I need to start digging through the blog archives more often. I don’t know why I complain about not being able to come up with dinner ideas in advance. It’s like owning a closet full of perfectly fine clothes and then stomping around and saying “I don’t have A THING to wear!”
Except I’ve got a website full of meal ideas and I stomp around saying “I don’t have ANY IDEA what to make!”
Time to stop stomping and start clicking, lady.
Once upon a time I always ate processed, snacky type foods like Kashi crackers, pretzels or frozen, baked french fries as my “side” at lunch. While those are certainly better than some foods and are of course OK once in a while – one of the best habits I ever created for myself was learning to automatically put vegetables on my plate instead.
A pile of steamed veggies, vegetable sticks, a side salad – I don’t even miss crackers or pretzels anymore and don’t feel like I’m depriving myself either.
Me: Good morning everybody!
Condiments: Hi Alison!
Me: Who wants to be turned into dinner tonight?!
Condiments: [cheers]
Crock Pot enters stage left
Me: What about you, Crock Pot? You wanna play too?
Crock Pot: Yeah, sure. I guess so.
Me: [ignoring Crock Pot’s unenthusiastic response] OK, then – listen up.
Today is a full day. We’ve got a jam packed schedule of hiking with friends this morning, a meeting tonight, not to mention the usual house work plus tidying up for visitors tomorrow and hopefully squeezing in a ridiculous blog post where I pretend my condiments are actors in this weird dinner time play I’m putting on.
On the weekends, I’m apt to be a bit less motivated to cook and a bit more motivated to goof around.
Instead of attempting to go out to eat and playing the Kids in a Restaurant game (wheeeeee!) – sometimes it’s a lot easier (and arguably more enjoyable) to hit up the grocery store and let everyone pick out a bunch of their favorite foods.
Vegetables optional. Manners too.
So this weekend we did exactly that. We loaded our grocery loot into a basket and hauled it to the backyard. An impromptu picnic was in order as we watched dad finish up some yard work for our meal time entertainment.
When it comes to what to eat after workout or run, I don’t think much beyond “eat real food” unless that workout has been particularly long and hard. (I am purposefully ignoring the obvious joke here. This post just started!)
The neighborhood running group I occasionally run with sent an email yesterday saying they were going 10 miles Saturday morning. I haven’t run much more then 4 or 5 miles at a shot all summer – but I decided to join them for 10 today, and my reasons for doing so were three fold:
That’s a quote from a guy named Peter Drucker. It’s most typically applied in the world of business and marketing, but it can easily be applied to any aspect of your life that you would like to improve.
For our purposes today, let’s apply it to weight loss.
In short, the things you keep close track of are what get your attention and effort. When you monitor and track and act with intention, you are much more likely to get the results you’re after.
I’ve been waiting and waiting for eggplant to show up in the CSA share this summer so I could make Ratatouille.
Finally, the good word arrived in my inbox yesterday.
(more peaches. did ya catch that?)
Well what do you know – this week I’ll be picking up just about everything I need to make Ratatouille!
From inbox to counter top:
I think Peach and Corn Ratatouille is on the menu tomorrow.
I followed my own Ratatouille directions from last year’s premiere stewed veggie attempt – and good news! I didn’t steer me wrong.
An amusement park excursion was on the docket for today. And like most day trips, a packed lunch was the first order of business on the agenda.
It is at this juncture that I would like to present our midday meal + snacks for inspection:
Exhibit A: Carrot sticks
Exhibit B: Homegrown grape tomatoes and green pepper slices
Exhibit C: Standard kid packed-lunch fare = two sunbutter and jelly sandwiches on Ezekiel bread, cut into quarters
Exhibit D: Bare bean butt hummus (2 cans, 22 minutes! I’m improving!)
A great way beat the leftover blues is to create something new and different with your uneaten foodstuffs from a previous meal.
Thanks to a big scoop of rolled oats, lentil tacos from Sunday were turned into lentil burgers last night.
With oats stirred in to the last of the lentil taco filling and then given a few minutes to sit, they’ll very generously soak up the sauce and thicken up. It’s then easy to form the mixture into patties with your hands.
Cooked in a lightly oiled pan for about 15 – 18 minutes, flipped a couple of times.
Sarah’s comment the other day about having five pounds of cucumbers made me realize that I too have plenty of cucumbers right now.
So what the heck can you do with a lot of cucumbers? Am I crazy or do people make cucumber soup? Cold cucumber soup? Haven’t I heard of that before? Doesn’t that sound right?
Yeah, that sounds right.
If you are a gazpacho lover, then cucumber soup will be right up your alley. Even if you aren’t a gazpacho fan (cause Zak’s not and he loved this) it could still be worth a try.
More Mama’s Weeds
