: stuffed salmon, roasted cauliflower, carrot-sweet potato mash
Monday: pork chops w/ pecan glaze, leftover carrot-sweet potato mash, peas
Tuesday: chili night
Wednesday: at trivia, maybe pizza
Thursday: Thanksgiving!
Friday: Out , for T’s birthday
Saturday: Thanksgiving leftovers

Spoke too soon
Ha - my last post was about how nice it was to have a snowy weekend stuck indoors to be able to relax and do very little. That did not last beyond the weekend, as the weekend snow knocked out my in-laws' power and they had to come stay with us for most of the week. Whatever thoughts I had about a menu plan for last week went quickly out the window, and we made do with what we could find enough of for 4 people instead of 2, and even picked up a rotisserie chicken one night.

This weekend I finished reading a book about how to eat well when you're expecting, and I'm trying to incorporate some of those suggestions into my meal planning for this week. I probably have not been getting enough calcium, since I don't like to drink milk. I have been having one serving with my breakfast (cereal or oatmeal made with milk), and one yogurt at lunch, but I'm supposed to be getting 4-5 servings a day. I picked up some dry milk powder today and plan to make double-milk smoothies for my morning snacks this week. That will pack in 3 milk servings in one dish since it also has yogurt in it.

The thing is, though.....that I can't figure out how to wrap my brain around strictly following any of these plans. I have the plan from the book, which tells me how many servings of Vit C, milk, leafy greens, yellow veg, protein, etc, etc, etc I'm supposed to have per day. Then I also have the plan from my nutritionist, which is a little bit less rigid (ie, it tells me how many servings of fruit, veg, protein, etc but doesn't specify leafy greens, yellow veg, other colored veg/fruit, etc). It's too much to follow both or either of these plans strictly and I'm just not motivated enough to write down every single thing I eat every day and check off my 6 servings of this and 2 servings of that and 3 of that. So, I've read the books, I get the basic idea - and my plan is to try to stick with whole foods as much as possible, increase my calcium, try to eat a variety of nutrients, eat mostly whole grains, pack in as many double-duty items as possible (ie, those that have both protein and whole grains, or both Vit C and yellow veg, etc). And more fiber (uh, yeah....) And that's about it. So, honestly, it's not that much different than the way I usually eat, but it is different from how I had been eating in the first trimester because I just could not cook anything and only wanted pizza. :)

So, here's my plan for this week. It also reflects that I *really* want to eat down the pantry and freezer. I would love to get it closer to half-empty so that I can start thinking about making and freezing food that we can eat when I'm super-prego and tired and not wanting to cook again, and foods that I can freeze for after Baby arrives and I'm too tired and still not wanting to cook.

Breakfasts: baked pumpkin oatmeal with apples, raisins and dried apricots
Mid-morning snacks: double-milk smoothie (milk, dry milk, yogurt, frozen fruit)
Lunches: turkey corn chowder, yogurt, grapes
Afternoon snacks: apple with peanut butter or a cheese stick

Dinner:
Monday: pork chops, pierogies, caramelized onions
Tuesday: stuffed salmon, roasted cauliflower, baked sweet potato
Wednesday: at trivia, maybe pizza
Thursday: scrambled eggs, bacon, toast
Friday: maybe out, have a gift card to local gastropub
Saturday: ham loaf, pumpkin penne pasta, green salad
Sunday: out

Winter reprieve
Well, T and I were supposed to spend much of this weekend helping his parents clean out out their house. Because of the snow, we ended up staying home unexpectedly. So, for the first time in a very long time, I had a whole day with nothing (planned) to do. I stayed in bed later than I'd care to admit, listening to the classical public radio station. I sat on the couch and watched PBS while surfing the internet. I shopped online for T's birthday gifts. I cooked a delicious roasted cauliflower sformato. I did laundry. I watched the giant snowflakes stream by the windows all day. It was a really nice way to spend a Saturday.

I'm still trying to get back to a more normal eating pattern. I did a little better this week with eating more homemade food and less prepared food. I had a few good days where I felt pretty good, but then a few more days of being sick again... overall I think I'm definitely having more days of not being sick, which is a relief. So, here's my plan for this coming week:

Breakfasts: egg sandwich: egg whites with spinach and cheese on a low-carb whole wheat tortilla
Mid-morning snacks: apple w/ almond butter
Lunches: minestrone, green salad, greek yogurt
Afternoon snacks: cheese and nuts

Dinner:
Sunday: Pork chops, homemade applesauce, roasted cauliflower sformato
Monday: haddock, roasted cauliflower sformato, peas
Tuesday: potato soup
Wednesday: at trivia, maybe pizza
Thursday: stuffed salmon, baked sweet potato, green beans
Friday: maybe out
Saturday: maybe at Pumpkin Chunkin – so, pot-luck

Ok, so here's the deal
I'm having a baby! And for the last two months I have been sick as sick can be, so I have not cooked a single thing, and I have been going to bed at 9pm and going to a million doctor appointments and just generally being exhausted. None of which make for good blogging fodder.

But... I am finally starting to feel a little bit better and feel hopeful about getting back to some semblance of a life that does not involve throwing up 6 times a day. Yay!

So.... today I cleaned out most of the fridge (exciting, I know.) I am still avoiding the second veggie drawer, where I know there are months worth of beets and who knows what else languishing. I can't face that one yet. Most of the rest of the CSA veg was thrown into a big pot of soup this afternoon, which will be my lunch for the rest of the week: carrots, onions, celery, garlic, potatoes, sweet potatoes, kale, tomatoes, chickpeas and a parm cheese rind. So, my take on "clean out the veggies" minestrone. And something healthy, for a change.

I have to admit that while I started reading a book on healthy eating during pregnancy.... as soon as I started getting sick, I couldn't read about food anymore. I didn't cook anything (at all) for the last two months. I had a fit of motivation 2 weeks ago and made a big dish of baked oatmeal with caramelized bananas, which I ate for breakfast every day for 2 weeks. But that was it. We have been eating a crazy amount of TJ's prepared foods.... frozen meals, cans of chili over baked potatoes, and lots and lots of pizza. I have been wanting pizza, oh, all the time.

But, now that I am starting to feel a teensy bit better, I want to make it a priority to start eating better. Like I used to. I have never been a big junk food eater (junk meaning prepared foods, pizza, everything I've been eating for the last two months), and now is not the time to get stuck in that pattern. So, today I made homemade applesauce and a gianganto pot of veggie soup. I'm going to make a big thing of pumpkin oatmeal before the night is over (this time just with cinnamon and pumpkin - no sugar or caramelized bananas as it was too sweet last time and I don't need the sugar). So, my breakfasts and lunches with be prepared ahead of time and I can start working on clearing out the freezer of some of the better things that are stored in there.

