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Keep – Week One in Review

Posted in Food, Getting It Together, Vegan on May 19, 2014| 5 Comments »

Today marks the end of Week One (Keep) of my Getting It Together summer project.

The Food:

The three planned recipes for the week were Mom’s chicken salad, black bean and pepper fajitas (vegan), and ratatouille (farmers’ market).  Two of the three actually happened.

Until very recently, I didn’t have a chicken salad recipe, because until very recently, I hated mayonnaise. That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.  Apparently.  My brand new favorite way to make chicken salad is with rotisserie chicken – which is 1) almost as inexpensive, 2) far less disgusting, and 3) way less work than roasting my own – with grapes, apples, dried cranberries, celery, pepper, and two parts mayo to one part mustard.

For the vegans in the audience, this recipe is also delicious if you sub Vegenaise  for the mayo and chopped up Chik’n nuggets (I think they’re made by Boca?) for the chicken. This also makes the expensive faux chicken nuggets go further, which makes my bank account happy.

The chicken salad that I grew up eating, however, is simpler.  For my mom’s recipe, I used one chicken breast (baked and chopped into pieces), two boiled eggs, one half cup of mayo, and a couple of spoonfuls of mustard.  Mom usually seasons with just salt and pepper, but I added a little parsley, basil, and oregano. It’s not the healthiest meal, but I got five sandwiches out of it, making it one of the least expensive meals I’ve had in a while.  Throw a few carrot sticks or an apple on the side, and you have a nice lunch.

The vegan  recipe I managed was black bean and pepper fajitas. In a skillet, I sauteed some onions and garlic.  Then I added cumin, roasted red peppers, and black beans.  I let it all cook together for a while (about 15 minutes on medium low).  Then I spooned the mixture into some tortillas, spritzed it with lime juice, and that was it.  It could not have been easier. It was good the first time, but the leftovers – after everything had hung out and marinated in the fridge overnight – were amazing.

The ratatouille will have to wait for a week when I actually make it to the farmers’ market.  Turns out, it’s hard to get inspired by the farmers’ market when you don’t go.  Ahem.

I totally forgot about making bread.  I almost threw together some beer bread today, just so I could say that I made bread this week. But the plan was to make baguettes to go with the ratatouille…and neither of those things happened. I bought a day-old (i.e., half-price) loaf of sourdough at Ravelin.  That’s…not even close to the same thing, but at least I didn’t pay full price?

The Home:

I called this week Keep because “maintain” sounds so boring.  Maintaining is going about my workaday life, just slugging along.  It reeks of stagnation. Keep, on the other hand, sounds more nurturing.  I’m keeping a home.  I’m keeping my space livable.

photo (3) My cute coffee nook

You might be thinking, “What does it matter what you call it?  Just do it.” But that’s what I learned this week – it matters to me.  In fact, how I view this habit might just be the primary determinant of whether I keep doing it after summer’s over or go back to the way things have been.

Some things I learned this week:

  • Fifteen minutes hardly feels like any time at all.  I was surprised by how quickly it went by every day. The daily fifteen minutes in the kitchen was usually over by the time supper had finished cooking, so that didn’t seem like a big deal either.
  • I can do a lot in fifteen minutes.  I wanted to see if such a small amount of time would make any difference, and I also wanted to avoid getting burned out on my first week, so I stuck to the time limit pretty rigidly for this first round.  After only a quarter of an hour in every major area in the apartment, it looks ten times better than it did last week. I definitely cleaned up more than I messed up.
  • I don’t feel like I’ve spent any time cleaning this week.  This is the big one.  I am very protective of my schedule. If something seems like it’s going to take a lot of time, particularly long-term, I’m unlikely to stick to it. This even translates to people. The first sign that I’m really into a guy? When I don’t mind that he takes up a lot of my free time. So it’s important for a new habit to fit easily into the schedule without upsetting my daily flow.
  • In reality, I have spent a lot of time cleaning this week.  I have spent a collective three hours cleaning and organizing, which is about two and a half hours more than I usually spend.  But dividing the time up in a day-to-day process takes away the feeling that it’s some grand imposition, and that’s going to be what makes this new habit stick.

