Veganly Cowboy Kidney Beans

baking potatoes

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
1 red bell pepper
4 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cups coffee
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained

Put the potatoes in the oven at 375 degrees.

Gently heat oil over low heat as you finely chop the onion, garlic, and red bell, adding vegetables to the pan as they are chopped. Turn up the heat to medium high and saute aromatics until golden, about ten minutes. Add chili powder and stir until fragrant. Add tomatoes and coffee, and bring to a strong simmer. Add beans and a bit more water if it seems too thick, and simmer about twenty minutes or until potatoes are done.

Per 1/4 recipe on a baked potato, 496 calories

Salt and Vinegar

A potato chip, anyway, is pretty easily obtained.

So I've been reading my favorite life coach, about clean pain and dirty pain. Clean pain is, like, primary pain. Like I'm sick and can't stop coughing, I feel all shook up. Dirty pain is secondary pain. Like I've been sick three times in as many months, I keep missing out on valuable workout time & I'm just going to keep falling behind everybody else. And the reason I keep getting sick is, I'M A LOSER. I'm not tough enough for this, I need to look across the river and think about the rabbit farm.

Or in other words, secondary pain is the story that we tell about the pain. Let's say that the pain is true, and the story is not true. I mean even the good stories. As a writer, I accept this pretty easily. All stories are made up. Fine. But. True does not mean good, and not true does not mean bad. True and good are different things.

Even better, the pain is real and the story is not real. Forget about true.

Once you accept that all stories are made up, you free yourself to make up stories that are good or stories that are bad. Or in ethical terms, stories that work and stories that don't work. A good story works. A bad story doesn't work. And by "works," I mean it makes you feel good.

So, what. You make up some story that makes you feel good. But how can it make you feel good, you know you made it up! All stories are made up. So you can make up a story that makes you feel good, or you can make up a story that makes you feel bad.

So my story is, being sick is my body's way of getting rest and fluids. Which it's using to build in the muscle memory of all the sunrises and substitutes and skate practices over the past six weeks, and that's how it works: you break yourself down and build yourself up...

...and in another six weeks, it will be spring.

I've Had Just About Enough Of Sweet

I am dog, dead tired. I mean, I'm sick. I have some sort of bronchitis. It's not the worst thing in the world. Not being able to breathe is the worst thing in the world. That, actually, may be objectively true. But I can breathe, I just can't talk without coughing. I can stop coughing if I constantly sip Coke. Or take vicodin.

One day, I will tell you about the vicodin.

I really can't be taking vicodin. And I draw the line at two Cokes in a day, after which I switch to throat coat tea and then water; they are effective in that order. I'm sick of sweet. I'm sick of wet, I feel like my mouth is getting wrinkly like your fingers get in the bath. I mean, it isn't—

I want a potato chip.

I'm tired of having to pee every two minutes.

But I was tired before I was sick, because of the horcruxes. Or maybe when you're tired, your immune system stops protecting you from horcruxes and then viruses.

I want to sleep for like a week. I want red flannel hash and orange juice for breakfast. I want to sweep out every room in the apartment. I want to clean out the refrigerator. I want to scrub the bathroom. I want to run. I want there to be sun. I want that grilled spinach sandwich that I used to get at Filter. I want to ride my bike. I want to wear my bikini.

Eh, I thought it might help.

Veganly Mexican Pinto Beans and Hominy

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion
1 chipotle pepper
1 tsp oregano
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can broth
1 can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 can hominy, rinsed and drained

Gently heat oil over low heat as you finely dice the onion and chipotle; you can add aromatics to the pan as they are diced. Add oregano, and stir until fragrant. Add tomatoes and broth, and bring to a strong simmer. Add beans and hominy; simmer until slightly thickened, about twenty minutes.

Per 1/2 recipe, 482 calories

Poppy Munt and the Half-Baked Horcruxes

Lord have mercy, I got started rereading Harry Potter about two weeks ago & the first three books are like they're always eating delicious, delicious food, and what do you know, reading is like an escape into another world, a world FULL OF MAGIC & you know how Buffy isn't about surviving vampires, it's about surviving high school (some say), Harry Potter isn't about discovering that you have magical abilities, it's about discovering that you have any abilities & that is straight up magical, but then it turns at the fourth book, and then the last three books are like horcruxes for the love of Peter Pettigrew, I mean, I know that structurally it makes sense, it's The Big Gloom, and I'm not actually saying this to be critical about the Harry Potter books, not that something critical can't be said about the Harry Potter books, but I'm just talking about what it feels like to read. All I'm saying is, I felt those first three books and felt good & also the fourth book, is actually my favorite. And for the last three books, I felt bad. And they're long, too!

So it was sort of like a psychological experiment where you artifically make yourself feel bad for a week and see if it affects you, which it does me. As in, it slightly took away my will to live; I don't mean I was suicidal, I just didn't want to do anything that didn't involve lying on the chaise.

Be specific, Munt! Be precise! Did you really only lie on the chaise for a week? No, I did supersets and substitutes. I went to work. I taught the derby lite park district ladies. I went to rioters practice, and speed and circuit. I did eight hundred and sixty pushups.

But besides that!

