A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.
The best way that I can describe this time of year is "beige". It's not snowing yet so everything outside is brown, and the short days mean that all of my photos have a distinct beige tone. I mean it's fine but it's...a much of a muchness. I just need someone to push the fast forward button to get us on the other side of December 21 so that we can start getting more daylight up in here.
Here's what's been going down...
Eats
Let's kick it old school with a full week of dinners.
Monday: the fellas made tuna noodle casserole and I found this lovely stir fry hanging out in the freezer. I believe it's Nora Cooks Sesame Tofu. I feel like I need to go on a stir fry quest and keep making different ones until I find my favorite.
Tuesday: the fellas made tacos and I had just enough time to cook up a pound of shrimp in Trader Joe's jalapeno lime crunch which is on the list of foods that I'm obsessed with right now.
Wednesday: the boys had dinner with their mom, hubs cleaned up the rest of the tuna noodle casserole, and I polished off the shrimp.
Thursday: the third straight taco night in a row. The fellas cleaned up the Taco Tuesday leftovers and I grabbed a veggie burrito out of the freezer (I'm not going out of my way to be different, I went with "me" food instead of "them" food because they didn't have enough leftovers to stretch four ways).
Friday: pizza pizza! I've been saying for years that the day will come when two pizzas aren't enough for the four of us and it was a close call. We only had two slices left over.
Saturday: Single girl night!!! Except that due to a few misadventures it's ended up being a single girl night with two dudes. Lemme 'splain myself.
Plan A: was for the kids to go to their mom's and for hubs to go on a Man Date with his buds. If you're keeping track, hubs is a dad and all of his friends are dads, so they average about one Man Date a year if they're lucky. My game plan was to spend the day on my local tourist quest and hit up a few museums and then get take out sushi for dinner. While I usually get grocery store sushi I decided that I would be fancy and get proper takeout sushi, which only costs a few bucks more.
Plan B: stepson #1 and the dog went to their mom's as planned. Stepson #2 was feeling blah so he asked to stay with us. Hubs had gotten his first shingles vaccine on Friday, and by noon on Saturday realized that the only thing he was going to be doing was lying on the couch until further notice. After a frantic work week I lost my ambition to get out of the house and spent the rest of the weekend doing a jigsaw puzzle. When it came time for dinner, the fellas liked the sound of my planned single girl meal so we made it takeout for three. Stepson #2 only wanted a cooked sushi roll because that's what he always gets when we get sushi, but I craftily ordered a large side of fried rice and not surprisingly he put a good dent in it.
Sunday: everyone was back under the same roof. I steered the guys in the direction of the leftovers. Hubs had the other half of his stir fry, and the boys cleaned up the pizza and the rest of the fried rice. I invested 20 minutes into trying something new: Nora Cooks Vegan White Chili. I de-Veganized it with regular sour cream but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. Now yes it's beige but very lovely and I recommend it. It's supposed to be four servings but after tonight I'm two bowls in and have barely made a dent in it.
I had to go there...
I got a kick out of NGS's post about all the different varieties of Pop Tarts there are in the store. The thing about Pop Tarts is that they were Forbidden Fruit when I was a young 'un so I was so happy anytime that I could get a hold of them. But as an adult who is free to eat whatever I want, they're not nearly so appealing. While I want them to be this amazing delight, the reality is that they kind of taste like cardboard.
But...the boys snagged a few from camp last weekend and after reading NGS's post I just had to. They are s'mores flavored and fit in nicely with the beige food theme that we've got going on this week. They are...alright. Definitely some notes of cardboard but I can see chomping into another one for a weekend snack.
Workouts
How time flies because I just started the final week of Caroline Girvan's Fuel Series. After this I'll finish out the year with a couple of the one week long series (this is the list that I'm working off of) . From there I'll either tackle one of the Epic series OR if the rumors are correct that she's releasing a new program in January, that might be another option. The internets is in an uproar because she hasn't released anything new in a while but she's registered a bunch of trademarks so everyone is trying to figure out what she's up to. Pro tip, if you've come up with a line of viral Youtube fitness videos you can get a lot of attention by saying nothing for six months and counting;-)
The one thing that I'm debating is whether I want to go off script and stop doing the Sunday HIIT workouts and just put in a big ol' cardio session on the treadmill in their place. At best the HIIT workouts are fast paced strength work and at worst they're a bunch of moves that don't come naturally so I'm not getting anywhere near HIIT territory while trying to follow along. One the one hand, why not give it more time and see if I get better at them and on the other hand...maybe a big ol' cardio hit might do me more favors. Or maybe I could just skip the HIIT and go through the series a bit faster or even sneak in workouts from the other series...so many possibilities.
