Friday, June 29, 2012

Eat iiiiiiit, eat iiiiiiiit

Have you ever been in this predicament?

Having no idea what to make for dinner, despite a huge database of saved recipes in Evernote? Then looking in the fridge to see half your groceries have gone bad (mmm, mold and sludge!)? Going grocery shopping, only to get bits and pieces of potential recipes and start the process all over?

Welp, that's where I've been.

I loooooooooove to eat. I love flavor. I enjoy cooking, for the most part, but I'm not very good at it - which is fine, because boyfriend is a professional cook. He's got skilllllllzzzz :D  But, a girl's gotta cook so she doesn't starve while her boyfriend's at work. Now, I could take the easy way out and get a bunch of premade food and processed junk to shovel into my face - and I have taken that easy way out before - but it's not fulfilling. The alternative is to eat well by cutting out junk food and processed food from my diet (and I don't say diet as in losing weight, just general eating habits), and to do that in this area, where healthy convenience foods are NOT the norm, takes a bit of effort.


So, one of my goals is to, well, stop being lazy. Especially when it comes to food. I buy food to cook, but then I'm lazy and don't feel like cooking, and the food goes bad and gets tossed. Wasting food makes me feel so guilt. That's just money down the drain. Not only are there are tons of hungry people in the world, but good food takes time to grow (watching a plant grow in a garden day in and day out makes you appreciate that!). And if meat is wasted? Some animal died just so I could have flavor and nutrients and I just threw it away? Talk about guilt, that's the worst. That said, I don't buy a lot of meat to cook and usually end up eating it when we go out to eat instead. I ate a vegetarian diet for awhile and while I allow myself to eat meat whenever I want it, I still don't really want it all that much. Most of the time when I end up eating it, it's for the convenience factor more than anything. When it comes to eating well, we all would be vegans if it were the easiest, tastiest way to eat! Alas, our society is still in a transition period where the most healthy, sustainable ways to fuel our bodies takes education, time, and effort.

One way I've been learning about food and nutrition is by using the MyFitnessPal app on my iPod, which is also usable via the internet if you don't have a mobile device. Basically, you put in your height, weight, activity level, and if you want to lose weight - and it figures out what your calorie intake should be to help you eat well. It shows the other nutrition information besides calories, so for anyone asking the age old "OMG ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH PROTEIN EATING VEGETARIAN?!" question, you can easily track that with this service. Or, if you're trying to cut down on sugar intake, you can see that on here as well. Pretty darn cool! What amazed me about this app was the insane way I was able to learn just how bad I was eating. I'd input food that I thought was healthy, and seeing that, in fact, the nutritional values of said food was not nearly as nutritional as I had assumed it was! Oy. Eating out was the worst culprit. Having two slices of Sbarro pizza be half my day's calories, or one meal from Arby's be almost all my day's calories? Goodness gracious! No wonder eating at home is better for you; not only can you portion size a bit better, but you can control how that food is getting prepared.


Anyhow, I'd like to share what I snagged with my most recent grocery venture. Most of it is what I consider healthy or at least "real" food, but there is still quite a bit of processed and junky foods in there, too. However, if I'd compare this to a grocery haul from a year or five years ago, the difference is insane. I've already made a ton of progress, but there's still more to be made.


Trader Joe's:
- two packs of premade pizza dough
From http://thepurebar.com/pure-products/pure-organic/- 2 chunks double cotswold gloucester cheese (omg so good!)
- one lemon
- a pack of frozen salmon filets
- two dark chocolate caramel sea salt bars (dark chocolate is healthy, right?!)
- a three-pack of dark chocolate bars
- gallon of whole milk
- dozen XL brown eggs
- 3 Pure brownie bars (so tasty!) 
- maple syrup


Harris Teeter:
- bunch of bananas
- 2.5lbs peaches
- 32oz strawberries
http://www.greekgodsyogurt.com/- 1 carton of blueberries
- a bag of potatoes for A DOLLA from the this-stuff-is-going-bad bin
- 6 sweet potatoes (which was apparently 4.15lbs! Buildin' muscles carrying groceries!)
- a loaf of sliced wheat bread (La Brea is the reason I go to Harris Teeter, seriously!)
- a loaf of french bread
- a box of frozen waffles (some kind of funky chia amaranth gluten free things that were on sale)
- two containers of plain greek yogurt
- quite a few random energy bars to try that were on sale or cheap
- large flour tortillas
- Honey Nut Cheerios
- mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
- regular chocolate chips
- crangrape juice
- 4 boxes of granola bars on sale 