Whoo!

So, we're having a baby. Did I mention that part? :)

What did I used to do?
It didn't take me very long to get quite bored without my husband around. What did I used to do to occupy myself? I mean, I know there was always grad school stuff, but that certainly wasn't fun. I remember mutual tv-watching phone dates (um, Trading Spaces, Boy Meets World anyone? Lol). I know I watched a lot of stand-up comedy, but that's not appealing to me anymore. I spent some time cleaning this morning. Did laundry. Made a giant fruit salad. Went to a work BBQ. But now it's Sat evening and I still have 9 days until he returns and I'm just bored. I can't continue watching our shows on Netflix because he doesn't want to miss any episodes (we're on Big Bang Theory Season 2 right now. Ha. That show cracks me up). There are plenty of things I *could* do. I have some reports to write for work. The house can always use more cleaning. But it's kind of hard to have fun by yourself and I'm tired of watching the tv. Bleh. Apparently I need a new hobby. :)

Getting back on track
I have been eating like crud lately. First Todd was in San Fran for a week, and I didn't feel like cooking a big dinner just for myself, so I ate a lot of TJ's prepared foods that week. Then there were all of the Labor Day BBQs, and for some reason I have just been craving pizza all the time for the last few weeks. Cold, hot, from the pizza place, from the freezer, doesn't matter. I'm on a pizza kick right now. But I realized that I wasn't going to get back on track if I didn't get back to a plan, so here we go. My attempt to return to my normal eating habits instead of turning into the take-out, freezer-meal kind of person that has been present for the last couple of weeks.

Breakfasts: egg sandwich: egg beaters and tomatoes on Flat Round
Mid-morning snacks: peach-banana smoothie
Lunches: butternut squash soup
Afternoon snacks: almond butter on popcorn cakes

Dinner:
Monday: Labor Day burgers and such
Tuesday: pizza, leftovers from Labor Day BBQ (this is where the bad habits stop)
Wednesday: at trivia, maybe soup and edemame
Thursday: scrambled eggs, Irish bangers, toast
Friday: pork chops with apple butter sauce, roasted purple potatoes, green beans
Saturday: out?
Sunday: stuffed salmon, carrot soufflé, edemame

Lol
I just figured out that my student loan debt just dipped down below $100K. Whoo hoo! Lol. Sad.

As good as it's going to get
Our basement gets water. We live in a 100 year old house, and there are cracks in the floor in the basement. Water seeps up through the cracks whenever the ground is saturated. We only had one storm where we got inches of water, and that was shortly after we moved in 6 years ago, and before we replaced the roof and gutters and directed some of the heaviest water away from the house. But still, we get water in heavy "regular storms," so I'm expecting a more significant amount of water this weekend.

We also never had a sump pump before, either. We picked up a small one yesterday (it was all they had left), and a bucket (for what, I don't know, but I felt like we should have another bucket), and duct tape, in case all else fails. I'm sure we could do something with duct tape, right? That would keep the hurricane out? Maybe I should go put duct tape over all the cracks in the basement. :)

We moved all of the patio furniture and the grill into the garage.... moved all the potted plants into the sunroom...... ran the dishwasher.... we have lots of battery-operated gear for camping (headlamps, small lanterns, flashlights, etc). We have plenty of food and drinks, even without stopping at the store in the past week. We moved the chest freezer in the basement up onto a pallet and bricks to get it off the floor a bit more. Moved anything paper/cardboard up onto the second shelf of our basement shelves, etc. I think that's the best we can do. We have a wet-dry vac and a bunch of buckets. I hope it doesn't come to that. What we don't have is a generator, so if the power goes out and we can't use the sump pump.... we might have to resort to the buckets. We also have more board games than many well-stocked game stores, and more candles than your average home goods store, so I'm pretty sure we could survive being holed up in the house for a month or so. :)

Fun Family Weekend
This past weekend was John's family's bi-annual family reunion in North-Central PA. John's family is really great. I'll be the first to admit that I wasn't excited about them getting engaged/married about 3 minutes after they met, but it sure has worked out well, thankfully. John's siblings and their families are all very close, and many of them get together for this family reunion every-other year. This is our second year attending. We took our kayaks up this time, and spent Fri afternoon kayaking at the local state park. Saturday morning, 13 of us got up early and did a 16-mile bike ride through the "Grand Cany0n of PA." It was a beautiful ride - we saw blue herons, an eagle, frogs, a 4 rattlesnakes. We took a ride on ATV's Saturday evening and saw grouse, snakes and deer. My mom saw 4 bears this weekend - the first time in her life she's seen a bear in the wild, and she saw 4. There was so much good food, and fires in the fire pit at night. We were hoping to get a good, clear view of the Perseid meteor shower, which peaked Sat night, but the sky was cloud-covered. So, we stayed indoors and read good books and did puzzles and laughed at the kids' antics. This morning there was a thunderstorm, so we all huddled in the house and listened to the rain, and I stayed in the kitchen cooking up a big afternoon meal for everyone before we headed home. Great weekend, good people, good way to spend one of the last summer weekends before school starts back up.

Didn't have time to go food shopping this weekend, so we're going to go with what we have in the house. Here's the plan for this week:

Breakfasts: egg sandwich: egg beaters, buttered flat round, tomatoes
Mid-morning snacks: yogurt w/ fresh blackberries
Lunches: 1) fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, with sugar-free dark chocolate for dessert (from TJ’s, it’s surprisingly good) or 2) green salad with marinated tofu, tomatoes, scallions, carrots, sesame ginger dressing, popcorn cake
Afternoon snacks: cheese stick

Dinner:
Monday: BBQ pulled pork, corn on the cob, green salad
Tuesday: stuffed salmon, glazed carrots, green beans
Wednesday: at trivia, maybe cactus chili
Thursday: BBQ Pulled pork, corn on the cob, green beans
Friday: maybe out?
Saturday: in Lancaster, maybe out w/ mom and John
Sunday: scrambled eggs, Canadian bacon, toast

In need of a life-maintenance assistant
which would have been known as a housewife at one time, I'm sure. Someone to clean and organize my house, but also do yardwork, minor home repairs, food planning and prep, etc. It takes me a very long time to figure out a menu plan for the week. It's so much harder now that I'm trying to fit each meal into this plan my nutritionist gave me. It doesn't seem hard on the surface, but somehow it ends up taking me a lot longer to actually plan out. Of course, I'm also trying to "eat down" the pantry and freezers, so that also adds to the challenge of planning.

