Can you tell these meals a part?

 

In our new effort to become less fervent carnivores, Tony (the bf) and I set off to the Saint Paul Farmer's Market.  The first thing we spotted was some beautiful looking eggplants, then Tony mentioned something about parmesan and pretty soon we were plopping a ginormous and beautiful eggplant into our reusable grocery bag.  We set off with high hopes of vegetarian delights.

We basically conjured up Eggplant Parmesan the same way you might approach chicken Parmesan.  Battered, Fried and then cooked.   

For some reason, it wasn't until we tried putting it into our mouths that we realized... umm... we don't really like eggplant that much.  Or at least we knew it wasn't the cheese, sauce or noddlely part we had a problem with. True truth, we reverted to our omnivore roots and we made the same thing with chicken a couple weeks later and saw it to be a (huge) improvement.  Can you tell which one is which in the pictures above? 

To my knowledge, I've had eggplant three times total in life.  The first, I thought it was revolting, and the second I thought it was so-so, and the third in this parmesean was probably the best, but still not really that great. (Apparently those first two times escaped my memory when I saw the pretty eggplants at the Farmer's market.)


So, my one thought is: I still don't know if I'm just not an eggplant person, or if I just am consistently eating it wrong.  So here's the recipe (if you dare)... and let me know if you have any tips for improving my eggplant consumption

Eggplant Parmesan 

Ingredients:
-Whole Eggplant
-2 eggs
-bread crumbs
-spagetti noodles
-Any brand Pasta Sauce, or make your own. 
-mozarella cheese

Directions:
Slice eggplant about 1/2 inch thick width wise.  Batter with eggs, then bread crumbs.  Fry in pan with olive oil.

Prepare noodles and sauce.  Combine in baking dish.  Place Fried eggplants on top, and cover with cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 30 mins or until cheese is golden brown.

Small Changes... are enough

"Less is Enough" is a blog that I read and even though it's received national fame, probably still isn't getting enough credit.  I recently read this article:  "Cause and Effect".  It addresses a very important topic, that of finances and health. 

In it, she states:

"The cause of the problem is not that food is too expensive, it’s that people don’t know how to shop for and cook healthy food."

So true.

The original title of this blog was "Five Dollar Day Blog"  The goal was to feed my then husband and I for less than $5 per day (and I mostly succeeded).   I wanted to do it by still eating largely healthy foods, and without extreme couponing (not that coupons are always a bad thing).  For the most part I succeeded, these days I keep a keep a grocery budget of around $160 per month for two people.  That's about $5.33 per day.  This however does not include eating out, but amazingly (and honestly) I've kept that somewhat minimal too.  

There was a point when I spent $20/day (or more) so it's taken me a while to figure out how to do this, and quite frankly I could still find room to improve.  The process has involved teaching myself to cook more things from scratch, learning how to shop, and most recently successful meal planning.  Also worth mentioning, I have someone who enjoys doing this with me.  As time goes on, I hope to incorporate other tactics: gardening perhaps?

Before I became budget conscious, I would regularly purchase coffee while out .  This usually rang around $2, but can be as much as $5  for a fancy latte.  When I began Five-Dollar-Days I invested in a to-go mug ($0.50 at a garage sale) and I started making coffee at home.  Because I use whole beans and flavored cream (as opposed to Folgers black) it's a little high, but I would comfortably estimate a mug (or 3 cups by volume) at home costing about $0.28.  Not only is this an economical decision, I've come to enjoy it more.  I'm often times even upset when I forget my at-home coffee and have to resort to other options (I'm an addict by the way), and not simply because of the expense, but because I truly miss the taste.  Also, because I re-use my at home mug, I am reducing my carbon footprint as well.   


I think changing our habits about food (or anything for that matter) is really about small changes.  The media gravitates to the shocking tales of 180 degree changes that make for good headlines, but rarely do the 5 degree changes along the way get discussed.  The "coffee story" illustrates a small change well, but I also like it because it was also not just a change of economical value but of taste and environmental value too. 

27 for 27

So I decided to completely steal this idea from a fellow blogger, Liz at Random thoughts of a Lutheran Geek.  Anyway, I turned 27 yesterday and figure this would be a good way to take stock in who I am now and what I want going forward.  I originally meant to turn this out on my b-day, but I guess I got carried away with birthday fun.  So here's 27 mini-goals to try to complete while 27.  Or simply stated 27 for 27.

