Things that make you go..........meh

Yesterday was the day of shakes that just should have been tastier.  Everything was lined up right, it all seemed so perfect!  Blendy Shake was a harvest medley of pumpkin, apples, cinnamon, yogurt, vanilla Formula 1 and spinach.  It was supposed to be happy, and comforting, and gently delicious.  Instead it was........boring, bland, chewy (from the apple skins) and kind of gritty.  Oh well, whatever...I drank it anyway and because of all the good stuff it was at least very filling.  So then I have lunch to look forward to!  It's going to be amazing!  I thawed berries overnight, yogurt, an egg, chocolate Formula 1, all Shakey Shaked up aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand.........................boring.  FYI - blender cups are great and all, but that little whisk ball definitely does not break up berries very well.  It wasn't very sweet, had almost no berry flavor, ended up just eating the berries with a spoon out of the bottom of the cup when I was done.  All around just a sad collection of smoothie misses.  Not failures because they weren't undrinkable, just a distinct and significant aftertaste of "meh".

Shakey Shake, Aloe Juice, salad

Anyway, here is a picture of what my average lunch these days looks like, about half the time sub the salad with a cup of soup.  I am really digging the aloe vera juice drinks, although I am sure I could get a much more natural product than good old OKF from the ethnic market on the way home from work, but I like the little aloe gel chunks which you can't get from the concentrate, so for now I stick with these :-) I don't know if they are actually helping my stomach or not, but I haven't had much pain or any heartburn since starting on them so let's say yes to give me an excuse to keep buying them!

All the pills, in mah face!

I guess now is a good time to show a couple of the other things I am putting in my face these days.  These are my morning pills (in my pretty little bowl I have at work...multipurpose, mornings for pills and afternoons for portioning out a snack of mixed nuts!)  Wild Salmon Oil tablets from Trader Joe's, and my multivitamin and cell enhancer from Herbalife, and a few Advil this morning for good measure

I've been told I'm quite nutty before!

And here are the nuts that I am snacking on these days.  This really tasty blend from Lebanon with peanuts, pistachios, cashews, pumpkin seeds, hazelnuts, chickpeas and almonds.  Seriously, this is why I love my neighborhood in NYC, because the grocery store caters to so many different ethnicities you can find authentic stuff from pretty much anywhere in the world on their very crowded shelves.  You can even buy a whole goat...I'm not kidding, it just hangs there in the window at the meat counter.  It is crazy and glorious and so unexpected for an American market which just makes it even better!  Anyway, I also have a bag of plain old peanuts from Trader Joe's and Roasted Almonds.  I mix them all together and it makes for an interesting (and slightly less expensive) mixed nut combo.  A handful of these with a cup of herbal tea is my standard mid-morning and/or mid-afternoon snackum these days.

All the nuts hold hands and sing Kumbaya

I also found myself in one of those sad places last night.  You know the place, where you don't really want to be out but you don't want to be home alone either but you are anyway.  Then the negative voices in your head start making up stories about why you are alone that almost always end up making you just feel like crap about yourself and oddly angry for no reason at the people you love even though it's not their fault that your inner demons are lying little bastards!  Yeah, one of those nights.  A night best for curling up and watching Youtube videos of old Tony Awards performances, so that's what I did.  And I feel better today, not at 100% yet because I let those awful voices shake me up so much, but it reminded me of how much more is out there to be passionate about, how much is real, how much I love something bigger than myself in the arts, and I am moving forward from there.  So Viva La Vie Boheme my friends!

VIVA LA VIE BOHEME!!!!

Caramel Apple Weekend

Dolly Parton knows what's up

Dolly Parton has her Hard Candy Christmas, I have my Caramel Apple Weekend…it’s kind of the same thing except with less singing and dancing prostitutes.  So actually, it’s not the same thing at all.  But I still think I deserve a song!

