Tag: food

Golden Week

May 4, 2014 / enroutetoawesome / 0 Comments

By Gem

It’s Sunday night of a lovely long weekend here in Nagahama, and we’ve been spending it doing things we like best!

Yesterday, we finished everything that needed finishing (housework, shopping and the final co-op missions of Halo 4) and we’re off to have adventures in the south on Monday and Tuesday, so we’ve spent this Sunday having a lovely, gentle time.

A sleep-in for Kin, while I made a morning visit to friends in Kinomoto, then home to a simple lunch, scavenged from the contents of the fridge (I told you it’s good to keep soup and salad dressing in there!)

Kin then headed out to do some pottery in Kurokabe, while I baked bread, puttered around in my pots and studied for an hour or two. When he got home, we enjoyed afternoon tea together; you may notice we’re eating some of the same banana bread at both lunch and afternoon tea. That banana bread is actually a bit of an accident…

A few weeks ago, my sister inspired me to make a nice, big batch of dulce de leche and, when I noticed our bananas were beginning to look a little sad in their bowl, I thought that I was being provided with a wonderful opportunity to transform my ingredients into a delicious banoffee pie for us to enjoy over the weekend. A little chocolate, a little cream, a drizzle of toffee sauce…. Subarashii!

What actually happened was that I got home on Friday evening, opened the last container of dulce de leche, tasted it to be sure it was still okay and then grew canines, howled at the moon and devoured the lot with a soup spoon.

(I wasn’t really in a fit state to observe myself, you understand, but I’m pretty certain this version of events is pretty close to being true.)

At any rate, I was left with the situation of having a bunch of sick-looking bananas and no caramel, so banana bread was a fairly obvious choice; cold slices for snacks and hot chunks with custard for desserts. Combined with the bread Oinky and I baked, this treat has made our apartment smell absolutely lovely. Outside, the air still carries a fairly heavy chill, but inside, everything is warm and clean and wonderfully fragrant. Life is good.

The indoor refugees don’t seem to be phased by the cold; they’re so happy to be outdoors, they’re shooting up like rockets. The cold, gusty wind is giving my poor snow peas some trouble though. Every time they try to get a grip on the balcony railing, they’re blown off! After this photo was taken, I tethered them with a bit of hundred yen crochet cotton (Kin says the balcony looks like a spider web now!) and that seems to be helping them hang on a bit better.

And now, I’m preparing dinner and listening to Kin sigh while he sketches. I’m so proud of him at the moment, I could explode!

Kin has just completed the Betty Edwards drawing program for the second time, and the results have been phenomenal. You can see his previous “Before” and “After” self portraits here (seriously, go look at them, I want you to see how awesome this is).

Now have a look at this:

That was his latest “After” portrait. Isn’t he amazing?

It’s lovely when we can combine peacefulness and productivity this way. We’re looking forward to exciting times over the next few days of Golden Week, but we’re both very glad we had a little stretch to work and recuperate first.

However you’re spending your week, we hope you enjoy it! Don’t forget to take some downtime.

(For a calorie count of my caramel orgy, or a look at more of Kin’s photos, please check out our Facebook page!)

Best wishes,

Gem

On the Boil: The Awesomeness of Soup

April 20, 2014 / enroutetoawesome / 6 Comments

By Gem

Now Australia is beginning to settle into autumn, and the spring days here in Japan maintain their chill… Now, it is time to sing the song of soup.

O Soup, the nourishing
Soup, the tasty
O, Soup, ye friend of the poor and saviour of the lazy…

… not to mention, Soup, the best way I know of getting rid of whatever’s going leggy in the garden, or leaky in the fridge. Or, Soup, how you can get five serves of vegetables into one meal, let alone one day. Or even Soup, a really good way of impressing lunch guests without really doing anything.

But none of those really rhyme so well, do they?

Soup and Scheduling

I’ve spoken before about the importance of planning when you’re trying to keep your diet properly balanced. If you’re generally lazy (I am!), busy (I am!), or just someone who can’t always be trusted to make decisions like a grownup (I am!), but you still want to keep everyone properly fed during the week, then you need to organise your kitchen ahead of time.

Soup is central to my day-to-day organisation. If you always keep a jug of soup and a bottle of salad dressing in the fridge, you will always have a lovely, vege-ful meal half organised before you even get home from work.