1. Run a Marathon (yes, this was already a goal, but I think I can still include it) yes!
2. Run a 5K in less than 30 minutes (same here) so close! 31:30
3. Be so bold as to wear that little sports bra top when running (yes - the mid-drift baring one), this might require stronger adherence to the #plankaday plan.  I did run around at least once with my mid-drift exposed, but I'm pretty sure this was due to heat and not so much "pride!"
4. Do #plankaday plan  not really. *sigh* 
5. Do at least one quality recipe post per month Almost, I missed August... 
6. Post 4 times per month yes! (sometimes more!)
7. Increase blog subscribers to 100; I'm currently at (about) 54.  getting there hovers in the 80s
8. If Goal 7 is complete, create facebook fan page  getting there....
9. Not become a complete narcissist in doing 7 and 8.  I feel confident I still have my feet on the ground
10. Finally be able to play Canon in D on Piano straight through with minimal mistakes.  I'm great for about half-way, but I never put the time in to complete the piece.  ahh, no but I did bust out the music more often then the abysmal level of before.  
11. Re-Learn to listenable quality two flute pieces from the "classics" book  same as goal 10
12. Make use of my china tea set from my grandma with friends over for real tea  No tea. 
13. Make use of my other china set with friends over for "real" dinner party I had a fondue party, but I didn't use the China.. guess that makes it a "fake" dinner party.  lol
14. Fix whatever is going wrong with my disqus comment system thing  I deleted it! check!
15. Be able to solve a Rubik's Cube much much closer.  I get a full side and first couple rows consistently.
16. Finish Online math course to refresh math knowledge I "should" have learned  I completed this to my liking.  (It's a self paced course)
17. Find at least one sustainable farmer in which to purchase meat from Found several! We wish we could afford it more, but it's currently not being budgeted for on a regular basis.  
18. Research and try out a CSA Researched, but found it might be un-ideal for two people/
19. Make something with Quinoa yes, I now love quinoa!
20. Eat Kale (as I feel it's getting to be lame that I haven't yet tried this stuff to my knowledge) yes!
21. Bake a Pie with real crust nope! (I think this one failed in part to, sadly, not really liking pie that much.  
22. Host some sort of food competition (via the blog or a perhaps a casual cooking competition) No hosting, but I did attend a Chobani Recipe test kitchen party
23. Get this garage sale (round two) take care of. yes!
24. De-clutter my life (i.e. I have to much crap!) I'll put a check here, because I've gotten rid of a lot, but it's still a work in progress
25. Knit a gift yes, made coffee cozy's for Tony's mom and sister.
26. Read Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Loss & Love, and Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations. Yes
27. Obtain a more stable job/school situation yes-ish! The ish is because I didn't really switch jobs, but I'm making important changes to make my current job more viable.   

 So, that last one will be the killer, if I don't die during the marathon.  I made a pretty drastic career move almost two years ago, and it's come with some instability.  I would like to find myself in a position, in the not so distance future, where I am happy with my job, but feel comfortable with my finances too... don't we all?!  Well, at least I'm trying.

On turning 27, it feels about right.  This past year has been one of dramatic change, and renewed sanity.  I am hoping the next one is one of strength and stability. 

Random Running Thoughts

As I'm knee deep in marathon training, I've had a lot of miscellaneous thoughts about running, which I'll attempt to organize here.

Love me some Carbs

Just running alone is a great calorie burn, which even at a more modest rate allows me that eency bit of freedom to splurge on some of my favorite (but calorie laden) foods a little more often.  Now level that up to marathon training and you are literally encouraged to eat carbs!  yay! pasta! yay! bread.  Whole wheat is best of course, but still pretty sure that's an awesome perk. 

Running is Cheaper than Therapy

At the gym on the treadmill, I often listen to the iPod, just to keep from becoming too bored while staring at the wall.  Mostly though, I enjoy looking at the scenery and saying hi to other runners as I "glide" along sans soundtrack.  In both cases though, I often find myself lost in thought reminiscing about the day, my job, relationships, and yes, even running itself.  I prize having this thought time to process things and I truly think that running has helped me stay mentally healthy as well as physically. 

$$$$

As the date approaches, the cost of running this marathon is going up as well.  The cost of the race itself, the fuel belt, the new shoes, shot blocks, sports drinks, running clothes... not to mention the gym membership.   I thought running was a cheap sport?  YIKES! I'd argue it's still cheaper than a fancy yoga gym membership and that I managed to many of those items at reduced prices (i.e. shoes - clearanced, fuel belt - with a groupon), but this is not so price friendly as I would have originally believed. 

I'm a turtle. 

I still get pretty excited if I can sub 12 minute miles on shorter runs (3-5 miles), and for my longer runs (8+) - I'm nowhere close.  I'd like to get faster, and I will eventually I suppose.  However, I also worry about injury, over-heating, dehydration and the like.  In regards to the marathon, I just want to finish before the slow bus comes to sweep me up.  Which might sound pathetic to some, but whatever - honestly boo to them.  

 Free Advice

Ever since I started this marathon thing, I've gotten a pretty good chunk of free advice.  That is, when people aren't just rolling their eyes.  Anyway, everyone and their mother it seems has some sort of tidbit about how I can train better or worse... or whatever.  I'll say that a lot of times it's useful and I don't mind sharing about running, but sometimes I find it plain overwhelming.  At this point I'm quite certain that I've a million mistakes and depending on who I ask, depends on what mistakes I've made.  If I ever get that PhD in statistics I am going to scrobed the internet until I reach a consensus on all things marathon training... how does that sound?  Or maybe I should just find some reliable scientific research... anyone got anything? 

Ok... and the rambling is done, hopefully I haven't let my thoughts run away on me! (har-har)