So, here is my plan for the week. I have 2 more Fridays off before we go back to having to work on Fridays. The summer always goes by too quickly, and I don't get nearly as much done as I had anticipated and hoped for. I am definitely working toward getting someone to help clean the house, but right now it is too messy to even have someone come in yet. I may need to take a life maintenance day sometime in the next couple of weeks just to get caught up before the fall semester starts back up. I am also thinking of not doing the next session of my pottery class so I have a bit more time to work on stuff around the house. I think I am overextended, and as much as I love my pottery class, it is far away and takes up an entire evening. Anyway, here's the menu plan for the week:

Breakfasts: egg sandwich: egg beaters w/ spinach and tomatoes on Flat Round, yogurt
Mid-morning snacks: smoothie w/ blackberries and/or peaches
Lunches: 1) vegetarian chili over top red skin potatoes plus green beans w/vinaigrette dressing, or 2) quinoa salad w/ roasted veg and tofu: beets, carrots, turnips, tofu, sesame dressing
Afternoon snacks: ½ banana plus mixed nuts

Dinner:
Monday: chicken ropa vieja, corn on the cob, roasted asparagus
Tuesday: leftover ropa vieja, corn on the cob, green beans
Wednesday: at trivia, maybe cactus chili
Thursday: stuffed salmon, green beans, potato salad
Friday: chicken-mozzarella ravioli, fresh tomato sauce, broccoli
Saturday: out, at a baseball game
Sunday: hot dogs, baked beans, salad

I feel a fight coming on...
Long ago, in another universe, I used to get riled up pretty easily and could let the fightin' words fly. I seem to have cooled my jets in recent years, mellowed out, don't give a fig, whatever you want to call it.

For the most part, I tend to believe that if you want to act like a nutterbutter, you can act like a nutterbutter. But if you want to act like a nutterbutter *toward* me, or in some way that interferes with my life.....and you do this intentionally, because you're a nutterbutter and you want to see how it will turn out..... it's not going to end well for you.

You will be acting like a nutterbutter some place else pretty soon.

(and no, this isn't my hubby. ;)

Trial and error
Well, two things are happening with this low-Glycemic Index diet. First, I am reading and learning what I should be eating - trying to learn which foods are low-GI (it is not intuitive at all). There are the basics - potatoes, rice and white bread are high-GI and should be eaten very infrequently. But then there are other things that are low or moderate GI that you wouldn't expect (pasta, sourdough bread), and things that are high GI that you wouldn't expect, like pumpkin. So, that is all confusing and something I just need to learn.

But then there is another kind of learning that I am doing, but this time by trial and error. I started taking this medication that slows the absorption of carbs, and so eating a low-GI diet goes hand-in-hand with this, because the purpose of low-GI foods is that they are carbs that are absorbed more slowly by your body (which keeps your insulin levels more steady rather than having the sharp spikes that happen when you eat high-GI foods). Anyway... so.... one would think that choosing foods from the low-GI list would be ok, right? Except.... not so much. I have been finding this to be a trial-and-error process where I never really know how my body will react to a new food while I am taking this medication. Apparently my body-on-meds does not like bananas. Just saying. Yogurt with granola and blueberries was a little questionable, too. All of those things were on the low-GI list. I'm hoping that m body will just adjust to this after I've been on the meds for a few weeks (I have to step up the dose over the next 3 weeks to get to the prescribed dosage.

This does not make for good times for me....although it might be amusing for those around me and I have this brief period of time after I eat anything where I have to just wait and see what happens. :) Anyway.... So, here's my plan for this week, subject to changes based on my trial and error experiment with each of these ingredients. I am a little skeptical about the bread, but I found something that meets all the criteria that the book specified - whole grains, dense, you can see all the bits of the grains in the bread, etc. We will see.

Breakfasts: old fashioned oatmeal made with milk and reduced-sugar apricot preserves
Mid-morning snacks: Greek yogurt with frozen raspberries, or grapefruit
Lunches: Sprouted whole grain multigrain toast with sliced apples and melted cheddar, strawberries OR spinach salad with artichoke hearts, carrots, cherry tomatoes, etc with an orange
Afternoon snacks: carrots with hummus

Dinner:
Monday: tilapia, sautéed spinach, roasted sweet potato chunks
Tuesday: penne with turkey Bolognese sauce
Wednesday: at trivia, maybe grilled chicken taco salad, sans taco shell bowl
Thursday: stuffed salmon, broccoli, glazed carrots
Friday: crockpot Mexican chicken
Saturday: leftover chicken chili
Sunday: grilled chicken, mixed bean salad, veg from CSA

Well.... that's just great
I found out today that I have PCOS, and an insulin-resistance that goes along with that, which causes weight gain and/or inability to lose weight (great, nice to have an explanation for that one). And it means that I need to try a low-glycemic index diet. I initially thought that was going to be impossible, because I thought it meant no carbs, but the more I read about it online, the more I understand that it is about eating the right type of carbs, and not about eliminating them. I had a moment of panic wondering what I would eat for breakfast instead of my usual oatmeal. And what would I eat that was crunchy? I always crave something crunchy. And fruit! No fruit?!? But that's not actually what it means. There are lots of fruits on the low GI list. Watermelon is notably on the high-GI list, which is fine because I hate melons of all kinds. But oranges and the other fruits that I DO eat are on the ok list. As are oats and quinoa and barley. So, this will be doable. It will be annoying to have to think about it all the time, though, and to have to consult some list of allowed foods for awhile until I know what's on each list. It's not intuitive, either. White bread is on the no list. Pasta is on the ok list. Huh? That makes no sense. Pasta is made from white flour, no? I don't get it. So, it will take some time to figure this out. Hopefully it will help. I have to do a whole bunch of other tests, too, which I'm not looking forward to, but at least it's summer and I have Fridays off until August so I can take care of a lot of this stuff without interfering with work. Bleh.