This was a whirlwind of a weekend!  So first off, how did the Herbalife go?  Well, I would say mixed (or shaken, as it were).  Honestly, I only had 1 shake all weekend and didn’t take any of my pills…whoops!  Friday night I cooked dinner for a friend, shwarma seasoned chicken, homemade faluffins (falafels baked in a mini muffin tin…delicious and adorable!), green beans, hummus and pita bread.  So then Saturday morning there was one little chicken thigh left and that became breakfast.  I did end up with a shake for lunch, which worked better than I thought.  Honestly I got really hungry, still had to round up laundry, do dishes, go shopping, all this weekender stuff and nonsense and just started worrying about what I could throw together with what I had around without even thinking about the shakes, and when I did think about them I figured I was way to hungry for a shake to be satisfying.  But I caved (mostly because I had nothing easy to make or clean to make it in) and made myself a peach cobbler Shakey Shake, drank it while I was doing stuff around the house, and it was delicious and astonishingly filled me up until dinner!  I know, I know…I was skeptical, but it worked out and so it will make it that much easier to keep transitioning to that mind set going forward.  Of course part of the thing with weekends is that I really don’t have a set schedule that makes “breakfast/lunch/dinner/snacks” a thing like it is on the weekdays.  If I am getting up around 11:30am, I am usually eating around 2pm, then maybe a snack later, but probably not much until dinner time and maybe a snack late night depending on how things go, but a third meal usually doesn’t happen and the chances of me being out are much higher.  Sometimes a shake is going to work in there, sometimes it isn’t.  But I do have the trust in them now that they can be quick, satisfying, and worth it if the other option for lunch at home is a box of mac and cheese or take out once I hit the road. 

***Peach cobbler Shakey Shake recipe – scoop of peach jam, big sprinkle of cinnamon, 2 scoops Vanilla Formula 1, carton of peach yogurt.  YUM!!!  Seriously, the good peach jam I got from the Greek market totally made this!  Tasted just like a big scoop of peach cobbler icecream or something. 

I actually did a lot of cooking this weekend.  My friend Jessica came over Saturday and I made salsa chicken (thin cut chicken breast filets, in pam, smothered in salsa, sprinkled with cheese, baked), roasted broccoli with balsamic/olive oil/Italian cheese/smoked sea salt, wild rice pilaf, and a very burned batch of cornbread mini muffins that we picked the centers out of because what wasn’t toasty was tasty :-P  I normally make cornbread from scratch, but for ease I had just picked up a box of Jiffy mix and a can of creamed corn…mix, bake, don’t burn, enjoy!  I obviously forgot one of those steps, oh well. 

Call them "Rustic" - they are still delicious!

I also made the aforementioned Caramel Apple Tarts of heavenly delight!  They got a little crazy because I didn’t have a top crust and the caramel went EVERYWHERE – oven is going to smell like burning sugar for awhile!  But they were super tasty and I am restraining myself from just sitting down and eating the pan!  Next time there will be more apples and a top crust to contain the caramel-ly goodness, but this was a winner of a dessert.  Recipe?  Ummmmm…make a pie crust, put it in your tart pan of choice, chop up a buttload of apples, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and lump them into the tart pans, put a glob of caramel in each one, sprinkle with more cinnamon sugar, bake at a hot temperature that seems about right for your oven (375ish for me) for about 30 minutes or until the pie crust looks golden brown.  Cool for as long as you can stand to keep out of them and then DEVOUR!!!!  I know, super scientific, right? This is why I am not a regular baker.

