Category Archives: Food

Gaining A Little Control In My Kitchen (or Continuing To Repeat Monthly Challenges)

Posted on November 4, 2020 | Comments Off on Gaining A Little Control In My Kitchen (or Continuing To Repeat Monthly Challenges)

For October, I challenged myself to find more simple recipes to have as easy meals I can make with little effort. I know that cooking for myself doesn’t have to be an elaborate production, but it’s felt like that for quite a while. And I know that in order to be more on top of my health, I need to be cooking for myself more often. I can’t just rely on delivery food and frozen dinners. But it’s been a struggle for me for so long.

I don’t know if I will say I was totally successful last month, but I think I made some really big steps forward. I wanted to have a few more easy recipes that I knew I could turn to, and I don’t know if I got as many as I would like. But I did add a few more that only require a little shopping. For example, I found a good chicken recipe that only really takes some chicken, the healthy type of cream of chicken soup, cream cheese, and Italian seasoning. While these are not things I normally have in my house, they are easy to get ingredients. And to put this meal together, it only takes about 15 minutes in my pressure cooker. The recipe says to serve it on pasta, but I had it with some broccoli mixed in and ate it by itself. It almost felt like a deconstructed pot pie.

I’ve also realized that it’s ok to use some frozen ingredients along with a little cooking to make a nice meal. My friend Tara sent me a super easy recipe. All it took was some frozen pepper pasta from Trader Joes and pancetta. Make the pasta as directed and cook up the pancetta and it’s almost like a pasta carbonara. I made this and added some peas to it (although I know I added too many peas) and it was really good! I don’t know if I’d use the pepper pasta again because it was a little too peppery, but it was still very tasty!

And even though my goal was to cook more, I also tried to find ways to make cooking easier or to find shortcuts. I know it’s super easy to boil water for pasta, but when I’m just cooking for me it takes a long time for the water to boil (sometimes I’m waiting over 10 minutes and it’s still not simmering). Pasta isn’t the healthiest thing to eat, but sometimes it’s the easiest thing and it’s healthier than ordering delivery food. So when I saw this microwave pasta cooker, I ordered it. I know that I don’t need it, but it’s nice to know I can make pasta super fast and without getting a giant pot dirty. And I know that it says you can cook other things in it as well, so I’m going to explore those options too.

While I didn’t get as many recipes added to my list of things I can pull together with minimal effort, I’m happy with the steps I did take and how much more comfortable I am with just looking around my kitchen and finding things I can pull together to make a simple meal.

And for November, I’m doing something I’ve already challenged myself to do in the past. I’m participating in NaNoWriMo again. But this time, I’m not working on my book that I’ve been working on the past few years. That book is pretty much done. I know that technically it might never feel done, but I feel very happy with where it is. I do have another chapter or two that I want to write with lessons about dating during a pandemic, but it’s not something I feel like I need to work on this year. This time, I’m working on a completely new book.

This time, the book I’m working on is fiction. It is also about online dating, but it’s a completely made-up story. I don’t want to share too much about it since I don’t have it outlined yet and it’s still just ideas, but it’s almost like a mystery/suspense book that has online dating as a way to move the story forward. I’ve had this idea in my head almost since I started writing the first book, but it’s only been a few notes that I’ve saved. Now, I’m trying to flesh out the idea and actually get some things written down.

This time, writing a book is different from the last book. I don’t have the entire story in my head. I don’t have real things that happened to me that I’m writing down. I’m making it all up and I don’t have much done at all. So I don’t know if I’m going to get to 50,000 words this time, but I’m going to try. But the main goal I have with NaNoWriMo is that I want to get a full outline done for this book. I do want to get as much written as I can, but I also know that there may be a time this month where I’m stuck and don’t know how to write the next chapter. So I’m lowering my goal a bit. But it would be nice if I surprise myself and am able to write almost a full first draft by the end of the month!

I’m excited to see what I can get done with writing this month. I think it will be a really good thing for me to do for so many reasons. This idea has been in my head for too long and it’s time for me to get it out in words. Also, this will be a good way to spend time each day. I need to work on being more productive and this will give me something to do every day.

I can’t wait to share with you all how it goes and I hope I have exciting news about how my writing goes by the time I write my update on this challenge!

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Trying To Use Some Shortcuts (or I Don’t Have To Feel Bad About This)

Posted on October 14, 2020 | Comments Off on Trying To Use Some Shortcuts (or I Don’t Have To Feel Bad About This)

I wrote about how I want to get things more on track for my monthly challenge this month. A big part of that is getting my food back on track because I know I haven’t been doing that great lately. I’m not doing as bad as I could, but that’s not an excuse to start working on it again.