This is great for those days when you just plain don’t feel like cooking or discover you have unexpected guests on a night you were planning to make scrambled eggs on toast. With about three minutes extra work, your scrambled eggs become an omelette, and you have soup, salad and toast ready to go with it! Salads and soups travel quite happily to work with you and will turn your lunchtime sandwich into a real meal. It also helps you feel better about those days when you haven’t prepared, but you’re already exhausted and just buy a barbequed chicken and some bread rolls on your way home from work. You’re still giving everyone a decent, balanced meal, you’re just not killing yourself to do it at a time when you just don’t have the energy.

Soup is also another arrow in my quiver against the Healthy-Food-Costs-More brigade.

Getting Organised

Soup and salad dressing are both very simple to make. I shake up my salad dressing in an old squeezy-top mustard bottle that Kin washes out each time we empty it (about every month or so) and store it in the fridge. Just find an old jar, dump in a couple of tablespoons of a nice vinegar (we like a very acidic red wine vinegar), about double that of oil, salt, pepper and any additives that take your fancy (I often add about a tablespoon of Dijon mustard, crushed garlic or some parmesan shavings), shake it up and boom; vinaigrette dressing ready whenever you want it. Just give it another shake when it’s time to squoodge some out.

(Here are some rather more precise recipes if you’re nervous about that sort of thing. Or you can simply buy a nice, low kilojoule salad dressing to keep on hand).

On the whole, though, it’s even easier to construct a soup than it is to make a salad dressing, and it’s a lot more impressive to visitors.

Basic Soup No 1: Green Velvet

This soup is Kin’s favourite; it’s also the easiest soup I know! A basic soup like this just needs vegetables and stock. I usually use a liquid chicken stock for my soups, but there are no real rules when it comes to soup. If you are vegetarian, use vegetable stock. If you can’t make liquid stock (I’m not very good at it, either) or afford to buy it, use cubes from the supermarket. Don’t fret too much about getting things right; it’s soup. Soup will forgive you for just about anything.

Ingredients:

1 head of broccoli, divided into small florets, stem chopped
1 bunch of spinach, washed
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed or finely chopped
2 largeish potatoes, peeled and chopped into cubes
1.2 litres of stock (or whatever. If you like a thicker soup, use less. If thinner, use more)
Splash of olive oil
Herbs or seasonings (see variation). Today’s herbs for us are oregano, thyme and rosemary.

Method:

Heat the oil in a saucepan and brown the onion and garlic over a low-medium heat until softened (probably more than five minutes, probably less than ten. Again, it’s soup; don’t worry so much). Add the potato and stir fry for 2-3 minutes (if adding dried herbs, this is a good time. This is also when I add hard herbs like rosemary), then pour in the stock. Bring to the boil, and then simmer for about fifteen minutes, or until the potato is tender. Add the broccoli (and any other fresh herbs), simmer for about four minutes or until broccoli is tender, then add spinach. Stir through and turn off heat.

Liquify soup using a stick blender, food processor, or whatever you have on hand. If you don’t have any of those things, go to an op shop or a pawn shop and buy one. I don’t care how broke you are. Being able to make soup is going to save you more money than a second-hand stick blender could possibly cost you.

Pour soup into bowls and serve, or into containers to store in the fridge. I sometimes pop a swirl of cream in each bowl, but it isn’t necessary. This soup reheats quite happily in the microwave and keeps for over a week in the fridge.

Variation: Leave out the herbs and instead add half a teaspoon of cumin at the end of cooking. Serve each bowl with a blob of natural yoghurt

This soup can also be made with any sort of vegies you have lying around, like carrot, beans, zucchini and any sort of leafy greens. Just simmer hard veg for longer and add leafy veg toward the end of cooking time. If you like a thick soup, add more potato. If you like a thin soup, add more stock. However you make it, it will always be delicious. It will also be cheap and give you a hefty serve of vitamins and fibre with every verdant bowlful.

What other sort of soup recipes would you like to see? Or does anyone have a good recipe of their own? I’ll be back in my garden soon and I’ll be on the lookout for nice ones.

Happy souping!

Gem

January was…

February 2, 2014 / enroutetoawesome / 0 Comments

New Year pilgrimages

And New Year’s cakes!

