wonder woman

I'm suffering from high self-esteem due to intense productivity. Yes, this productivity has been at the expense of a recent blog post here, but did you check out the evolution of my nicknames? You probably did. I'm pretty certain there's a lot of overlap in readership.

My productive streak started on Saturday morning, bright and early at 7:30 am. No alarm necessary - that's just what my body does now. Yay morning-personhood! I also think that I was really anxious to get to the farmer's market because I had created a monstrous list of groceries on Friday that I wanted needed, but I felt too guilty to go to the grocery store and buy all this produce knowing full well that there was going to be a massive amount of gorgeous produce just a hop, skip, and a jump away from my apartment the next day.

So off I hopped, skipped, and jumped - coffee, cash, and reusable canvas bag in hand - over the the farmer's market.

And I think I might have overdone it.

I mean, I'm only one person.

 So what's a girl to do with way too much food? Cook for her roommate! Duh.

My goals this week were to 1) Eat most all of the food I bought at the farmer's market and 2) Use my herbs that I have tenderly cared for the past two weeks.

I think by Friday I will have acheived some success, so let me give credit where credit is due.

Sunday: Warm Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad from smittenkitchen.com 



photo from smittenkitchen.com



I thought that this was totally delicious. However, I thought that it was even more delicious as an after-work snack on Monday. I was too lazy to heat it up so I just ate it cold out of the tupperware. And I don't know if it was the raw red onion, the creaminess of the tahini sauce, or the texture of the butternut squash, but it reminded me so much of my mom's potato salad (which I am shamelessly obsessed with) that I was twice as excited about its deliciousness because this recipe doesn't have a whole tub of mayo in it.

I will still beg my mom to have potato salad when I return home for a summer vacation. This is simply an adequate substitue until then.

Monday: I ate cold butternut squash salad, a bowl of Trader Joe's frosted mini-wheats, and some TJ's crackers with farmer's market cheese. Don't judge.

Tuesday: Black bean, quinoa, and citrus salad from eatliverun.com



photo from eatliverun.com

This is becoming a staple for Kenzie and me. It's perfectly flavorful, filling, light, and simple to make. It's also an awesome pack-it-and-go lunch with a Ziploc full of blue corn tortilla chips. And the corn is so sweet right now that you just cut it off of the cobb raw and throw it in  and every bite of it tastes like candy. Well, maybe not candy, but it's really sweet.

Wednesday: I would describe what I made for dinner last night the love child of ratatouille and pasta with pesto on it. There are no pictures of my concoction because it was just plain ugly. I just sauteed a bunch of my veggies with some garlic and olive oil and threw some fresh basil and some honey goat gouda on top. I'm a firm believer that goat cheese makes everything better.

Recipes aside, I'm also newly a member at a gym (which I have been to everyday since Saturday), and I have been trying all sorts of new classes because being a Jillian devotee and a yogi, I really like it when there is someone at the front of the room telling me what to do and that I should be pushing myself harder. I motivated myself to get to the gym, right? I shouldn't have to motivate myself for the entire time I'm there too. Especially when I have been doing self-motivation all day at work all alone in my basement office not to on-line shop or fall asleep. We'll address My Lair another time.

I feel like I work in a cave.

Highlight of my first week at the gym: My first-ever spin class.

I felt like I huge doofus because I strolled in right as class was about to start, and the instructor said, "Hi! I'm Christina! Is this your first spin class?" I enthusiastically replied, "Yes!" Not knowing that it would take her close to ten minutes to show me how to actually ride the bike. I hate it when my workouts aren't efficient (e.g. waiting around for an instructor to arrive, too long of a savasana, etc.) but I think I hate it even more when I'm making other people's workouts inefficient. To everyone who was in that class - I'm sorry!

Despite my slow start, I loved the format of the class. There were certainly times when I felt a little bored and my body was screaming for a downward dog since I had been hunched over my desk all day and now I was hunched over the handlebars of a bike, but the music was fun, the instructor was super peppy, and we did our last interval to Mumford and Sons "The Cave". Perhaps a reference to my office? Probably just a coincidence, but it won me over either way.

So today my butt hurts really bad (TMI?), so Kenz and I are drinking beers and cleaning the apartment in anticipation of my parents' visit. Jack and Liza - you better get your butts to Madison too! Unless you took a spin class yesterday, in which case you should probably drink beers and let your butt rest too.