Part of getting my food on track is working on cooking more. I know I need to do this. I’ve known for years that I need to do this. But it’s always been something really hard for me to do. I don’t know why it’s been a struggle, but I do know that part of it is because I have always felt like cooking was a big production or had to be something that felt fancy or extravagant. Maybe this is because when I lived in an apartment between my freshman and sophomore years of college cooking was a big production. I was in an apartment with 3 roommates (they were all about to be seniors in college and one of the girls just wasn’t staying in LA for the summer) and none of us cooked that much. And when we did, it was like we had a little dinner party for all of us. I remember cooking a few times and making really nice meals that took me a long time to prepare. So maybe since that was my first experience cooking for myself, I got into that mindset that cooking means fancy.

But I know that it doesn’t have to be like that. I’m working on finding things that are basic that I can make but still taste good. Especially things that don’t necessarily require recipes because then it’s more likely that it will just be stuff I already have in my house. But I’ve also started to think more about what I keep in my house and what can make cooking easier. And I know that some of these shortcuts are pretty lazy, but if it’s what gets me to cook, I should be ok with it.

One lazy shortcut I’ve been using is having frozen veggies that steam in the bag they are in. I know I could buy the veggies fresh, cut them up, and steam them in the microwave or on the stove and it’s would be cheaper. But I also know that I won’t necessarily do that. So having easy frozen veggies helps. For example, the other night I made a turkey burger (just the patty and that was frozen too). I microwaved from frozen broccoli and then made a brown butter and lemon sauce for the veggies (this is how my mom usually makes broccoli and I love it). I know it’s a healthy and easy meal that I can make but for a long time, I felt guilty that I just didn’t buy some fresh broccoli to steam. But I am working on getting over that guilt.

I also found a shortcut to try to make breakfasts. I found these little cups that have cheese and veggies in them and you just add an egg or two and microwave them. It’s not an omelet, but more like a scramble with different things in it. I know I could buy those veggies and cheese, prepare them, and make this from scratch at home; but again, I don’t know if I’d do that. And while this isn’t the cheapest way to do it, it’s not too horrible and I think the expense is worth it. Especially if I don’t get delivery food as often because that will save me money.

So I’ve started to think about those meal kits you can get. I’ve never used them, but maybe this is the shortcut I need in order to get cooking more. I have to look into them more, but I know for some of them they have 2 servings in each meal, so that’s not too bad. And if I did that once or twice a week, that’s a lot of meals that I would be cooking. I know it’s not exactly cooking from scratch, but it’s better than delivery food or microwave meals.

For a long time, I’ve thought about cooking as an all or nothing thing. If I wasn’t making it all from scratch, I might as well not bother. But I’m working on accepting the idea that it doesn’t have to be that way and hopefully I can find a solution that will help me cook more. And whether or not that includes using shortcuts, cooking is what I know I need to do more.

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Getting Back On Track (or Another Continuation Of A Monthly Challenge)

Posted on October 1, 2020 | Comments Off on Getting Back On Track (or Another Continuation Of A Monthly Challenge)

For September, I challenged myself to get back on track. I’ve done a lot of variations of this challenge since the pandemic started. It’s been hard to get back to good habits when my world is not the way I’m used to. It’s hard to have a schedule when you don’t have things to schedule around. I tried to find a way to get things to feel a bit more stable, but I kept struggling.

And just like every other attempt at this challenge, I feel like I made some progress but I didn’t fully succeed. But I do feel like I made more moves forward than I have before, and that’s something I’m proud of. I think it did help that I had 3 things that I really focused on and I had some clear ideas of what I wanted to do. I focused on my sleep, my workouts, and my food.

For my sleep, I’m not quite back to my regular sleep schedule. But I’m getting closer. I am still staying up a bit later than I would like to, especially when I know I could sleep in if I wanted to the next day. I’m really trying to get back to my regular schedule where I don’t sleep in. There’s really nothing happening now that I need to stay up for. I just don’t go to bed on time. I’ve been getting much better at getting in bed before midnight (I want to get it closer to being in bed by 11:30 or maybe a little earlier). And while I do read in bed before I go to sleep, as long as I’m in bed by that time I usually do ok with my sleep. I had occasional nights where I was up until 1 or 2, and I felt really miserable the next day. I think that I just need to keep working toward going to bed earlier and I’ll be back to my schedule soon.