Overall, I am pleased with the week.  Now onto Week Two.

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Getting It Together – The Plan

Posted in Food, Getting It Together, Resolutions, Vegan on May 13, 2014| 5 Comments »

Now that I’ve established why I’ve taken on this project, now here’s the how.

The taquitos, sandwich fixins, and cereal made it into the grocery cart on purpose.  I like them.  They are delicious and convenient, and making them doesn’t heat up the whole house.  As much as I would love for every meal to be a slow food treasure, I have two jobs and two manuscripts to finish by the end of the year.  So for me, a stash of emergency taquitos in the freezer is a vital part of a workable meal plan.

I just don’t want it to be the only plan.

This summer, getting it together means eating well and eating healthier without breaking the bank.  Specifically, it looks like this:

1. Baking two loaves of bread a week – one to eat and one to share or freeze.

2. Making at least three big (i.e., at least two servings of leftovers) meals a week:

  • One meal from my childhood – a little shout-out to Mom
  • One meal inspired by what I find that week at the farmers’ market
  • One meal that’s vegan (because I have not forgotten you, New Year’s Resolution)

Each week, I will post what I make and share a few recipes with you.

Getting it together also means getting my apartment in order.  With the help of Apartment Therapy (both the book and the website) and Unstuff Your Life, and of course, my mother, who is the loudest of the voices in my head, I have divided the process into twelve weeks.

This week, I will be initiating the daily maintenance schedule that I will continue throughout the twelve weeks (and hopefully forevermore). The schedule requires a mere 30 minutes a day, which is about 25 more per day than I currently average in a week.  The first fifteen minutes will focus on a specific area of the apartment, and the last fifteen minutes will be spent cleaning the kitchen.  The schedule is as follows:

  • Monday – entryway
  • Tuesday – living room
  • Wednesday – writing nook
  • Thursday – bathroom
  • Friday – kitchen (the whole 30 minutes)
  • Saturday – bedroom
  • Sunday – wherever needed

The majority of the remaining weeks will be spent deep-cleaning and organizing a specific area of the apartment:

  • Week 2 – The B Word – Budgeting for the project
  • Week 3 – Welcome – the entryway and kitchen table
  • Week 4 – Sustain – the kitchen
  • Week 5 – Entertain – the living room
  • Week 6 – Create – the writing nook
  • Week 7 – Wash- the bathroom
  • Week 8 – Stash – laundry closet and craft storage
  • Week 9 – Adorn – bedroom closet
  • Week 10 – Rest – bedroom
  • Week 11 – Reflect – review project and look ahead
  • Week 12 – Celebrate – party!

Every Sunday, I will post a list of specific goals for the week and maybe – MAYBE – a before picture. By the end of the week, I will post a progress report.

Like I said on Sunday, I am not my mother. She doesn’t bake her own bread, and I don’t grow my own vegetables.  I’m also lactose-intolerant and eat less meat than my parents do, so I reserve the right to adjust her recipes to fit my needs and tastes. And until I can afford to hire a full-time housekeeper (which, for the record, is one of the first things I’m doing if I should ever become inexplicably and grotesquely wealthy), my kitchen floor will probably never stay clean enough for anyone to eat off it.

And I’m okay with that.

But I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t want to be more like my mother.  I enjoyed living in a clean house, and I enjoyed the homey atmosphere created by the smell of a home-cooked meal.  I want my life to be more like that, and this summer I am going to make it so.

 

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Getting It Together – The Need

Posted in Getting It Together on May 12, 2014| 1 Comment »

Yesterday, I announced my summer project – to get my diet and home in order.

First, let’s discuss the meal situation.

This past week was Finals Week at one job and Closedown Week (with a side order of Re-Opening Day on Saturday) at the other. Translation: last week was a six-day work week, because no amount of planning will make the busiest week of the year fit into five days.

