Tag Archives: cooking

Strength and Savings (or Picking A New Monthly Challenge I Know I Need To Do)

Posted on April 4, 2023 | Comments Off

Happy April! I feel like March both flew by and took a long time and it also felt like more than one month with many things happening in my life. It wasn’t the craziest month of my life but the craziest month I feel like I’ve had in a long time. While it wasn’t all good things, it was nice that a lot of them were positive and reminded me more of what my life used to be like. And I’m proud of myself for not letting a bit of craziness get in the way of my monthly challenge.

I think I really needed the challenge I set for last month, which was to try to make some improvements in my workouts. I know that I have been wanting to do that for a while, but it’s not the easiest thing to do. But wanting to do it and needing to do it finally came together in March and I really think I found a way to try to get this done. I didn’t make all the improvements that I had hoped to, but I found ways to test myself and to try to see what I could do. I didn’t focus as much on improving on the bike, but I think I was able to get more comfortable with my new resistance levels. On the rower, I focused on things other than how fast I could row and I know I saw a lot of improvements doing that, including having faster rowing times. I think I’m going to continue focusing on things that aren’t how long it will take me to row a distance and I should hopefully continue to see results that include faster rows. And on the floor, I didn’t really get to use heavier weights like I wanted to, but I tried. I know that as I continue to try, eventually I’ll be ready for those heavier weights. But it will take me a bit longer than a month to get that accomplished.

Considering that I had a month, I feel pretty good about what I was able to accomplish but even more proud that I have decided to continue with some of the plans I created in March to see more progress moving forward. I know that I might not see the results in the next month or two and it could take longer, but at least I know I’ll be working toward them.

And for my April challenge, I’ve thought of something that combines a few different things that I know I’ve been trying to work on. My challenge this month is to significantly reduce my food waste. When I go to the grocery store, I always have the best intentions with the things I buy. But far too often, I don’t use up what I get or they expire before I use them. I hate when I’m cleaning my fridge and discover things I forgot about or that have spoiled. And it’s frustrating to have to throw out things because I hate wasting money as well as food.

Reducing my food waste will require me to be much more aware when I go grocery shopping. I also think I might need to get back to how I was shopping before the pandemic when I usually went to the store to get things only for the next few days instead of trying to get everything for the week at one time. I might buy something on Sunday thinking I want it but by Friday I really don’t want to have to make it. So if I’m shopping more often, then I can focus on what I want for that day or the next and not what I might want a week away.

I also will need to make sure that I’m eating at home or from things I made more. I’ve been getting much better about this and don’t order in that often anymore, but I also know I can be better. This might mean I need more easy meals as options, so when I went to the store most recently I made sure that I got more frozen meals as options so I could make a quick dinner if I don’t feel like cooking. I also want to get back into using my food saver to freeze things so I can make things on my own and have them as frozen meals, but that’s not something I want to do in bulk and just do it as I have things to save.

There are some things I’m allowing myself to not feel too guilty about with this challenge. There are some things I buy that I just can’t use up fast enough before it expires. For example, I don’t use mayonnaise that often, but I do use it sometimes. So I bought the smallest container of it months ago and I’m only about halfway through the container and it expired last week. I also won’t be forcing myself to eat everything on my plate if I make something and realize I don’t have the ability to finish it. That will mainly be something to worry about if I’m making a frozen meal since something I cook myself will be my own portion sizes and I normally serve myself less than I think I’ll want and get more if I’m still hungry.

I don’t have a goal of being zero waste or eliminating all my food waste, but I also know that there is a lot of improvement I can see in this aspect of my life. And I hope that by the end of this month, I feel like I’m not wasting as much food or money so I can know I’ve made a difference.

