Meal Plan 1/31-2/7

The new job is going really well and I’m actually kind of thrilled about how much shorter my commute is–now less than 15 minutes where before it was about 30 minutes. It’s weird to me that such a small amount of time would make such a huge difference in my outlook, but it does. I think because I’m done with work and then I’m home, more or less. So I don’t have extra time worrying over things in my head or getting annoyed with other drivers or whatever (this is not to say that I don’t worry over things, but once I’m home, my husband and cat are there and I live less in my head). My new cookbooks have me inspired about cooking lately, too, which is really lovely. This week I’m heavily influenced by the January/February Everyday Food magazine. It is the “light” issue and as a result there is more focus on vegetarian and fish based dishes–that definitely works for us! I love Everyday Food anyway, but it was nice to have a lot of recipes more ready made as opposed to being adaptable. I’ll link to recipes from the issue when possible.

Sunday: Spinach Mandarin Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing*

Monday: Shrimp & Scallion Stir-Fry, Broccoli, Jasmine Rice

Tuesday: Shrimp Fried Rice, Oranges

Wednesday: Pasta with “American Style” Sauce, Green Salad

Thursday: Eggs with Mushrooms & Spinach (Everyday Food, but not on the site–bummer)

Friday: Egg Salad Sandwiches, Savory Carrot Salad, Oranges (they are so yummy right now–peak of season!)

Saturday: Out

Sunday: **Superbowl!!** Butternut Pear Soup (we passed on this last week), Candied Walnut Salad (minus chicken), Soft Pretzels, Cheesy Dip/Spread

*This dressing is very tasty, but has a LOT of sugar. I will make it again but decrease the sugar substantially.

More menus at OrgJunkie.com

This Thing With My Eye

So…there is this thing that has been going on with my right eye lately. The skin is very tender and red and—not papery, but feels very thin. And it’s flaking/dry!! I don’t know what has happened. I’ve had problems before with seasonal allergies presenting only in my eyes–redness and swelling and tears, but it left with the allergies. This time I had all that, but now I’m left with a really messed up eye. Or eyelid more precisely. WTF???!?! It looks like the eye of an 80 year old woman was dropped in one night. And it hurts. Blehhh…

Before you ask–it’s not pinkeye. I’ve had pink eye before and this really isn’t it. My eyeball actually isn’t affect at all. Just the skin on my eyelid and in the outer crease. Weird.

Funny

via kottke.org

What’s funnier to me is the heated debate in the comments regarding whether the actor sounds like Werner Hertzog or not. People are seriously invested, man.

Meal Plan 1/25-1/31

5 Spices, 50 Dishes is turning out to be a wise investment. The spicy eggplant & tomatoes was amazing! I did not get around to the goan curry, but I have high hopes. This week’s meal plan is short & sweet. We’ll be away from home for dinner quite a few nights, so not much for me to do.

Monday: Black Bean Burgers, Salad, Oranges

Tuesday: Pasta with Mushroom/Boca Tomato Sauce

Wednesday: Butternut Squash Soup w/Pear, Biscuits

Thursday: Refried Bean Enchiladas, Spanish Rice, Salad

More menus at OrgJunkie.

5 Things Friday

I am reading…Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays, Zadie Smith (just cracked it open!) & The Children’s Book, A.S. Byatt

I am eating…nothing right now, but I just finished some yummy veggie sushi.

I am watching…intermittent news clips from Haiti.

I am listening…to Michael fix his computer. Not a PG show.

I am feeling…worn out.

First day on the new job

And I am beat. I didn’t really do all that much today, just figured out a little bit of the routine and the staff and the customers, but I’ve been in crazy worker bee mode for the last couple of weeks trying to tie things up at the old branch and also discover just what I’ll need to do at this new branch. The good news is that everything is more or less pulled together at the old branch. The bad news is that I’m exhausted. Also, I always forget how tiring it is to be in a new place, not doing anything specific, just trying to find your way.