This is in addition to everything already in the fridge, freezer, and cupboards, that I have at my fingertips to cook and eat. I expect this to last at least a week or so before needing to go back out for fresh food, maybe even longer. That's the only thing that makes the $125ish price tag palatable (ooh, see what I did there?). But, I'd like to lower my food budget. It's the easiest thing in a budget to control spending when you're trying to save money... and the easiest thing for me to go all-out if I'm not careful!

I could definitely do better for getting whole recipe ingredients and less stuff on a whim. But, I am determined to NOT let food keep going to waste just because I'm too lazy to prepare and cook it in a timely manner.  I could certainly do without the Cheerios, but they're better than the Froot Loops I was eyeballing. I could do without the granola and energy bars, but they're so easy for on-the-go eats, and they don't need to be consumed right away. And of course, the chocolate... oh, the chocolate. My weakness! The salmon was $10, so cutting out meat definitely saves money. The maple syrup was $17 - the real stuff is expensive, but so worth it! Hopefully it will last quite awhile, if I can resist the urge to douse my pancakes in a maple syrup bath.

The least expensive purchases were the fresh fruits and veggies, ...go figure. I have to wonder why people think it's so expensive to eat "real" food. I guess it's the American mindset of eating a lot of something cheap just to fill you up, vs. how I've come to learn is a much better way to go about it - eating a small portion of something nutritionally good for you. I feel better when I've eaten moderate portion and still feel hungry afterwards, than when I gorge myself and feel absolutely stuffed and useless and lay around for hours after eating. It's better to choose foods to FUEL your body instead of just filling that empty hole in your gut. And sadly, I think there is a lack of education about that.

I honestly can't remember learning about nutrition in school, so either it was taught and didn't make a big impression, or it wasn't taught, or societal messages and advertising overwrote anything I learned in school. Jamie Oliver may use shock tactics to try to get schools to serve more nutritious lunches, but I think it's a step in the right direction to feed the nation's children well. I totally admire our First Lady for taking on education for healthful eating and exercise. I can only hope that the trend in healthy eating and healthful living continues to grow - preventing health problems is such a better option than dealing with them after you've treated your body like crap (especially for those who don't know any better).


So if I'm "with it," I'd like to include what I've been cooking and/or eating as part of this blog, as motivation to keep growing into a more healthy lifestyle. While I don't expect to be perfect (who is?! hah!), it'd be nice to try sometimes. ;)

☮ ♥☺
~ Cara

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Rest Sometimes.

Been having a couple "off" days, which is frustrating me more than I can convey. So instead, here's an awesome picture of my cats actually being near each other *gasp* at sunrise. :)

Hopefully. Maybe. Since this is my first post using the Blogger app, we'll see how it attaches the pic..! Wee, learning even when I feel like butt. :)

☮ ♥☺
~ Cara

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Smoke on the Water




Ah, yesterday was certainly interesting! I actually got some things done yesterday. Imagine that! 


First step was weeding my "garden" for a wee bit. Of course, I had the idea that I would go outside in the early morning, before it got too hot, to do this task. Easy enough. But, I ALWAYS wear bug spray when working outside, because we live pretty much in the woods, and ticks scare the crap out of me. Little did I know when I started this adventure that the bug spray SOUNDED like it had a bit left in the container, but when I went to spray it, it was pretty well empty. Sheesh. I risked it, and opted to leave my weed-bucket full to empty another day instead of going in the woods to dump it and risk ticks galore up my legs. I ended up getting two mosquito-y bites in 15 minutes, though, so there's my sign.

Anyway, here's the before and after!


Doesn't look like much, does it? Oy, I have a lot of work to do. But, I ripped the grass out of the un-flower-y section so that's a start. Of course, later in the day, a storm of storms ripped through the area and made my progress pretty much null and void, whipping my pots everywhere, throwing leaves and limbs all up in my business. Sheesh, Mama Nature, work with me here!


