Resolutions

            We are driving back from my family’s house in Upstate New York, and the combination of feeling very full from a week of eating and sitting for 15 hours in a car has me thinking about New Year’s Resolutions.  I am reading a book called “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin.  It was popular a few years ago I believe but borrowing it from my mother this week was a good idea.  It basically breaks up resolutions by month and I am going to try that, instead of making my whole year of resolutions today.  For the first month, I’m following Rubin’s suggestion of energizing.

January: Energize!

• ·      Sleep more: I usually stay up way too late, especially when I don’t have class the next morning.  However, this upcoming semester is going to be a lot busier then last so I need to make sure I get more sleep and make it a habit.  
• ·      Exercise:  This seems to make it on every goal/resolution list.  Before we left for New York, I went to the gym every day for a week, which sadly is a record, and took the beagle for a walk every day.  It was very enjoyable and I want to keep that up when I get home tomorrow.  I am also considering investing in a pedometer.
• ·      Organize: This is perfect for this month because I have the next two weeks free before the Spring Semester, my graduate assistantship and the first practicum starts.  So organization needs to happen.  My personal goal is to organize our basement and unpack a lot of the boxes I haven’t opened for almost two years…

I'll be keeping a daily chart on Excel of how long I sleep, how long I walk the beagle, and how long I work out each day.  I'll have my boyfriend help me with some formula to be able to track progress in a visual way because that will motivate me!

Old Blogs

I have so many unpublished posts on this blog, which I now find funny because it is really my own blog.  No reason not publish them!  I use to get more view from people on Pinterest but now for some reason my pictures can't get published because my source is marked as spam.  Oh well.

I kind of miss putting a lot energy into my first blog, agirlgoesgreen.  I would like to again but that blog had a purpose (...being "green") which I did for my year of not buying anything new, trying to eat as local as possible, and now, I don't really like talking about it.  I kind of find people who say what I did annoying.  Like last weekend, someone came over with our friends and noted that she hopes we never move because we have a lot of stuff.  I said that she should see our basement....which led to a why people buy things conversation.  I love my "stuff".  I love old things and like to buy them.  I don't like someone saying our house is cluttered or saying stuff I haven't looked at in a while should be thrown away.  I am not throwing away boxes of my grandmother's pots, but they are not coming upstairs either.  I am also not throwing away ugly Christmas decorations my roommate and I used in college.  But I am organizing (at least my plan is to) my stuff in the basement over break!  Only one week left of the first semester of grad school!

Advent!

I love advent.  As child, my mother would pretend there was a elf in the house hiding and he would write me little notes each day and once every few days surprise me with a gift.  I'm 24 and my dad still mails me an advent calendar every year (this one he even included one for my boyfriend).

When my sister and I were old, my mom use to do "Dollar Advent" with us and I decided to share the idea with Gregory.  Basically, you divide up the days of advent (we did 9 for each of us and 4 for the beagle), go to the Dollarstore and buy the silly, fun gifts, wrap them up and each day, pick a name to own a present.

We use to put our names into a big, mirrored advent box my mom had but I did not want to buy one.   So, I took 24 matchboxes, decorated them, and a put a name in each.  They are very cute and festive and even Gregory (who does not really like holiday things) likes them.  We started today and Gregory got the first present, tissues with the Peanuts characters on them!

Oh, I have a blog?

So, I am in grad school now and only three weeks left in the semester! Time flies.  But I have been finding I want to start a blog to keep a productive habit when I'm not reading for school, writing for school, in school... basically write, read, and do something else that is not watching t.v..  I've been obsessing all day over a name a new blog, thinking of my favorite blogs, then I just decided I am going to just start writing!  So, I log on to blogger and I have a blog!  I completely forgot.  And it was 90 degrees last time I wrote!  That sounds terrible...its 31 degrees now but I am hot sitting next to the oven.  The beagle, boyfriend, and I are all on a diet now.  We are on the 4 Hour Body diet and have been since October.  It has been going well.  I wish I had the guts to post my gut now and later but I don't.  I am thinking I might just make myself for motivation!

