Play With Your Food

by carolyn on July 31, 2018

With less than 72 hours until moving day week, emotions are running high around here. My parents have scheduled their cry sessions such that at any given meal, logistics meeting, or passing hello, one of them is always crying to some extent. Sometimes it’s a classy, low-key eye watering but at other times it’s full-blown ugly crying in the company of close friends who make Savannah’s best and deadliest lemon drop martinis.  I’ve been sporting the “single but sizeable tear rolling slowly down the right cheek” look most days which is perfect for maintaining my status as an enigma. Potential witnesses to my left are left in the dark with only those to my right — and my dear readership, of course — privy to my emotional depth.

“But he had underestimated the strangeness of talking about the future of his life with someone for whom the future still seemed unbounded: a pleasure palace of choices, with infinite doors, in which only a fool would spend his time trapped in one room.”

– Zadie Smith, On Beauty

As my most recent chapter in Savannah comes to a close, I do actually find myself feeling all the feels. First and foremost I’m so freaking excited!!! No part of me wants to back out or thinks that I should have chosen a school closer to home or, God forbid, in Savannah. Though I loved spring breaks spent wandering River Street — I was partial to the candy kitchens in particular — I never felt at home here. I’m so ready to settle into my new city/state/coast and discover new hot spots, find a cute barista, and hike my way to the answer of the age old question: Am I a mountain mama or a beach babe? I predict that my life will basically become the staycation version of Eat, Pray, Love. But between daydreams of men in plaid flannel chopping wood and daydreams of shirtless men chopping wood (“To every thing there is a season […]” – Ecclesiastes 3:1), apprehensions arise. My First Day Jitters are here two weeks early and, y’all, it is my fervent prayer that an extrovert will adopt me the minute I walk into orientation and maybe want to keep me for awhile or forever.

In times of stress I like to turn to boys and booze but last night I gave chamomile tea and bubble bath a try instead. Ya know… self-care, healthy choices, yada yada. It was “the worst trade deal in the history of trade deals, maybe ever” as they say. So tonight I took to the kitchen to work through my emotions.

Ever since I could eat solid food, I’ve had a ferocious appetite. I was on diets by age 5 and though the diets changed as I grew the unifying message was always to care less about food. Just think of it as energy. Don’t look to it to aid in celebration or to abate sadness. In more recent years I quickly jumped on board with meal replacement programs in the interest of fitting healthy eating into my busy schedule and getting fast results like in their ads. In true “go big or go home” fashion with which I approach almost everything in life, I’d buy months worth of products and inevitably be over it long before I ate even half of my inventory.

I eventually realized that I needed to flip the script. If I’m really into food, work with that passion rather than fight it. For me, demonizing food and reducing time in the kitchen was actually more negative than positive. Though there are definite perks to meal planning, even that tried and true dieting tool isn’t usually a good fit for me, depending on the season of my life. Eating the same meal five times in a week sounds terrible and I generally get more satisfaction out of freshly made dinners than leftovers. If I’m getting more satisfaction, I’m less likely to hunt for a snack mere minutes after dinner.

For me, cooking is usually a meditative and therapeutic experience. It allows for a nice combination of creativity and productivity when the rest of life may feel too regimented or messy or beyond my control. Once upon a final exam week, I made a salmon chowder so delicious that dad raved about it even though it was creamy, spicy, and had kale <– three of his least favorite things. This culinary feat was just as rewarding as passing o chem!

By grocerying with care, cooking, plating, then photographing my meals before I eat, I’m already halfway full before I’m even a few bites in. It’s the new emotional eating.

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Butternut Squash Soup with Pumpkin Seeds

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Bok Choy Leaf Salad feat. Hickory Smoked Balsamic Vinegar from La Terra.

 

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A Simple Summer Salad

by carolyn on June 30, 2018

Especially on weekends when Lawd knows what I’ll get into later, I try to front load my day with greens. Today’s lunch was super simple. Like writing all of this out was much harder than the actual cooking part. 💁

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Here’s how it went down:

Preheated oven to 400 F. Drizzled sweet potato rounds with olive oil then sprinkled a bit of cumin, garlic, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and basil. Threw on a frozen sausage link. Honestly not sure how long I cooked it all. Probably about 30 minutes. Flipped potatoes and turned sausage once. Towards the end I cut the sausage into bite sized pieces and put em in for another 5 minutes.

Plated a handful of kale, drizzled with assorted vinegars and oil, chopped 1/2 an avocado, squeezed 1/4 lemon, and topped with a few grinds of pepper. Added the roasted stuff.

If you’re feeling a bit munchier, try adding bell peppers and onions (roasted or raw), pecans, and goat cheese. This is also a great opportunity to use up leftover veggies. Cold roasted squash, for example, would totally work with this.

For a nutrient boost, try adding hemp hearts and flax seeds.

Notable Food Sources:
-Vidalia Onion Sausage from Hunter Cattle
-25 star balsamic, whiskey vinegar (mmm), and good ol EVOO all from La Terra Natural Oils

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5 Things You Get When You Give

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princess.jpg

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If Not Now, When?

June 14, 2018
if not now when

It’s been a minute, or at least 1.577×10^6 minutes, since my last post. My bad, y’all! So much has happened over the last three years! Everything came to a head with my medical stuff and though I’m sure I’ll divulge even the most TMI details at some point, I #LiterallyCantEven with that right now. Fast […]

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Please Read

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Rock-A-Bye

November 10, 2014

Remember 1998? Remember Shawn Mullins? Remember Lullaby? I sat in therapy today with my sprained ankle/fractured cuboid and sprained wrist–an outward reflection that doesn’t do my inward brokenness justice. Not a revelation. I’ve felt broken for years and have been in therapy for years. They kinda go hand in hand. We talked through work stuff […]

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How To Maintain A Best Friendship For 20 Years

October 20, 2014
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Look back at your life and think about what you have accomplished. Maybe you went to college (“your mom goes to college”) or got married (maybe more than once, you overachiever). Maybe you’ve climbed like the tallest mountain ever or have seen Wicked 4 times in 3 different cities including London). If that last one […]

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Must Walk Dogs

September 10, 2014
Emma and Colby Survive

My morning began with a microwaved 1/2 grande Pumpkin Spice Latte. It was the perfect beginning. I took the dogs out for their quick morning walk where they have a time limit of 5-10 minutes to do their biz before I rush to work. That might sound restrictive but Colby likes to dillydally–ain’t nobody got […]

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Like Me. Really Like Me!

January 27, 2014

Oh my goodness, y’all…sorry I haven’t been more present. I’ve been battling a number of short term and chronic health issues this month that have left me deflated and not feeling very creative. I could probably throw together some posts despite my ailments but I just want to give you the best of me — […]

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