A camping we will go
We're getting ready for our first camping trip of the season. We'll be heading to north-west PA for the holiday weekend with a bunch of people, about half of whom I have never met. Apparently the long-range forecast is calling for heavy rain in that area next weekend, but I'm hoping things change and we get a dry weekend. I hate camping in the rain. I have not-so-fond memories of a Girl Scout camping trip when I was about 12... we set up our tents and then had to drive to McD's for dinner because we couldn't keep a fire going. When we got back our tents had washed away in the heavy wind and rain. Like, they weren't where we left them; they had floated away. We ended up sleeping for a few nights in a trailer that was owned by someone who worked at the campground. Anyway... keeping my fingers crossed for a change in the forecast.

Here's the meal plan for this week. We got about the same thing in the CSA this week that we got last week: leaf lettuce, spinach, mushrooms, scallions, rhubarb, broccoli. I really liked the kizaka recipe that I (loosely) followed last week. Mostly I think I'm just loving anything and everything with almond butter in it these days. Plus, I can use up some of the CSA loot in that recipe. Last week I used the kale and added mushrooms. This time I'll try the spinach, and also add the mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger, etc.

Breakfasts: steel cut oats with apple butter
Mid-morning snacks: vanilla yogurt with fresh fruit
Lunches: kizaka with quinoa, green salads
Afternoon snacks: brown rice cake or apple with almond butter

Dinner:
Monday: skinny tuna noodle casserole (can I ever get to this?)
Tuesday: leftover tuna noodle casserole
Wednesday: at trivia, maybe tomato mozzarella pesto salad
Thursday: baked breaded tilapia, mac and cheese, broccoli
Friday: anything leftover
Saturday: camping: chili over baked potato, cornbread
Sunday: burgers and dogs on the campfire

Patience
I have an immense amount of patience.... for my patients. Much less so for everyone else. BTW, If you are reading this page, you are not the people I am talking about. :) I sometimes lose my cool at times that other people just ignore the behavior in question, or just simply don't get bothered by it. I wish I could do that. How do you do that? Getting bent out of shape doesn't change anything. It doesn't make the other person stop doing incomprehensible, egregious things. It just leaves me feeling frustrated and angry with steam coming out of my ears.... while everyone else just goes about their day. Sigh. I need to work on this. I need to learn to take the advice I give other people - I can't control the other person; I can only control my own reaction to them.

(That being said, other people should *totally* stop doing/saying stupid things!) Ok. I'm done with that. For now. Here's my menu plan for the week:

Breakfasts: steel cut oats with apricot preserves
Mid-morning snacks: naval oranges, kiwi, yogurt
Lunches: kizaka with quinoa, green salads
Afternoon snacks: apple with almond butter, or primadonna cheese and nuts

Dinner:
Monday: baked breaded tilapia, mac and cheese, green beans
Tuesday: caramelized onion quiche, green salad
Wednesday: at trivia, maybe tomato mozzarella pesto salad
Thursday: leftover quiche, green salad
Friday: at Phillies game, maybe pulled pork sandwich
Saturday: skinny tuna noodle casserole, green salad
Sunday: leftover tuna noodle casserole, green salad

The Plague Part II:
The plague that I had a few weeks ago is back in full force. I have no idea what it is, but I'm not going to the doctor again. I had a similar thing last year, and the year before, and both of those times my doc sent me to the ER and I still never figured out what it was. I was told at various times by various people that it was pneumonia, not pneumonia, allergies and asthma. None of those things were ever definitive. It didn't respond to the prescription allergy meds. The breathing tests I did at the pulmonologist's office indicated that it wasn't asthma, but the pulmonologist said it *sounded* like asthma to him so he gave me an inhaler (which I do not use). The ER doc the first year said my x-rays showed pneumonia. The pulmonologist last year said that the same x-rays from the previous year did not look like pneumonia to him. So.... I have no idea what this is but I'm not spending hundreds of dollars to get another non-answer. But I sound horrible. I guess it's possible this is something different from the last two years, because in both of those instances I didn't have a cough but I was having labored breathing. This time I have a horrible cough and a lot of chest congestion. But I'm going on a combined 3 weeks of it now and I wish it would go away for good.

Anyway... in other news, our CSA starts back up this week. Hurray! I don't know yet what we will get in the first box, but I am guessing that there will be a lot of greens. The first month or so usually has a lot of salad greens, bitter greens, radishes, scallions, etc. Our pick-up day is Thursday, so I won't get to incorporate a lot of the veg into menu plan until next week.

Breakfasts: steel cut oats with apricot preserves
Mid-morning snacks: naval oranges, strawberries, kiwi, yogurt
Lunches: one day out with my intern (prob salad), carrot ginger soup, spinach salad
Afternoon snacks: apple with almond butter, black-eyed pea salad

Dinner:
Monday: grilled pork tenderloin, green beans, roasted carrots
Tuesday: leftover pork tenderloin, green salad
Wednesday: at trivia, maybe tomato mozzarella pesto salad
Thursday: veggie chicken patty sandwich, broccoli slaw
Friday: out with a friend
Saturday: out with other friends before a play
Sunday: margarita pizza

Bah
So, about a month or so ago I added a third job. It's just one day a week and I thought it would be a good idea. Now I'm kind of regretting it. I'm too busy and I don't love the job...and I signed a 2-year contract. Awesome. Sigh.

Anyway. Whatever. I had gotten used to the idea of having a full day on Mondays to do work around the house, run errands, and prep tasty food for the week. Now I don't have time to do that, so I'm going to have to get used to less elaborate meals and more things that I can just take out of the freezer and pop into the oven. The CSA is starting up again soon, and that always takes a lot of time to plan around and use, so it will be interesting to see if I can keep up with it. Oh well. Nothing to do about it now but wait and see. Here's my plan for this week - we're not going to be home much this week, so there's not a lot to plan for.

Breakfasts: scrambled egg whole wheat tortilla wrap
Mid-morning: naval oranges, grapes, kiwi, primadonna cheese
Lunches: vegetable bean soup, cottage cheese bake
Mid-afternoon: quinoa salad

Dinner:
Monday: cheesy scrambled eggs with ham, potato pancakes
Tuesday: at Phillies game… maybe BBQ and crab fries
Wednesday: at trivia, maybe tomato mozzarella pesto salad
Thursday: hors d’ouevres at work reception, probably won’t want regular dinner
Friday: going to a stadium football game – I have no idea if we’ll eat there or in the city first
Saturday: marinated pork tenderloin, roasted sweet potatoes, green beans
Sunday: leftovers, or out to dinner if Mom is visiting

The Plague
Ugh. I feel like I have had the plague for the last two weeks. This thing started slowly and just won't leave. I have a horrible-sounding cough and can't get rid of the congestion. I haven't been able to taste anything in over a week, which is pretty disappointing. I keep saying to Todd, "does this taste good? Oh, ok. Good to know." So, I haven't really cooked anything in the last week, and I didn't cook anything to prep for this week, either, other than my breakfast things. I'm going to rely on a lot of semi-convenience foods this week, and hope for the best for next week. Semi-convenience foods meaning things out of the freezer (like frozen pierogies, frozen potato pancakes from TJ's, etc). Not as much home-cooked food as I typically like to have, but not junk food, either. Somewhere in the middle, and much easier to pull together after a long day at work. Maybe I'll be able to taste some of it.... by mid-week perhaps?

