My left eye hurts

My allergies are back IN FULL FORCE and yet I still insist on walking to work. Outside. If there was a 1.5 mile tunnel connecting me to work, this would be a whole different story. But there’s not. And so, tonight I look like I have a substance abuse problem because my left eye is red and sort of closed. It was bad last night, too, but I took some Benadryl before bed, and that seemed to carry through for much of today. Though I did spend most of my reference desk shift this afternoon inadvertently winking at people walking by.

I just got back from Target, where I went to buy eye drops but came home with sixty dollars worth of cleaning products, shirts, tights, and things in jars. Before that, I made what was supposed to be Tilapia with Citrus Vinaigrette but turned out to be Tilapia with salt and pepper (and a gross messy pan). Here it is with roasted brussels sprouts and whole wheat couscous:

It’s strange to me that I can probably eat a pound of brussels sprouts. And that I crave them when I have headaches. So, from now until the end of allergy season, at least, I’ll be wanting brussels sprouts. Then it will suddenly be 115 degrees every day and I will actually be burning, so I won’t notice the headaches as much.

Our apartment is so small that the whole thing still smells like fish and I’m paranoid that it’s gotten into all of my clothes and tomorrow when I have to give a presentation to the department heads, I’ll stink and I’ll be just like that girl we always made fun of on the bus in third grade (I still feel bad about it). Anyway, so I’m spraying everything frantically with some kind of “odor neturalizer” I happened to pick up tonight.

I’m going to tend to my eye. And spray one more time.

I have several things to talk about

I’ll break them down for you:

Cinnamon Toast

As my mom (a loyal reader) can attest, cinnamon toast was my top choice for breakfast every day during my sophomore and junior years of high school. I burned myself out on it then, and I haven’t really had it since….

Until now.

Seriously, what was I thinking? It’s probably the greatest thing you can make in about 3 seconds. I’ve been using my mini bagels, and I learned last week that having 1/2 of one prepped cinnamon toast style is probably the greatest 5:00am pre-gym snack I’ve ever come up with.

Also, it’s an excellent choice for weekend lunches. Here it is, featured with a delightful pear (also w/ cinnamon - it’s an addiction).

Are you bored yet?

Target

I did grocery shopping in four separate locations today, including: Target, Dillon’s, Eastside Market and People’s. I actually did pretty well at Target, sticking to my list and not getting really excited and buying superfluous cleaning supplies or makeup or other things I ultimately won’t use. But, I just have to ask - what’s with the Target “wear to work” line? I mean, what exactly is it that these people think we do for work? Are we all meant to be professional… teenagers? Or peasants or something? Though I do remember that girl on Project Runway Season 3 who was involved with Target in some way and she got eliminated relatively early on, I think, so maybe that explains it.

Hummus

I have no idea why I’ve been avoiding hummus for all these years, but I think I must have had some kind of negative experience at some point. Anyway, I’ve had such good luck recently with trying foods I have always considered gross (pears, plain yogurt, mangoes, etc.), I decided to give it a shot.

It’s so good. I mean, really. I made a pita sandwich with it, and I threw in other things I love, just in case the hummus part didn’t work out. So here it is with a tiny yellow pepper, spinach and feta. Mmmm.

Also with it, I had this Fage, which I’m showing you to prove that I really do eat them sometimes.

Sorry for the weird flash/color issue. But, you know, at least it’s shiny.

Special Selection Sunday Dinner

Donna joined us for the NCAA tournament selection and bravely stayed to witness my preparation of a new recipe from the Veganomicon cookbook that I recently got from the library. Yes. We are vegans now.

Here’s the spread:

Salad (prepared by Donna, with baby spinach, grape tomatoes, colorful peppers, and some kind of delicious basil-y vinaigrette dressing), baked sweet potato fries (sliced perfectly by Matt) and Black Bean Burgers on square bagelbread. With swiss cheese. Ooops. We are not vegans anymore.

Oh, and apparently, swiss cheese is naturally lactose free. Do you understand that? Because I don’t.

This was my first attempt at homemade vegetarian burgers. I’ve always thought they would taste too much like dirt. Wrong! These are awesome. I think this will be my new go-to meat substitute (sorry Morningstar Farms meal starters). I can imagine a “ground” version being really good in chili and other similar things. Check out the Veganomicon if you can get a hold of it. There are about 200 other recipes in there that I’m excited to try.

I followed it up with my favorite thing about Easter:

Shiny.

Okay, this post, with its several different parts, took a lot out of me, and now I’m going to pretend to clean and then go to sleep.