Finding your path: a few good e-courses

I’m taking a break from errands and typing up my lists of intentions (and maybe even putting off a little workout) to provide you with this!

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Friends, one of my goals for the new year is to create some e-courses revolving around good food, health and happiness – but I’m not quite there yet! So, I thought I might share with you a few e-courses that I know will be stellar that other people are leading in the next month or two. Many of them are starting in just a few days, so if you are inspired, sign up right away! All are under $100, and some are free! I’m not taking all of the courses (even though I want to!) but I’ve taken courses or worked with every one of these folks in the past – and none of these are affiliate links* – consider them all highly recommended!

Charly’s Delightfully Well E-Course – I went to high school with Charly but fell out of touch, and I’ve just been so thrilled at how wonderful a life she is creating for herself and sharing with others. She’s a health coach, yoga teacher, and writer, and would be a wonderful guide. (Note, this starts in two days, so you’ll have to sign up by the 31st!)

An online cooking class at Stone Soup Virtual Cookery School – Jules of The Stone Soup offers these wonderful video cooking classes, as well as some excellent pdf’s that I find myself buying (often). I really enjoyed ‘Mastering the Art of Cooking on a Budget’.

A Whole 30 or the Balanced Bites 21 Day Sugar Detox – for folks interested in a Paleo eating style, these two courses are some of the best ways to ease into things. And by ease I mean, well, cutting out processed food 100% is never easy, but you’ll be munching on fabulous whole foods, planning your meals, and eating better than you have in a while. {I hear that Nom Nom Paleo is going to be the cruise director for the next Whole30 – which is reason enough to jump aboard!}

Rachel Cole’s Ease Hunting – Rachel is a beautiful human being, inside and out. She’s hosting a course from February through March, and it will undoubtably be wonderful. I spent a moving afternoon with her and other women in Providence last year on her Well-Fed Woman Retreatshop, and it was one of the best things I did all year.

Chookooloonks Create.2013 – Karen Walrond is an excellent guide, and I’m excited for this course on intentional creative pursuits. Her blog is one of my favorites, and I’ve enjoyed some of her photo-courses, journaling advice, and general creative inspiration. She makes me want to go out there and DO.

Are there any courses that you’ve signed up for that I should know about? (Or that you are leading? Plug them in the comments!)

Weekend snapshots, odds + ends.

This weekend I started finally unpacking boxes, and putting cookbooks up on the shelves. At some point I’ll have to find a place for this bookshelf that isn’t hit by the sun, but fortunately, the winter light at this latitude doesn’t pose much of a bleaching risk. I still need to organize the books, but it’s a relief having them in plain sight. I’m debating arranging them by genre, color, size or by publisher. Ideas?

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Last week was a very long week. It qualified as a ‘Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week’, culminating with the terrifying news of kids getting slaughtered. I’m angry, devastated, and there are no words appropriate in this situation. It took me a week to post this because there was so much to process and I was hoping to say something meaningful, but indeed the words still haven’t come, and I’m not sure they ever will. My own experiences this week seem trivial, but I wrote them out to let go of some of the stress, so here they are:

We officially announced that we are closing down Tasted Menu, the startup I’ve been working at since moving home to New England. It’s painful to let something go that you care deeply about, nurtured, and put so much of yourself into. I’ve been overwhelmed by the kindness of friends (and even strangers) expressing their sadness and support.

I’ve been interviewing, trying to find my next new project, the next thing that will have me thrilled to wake up each morning and go into work. It’s simultaneously exciting and draining. There are so many formidable people out there doing exciting things.

We are reaching the end of Startup School, and I had to pitch myself in front of a few hundred people. Admittedly I’m not afraid of getting up in front of a crowd, but after six weeks of massive daily input my nerves were fried. And pitching yourself is much more difficult than pitching a product, giving a talk, or making an announcement – but I think it went well.

