Friday, March 23, 2012

Random thoughts on a Friday

I've had a million ideas for posts swimming around in my head this week, but none of them developed into full-length items. But it's Friday, so I figured a post with a bunch of random thoughts would be appropriate pre-weekend fare.



1. That picture up there is the leftover lunch I am having today after making these ribs, but paleo-ized by substituting almond meal for the bread crumbs. I also realized that I was out of cayenne so I used some cajun seasoning - not as spicy, I bet, but pretty tasty! The cabbage was simply dressed in some olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper.

2. My husband has been away all week for work and I've been home alone with a nearly-one year old. I did a menu plan for this week and just assumed that I'd never actually cook all that stuff because I'd be swamped. But I did it! A steak, a lemongrass pork stirfry, stuffed chicken breasts, and ribs. I did it all on my own, made enough for lunches the next day, and prepared breakfasts/coffee to take to work too. One convenience tool that I bought for this week was a microwave omelet maker. That thing has changed my life. We had a microwave egg poacher, but it never really worked very well and almost always exploded egg gunk all over my microwave. I'm the worst omelet maker in the world, and not a huge fan of sweet breakfasts, so this thing will get used a ton. As I type this, I am noshing on a delicious omelet with spinach and mozz!

3. I'm going to save most of the mommy-related stuff about my solo week for my column at The Shopping Mama, but I'm still sort of amazed at how I kept our kitchen relatively clean and tidy this week. Usually my husband does dishes and feeds pets while I feed the kid dinner and prep our meal, but this week, I fed kid and I fed pets and I loaded the dishwasher with the day's bottles and food stuff. After kid was asleep, I put my own dinner on to cook and while it was cooking, I prepped mine and the kid's food for the next day and cleaned up a bit. I even managed to get into a habit of making the kiddo's dinner for the next day so that he didn't have to wait for it! This is a life-changing revelation, people.

4. I wore a dress this week that was skin-tight when I tried it on a couple months post-partum but fit like a dream this time around. This grain free thing is working. Like, really.

5. There's no way I could afford to get a culinary degree at this point in my life, but I'm wondering if there are ways to pick up specific skills that you learn in cooking school. I'd love to take a short course on knife skills, for example.

6. A friend asked if I've ever considered being a personal chef, specializing in grainfree cooking. I never considered it, really, because I just assumed no one would want a personal chef who's never actually been...a chef. And I've only been grainfree for a couple months now, so I'm far from being an expert although I'd have much more time to do my research and develop recipes if I was cooking for a living. I don't know, though...how much do personal chefs make? Can you make more by cooking for more than one family? How do you do that? So many interesting little questions to consider...just for fun, for now.

2 comments:

  1. Scott and I have been doing a modified paleo (we've eliminated sugars, including most fruits) diet that gives a metabolism reset once a week. Overall, I'm down 92 lbs and he's lost about 70. It is so crazy to me how little I actually miss the grains, and how much more I love cooking!

    Great job on managing all the extra work this week!

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    1. Pammy! A) I love that you read this. B) 92 lbs down - you are a ROCK STAR! My weight loss is going suuuuuper slowly with the occasional set back when I lose my mind and eat grains and then pay for it for days afterwards. I think if I could find time to exercise, it would help, but that's the one hurdle I still have with all of this. C) Love you!

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