Nearly there

I feel nearly better now.

Had enough energy/disgust built up to do some laundry and dishes. Hell I even took a shower and will sleep on clean sheets tonight. Don't discount the little things that feel so nice. When I take over the world I will have that everyday. But for now, this is enough.

I have broken through the confusion and emotional pain. I feel really peaceful now. Maybe I'll be up to going outside tomorrow. I can't hide all winter, much as I would like to.

We had to cover the garden tonight, it is supposed to freeze and while I think they will be ok, I don't want to lose my sweet little lettuces. I have to harvest them in the next few days and I think it might hurt a bit after fussing over them so long. I like tomatoes and thing like that better where you don't cut the whole thing. I feel silly.

Cereal with almond milk, yogurt, and veggie pizza. Lots of tea, as always, and diluted cranberry juice, which I rather like. It's been worse.

Overloaded- system failure

Rough night last night and today has been the same. You never get sick when the house is clean and there is easy food. I can't even find my favorite sweatpants. Sad Face.

Chris was sick yesterday and I had it by the end of the evening and now i just feel lousy. After

this weird emotionally exhausting month, I think we just gave out. So no Indianapolis thank the gods. I really hope we can use this weekend to reconnect and recover. So I went back to bed for most of the day and am counting the minutes til chris gets back so i can go to bed.

I just want orange juice.

Why am I in this room?

Hmm, maybe I should eat a vegetable today. Probably should have had more for dinner last night than candy and yogurt. Nah.

This weekend is going to be rough. In several ways. But I'll buy a bunch of snacks which should help a bit. Conference food is never good, cheap or easy, more so when one of us can't have gluten and the other doesn't eat meat. add in no refrigeration and you end up with chocolate and bannans. Which come to think of it doesn't sound so bad.

At the very least we are driving with cool people rather than flying.

I need a hug. And someone to make me dinner.

My god it is only Tuesday. Throw me a bone universe.

I shouldn't tempt the gods.

November

My life has been upended since February.

I wanted to do National Novel Writing Month, but I just cannot fathom that kind of brain power and discipline in the state I am in. Not now, not yet.

So instead I will just try to write something here every day this month and see what happens.

This time of year is hard, but exquisitely beautiful. North Carolina has its faults but the weather is not one of them. Clear light and blue skies. I still struggle with depression every year about now. I have spent all summer outside, but now I just want to hibernate. I am doing ok with it now, but I need more sleep and vitamins to hold up.

We are going to Indianapolis for a conference this week. It isn't warm there. I need to pull out my down coat that makes me look like a marshmallow. I guess holloween will be a bit late... speaking of which, peanut M&Ms are delicious. And we had no trick or treaters this year so it is all mine.

Yeah healthy eating. About that.

It's 11pm, we are hungry and the kitchen is a disaster area.

Story of my life...

This is really hard to do, I never know what to write about, which is why I have been writing up what I have been cooking. I get into it but the same thing always happens. I want to write about something but I don't because "I have to write this first" gets in the way and I don't write either.

Anyway I made a quiche at 11pm and it wasn't bad.

I used frozen shredded potatoes for the crust as Chris is now off of gluten (fucking long story that doesn't have an end yet) and they worked well, only next time I need to season it more. Than I mixed up six eggs with spices and some green onion. I didn't use any milk like the recipe called for, as it had spoiled already. I just poured that into the pie plate with the potatoes and baked it for like 20 minutes and then browned it with the broiler for a bit more. I liked it ok, but have some ideas to improve it for next time. It was really nice to have it for breakfast today, too bad we had already eaten most of it...

Snowed in.

Not as romantic as it sounds. It was all because I had tried to empty the fridge out, and I was waiting to buy more groceries for this weekend. And I made fun of other people for going out to stock up last night before the snow. So the gods are getting me back for being a skeptic and we can't really get out. Not that we tried very hard, but I just don't trek through unplowed streets without damn good reason.

Anyway, it was fine, great even! I made coffee, pancakes and eggs for brunch--Trader Joe's Pumpkin Pancake mix is awesome. Later I actually had to be creative as there wasn't much left around. It was kind of a good lesson in how long we can go without shopping and how to use ingredients that don't obviously go together.

So dinner was really good. We had bean and veggie curry with coconut rice and broccoli. I had forgotten the broccoli was in the freezer from forever ago- I shouldn't have left in in there so long, it was a block of ice, but it cooked in the microwave just fine. The brown rice was made in the rice cooker (best invention ever!) with some dried coconut, coconut milk and garm masala mixed in. My goodness was that a good idea! Finally the curry was really easy. I had a little veggie soup that had been frozen and thawed, so I mixed it in with some onion and celery I cooked and the last portion of the white beans. Throw in a whole bunch of curry powder and paprika, salt pepper and garlic, let it simmer until it looks good. I found some frozen cilantro and mixed it and lime juice in; and we had some great curry.

I guess the lesson here is look in the back of the freezer!

The best carrot soup I have ever made

We have all sorts of odds and ends after this last week, including a bag of baby carrots that wasn't getting any younger (note to self, don't buy four bags in a week, even if they are on sale...) so it was carrot soup time! This was a smaller batch than usual, I'd usually peel and cook about 3-4 lbs at once, but there is enough for lunch tomorrow and the next day. This is important, as chris has now learned the merits of carrying his lunch, (oh thank god) and soup is great for that, just store it in a jar and reheat with the lid off.

The Best Carrot Soup Ever.

1 tbls unsalted butter

1/2 large sweet onion diced

4 stalks of celery diced

(should have put 3-4 cloves garlic sliced in here)

cook these together until they are soft, then add:

1 lb peeled carrots cut in chunks

salt and pepper

continue to cook on med heat. when you can smell the carrots, add:

4-6 cups of water (or veg broth would be better, but I bought this powdered broth and am trying to use it up)

when it simmers add broth powder and some dried garlic

med simmer 15 mins, add:

2 small or 1 large diced potatoes and about 1 cup cooked white beans

simmer another 15-20 minutes and mash with potato masher until creamy and mostly smooth

add a bunch or fresh ginger (I used part of a jar of grated ginger, fresh would taste better)

1 tbls paprika

salt and pepper to taste

to finish, turn off heat, and melt about 3 spoonfuls of sour cream in.

We ate this with broken tortilla chips sprinkled on top.

Makes about 10 servings for most people, or fewer if you are feeding chris.

P.S. We did it! no meals out this week, just a few drinks and a visit to the taco truck. I don't want to jinx this but posting any goals, but project eat right and save money is off to a great start.