Meal plan!

Oh man! I wrote this up two days ago and apparently just saved it rather than posted it. Brilliant! Edited again to add: The formatting is all wonky and I don’t feel like fixing right away. Just pretend that paragraph breaks are forbidden.

I just thought I’d share my menu plan for the coming week, since people always seem curious about my diet. I am not a vegan – and I do have a post planned explaining why I don’t consider myself to be a vegan – but for the most part I eat that way.

I did go out and get myself some Newman’s Own Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups, and I also ended up getting New Belgium’s Mothership Wit which is an organic wheat beer that is DELICIOUS. It wasn’t exactly the wine and chocolate that I had pictured, but…well…it was good if a bit odd.

I forgot to factor in that we are starting remodels at work and therefore our schedules are a bit changed. I realized that not long after finishing the plan and was rather worried that I was going to be given something more akin to my Fall schedule than my summer one. Fortunately only one day was changed, and that was Friday which at its usual 10-7 is my absolute worst day. I’ll be closing instead (which brings the total number of closes up to 4 per week…thank every higher power that the fall schedule is coming soon. If I had to keep that up, I’d explode).  It means that instead of bringing three meals to work, I can probably just have a smoothie and bring none! Hooray!

So here we go:

Sunday through Tuesday

10AM – Avocado toast, juice, tea

12PM – Zucchini Bread

3PM – Costa Rican beans and rice in a tortilla

6PM – Vivanno with matcha

10PM - Cambodian Tomato Soup + veg sandwich if needed

12AM - Lemon Blueberry Scones

(Red indicates a meal that takes place at work)

Wed/Thurs:

11AM – Avocado toast, juice, tea

1PM - Zucchini bread!

4PM – Eggplant in Cuban Mojo sauce

7PM - Coconut Tofu with Pineapple Chutney

10PM – Thai-style Basil Rice

12AM - Coconut Banana Chocolate Shakes/Guava smoothie

As you might notice, I’ll be relying heavily on Donna Klein’s Tropical Vegan cookbook for these two days – it’s my last week to have it out from the library Also: Coconut Banana Chocolate Shakes? Divine. Heavenly. Superb. MegaAwesome. Yummmmmm.

Friday

10AM - Avocado toast, juice, tea

12PM - Zucchini bread

3PM – Vietnamese Style Cauliflower (110)

6PM – Vivanno with matcha

10PM - Thai Stir Fry Mix Veg over Rice (103)

12AM - veg sandwiches

And finally, on Saturday I’ll be having the same thing as on Friday, just at different times since I will be working a full 9 hour shift. Oh, and I’ll let myself go crazy and have a banana chocolate vivanno with espresso rather than a fruity one with matcha

The shopping plan went off fairly well. I picked up my check which was a distressing $224 (I get paid twice a month and this payperiod included my week off). I took $80 of that in cash to pay for groceries, and I managed to retain $11 for myself – including a $10 hairbrush! We usually spend  a LOT on food because I refuse to buy bad food from bad companies. It’s hurting us considerably financially, but at least ethically and physically we’re content.  I paid my $80 utility bill (10 days late too because I apparently can’t read. Lucky for us that it’s a first time offense and I don’t think ANYONE is paying bills on time these days, so no charge). That leaves me with $64 left in the bank. On Monday I will get my tips which usually hit in the $50 range, and I will add that to the remaining cash from my shopping trip and deposit that to at least get us back over the $100 mark! (If you’re wondering, this includes checking and savings. We got hit by a huge vet bill that, after paying summer tuition out of pocket, left us with precisely $3 until I got today’s payment. God Bless the USA, eh?)

One of Matt’s cats that lives with his parents had to be put down today, so I have spent my day consoling the poor guy until he went to work about an hour ago. I was not terribly attached to Smoke – she usually hid whenever I came over – but I’m still feeling pretty blah and not really excited to get up and do anything at all. I am working on a pair of Kingdom gloves out of some Noro Sock Garden that I had hanging around, so I’ll probably go do another few rounds until my mom gets off work. She’s coming around to help me get set up for my Group Groove certification (it’s a fitness-dance class thing that we both enjoy going to at her gym), so maybe that’ll brighten my spirits a bit. We’ll see.

The Wardrobe Problem + an FO!

I have lots of FOs coming up, but since this one is the only one uploaded, here we go! But there’s background information first.

I’ve been working recently on a complete wardrobe deconstruction. I made a list of everything that I feel that I should own. The goal was to be minimalist and to simply pluck items from the wardrobe. However, during this journey I realized that I no longer own things that fit either my body or my personality. I, like many other people, bought clothes based on what I wanted my projected image to be, rather than what I actually wanted to wear. This also went very much against the weather grain.  My minimalist approach was also de-railed when I started thinking about fall and winter wear. Here in the Pacific Northwest, I am smack in the middle of layer country. In the winter we can go from 30F to 65F back down to 40F and then up to 70F all within the course of a few hours. It is inadvisable to leave the house assuming that your outfit will be suitable on the way back. Especially if like me, you walk or bike most of the time.

With these realizations in hand, it really became more of a wardrobe construction problem, than a culling or decluttering problem. I still decided to start with the same basic principle: I need a list.  I won’t bore you with all of the list-details, but basically I wanted 7 tank tops, 7 t-shirts, 7-long-sleeved shirts, plus cardigans, hoodies and a couple of the warmer thick sweaters for January and February which usually manage to stay cold 100% of the time (usually).  I got rid of everything that didn’t fit that list, and made lists of what I needed to get to replace the items I kept that just didn’t fit, and just to fill in the gaps. As I said, my closet was jam-packed with things that just don’t work for me or for my climate. I sent off about 6 bags (I know, I know) to Goodwill.

I decided to go with mostly muted colours for the basics. I actually bought my tank tops new because I was looking for something very specific. I got some compression tanks that are slimming (I may be slim already, but it doesn’t hurt to feel slimmer y’know?) and are hardly noticeable underneath other clothes. I think for those couple of really cold months I’m going to invest in some long-sleeved versions for under my sweaters. I also like these because they are moisture-wicking and good for bike rides. They are also quite attractive on their own.

So now that I’m on my way towards owning lots of black, white and grey clothing items, I decided that I need lots of fun accessories to lighten up my outfits. First on the list was a black scarf. But why make a scarf when you can make a shawl that is also a scarf, pray tell? So behold: Lacy Black Shawlette

Okay, so having pictures taken of me is not my strong suit.

But it’s cute and versatile!

Used as a shawl on our 2nd anniversary. Also featuring Rowan, Camera Hog Extraordinaire.

This is a pretty standard summer outfit (it doesn't get terribly hot here). Classy with the black shawl, but made more fun with coloured cowls and necklaces and stuff.

I know I should take more pictures of the stitch on the FO itself, and I’ll get around to that when I do my massive FO post. Spoiler: Look forward to LOTS of neckwarmers and cowls.