Sunday, March 7, 2010

re-prioritizing

It's good to do that from time to time. My restaurant habits have been kicking in again, despive the fact that I am making a conscious effort at saving. I truly think it comes from, a. living alone and not always wanting to do ALL the cooking, and b. wanting healthy food when I don't have the time or energy to cook, and c. not wanting to eat every meal alone in my messy apartment.

:::recent dinner "out" at health food store:: vegan sushi

If you live alone, how do you deal? For a while, I was making meals every Sunday from scratch and freezing them/portioning them for the week ahead. But with all this Montessori school-preparation stuff I'm having to do, I want to feel as though my weekends are a bit more restful. It's a delicate balance to achieve. A continual work-in-progress, I guess. I've thought of a once-a-week dinner at a rotation of friends' houses, that would take the pressure off for at least one meal. But there are lunches and dinners for six other days here. I guess I just feel overwhelmed by it sometimes. Hmm.....

Other than that, and buying stuff for my classroom in the fall, I haven't been too bad. Part of the problem is I often don't go home right after school, and I end up getting snacks at coffeeshops and health food shops to sustain me. (I've always had a large, healthy appetite and I can't go more than a couple of hours ever without eating SOMETHING) I was walking in the park yesterday on a gorgeous, spring-like day (FINALLY!), five miles, and it occurred to me that perhaps I need to start packing a cooler the night before I know I'll be out all day and pack it up with healthful mini-meals. I know that I need to just MAKE the time throughout the week to chop fruits and veg, and cook. And that not every meal can be an Iron Chef spectacular ....

anyway, enough about all that. here are some goals I'd like to work on in the near future -- in the spirit of reprioritizing. what does your list look like?

getting onto the sewing machine to make materials (cloths, aprons) for the classroom

playing the guitar just a few minutes every day and practicing my chords

reading reading reading ... i recently realized that since christmas, I've ONLY finished one book and gotten into 100 pages of another. that's it! fie, for shame! I'm currently reading Stones into Schools by Greg Mortenson. Next up: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.

saving $$ .... this is ongoing. I'm still looking for something very part-time ... the personal assistant thing did not work out, not due to any fault of my own. sometimes (more often than not, actually) craigslist is a black hole. sigh ... back to the drawing board here

planning ... possible trips to asheville, n.c. (not too far from here, seven hours maybe?) and montana ... ahhhh big sky country.

picnics in the park where i often walk

knitting socks ... knee socks ... using the magic loop method. must read more on this. i bought the yarn yesterday ... waiting for my circular needle to arrive in-store.

cleaning out my disgusting car, and taking it to the carwash

making a pile of clothes for an upcoming community clothing swap

making a vegan chocolate cheesecake!! maybe a vegan PEANUT BUTTER chocolate cheesecake!

growing ... something edible ... swiss chard, maybe? in a container on my porch.
i'm reading some old thrifted gardening books I have to try and make this happen.

here is some homemade salsa that I made recently. tweak to taste, so i'll just list what I used here after the picture. It tastes great mixed with black beans, brown rice, vegenaise, blue tortilla chips, and fresh avocado.


2 fresh tomatoes
1 yellow bell pepper
fresh cilantro
almost 1 whole can of pineapple rings, plus some of the juice
lime juice
agave

chop/blend it all up in a food processor and tweak to taste, as I said before. Tip:: don't overdo it on the cilantro. start small and add more if necessary because of its strong flavor and ability to overwhelm all the other ingredients if too much is added from the get-go. ;-)



hope you all have a good, busy week ... and find some peace in it when you can. :-)

2 comments:

  1. love your posts, and your intentions!!!

    <3 the cooler idea!

    for fast: i eat a lot of salad, it's pretty quick, really. hummus & carrots. steamable other greens. beans from crockpots.

    sending you blissful wishes, as always!!

    <3 Sarah

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  2. Oh my it all looks sooo good!!!

    ReplyDelete