Category Archives: Cooking

30 day cleanse: here we go.

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Well kids, it’s day 2 of my self-imposed-roping-Jeff-in-too cleanse. Here’s what’s on our list of no-no’s:

Cheese (1st week)
Red meat (2 weeks)
White flour (1 month)
Processed foods (1 month)
Fried foods (1 month)
Alcohol (1 month)

Day 1 was hard because I was hungry for most of the day due to my rushed lunch-making. I made a salad but didn’t have time to add a proper protein, so instead of delicious tuna or chicken I had a handful of edamame, which just wasn’t quite enough. My snack drawer at work is full of processed foods, so I had to turn to granola (mostly nuts) and fruit (mostly citrus) which wasn’t exactly filling.

Day 2 was hard because I went out to lunch with my coworkers, and had to figure out a way to not sound like a snotty hippy. I got a kale sandwich on wheat bread (whole grain/wheat bread is a cheat I’ve allowed because I don’t have time to be making my own bread all month) but it had cheese on it, so looks like I’m tacking on a non-cheese day to the end of the week.

I know, I know, this sounds like torture, right? So why am I doing this?

Well, for one, I want to see if I can eat unprocessed foods for a whole month. You quickly realize all the things that you can’t have, but I want this to teach me just what I can have. I can have any fruit or veggie I want. I can have whole grains (think quinoa, brown rice, farro, barley, bulgur) and eggs and dairy (save cheese for week one.) Learning what is processed will get Jeff and me to think about what we are putting into our bodies.

Secondly, I want to get back to cooking at home on a regular basis. In December we got busy, and the first thing to go is cooking, because it’s time consuming, which is understandable. But if we pay attention to the task of preparing food for ourselves, we’re doing ourselves a favor of keeping our bodies healthy (see number one.)

Thirdly, I haven’t been doing the best at eating my fruits and veggies, and winter is even tougher to get those fruits in there (hello clementine number 7 of the day!) Limiting what I can eat makes me rely on fruits and veggies for nutrients, which is how it should be, because they’re chocked full of everything needed to guarantee a nutritious diet.

Finally, because somewhere between “yes” and “let me see the video,” in the excitement of the engagement, I agreed to run a half-marathon, and I think taking care of my body will help me get to a place where running, yoga, and general exercise are taken in stride rather as a burden.

So for the next month, things here might get a little cleanse-heavy and a little running heavy, too. I hope you stick with me, friends.

Gotta get down on Friday…

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Friends, here we are, on the afternoon side of Friday! And there is a three day weekend ahead for most of us to enjoy! This weekend brings barbecues, soccer games, sunshine, spring cleaning (as we roll into summer), video tutorials on soup making, and potato salad. Among, you know, other things.

Liz and I headed to yoga last night, where we spent an hour and a half breathing deep and trying not to laugh our heads off. The class was interesting, but like always was a little weird for us for the first thirty minutes and took a turn for the weird for the last ten, too. Too much quiet time makes us laugh so hard.

After yoga Wednesday, my abs were sore, and now the two days in a row are definitely catching up with my shoulders. Which is great for these arms and back of mine, let me tell you. Tonight I may run if I feel like it, probably toting Jeff along for the ride, too. I want to do one more set of intervals in the set I’ve got going to gauge how I’m doing. From Monday to Tuesday I added a tenth of a mile to my 20 minutes of intervals, so hopefully I am doing something right.

This weekend I also have to print invitations for my sister’s wedding shower, mail them off, and make sure my bridesmaid dress for Lauren’s wedding fits. To be in more than one wedding a year is hard! At least I had Barbra’s to get me ready…

What are all of you up to this weekend? The thing I am looking forward to the most (besides not typing because boy does it make these forearms ache! Typing and yoga don’t go together!)

This:

 

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

All our friendship has been for the past 2 years is RUSHING.

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I said this to Corelyn last night as we RUSHED out of the door to Trader Joe’s and I said, “Remember that time that we went to TJ’s and forgot our list?”

“Yes, we talk about it nearly every time we go to TJS, obviously it was traumatic.”

“Well yes, and we were rushing for some reason….”

“WE’RE ALWAYS RUSHING.”

“Corelyn, all our friendship has been for the past 2 years is RUSHING. We just RUSH around all the live-long day.”

Last night was no exception. The plan was to do the following: paint chairs, make granola, exchange music (if we had time), maybe slap on a second coat of paint, outfit plan for the photo shoot on Sunday.

On the actual docket? Unexpected visit from Mary, which turned into outfit planning whilst waiting for dinner to arrive. This was a blessing (not in disguised, as Corelyn pointed out) because she had insight into what she really thought would look great. Also unexpected visit from Becca, who showed up because she was supposed to grab dinner with Mary. This turned into dinner with Mary and Becca, whilst hanging out with Melissa, who actually was supposed to come over.

This led us to a late start on our painting, which meant we painted the chairs in my garage in the dark, using a camping light and head lamps. Mary watched for a few minutes before turning to go inside and keep Becca company.

“How do they look?” Mary asked as we came in, about 30 minutes later.

“Well, you’re not going to like them. But we’ll put a second coat on them and they’ll look great,” was my honest response. After that, we sat around for a few minutes making plans for the granola we were about to make, waiting for the food. The Indian place we order from somehow was very late in getting us our food, so this led to us eating and finishing up around 9:15. Since our normal TJ’s closes at 9:00, we had to head to a different one.