I haven't been doing morning pages that are worth anything, I mean not worth anything to me. Morning pages aren't supposed to be worth anything to anybody else. What are they worth to me, though, that might be an interesting question. Probably only interesting to me. I've been keeping up with bills, but not reviewing and planning & not with my weekly log, which you may not know about. I keep a weekly log, imagine that.

I haven't been thinking, is what. I would say that I haven't had time to think, but I did. It's just that I filled it up with Harry Potter.

So I got on the bus for the first time in two weeks with nothing to read, and you know, I'm not saying that it's bad to read. It was nice to look forward to getting on the bus and being in that other world. But when your life is jam packed, it's also nice to leave some empty spaces—

Orange You Glad

The MRI of my sister's head was clean, can you imagine getting an MRI to check if you have cancer in your head? She was the last person in the country to be accepted into this clinical trial. And her recent symptoms have all but disappeared.

I'll tell you what: you only say good news, bad news, who knows if it's bad news. If it's good news, you take it—

How It's Going sunrises to supersets

Then last week, I couldn't face sunrises for another morning. It makes sense, I'd been doing them for about six weeks; six weeks is a good length of time for any program. So I'm switching out sunrises for supersets, which we did last week at strength circuit. A superset is when two exercises are performed back to back with no break, and it's to build muscle faster. Pom is building me an upper body, the better to take blocks with. More TK!

Also last week, at the company dinner, we all goaded each other into a year-long pushup competition. I told you I liked the people I work with. Travis's goal is to do 25,000 pushups this year and my goal is to beat Travis, so I thought I should do 150 pushups every other day; but then we both went nuts and are refusing to back down, it's like the cuban missile crisis of pushup contests...

Veganly Cajun Red Beans and Rice

2 cups brown rice
3 cups water

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion
3 ribs celery
1 green bell pepper
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp paprika
1 tsp thyme
1 can broth
1 can red beans, rinsed and drained

Put rice and water in a pot, bring to a boil over high heat, turn heat to very low and let simmer while you make the beans.

Gently heat oil over low heat as you finely chop the onion, celery, and green bell, adding vegetables to the pan as they are chopped. Turn up the heat to medium high and saute aromatics until almost browned, about twenty minutes. Add tomato paste, spices, and broth & bring to a strong simmer. Add beans & simmer until slightly thickened, about ten minutes.

Serve over rice.

Per 1/4 recipe, 482 calories

Being Human

Last Wednesday I say to pit crew, "I have to tell you the saddest story."

Pit crew instantly says, "Is it about Haiti?"

"Oh my god, nevermind!"

But then I tell him anyway that I finally managed to sneak away to the art store to get ink and a squeegee to print my name on the back of my practice shirts, picked everything out, brought it to the register, and didn't have my wallet.

I know, tragedy. I mean, the art store; could there be anything more discretionary? And when I got back to work, my wallet was just on my desk.

But it's like that, you know? Everything in the world, and in your world, all going on, all in your head, all at once.

But I was just about to buy a new set of wheels, and donated to Partners In Health instead.

Glove Surgery

How It's Going that was fun

I've never walked myself through my whole schedule, all the way to the end. That really helped to see the whole picture in my mind. Well, except for the The Blind Spot:

SUN	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT
MORNING sleep in	MORNING sunrises	MORNING suicides	MORNING sunrises	MORNING suicides	MORNING sunrises	MORNING Fleetwood Speed
PLAY WCR Rioters	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	HOBBY Review & Plan
HOBBY	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	HOBBY
HOBBY	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	HOBBY
PASTIME Choppers	PLAY interval	PLAY USA Speed	PLAY circuit	PLAY speed or agility	PASTIME	PASTIME
EVENING stretches	EVENING stretches	EVENING stretches	EVENING stretches	EVENING stretches	EVENING stretches	EVENING stretches

Eeesh.

But nevermind that, I work for nice people and I don't want to get dooced. And I got a raise. Actually, I got a bonus and a raise. Though I think I'm just going to spend that on not doing a budget review, buy myself some breathing room to not think about what I'm spending every penny on. I know that probably sounds like the worst idea ever, but you have to take into account how tightly wound up I am. When I unwind, I'm still pretty neatly wound.

So that's that. Everything is is place.

Bored now.

Ha ha ha!

Veganly Cuban Beans seriously, so good

1 sweet potato
1 head garlic
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp oregano

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion
1-2 poblanos
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp paprika
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 can broth
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Peel and cube the sweet potato. Separate the head of garlic into cloves and peel. Toss sweet potatoes and garlic with olive oil, oregano, and a little bit of salt. Roast for about twenty minutes.

Gently heat oil over low heat as you finely chop the onion and poblanos, adding vegetables to the pan as they are chopped. Turn up the heat to medium high and saute aromatics until golden, about ten minutes. Add tomato paste, spices, and broth & bring to a strong simmer. Add beans and roasted sweet potato and garlic & simmer until slightly thickened, about 20 minutes.

Per 1/2 recipe, 471 calories

LOL

Today's Cat and Girl:

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Diastole

So like I spend half my time doing strenuous physical activity, and the other half lying on the chaise covered in blankets, coughing, like Camille. I was thinking that I need a secondary hobby suitable for an invalid; and then I thought, Oh. I blog.