My workouts also are feeling a bit more on track. I’m having setbacks and my bad weeks are really tough on me. But having weights really has helped me feel like my workouts are closer to what I used to do when I went to the classes in person. I’m feeling sore, which is a good feeling to me (I still can’t believe I like feeling sore) and I know that I’m getting some of my strength back. I’ve been lucky that I haven’t struggled to keep up with my workout schedule because that would have been really hard to fix. But having half-ass workouts has been a bit of a struggle too and I feel much better about how my workouts are going after this past month.

Getting my food back on track was harder for me. This is something that is so hard for me even in normal times. But doing it during a pandemic when I’ve had so many setbacks is even harder. But I still had some good things happen. I’ve been more mindful of what I already have when I make my grocery list. I try to limit how often I get groceries delivered. I’ve tried to not order in as much from different restaurants because I know I always have something I could eat at home when I do that (it just might not be as tasty or what I’m craving).

And getting my food back on track fits in with my challenge for this month. I want to work on finding some more easy and lazy recipes this month. By easy and lazy recipes, I mean things I can put together with almost no effort and with things that I either usually have in my house or have ingredients that are easy to get. I don’t have a lot of these recipes right now in my life. I would say making a turkey burger or veggie burger and steaming veggies is one of them. Another is roasting some potatoes and onions and then putting an egg on top of it (sometimes I add cheese too). Those are super easy for me to make and I don’t have to think too much about it when I’m making them. I also have minimal clean up when I make them.

I know having more recipes like those will help me continue to make progress with getting my food back on track. I don’t think I will ever be someone who wants to cook every night (although that is a challenge I’m considering), but I’d love to cook from scratch a majority of the time. If I eat a frozen dinner once or twice a week and have things I made the other nights, I would consider that a huge step forward. But in order for me to have that happen, I know I need to find more lazy recipes. That’s the only way I can see that idea sustainable.

Hopefully, I’ll find some great recipes that I will want to make over and over again. And if I don’t, I’m still hoping that this challenge makes me cook more and gets me to a better place with my food. The only way I see myself failing this challenge is to not try. And I know that is possible, but I’m really hoping I don’t allow myself to do that.

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Trying A New Recipe (or I Forgot How Nice It Is To Bake From Scratch)

Posted on September 25, 2020 | Comments Off on Trying A New Recipe (or I Forgot How Nice It Is To Bake From Scratch)

I’ve said so many times that I need to get into cooking more often. Especially now, I don’t have an excuse not to. I’m home all the time. I don’t have much to do. Yes, it’s not super easy to get all the ingredients I might need, but that’s not that big of an issue. I should be cooking more often for both my physical and financial health.

I’m slowly getting better at doing that. I’m not great, but I’m trying. I’m not cooking every day or every meal, but I’m cooking more often than before. I still don’t love that I don’t have people to cook for. I’m trying to remember to either cut recipes in half or to freeze portions since I don’t want days of leftovers. But I still get more joy out of cooking when I know someone else will be enjoying it.

Fortunately, this week I had an opportunity to make something for others to enjoy. I got to see my family yesterday (after another full 2-week quarantine) and I’ll write more about that next week. We were going to have dinner together, and I asked my mom if there was anything I could make or help with. She didn’t need my help, but I offered to make something for dessert. Since she didn’t have a dessert planned, she said I could make something. So I decided to make Bon Appetit’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I know there is a lot of controversy with Bon Appetit right now, but this recipe was something I saved a while ago and really wanted to try. I don’t plan on seeking out any recipes from their site until their diversity is improved and pay discrimination is fixed. So this was a one-off until things are better for their employees.

I don’t bake that often, and I bake from scratch even less often. I have a few go-to desserts I know how to make, and I think only 2 of them are from scratch. The others are either box mixes that I like or box mixes that I modify into something different. Baking from scratch isn’t hard, it’s just not something I do. And I rarely bake just for me because I don’t want to have a ton of desserts in my house. But seeing my family gave me the perfect excuse to try this recipe.

I only had 1 small fail while making it. I sometimes do brown butter in the microwave, but this microwave is still new to me. So the butter exploded/popped and got all over the inside. I cleaned that up and then had enough butter to do it over, but this time I used my stove instead. Brown butter seems to make everything delicious, so I was happy it was in this recipe. It also made the combination of butter and sugar easier to mix. I didn’t need to use a hand mixer or wish I had a stand mixer. I was able to use a whisk and get it perfectly smooth.

