Anyone else out there feeling like the weeks are starting to meld together a bit?
Anyone else out there at all??
This week felt like a blur of planning meals, eating meals, and trying to work off the meals. With a lot of work and a little bit of writing smattered in between.
Some highlights:
A friend of mine recently sent me a voucher for three free meals (each serves 2) from a meal prep service called Good Food. My husband and I cashed in the voucher this week, and we received a box on Thursday with the following meals:
- Tandoori chicken burgers with cilantro slaw and spiced roasted potatoes
- Chickpea tomato curry with garlic naan and a side salad
- Cheese tortellini with brown butter hazelnut sauce and a side salad
We made the burgers on Thursday night, curry on Friday night, and the tortellini is on deck for tonight.
Our overall impression so far is that the meals are tasty and it’s nice to have everything provided in a kit. However, there was a LOT of packaging, which we felt icky about even though almost everything can be recycled or composted, and the meals were a bit more indulgent than we would usually have. The burgers used chicken thigh and were literally dripping with fat as we ate them. We don’t feel compelled to get a subscription at this point, but would definitely enjoy these boxes ‘on demand’. I can see them being perfect for busy weeks when we don’t feel like thinking too hard about meal planning or hunting down weird and wonderful ingredients while grocery shopping (but still want to try something new). Next time we might try some of the ‘clean15’ (low carb) meals, to see if those are any healthier.
We continued the food frenzy last night with an Easter dinner, because why not? My husband smoked two beer can chickens, which turned out melt-in-your-mouth tender and were thoroughly enjoyed, even by this meat minimalist. We paired (quadrangled?) the chicken with rosemary roasted potato wedges, roasted broccoli with this fail-safe cheese sauce (super easy, even for someone like me who is usually way too inattentive in the kitchen to whisk up a roux), and these roasted green beans (which were only okay, but that may just be because I’m not overly partial to green beans). We topped it off with these healthy-ish carrot cake cupcakes. They’re perfect if you want to slather them in cream cheese icing and still feel slightly virtuous, but if you’re looking for a sweeter, more cake-y recipe then I recommend these.
Accordingly, a large part of my week was spent in the throes of physical activity. I love my new Peloton bike and plan to post more about it in the coming weeks. I’m still getting used to the virtual instructors — sometimes it feels like I’m watching a bot that’s about to short circuit — but so far I’m really enjoying Matt Wilpers and Hannah Frankson’s classes. I’ve also been keeping up with virtual Zoom classes from my ‘real life’ local gym, which provide a nice dose of familiarity each week.
In other news, I finally finished the fourth (ish) draft of my novel! This round of edits and rewrites has been a slog — something I’ve been working on since January and never seem to be able to prioritize time for (maybe because it hurts my brain so much). I’ll be starting on the fifth draft this morning, and I’m hoping to send out for a manuscript review after that.
I’ll leave you with three things I’m thinking about today:
- Be the opposite. I especially like the part about making a simple, doable checklist.
- Using GPS logic for the curveballs life throws at us…tips for “recalculating” when things go askew
- Focusing and being present while doing ‘mundane’ tasks…easier said than done, of course!
Happy Easter!
Mundane Wednesdays 