New Recipes: May

I am right on target for May with four new recipes this month!  And even better, no duds like in April.

First up were Lentil "Meatballs" with Lemony Pesto.  The recipe is slightly more involved than the ones I usually choose for myself, and in preparing the meal I made a pretty big mess.  The end result was totally worth it though, and I bet I can make it in a more streamlined way next time around.

I couldn't find  basil at the grocery store (I swear, everyone is making pesto every week...there is never any there when I shop,) and I didn't want to prune my own tiny plant down to a stalk, so I substituted more parsley and greens in the pesto.  Otherwise I followed the recipe pretty closely.

Next, I took care of an excess of squishy bananas the best way I know how: combining them with generous amounts of butter, sugar and chocolate to make Double Chocolate Banana Muffins.  The result was much closer to a cupcake without frosting and made excellent mid-morning snacks as long as they lasted.  With this recipe, I feel I have restored my baking credibility after last month's miss with the peanut butter banana cookies--phew!

I don't remember quite how I came across this recipe on the internet, but it sounded too good not to try: White Pizza Quinoa Casserole.  The ingredient list was full of things I like, but don't always have on hand which was the perfect excuse to make a trip to Trader Joe's and spend a little too much money.

Overall, a good recipe but I felt like there was a little something missing.  Maybe it's been a bit too warm to really enjoy a cheesy baked casserole, or maybe it needs a little extra flavor from some meat, like pancetta?  With the weather getting warmer, a remake of this recipe will have to wait until fall, but I think it's worth a shot.

The fourth new recipe this month was Crunchy Mandarin Salad with Miso Chicken.  I have made various renditions of this before, but this was my first attempt with this particular recipe (found on a loose sheet of paper with handwritten notes at my aunt's house) and adding chicken.

The salad was a winner, and the chicken marinade smelled wonderful.  I highly recommend toasting the almonds and ramen noodles that get sprinkled on the salad for a bit of extra flavor.  I also made the dressing in a jar, and dressed each serving as I ate them throughout the week.  The next time I make the chicken, I will let it sit a bit longer than the recommended two hours, and maybe by then I will have learned how to not overcook chicken.  I am so afraid of it being pink in the middle that most of my chicken dishes turn out a bit dry.

It doesn't look like it in the photo, but I promise there are leafy salad ingredients under all of the toppings!

I will be very impressed with myself I can keep up a new recipe per week through the summer.  My desire to cook tends to wane when it gets warm, and my diet shifts to lots of salads and frozen treats.  Technically, a new kind of homemade popsicle every week would count, right?

List for the week

The theme for this post is from the Blog Every Day in May challenge.  I am getting an awfully late start and won't be writing everyday, but the prompts are interesting and it will be nice to try something new around here.

List(s) for the Week

I have a plethora of lists to choose from for this post.  As I mentioned in my last post (and probably several other times over the course of blogging) I am very good making lists, although a bit less skilled at completing everything on them.  When I do get to check things off, I feel very accomplished!  

At any given time, I have several lists going at once.  Most are themed--work to-do list, home to-do list, a weekly meal plan and grocery list, and mini daily to-do lists that I put on post-its or write directly on the pages of my weekly planner.

With so many lists, I couldn't very easily pick just one for this post.  So today I am sharing the two most important lists: my grocery list and my weekly planner.

This week's grocery list is a bit shorter and less thought out than others.  I didn't sit down and choose out recipes in advance, and made the list pretty quickly before I headed to the store.  It does look like most of my other grocery lists though: handwritten on a recycled scrap of paper in roughly the order that I collect things around the store.  Produce is up at the top left, canned goods towards the bottom of the left hand column, household items and dairy products on the right hand side.

Having a weekly planner was essential in grad school.  But even before I started taking classes again, I began buying pocket-sized weekly planners from the dollar bins at Michael's and Target.  I think this is my 4th such planner, and even in this increasing digital age I really prefer writing things down and having a physical calendar I can refer to.  

Last week and this week, both pictured above, are a bit busier than usual with more evening activities and work outside of regular hours.  Given the number of scribbles on most of the other days, I am particularly excited about the blank expanse I have left for Memorial Day tomorrow.  The empty lines are a bit misleading given the number of things I want to get done around the house, but it is still really nice to have an extra day to sleep in and schedule as I please!

Happy

The theme for this post is from the Blog Every Day in May challenge.  I am getting an awfully late start and won't be writing everyday, but the prompts are interesting and it will be nice to try something new around here.

10 Things That Make Me Happy

(in no particular order)

Delicious new recipes

recipe

Holiday lights all year round

(strings of lights, not the whole slew of decorations; those start way too early as it is!)

Letters in the mail

People riding bikes around to look at backyard chickens

Tour de Coop 2014

Gin tonics

(or margaritas, or mojitos, or sangria...)

Talking & laughing with this guy

(which happens almost daily even though we are usually 7,000+ miles apart)

Sunshine, lots and lots of sunshine

Valencia Spain, 2010

Reading

Thinking about, making and especially eating dessert

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cream Pie

Seeing things checked off on a to-do list 

(which is why mine always include things like "get dressed" and "eat lunch")

Start small

I tend to over think things.  Blame my gender, my personality, a fear of making mistakes--any or all of the above.  I get easily overwhelmed by possibilities and what ifs.  Today's post is a reminder for myself and anyone else who finds themselves stuck in their head all too often.  

I first heard the following advice at the National Women's Bicycling Summit in early March, but a quick Google search reveals that it is well known and oft repeated.  The advice is this:

Just start.

So simple, yet so hard to do sometimes.  There are a few reasons I find those two words so useful.  One is regardless of whether I tackle something for 5 minutes or complete the task in one fell swoop, progress is made and things start to feel a bit more manageable.  Another is that sometimes just starting is all that's needed to finish.  Ideally, every looming task would turn out like my garden.  

Since winter took so long to give way to spring, I felt behind before I even got started.  I did a little research (browsing a gardening book I picked up last year, reading the back of seed packets) and discovered that for most of the things I wanted to grow I still had time to make it happen.  

tiny spring lettuces

After that, there was the somewhat laborious task of weeding out the raised bed in the backyard.  I kept putting it off, but finally we got some nice warm weather, and I couldn't justify being indoors any longer.  I told myself I would clear one of the four corners, and work through the rest over the course of a week.  However, once I got started I decided to power through to the end.  I was already dirty, found ripping out the crab grass to be very therapeutic, and really liked seeing a noticeable difference after all of my hard work!

zucchini sprout

I got a few things planted; it poured rain for a few days and after a bit of waiting, the plants are starting to emerge.

oregano

Am I finished with my garden?  Certainly not.  There are already weeds coming back in, the soil probably needs more organic matter and the starter plants I bought almost a month ago are still sitting in their flimsy plastic pots that blow over in a strong wind.  Nonetheless, my garden is a wonderful visual reminder of the power just starting something can have.