Blog Catch-up

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a week since I've updated the blog. There are a lot of reasons for that -- one day our power was shut off while the power company installed some new street lights; then our internet connection started acting up (it's still not working right); then I got sick (some sort of intestinal bug that I'm still not entirely done with). So I haven't been blogging, haven't been exercising, didn't go to meeting last Saturday, but other than that, everything is normal. :)

Let's see, what's been going on that I haven't blogged about.

On Wednesday night, I went to a great event hosted by Milkwood Permaculture and Slow Food Canberra that involved, among other things, a great talk by Joel Salatin, one of my favorite farms and one of my sources of inspiration to get serious about my health, and to do that by focusing on eating Real Food. In a nutshell, Salatin talks about the problems associated with factory farming and industrial agriculture, and explains how his approach to farming is better for the animals, the land, and the people. Joel is an awesome source of not only inspiration, but also education, entertainment and motivation. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and if you get an opportunity to hear Joel Salatin talk, do it. Seriously.

Then on the weekend, our bank had some kind of computer meltdown so that when our grocery order arrived, we couldn't pay for it because our credit card was declined. Talk about frustrating. We'd already unpacked and put away about 75% of the groceries! So once it was clear that there was no way we could get money out of our bank (after the credit card was declined, we tried our debit card as well, but it wouldn't work either), we had to give all the stuff back (although since the delivery guy wasn't interested in checking the invoice to make sure it all went back, we ended up accidentally keeping about $20 worth of stuff). What a hassle!

But once the bank got their computers working again, we were able to get everything (well, almost everything) sorted, and except for switching the order of a few meals around, we've managed to stick with the meal plan:

Friday: Chicken and Rice Casserole
Saturday: Sloppy Joes
Sunday: Beef Stroganoff
Monday: South of the Border Casserole
Tuesday: Curry Chicken and Tomato Pilaf
Wednesday: Spaghetti
Thursday: Leftover Surprise

The Chicken and Rice Casserole was a new recipe, and it turned out pretty good, except that I put in 2 cups of brown rice instead of 1, which meant that it took a helluva lot longer to cook than it should have. But it was worth it in the end, because we cleaned it all up. I don't think it would've been enough with just one cup of rice.

I did the Beef Stroganoff again because I found the mushrooms that were supposed to have gone into it last week. To be honest, I don't know that they added a whole lot. But they didn't hurt, and I'm trying to get mushrooms into our diet a little more.

The South-of-the-Border Casserole (basically just a mixture of Mexican-flavored ground meat (mince), onions, tomatoes, corn, bell pepper (capsicum) and cheese was a big hit. It's easy enough to make, and tasty enough, but not something I'd want to have every week.

I guess that's enough to get caught up a little bit. I'm feeling better now (although still not great), so I should be back to posting regularly.