The only other fail I might have had was in either rest time or oven temperature. I do have a thermometer I put in my oven to make sure it’s accurate. I thought it said the right temperature, but I’m not sure now. And the recipe mentions letting the dough rest if you feel like it needs it. I didn’t think I did, but after baking them I’m questioning it.

These cookies spread out so much when I baked them. I only put 6 on a full-sized baking sheet, and they still were touching! I know this isn’t the biggest problem when making cookies and I actually think it worked, but still. I tried one after they cooled down and they were really good! The edges were crisp and the center was gooey. I do wish I added more chocolate chips, but I was trying to follow the recipe perfectly and didn’t want to adjust anything. But when I make these again (because I know I will be making them again), I’ll just remember to add more.

I was proud that I made something new from scratch and that it wasn’t a failure like it could have been. And knowing that they were going to be enjoyed by my family made it so much better. I might have to find other things I can bake and drop off to my friends so I can test out more recipes and then not have to have a ton of leftovers in my house.

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A Socially Distant Picnic (or Still Having One Birthday Tradition)

Posted on August 18, 2020 | Comments Off on A Socially Distant Picnic (or Still Having One Birthday Tradition)

One of my favorite birthday traditions is getting my free (or almost free) birthday dinner with my birthday twin, Joanna. We’ve been doing this birthday dinner for a long time (I think it’s been 10 years since we started, but I’m not sure). It’s so much fun and something that both of us look forward to. We aren’t great about getting together to see each other that often due to our weird schedules and not living super close together, but this is one of the times we always make sure we make time to get together.

When the pandemic started, I didn’t think too much about our birthday dinner. Honestly, I really thought things would be back to normal by August. And as time went on, I got a bit distracted by everything else to think too much about the birthday dinner. And then I got the email from Truxton’s for their birthday club and I realized I needed to think about what to do. I knew inside the restaurant wasn’t open (nor would I be comfortable eating inside a restaurant). So I sent a message to Joanna to see what she thought.

Even though they did have outside seating and the tables were being moved far apart, neither of us felt ready to eat at a restaurant. Fortunately, Truxton’s does take-out too and we could use our birthday club discount for that! So last week, we placed an order for take-out (I ordered the appetizer and my meal and Joanna ordered her meal and the dessert) and we met up for our birthday meal! There is a park only a few blocks from the restaurant that had some shade and very few people, so we turned our dinner into a picnic!

We both had our own picnic blankets and Joanna found a plastic tablecloth we could put between the blankets. We were cautious to keep a distance between us since you can’t really keep a mask on while eating. But neither of us have really gone anywhere in a while, so that also helped us both feel safer seeing each other. We split the appetizer and dessert up with a knife and fork and each had our own plates (again, provided by Joanna). And we each had our own entrees and that was easy to eat out of the take-out container.

Yes, it was fun to have an almost free birthday dinner. I think we each paid around $5 and we each left a $10 tip (the meals would have been $25 without the discount). This is a tradition that brings us both so much joy. And it was nice to be outside for a while because I haven’t done that in a while. But the best part of this was getting to hang out with a friend.

I have seen people I know maybe 6 times since March. I’ve seen my family twice. I had 2 friends who did grocery runs for me when I couldn’t go. And I had my friend drop off hair color twice. I’ve seen friends on Zoom, but for in-person interactions, I believe those are the only 6 times I’ve seen people I know in 5 months. That’s not a lot. I am not used to feeling so alone and isolated from my friends. And I know some of this is due to my own fears because I could have met up with friends in a park before. But like I’ve said before, it’s hard to figure out the balance of what is safe and what is too much of a risk.

So getting to hang out with Joanna for about 2 hours was amazing! Of course, we had our usual catch-up discussion. And we talked about how we are both coping with things right now. But I think the random things we talked about made me the happiest. Having those everything and nothing conversations are things that you don’t always get with a virtual hangout. It did feel weird to be even 6 feet away from someone without a mask on, but it also was nice to have a moment where I could feel like it was my old life again.

We ended up hanging out in that park much longer than either of us expected. I think we both needed that time together. And we were saying how we hope that somehow things will work out so we can have our cheesecake outing this winter, but we have no idea about that. I can’t imagine when we can go to a restaurant again. But maybe we could do another take-out picnic?

I’m so glad that we found a way to keep our birthday tradition alive. I know it’s not the most important thing to do and it’s probably frivolous with everything else going on in the world. But it was nice to take a break from all the tough things I’ve been dealing with to have a moment of fun with a friend and some good food!

