zucchini noodles

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Dinners This Week

We had a few days of 50 degrees and sunshine, then a few days of 70 degrees and sunshine, and now it’s raining and in the 60s. My allergies are all amped up about the constant temperature flux. It’s super fun to have to make a beeline to the nearest box of Kleenex at any given moment and to have my eyes suddenly start streaming at very inopportune times – trying to check out at the grocery store, having a conversation with Carla’s principal in the school hallway – and to constantly feel as though a sneeze is about to burst out and say hello and by super fun I mean I literally want to cut off my nose to spite my face. I feel very spiteful toward whatever internal mechanism is directing everything in my face to method-act like a faucet.  Probably cutting off my nose would just provide it with more reason to produce tears so I’m going to resist the impulse.

Last night I took a much-needed Benadryl before bed – getting up every five minutes to blow my nose is not restful. It did its job, but I think I took it too late in the evening because I slept through my alarm and have been feeling bleary and underwater all morning. Maybe I am underwater. Maybe that’s why most of my face is damp.

Anyway! Dinners! I am trying to do the bare minimum but also… I think I am being over ambitious. Time will tell.

Dinners for the Week of October 22-30

Note: I got some miniature zucchinis at Trader Joe’s and some green beans and I will roast them up with some onion and throw them in the farro. I am unreasonably excited about this. However, I was excited about it YESTERDAY and then failed to make it and instead made my husband pick up takeout from California Pizza Kitchen so we’ll see if the excitement lasts today.

Note: Another zucchini recipe. Is that too much zucchini for one week? I suppose time will tell. Anyway, we haven’t had this one in a while and it sounds yummy.

Note: Yum.

Note: Is this too much flavor? Are we going to be overwhelmed by all the sauce/spice? Time will tell, which is apparently my motto this week.

Note: Wait a second. A THIRD recipe with zucchini in it? Am I over-zucchini-ing? Why does the word “zucchini” look so ridiculous to me? This is what I ordered from CPK yesterday, and it was fine, but my version is better. (And the CPK version somehow also had regular noodles in it? I thought it would be JUST zucchini noodles. But I was wrong.) My husband doesn’t love this as much as I do, so I’ll make it the night he has a board meeting to attend.

Note: We haven’t had this in ages and it sounds DELICIOUS. I will add bell peppers and NO ZUCCHINI and maybe some onion because I like my curries full of veggies.

  • Chili

Note: Is there any better meal to eat while watching football? I don’t think so.

 

What’s on your menu for this week?

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My Year of Giving Up: Carbs

In April, I gave up sugar. Well, added sugar. I wasn’t super strict about it. If we’re being specific, I really gave up sweets. Anyway, among the things that were on the Off Limits list was diet soda, for which I have deep affection.

After the no-sugar month ended, I returned to diet soda. But lightly. It’s no longer an every-day necessity.

And I’ve been won over to La Croix, which I previously found revolting. My favorite flavor is mango, which has a nice mango-ness essence to it. My least favorite flavor is tangerine, which tastes like licking someone’s hand after they’ve peeled an orange.

In May, I gave up carbs. But, as with sugar, I don’t mean CARBS. I mean, I was back on sugar after all. I was not turning down the occasional scoop of ice cream, that’s for sure. What I mean when I say “carbs” is the biggies. You know. Rice. Pasta. Bread. Potatoes. Oh, and I also gave up beans and legumes.

And I wasn’t even THAT strict. Sometimes I would have corn on my salads. One day I was sick with a stomach bug and so I ate a bagel. I still drank alcohol.

Even though I cringe a little bit at saying this, because it sounds like I am being glib about something that is very serious for some people, I wasn’t going low-carb because I had to; I was doing it for entertainment. So I could bend the rules here and there.

Really, though, I stuck to it. I found a previously unknown love for zucchini noodles (I REFUSE to call them zoodles), which were a perfectly delicious alternative to rice in my favorite Instant Pot Panang Curry dish. I made basically the same meals that we always make, which includes a lot of chicken/pork and a veggie side. And sometimes I would make a side of rice or couscous for my husband, and sometimes we would both just eat veggies. I begrudgingly ate taco salads instead of tacos-in-shells. And it was all fine.

There were a couple of meals I just didn’t make in May. Pizza, obviously. (I toyed with the idea of getting one of those cauliflower crusts from Trader Joe’s but I didn’t end up trying it.) I didn’t make anything that required potatoes or pasta, like chicken paprikash or spaghetti. I did make more stir fries than I thought I would (since I usually eat stir fries with rice); I either substituted zucchini noodles or I just added extra veggies.

I thought it was going to be SO HARD. I love pasta. I love pizza. I love rice. I love potatoes. I love beans. And I wouldn’t be able to have ANY of those things! For a month!

But… it wasn’t that hard.

Maybe it’s because I had just come off a month of no-sugar, and that was SO UNBEARABLE at the beginning, that going low-carb felt easier. Maybe it’s because I was allowing a little bit of sugar/sweets back into my life, so I felt like I was getting TREATS. Maybe it’s because I eat fewer carbs than I think I do. Maybe it’s because it was only for a month, and I was high on the feeling of power that I got from giving up sugar for so long. If I had to do it full time, it would probably be a lot more unpleasant. It was so not-difficult that I kind of feel like I got away with something. Or I didn’t do it correctly, which is probably more likely.

As with the no-sugar month, I didn’t experience any of the supposed benefits of a low-carb lifestyle. No weight loss, for instance. No feelings of increased energy. Possibly, this is because I didn’t cut out sugar. Or because I didn’t cut out ALL carbs. Or because I didn’t do it long enough. It was an entertaining experiment, that was all.

In any case, I am back on carbs. I have enjoyed MUCH pizza and MANY chips since May ended. There has been no longterm effect of my month off. If anything, I may be OVERcarbing. So perhaps it was harder than I realized.