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Posted in Fitness, Food, Fun Stuff, Saving

Tagged challenge, cooking, food, strength, volt planner, workout

A Very Low-Key Thanksgiving Day (or At Least I Was Only Cooking For Me)

Posted on November 29, 2022 | Comments Off

Because I had Fake Thanksgiving with my family 2 weeks prior, actual Thanksgiving didn’t feel as big of a deal to me. Usually, Thanksgiving is the main holiday my family does, but our Fake Thanksgiving feels pretty much the same as the holiday so I don’t feel like I’m missing out on too much. There are a few differences when you don’t celebrate on the holiday, but they are so minor so I don’t think about it too much.

So since I already had my Thanksgiving, I knew I wasn’t going to do anything too big for Thursday last week. I did have the day off from both of my jobs, so that was nice. I had the day off that Friday from one job, but since I worked a full day for the other it didn’t feel like a break to me. So I decided to try to enjoy my Thursday off as much as I could.

Because I get up so early most days, I struggle to sleep in even when I have the chance to do so. I only slept in about 20 minutes later than normal on Thursday, and I had a few hours before I really had to get out of bed that morning. I was going to go to Orangetheory, but I scheduled a later class to give myself the opportunity to sleep in if I was able to do so. I did wish that I had not scheduled it quite as late as I did because I was just sitting around my house waiting for the class, but it was ok. I didn’t have much else to do that day so I wasn’t in a rush to get home to do anything.

After my workout, I spent the rest of the morning and the beginning of the afternoon really being lazy. I mainly just read my book and rested until it was time for me to start making some food.

I didn’t feel the need to make a lot of Thanksgiving-type foods, but I wanted to make something that felt a bit special for me. So I made my 2 favorite sides that my family has at Thanksgiving. One was the green beans with shallots that I really should make more often because it’s such a simple recipe and the other was a corn casserole that my mom makes that I had never made on my own before. Both recipes are very simple and didn’t take much time to put together. And I didn’t want to make turkey since it’s not my favorite thing to eat, so I decided to make meatloaf because it’s very easy to put together and I knew I would be able to make all 3 dishes in the same time frame to have dinner ready at the same time.

The green beans turned out good, as I expected them to. The corn casserole wasn’t exactly how it should be, but it was still good. It ended up a bit more like a bread than the texture it normally has. That didn’t make it taste bad so I was ok with that. But something weird happened with the meatloaf. I don’t know if an ingredient went bad or if I put something in by mistake, but it was bitter and sour. It was unfortunate because I was hoping to use the leftovers for a few days, but it really was bad and I had to throw it all out. I’m glad that I was the only one who had to taste the mistake I made because I would have been so upset if I ruined dinner for multiple people. And since this was my second Thanksgiving, I was less disappointed than I might have been if I didn’t have my family time a few weeks ago.

And after my dinner, I continued to be lazy that evening. I cleaned up my cooking mess and watched a little bit of tv. But there was nothing else that I needed or wanted to do that evening. It would have been fun to do something with friends, but I was ok being on my own. And because I don’t get that many days off, I just enjoyed having nothing that I had to do that day and just being able to relax. My days off are typically spent doing errands and things to get ready for my week. I’m working on trying to shift that so I’m doing more errands on work days so I really have time off on my days off. But because most places were closed on Thanksgiving, I was forced to take it easy and do nothing. It was a reset that I think I needed before getting back into my regular schedule and some of the craziness that might be coming up.

It might not have been the most traditional Thanksgiving for me, but I think it was the perfect way for me to spend the day. I don’t know if future Thanksgivings will be like this or if my family will eventually switch back to being on regular Thanksgiving. But at least I took advantage of this year and I feel like I did exactly what I should have done on the holiday.

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged cooking, holidays, Thanksgiving

Another Unexpected Part Of Moving (or I Don’t Know Why I Didn’t Plan Better For This)

Posted on April 22, 2022 | Comments Off

As I’ve written several times now, I’m finding a lot of things about moving that aren’t the way I thought they would be or how I remembered them from before. And I know a lot of these things are also related to how I’m doing my move. I’ve been taking my time and slowly getting things from one place to another. I have done a majority of the move within the last week, but it’s still been over multiple days instead of doing everything at once. And maybe this wasn’t the right way to do things even though I thought it would be easier because I keep finding random things that I wasn’t exactly prepared for. And this one is one I found out after I started mainly living at the condo this week.