:)


Aaaanywho. Once I managed to rouse the boyfriend out of slumber, we ventured to Walmart to get new tires on my car, which is due for inspection by the end of the month. Last year the mechanic told me the big ol' gash in the side wall (I think is what it's called) of one of the back tires wouldn't pass next year, so instead of taking it back and having it fail and having to go get new tires anyway, we just got new tires before taking it to get inspected. Also on the to-do list was changing the oil, which was well overdue - "it was low on oil," we were told at payment. O RLY? You don't say?! :X  I am such a slacker at taking care of my car.


BUT. New tires on the back, complete with little nubbies! *squee*



Yippie!


While we were there, a fella' from Craigslist met us so Ian could check out the truck this guy posted for sale. Time will tell if that sale works out, but it helped pass a bit of the hour+ waiting around at Walmart. I ended up returning some glasses I had bought there ...last week? because one of them had a wobbly base, which is like asking for me to dump liquid everywhere. We saw a handful of people we know, too - this town is so small! - and got our walking in for the day by meandering the aisles. 

After a bit, we walked across the parking lot to Burger King for a snacky meal. They seem to have changed up their decor and atmosphere to try to make it seem more... I don't know how else to explain it, except, more like Panera, but with fast food. Very odd. I ordered chicken strips, which was also odd because I'm not a huge fan of chicken. And of course, a vanilla milkshake that gave me a brain freeze and sat in my gut... when will I learn? Nevarrr!

Ian has this uncanny ability to tell when the weather is changing, and noticed that we should hustle back to Walmart before the storm started. This is what it looked like after we got my car and headed out:


Grey skies of doom! Ahhh! We hurried home as fast as the monsoon would let us (as in, not fast at all). On the way, we got the OMFG excitement of seeing a power line pop from lightning. I guess it was a generator? I don't know these technical things. *waves hands* It was only slightly terrifying, though! At least one tree was down and there was plenty of debris flying about, but once we got to the road we live off of, I guess we had made it through the storm because it brightened up a lot and the rain calmed down. Alas, no rainbows to be seen, though. When we arrived home, there was a large branch across the driveway that thankfully, was easy for Ian to move, but there was HAIL in the yard. Not just a couple blobs, but big ol' piles!!!



I have never seen anything like this before! :O Big ol' ice balls all up in my garden space. We ventured out back to the lake - okay, Ian did - I stayed on the deck. Some pagan I am, don't even want to walk through nature. *whine* The ground was squishyyy! ;) But it looked so freaking cool, since it was steaming from the storm and humidity! Smooooooooooke on the waaaaaaater!

...and that was the adventure of the day!

I'll leave you with some pics of the pretty hydrangea bush that needs trimmed like crazy. The blooms are so heavy that it's droopy (you might be able to tell from the first pictures in this post). It's amazing, some of the flowers are blue, some are pink, and some are purple. It's like a tie-dye plant! :D



☮ ♥☺
~ Cara




The Cara Strikes Back

Well hellooo!


I am so glad to have you here, dear reader, as I embark on a new journey of blogging.

Throughout my life, I can recall writing in many different diaries and journals, both paper and electronically. Lately I have felt the need to not only record my life's goings-on again, but to do so in a way that will make me accountable for ...well, not being a slacker.

I've called this new venture "Try Sometimes," after a week of brainstorming The Perfect Blog Name For Me. Welp, here goes. As the legendary Jedi master Yoda says, "Do or do not. There is no try." 


As true as that logic is, you can't exactly DO if you don't first TRY. So, to counter that, the Rolling Stones song popped in my head: "You can't always get what you want, but if you TRY SOMETIMES, you might find you get what you need." 


That motto seems to be more of what I need in my life these days. Love ya, Yoda, but I seem to have learned too well that "there is no try" by, y'know, not trying. Woops.

I hope to continue to live in my usual "go with the flow" attitude, but to add in some good ol' hard work in there... SOMETIMES. ;) Hopefully, writing in this personal blog will help motivate me to try new things (sometimes), which will help me grow as a person and improve my life in the ways that I often dream of, but never get around to making happen for one reason or another.

Life has an uncanny way of giving me exactly what I need when I put myself out there. So... here goes! :D

Enjoy the journey.


☮ ♥☺
~ Cara