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.

Comfort; food.

I can’t wait to post my dinner here one day and be able to say “Today, I felt awesome!”

Sadly, today is not that day. In spite of being a walking health problem, I try to be active and positive and have a good attitude and things like that. That can be hard to maintain when you’re happily exercising at 5:30 in the morning, surrounded by other (clearly insane) people who exercise that early, listening to, I don’t know, Galaxie 500 or something and wondering if it’s weird that something slow like that can get you pumped before it’s even light outside, and then suddenly you are almost passing out on the stair climber thing and you have to wade your way through weird tunnel vision to go lie down. In the gym bathroom. Luckily, there was a bench, so it wasn’t on the floor or anything. But, still. Ewwww.

So, that was my morning. And, like an idiot, I just came home and rested and got ready for work like nothing happened. And then, suddenly I realized that sort of fainting at the gym was probably, I don’t know, not a good thing. So I called my doctor’s office and the nurse said “Jenny, what happened?” in a very mom way and they told me I needed to come in. I had several new experiences, including an EKG and a chest x-ray, and several old experiences, like a peak flow test and some other lung tests. I left with a prescription, several more appointments with medical professionals, a mandate to cut back on my exercise for a few weeks, and a crazy bad headache from having to breathe in and out so many times.

I came home, worked for a few hours, tried to be fine and then completely crashed at about 3 in the afternoon. I woke up, luckily, in time for Carolina’s sweet sixteen game, which I’m still enjoying now. I made a delightfully comforting pot of chili using a new recipe from Cooking Light. I’m working on my food photography. How am I doing? Here’s some Three Bean Chili:

With some plain yogurt because I always forget to buy sour cream.

And, because I had a headache, roasted brussels sprouts:

All together, with a mini bagel and my 89th glass of water today:

I have some more yogurt that’s going to expire, so I’ll probably have that in a little bit. It’ll go nicely with my special new tea:

I know - the fussy title also made me nervous. But it’s really, really good. This is my third cup today.