Watching
I tried another Australian show that was good enough to hold my attention for the first season and then lost me within 15 minutes of season 2. Hey if it's too much to ask for a watchable English language show then back to Israel it is! The new show is False Flag. Five ordinary people wake up one morning to find that they are all suspects in a political kidnapping and the question is, just how ordinary and innocent are these five strangers? I'm two episodes in.
Reading
I am late to the party but now that I'm here...I've been meaning to read Station Eleven for years. In case you're not familiar, it's about a pandemic. Written in 2015 and eerily similar to recent events.
Puzzling
Aw yiss! It's the kickoff of puzzle season. When the weather outside gets frightful (or just gloomy like it is now), I get the puzzles out. I heard of this particular one from Life of a Doctor's Wife (not sure which post so I'm linking to a recent gift guide which is more relevant this time of year anyway). I'm a terrible snob in that if it's not a 1,000 piece puzzle why bother but I couldn't resist a 759 piece mystery puzzle. I'm using the box to hide the part that isn't pictured on the cover.
I feel like I'm the worst at gift ideas, but I'll throw this out there...if you or someone that you love is into puzzles, a puzzle board is a very handy thing to have. You can puzzle away and then close it up and put it away at a moment's notice. I've had this one for years.
Werkity Werk
It's been intense. We've got special projects, the boss is weeks away from maternity leave, and I'm a boss now myself. There's a bit more to the story, let's just say that I had the opportunity to do something good for a good person and to stack the deck in my favor at the same time. I'll get around to rolling out the tale of the job search for my minion as soon as I can bear to spend time out of work writing about work again. But anyway...I almost never work overtime so it's not that, but it's just that the days are wall to wall and I'm feeling the strain. I thrive off a mix of hard work with breaks for fiddle faddle fart around time and lately I've had no fiddle faddle fart around time. I need a breather!!!
That's a wrap! I'll be back as soon as I get that breather, or next week, whichever comes first. What's your ideal dinner for a single girl's night? What's your version of my pop tart story, a food that you love in theory but falls a bit flat in reality?
That's funny about CG being quite for such a long time, but it seems to work! I'm waiting for the day when she will catch up with Pamela Reif. If she brings out lots of new stuff in 2023, I'm sure she will!
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you do both on Sunday, but cut each a bit shorter? Start with a HIIT programme with all the complicated moves, then go on the treadmill to finish off with a strong cardio session?
We all need to hear the work story, so I'm hoping you'll finally get some fiddle faddle fart time!
That's what I'm doing, bumbling through the HIIT and then finishing on the treadmill. I just feel like it would be a better use of my time to do all treadmill so that I can get some good intensity in. I'm toying a few ideas around.
DeleteI BOUGHT MY HUSBAND A PUZZLE BOARD FOR CHRISTMAS! I am so excited about it now, especially after you have mentioned it. Barkley used to wag pieces off the coffee table, I cannot imagine how much more damage Rex is going to do. Hence, a puzzle board. That puzzle looks fun! 759 pieces!
ReplyDeleteOkay also also, how was that sesame stir fry? Tonight is Stir Fry Night and that might be fun to try something new.
YES YES YES!!!! He will love it.
DeleteYes the stir fry is good. I made it a few weeks ago so it's possible that it's something else but I'm pretty sure it's that recipe. This was just the last serving that I'd tucked away in the freezer.
I think I've tried that stir fry and it's good! Thanks for reminding me. i also think i might have tried that white chili... is that soy curls I see in there? Anyway, Nora's recipes are usually very good.
ReplyDeleteI haven't had a pop tart in YEARS but I think I remember them tasting slightly cardboard-y. We also didn't have them as kids, which is funny because we certainly had plenty of other unhealthy things like sugary cereals and I remember having a twinkie in my lunch every day in 6th grade (that was weird, I wonder how I convinced my mom to do that!?)
