Nom nom nom.

Why is running on treadmill so much harder than running outside?  Four outdoor miles over lunch on Monday.  TWO miles on the treadmill tonight after work.  I looooove that I own a treadmill (hooray for craigslist) because I would never go to a gym for this.  So, 18 days into the year, I've run 16 miles.  I feel way more awsome about my running than the number represents -- I'm surprised its so little, but I guess we really haven't been running that much.  I'd like to think this means that feeling crazy great about yourself part of running is in full swing even at this low level.

Middle sister alerted me that my reading goal is overly loft, and she's absolutely right, but I make it a manageable number, I'll be less motivated.  Also, I think I may have gotten that number conflated with how many new recipes I was going to make this year... Two books in progress on my nightstand.  Native Son, and a Plague of Doves, both courtesy of the endless Walker thrift store book stash, which has unsealed now that we are both done with grad school!

New recipes galore!  We've really been taking care to EAT FOOD since I started my new job.  Cooking dinner, packing lunch, eating breakfast.  It sounds so simple, and yet there have been huge expanses of our life where we fail to eat breakfast or pack lunches.  Major props go to main man for packing our lunches the night before.

New recipes in our kitchen!

• Hot chana (not the tomato-y kind, but the thick brown spicy kind you eat with puri ) and butternut squash, both from Indian Vegetarian Cooking at Your House. 
• Something based on this gai lan stirfry, so simple.  
• Butternut squash and red lentil dal with spicy tarka, with a modification-- white onions and red cabbage instead of red onions.  And adding salt.  We don't eat a lot of salt -- but this recipe fails to call any, and lentils can't handle that.  
• This raspberry sorbet -- sort of... add one tablespoon vodka to make it scoopable, halve the sugar and lemon juice -- is in progress right now in our ReStore ice cream maker.  

We've also been making our tried and true loves: fajitas, gumbo-ish, and our beloved Xinh Xinh inspired noodle bowls (vermicilli tossed with soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, rice vinegar and dash of sesame oil, topped with cucumber, green onions, raw peppers, and ground peanuts) but those don't count toward the goal.

Current vegetable obsessions: chinese greens, and pepper pepper peppers any and all peppers that are not bell peppers.  

I've been vegan for seven and a half years now.  Years ago accepted after much reading that protein was a non-issue as long as I was eating actual food, and that too much protein would actually gut me of calcium, which is what I really needed to focus on getting enought of.  And when I need protein, my body usually compells me to eat heaping tons of beans or a pile of tofu. I know some stuff, is what I'm saying, but still, every time I look at the nutional charts on veggies, I am FLOORED.  Protein, all around us.  It's so weird to me how easily I mentally fall back into viewing carbs, fiber, protein, and fats as seperate food groups and thinking 'where is the protein in this meal?' if the beatiful feast I've prepared doesn't have a designated protein.

I'm keeping up on the sewing!  Finished a dog bed cover for daisy that tightly fits a crib matress.  Denim and brown herringbone -- the perfect fabrics for my mom's dog.  She'd love it.

Ok.  This is just a string of personal updates.  Signing off.  I've got to wash my hands.  They are caked in salt from packing the ice cream maker with salt and ice, and Daisy is treating me like a salt lick.  As though she wouldn't be licking me anyway.

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As I think about what I just wrote, I feel really self-centered and selfish with all this me, me, me stuff, but I know that keeping me happy and personally fulfilled is how I will be able to keep on trucking to do right by Amy, to WANT to keep on trucking, and be a happy person she, Walker, and I actually want (and can stand) to be around.