One Abnormal Girl

I am apparently totally helpless when it comes to food.

Anybody have advice about snack-type meals that involve easy cheap things like produce?  I’m thinking . . . Apple slices with peanut butter or yogurt, etc. The closest grocery store to me sells mostly basic non-dairy things, and I’ve come to realize that the fastest way to blow your grocery budget is to buy anything that comes pre-packaged.  But I have so few staples to my simple-eating diet that it’s easy to get bored of it and buy something I will regret.

Need ideas!

I like systems.  They make things easy.  But food (grocery shopping, cooking, augh) typically defies systems, partially because the human appetite demands variety.  Ideally I’d like to have a master inventory list of items that I always have in stock, and I’d like to have a fairly predictable rotation of things I can cook with those items that will use them all up before they spoil.  Therefore, I avoid recipes calling for items that I couldn’t use in other recipes, or wouldn’t want to eat often.  This usually means I just avoid recipes and put some cereal in a bowl and garnish it with some milk and call it dinner.

In an effort to make grocery shopping bearable, I’ve made a Google spreadsheet to keep track of things, because any task that requires filtering and sorting in a spreadsheet is pretty cool.  One tab is the master inventory sorted by where the item is kept in the kitchen so I can easily run down the list and visualize if I still have any of that item left or not.  (The drawback to this is that it’s highly dependent on memory if I’m not standing in the kitchen at the time, which I’d rather not trust.  But, it might be most efficient.)  There’s a column to record whether or not I need that item, the section it’s located in at the store, and which store I buy it at.

Then I have a tab for each store which only lists items that a) I need to buy and b) I buy at that store.  So it’s an automatic shopping list, and it’s sorted by where it is in that store (so I grab all the cheeses at once, all the pastas, etc.).  And I can just bookmark the spreadsheet on my phone so I can access it at the store.

That said, today is grocery shopping day, and this is how I’m procrastinating. Maybe I’ll go to Target instead first.

So I’m trying to get away from eating so much processed, chemicallyt-enhanced food, not because of any strict dietary concerns but because too much of that stuff is just too much. However, I don’t have great knowledge of cooking, so I am limited in what is left to me.

Anybody have recipe recommendations? I’m not that keen on anything that requires too many steps or the existence of a whole chicken in my refrigerator, such as for making my own broth. I like recipes that involve frozen veggies, maybe rice or noodles, no tricks of heating or timing, but things I can throw together in a pot or two. I like soups, or baking things in bags, which I haven’t tried yet but it sounds pretty awesome.

So, any recs? ;_;

I swear I’m going to stop reading http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com long enough to post this.

The new job is still entirely tolerable.  This is the first job where I have a title (even if it has “assistant” at the end) and an office and a pay grade that actually covers my bills with a bit extra to keep me from panicking once a month.  This is also the first job to make me feel like I actually need my intellect to do it.  It doesn’t require any knowledge of anthropology or linguistics, no, but at least I don’t feel like I could replace myself with a well-trained monkey.  I have responsibilities and projects and I play an identifiable role in the university.  It’s not what I’ve been dreaming of, but it’s a lot of what I’ve been wanting.  It’s a lot of what I used to hear about and envy, even if it was small things like having personal business cards, or an office (however small), or desk supplies that I requested myself, or an absolute need for Microsoft Outlook.  It’s also permanent, and starting in April there will be benefits.  I am grateful.

I’m also in a position now to sleep in the bed of my choosing.  When I decided to make the move to the west coast, I was actually a bit excited at the prospect of having to build up my furniture collection from scratch, with a design in mind.  Having to go the cheap route for my furniture purchases, I haven’t been able to keep with that aesthetic at all, but at least I might have a platform bed with a Japanese futon.  I’m in the process of purchasing that, but now I need to figure out what to do with the king-sized bed that a family friend generously donated to me before I even got here.  I’m glad I’ve had a bed to sleep on for the past 7 months, but it’s awfully hard to get rid of.  Right now there’s a post on craigslist for it.  I’d have given it away if the local Goodwills/Salvation Armies were willing to come get it.

I swear I had more planned for this, but there is a steamed/over-steamed artichoke to be eaten, and I am a slave to artichokes these days.

One last thing, though: I replaced my old Website with a new one.  I might be adding a few more things to it, but right now it’s doable.  I like the simplicity.  Most of the more wordy content is in the blog anyway, and the pictures are all in a gallery (which has also been updated a little), so I’m happy with this.  I ditched the clutter.  I just need to think of a better quote title.  It’s intended to be changed every few days/weeks, I just can’t think of anything since that particular idea settled in my head.  Hmmm.

Finally, I am only just now using this icon by sky_dark.  Mmmm.  Soak it up.

So I don’t know if I mentioned this, but our new cosplay for Yaoi-con this year is Ryo and Dee from FAKE!  I’ll be Dee, and we’re using these as our clothing reference:

We still need a lot of accessories, though most should be on their way.  We do, however, have to make the jackets, and one is just about done!  Still need to press it and add buttons and shoulder pads, but this is pretty much it.

Also earlier today we went to a Maid Cafe and enjoyed High Tea with the surprising guest of wasabe spread on the tea cakes.

Nom!

Now I need to sleep so we can keep working tomorrow aaaah

I MUST EAT THESE PANCAKES AS FAST AS POSSIBLE

or I will not be able to finish them D8