NOPE

I thought I'd motivate myself to post by trying to stick to a pattern, but dinners (and evenings) have been less consistent, and I end up working until bedtime on actual work, or I just forget to post, so screw it. I'm still trying the Whole30 dinner things, though. That's happening.

Other important happenings this week:

• Pluto is GORGEOUS
• I finally found a Coke bottle with my name on it
• Amazon's Prime Day was a giant disappointment
• I went kindergarten back to school shopping for Calvin

(That last one is terrifying.)

I'm also working on determining a thesis topic for my 15,000 word paper for spring. I think I'm going to write about how the language of racism has changed since the Civil Rights Movement. I feel a little anxious tackling this topic as a white lady, but I also feel like it's an important topic and one I'd be interested in. My advisor actually cautioned me about the potential psychological effects of reading so much unpleasantness, which I appreciate.

This past year has been a good foray back into academic writing, and apparently I'm pretty good at it. I'm just hoping I pass the thesis on my first attempt so I don't have to do any remediation stuff over the summer and can go ahead and find a job at a community college or (fingers crossed) nearby college. We shall see.

Whole30 Day 2: Italian Baked Eggs with Honey-Lime Fruit Salad

OMG THIS RECIPE.

http://againstallgrain.com/2013/01/22/italian-baked-eggs-oeufs-en-cocotte/

Today's dinner comes from Against All Grain, which is for people who don't eat grain or gluten or something (I'm not that clear on the theme of the blog, but this recipe. is. amazing.)

It's super easy to make. I used these little ramekins that I've had for long enough that I don't remember what I originally bought them for, and they bake up nice enough to just pop out over some of last night's leftover sweet potato hash that I reheated in a pan. I could have eaten all four of them. The combination of the coconut milk/tomato sauce, the spinach, the tomato, the sausage, and the egg...I CANNOT SAY ENOUGH ABOUT THIS.

I didn't take a picture of the fruit salad, but here's the recipe link: http://thenourishinghome.com/2013/06/honey-lime-fruit-salad/

It was also divine. I used mango, Pink Lady apples, peaches, strawberries, and green grapes. There's leftover. It's going to be breakfast. Technically, since it contains honey, I don't think it's OK for Whole30, but I don't even care.

Whole30 Day 1: Southwestern Chicken Burgers & Herb Roasted Sweet Potato Bites

Because we need to get our eating habits back under control (seriously, back when we actually cared we were SO SKINNY--now we just eat junk and are not so skinny) I've decided to try cooking with Whole30, at least for the next three and a half weeks before Brandon goes to Germany for work. It's not quite 30 days, and I'm not going to be super strict about breakfast and lunch, but I'm going to post ALL my dinner stuff as a way to stay personally accountable. I hope.

Anyway, I went grocery shopping today. I do most of my grocery shopping at Walmart because it's WAY cheaper; I got this week's groceries for $135, but that includes a couple of pantry staples like almond meal and coconut oil that added significant bumps to the bill. I'm using a couple of different blogs for recipes, some I found myself and some from my friend Caitlin who did Whole30 a few months ago and is awesome. This week's menu came from Kelly at The Nourishing Home.

One thing I really like about Kelly's menu plans is that she includes a shopping list and menu with links to recipes. Also, her foodtography game is 9000x better than mine, so I'm going to use her pictures.

http://thenourishinghome.com/2014/10/southwestern-chicken-burgers/

These chicken burgers are really easy if you have a food chopper. I threw the mushrooms, pepper, onion, and cilantro into my little Ninja chopper and about ten pulses got them done. I also didn't make my own mayonnaise, but rather added some Tabasco to some store-bought mayonnaise, because I am lazy. I put these on Romaine lettuce leaves, which kind of fell apart near the end, but I didn't miss the bun, weirdly. Walmart had these weird Peruvian avocados that were kind of a reddish-green color, which I don't feel like should be possible, but there you go; they were perfectly ripe and really tasty. Yes to Peruvian avocados.

http://thenourishinghome.com/2014/10/roasted-herb-sweet-potato-bites/

I could eat the entire pan of these sweet potato bites. They are delicious. I have the knife skills of a six year old, so cutting up the sweet potatoes took a lot of time, but was more tedious than difficult. I also used fresh rosemary instead of dried (since I have a rosemary plant on my back porch that is STILL ALIVE) and I feel like that was a good choice. I doubled this recipe because the weekly menu calls for these to be a side for tomorrow's dinner as well. I have no problem with this. I would eat these with everything. I think they might serve as a kind of sweet potato hash base for tomorrow's Italian sausage and eggs, which could be amazing.

Starting this is a little daunting because since I had Calvin, every weight loss/fitness thing I've tried has been abandoned or I've rebounded. I have a very specific time limit on this, so I'm hoping I can keep it up until the end of the month, and if I do, maybe I'll retain the good habits it's meant to instill. I'm intentionally not weighing myself if I can help it, but I know where I'm starting (not sharing that information) and I'll see where I am at the end.

Also, I'm hoping that this will get me back into writing regularly, which will be good for me since I have a 15,000 word thesis to do next spring. Practice makes better.