Another check-in for the 100 Days Challenge, blah, blah, blah... Pardon me for saying so, but I'm getting tired of this challenge. I think there was too much self-imposed drama with it for me this past week or maybe I'm just tired. It's been a heck of a week and I'm still wrung out from it. Sleep seems out of my grasp lately and my energy levels are pretty low. It's definitely time for a vacation but the closest I'm going to come to that is a few days helping my mother-in-law finally move into her new home.
Anyway, back to the challenge. I've blogged about what I'm doing several times since the last official check-in: changing my focus and showing how I used up some relish and mesquite flour. Today, I emptied out two more jars from the fridge. My sweetie cooked some rice for his lunch. I had a bowl of the leftover rice for breakfast, topped with tomato-eggplant relish and fresh sliced cucumber. For lunch, I dumped the last of my melon kimchi over more rice, along with some steamed chard, sauteed mushrooms, and gochu jang for an impromptu bibim bap.
I'm making progress, albeit slowly, in using up my perishable food. All of the cold food has been inventoried but I haven't yet tackled the kitchen shelves. Outside commitments kept me hopping this week with just enough time to sit and rest in the evenings most days. And while sitting, I was peeling the husks off fresh pistachio nuts so I could salt and then roast them in the solar oven today.
For those participating in the challenge, please report in. For those of you who are not, are all these posts about the challenge driving you bonkers?
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I bought veggies at the market last weekend knowing that the end of the season was near (1 cucumber, 1 yellow squash, a spaghetti squash, and 3 cucuzza). Now I've got food coming out my ears considering all the goodies coming out of my backyard garden. I'm back on the challenge as I don't like having so much food just sitting around and it'll take me another week to eat all this (again considering I am picking 20+ peppers a week from the yard and have about 100 pounds of sweet potatoes hanging out all over the place just waiting to be eaten).
The only thing I've bought since then (other than fruit which is the only thing allowed on my version of the challenge) were some Texas pecans. I've been craving them so I figured I'd indulge just a bit (love them for breakfast with fresh fruit - Mmm!)
Anyway, other than the nuts, I'm definitely back on the challenge. I need to get rid of some food before I buy anything for me - still need to pick up veggies for hubby....
I enjoy the posts, everybody hits a rough patch and, you know, we can all relate. I mean I'm sorry about it, but it's fascinating too, ifyouknowwhatimean. Because entropy is the main fact of everyone's life, it gets our attention.
We keep discovering things on the shelf or in the freezer marked '08, or bags behind the apple boxes with various flours, and finding things in the garden after we've put it down for the winter -- tomatoes, grapes, garlic and onions, especially. And I made a bottle of cordial with rose hips and and syrup from crabapples (this was supposed to be jelly, but Oh Well) -- and picked up pears and a BIG bag of noodles from a free box -- and lots of roadside apples, which I share with horses that come to the fence whenever they see me doing this. So this has been an easy challenge for me this year, thanks for making us pay attention.
We're going to go all lettucy round here. The first ones are just big enough to use so I am going to do a salad tonight. I could leave them to become fine specimens but then there would be too much all at once. One thing I have learned - early season lettuces don't stagger themselves much regardless of when they are planted!
viv in nz
Well it says in your sidebar that my challenge is surviving the semester - I think I'm making it. Maybe. I just withdrew from a course that aimed to kill me so I think it'll get better. It's been quite an ordeal.
70 days sounds like forever.
Will be reusing the plastic I get via walks/csa by giving it away to people with pets, reusing it myself to carry things.
Have become much more mindful about plastic (more mindful than I used to be).
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I am up to my ears in delicata zepplin squash. So I'm making this recipe and will donate it to the buddhist centre tomorrow morning.
I hear you on the tiredness. Couldn't sleep and so I was up at 2 AM this morning. It is 9PM and I'm still up. I should get to bed.
Dear Chile -- You're swell. As your anonymous party-planning agent at large, I'm thinking you're overdue for a potluck party where you partake in some fun games, like, I dunno, charades, maybe? There you go!! Charades, maybe!!!
Time for some fun and some hard-core belly laughs. Even if it hurts, damn it!!! ;)
Good job.
A fan.
From your not challenged reader:
No. Your posts are not driving me crazy. Never do. Okay when you post about how bad Polie is, maybe.
I read with interest how you over come the obstacles to your challenge. Makes me think- "One day I might try that"
I read somewhere recently that current research suggests that it really takes 90 days to change a life habit. I also read (or imagined I read) that you go through stages changing a habit (like grief).