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Sharing Some Resources (or Working On Being Anti-Racist)

Posted on June 4, 2020 | Comments Off on Sharing Some Resources (or Working On Being Anti-Racist)

As I shared the other day, I am coming to terms with how I have never been anti-racist. It’s a very different mindset from what I have had my entire life, but I know that I need to change and I am so grateful that I have friends who have shared some good resources to work on this. One friend also shared that if you haven’t been anti-racist, you likely have had a bit of racism in you. I hated that idea, but the more I thought about it the more that I know it is true.

I don’t make an effort to only give my money to white-run business or to white authors, but that is what I have done if I look at my past. So many books that I love are about white characters. There are a few that are about black characters but often I don’t know that until I’m already partway through the book. If a character isn’t described by their skin color, I default to thinking they are white. And for brands, I usually don’t know who runs a company or pay attention to that. But I now know that black-run businesses don’t get the same opportunities as white-run businesses do so I might not have the chance to buy from them unless I make a little effort. I never was trying to avoid black-run businesses, I just didn’t know that because of many different factors I wasn’t being presented with the chance to buy from them.

Fortunately, during Blackout Tuesday there were so many lists going around with different resources for anyone to look at. There were books about racism or how to become anti-racist. There were lists of black-run beauty companies that many of us hadn’t heard of. There were movies, tv shows, and podcasts that discuss these issues that maybe hadn’t gotten the same publicity that other media had. There are hundreds of lists out there and the ones I am going to share are only a few. I recommend doing a search or looking on social media for more because there are so many out there.

The one thing I saw the most over the past few days was this link to a google doc of anti-racism resources. This has lists of books, videos, podcasts, articles, movies, and tv shows to look at to work on becoming anti-racist. There is also a section for resources of media to help raise anti-racist children. There is also a list of organizations to look at and their social media links so you can follow them on there. Plus they link to more lists of anti-racism resources.

This list from Medium has sections of what to read, listen to, watch, and follow on social media. There is also a section for kids and teens.

If you are going to be buying any books (either from these lists or books in general), this google doc has a list of black-run bookstores. They are listed by state and it includes if they are open for shopping, only doing curbside pickup right now, or only shipping. But there are so many stores you can buy from and I believe the ones that can ship books can ship them anywhere in the country.

Some people may think of black-run beauty businesses as companies that make products specifically for black people. That is not true. Just like how white-run beauty companies don’t just make things for white people (although you might be able to argue that they do, but that’s a very different story). Here are two different lists of companies to look at and you might find a new favorite product! I understand that maybe right now you don’t have money to buy any new products, but you can still look and take notes on what you’d like to buy when you have the money.

And if you want to do a search for black-run businesses in general, I found a few lists that do just that. Here is a list from New York Magazine. Here is the directory for Black Wall Street. And this is the link to Support Black Owned. Again, I know this doesn’t cover all the lists or all the types of businesses, but it is a start.

I’ve also seen lists of black-run restaurants and coffee shops, but I haven’t found a good list that I could share on here that covers more than just Los Angeles. Please do a search online for the lists for your area. Many of them are doing delivery and takeout or curbside delivery, so you can order from them even if restaurants are not open yet for your city.

Some people who believe the response to Black Lives Matter is to say all lives matter might argue that white businesses should get promoted too. But that’s all I’ve done in thousands of posts. I didn’t have to go out of my way to say they were white-run businesses. Unfortunately, that is the default. I am trying to use my voice and my blog to give some opportunity to a large group of businesses that I have not given that same chance to. Yes, people will still shop at white-run businesses and read white authors. I bet that most money will still go to those. But I want to make a conscious effort to not do that with all my money. I want to increase my awareness of businesses that I have not been shopping from in the past and make sure that I don’t fall back into that trap. I know right now everyone is hyper-aware of this issue and will be making efforts. I want to make sure that this change is permanent and not just because it’s such a big issue right now. And I hope that you all will increase your awareness, work on becoming anti-racist, and support more diverse businesses, authors, artists, and creators.

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Baby Steps With Cooking (or I’m Cautiously Optimistic)

Posted on May 22, 2020 | Comments Off on Baby Steps With Cooking (or I’m Cautiously Optimistic)

I wrote about how I have been doing a lot more cooking these days a little while ago. At least being forced to cook more often is one positive of the current situation. I know that I could have just done a lot of frozen dinners and delivery food, and I am proud that I didn’t do that. I have gotten some delivery food and I do get some frozen meals when I get groceries, but I don’t do it that often. And compared to before, I’m not getting delivery food as often (both to try to save money and for safety reasons). And since I don’t like to just have meals made of snack foods, I have been forcing myself to cook a few times a week.