Breakfasts: egg white sandwiches with spinach and havarti
Mid-morning: fruit salad
Lunches: Cottage cheese/chickpea/shallot/lemon casserole, butternut squash soup
Mid-afternoon: mixed nuts

Dinner:
Monday: pierogies with caramelized onions
Tuesday: cheesy scrambled eggs, potato pancakes
Wednesday: at trivia, maybe tomato mozzarella pesto salad
Thursday: seder at church (yes, that’s right)
Friday: stuffed salmon, parmesan roasted potatoes, green beans
Saturday: Italian, out, at grandparents’ anniversary dinner
Sunday: Easter dinner somewhere…? If not at someone else’s house, maybe ham

Who lived here?

Yesterday we had to take down a huge pecan tree in our back yard. The tree grew so that it leaned away from the house, over the alley and over our parking spaces. It has dropped a couple of big branches over the past few years, including one that destroyed M's car. In the summer it whips huge green pecans down on the cars and people below. They come down like bullets and ding up all of our cars. T bought a new car this year and was trying to figure out how to protect it from being dented, but now that problem is solved.

A few weeks ago T noticed that there was a split in the base of the tree, on the side that basically holds the tree up. You could actually see into the center of the tree. Not good. Last week I was awake all night on Sun and Mon, thinking about the tree coming down and destroying the 4 cars parked below it. Tues-Fri I parked by car out in the neighborhood and slept well. Apparently I only care about my own vehicle. :)

Anyway, the tree people came and cut it down yesterday. The remnants of the giant tree are still laying in our yard, waiting for the guys to come back and cut them up or chip them. I wonder who planted the tree. We suspect that the tree was planted around the time that the house was built, which means the tree is probably about 100 years old. I wonder if kids climbed it before the lowest branches got too high to even reach. I wonder how many cars have been dimpled by the pecan bombs. I wonder if there were any nests way up high, out of sight. I wonder how many people have lived in this house. I met one guy once.... I happened to get a piece of junk mail at the house one day, and I noticed that the name was the same name as a doctor in the hospital I was working in at the time. I ran into him one day and asked him if he used to live at this address, and he did. But I'm pretty sure he thought I was a weird stalker after that, so I never mentioned it again. I wonder what the house looked like when different people lived here. Anyway, I feel sorry that we had to cut the tree down, but I don't think it would have lasted much longer on its own, and this way no one got hurt and I'll be able to sleep soundly again.

Breakfasts: steelcut oatmeal
Mid-morning: yogurt with frozen fruit
Lunches: butternut squash and carrot soup, black bean burritos
Mid-afternoon: brown rice cake with almond butter

Dinner:
Monday: tuna noodle casserole (still haven’t gotten to this)
Tuesday: cheesy scrambled eggs, potato pancakes
Wednesday: at trivia, maybe a crabcake
Thursday: leftover tuna noodle casserole
Friday: shrimp quesadillas
Saturday: out, in the city, before a concert
Sunday: ??

Domestic Day
I had a very domestic day today - did 3 loads of laundry, baked 2 loaves of challah, made a huge pot of butternut squash soup, prepped a bunch of salads, and made a big protein-packed casserole to eat for lunch this week. I haven't had a big cooking day like this in awhile and it was fun.

I don't have much interesting to say this week. My pottery class is going well. It's fun, but my first bowl came back kind of ugly. I liked the bowl itself, but the glazing process kind of beat it with the ugly stick. Parts of it had too much glaze, so I wiped some of it off, but then I took off too much so I had to paint more glaze on, but it was still heavy in some areas so it looked gloppy... yeah. It's kind of ugly. Oh well. I'm working on some bowls and mugs now... hopefully I'll get better at it, but even if I don't it's still fun. I bought a fun toolbox for my tools today. :)

So, here's the food plan for this week. I think I'll eat challah toast with lemon curd for breakfast, even though that doesn't really fit with my more protein-less carbs plan... but I need to eat this challah and I have an open jar of lemon curd in the fridge.

Breakfasts: toasted challah with lemon curd
Mid-morning: yogurt with frozen fruit
Lunches: butternut squash and carrot soup, chickpea casserole with lemon, shallots and herbs
Mid-afternoon: mixed nuts
For the commute home: whole wheat mini bagel with almond butter

Dinner:
Monday: salmon with crabmeat stuffing, roasted potatoes, green beans
Tuesday: at Phillies game….wonder what I can find that is vegetarian/seafood?
Wednesday: at trivia, maybe tomato/mozz/pesto salad
Thursday: pierogies, sautéed onions
Friday: pizza
Saturday: tuna noodle casserole
Sunday: leftovers

Conundrum
So.... I would really super duper love to have someone clean my house. Can I admit that? I kind of feel like I can't/should't say that out loud, but, oops - just did. I guess it's a good thing that only 3 people read this blog anymore. Lol.

Anyway. I just don't have time to clean the house the way it should be cleaned. The dust bunnies are taking over. It took us the whole day on Saturday to get the first floor in reasonable shape before some new friends could come over. And I wouldn't say it was *clean.* Just presentable. And most of what got cleaned up from the first floor just got hidden on the second floor. With the dust bunnies.

Sigh. I want a clean house, I don't have time to clean it, and I'm cheap, so I feel like I shouldn't pay someone else to clean it when it's something that I feel like I should be able to do myself. And no, no one else who lives in my house cleans, either, but they apparently are not as bothered by clutter and dirt as I am. Gah.

Anyway. While I ponder that one some more... here's what I plan to eat this week.

