KISSuppers

Juggling a new home (unpacking, learning that gas stoves are VERY different from electric, building bookshelves), new responsibilities at work, cooking energy-providing foods, and then blogging about it was a bit harder than I thought! The dishwasher has already been a tremendous help - it gives me a few hours of my week back. Now if only I could teach it to make me a sandwich...

By the time I get home from work and face a wall of heat (we've had a very hot and wet July in Chicago), the last thing I want to do is turn on my stove or oven. I've been eating a lot of sandwiches, salads, grilled meats, and rice. My cooking has turned very low-key to cope with the heat as well as give me time to spend elsewhere in my new place. My food motto lately has been KISS - Keep It Simple Suppers.

Here's my salad. Doesn't look much like a salad, right? I swear, underneath the generous servings of avocado (healthy fats!), red onions, tomatoes, and wild rice cooked in the rice cooker, there ARE some spinach leaves (calcium!)! The rice is such a welcome addition to any of my salads!

Pictured above is brown rice penne tossed with olive oil, lemons, tomatoes, and basil leaves with once-frozen talipia coated with seasoning grilled on the George. Nothing fancy, all this was thrown together in minutes.

Tonight I toasted an Udi's bagel and smeared peanut butter and grape jelly on it. If that doesn't scream simple, I don't know what does. My dinner, though, was inspired by the train conductor who said, "Have a good night. Enjoy your steak supper. Or your peanut butter and jelly." Why not have a meal chosen by an overhead announcer? The steak supper sounded lovely, but that would have required another trip to the grocery store.

In exciting news - my weight is slowly but steadily starting to climb up! I hit my record adult low soon after doing the healthy eating challenge and moving (too much exercise up and down stairs!), but I'm seeing the numbers on the scale starting to once again stretch towards a healthier weight. Maybe I should have dairy-free ice cream more often. That seems to be doing the trick...