Scary festivals

A disappointing lack of snow (when it’s still so cold!)

Comfort food

And comfort food

(it’s a good thing there are all of these scary festivals going on to keep us walking around)

Fresh meals from our indoor refugees.

And comfy times indoors (with Gem’s new favourite reading material).

January was frosty times outdoors and winter comforts at home. It was soggy footprints, creepy snowmen and blue-faced six-year olds at work, with wooly scarves to seal ourselves away from the artic winds that whistle through our classrooms. We have had small adventures and happy experiences without straying far from home, staying snug, merry and cheerful (with a bit of excitement sprinkled here and there).

2014 is well and truly underway!

Gem and Kin

P.S. Our Facebook page is playing up again at the moment, but links are still getting through okay. Gem will give it a kicking during the week to try and sort it out.

Sumo Food: Chanko Nabe

January 15, 2014 / enroutetoawesome / 2 Comments

I know! I’m late! I promised Beans this recipe ages ago, though, so I really wanted to wait for nabe night!

Vegetarian readers are also safe to stay this time! I’ll offer a few options for de-meating the dish as we go.

Those of you who are familiar with Kyuushockers will already know that our school lunches tend to be a bit light on the vegie side of things. Nabe is one of my favourite ways of making up for this; it’s an easy way to get HEAPS of vegies into yourself, without having to work very hard. Kin also approves of nabe because it doesn’t make a lot of dishes; all of the ingredients are popped into the communal stockpot, and you haul out whatever you fancy to eat, replacing ingredients as the pot empties.

Nabe ingredients differ with the season (which is a nice way of saying “with what’s on special at the supermarket/going leggy in the garden”). If you don’t have all of the ingredients in this recipe, leave them out or replace them with something else. Greens are greens, roots are roots; I would only recommend that if you’re having trouble sourcing/affording asian mushrooms, buy them dried or leave them out.

Dashi (Stock)

This is my weeknight dashi; I get a little more elaborate on the weekend. Take a piece of kombu, (dried kelp) around 20 cm by 10 cm and wipe off any white residue with a damp cloth. Soak the kombu in a litre of water for at least half an hour. Hell, leave it in there and go to work; it’ll be fine when you get home. Gently heat the water (skimming occasionally if you can be bothered; I can’t) until it is almost boiling, then whip out your kombu and discard it.

Next comes katsuo. Since it’s a weeknight, I’m using dashi granules, which are available at any asian grocery and, these days, probably at supermarkets as well. They tend to come in a blue packet and will have instructions on the side (even if the instructions are in Japanese, just look at the numbers; you’ll work it out). Mine comes in sachets to be used with 600ml of water; I’m using two and a half and adding 500ml to my kombu stock, so now I have 1500ml all up. Since I’m using dashi granules, the stock will be a little scummy on top; if that bothers you, give it a skim before you go any further.

If you are vegetarian, dried shiitakes make a gorgeous alternative to fish-based dashi; just pour boiling water over about eight of them in a saucepan and leave them to soak. You get mushrooms AND dashi! Kin and I aren’t vegetarian, but shiitake dashi is one of our favourites.

Now that your stock is prepped, you just need to pop it into your nabe pot (a big saucepan will do) and stick it on the hotplate. I then add a shake (probably about 50ml) of soy sauce and about the same of mirin. Tonight, we’re also having a dash of ponzu in there as well, just because we like it. Once it’s boiling, you’re ready to start adding ingredients!

Ingredients

Vary as desired; the dashi is the important bit.

Chicken and/or fish (or extra mushrooms and cottony tofu for the vegos!)
Tofu
Udon noodles (fresh or dried). We’re also having konnyaku noodles!
Flavourings (chopped green onion, grated ginger and garlic chives)
Sliced root vegetables (One medium carrot and about 15cm of lotus root)
Leafy greens (Pak choy, bok choy, chrysanthemum greens and about a quarter of a wombok)
Mushrooms (shiitake and enokitake)

The quantities are up to you. The first time you make it, try a bunch of each thing and see if you need more or less. The best order to pop things into your stock is:

Meat…

Then flavourings…

Then root vegies…

Then go mad and throw in whatever you’d like!