Fry 'em up!! Om nom nom

Sunday night was another cooking adventure.  I had bought a little package with 2 Butterfish at the store because they looked interesting, I have heard some tasty things about Butterfish, and they were only $3.  I see they have the heads on but that’s no biggie.  Of course what I DIDN'T see until I opened the package is that they also were still completely intact and had not been gutted or cleaned!  I had to laugh and think about how many of my friends would have freaked out at this, and instead I grabbed a knife and got into the good squishy stuff and then sent my dad a text thanking him for teaching me how to gut fish and not be squeamish about it when I was a wee youngin’ learning the outdoorsy ways.  Cut a deep X in the side of each of them, rubbed liberally with smoked sea salt, flower pepper and Greek oregano, dusted with whole wheat flour, and pan fried them in a cast iron skillet with searing hot coconut oil.  Took about 5-6 minutes to cook them through then I squeezed a generous half of a lemon on them and HOLY MOTHER OF YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!  Seriously, these little buggers (maybe 5-6 inches long once the heads were off) were so meaty and tasty and crispy and delicious!  I will be buying and cooking these all the times in the world because I am totally in love with them.  Plus, wild caught and small so low on the food chain = low in mercury…such a great and tasty way to get more fish into my regular diet.  Another batch of roasted broccoli, a glass of red wine, a tear jerker fest of catching up on Nashville and Glee it was a perfect Single Girl Sunday.

The Art of Pathetic

Had to deal with a sick doggy this weekend L Poor girl got into something that I can’t figure out and had a sad tummy all weekend (which means she also had a sad mommy who was tired of cleaning up after her because she wouldn’t tell me she needed to go out!!)  but she seems to be back to about 80% today.  Got a haircut for the first time in 12 months…I think he took off about ½ of my hair in bulk, it feels so oddly light now!  The very chic stylist also complimented my hair color and dye job, and since it comes from a $6 bottle of Garnier Fructis and my bathroom and this was a high fashion Aveda salon I felt pretty good about that…haha!  I am also way too excited about a memory foam bathmat I got that makes you feel like you are walking on clouds, and a snazzy double decker drying rack that tucks back into the corner of my TINIEST KITCHEN IN THE WORLD when not in use.  Seriously though guys, this kitchen is ridiculously small…I will share pictures at some point, but I am still learning to work around it and not drop things off my little 2 inches of ledge of prep space on one side of the sink and about 2 feet of counter on the other side.  I need a table or skinny island or something!  This will definitely be my biggest challenge to figure out how to cook well in this little bitty space.  But hey, if My Tiny Paris Kitchen and Mark Bittman can do it, so can I!  

A new haircut and a can-do attitude!

Food and portions and stuff

So I packed my food for work today. After having a panic attack over how much money I spent on eating out during finals week ($10-$15 a day, seriously more than 50% of my weekly income was being spent on Subway, McAllister’s and Mad Batter) I decided that during break I will do LOTS of cooking, pack my food when I am working, and freeze a ton of stuff to be ready for the insanity that is going to be January 9th – February 12th (first day of rehearsals through closing night of Reasons To Be Pretty) (I should stop using parenthesis so much…but I like them…don’t judge me, I’m a theatre major not an English major)

ANYWAY…………………

So I packed some of my leftover curried lentils and brown rice for lunch today. I also packed a slice of fresh baked bread, 2 clementine oranges, package of miso soup mix, a string cheese, and an apple. I figured all that would cover me for lunch and afternoon snacks. But seriously, I think I grossly overestimate how much food I need in a day. I ate about 3/4 of the lentils and rice, the bread and the clementines and a Christmas cookie that a coworker had brought in and didn’t touch the soup, cheese or apple. It’s like, I pack every day on the off chance I am chosen to join an expedition to climb Everest and all I will have to eat is what is in my lunch bag. PLUS the tupperware I pack my leftovers in holds 3 cups and of course I feel the need to fill it full. That means I packed around 1.5 cups of lentils and 1.5 cups of rice. I mean, no wonder by 3/4 of the way through I felt like I was going to burst with curried goodness! I’m thinking maybe I need to downgrade to a 2 cup tupperware container for leftovers for a more reasonable serving size so I don’t have a curried food baby after lunch.

So, lesson of today boys and girls – you will NOT starve, or be chosen to cater a mountain climbing expedition on the contents of your sack lunch, so pack for a single meal and not a week.

ALSO! I got my Christmas packages from my mom today. Although I left the wrapped presents until Saturday (if I can hold out) I did open a box of Trader Joe’s goodies that I am SUPER excited about. My closest TJ’s is 2 hours away an I haven’t had a functioning car for almost 3 months so getting awesome care packages from across the country always makes my day. Behold the stash!Trader Joe’s miso soup and dried peaches are probably two of my favorite things in the entire world…right up there with world peace and pillows stuffed with bunnies.