Some of the cooking I’m doing has been stuff I probably couldn’t do during normal times. I have been cooking a nicer breakfast/brunch several days a week. If I had work, I couldn’t do that. But since I only work an hour, I can do my work and then make food after. The breakfasts that I cook aren’t anything fancy, but I have been making lots of egg dishes and it does feel special compared to what I normally eat in the morning. I haven’t gotten super creative with breakfasts since I’m usually cooking when I’m hungry, but the fact that I’m cooking that many mornings is a good change for me.

Since a lot of days I eat my first meal as brunch, I usually do brunch and then dinner (sometimes with a snack). And my dinners aren’t fancy either, but they are more creative than things I used to cook. There have been a lot of days that I cook pretty basic stuff, but it’s still more interesting than just a turkey burger and veggies (and there’s nothing wrong with that, but that’s a lot of what I used to make). For example, the other night I had a spice packet for fajitas. So that’s what I made. Cooking veggies and some chicken wasn’t too crazy, but it still was more than I probably would do before. And part of the reason why I might not have done it before was that I wasn’t doing a lot of planning.

I’ve tried meal planning several times. Sometimes it clicks with me for a little bit, but it has never really stuck. And I don’t know why that is. I’ve tried to do stricter meal planning with prepping everything one day a week so it’s all ready. I’ve tried writing out a menu and planning on when I’d eat leftovers. And I’ve tried so many ways in between those ideas. It just hasn’t worked for me. And I’ve tried to force it to work over and over again. And now, I’m realizing that maybe meal planning just isn’t going to be something I can accomplish. I’m not really meal planning right now, and I’m doing more cooking than ever. Even when you take out the breakfasts I’m making, I’m still cooking so much more.

Maybe I need to meal plan with the idea of what days will I cook, what days will I eat leftovers, and what days will I eat a frozen meal or get something from a restaurant (either going out or getting delivery). I need to feel comfortable with a few different recipes that I know I can make and don’t feel too crazy. There have been a few things I’ve been making over and over again and I feel comfortable making them without having to look at a recipe. And if I can build upon those things I already feel good about making, then I could have a lot of recipes that I could turn to when I need to cook.

I wish I could be able to do this when it’s easy to go to the grocery store to get ingredients. It’s not easy for me to decide what I want to eat a week or two in advance. I have been doing grocery delivery to get ingredients from time to time. But I also don’t want to end up spending a lot of extra money because I’m randomly buying groceries. At the same time, I don’t know how much I can change at one time. Maybe I should just be happy that I’m cooking more and not stress too much about the grocery delivery.

I’m still trying to stay hopeful that once life starts getting back to normal that I’ll be able to maintain at least some of my new cooking routine. I will probably still have another month or so before things start getting normal again, so that’s time to continue to build the habit. Eventually, a switch will have to flip for me and I just don’t know how that will happen. But this is another attempt at making cooking more routine for me and I can only hope that this is the way that it clicks in place for me.

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Doing A Lot Of Spring Cleaning (or Trying To Fill My Day)

Posted on April 16, 2020 | Comments Off on Doing A Lot Of Spring Cleaning (or Trying To Fill My Day)

Besides the limitations of being able to do things outside my house, I have more downtime in my house now. My main job doing customer service work has significantly cut my hours. I used to work about 30 hours a week for that job. A few weeks ago, most of my co-workers were let go and I had my hours cut in half. We weren’t doing any shows, but my manager and I stayed on to handle the few customers that were contacting us for help with various issues. Then this week, I became the last one left at my job (because of the way unemployment would work for me, it made more sense for me to stay on than my manager). But I am down to 3 hours a week. I now only will be working 1 hour for 3 days a week to answer voicemails. This could change to no hours, but I’m hoping at least I can keep this.

I do still have my other job (although I am restricted in how many hours I can do for that) and I can file for unemployment to make up the difference in salary once the pandemic unemployment assistance is set up. I’m not as worried about money as I thought I might be. Since so many people are in the same situation as me right now, I know there are a lot of people I can ask for help. And they are making the rules for unemployment different so I am eligible (when normally I wouldn’t be). So even though I’m sad that I’m not working normally, at least there is a bit of good news with the situation.

Now that I’m down to 3 hours a week (plus the other few hours a week I do my other job), there is so much free time for me every day. And I’ve really been trying to be productive. I put a lot more stress on myself to be productive when this all started and I realized that I couldn’t hold myself to that standard. This is not just a normal break with work like I’ve had before. I don’t know how long this will last and there are so many other things bringing stress into my life. SO I’m trying to find ways to be productive but not be hard on myself if there are some days that all I do is sit on the couch and watch tv. So I’ve been making a list of things that I have been putting off when I do feel motivated. And a lot of that list is big cleaning projects.