Breakfasts: oatmeal with apricot jam, egg whites with spinach and cheese
Mid-morning: banana or yogurt with raspberries
Lunches: Spiced Butternut Squash Stew, broccoli - cottage cheese casserole, and blood oranges
Mid-afternoon: whole wheat mini bagel with peanut butter
For the commute home: mixed nuts and dried cranberries

Dinner:
Monday: Mexican lasagna and green salad
Tuesday: leftover Mexican lasagna and salad
Wednesday: at trivia, maybe tomato, mozzarella and arugula salad
Thursday: crab-stuffed salmon, edamame, roasted sweet potatoes
Friday: pesto tortellini with tomato sauce
Saturday: maybe out?
Sunday: tilapia, green beans, mac and cheese

New Year's Resolution, revisited
My New Year's resolution was to do more and sit on the couch less. While I can definitely say I have accomplished that goal....holy cow is it exhausting. I'm definitely not sitting on the couch much these days.

I really enjoyed my first pottery class last week, and I spent a lot of time during the week looking for inspiration online. I've always been pretty good at replicating things that other people have made, but less good at coming up with ideas on my own. So, I've printed out lots of ideas, and I'm looking forward to getting to try the wheel this week. I'm not looking forward to all the misshapen vessels and too-heavy bowls that I'm sure will come off the wheel, but I know that that's just part of the learning process.

Anyway... I didn't exactly get off to the start I wanted for this week, as I've been having muscle spasms in my back again all weekend (dmn yoga class) and spent most of the weekend passed out on the couch (side effect of the meds for the muscle spasms). I had planned on making several kinds of soup to restock the freezer for quick lunches, but that didn't happen. The only things I've made in advance were the sweet potato and mixed bean chili, and an asparagus and farro salad. The menu for the rest of the week is pretty simple and won't require much time to get dinner ready, which is the way it needs to be now that I have activities planned for every day after work. I honestly don't know how people with kids get everything done, including running kids around to activities, getting a good dinner on the table, getting work done around the house, etc. I'm having a hard enough time just getting my own stuff done. :)

Breakfast: oatmeal, apricot jam
Mid-morning: Whole Wheat mini bagel with peanut butter
Lunches: green salads, sweet potato and black bean chili
Mid-afternoon: asparagus faro salad
For the commute home: mixed nuts and dried cranberries

Dinner:
Monday: quiche with asparagus and havarti
Tuesday: leftover quiche, green salad
Wednesday: at trivia, maybe grilled vegetable panini
Thursday: stuffed salmon, edemame
Friday: grilled cheese
Saturday: tuna noodle casserole
Sunday: margarita pizza

Manic Mondays
Hey, guess what happens when you're out of town 3 weekends in a row and don't have time to do laundry in the middle of the week? You have to 1800 loads of laundry in one day. Or something that feels like that, at least. I was super excited to think about having every single item of clothing clean, though... until I found one more pile hiding behind my suitcase. Oh well. The vast majority is done, which means I won't have to stand before the closet every morning this week debating about which item of clothing is the most presentable. Lol.

Anyway....so, while I was grateful to finally be home for a weekend, I really just had this afternoon available to catch up with laundry, cooking, getting ready for the week, etc. My weeks are about to get a lot more hectic starting tomorrow, and I'm not sure how I'm going to keep up. I'm starting a new job tomorrow (just one day a week, on top of my 4 days at week at my main job, and teaching a class one evening a week). I'm also starting a pottery class tomorrow night (whoo hoo!), which meets from 7:30-10pm, and is about 40 minutes away, so... Mondays are about to become a hectic late-night, too. I keep trying to remind myself that it wasn't so long ago that I was working almost full time, going to grad school full time, doing an unpaid internship, getting to yoga once a week, and taking other classes for fun, too. How did I do that???

Anyway, here's the plan for this week:

Breakfast: egg whites with veggie sausage, broccoli, light havarti, ½ WW English muffin
Mid-morning: WW mini bagel with peanut butter
Lunches: Spicy Spaghetti squash casserole, green salads
Mid-afternoon: marinated baked tofu
For the commute home: mixed nuts and dried cranberries

Dinner:
Monday: leftover pork tenderloin from Sunday, mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli
Tuesday: out, before concert.
Wednesday: at trivia, tomato and mozzarella salad
Thursday: stuffed salmon, mac and cheese, green beans
Friday: pesto and tomato flatbread from TJs
Saturday: cheese tortellini with tomato sauce, garlic bread
Sunday: leftovers

Back on track, please
Ok... the last three weekends have been filled with snow tubing in the Poconos, Vegas-ing in Vegas, and all kinds of crazy in the Big Apple. I'm tired. I need to get back to my regular schedule. It was fun. Really fun. But I'm tired.

Thankfully we got home tonight in time for me to prep my breakfasts, 2 days of lunches, and dinner for tomorrow. It's a start at least. And we're staying home this weekend (though we have lots of things planned - craft show, birthday party, game night, etc) so I won't have a TON of time, but at least I'll be in town. Sheesh.

Ok, so here's the plan for the week. It's more pasta/pizza than I'd like all in one week, but I'm still very determined to keep working my way through the freezer and cabinets (I've been going strong with this for about a month and am pleased to be able to see the stuff in the back of the freezer and cabinet... and there's a little bit of room in the chest freezer that I have been trying hard not to fill. I *know* there is a case of veggie burgers in the bottom of that thing and I'm determined to retrieve it before we fill in the empty spaces with more stuff.

Breakfast: egg whites with spinach, turkey bacon, light cheddar
Mid-morning: vanilla yogurt with frozen strawberries
Lunches: veggie-cottage cheese casserole, broccoli salad, chana pubjabi
Mid-afternoon: grapefruit
For the commute home: almonds and dried cranberries

Dinner:
Tuesday: spaghetti, Italian chicken sausage, homemade tomato sauce from freezer
Wednesday: at trivia, some kind of salad
Thursday: grilled chicken and mozzarella ravioli with homemade sauce
Friday: pork tenderloin, mac and cheese, green beans
Saturday: out, at a birthday party
Sunday: the guys will be here for game night, so probably pizza

Viva Las Vegas!
I am soooo tired! But I have to zip through this week and then I'm headed to NYC for 4 days..... and then I can sleep. So much fun, and so much sleep deprivation. And gym deprivation and laundry deprivation and meal-planning deprivation. Oh well. On we go.

So, Vegas is kind of surreal, right? I liked it more than I was expecting to, and I think I could have used one more day there to really see the whole thing. Didn't get to the old-school Vegas, or the Stratosphere thing. Oh well. An excuse to go again sometime.