Pantry cooking never tasted so good!

So my car was fixed for a nanosecond and then it pooted out on me again. Which means I am digging through the cabinets looking for foodstuff until I can get a ride to the grocery store again. Went through and cleaned out the fridge of all the odds and ends that I have let get a little too ripe during finals week, and decided to make myself up a yummy pantry dinner.

Curried Lentils and Brown Rice

I boiled up about 1/2 bag of dried lentils with 2 bay leaves until they were very very soft. Drained and pulled the bay leaves out and added a large can of crushed tomatoes, about 1/4 cup of leftover curry ketchup, and somewhere in the ballpark of 1 Tb. each of curry powder, garlic powder and dried cilantro and some salt to taste. Basically, start small and add until it tastes good to you :-)

In the meantime I used my tried and true method for a pot of delicious brown rice (The secret - saute the dry grains of rice in some hot olive oil until they are nice and toasty before adding water. Lots of flavor and it doesn't get too mushy!)

Spooned up half a bowl from each pot of deliciousness and INSTANT YUM!!! This probably cost me no more than about $3 for the entire big pot. 1 cup of rice from a $1 bag, about $0.75 worth of lentils, $0.99 for a can of crushed tomatoes, a few pennies for the various spices. The curry ketchup was probably the most expensive thing and the meal would be just as good without it, I just happened to have a bit left in my bottle from my birthday. I think I will toss some frozen spinach in the rest of the pot to up the veggie quota, but otherwise this is about as perfect a winter dinner as it gets! Add a glass of white wine and some old episodes of Star Trek Voyager and I am a happy girl this Friday night.

Massive Cooking Weekend - No Cooking Week

So I have disappeared for a little bit because I have been crazy busy! The musical 7 Deadly Sins runs this weekend at school and I am the Assistant Stage Manager so I have been in rehearsals from 6pm-11pm pretty much every night, and this is after being in school and work from 8am-5pm every day!! Knowing in advance this would be happening, though, I took my free time this past weekend and did a MASSIVE cooking frenzy to stock my fridge in advance. And I have to say, it has worked out pretty well.

Here is a rundown of everything I cooked this weekend with some pictures. No real recipes this week because everything was more of a throw together:

1) Cherries and apples stewed in red wine and cinnamon

2) Potato and oyster corn chowder

3) Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

4) Chili
5) Brown Rice
6) Marinated Tofu
7) Peanut Butter Cookies
8) Sweet Potato Muffins
9) Baked Eggs
- I whisked together 8 eggs and about 2/3 cup of milk with some seasonings as if I was making scrambled eggs. Put a small piece of whole wheat bread in the bottom of each cup of a greased muffin tin, topped with a little diced cheese, and poured the eggs evenly into each cup and then baked. Yummy, but I would make a few changes next time. I would toast the bread first so it didn't get as soaked up into the egg as it did this time and I would add veggies like spinach or broccoli to bulk it up and make it more satisfying (and healthier!). I have also seen an idea to do this with a crust made of biscuit dough or puff pastry which would also be an option, although more expensive. I will include pictures and a REAL recipe when I do it again and feel happier with the results.

10) Baked potatoes

Holy hell! Looking at the list even I am overwhelmed by how much I did! But it has worked out great...I have been able to take chili over a baked potato for lunches, muffins and eggs for breakfasts, have a cup of chowder and a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner, pack a couple of peanut butter cookies as an afternoon snack/treat, marinated tofu with brown rice...it has been super easy just to reach in the fridge, grab something and go!


Now granted, I didn't do a whole lot of planning on this and I probably overdid it. For example, I baked 7 potatoes and I am NOT eating a potato a day. I did freeze half the muffins, but I will probably need to freeze some of the chili and brown rice too so it doesn't go bad because I just can't eat it all when I am one person and I cook for an army (something I still need to work on). I think for next week I am going to do some better menu planning, for one to make sure I am getting more veggies in my meals, and also so that I don't end up overwhelmed with a fridge full of food I just can't eat in 1 week.

