Whole grains are delicious.

I’m having an RA flare, and while it’s relatively mild, I’m still finding it quite annoying because it’s all spread out - left knee, right hip, left hand, and jaw. Fun times all around, basically. So, no kickboxing for me, but I did hit the gym after work to do some cardio and weights. I’m always really proud of myself when I manage to exercise through pain - as long as it’s not excruciating, it really helps.

But enough self-congratulation. Wait, no. I’m not done. This meal was really delicious, too:

I’m going mostly meatless this week, just because meat is expensive and I didn’t want to buy any before we go on vacation. Good thing, too, because I took some WebMD diet assessment today and it was all DANGER, WILL ROBINSON! TOO. MUCH. PROTEIN.

So the main course (top right corner) was a delightful barley and walnut salad. It was inspired by a recipe from Food and Wine, with some major modifications. I’m more of a Cooking Light kind of girl, so I was a little appalled by the fact that the recipe called for 1/3 cup of olive oil. Just the idea of that makes me feel kind of sickly. Anyway, it’s barley, a few toasted walnuts, some spinach that I threw in with the barley at the last minute, a nice lemon vinaigrette, and some feta.

Close up:

I also roasted some veggies to have on the side, because I wanted to take advantage of the fact that it was only 78 degrees.

Now I’m off to clean and read and stress out over whether or not I can make it to the gym in the morning.

Storm blogging

Last night was kind of busy, so I didn’t post. Tonight was kind of TOTALLY RIDICULOUSLY NUTS. But I’m posting. Because I know you care.

Last night I made another barley risotto, this one with summer vegetables and goat cheese. I also baked a pasta dish for a co-worker who just had a little girl, so by the time they were both finished I was so hot that I actually had to check and make sure that my person wasn’t on fire. So, I wasn’t that hungry. I made a smaller serving of the pasta dish for Matt to taste-test, so I picked at that and then ate some risotto and a salad:

The return of the monkey plate.

Here are some things you should know about me:

1. If I have my hair pulled back and I’m not at the gym, that means that I Officially Mean Business and am probably doing some kind of web design and will likely have a migraine when I get done.
2. If I am wearing shorts and I’m not at the gym, then I am… actually, no. That doesn’t happen.
3. If I am using the monkey plate, I am in a bad mood.

I’ll try to think of a few more to really illuminate these dark corners of my Self.

Here’s the pasta I baked for my co-worker:

I hope she likes it.

Today was ridiculous. We had a tornado watch and then a fire alarm at work, and I had to herd people out of the building and then guard the door so that they wouldn’t go back in. Seriously, you have no idea how much people love a library until you tell them they can’t go in.

Then the tornado watch was supplemented by a severe thunderstorm warning and I booked it home, and managed to be here for about five minutes before the tornado sirens went off. Now, we don’t have a basement. Or, there’s one in our building but we don’t have access to it, and I obviously wasn’t about to go to critterville next door. So, anyway, I ran two blocks to this old hotel that is now a restaurant and apartments and hung out in the basement with a nice chick who had a weather radio and a few other people, including Ellen from work. All of the idiot people eating in the fancy restaurant were just standing by the windows. TORNADO WARNING, PEOPLE. One touched down pretty close to here, but we were spared. For now. If you’ve been watching the weather, you know that there’s a huge swath of storms from the Dakotas down to Texas, and, lucky us! We’re in it.

So I had some risotto and some bread and now I’m going to obsessively hit refresh on the six weather websites I have open.

If you never hear from me again, well, just know I took a Clif bar with me as I sought shelter.

This is the greatest thing that I have ever made.

Barley Risotto with Asparagus and Parmesan

I have no idea how it turned out so well. I’m a perfectly competent cook, and I like what I make most of the time. But this was in a class by itself. I’ve only had risotto once or twice, and only in restaurants. And since rice isn’t always my #1 grain, I liked it even better with the barley.

I’ve been intrigued by this recipe for a week or so, but I didn’t want to make it tonight because I didn’t get home until after 7, but after taking stock of my vegetable situation, I saw that the asparagus wasn’t going to make it much longer. So I bit the bullet, figuring it would be an okay night for dinner to turn out poorly, since Matt’s at work. I should have a similarly pessimistic attitude every night, and see if all of my meals turn out this well. And now I really want Matt to get home and try it so that I can see if maybe it was just me.

I’ve had terrible allergies since I was in middle school, I think. I may have the year confused, but really, I can trace most of my health problems to 7th grade cheerleading camp, so I’ve decided that’s when my allergies started. Today I walked around like a zombie with enormous red eyes and a sniffing problem. So, like a junkie, really. Anyway, one of the reasons that I didn’t get home until 7 was that I went to buy this:

That’s my new BFF, the neti-pot. I had just rinsed it, so that’s water. Not anything gross. If you’re unfamiliar with this magical contraption, here’s a video for your educational pleasure:

I have to say, it was much messier than this clip would have you believe. But that’s okay, because I can actually breathe through my nose again.

Which seemed like the perfect opportunity to enjoy some granola.

Hey it’s 9! That means it’s almost time to force-feed Matt some risotto and get all in his face, saying “Is it good? It’s good, right? Really good, right? RIGHT?”

I’m lazy

Yeah.

I’ve been saying that I’ll go grocery shopping “tomorrow” for, I don’t know, a week? Ten days? Something. I was all set to do that, BUT ultimately, I’m lazy. So, I didn’t. This might be less sad/more understandable if I didn’t live immediately behind a grocery store. I’ve clocked it on my pedometer, and it’s closer, door to door, than the closest restroom/water fountain/hot water pot to my office in the library. And I have no problem making that trek 68 times a day. Maybe admitting this to all (four) of you will shame me into grocery shopping.

Luckily, I always have vegetables/grains/things in cans for hard times like these, so I made some chicken barley chili. This is probably the best recipe I’ve ever gotten from the back of a box. My mom is really good at scoping those out, so maybe it’s genetic.

Wait. I think this is the only recipe I’ve ever gotten from the back of a box. Maybe it skips a generation and I’m just carrying the gene.

Right. Here’s my bowl:

You can tell it was still nice and warm, since the bowl is sweating.

This meal has many virtues, including very little chopping, mostly canned goods, a single pot to clean, five of the best foods in the world (black beans, chicken, corn, tomatoes, salsa) and two of the best spices (chili, cumin). Speaking of cumin, I have to thank my Aunt, who sent me a nice package with a ton of shirts and a ginormous container of cumin. I was starting to panic because I was almost out. Now I’m set.

They’re calling for weird weather here later this week - possible snow and things - so at least I know we’ll have this chili to tide us over until I can talk myself into walking the .05 miles to the store.

Actually, I just realized that I once made a really good cookie recipe from the side of a Bob’s Red Mill Muesli bag, so maybe I do have the gift.