I’ve only accomplished one of those cleaning projects so far and that was to deep clean my fridge. I usually clean my fridge by wiping it down when necessary. But I couldn’t remember the last time I took the drawers and shelves out to scrub them. And I wanted to add some shelf liners to the shelves and a crisper drawer liner for my vegetable drawer to help keep it clean (or make it easier to clean when there is a spill). So I ordered a few things online that I wanted to use and once it was all here and I felt motivated, I did a huge cleaning of the fridge.

I was able to just shift things inside the fridge so I didn’t have to worry about things going bad. I just did one section at a time and then put things back and moved them around to work on another section. Because I was doing a deep cleaning plus adding liners, it did take a bit longer (it took me longer than I thought it would to cut the liners to the right size). But in the end, I’m very happy with having one big cleaning project done and my fridge looking so nice!

I think the motivation for the cleaning was because I have been trying to be better about cooking. And having a clean and organized fridge does help me want to cook. If I can store my ingredients where I can find them, that helps.

I’m sure that some of you are laughing at me for making such a big deal out of this, and I know that this isn’t something that should be life-changing. But it was something I was putting off for longer than I should and I’m so glad that I did it. It made me feel very accomplished and took up a lot of time, 2 things that I really need to feel these days.

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Default ThumbnailA Big Cleaning Week (or An Excuse to Organize) Default ThumbnailFeeling Like A Fresh Start (or Spring Cleaning and New Toys) Default ThumbnailSpring Cleaning (or Needing To Declutter Again) Default ThumbnailSlowly Spring Cleaning (or Tidying Up My Way) Default ThumbnailIs It Too Early To Be Spring Cleaning? (or Out With The Unused) Default ThumbnailSpring Cleaning (or Feeling Pampered)

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Still Having Some Cooking Fails (or Trying But Not Being Perfect)

Posted on April 14, 2020 | Comments Off on Still Having Some Cooking Fails (or Trying But Not Being Perfect)

As I wrote in another post, I’ve been cooking a lot more lately. This is a necessity and it’s also a way for me to pass some time each day (because each day does feel like it takes forever). There are still some things about cooking that are difficult for me, plus there are a few additional challenges.

A friend of mine asked me why I don’t like to cook, and I mentioned that I don’t mind cooking, I just don’t really like to cook for just me. Of course, that got me thinking about why that is and maybe I don’t feel like I’m worth cooking for (but that’s a big rabbit hole I could go down). But I think it’s just that I haven’t had the time or motivation to cook, and my kitchen might not be the best setup for cooking.

Well, I definitely have the time now. The kitchen setup is something that I’m working on. Motivation will probably always be a struggle. But the new struggle is also not being able to plan what I might want to cook because I also don’t know what I will be able to get for groceries. This is making me a little stressed out with cooking because I don’t have recipes that I feel comfortable enough with making huge substitutions. But I’m trying my best and also making a lot of things that are pretty basic and simple.

But just because I’m making easy things doesn’t mean I won’t screw them up. I’ve had a few really great cooking wins with making some awesome stuff, but I’ve also had some epic failures. Like ruining an entire recipe because it got to an unsafe temperature but not hot enough to actually cook (and I didn’t notice it for long enough that I didn’t think it could be saved). Throwing out food is not easy, especially when it’s the meal I planned to eat that night for dinner. But in that case, I didn’t think risking food poisoning was worth it.

In the past, that failure might have made me not want to cook for a while, but I don’t really have that luxury right now. I do need to cook almost every day. And while a lot of days are just making something simple like eggs, that still is cooking every day. Sometimes I do have a day where it’s just leftovers or things that don’t require cooking, but those days are rare. Being forced to cook like I am now is probably a good thing, but I’m looking forward to when I can cook without the stress of everything else going on.

I am far from a perfect cook. I know I will screw up so many more recipes in the future. Hopefully, those screwups won’t be complete failures where I have to throw out the food, but that might happen too. I can only try my best and try to make this time of forced cooking the most productive I can and hope that I will come out of this time of isolation with a new habit and a stronger skill set in the kitchen.