I am still on a strict budget (and I will be for the next few years, might as well get used to it now!) so I won't be doing much more grocery shopping except maybe some fruit and veggies. I am also planning on going through my freezer to see what I have already stashed there that I want to thaw and eat before it gets too old. I know I froze a couple containers of black bean soup so I think that will accompany some quesadillas for lunches and dinners next week! This pantry cooking is actually a lot of fun and a great challenge - Use what you have instead of going crazy spending a ton on stuff for a single recipe.

Still feeling healthy and riding my bike to school every day. It is definitely feeling easier too! I am taking less breaks heading up the hill (only 1 pause this morning and I was stopping 3-4 times when I started 3 weeks ago!) and able to do it faster without feeling like I am dying. Once it gets to the point where I don't feel like it is pushing as much anymore, I am going to start taking the gears up slowly so it remains a good workout. As long as I keep the intensity high, it will continue to be a good 1/2 hr or so of exercise every day and that is a good start to getting healthy! I will say though, riding my bike after 6 hours of sleep and riding it after 8 hours of sleep I can sure tell a difference in how sluggish my legs feel...sleep really is key, and once the show is over I will start getting it again :-)

The "I am totally broke and using it as a gimic" Post

Ok - So here is the deal...I am broke. Like as in, flat, crazy, $20 to my name broke until I get a paycheck in 2-3 weeks and even then most of that will have to be saved for rent and car insurance. I guess that's what comes of being a college student again and not having a job until this week. So that means I get to now figure out how to eat on $20 or less for the next 3 weeks (and in turn take these frugal lessons along with me as I continue to be a relatively poor student for the next 3 years. And let's be honest - I am studying theatre, as I continue to be a poor artist for the next 10 years!)

Things in my favor:
1) I have a relatively well stocked pantry with a few sauces, peanut butter, a couple cans of tomatoes, tons of spices, a good amount of rice and grits and pasta and tortillas, some frozen veggies, flour, basics like that.
2) I am a good cook, a confident cook, and I have an adventurous palate so eating some crazy concoctions doesn't phase me

Things going against me:
1) I have a ton of carb items and very few protein items. I have, 1 can of chickpeas, 1 tin of protein powder, 2 tubs of tofu, about 1 lb. of ground beef, 2 cans of smoked oysters and 2 cans of smoked sardines - that is is when it comes to protein for the next 3 weeks.
2) I will run out of muffins this week and I don't have any sweet potatoes on hand to make new ones
3) I will run out of bananas and milk this week for making smoothies
4) I am very limited on fresh produce and I don't have much canned or frozen as backup

So what do you think? Can I live out of my pantry without grocery shopping for the next 3 weeks? If I have to go to the store I don't want to spare more than $10 so what do you think would be the best things to get for that $10? Dried beans? Fresh fruit? Canned fruit? Frozen veggies?

I also have to make a confession - although I generally am very opposed to the industrial agricultural food system and I try to buy only organic meat and dairy products (or natural non-dairy products like almond milk and earth balance "butter"). However, I went to the store yesterday with a $10 budget and I ended up caving to my principles for the sake of cost and got store brand milk and cheap ground beef. It's not that I eat a ton of meat anyway, and I don't think I will do that again...but I have more of an appreciation now about how saying "eat organic no matter what" can seem like a very elite cry when people have to eat and they just don't have the money. That being said, I wasn't happy about eating the beef and I think I am going to go back to vegetarian if I can't afford organic and get dried beans and such instead. I just can't compromise quite that much.

Now - To launch things off, here are some pictures from my pantry cooking last night!



