I live in a part of the world where the sun rarely shines in the winter, and this winter is doing its level best to shift “rarely” to “NEVER.” Our local paper published an article in early January about how we hadn’t had any clear skies since NOVEMBER, and I think we’ve had only a day or two at best since then.
The glimpses of sun are rare and fleeting and I never know how to properly address them. Do I interrupt whatever I’m doing to run outside in the snow and soak up the rays? I have been trying to go outside when the sun peeks out from behind the clouds, but it’s not always convenient and it is also cold, which means adding layers. And by the time I’ve gotten properly mummified the sun is doubtless hidden behind the relentless grey once again. (I do force Carla to go outside, sun or no. She has been doing a lot of work making snowballs and/or pulling ice sheets off our deck and stacking them on the lawn.) Carla and I have started doing an outdoor sport on weekends, together, which forces us both to be active AND outside, no matter what the sun is choosing to do, and that helps, but still: persistent gloom.
Why is it so hard to remember that, as with lack of sleep, lack of sunshine can cause its own dreariness and isn’t necessarily a reflection of How Things Actually Are? (Sheesh, my faulty shift button sure makes it difficult to use as much Emphasis Via Capitalization as I prefer.) Instead of remembering this – even if I just literally reminded myself of this phenomenon a sentence ago – I feel sunk in a gloom so heavy that it feels as though this is how it always was and always will be and I might as well let go and surrender to the abyss or move to Florida which is tied with abyss as far as my personal preferences go.
Even FOOD isn’t helping right now, so you know things are really grim. But we have to eat, yes? So let’s think about some delicious meals that might ignite at least some spark of light amid these unyielding clouds.
Dinners for the Week of January 26-February 1
- Simple Salmon Bowls: Did we just have salmon bowls last week? Yes, we did. Do I care? No, apparently not.
- Spicy Miso Chicken Katsu Ramen: When feeling gloomy, add spice.
- Chicken Tinga Tacos: This one makes me a little nervous because it calls for a can of fire-roasted tomatoes… I am not sure if I should blend them or if I should leave them out. Blending would keep the flavors in the dish, but it would make the tacos much saucier than they should be. But I’m wary of leaving them out entirely because they might be a key ingredient. Choices, choices.
- Slow Cooker Lemon Garlic Chicken with steamed broccoli
This “plan just a few meals” thing is freeing, in its way, but also kind of weird. That list above feels so unfinished, and I don’t like leaving loose ends. We also have some steak in the freezer and some bell peppers in the fridge, so a stir fry could be in the offing. We still have not eaten the asparagus, which seems perfectly content in its jars in the fridge. And I have some romaine in the crisper as well, just ready for some sort of salad to spring into being. Takeout is always an option, or there’s always the option of something hearty and mood-boosting, like spaghetti with meat sauce.
How are you staving off the gloom this week, Internet?
I got a SAD lamp this year. After a weekend that I slept 9 hours a night and had a three hour nap in the afternoons, I realized that the gloomy Midwestern winter had finally succeeded in pushing covid fatigue into covid depression. Half an hour each morning and it walks me up faster and convinces me that I should not just go back to bed to sleep. They’re reasonably priced now and can help a lot of the seasonal changes get to be too much.
Ah, the absence of the sun. I’m definitely one that soaks it up as much as possible in the summer when it’s available. I anxiously await its return.
I am trying to squeeze in all of Ed’s favorite meals before he goes back to school on Saturday. He’s been home since the weekend before Thanksgiving. He’s had plenty of great meals, but I’m on a mission all the same. I made Cajun dirty rice the other day and he made fun of me for the maddening mountain of it that I made – but alas, it is almost gone and we are all fighting over it. I’m making another ham in the crockpot because he loved that at Christmas. We have a gift card from one of my daycare families for Chipotle that we plan to ENJOY. Then Coach will grill carne asada.
HOOOO BOY that is a gloomy forecast. Yes, it is cold here but at least I see the sun a couple times a week. Whew. I would be gloomy too! I feel like Mom of the Year because the boys (who are off this week for exam break) just got hair cuts (first time since Sept, woooo) and I made them blueberry pancakes for lunch. The cheering! Wow, I should really step it up more often.
Living without sunshine makes me so unhappy – I haven’t looked at our 10 day forecast but the forecast for the week is so utterly depressing.
For some reason I started tracking the gloom at Thanksgiving and it was sunny on December 22/23 and Jan 9/10. There have been a few periods of sun and some brighter days interspersed around, but the rest of the time is just drab and gray. Where I live it does constantly snow, but rarely accumulates, which at least makes it pretty.
I’ve made that Chicken Tinga Tacos recipe a couple times (pretty quick and tasty). If it’s just the tomato texture you’re trying to avoid, I think you blend the tomatoes along with the other sauce ingredients before mixing with the chicken anyway? But I’m not sure there would be enough liquid for the sauce without them?
I just posted about this, but one thing that’s helping me is to make time, or put on my to-do list, reading, music, and meditation (Calm app). Just 10 minutes, or one song that I like. But it’s helping me quite a lot. 🙂
I like the look of the chicken tinga tacos and will make them next week. I don’t have all the ingredients and this weeks shopping is done. Tonight I’m making beef stroganoff with noodles and (frozen) green beans. I have some onion jam that I just put on top of some chicken thighs and baked for about 40ish minutes. I served it up with rice and a salad last night and it was good! And easy!