Wrap it up

Wrapping up the weekend, I feel more tired than I did on Friday when I left work, and I didn’t get most of the things done that I needed to do. I did, however, see some pretty awesome high school basketball, including games featuring a few future K-Staters like Latavius Williams and Wally Judge. These kids are huge, these AAU players. They are twice my height and weight and they are all under 18 years old. It made me want to eat a lot, like I had some kind of irrational idea that I would still be able to grow to their size.

That’s my way of saying I had a lot of snacks.

Yesterday, I was still having a lot of problems health-wise, so I wasn’t really up for making dinner when I got home after 10 hours of basketball. And I’d hit the concession stand, so I wasn’t that hungry, and all I wanted was some fruit and a salad. So I mashed them both together and here they are:

Mixed greens with strawberries, pineapple, mandarin oranges, goat cheese, walnuts, and balsamic vinaigrette. I also had some cottage cheese. Because it’s going bad soon, I can feel it.

Today, I limited myself to one concession stand trip, and I also went to the gym before the games, and did some tough grocery shopping afterward, so I was actually hungry for dinner. We had another Ellie Krieger recipe: Hummus and Grilled Vegetable wraps. Can you buy stock in a person? Because I’d buy it in her.

Pre-wrapping:

Hummus, grilled zucchini, pine nuts, roasted red pepper, red onions, and spinach. Here it is with a mixed greens, cucumber, and tomato salad with lemon vinaigrette:

We need new plates. I’m really bored with taking pictures of these.

Everything tastes good when you don’t know how it’s supposed to taste.

Right?

So, last night I made two things I’ve neither prepared nor eaten before: tabbouleh and falafel (I know! I lack culture). I thought they both turned out pretty well, but then, really, what do I know?

There’s the falafel. I know, it looks sort of creepy.

And there’s the tabbouleh. If you’re down with grains, as I am, you may notice that it’s not traditional tabbouleh because it’s made with quinoa instead of bulgur. Really, I think we get enough bulgur around here. And my sister made quinoa recently, which made me realize that it’s been awhile.

I also had more roasted broccoli because it’s maybe the best thing that happened to me all week.

I was going to post this last night, but they were doing stuff to the sewers in our neighborhood and spraying our car with weird steam. I don’t want to know what was in it. Anyway, I had to go out and move it, because… gross. And then I was agitated.

I’m tired now, because I woke up at 3am, hungry and plagued by searing arthritis pain in my knee. At 5, I limped around and got ready for the gym as usual and then I actually laughed out loud at myself and my spunky stupidity and can-do attitude. Then I went back to sleep.

I just got back from a work thing, where I tried really hard to keep my weight off my bad knee and to eat a lot of broccoli and strawberries and grapes so that I wouldn’t be tempted to pick up the entire block of cheese from the cutting board or eat seven pieces of carrot cake. What? It’s got vegetables. So anyway, no actual dinner. I’ll probably have some tabbouleh about 15 seconds after I hit publish. Matt’s on the phone with his brother talking about simulated basketball games and I’m falling asleep on the couch and it’s a standard Friday night here at the See Food mansion. The big news is that we have air conditioning in the bedroom now. I hope it gets so cold in there tonight that it freezes my tears of happiness.

I’m not sure if I’ll be posting tomorrow because we’re going to a high school basketball exhibition kind of deal, featuring some players who are going to be college players soon, presumably. At which point they will become very important to me because of my freakish, out-of-character love of college basketball, so I’m trying to get invested early. It’s supposed to start at 8am (I will not be there) and last until… 12 hours later or something. Let’s see if I make it that long.

Souper Saturday

Um. Yeah. I just couldn’t think of another title.

I did not go to Target today, as we will go tomorrow morning after we take our laundry to the Wash Palace. Also, I’ve already been maybe three times this week, so waiting it out seemed like a good idea - make it a little more special. And, I can enjoy my favorite Sunday morning activity - looking at the Target ad online as soon as I wake up.

