Zucchini Pad Thai: A convert
Consider me a believer. The pad thai I made last night with zucchini noodles was life changing. I used this recipe from Health-bent . Mainly, it was super rich because it wasn't shy with either the coconut oil or the almond butter, but the sauce did the trick in making the zucchini noodles seem like actual noodles. Even Todd thought so. And it was super easy and was made with things in my fridge and cabinet.
I also used that nifty Spiralizer thing that everyone is talking about to make the noodles (or, "noodles"). Worth it. This is a picture of the leftovers. It ain't pretty, but it sure was tasty.

Off Topic: Kid Talk
We were reflecting yesterday that Toddler W is juuuuust about speaking fluently (in complete, connected sentences with fading grammatical errors). While this is something to celebrate, it also make my heart ache because it means the baby-ness is ebbing. There are still lots of moments I want to slice out and put in my pocket, though, especially since I know that I tend to forget them as soon as they happen.

A couple of toddler speakisms that I don't want to forget:
- (while driving past some plants): "It's a poohpah pepper!" (I have no idea what that was, but he kept on repeating it which made it both absurd and hilarious.
-That "Twinkle twinkle little star" comes out as "Twinkle twinkle lee-tee stah" (this one will probably actually hurt my heart when it goes away).
-Whenever we step outside, he exclaims: "It's BEAUTIFUL outside today!" no matter the weather.
-We visited a butterfly room yesterday, and he managed to be respectful and not touch the butterflies, all while exclaiming with ecstasy: "The butterflies are gonna get me!"
-Before entering said butterfly room, one of the volunteers was telling us the rules of the room (e.g., don't maul the butterflies, please), and Will ignored him, just yelling: "LOOK AT THE BUTTERFLIES, MOMMY!" This cracked up the volunteer.

I think that I will use this blog as a repository of those moments. Raising a kid is something else: it is utterly exhausting (and I only have one!) but it is also so filled with flashes of intense joy and love for this little creature. The love is always there,  but those flashes jar me with the reminders about its intensity.

Off Topic: Reflection
Admittedly, I knew that I would go off rails with this blog because cooking alone couldn't sustain me in terms of content. So this is a non-cooking post.

One of the things that I actively try to do is catch myself in moments when *life is really good.* No outstanding worries like an albatross around my neck, everyone I love is healthy and happy (or, at least not abjectly miserable), and I am where I want to be at the moment.

Right now is one of those moments...let me paint it for you.

Toddler W is playing quietly in the gravel in our sun-dappled back pavement patch behind our house. The weather is 72 degrees and sunny. I feel the warm rays on my shirt's back as I sit and type this on the laptop (because WIRELESS), while sipping on an ice cold Diet Coke from the fridge (because ASPARTAME). I sit glad in the knowledge that work and the stress that it brings doesn't start for another 4.5 weeks, but also glad in the knowledge that I have work, as well as its good benefits and ample vacation. I know that soon W will likely take an extensive nap, which I may take beside him.

So, moment recognized as good. And now the toddler whines...the moment may be coming to an end.

Day One
Okay, so I was all stoked and decided to cook not one, but TWO main dishes tonight from the aforementioned cook book. As my Mom would say, I had the eyes of the dragon. One was listed as a main dish (pork loin with vegetables) and the other was listed as a light dish (cream of mushroom soup). It ended up being a lot of food, and I could have gotten away with cooking one.

Here are the ingredients for the cream of mushroom soup:

Here are the ingredients for the pork loin with vegetables:

Simple stuff! I like.

So, the process: both recipes were super quick and easy, which I suppose is the whole point of the 30 minute book. The house smelled pretty fantastic with the smell of sauteed onions, garlic, mushrooms, and pork loin. 

Did I manage to get things prepped and completed between the 6-7:30 period when T gives W-toddler a bath and puts him to bed? Barely, but yes.

Here were the finished products:

SOUP!

PORK LOIN AND VEGETABLES!

Verdict:
Both were good for quickly prepared meals. I opted for half and half rather than coconut milk in the soup since I wanted to avoid an Asian flair when combining with the pork. What I like about this cookbook is that they're not shy about adding richness (they suggested using full cream, which would have been even more awesome, but I couldn't quite justify since I'm trying to lean down a bit).  Next time will add more onions or mushrooms to the soup to thicken it up. I also needed to cook the pork a bit more than the recipe recommended, but it turned out fine.

I'd try both again, but probably the soup before the pork.

What did T think? He says he liked them (although he's polite enough to the cook that I think it would have to be pretty goddamn awful before he would say it was).

I also do not crave baguettes, cookies and cakes at the moment, which tells me that the meal did the job of leaving me sated without feeling le bloat and carb crave.

Random observations:
-It's pretty lovely to cook during this cool spell in the summer--with the crosswinds in the kitchen, it feels freedom and vacation (which, happily, it is).
-It's not so much fun to clean up afterward. I spattered enough olive oil while trying to sautee the pork loin before using the pan guard that I had to mop tonight. Grody.

So, I am halfway through SUMMER, the two months of the year that I look forward to as soon as the school year starts. So far, I have: weeded, walked, lain, floated, jogged however gracelessly, snuggled, and binged on a variety of vices.  It's taken me about four weeks so far to decompress, and *now* I can attempt to tackle my summer projects (one of them was continuing with self-study Spanish, but, as expected, zero progress has been made there....YET--because I am optimistic, if nothing else).

My other considered projects were:
- Healthy eating/increased activity (attacked with aplomb at the start of the summer, but paused during vacation at T-husband's family's lake house where french fries, bread and booze were foundational parts of the food pyramid, and exercise was all but forsaken).
-Lots of cooking and baking (always relaxing in the methodology of it and finishing with an end product).
-Regular writing (an activity I have always enjoyed, and engaged in via long email correspondences in the past, but now those have gone by the wayside due to FB, and as a result, so has writing).

I've decided to combine my three projects into this blog.

My goals for this blog are to attempt new recipes from new cook books I have procured, photograph the processes and the finished products (as delectable or disgusting as they may be), provide notes about the process of making the dish (ease, time involved, etc), and finally provide reviews of the finished products by myself and hopefully also T-husband.

Tomorrow I go shopping for ingredients from the first book: The Wheat Belly 30-Minute or Less Cookbook, which will allow me to avoid the carbohydrates (which are the bad boys with cool haircuts to my body's high school wallflower--soooooo alluring and fun but are just in general bad news for me), and try a slew of totally new (to me) and purportedly easy recipes. Wish me luck.