What I DID do was eat a lot of tasty food. And somehow manage to come home weighing exactly the same as when I left (yay!) Best eats: the imperial chocolate thing at Jean-Philippe patisserie, the croissant pudding at Pinot Brasserie, the pan-seared trout with truffle cauliflower and toasted brioche at Bouchon....the chocolate gelato at Jean-Philippe, the herbed polenta and bread pudding at the Bellagio brunch buffet....the spicy broccoli with pecorino at Otto....

It's a good thing we had to walk around all weekend so that we could walk all of that off. But man was that stuff good. Whoo! Yum. I wish I had some more of all of that stuff right now. :)

Anyway.... yeah. So.... I don't have a menu plan for this week. It's already Tuesday night. I usually do all of my cooking on Monday for the week, but I didn't get home until midnight last night so.... it's just not happening this week. I'll make egg whites with spinach and light cheddar in the mornings, and I'll bring soups or Le@n Cuisines from the freezer for lunches. Tomorrow we eat out at trivia, and Thursday we'll just have to find something in the freezer or have spagetti and meatballs or some such thing. I just don't have time to plan or prepare anything this week. Next week is looking the same as we'll probably get back from NYC late on Monday. Oh well. After that I'm back to my regular routine.

Well, at least until I start a new one-day-per-week job on Mondays and go directly to a pottery class afterward! That's really going to put a crimp in my Monday prep day routine, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Pottery class! Yay!

Quick, short week
Ok - this is going to be a crazy busy week, too. I'm heading to Lanc for the day today to work on some sewing projects, followed by dinner out tonight at a new restaurant near our house that I am really looking forward to. Tomorrow, back to work, followed by plans after work every evening, and then Friday I leave for Vegas! Whoo!

So..... this is an easy menu week (I hope!) The chana punjabi is packaged from TJ's, and I just need to heat and serve with brown rice or quinoa. The pad thai is also from a package and just needs minimal prep. The quinoa salad - I'm just going to make a pot of quinoa and throw in whatever veg I have on hand and top with a vinaigrette. The apricot chicken I am going to stick in the crockpot right now before I leave for Lanc, so it will be ready for tomorrow to eat with whatever leftovers are currently in the fridge. We're eating out tonight and Thursday night. So... Easy peasy. I don't have time for anything else this week. We were away in the Poconos all weekend and I didn't feel like cooking when I got home last night.

Breakfast: oatmeal with apple butter
Mid-morning: vanilla yogurt with frozen raspberries and strawberries
Lunches: chana Punjabi, pad thai, green salads
Mid-afternoon: quinoa salad
For the commute home: almonds and dried cranberries or a cheese stick

Dinner:
Monday: out at new Mexican restaurant near our house. Prob won’t be meatless today!
Tuesday: crockpot apricot chicken (I’m determined to make this finally), leftover stuffing, green beans
Wednesday: at trivia, maybe tomato and mozzarella pesto salad
Thursday: Out w/ Scott and Cara, maybe fancy pizza
Friday: in Vegas, baby! Hopefully something tasty and delicious
Saturday: Delicious French food at Bouchon
Sunday: More delicious French food at Pinot Brasserie

Busy Bee
well, January just flew by in a blink, and now I'm facing down the busiest month I've had in a long time. At work this week we are recognizing Eating Disorders Awareness Week. This is an initiative that I started last year, so this is our second annual series of events. It was a lot of work to pull together, and I will be quite relieved when it's all over this Friday.

We're doing a "Mirrorless Monday" activity today, where mirrors in residence halls and the gym locker rooms are covered with paper that students can write messages on about what they value in themselves other than appearance. On Wed we're bringing in a dietician to the cafeteria to help students learn to make balanced meal choices. On Thurs we're collecting jeans to donate to a shelter in our community - jeans that don't fit because they're too small, too big, or just the wrong fit. All week there will be informational and inspirational fliers in the res halls and cafeteria. The library pulled together a special display of books on eating disorders, and I made stacks of bookmarks with relevant info and quotes. We're doing an "Operation Beautiful" thing all week where I got some of our staff and student workers to write body-positive messages on post-it notes, and then they will stick the up all over campus this week.

The big event is that I brought back an art exhibit from an eating disorder treatment facility. The artwork was all created as part of the art therapy program, and it is really fantastic and beautifully framed. The art show is on display on campus all week, and on Friday we're having a closing reception, with a slideshow presentation by one of the artists. And then the week is over and I can get back to my usual routine at work. Planning all of this stuff has consumed a lot of my time during the last month and I will be relieved when it is over. Hopefully we'll have a big turnout on Friday afternoon for the closing reception/slideshow presentation.

And then after that I'm traveling every weekend for the rest of the month: snowtubing in the Poconos, girlfriend weekend Vegas, and then a big group outing weekend in NYC. All that, plus trying to fit in 3 personal training sessions a week, plus teaching a class in addition to my regular job, AND I just accepted another part time job that I will need to start training for. My head is spinning. Needless to say, I am going to have to be smart about menu planning, and I envision using my crockpot quite a bit. Here's the plan for this week:

Breakfast: egg white sandwiches with spinach, light cheddar and Canadian bacon
Mid-morning: vanilla yogurt with frozen fruit
Lunches: spaghetti squash casserole, pad thai, green salads
Mid-afternoon: roasted vegetable and quinoa salad (still didn’t get to this)
For the commute home: almonds and dried cranberries or a cheese stick

Dinner:
Meatless Monday: Stuffed Acorn Squash (crockpot), cous cous
Tuesday: meatloaf, mashed potatoes, roasted carrots w/ balsamic vinaigrette
Wednesday: at trivia, maybe grilled chicken taco salad without the bowl
Thursday: crockpot apricot chicken, stovetop stuffing (why do I have this in the pantry?), green beans
Friday: on the road, on the way to the Poconos
Saturday: in the Poconos, probably BBQd something
Sunday: brunch out in Poconos, then heading home, leftover apricot chicken for dinner

Present Haul Take 2
My dad visited today, and brought with him a carload full of Christmas and birthday presents for both me and Todd. We made out well. I hit the jackpot with cookbooks, sewing supplies and CDs. Those things will keep me busy for a long time.

I really enjoy cooking, and even though I don't always think "hey, I'm really good at this," there are times when I watch someone else cook that it really strikes me how much I do know and can do in the kitchen. Like tonight, when someone else brought stuff over to make guacamole. I watched her struggle with the first avocado, and I was able to show her how to slice it horizontally, twist it apart, whack the pit with a knife and twist it out, and then slice the flesh in the skin so it's diced when you scoop it out with the spoon. She thought I was a genius. I didn't have the heart to tell her that her guac needed more lime and salt, though. Everyone else ate it and professed their love of it, so I kept my mouth shut. But watching her try reminded me that it wasn't THAT long ago that I didn't know what to do with an avocado (or vegetables of any kind), and now I'm pretty adept in the kitchen. I still haven't figured out bread, which annoys me, but I also haven't put enough effort into it to figure it out.