As we were going to the car, after saying goodbye to Mary and Becca who were rejuvenated by delicious food and ready for another adventure, Melissa, Corelyn, and I were reminded a) how late it was b) that we had the list and c) all we do is rush.

We headed to TJ’s where we had a hilarious conversation with the check-out guy, “You know how there is always something in granola that you don’t like? This granola will have nothing you don’t like, because YOU made it.” He seemed intrigued. He gave us stickers. One has a chicken with chicks that are multicolored.

Then we went back to the house, when we realized it was 10:00. Perfect time to make granola and paint the second coat. We got everything ready for the oven to bake, then took the timer, the camping lamp, the headlamps, and headed back to the garage.

27 minutes later, we headed back inside, but not before Melissa came to say goodbye and tell us someone had left a hilarious note (which is going to be posted soon, I promise.) She headed home, and we headed inside to finish the granola.

As we washed our teal hands, we could smell the oats and maple syrup all deliciously roasted. We documented what we had already added, and then added a slew of other things while making sure to keep track of what we were adding. Pictures were taken, random splotches of paint were found on each other’s arms, and granola was finished. By the time Corelyn left it was nearly quarter to midnight. We hadn’t had a music exchange, we didn’t pack the kitchen, but other than that, we had accomplished a lot.

Tonight, book club. Tomorrow? Rinse and repeat Tuesday’s chaos with some donuts, muffins, and pancakes. Stay tuned.

You’re so sad, and pathetic. So sad! So wilty!

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That is what I just exclaimed to the spinach I spied in my fridge. Home from running for the night (we’ll get to that in a minute) and now showered, and starving, I ate a few handfuls of “Trekking along with Cashews and Hibiscus” and realized I needed to figure out what to eat for dinner.

The kitchen left clues that suggested Jeff had pasta earlier in the day. “So I am guessing you won’t want pasta for dinner, too?” I asked. “No, I’ll do pasta again,” he says over the phone.

Do I have the ingredients for cheese sauce? Barely. The showing of the cheese in my fridge is distressing. Only parm, and a half-block of raw milk cheddar. Did we have any red sauce on the shelves? No. Now, to those of you who live in LA, I know this will shock you. Don’t worry – I have the supplies to make a sauce from scratch, but my stomach is rumbling NOW. Plus Jeff has to rush back out to work tonight, so that won’t do.

Jeff offers to stop at TJ’s for sauce and sausage – our favorite quick dinner. So now, to the kitchen to prepare the water for pasta (of which we’re dwindling close to less than 5 pounds. Jeff assures me we must use up our “random” pasta before we add to the collection. I am skeptical.) Spinach and chive linguine I must have bought once at TJs, although I don’t know what possessed me. I don’t like linguine. It must have been for something, but now it’s tonight’s dinner.

And now, a vegetable, which leads me to the conversation with the spinach. I opened the fridge, scared of what I’d fine in the vegetable drawer. The CSA from last week is half eaten, and I went to the farmer’s market yesterday and committed a cardinal sin of the farmer’s market. I was on my cell phone when purchasing. I also (sin number two) was in a time crunch, as yoga started at noon. This led to the purchase of a large bunch of spinach, a medium bunch of kale, two crowns of broccoli, an onion, some garlic, three lemons, and who knows what else.

This melody added to the Swiss chard, artichokes, beets, carrots, baby carrots, onion, and garlic I ALREADY had made for a very green fridge. Oh CSA, why can’t you teach me another way to each artichokes?

Anyways, back to tonight, and my kitchen. Like I said, I had a lot of veg. So I figured Jeff would prefer broccoli to say, chard. Opened the fridge, and spotted the sad, pathetic, ONE DAY OLD spinach. “Really? Really you look like that? I bought you yesterday. Pathetic.” So the spinach went in, and then the broccoli as planned, head shaking all the way.

Luckily Jeff knows that TJ’s for sausage and sauce also means garlic bread, so we have that to look forward to.

Meanwhile, I ran Friday and then again today. 1.75 miles today, 23:35. Not bad, says Nikki, and my feet. My body is so sore from yesterday’s yoga where I had a great aha! moment that involved really working my arms like I should have been all along from plank to up dog. Anyways, tangent. This run was the longest yet, probably the longest distance I’ve ever run just to run, and my feet did NOT blister over. They instead have callused. I take this as a good sign, despite that all this working out has led me to talk to spinach in my kitchen…

This is why I never get anything done.

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“There is a note on the board that says ‘Hard boil all eggs'” – Jeff

“Yes, its because the eggs go bad tomorrow according to package.” – me

“Well, so you’re going to hard boil them?” – Jeff

“Yes, I could also make you cookies, or a baked good, do you want me to?” – me

“What about brownies, could you make brownies?” – Jeff

“Yea, probably.” – me (proceed to look through cook book and see if I have enough chocolate)

“No, I don’t have enough to make a full recipe. I could make 1/3.”  – me

“Could I go to the store and get the ingredients you need?” – Jeff

“Yea, then I’ll make ‘um.” – me

“What, no, this is ridiculous. Hard boil the eggs, we should relax tonight.” – Jeff

“Ok.” – me

Proceed to boil the eggs, and rinse all the lettuce in the sink because it’s sandy. Jeff stands by, shaking head, coaxing me to sit down and relax.

Guys, I think I’m addicted to cooking.