The new branch was built 25 years ago. My cubicle is peach. Not a color that ages well, unfortunately. Ah, well, that’s what all those book posters and poetry posters are for (I am still a children’s/YA librarian at heart).

Monday Meal Plan 1/17-1/23

I’m posting this earlier than normal because I am trying to write a book review and cannot marshal my thoughts properly to get that posted tonight. Also, I have created a blog just for my reading, etc. because the challenge posts were threatening to overtake this space. It’s called My Eyes Are Burning. If you’d like to keep up with what I’m reading, check it out.

Now, as for the meal plan–I gave up on the lasagna, if I couldn’t get it made after weeks and weeks of being on my meal plan, perhaps we just are not feeling like lasagna. The baked ziti I made instead was pretty awesome, though! I’m excited to try out my new cookbook-5 Spice, 50 Dishes (recommended by Scrumptious, thanks!). The focus is Indian food simply prepared, which both my husband & I love + the recipes seem very doable. There are lots of options for the vegetarian (or pescatarian), too. I’ll let you know how they turn out.

Sunday: Baked Ziti, Green Salad, Garlic Bread

Monday: Turkey Rice Soup, Biscuits

Tuesday: Spicy Eggplant & Tomatoes, Steamed Basmati Rice, Yellow Dal (5 Spices, 50 Dishes–finally got here!)

Wednesday: Scrambled Tofu (Vegan with a Vengeance), Roasted Potatoes

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Pizza Hand Pies (I can’t find the original recipe I used for these, but this page has tons of suggestions), Broccoli

Saturday: Black Eyed Peas in a Spicy Goan Curry, Chapatis (5 Spices, 50 Dishes)

Weekly Baking/Snacks: Whole Wheat Banana Waffles, Peanut Butter Granola Bars, Winter Fruit Salad

You can always find many more meal plans (hundreds!) at OrgJunkie.com.

Ok, I Cave

More reading challenges…these will mostly overlap, I think, with the challenges I have committed to already. We shall see. At any rate, I’m really excited about this year in reading. I hope I can keep it up! Unless I state otherwise, these challenges can overlap.

I feel fairly confident I can committ to reading 20 essays over the next 10.5 months. No list as of yet, but I’ll be keeping track  of my progress on all of these reading challenges on my 2010 Reading Challenges page (posted but sill under construction). This may be the only challenge that I am participating in that doesn’t easily overlap with others.

I’m going with Option A: Choose 6 books on your To Be Read list to read over the year. Post a list of titles and commit to them. You can make a list of 6 alternate titles (to be read in case a book from the original list is somehow a no-go), but should not change these two lists over the course of the year. My list is comprised of a lot of books I started at one point or another, but never finished:

1. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
2. Cloudsplitter, Russell Banks
3. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
4. Vanity Fair, William Thackeray
5. Foxfire, Joyce Carol Oates
6. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers

I am still working on an alternate list–that will eventually make it’s way onto the challenges page.

10 books, 10 different awards, 10 months. I can do that!

I’m choosing the intermediate level–read 3-10 graphic novels over the course of a year. I read graphic novels occasionally, but this is one genre (?) that I’d like to know more about personally–I tend to keep up on reviews for kids/customers at the library, but don’t often get around to reading the books myself.

Our Mutual Read is a Victorian themed challenge. This falls perfectly in line with my personal taste and TBR-type lists, so I’m going to go ahead and commit to level two – 8 books, at least 4 written during 1837 – 1901.  The other books may be Neo-Victorian or non-fiction. I may also try the period film mini-challenge.

According to the challenge, chunksters are 450 pages or more. Adult literature (so no YA or kiddie lit). I’m going to take the plunge and commit to the Mor-book-ly Obese level–6 or more chunksters. I”m a leetle nervouse, because once a level is chosen, there is no changing your mind. But I have some really BIG books on my lists already–The Remains of the Day, Vanity Fair, Possession (I WILL finish this damn book), The Children’s Book, The Swan Thieves.