On nabe nights, cooking and eating happen simultaneously, so you’ll only need a very small bowl each, with a soup spoon and chopsticks. You’ll also need at least one slotted spoon and a ladle for scooping out your dinner! When the ingredients you fancy are ready, ladle them into your bowl, devour them, then ladle out some more. Keep topping up the pot until everyone is full. (Needless to say, meat is the ONE ingredient that absolutely cannot be added later, unless you’re going to let the soup boil by itself for a little while). If you don’t have a portable hotplate, you can also prepare your nabe on the stove.

Traditionally, rice or noodles were added at the very end of the meal and then enjoyed in the soup, but Kin and I enjoy our noodles with the rest of the ingredients, so we stick them in a few at a time and haul them back out as we fancy them.

Chanko nabe is warming, hearty winter comfort food that still manages to be extremely high in fibre and nutrients. I love it after workouts and Kin loves it any time at all, especially since he gets the leftovers for breakfast. Nabe is also cheap (because you toss in whatever you can get) and super-fun to serve to guests!

What are your go-to dishes in winter?

Gem

Cheep Cheep: Budget Roast Chicken

January 6, 2014 / enroutetoawesome / 0 Comments

This week’s recipe: Roast chicken and stuffing, roast vegetables (with super-crunchy potatoes) and steamed greens with basil and parsley.

Hopefully any vegetarian readers have already fled; if not, please be warned: Today’s post is not for you! If that first shot wasn’t enough to put you off, the ones below definitely will! Why don’t you try this blog or this one today instead?

Kin is very eager to practice his food photography and a couple of other people have suggested we include a regular recipe section. I’m not sure how well I’ll manage it; I’m not a trained chef or dietician and I don’t really intend to become a food blogger. That being said, I can boast of one skill that I’m not convinced all food bloggers possess: I am capable of producing decent mails on a daily basis. You probably won’t see perfectly swirled berry tarts or bowls of glossy pasta with one salmon egg and a single piece of cress balanced on top, but you will know that the dishes you see here can be cheaply reproduced and are usually manageable on a weeknight timetable. Also, unlike most food photographers, Kin actually has to EAT the dish once he’s finished photographing it, so he has a vested interest in maintaining flavour, rather than appearance.

Roast chicken is one of my favourite weapons in my personal war against the “real food is expensive” brigade. One small chook with stuffing will give two people a massive dinner, a couple of decently hefty lunches (think sandwiches or chicken salads), wings for snacking and a carcass to make into soup. I defy you to get that out of KFC. Roasting a chicken is also super easy! The only slightly tricky bit is the stuffing, but if you make it the day before, there’s no hassle involved.

Today’s stuffing is a fairly basic one; the main flavours come from onion, bacon and this little champion here:

That’s sage, one of the nicest herbs I know for flavouring meat. With care, it will grow into an attractive silvery-leafed shrub. With abuse, it will grow into stunted, silvery-leafed sticks, but will still survive to flavour your food, no matter how badly you treat it. I like that in a plant. Dried sage is also easy to find in shops and the flavour is decent.

Breadcrumbs provide the bulk of your stuffing; you’ll need about four slices with the crusts cut off (we use wholemeal, but it isn’t important). If you have a food processor, toss your bread in and blitz it to crumbs. If not, cut it bread into the smallest cubes you can. Place it in a bowl, and season with pepper and salt. Add any herbs you fancy finely chopped or processed; tonight our pots have provided parsley, thyme and a little rosemary, but if you don’t have fresh herbs, don’t go out and buy them. A shake from a jar of dried herbs will do nicely.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan (med-high) and drop in about three leaves of sage. Let them frizzle and crisp for a moment, then reduce the heat to medium and toss in one finely chopped brown onion and two – three rashers of bacon, also trimmed and finely chopped. Cook, stirring for three minutes, or until onion is soft and translucent. Dump this into your breadcrumbs and mix it around with a wooden spoon. See if, when you squeeze the mixture in your fist, it keeps its shape. If not, try adding an egg, a little milk or some melted butter to bind it together. Once the mess is moist enough to hold a shape without being sticky, it’s ready to go.

Get your oven preheating to about 190°celsius (a little up or down won’t matter). Give your (thawed) chook a good wash with cold water, including inside the cavity. Dry it off with paper towels or tea towels if you plan to wash them right away. Then, trim off any fat you don’t fancy, shove in your stuffing and secure the cavity with toothpicks. Lightly oil and salt the outside (if you want to) and put it in the oven, breast side down for thirty minutes.

