Here Me Roar!

I AM WRITER! HEAR ME ROAR!

The lady doing my eyebrows asks...so what do you do?

My husband's friend from work...where do you work?

And my standard response?

I'm a cashier. I work at [enter name of crazy grocery store]

Why? Why is that my answer?

That is not the job I identify with, not the job that is most important to me, not the job I have the degree for or even the most experience in (althought I do spend a lot of waking hours there).

But for some reason thats the answer I give.  I don't feel like I'm afraid for people to think of me as "a nutty artsy person". I sometimes like being that person.

I don't care if some people don't think thats  a "real job". I do it. I get paid for it. I love it. How can it get any more real than that?

I don't know what my deal is but to help myself articulate my job to others I've ordered cute business cards so now I can say  "I'm a writer. Here's my card."

On the subject of jobs, I have/had two interviews  this week. One Tuesday and the other Thursday.
The first is to work in a library and plan and implement their children's programming. Dream job material!  Except its only 25 hours a week.

The second is work at the newspaper as a receptionist. Its upside is its fulltime with benefits at a place I'd like to write for. Can you say, foot in the door? The downside is its a receptionist poistion and doesn't involve kids.

A Week (or so) of "Bentos"

Todays cucumber sandwich, corn on the cob, mushroom bento went off without a hitch!

At work I came up with a few ideas for the next handful's worth of bentos:

Tomorrow- Bunless Turkey Burger w/Cheese, Kiwi, Strawberries and Chocolate!

Thursday I'm off so I'll be having pancakes

Friday- Turkey and Cheese lettuce wraps with pretzels

This weekend we're camping in my mother in law's trailer park.

Monday: Roastbeef and cheese rollups with mushrooms and carrot sticks

Tuesday: PB, Apples and Berries

Wednesday: Brown rice and a banana...as odd as this seems I had it in a hospital cafeteria (which I could eat at everyday their food was THAT good) and have loved it ever since

Thursday : Peanut Butter and Apple Butter half sandwich with cucumbers and hopefully tomatoes

What will you be having for lunch this next week?

Bento Day One: Mostly Successful

Last night I made my first bento box lunch. I used a tupperware that I bought from Aldi. It was divided into 2 small sections and 1 large.

I should have taken a picture but I'll do my best without one.

In the first small section I stacked slices of kiwi and off to the side a bite of Tolberone.

In the second small section I put in some mushrooms.

In the large section I put carrot slices, peppered cucumber slices and cherry tomatoes.

The lunch was tasty and filled me up but there were two problems.

The chocolate was sweaty so it smeared on my hands. Maybe if I keep the chocolate tucked in purse?

I washed, peeled and sliced the carrots, but somehow some of them had brown edges when I went to eat them. I'm not sure why?

Tomorrow's lunch?

Mushrooms, leftover corn on the cob and cucumber sandwiches...mmm

Monthly Menu Plans

Next Saturday I'm picking up our Angel Food delivery (and then we're going camping in my mother in law's trailer park- but more on that later)

Using the food we're getting I've developed a lsit of 23 meals using mostly the food we'll be getting, which brings the cost per meal (for both of us) to about $4.39, but with a few random things leftover to create other, more creative meals, the cost will decrease once I account for all of the food.

In no particular order:

1. Chorizo
2. Burgers
3. Burgers
4. Fettuccini Alfredo
5. Vegetable Soup/Mashed Potatoe casserole
6. Chicken and Vegetable Spaghetti
7. Turkey Spinach Wraps with carrot fries
8. Garden Spaghetti
9. Green Onion Grilled Chicken and Homemade Fries
10. Wings, grilled potatoesand green bean salad
11. Crabcakes with veggies
12. Shrimp and Sugar Snap Peas
13. Mustard Glazed Pork Chops with Mac N Cheese
14. Steaks, potatoes and corn on the cub
15. Pancakes with homemade blueberry syrup, hashbrowns, eggs and sausage
16. Lean Cuisine Meal dinner
17. Stouffers  Meal dinner
18. Chicken Jambalya
19. Hamburger Helper
20. Clam Chowder with Baked Potatoes
21. Pork Chops Primavera
22. Steaks with Sweet Potatoe fries
23. Mediterranean Style Tuna Casserole

If I buy extra chicken meal 24 will be Chicken and Dumplings, using the triple veggie blend included in our package . What yumminess (sp?) are you cooking up this month/week?

Going Bento

I am thinking about buying a bento-style lunch box. But first I want to experiment with packing bento-style foods in my regular lunch carriers. I tend to "snack" more than eat full meals in the summer time, and at lunch time year round, at least when left to my own devices anyway.

So next week I'm planning on packing a few veggies,  fruit, cheese cubes and a few other things as lunch instead of the increasingly boring, turkey and cheese on wheat.

I do not like many traditionally asian foods (bento is a Japanese lunch box). I do  like  gimbop but I do not have the urge to make it. So I was wondering what non-japanese foods you use in your bentos/lunchboxes to make your lunches a little more fun and a little less sandwichy.

What do you take for lunch/pack for others? How do you keep your lunches from getting too mundane?

I'm "different, but in a good way"

According to my nephew, who's been staying the week with us I do things that are "different, but in a cool way." Well, at least he put me and cool in the same sentence.

He mentioned this when I:

- put carrots in to our sloppy joes
-put cheese on sloppy joes
-wrapped my husband's birthday gift in the Sunday comics
- made homemade garlic bread using old hamburger buns


I wonder what else I can do to suprise him with my "weirdness"....hmmm



Oh, when I asked him to shred the lettuce for our salad he asked me where the shredder was... HA!

Mary Mary How Does Your Garden Grow?

Its got  lots of cherry tomatoes:

Beets that may be made into wine:

And yellow squash!!