At my old place, over the last few weeks, I tried to be pretty careful with what I got from the grocery store. I didn’t want to have a lot of food I needed to move over with me, especially if they were frozen items or things that were going to be opened and potentially make a mess. So the last few weeks I have been very conscious about what food I already have and was trying to make more meals from that instead of going out and getting more stuff. I still have some food at the old place I need to move over this weekend, but I got things down to only a handful of things left.

And when I moved my furniture on Sunday to the condo, I wasn’t sure at the time if I would sleep at the condo or at the old house. So I wasn’t really prepared with food at the condo. But I figured that would be easy enough to deal with so I got some takeout food for dinner that night. But because I hadn’t planned, I also didn’t have food for Monday and I wouldn’t be able to get to the store until after work. So I had to order some delivery food (I got a bowl from Chipotle) for lunch that day until I could go get a few groceries to get me through the week.

I didn’t get anything too crazy since I knew this week would be hectic and I would want things that would be easy and fast to have. So most of what I got was prepared items, things I could microwave, or shelf-stable items. Not necessarily the healthiest or best options, but I knew this would just be for now and not the way I would continue to eat.

And for the most part, this plan has worked ok for me. I’m having some weird food issues right now and I’m struggling to eat at times, but I do go through those phases occasionally and I think this is also just the stress manifesting itself in my body. But the issue I’m running into now is that my kitchen really isn’t set up for making food if I wanted to right now.

So much of my stuff is still in boxes. I know that I need to work on unpacking more, but I also wanted to plan out a bit where I would want to put things. But I might have to wait on that and just get things unpacked for now and work on the organization later. But also, not everything is here yet. I didn’t think too much about which boxes I was moving on which day since I knew I would eventually get everything over here. But until yesterday, I had no pots and pans. I was missing bowls until Wednesday but had plates. I didn’t think to bring stuff from my spice rack until later in the week. Honestly, I have no clue what parts of my kitchen are still in the old place and what is in boxes here at this point. I really need to work on getting stuff put away or at least where I can figure out what I have so I can start planning normal meals and not just what is easy to grab.

Just like everything else stressing me out with this move, I know this is temporary and I will have all my kitchen things soon and I can start cooking in my new and amazing kitchen! And I’m excited to cook in this kitchen since everything is new and will work properly. Plus, I have so much more space to prep so I won’t feel as cramped as I try to make things that involve more ingredients or steps.

And if I’m having some not-so-great food days for right now, I know it’s going to be ok. I need to allow myself to be a bit off from what I know I should be doing while I’m in the process of settling in. This doesn’t mean I’m going to go crazy, but I’m also not going to stress myself out more if I end up having another day where I need delivery food for lunch because I still don’t have my kitchen together.

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Posted in Food

Tagged cooking, food, moving, stress

Cooking My First Thanksgiving Dinner (or Having More Success Than Expected)

Posted on December 2, 2020 | Comments Off

I got to have a little taste of Thanksgiving with some of the food my parents brought me when they came to see me a few weeks ago. I had missed an early Thanksgiving dinner with my family, and I was really grateful for the leftovers they had for me. But that was a few weeks ago and I wanted to have something special on Thanksgiving Day.

I’ve always been with my family. It’s our big gathering each year and the food is part of the tradition. And while I like almost everything that my family makes (except cranberry sauce in both the homemade and can forms), I knew that if I wanted to make some Thanksgiving food myself that I wasn’t going to make most of it. I had to decide what was most important to me and then go from there. So I thought about what I like and what seemed easiest to do in my little kitchen. And I decided I would do sweet potatoes, green beans, and something with turkey.