We've had some real advances, the aforementioned closet cleanout and a vertical reorganization of my perhaps overly complicated compost/coffee ground-filter collection/recycling area. And some setbacks, I burned out my partner's crosscut shredder this weekend and had to shell out $$$ to replace.
I'm sort of sick of this challenge too, but this cleanup HAS to be done. And it has been gratifying in little ways, like seeing my partner put his tennis bag away in the closet after tennis last night. I like how as the clean up progresses it is easier to see what the persistant problems are AND to see what kind of solution is needed. Now if I just had more energy after work . . . or an urge to get up earlier in the morning (Hah! like that's going to happen).
I do not mind your posts! They are real life and even on bad days, they're how your life is. It helps me cope better on my bad days to realize that others are struggling with the same things.
I'm not really tired of the challenge I'm just plugging along with the using up of leftovers and using/eating fresh stuff before it goes off.
I dehydrated the last of the batch of Roma tomatoes I got a week ago in my Tulsi oven. I think they came out pretty good and taste even better.
I have a turnip I don't know what to do with. I"m just going to clean it off and have some turnipslices to eat.
Give it another week, chile , and see howyou feel then.
peace, Shamba
Yeah ... I suck at this. I've never liked exercising for the sake of exercise, which is why I hoped this challenge would work for me, but with trying to shop all local, and spending a lot more time running around to local shops, instead of the one-stop shopping at our formerly Maine-owned grocery store, where I can get everything I can't buy at the Farmer's Market, I'm not making time for my 25 Jumping Jacks and 5 push-ups.
I'm hoping that when I've reached the end of October, I'll be able to concentrate on getting back to doing some (little bit of) exercise :).
Heather - time to can more soup? We're soon going to be picking peppers like that but I envy your sweet potatoes!
Risa - yum, you've got lots of goodies hiding out in your pantry and garden!
Viv - I was so excited to get our first bag of spring mix at my CSA last night. It's greens season!
Stephanie - hang in there.
Beany - I'm impressed you can become more mindful. You're already more conscientious than most folks. Hope you can get some sleep!
An Anonymous Fan - it's sad but I don't know how to play Charades. I've never actually played it, although I've seen it played in movies... Thinking about the potluck idea, though. Thanks.
Rob - Angel's working on being bad lately, too, because she doesn't want Polie to get all the limelight...
Susan - wow, 90 days? I thought it was 21 days to change a habit. The longer period does make sense, though, considering the process one goes through - such as the grief. We both have to just keep plugging away at this.
dogear6 - that's why I'm willing to share my struggles. I could simply post all the good stuff in my life but that would not be how it really is. Glad it's helpful.
Shamba - yum on the dehydrated tomatoes! Did you enjoy the turnip? Through the CSA, I discovered I really don't care for purple-top turnips but I do like the Hakurei white ones. Those are good raw or cooked.
Wendy - it sounds like you got overwhelmed between a busy season and your own challenge. Do what you can, even if it's just a couple of jumping jacks and a push-up or two between chores.
I'm not doing your challenge because I'm in the midst of doing my own that started in MAY (and I'm still not done!)-- using up all past preserved food before starting to use this season's preserved (canned, dried, frozen). That meant inventorying everything on the canning shelves and in the freezer, posting the lists on the fridge (with little boxes for each item, such as the 20 jars of rhubarb sauce I had from last year), and striking off each thing as used. I starred items that were more than 2 years old and am (still) using those first. I learned it's really important to label and date stuff. I also greatly adjusted what I preserved this year based on what I didn't use the last two years. I can't possibly use more than 10 half-pints of jam in my house (too much sweet), so I went to more mixed fruit spread with maybe half to a third as much sugar that I can use on toast, muffins, pancakes, waffles, inside cookie bars and on cakes. I'm now making all my own condiments (some by combining several jars of things and re-processing -- got some great BBQ sauce that way) and cooking sauces. It's been a big positive impact on my food spending and diet diversity.
Hope your challenge gives you some similar results.
I wasted a lot more food than I expected. Still not as much as I used to waste, but quite a backslide from the last check-in.
On the good side, I've been eating some things from my pantry, so that's a good thing.
I still don't feel tired of this challenge, because I really do feel like I'm making some progress eating things that may never have gotten eaten otherwise (well, by humans anyway). However, I am tired of feeling guilty every time a scrap of something does wind up going to waste (which maybe is a good thing for me to feel).
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