A little bit of planning, however, could have improved the week’s grocery haul:

photo

I do have to give myself some credit.  Last year, this picture would have been a loaf of sandwich bread and a jar of peanut butter surrounded by empty takeout containers and Whataburger bags.  This year’s week of sandwiches, taquitos, and cereal might be only marginally healthier (hey – at least it wasn’t soda and deep-fried onion rings), but it was a lot less expensive.  So progress has been made.

In addition to the week of tornado-esque frenzy at work, I had two social engagements to which I brought food, which accounts for the artisan breads and the second box of taquitos, because I didn’t have time to make them from scratch.

However.

Making my own bread doesn’t actually require that much hands-on time.  It just requires planning ahead.  And I can make six loaves of fancy bread for the price of one of the artisan loaves that I bought.

Also, did you notice something missing from the picture?  Vegetables.  The only vegetables you see are the red onion and the jar of roasted peppers, and they only made the list because they were part of the recipe for cheesy bread that I took to Supper Club.  It’s springtime in Texas.  We have fresh vegetables coming out our ears down here.  But they didn’t make it on my list because I didn’t have a plan.

Second, let’s discuss the apartment situation.

I have to pat myself on the back for my work ethic.  My grades were finalized by Wednesday, allowing me to give my full attention to the residence hall when it needed attention the most.  I did not procrastinate at work.

Unfortunately, since cleaning is how I procrastinate, it kind of fell by the wayside last week.

Who am I kidding?  It has been making its home on the wayside for quite some time now.  It’s looking at wayside schools and searching for wayside jobs.

My apartment is a wreck.  If you saw a picture of how it looks right now, you might cry.  I’ll give you a minor example.

This is the cleanest, most organized corner of my home at this moment:

photo (1)

Keeping a home clean and organized has never been a skill I’ve possessed.  Don’t get me wrong – I prefer a clean, organized home.  I just hate doing the work it takes to keep it that way.  And because I hate doing it, I put it off (unless I’m putting off doing something I dread more, like grading), which ultimately makes it into a gargantuan, daunting job.

But because I grew up in my mother’s house, I know it doesn’t have to get to that point.  I know that I can have the home I want by deep cleaning two or three times a year if I will commit to maintaining it the rest of the year.  And that’s a habit I want to create this summer.

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Getting It Together – The Back Story

Posted in Getting It Together on May 12, 2014| 4 Comments »

This message is brought to you by my mother.

Growing up, we had three square meals a day, and most of them were at home. Driving through for burgers and eating out were special treats that might have happened once or twice a month.  If we had cookies, they were homemade. Even when she worked full-time, we had hot, balanced meals on the table.

She also kept an immaculate house.  At one of my birthday parties, we sat on the kitchen floor to have our cake.  One of my friends dropped a bite on the floor, as small children are wont to do. When she picked it up and tried to hand it to her mom, her mom said, “Just eat it.”  Then her mom laughed and turned to my mom.  “This is probably the only kitchen floor I’d let my daughter eat off of.”

I am not my mother.

I know that she had help.  She and Dad split the domestic responsibilities pretty evenly, and she made it clear to my sister and me that we were expected to pull our own age-appropriate weight.  The flipside is that she had three other people in the house making messes and requiring sustenance.  Show of hands – how many of you know that toddlers (or twelve-year-olds, for that matter) make way more of a mess than they clean up? So while she had more help than I do, she also had a lot more to do.

I know that it is possible to have a full-time job, a clean house, and a healthy, affordable diet, and it is possible to have all of that and still have time to read, watch TV, and have a social life.  I know it’s possible, because I spent the first eighteen years of my life watching my mother do it. I also know, having been brought up by this superwoman, how to do it.

On this Mother’s Day, I honor what Mom modeled and taught me.  Today, I start my three-month series on getting it together.

Tomorrow, I will post the need, and Tuesday, I will lay out the plan.

Wish me luck!

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