Instead, I went to the public library, took a walk with Matt (who is monitoring my exercise after this morning’s episode), went to buy a few groceries, and walked to the mall and to Best Buy. Though I currently have some beef with Manhattan (as it is KILLING ME slowly by attacking my sinuses), it’s really nice to live in such a walkable town. Chapel Hill was walkable, too, but you couldn’t walk to the mall OR Best Buy without risking important pieces of yourself, like your legs. Or your life.

When we got back from the mall, I made Golden Pear Soup, a Mollie Katzen recipe from Still Life with Menu. I’ve been excited about it all week, and I think I must have overhyped it, because I’m honestly a little disappointed. I think the pears were too ripe and not tart enough. Because, which creamy and delicious, this soup was a little too in my face with its sweetness (though I’ll note that Matt thought it wasn’t sweet enough). Actually, it may have been my selection of butternut squash as the base. Maybe I’ll try it with something a little less sweet next time.

It had a really nice texture, though. Seriously, the immersion blender is the greatest invention of our time.

Roasted green beans with balsamic vinegar and sliced almonds on the side:

All together with a mini bagel:

I may have very little to post in the next few days. Money’s tight until payday, and we don’t have a lot to work with here, so we’ll probably be having a lot of leftovers. Though I hate to disappoint the halves of dozens of you that read this, so I’ll see what I can do.

Okay, it is time for me to give my attention to the Elite Eight. And then do some major dishes. I owe Matt a break - he did them yesterday and then spent some serious time today vacuuming the 700 square feet of my hair that is our carpet.

Catching up

I didn’t post last night’s dinner because I was in a bad mood. Here it is:

I’ll call it sweet shrimp stir fry. Here’s how to make it:

Cook shrimp over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes in a little olive oil. Add 1 cup beans (I used great northern b/c that’s what I had on hand - I think I’d use black beans if I did this again, though). Cook for another 3 or so minutes. Remove shrimp and set aside. Turn heat down to medium. Add sliced peppers (I used the pretty little multi-colored peppers that I always put in salads, but a red bell would also work). Cook for 2 minutes. Add mango chunks and crushed red pepper. Also toss shrimp back in. Add some lemon juice and cook for 2-3 more minutes. Serve with quinoa. Or whatever. But quinoa was particularly good with this. I think I might have put some sliced almonds or something in mine because I remember it being crunchy. But my bad mood has kind of deleted the whole day from my memory.

Today was better. I went to the gym, where I overcome foot pain and ran longer than usual on the indoor track. I’m a really slow “runner” because I have arthritis and am also a wuss. I also have asthma, so I can only “run” for a certain period of time before I feel like I’m going to pass out (3 laps). I know what you’re thinking and, yes, I was very popular as a teenager. The combination of a traditional geek disease like asthma with a chronic condition typically associated with the elderly really gave me that extra something I needed to be both loved and understood by my sensitive classmates.

Anyway, back to “running.” Today I passed someone in the runners’ lanes on the track for the first time! He was really old and had a knee brace on but I don’t care. So, that set a more upbeat tone for my day. I then did other things that are, I’m sure, equally interesting to you, like: recycling, taking a walk to the public library to try to remind myself that reading is fun even though I stopped doing it a few months ago, getting coffee on the way back home, having lunch and a snack, watching basketball, making dinner, cleaning in a frenzied state and grocery shopping.

For dinner, I made protein-packed baked pasta. Yes, I just made that up on the fly.

