M. Suzanne Terry

Yesterday was the first annual National Kale Day.  It was also National Taco Day.  Obviously, I needed kale tacos.

I have made kale tacos in the past.  Roast some butternut squash or sweet potatoes, caramelize some onions, toss it together with steamed kale and goat cheese, wrap it in a corn tortilla, and you have a delicious treat.  This was the plan.

This is a great plan when you have any of those things in your house.

Alas, when grocery shopping on Tuesday, I did not anticipate this meal, so I did not buy for it.

I had leftover pasta with a butternut squash sauce and a sprinkle of parmesan.  That was acceptable.  In fact, it was good.  It was warm, homey, comfort food.

But it was not kale tacos.

Themes, observations, and lessons:

– I am even more emotionally attached to food than I suspected.  If it weren’t for my decision to forego fast food altogether, I know that I would have hit up Taco Casa for tacos, and the pasta would have likely gone to waste, just so I could satisfy a whim.

– I need kale in my house, because as cravings go, this is a pretty healthy one.  ‘Tis the season.

I’m doing 31 days without fast food.

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Yesterday was a weird day to begin this challenge.  I had my hair appointment, a million errands, and attended my first meeting at a new-to-me book club (where we were instructed to bring a snack to share).  My habit on such days is to take the afternoon off work so that I get to go to bed before 2:00 a.m., which I did.  I arranged coverage for my shift, however, long before I decided to challenge myself not to eat fast food for a month.

Driving through is a part of my afternoon-off routine. I drive through Sonic (chosen because I’ll want coffee, and they add a shot of espresso to the coffee, rendering it somewhat less terrible) and get some kind of sandwich to fuel my afternoon, which I eat on the way to Salon LaPage, where Meredith will work her magic.

But Sonic is a no-go this month.  Instead, I had to plan ahead.  I had to remember to bring my travel mug so that I could take coffee made from my stash at the office.  I brought a sandwich from home, which required getting up earlier to make it and pack it.

You know what?  I didn’t miss Sonic.  My sandwich was delicious and not greasy, and you know the coffee is better when I make it.

On the way home, though, I really wanted onion rings.  Again, it was my pattern.  I went grocery shopping, and on the way home from grocery shopping, I always drive through and get a snack.   I know, I know – it seems ridiculous, because I just bought all this food, and then I get fast food.  But that’s just what I do.

This time, I didn’t get a snack.  I let my reasonable side – the side that tells me that this habit is ridiculous – win.  This might have been my favorite moment of the day.  *pats self on back*

Third challenge – bring a snack to share.  Taco Cabana taquitos work beautifully in such situations, because the last thing I usually want to do when coming home for the day is find something to cook.  Instead of Taco Cabana, though, I decided to make beer bread, and people loved it.  It didn’t take a lot of my time (mix three cups of self-rising flour with a beer, put it in a loaf pan, pour butter over it, and bake for almost an hour at 350 degrees), and it made for a much prettier presentation than an oil-soaked box.

Themes, observations, and lessons:

– Shirking convenience requires planning ahead.

– Fast food is intricately woven into most of my days.  I’ll have to watch out for unraveling.

– Real food (and coffee) is so much better.

– I need to learn how to make onion rings.

I’m doing 31 days without fast food.

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My eating habits are terrible.  TERRIBLE.

I could rattle off a lot of excuses.  I have two jobs.  It’s so much trouble just to cook for one person.  I don’t want to eat the same leftovers for a week.  The drive-through is so tempting and convenient – it’s on the way to everywhere I go.  And so on.

My excuses, however, are weighing me down.  More specifically, they are enabling me to continue with excessive behaviors that weigh me down.

I know how to eat well.  This month, I’m going to start making choices that reflect that knowledge. I know what my worst habits are, and this month, I’m going to break one of them.

For 31 Days, I am going to avoid fast food.  I’m going to avoid what’s convenient and replace it with something better.

I’m not going to count calories or obsess about the fat content of what I’m cooking.  Those steps can come later.

What I need to do first is to get back into the habit of planning meals and saving my out-on-the-town meals for special occasions.

I want to be healthier.  I want to have more energy, and I want to take care of myself better.

I also just want to be excited about food again.  I want to feast, and I want to feed people.

None of those scenarios has a Taco Bueno bag in it.

These posts will focus on what I’m making and the people with whom I’m sharing it.  I hope there will be lots of stories and pictures and minimal whining.

I’ll be linking up with The Nester and hundreds of other people posting what their next 31 days are going to be about.  Will you join us?

Day One – Welcome to the Club

Day Two – National Kale Day!

Days Three and Four – Roots

Day Five – Everything in Excess

Day Six – Breakfast Love

Day Seven – Jesus Feminist, Body Image, and Related Ramblings

Day Eight – Running out of Coffee

Day Nine – “Let me ‘splain…no, there is too much.  Let me sum up.”

Day Ten – Irritability

Days Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen – The Myth of My Poverty

Day Fourteen – Pretty, Pretty Food

Day Fifteen – Olivia Pope is (not) always right.

Day Sixteen – Southern

Day Seventeen – Small Talk about Big Food

Day Eighteen – The Fridge of Shame

Day Nineteen – The Visiting Cottrells

Day Twenty – Supper Club, Phase One

Day Twenty-one – Not Eating is Not an Option

Day Twenty-two – Taco Tuesday

Day Twenty-three – NaNoPrep, Meal-Planning To-Do List

Day Twenty-four – NaNoPrep Meal-Planning, Steps 1 & 2

Day Twenty-five – Waste

Day Twenty-six – Grocery Shopping (aka, I can never spend money again)

Day Twenty-seven – Easy Like Sunday

Day Twenty-eight – Supper Club

Day Twenty-nine – Well-Stocked Pantry

Day Thirty – Sugar High

Day Thirty-one – Grace

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