11/3/07

You Are What You Eat!



Well, you can learn a lot about a person by looking into their refrigerator. So, today we will look at what you can learn about me from my fridge. You do recall, “You are what you eat.”

First, let’s think about my frozen food. If you look closely you will find various items including: frozen vegetables, Lean Pockets, Michelina’s frozen dinners, frozen brown bananas, pork chops, frozen ravioli, frozen Pop Tarts, some frozen buns, and frozen Johnsonville Brats. (Funny how everything is frozen in the freezer, huh?)

From the frozen vegetables you might guess that I am some health nut, but in reality the veggies are there only in an attempt to sometimes be healthy. Next, you have all the processed dinner items. This proves that I am lazy and really can’t get myself to do anything to prepare lunch in the morning except do what I call “grocery shopping for lunch” as I go through the kitchen and put items into a bag to take to school for lunch. Don’t be fooled by the frozen brown bananas either. I do not ever bake banana bread and they are just in there because I was too lazy to walk them across the parking lot to the dumpster. One day, I hope they get there. The pork chops have been there for a few weeks waiting to be prepared and to be part of a real meal. Again, I have high hopes that one day that will also happen. The frozen ravioli is there for nights when all I can do is boil water in order to have dinner. I have the frozen Pop Tarts because I got addicted to them back in May. I have been pretty good about not buy them but I have no will power lately and I could not pass up the deal of two boxes for three dollars. Last in the freezer is the most important part: my brats and buns. Even looking into my freezer you can tell that you can take the girl out of Wisconsin but you can’t take the Wisconsin out of the girl!

Next is this fridge itself. One time one of my friends came to visit for a weekend and she opened my fridge and said: “Oh Alice, what do you eat?” Usually my fridge is pretty scarce. I hate to grocery shop so usually I go only about once a month. Right now it is pretty stocked because I just went shopping this last week because I didn’t have anything in there to eat. It does kinda look empty still, but I think that comes from living alone. In the fridge you will see: pickles, turkey bacon, bread, Miracle Whip Light, spaghetti sauce, cottage cheese, lots of eggs, cheese, milk, tortillas, yogurt, oranges, apples, pears, a pomegranate, salad, carrots, salad dressing, ketchup, jam, parmesan cheese, chocolate milk mix and butter. Nothing too exciting but they all tell a bit about me.

Lately, my dinners have been all about eggs. I will fry some up and eat them with toast. Of course, I always make them over easy so I have some good juice to put on my toast. That appalls some people but I love it. Sometimes I scramble them and eat them with ketchup on top (sorry niece Rebecca, ketchup is great on eggs!). And most recently I have been scrambling them and melting cheese on top and then adding sour cream and salsa and putting them on my tortillas. Yummy breakfast burritos. Sometimes I get crazy and put turkey bacon in with my scrambled eggs! Again, all of these options tell you that I am lazy and hate to actually cook for myself. Seems like a waste to cook for one. This week I did make tacos for the weekly “Office Party”(a couple of my friends come over and watch our favorite show “The Office”.) Seems to make so much more sense to cook for multiple people. I bought the pickles because I was craving them; I have always been a pickle girl, but they must be dill, I hate sweet pickles. Yuck! I often have a salad with my meals thinking that by doing so I am making it healthier. I love to top it with cottage cheese, blue cheese and croutons of course, which doesn’t necessarily make the salad any healthier! I like to put cheese on everything. Sometimes when I am just a little hungry or bored, I will just eat some sharp cheddar cheese. Again, you can’t change the Wisconsin girl! I often make pasta for dinner. I have always been a carb girl I don’t care what Atkins has to say about it. Hence the Parmesan cheese and spaghetti sauce. I bought a pomegranate because I discovered them last year and realize how very wonderful they are. I think they are quite possibly my new favorite fruit. I bought one on Wednesday and it is almost gone. The other fruit is there to make my lunches a bit healthier. I am also addicted to chocolate milk. It goes so well with pretzels. I have even gotten friends who hate both chocolate milk and pretzels to be a lover of the combination. You must put a few little pretzels in your mouth and then add milk to mix. Very, very good. Speaking of pretzels, you should also try them with your favorite gummy candies as a mix. My personal favorite is sharkzels, which are the blue and white gummy sharks mixed with pretzels, of course. The perfect mix is about one shark to every two mini-pretzels. My second favorite is cherry gummy candy with pretzels. I named these prezies this summer on my road trip with my sister, mom and niece to Des Moines. With this the combination is a little better with a ratio of 1:3. One cherry gummy to three pretzels. Delectable.

Well, there is your tour of my fridge. Not too much going on here in my life. I am truly glad it is the weekend. This week was a hard one to get through without pulling my hair out and crying. I was a bit burnt out to say the least. I had the thought in my head again that kept saying: “Why am I in this profession again?” Don’t worry I still love my work. I got observed this week, which always makes me nervous. The day after, one of my students said that she could tell I was nervous that day. My boss is pretty awesome though; she told me that my students really do love me. I think that has always been my strong point with my students, I always connect easily with them. My classroom is a safe place for them. She did have some ideas to make my teaching better and I will consider them. Overall, it went well.

Yesterday, T-Roy and I had a great conversation back in forth at the beginning of class which started out by me saying: “T-Roy, this is Houston, come in T-Roy” (he was a little confused about what he was supposed to be doing and was asking silly questions.) It was hilarious though because he responded as if he were on a walkie-talkie and concluded by saying “Over.” So, we went on having a conversation like we were on walkie-talkies for about three minutes. I love T-Roy. He makes 8th hour bearable for me. They are becoming one of my favorites partly because of him and partly because one of my hardest students got transferred out of that class. Yippee!

We also had a school dance last night. It was entertaining to say the least. I do not know why it is fun to grind up against each other, especially when it is girl on girl but for some reason that is the popular way to dance. I, for one, would never let a friend grind on me, I probably wouldn’t even let a boyfriend grind up on me and, come to think of it, I probably wouldn’t even let my husband dance that sensually with me. It is weird to me that things we shouldn’t be doing in public are so popular with the young folk. I think I am truly becoming one of those boring, non-understanding grown ups. Oh no.

Well, I better quit writing here. I think this will hold the title for longest blog entry on this blog. I hope your eyes didn’t fall out while reading it and that it did not take up too much of your on the clock time. You know whom you are little friends who often read blogs while working. I love it! Hehe. Have a great day! Cheers, A