I also include a head of garlic during this first part of the cooking time (garlic needs very little time to roast) for use in soups and sauces through the week. Just stick it in the fridge and it will keep almost forever.

For a weeknight dinner, I don’t do anything very elaborate with the veg; I usually toss them in a small amount of olive oil and season them with garlic powder and chopped rosemary. Ditto the greens; today’s are a combination of broccoli and beans, steamed for two minutes. After two minutes, I add spinach, flat leafed parsley, basil and a tiny wodge of butter and steam the lot for one more minute.

Potatoes, however are a serious matter. For super crunchy spuds without a lot of oil, peel, chop and then par boil them (starting from cold) for ten minutes until the outside is soft. Drain your potatoes, then toss them in their sieve to break up their outsides. Then tumble them in your oil and seasonings.

Put your potatoes and other baking veg on a tray together (tonight we’re having pumpkin, onion, carrot and finger eggplant). Once your chicken has been in the oven for thirty minutes, turn it breast side up and put it on the lower oven shelf, with your tray of vegies on the top shelf. Also take this time to pour off and store and juices collected on the tray; you’ll want them for gravy or soups.

After half an hour, add your soft vegies (this is when I actually add the eggplant), like tomatoes, zucchini or capsicum. Wait another half hour and your dinner is done!

Once you’ve done your prep, this meal will cook quite happily without your supervision. You can have a bath, do some cleaning, entertain guests, whatever you’d like. If you’re the forgetful type, though, make sure you set a timer. You can also be really lazy if you want and just throw in all of your vegies at the one hour mark soft ones included; just don’t blame me if you end up with salsa!

Gem

P.S. I tried to keep the word count down, so I might have left something out. If you have any questions, just send me a message and I’ll clear it up.

Settling in to 2014

January 4, 2014 / enroutetoawesome / 1 Comment

By Gem

By the end of this year, we won’t be here any more!

The start of a new year has really brought it home to us; our time in this little apartment, in this little town is going to end in 2014! This place has become so much our own it’s hard to believe that, this time next year, it will belong to someone else. Time is suddenly a limited commodity.

But the start of a new year in Japan is a difficult time to manage any sense of urgency. New Years in Japan is like Christmas in Australia; it’s the time when the whole family get together and then just kind of sit around. For a week, the country shuts down, while people eat, gossip and walk to local shrines to pray for good fortune through the year. It’s not a time for exciting trips or big projects, but for kotatsu-snuggling, cups of tea and big bowls of mandarins.

Not to mention New Year cakes!

And other lovely things!

Right now though, we’re still in Nagahama and we still have things to do. On Monday, Japan restarts itself. Our evening classes will resume, our friends will return from their home countries and we will be back at our schools, doing our best to slide some English into stubborn little skulls.

At Kin’s school, there will be a continuation of the dramatic investigation into the identity of the elusive Dick Phantom; one of the boys (we assume) has developed a taste for penis-based graffiti. The Phantom spent the final months of 2013 creating elaborate, phallic extravaganzas over every wall and piece of furniture a kid that age could reach. These works don’t show a lot of dedication to accuracy, but, particularly toward the end of the year, a real focus seems to have been given to scale. We can only imagine that his scope will expand in 2014.

I never really feel I’ve left my school, as half of it seems to live in this building. The very, very small first-grader with the very, very big eyes has finally worked up the courage to ask why I seem to spend so much time here. Her eyes got even bigger when I told her this is where I live!

Although Kin and I enjoyed the Japanese-style New Year, in time-honoured Western fashion, we have made a resolution or two; or rather, have reviewed how our Tanabata wishes and our everyday goals are going.

This is one of Kin’s tanabata goals… or sort of. He never got to start those glass-blowing classes; the college filled up before his enrolment was processed! Instead, he’s been spending his weekends up to his elbows in clay and is having a wonderful time. His very, very earliest work (above) has just returned from the kiln.

Kin never made it to cooking class either but, on the domestic front, is now single-handedly responsible for the running of our household (a development we will share at a later date) and is getting better at it every day. And on the artistic front, with blue plastic document sheets, sticky tape and a stanley knife, he produced a photographic soft-box that make today’s pictures even nicer than usual!