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Default ThumbnailLack Of Planning (or No Home Cooking This Week) Default ThumbnailBaby Steps Back To Cooking (or My Check In Kicked My Butt Into Gear) Default ThumbnailCooking At Hipcooks (or Remembering Cooking Doesn’t Have To Be Hard) Default ThumbnailForced To Do Some Cooking (or Making The Best Of Things) Default ThumbnailBaby Steps With Cooking (or I’m Cautiously Optimistic) Default ThumbnailStill Cooking (or It’s Almost A Habit)

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Forced To Do Some Cooking (or Making The Best Of Things)

Posted on March 25, 2020 | Comments Off on Forced To Do Some Cooking (or Making The Best Of Things)

There have been a lot of photos shared since the pandemic started. People in hospitals hoping to survive. People wearing masks and gloves in public. Places that are usually packed with people being empty because people are isolating themselves. But I think the photos I see most often are related to grocery stores and getting supplies. I see so many photos of people hoarding supplies and having full carts or empty shelves in grocery stores. I do understand how panic buying happens because I’ve had those same thoughts, but I don’t get it to the degree that some people are taking it to. To me, panic buying is getting an extra thing of soap and toilet paper when you are buying some, not buying enough to last you a year.

Because of people panic buying, the idea of going to the grocery store has become very stressful for me. I am trying to limit my shopping to once a week to limit my potential exposure to someone who might be sick or an asymptomatic carrier. But at the same time, I don’t know what I’ll find at the store when I get there. If there’s something I need, I know I could still go out and try to get it another time, but there is no guarantee I’ll find it. And again, every time I go to the store I am potentially exposing myself to the virus. So I’ve just been working on doing my shopping once a week and figuring it out from there.

Honestly, if I could just get microwave meals for most of my meals, I would be doing that. But frozen food is a bit limited at the stores right now (hopefully they will be restocked soon). Some fresh things aren’t as easy to find either, but there are some things I can get. I do have to cook for at least some of my meals. And as much as I would love to meal plan and cook based on that, I have to work around the idea that I don’t necessarily know what I will be able to get when I do go to the store. So my cooking has needed to be a bit creative and I’m not used to that.

I’m not a big cook and I have said for a long time that I need to be better about cooking more at home. It’s very easy normally to get prepared or frozen meals (or to order in) and I am a fan of the convenience. I’m not going to deny that some of that comes from being lazy. But it’s a habit that I’m not proud of and I have known for a long time that I need to do better. And I guess being forced into change was the thing that I needed.

I’m not necessarily cooking the way that I have always wanted to. The things I’m making are pretty random or boring. For example, I cooked some peppers and onions and put it over rice with some beans. It was nothing fancy, but it was food and I made it. And I am making enough so I do have some leftovers so I don’t have to cook every night. I would love to find ways to be a bit more creative as I’m forced to cook, but I can’t depend on getting all the correct ingredients for something. I guess I could make a list and see what I can get each week, but a lot of things are perishable so that doesn’t really make sense. So I’m really stuck with this mismatch cooking and figuring out what to eat.

The only things that I am trying to collect things and hopefully I’ll get everything soon are for baking things. I’m not a big baker, but there are a few things that I know are not as easy to find in grocery stores right now that I would like to try baking. I don’t have everything I need, but the baking supplies are dry goods so I don’t have to worry about them spoiling.

Maybe this method will work and I’ll like doing it. I might figure out some new favorites. Or maybe people will stop hoarding soon and the grocery stores will look normal again. I’m mentally preparing that it won’t be normal for a little while and that I’ll need to do my shopping once a week. And fortunately, the grocery store near my house seems to be pretty calm and decently stocked. They limit how many people can be in there at one time so nobody is rushing around trying to get everything they need. People aren’t leaving the store with carts full of food (or multiple carts). They really are only getting what they need and that helps everyone have a chance to get the food they need.

I still have been having panic attacks the past 2 weeks before going to the grocery store because I have no clue what it will look like when I get inside. But the most that I go in and see that it’s not too horrible, the easier it will be. And hopefully, my grocery shopping will get easier as I find a routine with cooking a few things that I feel confident that I can get the ingredients for each week. This isn’t really the way I imagined myself working on cooking more, but it is the way it is and I’m going to try to take advantage of the moment.

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Default ThumbnailLack Of Planning (or No Home Cooking This Week) Default ThumbnailStill Cooking (or It’s Almost A Habit) Default ThumbnailHome Cooking (or Getting Used To Making What I Eat) Default ThumbnailFirst Time Bulk Cooking (or Making My Kitchen Smell Yummy!) Default ThumbnailCooking At Hipcooks (or Remembering Cooking Doesn’t Have To Be Hard) Default ThumbnailStill Having Some Cooking Fails (or Trying But Not Being Perfect)

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