M. Suzanne Terry

So Monday’s terrible choices (and perhaps the fact that I work in a giant petri dish/residence hall) took its toll.  I felt awful Tuesday.  I came to work anyway, because no one could cover for me, and leaving the desk un-staffed is not an option.  I ate a bowl of rice for breakfast.  I added a little bit of coconut milk to it for flavor.

It was okay.  Not my favorite.  But okay.

I worked until noon, then took the afternoon off.  After a substantial nap, I made tacos.

They were simple tacos. I took the last jar of pinto beans that I had left from my canning frenzy, so they were already seasoned (onions, garlic, salt, a little cumin – “little” being the operative word because cumin likes to increase in intensity as it sits).  I warmed them up, added a sprinkle of cheese, and put them in tortillas.

So simple.  So good.

Themes, Observations, and Lessons:

– Twenty-two part-time employees cannot do my job, even for a day.  Clearly, I am very important and irreplaceable.

– It was nice to be able to open a jar and make a meal.  It took me less than ten minutes, and I have lots of leftovers.  I feel an urge to visit the pressure cooker again.  Maybe that will have to wait until Christmas break, because it is a Process.

I’m going 31 days without eating fast food.

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So I didn’t plan anything to eat for breakfast, and Mondays are one of the no-lunch-break days, so I usually bring lunch to work.  But I didn’t.

Under normal circumstances, I would have used this lack of planning as an excuse to have someone watch the desk for fifteen minutes so that I could drive through and get a burger or a taco salad.  But not this month.  Driving through is off the table this month.

This meant that I didn’t consume anything but coffee and water until about 4:30 p.m.

This was a terrible idea.

It’s one thing to plan to fast and take the necessary, prayerful dietary precautions.

It is quite another to fast because, once again, I failed to plan.

Just one themes, observation, and lesson:

– Broken record theme – meal planning, meal planning, meal planning.

I’m going 31 days without fast food.

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I have read a lot of books and blogs that talk about a group of friends that gather on a regular basis to eat and share and laugh and drink and pray and discuss things both wise and frivolous.  Every time I read about it, I want it.  I want to get together with people.  I want to have them over, not just occasionally, but as a regular part of my schedule – maybe even a regular part of each week.

Phase One is the wanting – the vague idea of what I want this to look like.

I would like for it to be on Sunday evenings.  That would be the best time for me.

I would like to discuss books and current events, but I don’t necessarily want it to be a book club or to devolve into a debate.

I would like for it to be potluck.

I would like for it to be at my house, but I’m open to switching venues, if that’s what the group ends up wanting.

I don’t want to be the leader.  I don’t want anyone to be the leader.  I just love having nights that involve dinner and friends, and once every other month isn’t often enough to please me.

Themes, Observations, and Lessons:

– I know myself well enough to know that if I don’t make something a part of a regular schedule, it doesn’t happen.

– I also know myself well enough to know that if it’s something social, and I’m the only one planning it, it doesn’t happen.  So Phase Two will be enlisting interested others.

I’m going 31 days without fast food.

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Michelle, Steve, and Savvy came to visit me on Saturday.

To get Savvy to look at me, we were all saying, “Where’s Suzanne?”  Then she pointed.  I felt a little like a pop star.  I like it.

As they are moving toward a more Whole 30 diet, the main course was asparagus soup.

Y’all.  I love soup.

This soup was pretty good, if I do say so myself.  It was simple – just vegetables, oil, and broth – but it was tasty.  I attribute most of that to the decision to take my time with the onions – they were well on their way to being caramelized by the time everything else got added in.

Michelle had to share with her peeps:

And I had to take a picture of her taking a picture.  Meta-share.

It was a fun visit.  We talked and danced with Savvy and watched Gilmore Girls and went to the Cupboard.  Fun day!

Themes, Observations, and Lessons:

– Simple food makes me happy.

– An afternoon/evening with friends makes me happy, too.

– Toddler laughs are the best.

I’m going 31 days without fast food.

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This post is not going to be pretty.

I feel the need to stall – to tell you a funny story – to put you in a good mood before I reveal what my fridge looks like.

But here it is, my most common saboteur when it comes to avoiding fast food:

It is so deceptive.  It is stuffed to the brim with things that look like consumables.  It looks like it is full of food, just waiting for me to come and get it.  A lot of it looks edible.

And (most of) it still is.  It’s just not in consumable form yet.  Or it doesn’t match anything else (almond milk and sauerkraut, anyone?  I didn’t think so.).

So I open the fridge, sigh, and then close the fridge.  Then I remember that I’m going without fast food this month, so I open it again, sigh, and close it.  Open, sigh, close.  This can go on for the better part of an hour.

This ritual is what makes popcorn-for-supper look like a good plan.

Themes, Observations, and Lessons:

– Meal planning.  Seriously, how hard can it be?

– Some days, I love to cook.  Most days, however, if it’s not fast, it’s not happening.

– So it looks like cleaning out the fridge is on an upcoming agenda.  Oh, the treasures that await me.

I’m going 31 days without fast food…because I’m crazy.

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I like to play with my food.  I like to take something that I have eaten one way all my life and throw in different spices (broccoli masala, anyone?) or make it into a fritter (kalamata olive and spinach fritter – just one of the best things ever) or roast it when it’s “supposed” to be baked (insert anything here, because I am a big, big fan of roasting).

