Farmer's Markets

My coworkers and I discovered a small farmer's market in town last weekend. Not only was it a fun adventure, the vegetables were so cheap! Nothing beats fresh fruit and veggies and when you add that we found kale for $1 a bunch, that just makes it even better! So naturally we went back this weekend. I was able to get 2 bunches of kale and 2 cucumbers for $3. I am pretty sure that would have easily been at least $6-8 at the grocery store!

Eating healthy is oftentimes hard, especially when we are balancing life, school, work, family, friends, and anything else that we might have going on - and you aren't the only one! Everyone has the exact same problem! Take an hour out of your crazy life to do something easy, relaxing, and fun. A farmer's market is an easy way to get a lot of shopping done quickly and cheaply. It's a fun way to eat healthy on a budget, AND it supports your local farmers. Keep it local and support your home economy! We even walked in the rain and so added a little bit of exercise and friends into our day.

Preserving Fresh Basil

As promised, I have attempted to preserve basil! I found the idea for this on Pinterest and the link took me to redheadcandecorate.com where the whole recipe is told. Essentially, there is a lot of salt involved and it results in some infused olive oil (but that is the short version). I had looked into this because my mom  has so many basil plants that she is slowly killing us with fresh pesto. Now, I know that I should definitely NOT complain about fresh pesto, but seriously, there is too much of it in my life right now, and I don't even live at home.

I decided to try this myself partly because I'm curious and partly because I have about three basil plants that I've nurtured from seeds, and more importantly, have not killed. Now these three little plants are still so small that I am trying to see if harvesting some of the leaves will actually make them grow bigger! (I also was slightly impatient and really wanted a tiny harvest.) So forgive the very tiny basil leaves that are currently soaking in some olive oil in my fridge. If I remember, I will post an update about how well this works! It seems to me that it should work just fine...

Working Girl Cooking

Every one who has ever cooked with me knows that I should have my own sitcom. It would be entitled "The Adventures of Cooking with Sean" or something along those lines. Most of my concoctions work out pretty well in the end so my roommates have forgiven the slightly overcooked vegetables and the incessant fire alarm. At least it tastes good, right?

Well I have this friend who sells Wildtree spices and part of the selling parties are these "freezer meals" So my roommates and I did this awhile back - where you put everything for a meal in a gallon freezer bag and, well, freeze it. Of course at the time we were not quite sure what to do with these so absolutely everything went into the CrockPot, whether it was supposed to or not.

I recently started a new job and wanted to have home-cooked meals for dinners and lunches and so I decided to repeat the experiment, but properly this time. So mostly I marinated various meats and froze those. I turned 3 pounds of hamburger into various flavored hamburger patties, and I thought I would attempt to make one thing that was legitimately supposed to go into the CrockPot. So I tried to make this Slow Cooker Chipolte Lime Chicken, sounds like a good idea, right? I mean it has "slow cooker" in the name! Well if you read the recipe, which I only scanned because that's how I roll, things like the avocados were supposed to be toppers, and things like the rice were supposed to be cooked separately and in perfect TV show fashion, I stuck the entire thing into the slow cooker for about 8 hours.

Now, I have another bag in the freezer (I split the recipe in half), and I think I will make the rice separately next time. Everything was cooked really nicely, but the rice had really turned to mush which upon reheating the left overs was even more mushy - which I didn't think was possible.

So Sean's cooking advice #1 (on this blog), do not put rice in the slow cooker for 8 hours - it will turn to mush.

Stay tuned, I may attempt to preserve fresh basil in the future...

Nectarine Salad

So I am moving soon and I am on a mission to eat everything in my fridge before this happens, because you know, less to move...anyways, I have been making and eating some interesting things lately. Today it is approximately 90 degrees and most of my food that doesn't require cooking has been eaten already - go figure. So unfortunately I did have to turn the oven on, but this was well worth it! It is basically nectarines and blue cheese and it was quite yummy! The original recipe is from Bobby Flay and Food Network and involved a grill, which I don't currently have. I would love to try it with the grill. I have one more nectarine, so I very well might be trying this again tomorrow!

Happy Eating!

Multi Tasking

So a new thing in my life is health. I think this is a common thing among all 20-somethings as well as the current popular opinion. Either fortunately or unfortunately, I am also studying for licensing exams which means that I either have a lot of boredom to work through or no time at all to impinge on with my new health "craze." (Keep in mind that I am not at all "crazed" compared to a lot of people that I know.) So how do you balance this? As usual, by multi-tasking.

- Sit in the sun to study - this helps get some much needed vitamin D. Did you know that the majority of American adults are deficient in Vitamin D? Did you know that you need adequate Vitamin D levels to properly absorb calcium to keep your bones and teeth strong? Even when studying, you can still enjoy the outdoors and get some much needed Vitamin D (and a tan!) Just don't forget the sunscreen! We don't want any sunburns here.

- Take notes on the treadmill, bicycle, or elliptical. This works especially well if you have mnemonics to memorize.

- Walk to the grocery store, or ride your bike. Everyone needs to eat! Eating at home is healthier than going out, it is therapeutic, and tastes delicious! Getting to the store by walking or riding limits the amount of groceries you can buy - which does mean that you will need to make more trips overall, but fresh food gets eaten before it goes bad because you bought less of it! And if your grocery is about a mile from where you live, like mine is, that is a 2 mile walk right there! Now you don't even need to go to the gym.

- Take study breaks. Unfortunately, our brains do need a break every few hours. So take 20 minutes and rest! If you get restless like me, add some pushups or sit-ups or something into the break time to mix things up and get your blood moving!

Here I Am

WOW! I knew that it had been a long time since I had posted anything but I definitely did not realize that it had been over a YEAR! Considering that when I originally created this blog, I was dealing with quite a bit and was using it as a way to process all of the emotions and trials in my life, no big issues in the last year that needed that much thought means that the last year has been pretty damn good if I do say so myself! I already knew how to give everything to God, but I learned how to truly let go. Not that things don't still get to me, they do, but no longer in the way where they hang on forever.

In the last year, I have become a more confident person, a more relaxed person, a more peaceful person, a happier person. And on top of all of that, I officially earned my doctorate!

How's that for a badass year?

xoxo

Sitting There

Have you ever heard the quote "Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there?" Well this is how I feel recently, and not in the positive sense, but in the sense that I'm on the right track but just sitting there, hoping I don't get run over. I'm somewhere in limbo between where I am and where I am going. I'm in a waiting place like in that Dr Seuss book - waiting for a train to come, a car to go, the wind to blow, the mail to come...or something along those lines. Now, I am ending my last semester of classwork and starting rotations here in about three weeks, and how I feel right now is about how I felt senior year of undergrad. That I am on the right track and yet not going anywhere.

It is such a weird feeling when you know that you have made the right choice with your life, so where does it come from? That is the question that I would like answered. Does it come from being in a place where I am waiting? Or does it come from something that's missing? I have not been able to figure that out and I wish I knew the answer.

All I can think of is that maybe there are times along your path where you stop dead or even go backwards. And you can't figure out why you have stopped or even how to get going again. This is not necessarily a failure, it is just a redirecting. But of what kind, I wish I knew...