I wasn’t expecting to find a lot of turkey options at the store. First, by the time I was shopping, it was close to Thanksgiving. And second, I didn’t want something huge. I was hoping I could find a turkey breast or half turkey breast. But if I couldn’t find that, I knew I could find turkey meatballs and thought that would work too.

But to my surprise, when I went to the store, there was 1 half turkey breast left! So I grabbed it without thinking too much about how to prepare it. I figured it would only require the basics that I knew I had at home, and I could always go to the store again to get spices if I really needed them. Once I got all my groceries home, then I started to figure out how to make them.

The sweet potatoes and green beans were pretty easy. I baked the sweet potatoes the day before and prepared the base (everything but the pecans and marshmallows) and put it in the fridge. And I knew I would do the green beans the day of and it only required me to steam the beans and cook some bacon and onions. But for the turkey, I did a lot of research and found some pretty basic roasting recipes. So I combined those ideas and used that.

Preparing the turkey started the night before. I did a dry brine with salt, pepper, sugar, and garlic powder; and I let it sit uncovered on a platter in my fridge overnight. That was easy enough to do and I tried to stay confident that I could cook it without screwing it up. But I also kept in mind that I was only cooking for myself so if I did screw it up, I could eat a microwave burrito or something.

On Thanksgiving Day, I didn’t have to start anything until a few hours before I wanted to eat. I took the turkey out of the fridge and started to heat up my oven. I put some carrots and onions on a sheet tray to be like a little rack to hold the turkey up. And I added some olive oil to brown the skin. Then into the oven it went and I set a timer to check on it about 45 minutes later (I based the time on what it said online). 45 minutes later, it wasn’t at temperature yet so I let it keep cooking. And I started to get the sides together. I knew I wanted the sweet potatoes to go in while the turkey was resting. And I started to cook the bacon and onions since that would take time.

I was optimistic that I would be done around the same time for everything, but it didn’t work that way. I was pretty off with the timing, but this was the first time I had cooked anything like this. But it was all done at a decent time and I think that I did a pretty good job with my first Thanksgiving meal.

It wasn’t a ton of food, but it was still a lot and it lasted me for several meals. And it came out pretty great. There were a few things I would change if I made this again. The turkey was juicy, but a little salty so I think I needed to use a little less salt in my dry brine. And I forgot to add an acid to the beans, which I think they really could have used. But everything was still really delicious and tasted like Thanksgiving to me! I didn’t make gravy since I didn’t think I needed it. And I didn’t, but I still missed it. Same with stuffing. I missed it but I wasn’t going to make a ton of stuffing just for me.

It was weird eating Thanksgiving food alone, but I’m hopeful that this will be the only year I have to do that. I missed my family and all the stuff we usually do together, but at least I got some food that reminded me of Thanksgiving so I didn’t feel like I skipped the holiday completely. And I did have some family time over Thanksgiving weekend. But I’ll be writing about that tomorrow!

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Food

Tagged cooking, food, Thanksgiving

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

Posted on November 4, 2020 | Comments Off

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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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged books, challenge, cooking, food, NaNoWriMo, volt planner, writer

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

Posted on October 14, 2020 | Comments Off

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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Tagged cooking, food

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

Posted on September 25, 2020 | Comments Off

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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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged baking, cookies, cooking, food, recipe

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

Posted on May 22, 2020 | Comments Off

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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Posted in Food

Tagged cooking, food, habit, isolation

Of Course I Have A New Injury (or Thank Goodness For Family and FaceTime)

Posted on May 5, 2020 | Comments Off

Even though I am one of the klutziest people I know, I am pretty lucky with what happens in my klutzy moments. I always seem to have new bruises popping up that I have no clue how they happened. I’ve broken my toes more times than I can count and have gotten really good at buddy taping my toes together. And more often than not, my klutzy moments only result in hurting my ego a bit.