Anyway...I'm off to a little bedtime reading (shall I start with Bittman or Greenspan? I think I need to work my way up to Julia.)

Here's my plan of attack for this week (I made this list before obtaining this stack of books).

Breakfast: egg white sandwiches with broccoli, turkey bacon and light cheddar
Mid-morning: vanilla yogurt with frozen fruit
Lunches: turkey sausage, kale and white bean soup, other leftover soups from the freezer if needed
Mid-afternoon: roasted vegetable and quinoa salad (didn’t get to it last week)
For the commute home: almonds and dried cranberries or a cheese stick

Dinner:
Meatless Monday: out w/ friends
Tuesday: pork chops w/ mushrooms and shallots, mashed potatoes, edemame
Wednesday: at trivia, maybe chili
Thursday: pan-seared tilapia, mac and cheese, green beans
Friday: Crockpot Apricot Chicken, brown rice, veg

It has been 5 days since our last accident
I think I need one of those signs that you sometimes see in businesses where people are prone to accidents, like...deli counters and such. After quite a long stretch of not having any major spills, falls, cuts, or similar, I have to start my "no accidents since" calendar over again.

So, this whole personal trainer thing? Totally to blame for me falling down the steps on Tuesday. On Monday my workout focused on lower body. By Monday night I could barely haul myself up the stairs to go to bed. Tuesday morning, coming down the stairs was even worse. Each step was an effort. I was holding onto the railing, taking my time, leg muscles burning in 18 places. It was a HUGE relief to finally reach the bottom. Phew! I made it! Except that it wasn't the bottom step yet, and the next thing I knew I was on the ground, apparently having flown from some step above. I honestly don't even know how many steps I missed, but I do clearly remember the bizarre sensation of taking a step forward on what you think is solid ground, only to find that it's air. It was so confusing, and I felt like Alice falling down the rabbit hole. I couldn't figure out what happened to the ground that I was so sure was going to be below my foot.

Anyway. So.... yeah. 5 days since our last accident. At least this one didn't land me in the ER. I just got up, brushed myself off (I was on the floor after all) and went to work.

Today I did the exact same leg exercises that I did on Monday, but so far I'm not nearly as sore as I was last time. I'm being very careful going up and down the steps, though, for sure. :)

So, here's my menu plan for the week. I'm trying to increase my protein intake to help build muscles, so I chose my meals with that in mind.

Breakfast: egg white sandwiches with broccoli, turkey bacon and light cheddar
Mid-morning: vanilla yogurt with frozen fruit
Lunches: veggie-cottage cheese bake with roasted spaghetti squash
Mid-afternoon: roasted vegetable and quinoa salad
For the commute home: almonds and dried cranberries

Dinner:
Monday: will be in Lanc all day, so who knows
Tuesday: dinner out for my birthday
Wednesday: at trivia, maybe grilled chicken taco salad sans shell bowl
Thursday: pan-seared tilapia, mac and cheese, green beans
Friday: crockpot Mexican chicken, corn bread

Menu plan

I've been making a menu plan each week, but have drifted away from posting them. Here's the plan for this week:

Breakfast: egg white sandwiches with veggie sausage, broccoli and cheese
Mid-morning: vanilla yogurt with frozen fruit
Lunches: green salads with either baked polenta slices with veggies and tomato sauce or soups from the freezer
Mid-afternoon: baked tofu

Dinner:
Meatless Monday: Vegetarian Mexican lasagna
Tuesday: pork chops, baked sweet potatoes, edemame
Wednesday: at trivia, maybe grilled chicken taco salad sans shell bowl
Thursday: leftover Mexican lasagna, green salad
Friday: tilapia, green beans, apple barley pilaf

Ouch
I just finished my second training session. I am sore and all my muscles are wobbly. In the first session on Saturday, we focused on upper body, and then did a couple of abs exercises. Today we did lower body, and a couple of abs exercises. But before we did all that, he tried to get a count of how many pushups and crunches and other things I could do. Problem was that my arms are still sore from Saturday. I got halfway down in my first pushup and my arms went all wobbly and I had a split second to decide if I was going to give up or face plant on the mat. I gave up. :) It was fine - we did a chest press machine instead in order to get the baseline number I'll do a follow up each month to track my progress.

The last couple of days have been rough, though. My arms and abs are so-oo-oore. I couldn't get up out of bed yesterday morning because my abs hurt too much to sit up, and my arms hurt too much to push myself up. Todd asked if he was going to have to listen to me whine for the next 6 months.

The answer, clearly, is yes. :)

Ridiculous?
I think I just did something ridiculous. Well, I KNOW I did something ridiculous. In the end, I think it will probably be a good thing (which was the whole point, anyway) but it's still... ridiculous.

I just signed up to pay a zillion dollars to have a session with a personal trainer.

Three times a week.

For six months.

See?!? RIDICULOUS!

I have 3 days to change my mind and cancel.

Reboot
Well, I haven't decided if I'm going to continue writing on this blog or not... but I'll give it another go for now and see what happens. On the one hand I feel like I have nothing interesting to say, and if I do have something interesting I'm more likely to post it on FB rather than write something more lengthy here. On the other hand.... I've had this blog since... 1997? And it just seems like a shame to move on after that long. I don't know.

But anyway.... my New Year's goal is to try to reboot my life in general - you know - hoping that the things that were working well before will continue to work after the reboot, but also hoping that the things that had bugs in them will come back clean and new and working properly. That's not too much to ask, is it? :)

So, my goals align pretty nicely with a suggestion that I often make for many of my clients: to "consume less and do more," in a general way: consuming meaning sitting back and letting things happen and taking things in passively; doing meaning being a more active creator of my life. So, consuming less TV, useless internet time, unhealthy or excessive food, unnecessary drama, material objects, etc, and doing more creative endeavors, creating the home environment I desire, actively working toward improved health, actively relaxing/rejuvenating (yoga, reading, massage, etc).

I don't think of this as being a 2011 New Year's Resolution kind of thing - but rather a long-term goal that may be ongoing, for...uh, forever. :) Here's hoping that all of you also have a productive year of working toward your life goals.