Meals on 5/31

This week was special because we were away over the weekend, so I specifically took off Tuesday and Wednesday (today) so I made sure to have time to do all the adult things like cooking and laundry and renewing my car registration.

So I didn’t make as many dishes, and I’ll still probably cook again on Sunday for the following week. But what I did make really highlights the fact that it’s grilling season!!

I did make a slow cooker dish, just so I had something that I was just a set it and forget it meal….this Chicken and Orzo that we’ve had a ton of times before. It’s a go to for me when I want to have a dish that is a whole meal really easily.

Then I made this super simple Grilled Peppers with Burrata – I was too lazy to make and add the breadcrumbs, which it honestly kind of needed for some texture variety, but it was tasty.

I did this Grilled Chicken, Asparagus, and Artichoke Pasta that has a nice lightly lemony creamy sauce. It’s pretty delicious, was simple to put together, and is well-rounded.

I do think I’m going to try to cut back on pasta, but I had this on the meal plan already and since we had been away I just didn’t feel like changing or updating it. Not that pasta is bad, it just makes me feel weighed down and often a little inflamed the day after.

And the best part of this meal….we made Grilled Hoisin Beef. This is one of my favorite marinades ever, and I think I’m actually going to make a container of it to keep on hand for whenever we want to marinate meat. We ended up marinating for a full day mostly just because that’s how the timing worked, but we ended up with juicy and incredibly flavor packed steak.

And we grilled some corn too, because that’s just what you do in the summer.

That’s it for this week folks!

Weekly meals for the week of 3/12/2023

I’ve decided to pick up trying to write a bit again.

I always try to cook healthy food for myself and my husband, and I’m renewing an attempt to eat a little fewer simple carbs (it makes me feel bloated and makes my stomach a little sick), and to eat more variety of vegetables and fruits.

I love cooking from recipes I’ve found online, expanding my cooking skills, expanding the different types of cuisines we eat….and vastly expanding my husband’s pallet from a strictly meat and potatoes man to encompass many many more things, even some vegetables!

This week we have a few recipes from various sites. And man, have they been absolutely incredibly delicious additions to our regular rotation of foods.

My husband chose a braised beef recipe as a different meat option for us this week. We cooked it with just some garlic mashed potatoes. The beef recipe came from Simply Home Cooked: https://simplyhomecooked.com/braised-beef/

I think we should have added a little more liquid for it to cook in, but the flavor was excellent and with the garlic mashed potatoes it’s really yummy.

Btw, my husband doesn’t use a recipe for his mashed potatoes. He peels, dices, then boils some potatoes, then mashes them first with a masher, then adds in butter and milk (or cream) and salt and blends with a hand mixer. I can’t tell you specific quantities, you just kinda do it til it tastes right.

The second thing I made tonight really floored me. I had high hopes because I love orzo, and it did not disappoint, although since I really have no heat tolerance I’d prob cut back on the red pepper flakes a bit.

These Baked Rosemary Chicken Meatballs with Tomato Orzo are an absolute must try. The site The Original Dish has a number of really good recipes, here’s the link to this one: https://www.theoriginaldish.com/2022/12/14/baked-rosemary-chicken-meatballs-with-tomato-orzo/

These 2 recipes made enough for us to get through about half to 3/4 of this week’s lunches and dinners. We still have some leftovers in the fridge from ordering Greek, and I prepped these Air Fryer Chicken Thighs from Skinnytaste to cook quickly one night later this week.

Definitely gonna eat well this week!

Personal Confusion

Recently, after listening to the Love, Food podcast for this week, I started to think about where I am in this process. I feel like it has been relatively easy to embrace the idea of intuitive eating. Despite the fact that I hear people talk about their food restrictions all the time, I really understand the science from the book Health At Every Size, and understand why restriction and dieting aren’t effective tools for managing health (or weight, for that matter). I also happen to be very lucky in the sense that the man I have been dating for the last few years has never thought about food the way that I did, and has been able to help me and be supportive in my learning to accept all foods.

Where I am really struggling is with body image. As I have refused to restrict, or diet, in any fashion – my body has definitely gained weight. It has been scary. It is uncomfortable, physically I don’t love the way my body touches itself (kinda weird, I know). I worry sometimes that I’m allowing there to be too much stress on my joints because of the extra weight.

But I’ve been trying to learn body kindness and acceptance. I’ve been trying to accept that fat is not actually a bad thing, and for most of human history (until the 1950s basically) a bigger body was more appreciated than a smaller one. I’m trying to allow myself to be ok with myself.

And it’s hard.

I’ve started to follow people on Instagram who can expand my worldview. HAES dietitians, and people who are on track with body kindness, body positivity, and with fighting fat phobia. I’m hoping that being able to see more and more of what’s out there, as well as removing people who fit into the fitspo and thinspo areas, will help me feel like my body is normal.

But it’s extra hard when all the people around me are so immersed. My coworker is doing a cleanse and while she doesn’t push it on me, she explained how she feels so much energy now. Some distant family and some of my friends now talk regularly about their “summer bodies” and what foods they’re not eating so they’ll be ready. It’s everywhere, and hard to accept myself when the people around me are all focused on being thin or losing weight or if they fit the standard.

I wish more people had the information we have, about how bad diets and weight cycling are for you. I wish diet culture wasn’t such a large financial benefit for so many people, so we could go back to believing in our bodies to regulate themselves.

And I’m gonna sit here every day and work on accepting who I am today.

Diet culture really is everywhere

Went to the salon recently. I’ve been growing out my hair, going from ultra processed to natural to try to get my hair healthy. And finally, years after starting, I was finally able to go back to my bleached hair so I could have my pink and purple ombré back. *sigh of relief*

During the process of stripping out all the mineral build up (to make the color lift more effective), I was reading Linda Bacon’s “Health at Every Size”, and simultaneously hearing one of the colorists discuss her current diet and exercise plan, and her current attempts at weight loss.

Later, while the lift was being applied, I listened while the person next to me talked to her colorist about how a tan makes you look skinnier and healthier, and how much better you’ll be with a smaller body as spring and summer approach. You know – shorts, short sleeves…these things matter!

Now that I have some awareness, I’m amazed at the prevalence of this focus. I don’t think I ever realized quite how much our world insists that skinny is better, that we’ll be happier when we’re smaller. And I’m so glad I’m shifting away from the mindset.

I didn’t say anything to either woman about my current realization that weight doesn’t matter – they were not conversations I was a part of, and it didn’t feel appropriate. But I can’t wait until diet culture becomes less prevalent in every day life. I can’t wait until I can stop focusing on those kinds of thoughts and comments, and the things we see every day advertised or posted about in social media, that make us believe that our bodies are not ok the way they are.