But this past Sunday, my klutziness caused something that really made me have a moment of panic. I was preparing ingredients for my dinner (yup, cooking from scratch again). It’s something I’ve made before and I was happy that it was going to be easy to put together. I have a decent knife set, but I usually don’t use the bigger knives because the small ones work. But I was trying to cut a big onion and the small knife wasn’t doing the job. So I took one of the bigger ones out (I think I’ve used it once or twice before) and got to cutting my onion.

I don’t actually remember how it happened, but the knife slipped and went through the top of my finger. It basically sliced the top knuckle area on my middle finger. But on the top of it where it’s just skin and bone, not the bottom by the finger pad where there is more to it. And as soon as it happened, I was in a lot of pain. I quickly grabbed some paper towels and put pressure on it because it was bleeding quite a bit (although I managed to not get any blood on my ingredients). I didn’t look at the injury too much since I immediately put the paper towel on it, but I knew it wasn’t good.

After a few minutes, I realized that this cut may be worse than I thought and I was terrified that I’d need stitches. Needing stitches is never good, but now it’s especially scary since I do not want to have to go to the hospital if I can avoid it. It was bad enough to have to go to the pharmacy to get my prescriptions. I do not want to have to step foot into an ER where I know there may be patients with coronavirus or other contagious things. So I called my parents.

I’m lucky with my parents and brother all being in medicine. Even though my parents are both retired, they still are great at giving medical advice and letting me know when I need more serious medical help. So when I called my mom I was trying to explain the best I could about what happened and how much my finger was bleeding. She gave me some advice about when I should worry and how long it might take for the bleeding to slow down or stop. And then we got on FaceTime so she could see the wound after I took the paper towels off. By the time I was on the phone, the bleeding was not as bad as it had been when it happened. So that’s a good sign. My mom told me to keep putting pressure on it and to check in with them in an hour or two.

I put a clean paper towel on my finger and wrapped it with some medical tape to keep a bit of pressure on it. I also needed to finish preparing dinner because I didn’t want my ingredients to go to waste. Cooking with only 1 good hand isn’t easy, but it can be done.

By the time my food was done in the oven, the bleeding had stopped. So I put a regular bandage on it and called my mom to update her. I’m sure she knew I would be fine, but it was still good for me to check in with her.

I had to figure out some creative solutions for things that evening because I wanted to protect my finger. I used gloves for a lot of things so my bandage wouldn’t get wet. And it seemed to be doing ok when I went to bed. My finger was really sore (and I could tell it would be hurting a lot for the rest of this week), but the bandage was staying on and it didn’t seem like it was bleeding anymore.

Yesterday, I had my workout and that was another challenge. Anything that required me to support myself on my hands or lift weight wasn’t going to happen. I didn’t realize that I wouldn’t have the ability to grip with the cut where it was. When I started my workout, I just had the bandage on there. But I realized I needed a bit more protection so I wrapped the bandage in medical tape to keep it secure. It limited my movement in my finger even more, but it helped with a lot of the pain. It also made it look like I was giving the finger no matter what.

Showering was another interesting challenge. I ended up cutting a finger off of a rubber glove and then putting medical tape around it to try to secure it. Water still got in there and I needed to change the bandage again, but it was better than if I hadn’t done anything. Because of where the cut it, the waterproof bandages don’t really stick to it. I did order some knuckle bandages that should be arriving this week, so hopefully those will help.

I’m sure this sounds silly and that I shouldn’t have needed to call my parents just because I cut myself. But it’s scary when something like that happens and you are all alone. And I really didn’t know if I needed to go to the hospital for this. If I couldn’t reach my parents, I probably would have gone because I would rather be safe than sorry. But right now, the hospital isn’t always the safest choice. I’m grateful that my mom was able to calm me down when I was scared and could help me try to fix this the best she could. I probably have a few weeks of healing ahead of me before my finger seems normal again, but at least I’m taking care of it and I know I’ll be ok.

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Posted in Tough Stuff

Tagged cooking, hurt, injury

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

Posted on April 14, 2020 | Comments Off

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.

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

Posted in Food

Tagged cooking, food, isolation

Tag Archives: cooking

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