Nothing Compares To...

Pasta!

While I was away hiding from the blog world, I did brave things...like shower in the dark (more on this later) and try new foods.

I went to Norway (Maine not Scandinavia) to visit a spice store.  They have a whole bunch of spices, flours, and general cooking things that you purchase by weight.  I picked up some rye flour and some caraway seeds for my next bread adventure and I bought these:

They are quinoa veggie curls.  Kind of like tri-colored pasta and kind of not.  Well...I don't know whether I undercooked them or whether quinoa is just naturally crunchy but it wasn't quite a substitute for pasta.  They get two stars.

Next, I tried this:

Tofu was on my list of new foods to try and while I doubt that anyone who ACTUALLY eats tofu would regard this as trying tofu, I am playing the technicality card.

I've read a lot about this "spaghetti shaped noodle substitute" as of late.  It has no cholesterol, sugar, gluten, animal bits, or guilt (according to the label).  Let's just say that I didn't have high hopes.  I planned to toss the noodle substitute into a chicken and veggie stir fry so I wouldn't even notice they weren't real noodles.  <---Mistake.

I followed the directions to a T.  I rinsed thoroughly to get rid of the natural odor (um yeah...that should have been my first clue), par-boiled them (I still don't know what this means), and patted them dry before adding them to my stir fry.  I know they are a noodle substitute but I honestly expected them to taste like noodles. <---Naive.  They were soft on the outside but had a weird crunch to them. Not enough of a crunch that I could pretend they were bean sprouts so I ended up eating around them.

All in all...try new foods has yet to result in adding a new food to my day to day repertoire.

 

Operation Aim Low

I love to start things. I get excited about the promise and anticipation of something new. It's the finishing that I'm not so great at. So despite the fact that my September goals were an epic failure...I can't resist making some October goals. However, these goals will be quite small and insignificant. Nothing important like finding a job...although that is obviously still a major priority.


Without further adieu ado:
1. Carve a pumpkin...ideally without making it look like a six year old did it.

2. Write an entire blog post without using the word "I." I understand that blogging is inherently self-centered but looking back at posts, especially my many majors post, I was almost disgusted by how many times I used the word "I." Obviously my sentence fluency needs some work!

3. Try something new. Anything...in any arena of my life.


You know that quote "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss you'll land among the stars"....yeah...that's crap. If you're really aiming for the moon you are not going to be satisfied with the damn stars. So I'm trying on a new philosophy for the month.

October Philosophy: aim low. I figure if my expectations are super small there is a chance that not only will I meet them, but I may wildly exceed them. In turn, the satisfaction derived from this success may lead to feelings of accomplishment, happiness and positivity....I hope.

I believe this strategy is widely referred to as "baby steps."