The final, FINAL, challenge that I’m participating in is the Women Unbound reading challenge. The goal is to read books related to women’s studies–as defined rather broadly by Merrian-Webster: the multidisciplinary study of the social status and societal contributions of women and the relationship between power and gender. Again, this follows my interests, so I’m going ahead an committing to the top level–Suffragette. Read 8 books, including 3 non-fiction titles. Whee!!

Reading Challenges

I came across a blog where the author has committed herself to some 20+ reading challenges over the coming year. While I’m not interested in so many, I thought a reading challenge might be a nice way to actually keep track of what I’ve read or am reading. And also a way to organize some those “want to be read” titles that are floating around on scraps of paper & small pieces of my brain. In the past I’ve made crazy statements like “I will read all of the Booker Prize winners” or all of the Pen Faulkner winners & nominees or some such. Needless to say, this is a bit ambitious and unlikely. At least for a year–I find that I go a little crazy if I am only reading classics or heavy-duty literary fiction. I need a little break for the trashy stuff! So I’m going to try to follow along with the following reading challenges.

The first is the very straightforward 100+ reading challenge. I’m participating in this primarily to spur me to write down the titles of what I’m reading or have read. I’m semi-bending one of the rules already, though. You’re supposed to count books started in 2010 only. I have two books that I let go for so long that I had to re-start them this past weekend. I think that counts.

The second is the Short Story Reading Challenge. I love short stories and often read a ton throughout the year, although this ebbs and flows to some degree. I’d like to take this opportunity to search out new-to-me short story authors and also read some criticism/craft articles.

The third (& final) challenge that I’ll participate in is the A-Z Challenge. This appeals to me because, yay, alphabetical  order, but also because I am guilty of getting into author/genre ruts and I’m thinking this will make me step outside those boundaries just a bit. My big goal is to do both the author and title challenge, for a total of 52 books read, but I’m also aware that the more realistic goal will be 26 books in just one category (authors in my case).

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OK. I’ve just discovered how many reading challenges there are out there! I don’t know that I’ll fully commit to these, but they do look interesting:

1. Women Unbound
2. Essay Challenge (hmmm…I think this would be a good excuse to revive my New Yorker & Atlantic subscriptions…)
3. Global Challenge
4. Chunkster Challenge
5. Book Award Challenge
6. 2010 pub Challenge ( I was hoping I’d actually get to read books in pubs…)
7. Grahpic Novel Challenge
8. Our Mutual Read
9. Typically British
10. R.I.P. Challenge

If you are looking for a reading challenge, this site seems to compile pretty much everything that can be found: A Novel Challenge.

One of my own personal challenges (which can be worked into all of the challenges I’m planning to complete,  except maybe the short story challenge) is to read at least 12 non-fiction books over the next year. I tend to start non-fiction, get really interested and then never finish. So a little stick-to-it-iveness is required. Perhaps a challenge will be the carrot?

Meal Plan 1/10-1/15

Restaurant meals feature highly on this list–my birthday dinner was pushed to this week (because by the time I made up my mind about where I wanted to go, no reservations were available). Thursday is an after-work party for my last days before leaving my little branch library for the big one. And Sunday I was just lazy and craving Mexican food. Also totally blahhed out by the football playoffs. No one that I wanted to win, won. At any rate, what is being cooked is simple and straightforward and won’t make a lot of leftovers.  I’m also trying to plan ahead for some easy meals next week when I start the new position. You can check out more menus at OrgJunkie.com

Sunday: Los Toros (spellcheck wants me to write Los Torsos–that would be a different kind of restaurant, I think…

Monday: Lentil soup, veggies & dip (make lasagna & freeze ahead for next week)

Tuesday: Restaurant Orsay (belated birthday dinner)

Wednesday: Rice & Beans, Grilled Pepper (make extra rice & freeze)

Thursday: Crystal River Seafood for after-work party

Friday: Glazed Tofu, Broccoli, Rice