Anyways, we ate a lot over Thanksgiving in Nashville but took lots of walks.  Gregory's parent's house is in a nice neighborhood with all these long, beautiful walking paths.  So, the beagle and I got a lot of exercise!  I wish I could walk with her here everyday but I am not comfortable in the neighborhood.  Tomorrow I promised her though we would go to the park (if I say it to her, I feel more obligated but I think she just thinks I am about to give her a treat).

The Cucumber that Made it

This Sunday we got our first vegetable from the garden!  Isn't it beautiful?  

As we were in the middle of heatwave, neither of us had high exceptions for the garden.  We still don't really either unfortunately though this tiny cucumber and our first little green tomato gave us a bit of excitement.  The heat wave broke Sunday so now its just in the 90s every day instead of 100 plus.  

I am hoping to go work in the garden after work today, doing some weeding and trying to increase our chances of getting more than two whole vegetables out of it.  Also, I am trying to work on my tan since I'll be going home to upstate New York in a couple weeks and it will be hard to explain why I am paler then my family even though I live in a much hotter part of the country.

Only 15 days left at my job of two years.  It is a weird feeling of excitement for the future and also a bit of sadness since I have loved it here.  I am so excited about graduate school though, especially since yesterday I found out I received an graduate assistantship position :)

It is an excited time though!  Lots of changes and lots of happiness.

Eat This for This

Tonight the beagle and I are home alone- the boyfriend is in San Diego for a couple of days on a work trip.  Last weekend he was away for work as well.   We always go grocery shopping and cook on Saturday or Sunday so the last two weeks I've been cooking myself.  I miss having someone to do my least favorite parts- chopping chilis and onions but I also have been remembering how much money I spend on groceries!

Brief grocery budget self-history: Grew up at home (didn't buy food), went to college (ate free food, money went to clothes and beverages), became an AmeriCorps volunteer (enough said), and then got a job and house!   So finally having a budget for food was exciting.  I've always eaten well and buying my own food at first was almost my whole budget.  Then I met you and he taught me how to cook the best food I've ever had and I spend almost nothing.


Here is this week's menu (which I shop and cook for in one day) as a sample:

• Breakfast: Asparagus, scallion, low-fat cottage cheese quiche with besan (split-pea) flour
• Work Lunches: Spinach and Arugula salad with an avocado, homemade vinaigrette, and mixed with "fridge veggies" (this week that is extra scallions, chopped cilantro, and maybe a pickled vegetable).
• Dinners: Keema Bhare Bandh Gobhi....yea, I don't know what that means exactly except for meat stuffed cabbage rolls.  I just make myself call Indian food by its name so I can learn words.  So far I know keema is meat.  That's all.  
• Extra/Snacks: Bag of pistachios, homemade quick pickles, and low-fat cottage cheese

So, all of that cost $48.34 at Aldi and $11.11 at our favorite international grocery store.  That's a total of $59.45 for all the above meals.  Oh and by the way, at Aldi, 13.45 was spent on five bottles of Winking Owl wine and $5.28 was spent on laundry detergent.  So, food total for the week (I count wine as food but for this count I am not) is........$40.72.  So each day that is about seven dollars.  

When my boyfriend and I split I pay less!  So I think we have the cooking budget down.  And I actually need to stop typing so I can make the stuff cabbage rolls- with dry, spiced Indian meat made from lean Aldi ground beef and a two dollar cabbage boiled in salt.  

I'll post recipes and pictures tomorrow, goodnight!

Weekly Eats

It has been a hot week here in St. Louis- at least 90 degrees everyday.  Yet, Sunday evening I found myself cooking chili and soup.  Maybe the AC made me do it, I'm not sure.  But the soup was delicious last night and we have chili for the whole week.  

The chili is very delicious, and came from this great blog (found through gojee.com, possibly my favorite website).  I added curry instead of salsa and plan on eating it with avocados and fresh spinach this week.  Below is my personal vacuum cleaner watching me as I cooked the turkey for the chili.

I also made a spicy fava bean soup from this blog.  The hardest part of this recipe was finding the actual fava beans.  We finally found them and the soup was absolutely delicious!  We ate it with greek yogurt, cilantro, and spinach.

Then after a delicious dinner and the satisfaction of knowing our fridge is full with healthy good food for the week, it was Mad Men time!  And Mad Man cocktail time.  So we enjoyed a classic Manhattan while watching.  Overall a very nice Sunday!