But sometimes, I just need plain fried okra.  Because I’m Southern, and that’s what we do.  I don’t bread it, because breading vegetables is generally more trouble to me than having a crunchy shell is worth.  I just want the okra.

Also, I love that pan, but that’s another story.

I suppose I did something non-traditional with it.  I put it over rice – something simple to let the good, honest flavor of the okra shine.

Themes, Observations, and Lessons:

– Few (inanimate) things make me happier than fried okra.  I am fighting the urge to throw a stereotypical Southern metaphor in here.  Suffice it to say that, if I were a porcine animal, tossing myself to and fro in a pit of filth, I wouldn’t be any happier than when I’m eating fried okra.

– This is another example of a meal that doesn’t take a lot of time but yields results so delicious that it trumps anything I could ever get from fast food.  Yes, even Whataburger onion rings.  Big talk.

– I like planning elaborate meals, but I rarely have time to do so.  This does not stop me from making Cooking For Myself And Others a bigger deal in my head than it actually is in reality.  I will continue to practice cooking simple, tasty meals like this one on my own, but I also want to make a couple of simple meals to share with friends.

I’m going 31 days without fast food.

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I don’t care what Olivia Pope (Scandal.  Watch it.) says.  Popcorn and wine do not a real meal make.

Especially when I can have a nice supper, lovingly prepared, and enjoy a nice glass of Chianti with it.  I can make a big meal and have two or three servings left over for future meals.  This is a nice, standard practice.

But occasionally, I want to have a not-real meal.

The not-real meal is one of the things that doesn’t suck about being single.  I mean, maybe married people do this, too.  But it’s hard to talk myself into just snacking for dinner, so it’s something that I can’t see myself putting a lot of effort into justifying well enough to take another person down with me.

But sometimes, I just want popcorn.  I want to air pop some kernels, drizzle them with just enough coconut oil to make the salt stick, pour a glass of wine, and not think about anything but catching up on TV.

That’s what I did last night.  It was awesome.

Themes, Observations, and Lessons:

– David and Barbara know what’s up.

– Grace.  Scandalous, eat-popcorn-for-supper grace.  A healthy lifestyle allows for a little touch of this.

I’m going 31 days without eating fast food.

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I have to start taking pictures of meals.  I mean, not everything.  The lentil soup, for example, while warm and cozy, is not very photogenic.

But when they turn out as pretty as Monday’s meal did, you’ll want to see it.

It was just a simple piece of toast (from very good bread), covered in rosemary scrambled eggs and tomatoes, with a small sprinkle of Parmesan cheese on top.

It was so, so pretty.  It was also delicious.  And it took me less than ten minutes to make.

Themes, Observations, and Lessons:

– Good food doesn’t have to take a long time to make.  Sometimes I let the thought of cooking overwhelm me, particularly on one of my long days.

– Pretty food is just better.  I notice that I eat it more slowly, which means I notice that I’m full sooner, and I don’t eat as much.

I’m going 31 days without eating fast food.

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Poverty is a real thing.  There are so many people who don’t have clean water, a roof over their heads, or enough to eat.

I am not one of those people.  Sometimes, though, I act like I am.

Sometimes, I act like I have to gorge myself, as if I don’t know when my next meal will be. The truth, though, is that I have never not known when my next meal will be or where it will come from. I usually even have the luxury of changing my mind – of having choices.

Sometimes, I don’t leave myself time to cook, or I don’t plan ahead, and I tell myself that I don’t have time to make good choices.  But “having time” and “making time” are different things, and the truth is that I have all the time I need to do what is important to me.

Sometimes, I live with a poverty mentality, even though poverty is not my reality.  I live as though there’s never enough – not enough food or enough money or enough time.  As a result, I hoard and gorge.  I overeat, just in case my next meal comes a few hours after I expect that it will.  I overspend on groceries, thinking I might use that one thing in that one recipe someday, and someday might be next weekend – you know, if I’m not too busy – and if I wait, I might have already spent that money on something else that I might need someday soon. I don’ t make meals – including the preparation and clean-up time – a part of my schedule, and then I get frustrated and stressed out when my schedule fills up and I have no time left for it, and it surprises me every time.

This weekend was a weekend of plenty.  More importantly, it was a weekend of reminding myself that I have plenty.  I was intentional and spent less than twenty dollars on groceries for the weekend, ate real food, and even had leftovers.

It wasn’t hard.  It just took a little planning and a quick trip to the store, a process that took less than an hour to complete.

My goal this week is twofold:

1) to cook one meal a day, making enough for that meal and at least one serving of leftovers for lunch.

2) to reorganize my budget, my schedule, and my priorities.

Themes, Observations, and Lessons:

– Homemade french fries kick ass.

– If one feeds a dog a tiny little piece of popcorn from one’s hand during a moment of weakness on Friday night, said dog will hover near one and breathe her atrocious, moist dog breath on one’s arm every time one has anything food-related, and while this is SUPER annoying, one can’t really get mad, because it’s one’s own fault.  Dogs learn what they live, and what she lived is that I am weak and that puppy-dog-eyes get her popcorn.

– Scandal is a good show, but if you like wine, make sure that you have a nice red before you watch it, because watching it will make you want wine badly enough to put your shoes back on and go back to the store if you don’t happen to have any at home.  Maybe don’t watch Scandal if you’re a recovering alcoholic.

I’m going 31 days without eating fast food.

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