Switching Up My Meal Prep Because I’m So Sick of Salads

Let’s get things started with a few updates. This Wednesday will mark 12 weeks of constant headache (residual pain from my shingles outbreak in the fall). The good news is that it’s been extremely mild, and I’m used to it, so I barely notice it anymore. It’s been weeks since it’s flared up to the point where it’s caused any significant inconvenience in my life. Hopefully this means it will go away soon – I feel like I’m 97% of the way there!

In other news, I’m hitting the stairmaster with a renewed vigor. My current plan is to use it twice a week (Mondays and Fridays), and while I’m only starting my second week of that plan, I’m excited by it.

Working out with a mask on is

The Cutest Little Farm Stand Is Only Five Minutes Away

I love food shopping. I really do. I love wandering aisles and checking out things I’ve never seen before – especially if those things are in the produce section. I love finding new-to-me varieties of fruits and veggies. I love stocking up on favorites, too, and lately, that’s been radishes. I bring a salad to work most days, for lunch, and just about every salad I’ve made in the past few months has included radish.

Last week, I heard about a farm stand in my new neighborhood, and

I Wouldn’t Say I Cheated On My Most Recent “Chopped” Cooking Challenge… But I Did Stretch the Rules

My office does a fun “Chopped”-inspired cooking challenge, where they provide a list of three secret ingredients, and we use them to make a dish over the weekend. I’ve done it twice before (read the posts here and here)… but this time, I had to stretch the rules a little bit. But I ended up with a delicious late night snack, since that was the category.

Crunchy carrot chips! I’ve been wanting to make these ever since

The Meat and Pasta Meal That Contains No Meat and No Pasta

In my last post, I shared a big exercise win for the week: my first run in six months. This post is about a big food win – a delicious meal with a few interesting (and new-to-me) ingredients.

Looks delicious, right? It’s vegetables, pasta, and ground meat. Except that it’s not pasta or meat, at least not in the traditional sense.

Bags and Bags and Bags of Vegetable Snacks

I’ve been seeing whole, fresh vegetables being sold as snacks lately, and I hope it’s a trend that takes off! I’m not talking about snack chips that use a little cauliflower or spinach powder in them, I’m talking about unadulterated vegetables… in snack form!

I found these Poshi vegetable pouches at the store before the lockdown began, but didn’t

They Can’t All Be Gems, Folks!

Hello everyone! Sorry for the extended delay between posts. I’ve been keeping busy! I spent some free time working on a maze commission, and this past week just got away from me a little bit. Plus, my birthday was a few days ago (I’m now 41), so I’ve been taking stock on a few things and thinking about this upcoming year. I’ll share more about that in my next post.

This post, however, is about food. I share regularly about what I’m eating, and I’ll let you in on a little blogging secret:

Bean Soup with Ham and Lots of Veggies

Do you celebrate the holidays with a spiral-cut ham? This post is for you! 

I brought home a delicious spiral-cut ham a few weeks ago. It was huge – much bigger than was needed for three people – and we ended up feasting on ham for the better part of a week. My parents then went out of town, and I set out to make one of my mom’s favorite things using spiral-cut ham… soup.

As you may know from reading this blog, I’m not the sort that follows a recipe blindly. And that worked out well, because my mom didn’t leave me a recipe. So

Two New Ways To Eat Healthy… And One is an Oddly-Colored Vegetable!

I experience an extraordinary, borderline silly amount of joy whenever I see oddly-colored vegetables. Years back, when this blog was much younger, I had a streak where I was finding oddly-colored vegetables all over the place. In the years that have passed, some of them have become more widely available, like rainbow carrots and orange and purple cauliflower. Others are still rare and exciting when I see them, like purple asparagus and purple Brussels sprouts – and I don’t see them that often.

Check out what I found when I was in Colorado for Thanksgiving:

STRIPED BELL PEPPERS! 

My Holiday Week On The West Coast (But Maybe Not The Coast You’re Thinking Of)

My family’s July 4th tradition is to meet up in St. Joseph, our favorite spot on the west coast… of Michigan. That’s the Lake Michigan coast, for the geographically challenged!

That pic was taken on a morning walk with JJ and my aunt Annie, who took the photo. We may or may not have been trespassing on

Don’t Throw Away Your Radish Greens! On Second Thought… Maybe You Should.

I love radishes. Sometimes you can find them bagged, and without greens, but most of the time they’re piled up at the store, leaves and all. And most of the time I bring them home, chop off the greens, and throw the greens out. But not this time!

Radish greens are edible. I’ve known that