And me?

As you can see, I didn’t learn to braid my hair; I cut it all off, instead! In my defence, though, this has made it a lot easier to reach my goal of learning to swim properly and I HAVE successfully poached an egg, so I think I’m still ahead of the game. I also finished my first knitting project!

Kin’s scarf is so long that he can (and does!) wrap it around his entire head to keep the wind off his face when he rides to work. I’ve started a scarf for myself, now and once that’s done, I’ll be ready to get a little more ambitious.

Learning to draw underwent a lengthy hiatus during our illness, but during this week of shutdown Japan, I’ve picked it back up. Kin is excited to share his skills with me; I think he’s too optimistic, but I’ll keep trying.

We’re ready for you, 2014. We might end the year in New South Wales, but we’re starting it in Shiga, and we’re going to enjoy every single day of both!

Gem

At The Moment…

August 22, 2013 / enroutetoawesome / 1 Comment

Gem is doing her best to duplicate California Girls’ amazing kimchee pasta recipe.

Kin is trying exciting new things. (Note: Trying exciting new things is not always a good idea, especially if they involve beer and tomatoes in the same can)

We are seeing these beauties almost every weekend. Gotta love the Japanese summer; the heat is intense but the fireworks make up for it.

We are trying out our wonderful new camera! (Visitors to our Facebook page may have already seen “The Blair Wasp Project” one of Kin’s first experiences with the Powershot; we are very, very happy that it’s a Toughcam!)

We are showing new JETs around our wonderful town.

We have run out of pins AGAIN, working on the photo wall.

We are counting down until Gem’s mother comes to visit!

What’s going on in your world at the moment?

Gem and Kin

Right Now…

August 5, 2013 / enroutetoawesome / 0 Comments

We mostly wanted to write a quick note to say that Gem has started a Facebook page! So if you want to, you can like us over there, without getting constant naggy emails every time we post.

Other things that are going on in our world right now are:

Kin has been sketching at work (this is Timbuktu, his visit school coworker).

We are enjoying final farewells with friends.

Gem is making a lot of salad (the last of the iceberg lettuce need to be used RIGHT now, before the heat dissolves it into pots of sludge; the leafing varieties are still going strong).
We are enjoying warm summer nights in beautiful places. This is the August illumination at Kodaiji, a lesser-known temple in Kyoto in one of our favourite areas.
Gem has started this book (under Kin’s guidance) and can feel new synapses fizzing into existence. For an example of Gem’s current artistic ability, please look here.
We are relishing everything a Nagahama summer has to offer!

Bring on August!

Menu Planning and Will Power: or, Being Awesome When You Don’t Feel Awesome

July 24, 2013 / enroutetoawesome / 3 Comments

There are days when it’s hard to summon the energy to be awesome. Days you have to drag yourself through. Days you can only manage doing what absolutely has to be done.

If you aren’t careful, these days can turn into years. You can wish your entire life away, one weekday at a time without ever finding a chance to do anything you love. How can we live happily today, while still making sure that tomorrow will be awesome?

Firstly, to be honest, you probably need to step outside your life for a while and make some decisions about where you’re going with it. But that’s a subject for another day. If you’ve already done that and you’re still having days where you can’t just haul up your socks and genki your way through, you might need some help to stay motivated. How do you keep up your awesome when you frankly don’t feel very awesome at all?

The Power of Will

The internet has a lot to say about this. Apparently, it’s all about focus. It’s about how much you want IT (whatever IT is). It’s about being 100% committed to a goal and prepared to make any sacrifice.

It’s about bullshit, basically. Bullshit and having other people iron your shirts. This sales talk/gym bro/ business seminar attitude will not help us manage our responsibilities and nurture our relationships, because it’s all about ME and MY goals. How can I get that? What will this do for ME?

I guess that’s okay if you’re working toward a specific goal for a short period (although I still don’t like it) but it’s no way to live your life. We’re trying to be awesome and part of that is managing our lives like adults, which is a lot more complex than devoting ourselves 100% to one big, shiny outcome (while Mum picks up our socks and buys our protein shakes).

