99% local

Well, we ate local and I have the bruises to prove it. You’ll see.

I was really productive today and checked off maybe 42 things from my to do list. Granted, I’m one of those people who adds things they’ve already done, just to check them off. But, whatever. I’d say that 47 or however many things is still a lot.

After kickboxing, I had to go to Target to get a new prescription filled and to pick up some absolute essentials like conditioner and Now and Laters. By the time I got home I thought I was going to die, and Matt was wasting away on the couch so I made my quick local dinner. Things got thrown off track when the local cheese I already had on hand turned out to be bad (which I didn’t know until I ate some of it). I had to run to the grocery store. I literally ran. I was that hungry. And still in my gym clothes so it looked normalish.

Anyway, here’s what we had:

Spinach/tomato/cheese/egg scramble with a strawberry salad w/ honey dressing and kale chips. The 1% non-local food was a little olive oil. I need to do research, but I’m guessing we don’t have olives here.

What would have made this perfect would have been some goat cheese. I know there are goats around here, so I’m going to have to look into that.

I went back for seconds on the kale chips and the salad, and while I was eating the salad, I also, inadvertently, ate half a bug. The other half is on the floor somewhere, where I threw it, screaming. I was screaming, not the bug. That would have been horrifying.

Matt was in charge of washing the greens. That’s all I’m going to say.

His response? “Like my dad always said, bugs indicate freshness.”

I’m trying to work through it.

Last night we had balsamic chicken with steamed green beans/asparagus and whole wheat couscous. See:

Tasty.

Miss Rap Supreme is on, so I’m outta here.

Strawberries!

I don’t have any pictures of our dinner, because I didn’t make it. Instead, it was lovingly prepared by some anxious-looking teenagers working at Panera. I overexerted myself on the Arc Trainer again today and when I came home, I really didn’t want to cook dinner. I also really wanted some french fries. I spent most of my workout trying to remember the last time I ate them, but I couldn’t. Anyway, we went to Panera, which does not have french fries, but we had a gift card, so it was free food that I didn’t prepare. I did have some chips. So that helped.

Today was really hot and really busy and I only barely got to take a nap, but it started out wonderfully, like this:

That’s the farmers market. I would have taken a better picture but 1) I’m obviously inept when it comes to photography and 2) it was too bright to really tell what was happening.

I’m reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and her husband mentions in the book that if you eat one locally produced meal per week you save something like 9 billion oil barrels (give or take) because your food doesn’t travel as far. Wait, it may actually be if everyone ate one locally produced meal per week. That might make more sense. But, I’m too lazy to go find the book. So I’ll go on. I bought ingredients for one fully local meal this week. A light one, granted, but it’ll do. I will have to supplement it with some Alma cheese, not purchased at the farmers market, but still local. It would be easier to do this if our farmers market were a little bigger, or if we ate the kind of meat they sell there. Like beef. And bison. But, we don’t.

Here’s my favorite purchase:

Strawberries! This whole thing was only 3.00. What a steal! I’ve been choking down nasty ones that probably come from California or Mexico or Japan or wherever, but now I can eat these delicious local berries that didn’t travel nearly as far. I feel so virtuous.

I immediately had some with my breakfast:

I usually eat oat bran for breakfast, but it was already 87 degrees at 8:30 so something a little cooler seemed appropriate. It’s plain yogurt, a little agave, half of a sample of Kashi granola, sliced almonds, cinnamon, and, obviously, strawberries.

Imagine another bowl, almost identical except that I used cereal instead of granola, because that’s what I ate just now. Luckily, I finished just as Matt was putting Predator in the DVD player, because eating and this movie don’t go hand in hand.

Tomorrow I have a Very Long To-Do List, which will be dictating my day, and they’re predicting more “strong storms,” so that should make for a nice, anti-relaxing Sunday.

Manwich

Matt made dinner tonight, while I was at the gym huffing and puffing my way through a 3-2-1 class. Seriously, nothing can make 24 seem ancient quite like doing aerobics with college students. But, whatever, it was my first class since I started having all of my lung problems, so props to me for getting through it.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but Matt’s kind of magical in his grilled cheese abilities. Mine always pretty much suck, and I tell myself that it’s because grilling is man cooking. Am I right?

Yes.

The grilled cheeses that he made for us tonight were from Ellie Krieger’s cookbook, which came in for me at the library last week. It is no secret that I love Ellie Krieger and want to be her. I’m not proud of my borderline obsession with her, but I’m not not proud. Anyway, because it was an Ellie recipe, it was fancy, so instead of grilled cheese we had sweet and spicy grilled cheese. Here’s a close up:

These were so good. Two kinds of cheese, caramelized onion, tomatoes…. mmmm. It’s basically my perfect meal, in sandwich form. Thanks, Matt!

I made a spinach and strawberry salad with balsamic vinaigrette to have on the side, and we also had some fruit salad that I picked up at the grocery store today. And, to round out the meal, chips.

These are those Flat Earth veggie chips. I mean, 1/2 a serving of veggies in every serving of chips? That I can get behind.

I didn’t finish my fruit salad because the sandwich was so filling. I think I’m going to be regretting that
in about two hours, because I’m about to go to work to serve caffeinated beverages to students busy studying for finals. Seeing those crazed study eyes is bound to give me flashbacks to college and grad school, and that’s going to make me want to stress eat.

Maybe I’ll pack some cookies.

The little Jen-gine that could

After being terrorized by a pulmonary tech who kept YELLING at me during all of my lung function tests (BIG breath in…. NOW PUSH IT OUT!!), I managed to a) stop crying and b) go back to work and be helpful to someone who “like, majorly needed some psych articles, like, today.”

Okay, I didn’t really cry. I did, however, help. I am that way.

During my tests, they gave me a five minute albuterol treatment that was like smoking a pipe. Seriously, stuff was coming out of the other side of it. Now I get to wait to find out what’s wrong with me. The albuterol kicked in a few hours later and I actually managed to go to the gym and do some exercise. I just walked on the indoor track, but it felt pretty awesome after a few days of relative inactivity. I kept it slow but managed to walk the equivalent of a 5k. I have to set these kinds of goals for myself, because saying “I’m walking a 5k!” is a little more motivational than “I’m walking around and around in circles like a lab animal and going nowhere!” Right? Right.

I never thought I’d be the kind of person who would miss exercise. It still kind of freaks me out.

Dinner was a nice mix of things: leftover chili, hummus and carrots, salad, mini bagel with almond butter and flaxseed. Then I had this beautiful after-dinner snack of pear, strawberries, cottage cheese, sliced almonds, cinnamon and more flaxseed.

Mmmmmmm. I can feel the omega-3s coursing through my bloodstream. Now I’m waiting for my “increased physical energy” and “unique exuberance.”

Now, I have to go to sleep, since I’m getting up in like 7 hours to do more indoor circle walking.

Where is my unique exuberance?