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I’ve had a lot going on health-wise lately. Issues that are not life-threatening, but miserable. Sometimes the tests to find out why I’m miserable make me feel temporarily even more miserable.
So I fool myself into thinking I’m calm. Sitting back on the clinic chair, finding a focal point, breathing slowly and steadily. Visualizing peaceful places, imagining quiet and calm sounds. When all else fails, it’s time for my sense of humor to kick in, and I distract myself thinking, “This is going to be a blog post” and then start writing it in my head.
After the appointments are done, I realize that things really aren’t all that bad. Really. But I get home and my body disagrees. Aching back from tension. Sore jaw; I must have been clenching my teeth at some time. Overnight? In the doc’s office? I’d internalized the stress I thought I didn’t feel and placed it firmly in a convenient joint.
To make matters worse – or better? – sometimes I don’t want to cook, but there is no excuse. We have plenty of food in the fridge and in the pantry. Lots of
planned-overs, lots of good vegetables from the farmers’ market, and more. It’s rather difficult to justify calling out for pizza on a typical summer day, appointments or no appointments. Nope. I’d have to be feeling much, much worse to rationalize pizza, wings, and cheesy bread sticks. Sniff. Sigh.
It was one of those nights. I was sore from being poked and prodded, achy jaw, sore lower back, and tired. Anemia? Stress exhaustion? Poor sleep? Who knew? But the family had to be fed, and I was the one with time and opportunity to prepare it. I reheated my coffee (half-caff, with an eye toward minimizing self-induced tension), tried not to clench my jaw any more, and took stock.
Planned overs:
-chorizo, cooked on the grill a day earlier.
-sweet corn, already cooked
Pantry staples:
-rice (Texmati this time)
-olive oil
-roasted red peppers
Farmers’ Market bounty:
-green pepper
-onion
-fresh peas
-fresh spinach
Did you guess? Stir fry! Rice cooked with a teaspoon of seasoning and a half cup of peas added. Onion and Pepper sauteed in olive oil, red peppers diced and stirred in, then corn cut off the cob and added to the mix, chorizo sliced thin, a little water and then spinach on top of it all. Meanwhile, the rice was cooking with the peas in the middle.
Know what, readers? It’s all good. Keeping a well-stocked pantry, and then supplementing it with planned overs and farmers’ market produce presented a positive result. It was easy enough to create a decent meal that I would not, could not talk myself out of it. And in the end, I felt better. Better for eating decent food, better for not wasting money, better for not feeling sorry for myself.
Now that I’m feeling positive and productive, I think I deserve to go out for ice cream. Chuck? What do you think? A grasshopper, perhaps? Get the keys; I’m on my way.
As usual, we took the time to look over our finds. A little fun – a bag of kettle corn and a fresh Hmong egg roll – and the goodies on our list. Yes, we had a list. That’s a jar of local wildflower honey. I just used up the last of the jar I bought a year ago; it’s time to stock up. 
But Daisy, where’s that big gunnysack that was in the car? I hear you asking – you’re so observant. The big sack has four dozen ears of sweet corn. Yes, four dozen ears of corn on the cob. We’ll cook some, blanch and freeze some, and we’ll have a little of summer’s bounty in soups and stews later in the year. 
And next Saturday? Tunes or foods, we’ll see what else is new on Main Street. 