Coupled with a few unrelated issues including my car’s starter being “finicky”, and some massively bad luck with several external hard drives, this was certainly a week that tested me – but the reality is, there is so much that I am grateful for, and I’m truly lucky for the life and opportunities I have.

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When we first moved to San Francisco, Wednesday evenings were my dinners alone, the nights when I’d eat “girl food”, load up on leafy greens, and eat through the odds and ends in the kitchen. While I’m not particularly fussy about what goes into these meals, the goal is always to find some sort of balance, and get a nice mix of salty, bitter, sweet and savory. It’s my favorite way to nourish myself after a week of stress or poor food choices.

Yesterday I put together one of those meals for lunch. Into the frying pan went a huge handful of parsley that had been sitting in the back of the fridge neglected and semi-frozen, some leftover cooked red cabbage, and a scoop of Italian Salsa Verde, with capers, anchovies, and olive oil.

At the last minute, I heated up the last bit of roasted carrots, and added them to the bowl, and topped it all with a few eggs. Another one of those odd meals that I find comforting and satisfying.

Before I leave you, here’s some afternoon light coming in. For those of you prone to worry, I urge you to grab a camera and search for some light. Cheers me up every time.

Cold Days + Simple Meals

It’s cold.

I thought I’d be used to it again, or at least tolerant by now. I was deluding myself.

One observation of the season is the ritual progression of coats. I started out with the fleece, quickly moved up to my cheerful red peacoat, and then to my more stylish puffy coat, then to my “prepared for a trek to the Arctic” puffier coat, and today I had the fleece under the puffiest puffy coat and I was still cold. Ah, New England. I remember the days where I used to wear my flip flops past first snow. What has become of me?Oh yes, I’ve become weak.

What, you ask, have I been busying myself with in this frigid weather?

School! Boston Startup School. I alluded to this a few weeks ago before I dropped of the face of the earth – it’s a six week program to sharpen your skills, network with fantastic people, and make deep connections with the Boston startup scene. It has been busy.

Spending my entire day in school has shifted my cooking schedule, so I’ve been making many meals in advance to make sure that we are well fed. I roast vegetables every week, and I always try to hard boil a dozen eggs. When I’m in the mood, I’ll bake them in the oven, but this week they went in a pot on the stove. After they were cooked, I rinsed them in cool water, dried them off, put them back into their carton, and made sure to label them! Usually they last me until the next weekend.

This week I also roasted some carrots for lunches, and steamed a pot of cauliflower which I blitzed into cauliflower mash with a large knob of butter, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.

Our dinners have been mostly simple: chicken thighs with sautéed broccoli, a pot of chili that lasts a few days as needed.

One night I roasted sausages from the butcher shop and served them with some broccoli that I steamed and finished off in the sausage pan-drippings.

Another meal was a bowl of ground beef seasoned with cumin and chili powder, sautéed spinach, salsa and avocado. Devon’s favorite meal is refried beans with all the fixins’, so he got the same dinner plus some bonus beans nestled in two grilled tortillas. I typically like serving us both the same food, but I don’t mind tweaking like this for our preferences.

Another night we had pork tenderloin seasoned with herbes de Provence, mashed sweet potato, cranberry sauce and some out of season asparagus. While I used to have panic attacks about eating out of season vegetables, I now do so unapologetically if it means something green other than leafy greens and root veg in this northern climate.

And sometimes, fatigue wins out.

Yesterday, there were these green beans which I roasted with olive oil, salt, thyme and lemon slices at 400 for about 35 minutes. I wish I could tell you I ate a rounded meal, but they ended up in a bowl with some leftover ground turkey, and a large spoonful of yogurt. It was a little weird.

Dessert was in order, and included a run to Target which involved picking up not one, but two pints of Ben and Jerry’s: Coffee Heath Bar Crunch, and the curiously good Strawberry Shortcake Greek Frozen Yogurt. Yes, I know, it isn’t health food.

Here’s one last picture for you – Boston Harbor, taken from the Waterfront by the ICA. That water is not warm.

Hope you all have a lovely Monday!