May 29 2008
Dinner One with CSA for Week 2
Last night, Michael made us a tasty pasta with arugula, mushrooms, spring onions, garlic, fresh oregano and crushed red pepper flakes. He sautéed all the ingredients minus the pasta with olive oil in a cast-iron pan, taking care not to sauté the arugula or oregano for too long. The arugula was only wilted, maintaining a crisp stem. He mixed the cooked pasta into the sautéed mixture and added some canned parmesan. I have to tell you - I didn’t like this pasta at first, but it grew on me as I continued eating it. Which is good, since it’s my lunch today and will constitute another dinner later on this week.
On the “side” (it took up at least half the plate, probably more) of the pasta, was a salad of red leaf lettuce and baby spinach, fresh radishes, homemade croutons and oil and vinegar.
This dish used up our mushrooms, arugula, oregano, one spring onion, some radishes and the rest of last week’s red leaf lettuce. It took close to an hour to prepare - by no means a “quick” meal - but cooking with fresh produce does take longer. The produce has to be washed and then prepared for cooking. Fortunately, the time is well spent - the meals are tasting better. Maybe it’s the diet, maybe it’s the fresh produce but I find myself enjoying what we eat more and more.
In other news, yesterday I was “accepted” to UMUC after applying the day before. My transcripts and AP scores are on their way, and almost all of my credits are guaranteed to transfer since I stayed in the University of Maryland system and UMUC is friendly to local community colleges. I’ll hopefully be half-time this Fall, working my way towards completing the last 30 or so credits I need to complete my English degree, entirely online. Financially, my other loans won’t accumulate any interest while I’m in school since they’re subsidized and I may be able to get some aid once I finish my FAFSA. I was paying for UMBC the semester I withdrew entirely based on aid and my Stafford loans, so there’s a good chance I may get some aid in this scenario since I’m old and married, but we’ll see.
Inari had a big red spot on her head this morning. Michael said it looks like she probably ran full-speed into something and cut herself a bit. She does tend to run into our glass door when she’s very hyper in the mornings. It was in a spot she’s not likely to lick much (just below the ear), so we applied some neosporin - which is safe for cats. After we did, she tried to scratch that spot and I told her no, so she stopped scratching it. I just hope it doesn’t get infected, it didn’t seem to hurt her much right now.
I’m still catching up on sleep from this weekend, so this morning I woke up very late and was very slow getting ready for work. I forgot my morning snack, which is bad news because I’m already hungry. I still haven’t weighed myself for this week, partly because I’m scared after the way we ate this weekend, partly because wii fit weighs me every evening - albeit, not nearly as accurately as my scale or being weighed in the morning. I’ll try to jump on the scale tomorrow morning and report on slim-fast for this - our seventh week.