I hope work gets a little more sane for you. Good thing it wasn't like this last month when you were doing NaBloPoMo!
Absolutely those are soy curls! I can't stand Twinkies today but I would have been so happy to eat one every day as a kiddo.
DeleteI'm trying to collect reviews of all the Pop-Tart flavors. So far, I've learned cinnamon sugar and raspberry were old school faves and s'mores are just okay. I used to teach classes at the General Mills HQ when I lived in the Twin Cities and I remember one of the food scientists quizzing me about the new flavors of yogurt because she'd worked on their development. It must be an interesting job to have to work within some constraints (the structure of the Pop-Tart), but have so much choice for flavor. Are there any savory Pop-Tarts? Would that even go over well? Why do I spend so much time on this topic?
ReplyDeleteHow can you not spend time on this topic!!!! Especially with your work background.
DeleteAre you familiar with Brian Wansink's book Mindless Eating? He did an experiment where he had subjects taste test different kinds of strawberry yogurt while blindfolded and then had them rate and review the yogurts. The subjects would specifically describe how some of the samples had a stronger strawberry taste than others...and then it was revealed that the samples were really plain yogurt with chocolate syrup mixed in. Basically our brains do most of the work of tasting for us.
As an early Gen X person, I joined a Gen X group on FB, and OMG, do NOT get them started on Pop Tarts. They will go on forever about how amazing they are and all of the flavors and so on. We never had them in my house, but I had a friend who got them every day in his lunch. I never understood why you would eat something that is supposed to go in the toaster, cold. I think they're better warm. But still, to me they are meh.
ReplyDeleteI have a lot of single girl dinners. My husband and daughter went out of town last year to visit family, and my favorite meal that I made was very beige. Linguine and clams. I like my simple, old school, canned clams version better than fancier restaurant versions, though I do like a fancy restaurant version as well. But if I'm alone I generally won't go to that much trouble. Dinner is more likely to be a grilled cheese sandwich or a salad if it's just me.
Yum! I'd be very happy with linguine and canned clams. And also a grilled cheese;-)
DeletePop Tarts are better toasted than not toasted but even then...like you say, meh.
Oooh I am going to check out that white chili! I keep bookmarking white chicken chili recipes, but then not making them and I think what's holding me back is the chicken. Also that pizza looks SO GOOD. Is it takeout or homemade and if it is homemade can you link the recipe? I hope you LOVE Station Eleven! I thought it was so good -- by far the best book I've read all year (although I just started The Accomplice, so we'll see!).
ReplyDeleteHa ha ha ha ha ha it's Papa John's! Not my favorite but it's the closest/easiest/cheapest for family pizza night.
DeleteDid you just read Station Eleven this year? I'm glad that I didn't get around to it until post pandemic. It would have been too much to read it 2020-2021 and honestly I think I might not have gotten into the story pre-2020 because it would have been just too "out there".
Yes! I read it for the first time last month. Some parts of it definitely felt quite... chilling, and recalled the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was awful, but it could have been so much worse. At the time, I don't think I really thought through what "essential workers" really meant... but Station Eleven makes it so clear how fragile our systems of civilization are.
DeleteWell, I gotta say I agree with the cardboard essence of Poptarts. I'm not a fan, but if I'm desperate I can choke one down (just make sure it's toasted...I can't eat them right out of the package). My single girl nights usually involve leftovers, LOL.
ReplyDeleteLeftovers rock! I'd eat a raw Pop Tart if I had to but only if I was really hungry and had no other options.
DeleteI currently have at least three puzzles in my closet which I haven't attempted because I have no place to put them. A puzzle board might be the solution. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteSo, not Pop Tarts (is it one word or two? capitalized?) were never a thing. I think I've tried one, ever? It might have been s'mores, and I think I was desperate. ;) However! the East coast had this brand called Tastykake (I had to look up its spelling, ha!) that I did not eat at home. They had this gross cake-like thing with butterscotch icing called (I am not making this up) a butterscotch krimpet (see, they still make them! https://www.tastykake.com/krimpets). I used to sneakily get them at the vending machines at school. Back when schools had vending machines. I am old. And also, those things were gross. :) But at the time? Forbidden fruit (um, kake?).
ReplyDelete