Dinner was an enchilada casserole made with homemade salsa, whole wheat tortillas, a mixture of ground beef, brown rice, and mashed sweet potato seasoned with cumin and chili powder, topped with 1/2 package of frozen veggies, more salsa, more tortillas and sliced cheddar cheese. Baked it at 375 for 20 minutes without the cheese and added the cheese for the last 10 minutes. I don't feel it is worth doing an official recipe for because it was yummy, but pretty basic, and nothing I would be able to repeat since it was made with just whatever was in my fridge last night :-)
I admit, it looks a little goopy when it is all served up, but it was really quite tasty! If I make it again, I will substitute black beans for the ground beef. And if I could buy whatever I wanted to add to it, I would get kale or collard greens and saute those down and add a layer too - but that doesn't fit with my current challenge so frozen veggies it is!

I also had about 5 peaches that were getting really overripe and I needed to do something with them. So I peeled and sliced them all up and tossed them with some cinnamon and ginger.


Added about a cup or so of white wine and simmered it all together for about 20 minutes until it was nice and boiled down and syrupy and super yummy!

I had about 1/2 of this mixture for dessert with one of those mini containers of Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia I had in the freezer and a glass of the white wine I used for simmering. Absolutely divine! The other half of the peaches is in the fridge for tonight. I have some cherries that are getting past prime in my fridge too, I might do those with red wine tonight.


So folks - I could use your input here. Any ideas, suggestions, or thoughts on ways to get through this 3 weeks and what I should spend my last $10 of grocery budget on next week would be greatly appreciated! I will try to keep you updated on how it is going and one way or another, I'm pretty sure I won't starve :-)

Pictures!

Ok folks, so I took some pictures to share with you today to make up for Tuesday's picture-less post.

First - a couple pictures of the lovely, tasty and nutritional powerhouse green monster smoothie! I drink a little bit while getting ready and put the rest in my water bottle and take it to school to drink during my 8am classes.


Also a picture of my yogurt and granola all ready to be mixed and consumed before my 11am class :-)

Now I have LOVED these Oikos individual organic greek yogurt cups with honey and they are perfect for bringing to school. However, my budget will no longer allow me to buy them so I am probably going to just be switching to regular plain yogurt and premixing it in my lovely 1 cup liquid-tight tupperware containers with my homemade granola. Oh the sacrifices of a poor student!

And here is a picture of the illustrious Blue Bomber - my trusty companion to and from school and all over campus.

Please note the helmet hanging from the handlebar (normally on my head) because safety is important and I have had a couple of bad bike accidents in my past (if you launch headfirst over the front of your bike and catch a handlebar in the gut you may end up with a face full of pavement, a lacerated spleen and internal bleeding...I'm just sayin'!), the backpack and water bottle with WATER in the basket up front, and the water bottle with smoothie in the handy dandy water bottle holder. Much like running, I may not be the fastest one in the pack, but by god I am going to get there!

For a couple of new items may I present my new breakfast goodie - pumpkin spice muffins!

"Now wait a moment!" You might be saying..."I thought there was no canned pumpkin available in the stores right now because of the big pumpkin harvest rotting last year!" And you would be right. For those of you who don't know, all the commercial pumpkins last year basically rotted on the vines and there has been no canned pumpkin available since Christmas last year until the new harvest ripens this year. So I did what any enterprising cook who wanted muffins would do, I baked sweet potatoes used the mashed meat from those instead. Voila! Made with whole wheat flour, sweet potato, applesauce instead of oil, and studded with cranberries and almonds. A not-too-sweet but oh so delicious breakfast item to keep in the fridge and grab all week. I will do a separate post with the recipe and nutrition info.

Note to self however - do NOT attempt to balance said muffin on the backpack in the above pictured bike basket and expect it to stay in place when going over a speed bump...1/2 a muffin was sacrificed to learn that lesson today. Will adjust for tomorrow :-)

Also a pic of my sandwich today. Tuesday/Thursday is my day that I have 10 minutes to eat lunch because I have class from 11am-2pm with only that short break in between. Last time I brought tuna and dill dip and crackers, and decided that eating pungent tuna before going into acting class was not the greatest idea. Last night I made some lemon dill hummus and turned it into a hummus/sprouts/cucumber sandwich for lunch today. Will let you know how that goes, but it sure looks yummy!

By the way...any suggestions or ideas on 10 minute lunches would be greatly appreciated!