Matt loves baked pasta dishes, and apparently I do not make them enough for his liking, so he seemed to be more excited about this meal than he has been about anything I’ve cooked in the last four years. Here’s how it all came together:

I cooked 2 cups of dry pasta (we like a mix, so we had 1 cup of medium shells and 1 cup of whole wheat penne). Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, I mixed 1 can of diced tomatoes, about 3/4 cup of crushed tomatoes, 1 tbsp of tomato paste, 1/2 cup chickpeas, 1/3 cup of cottage cheese, garlic and crushed red pepper. I sprayed a baking dish with non-stick cooking spray, and I drained the pasta and tossed it in the dish. I then added the sauce and stirred it all up. I put about 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella on top, sprayed some aluminum foil w/ cooking spray and baked at 350 for 20 minutes covered, and 10 minutes uncovered.

Then I made a salad. It just felt right.

The chickpeas and cottage cheese add protein, which makes this a nice meatless meal. Also, the cottage cheese made it creamier.

After I went on my crazy cleaning spree and took a trip to the grocery store (where a woman tried to take my cart and then followed me around apologizing, with her four kids in tow, and where I also could not find any asparagus), I had a Fage with honey. I get to eat another one tomorrow, in honor of Easter. And because it expires then. I also had a little bit of Edy’s coffee ice cream that I bought on a whim at the grocery store. I’ve been a really big fan of coffee ice cream ever since I went to a Haagen-Dazs stand at the mall in Raleigh and asked for a small coffee (the drink) and got a small coffee (the ice cream).

Okay, I think it’s Reading Time. I checked out a few magazines in case real books don’t work out. I’ve also got a few issues of Tiny Titans and a Batgirl Showcase to fall back on.

Tarts madness

Whatever, I know “tarts” doesn’t sound that much like “March,” but I’m really tired. Tonight, I learned how to make a pear tart while K-State beat up on USC in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Donna was making a tart for her mom’s birthday, and she volunteered to educate me.

I made mine in honor of several different things:

1. First day of spring
2. Half day tomorrow
3. First day of NCAA men’s tournament
4. K-State’s win
5. I finally started my taxes
6. I have an IRA now; I’m an official grown-up

All very tart-worthy, yes? Yes.

Anyway, here are my little tart cups. I made four, two with just pears and two with some craisins and sliced almonds tossed on top. Both have a delightful walnut crust. Here they are:

And here’s one, up close and personal:

Matt and I split a plain one, which was delicious, and then he had a whole plain one on his own, so I’ve still got two of the extra pretty ones left (uh, mostly).

But nothing compares to the loveliness of the big megatart for Donna’s mom:

Check out that crust. Mmmmm. What a birthday treat.

Bracketology

I was going to take a picture of my NCAA tournament bracket for you, but I’m not going to because I know you’ll try to steal it.

Dinner tonight was a fancy work thing at a restaurant we’ve never even tried because it’s too expensive. This town is interesting like that. Just when you think you’re feeling really depressed b/c of all the chains, you find some crazy expensive fancy pants restaurant stuck in the middle of a strip mall, right next to Snip n’ Clip and Subway.

Anyway, I felt like I was in that credit card commercial with the cute couple where the woman has really good, voluminous hair, and everything’s going well, and then the food is… tiny. That kind of happened. The actual main part of my meal was quite good-sized, really, a nice slab of mango-peppercorn glazed salmon. But it was on a a bed of, oh, I don’t know, 1/4 cup of greens, and it propped up (literally) 5 pieces of asparagus. I love asparagus, and that’s one of the main reasons I ordered the salmon. WHY WOULD THEY ROB ME OF THAT?

I didn’t actually finish the salmon b/c the mango-peppercorn glaze was just a little too hardcore there at the end, but I did get ricotta cake with blueberries and ice cream for dessert. Mmm. Ricotta.

Here’s what’s left, as I didn’t take any pictures of the actual meal. I’m just not ready to explain myself with the camera yet.

And here’s what I’m currently resisting:

That’s my pedometer, resting lovingly on there to remind me of the many miles I’d have to walk per cupcake.

Not.

Actually, I just set it down on whatever surface was handy when I took it off. Not that I changed my pants in the kitchen.

Don’t judge. It’s a very small apartment.