We have a myriad of big, medium and sometimes really tiny goals, scattered across all of the areas of our lives. We need to prepare for that meeting, make that sandwich, email that friend, run that 10km, mop that floor; and so on and so on for the rest of your life. The list is endless and if you try to manage everything on it through sheer force of will you are going to die. I’m not even kidding. A Busy person will try to push through and work themselves to collapse (not to mention a host of stress-related lifestyle diseases) while a Lazy person will burn out fast and never achieve anything again (while developing similar lifestyle diseases through inactivity).

Willpower is for Wimps

Ever heard of a child prodigy? Great! Now, ever heard of an adult prodigy? Exactly. People who think you can rely on force of will to achieve things are people who have someone else managing the hard stuff for them.

Will power is important, but it is also finite. You need to save it for times when you really, really need it. Times when you’re trying to convince yourself to go for a jog on a rainy morning, or trying to get a two-year old to eat three bites of their lunch. The rest of the time you can get by with something simpler, with a far lower energy cost.

You just have to plan. It’s that simple.

Let your energetic, clear-thinking self be the captain, let your less energetic, path-of-least-resistance self follow that lead. If you meet each day with a plan, that’s one less thing you’ll need to worry about.

Limited Choice (and Ultimate Power)

Our first world lives are wonderful. We have so many options available to us and an incredible amount of freedom to make choices. This is a wonderful time and place to be alive. But each decision you make requires that you exercise your will, expend mental energy and reduce your abilities in further decision making! Ever hear of decision fatigue? Choice can be a killer.

The way to continue toward constant personal awesomeness without having a breakdown is to limit these options ahead of time. Plan what you’re going to do, then cut off (almost) all of your escape routes.

And the best place to start doing this is with food. We all eat it, we all buy it and we ALL spend our first years out of home arguing about whose turn it is to cook it and what we should make. Even people who cook for a hobby often hate the chore of making regular meals, because of the amount of variables involved in making a decision.

Nutrition. How many serves of veggies have you eaten today? Are you exercising a lot? Are you sick? Have your period? Now what about these variables for every single other person in the house?

Supply. What’s in the fridge? In the cupboards? Can you be bothered shopping? (side note; a herb and vegetable garden helps you both broaden AND narrow your options here. More nagging on this topic in the future). What needs to be used up? What sort of leftovers will you get from what you make?

Enjoyment. What, actually, would you like to eat? What do the other people who will be eating enjoy? What can you prepare that will make eating together a pleasant experience?

If, when I get home, the question is “What will I make for dinner?”, then I have a BIG problem. I’m exhausted, I’m hungry, I want to eat the first thing I find that doesn’t need any preparation and then I want to watch T.V. for three hours. After THAT I might have some energy to think through better options (although of course then, it’s much too late).

If, however, the question is “What AM I making for dinner?” then I check my menu plan (created on Saturday, when I’m rested and can see glorious freedom stretching out in front of me) and start opening cupboards, chopping vegetables and mixing sauces because a decision has already been made; I just have to carry that decision out. And the sooner I do that, the sooner I get to eat whatever wonderful thing my clever, motivated self decided would be best to bring my dopey, lethargic self back to full power.

It works, too. After a shower and a decent meal, Kin and I are both ready for anything the evening might bring. The other joyous side-effects of menu-planning include:

– Money saved and waste reduced; because you’re actually eating all of your leftovers!

– Increases in speed and skill at both cooking and cleaning up (which means that your menus will gradually become some pretty serious business)

– Increased ability to come up with something good when you do have to invent meals in a hurry.

– You and those you live with will eat healthy, balanced meals every day. Believe someone who has worked in restaurants owned by folk of a variety of ethnicities: Restaurant food is never, ever healthy. Not EVER. I don’t care what you’re eating, grilled fish, steamed veggies, whatever; we have done something to it that makes it unhealthy. It’s what we do. Restaurant cooking is about best flavour achieved in shortest period, which means that we blanch it, keep it in the fridge for a week, then cover it in oil. Home cooking has more options.

Good planning not only helps you organize yourself, it helps you pinpoint times when you might need another person’s help, so you can ask in advance. It lets you understand what resources you will need ahead of time, so you can prepare your work materials better. And finally, it allows you to relax and just enjoy your day, without having to try and be 100% on top of things at all times.

How do you plan? Are there any strategies you use to reduce your dependence on will power?

Gem

EDIT: Wow, that was a long one! Well done getting through it!

Tag: food

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