Waste not. Want not.

I was a big punk rock fan growing up. I think I listened to Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death by the Dead Kennedy’s enough times to wear a hole in it. And I know the title was mocking our mass culture of convenience and slack but convenience itself is synonymous with comfort.. and without shame I’m here to say, sometimes I want that. I woke up desiring tacos.. the kind you lazily call in ahead of time, before you’ve even attempted to get dressed. But I have food here.. and I reminded myself that in America we waste 40% of our food (FORTY PERCENT!!). It adds up to an estimated $165 billion worth of food EVERY YEAR. Then there are the environmental costs... Vast amounts of land, fresh water, and energy are consumed in the production of food that’s left to rot while many go hungry.. Not cool. I’ve been a statistic a few times in my life but I can’t allow myself to actively be part of that one. So I dragged all the things out of my fridge that had been hanging around, waiting for their 15 minutes and made them into a smoothie. Convenience? Check! Being part of the solution? Check! If you want to lend a hand in changing this statistic here are some ideas:

Plan your meals and stick to it. Like the meme goes, being an adult is mostly having the “we have food at home” talk with yourself.

Support your local food bank. Here, let me help you find one near you.

Fuck vanity. There’s tons of food that goes to waste because it doesn’t look quite like the others. Maybe it’s lumpy or blemished or the “wrong” size.. and we wouldn’t want anyone to discount us for our differences, yeah? So try a service like Misfit Market or Imperfect Foods to stuff your belly and not the landfill. This option gets extra points for convenience. They straight up deliver it to you. Huzzah!

Day 168: I’m calling this smoothie Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables.. because I also really loved that Dead Kennedy’s album AND nearly everything in this smoothie was about to go tits up. Coconut cashew cream, a wavering banana, the end of the kale, an “aged” apple, the last splash of almond milk, some sad grapes, something that I once called parsley and a hefty spoonful of almond butter that could have out lived us all, for texture. It was delicious!

Maybe…

I’m writing at the end of the day.. it started off strong. Ultimately the day was a mixed bag though. Big ups. Big downs. The wins were celebrated with waffles and rounds of badminton with my neighbors. The downs.. well, a work project that has been holding on to a lot of my energy was dragged back to square one. A technical glitch (or kick in the pants) from the fun that is mercury retrograde. It’s frustrating and tedious. I napped, I stretched, I took a bath and there was a little bit of cursing and commiserating with my wisest friends on the phone. One told me to look at the lost work as a rough draft. That stung but he is right. So tomorrow is a new day. My goal is to approach it with grace and remain mindful of the fact that no event in and of itself can truly be judged as good or bad. You just gotta let it play out because who knows? Like that old Taoist story about the farmer and his horse. You know the one. His horse runs off one day and the neighbors say “Damn. Bad luck, man,” and the farmer says “Maybe..” The next day the horse shows back up with 3 new friends. A little gang of wild ponies. All the neighbors are like “Hell yeah, free ponies! That’s awesome!” And the farmer just says “Maybe..” but then his son falls and breaks his leg while riding one of the new ponies and all the neighbors showed up to express their sympathies for his “misfortune” again.. “maybe”. A week rolls by and the military comes to draft his son but they end up not taking him because his leg is busted from riding free ponies and the neighbors all congratulate the farmer for how surprisingly well it all turned out and he just says “maybe”…

I want to be this farmer.. maybe.

Day 167: Waffles for the win! Sweet potato, corn, roasted garlic and poblano peppers with Greek yogurt, herbs, avocado and a poached egg. I basically added last nights leftovers to some grated sweet potato and beat an egg into it to hold it all together. I love a leftover makeover and my waffle iron does too.

What is new and good? III

Welcome to another edition of What is new and good? Here we go..

As a podcast addict I am thrilled to report that Amy Dresner (journalist, former comedian and author of my all time favorite recovery memoir) has started a new show with Joe Schrank (cofounder of thefix.com). Rehab Confidential covers rehab (duh), drug policy and recovery with a sense of humor and Amy’s classic “Fuck Shame.” agenda.

I love Amy. I love her book, My Fair Junky. I even wrote a public review. Which oddly enough is something I never do (but definitely sounds like something I do all the time). It went like this:

“Straight, no chaser.. This thing is pure guts. And I love Amy Dresner’s guts. She’s so quick and blunt and unforgettable. She must have literally hammered the words on to the page. I related to everything she had to say about a lifetime of feelings she just didn’t want to feel. Her insight regarding The Container Store, dating sober men and the benefits of performing community service are both hilarious and spot on. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and you’ll definitely cringe as she steps in it again and again. I put off reading it but I won’t put off reading it a second time. Only an addict could write a book this addictive.”

So yeah. Get yourself a copy. Also, beyond being an incredible writer Amy is kind and amazing. Once upon a time after a particularly aggressive relapse, I woke up criminally hung over. Full of shame and anxiety.. feeling hopeless. I don’t know why but I sent Amy a message. I don’t know her. Never met her but she got back to me. Quickly too. My hangover was still in full swing as her message rolled in. She told me to start again and clean up my wreckage later. She said “Fuck shame. Forgive yourself and get up.“ which is totally what I needed to hear. Check out her show and the book. It’s totally worth your time.

Day 166: Glorified toddler snacks.. Rice cakes with peanut butter, cinnamon, apples, pumpkin seeds, tamari roasted cantaloupe seeds, coconut butter and chia.

P.S. Amy never smiles in her pictures so I didn’t smile in mine.

Care-ful

It’s easy to let days slip by when you’re down. To maybe not eat enough.. or too much.. not hydrate.. not be able to muster the energy to exercise. It can become a trend though. That thing where you look up and it’s been a week since you yoga’d and your trash can is full of food that came out of a box rather than the ground. You gotta be careful because.. that’s easy. And yeah, it’s tempting to want things to be easy when you’re going through something hard. Salad is pretty easy though. Going for a walk is too. Also, I am saying it again, everyone should own a copy of When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodren. If you want a free copy from Audible I will send it to you. Nothing is easier (or more comforting) than letting someone read to you.. Just leave a comment or email me (bonnierue@gmail.com) and it is yours.

Day 165: Big Salad.. Arugula, avocado, bell pepper, okra, tomatoes, lemon, quinoa, pepitas, chia seeds and sun cheese.

Casa de Luz introduced me to Sun Cheese. They put it all over their steamed greens and pile it onto their grains. It’s vegan and made of sunflower seeds, hence the name. I just love it. Sunflower seeds are rich in B vitamins. That sounds good sure, but what do B vitamins do? Well check it out. They metabolize your food and turn it into energy. Which is like the entire point, right? They balance your hormones and boost your immune system. They keep you from becoming anemic and lower your risk of stroke. So get some sun cheese in your life. It’s easy. It’s also cheap, delicious, dairy free and your body digs it.

Sun Cheese
1 1/4 cup hulled organic sunflower seeds (soak them for at least 4 hours if not over night)
1 clove garlic loosely chopped
2 Tbsp umeboshi plum vinegar - a staple around here, forever in my pantry.
2 Tbsp lemon juice - FRESH. If it comes out of one of those plastic lemons, you are officially bumming me out and cheating yourself. Those things should be outlawed.
1 cup H20

Connection

Breakfast didn’t happen yesterday. I received a call the night before and learned that a friend I have been worried about had passed. There are no details yet. Just that they were found in their apartment. I had gone by their place a few weeks before after some dark days of no communication. No one was there.They had recently relapsed after 8 years of sobriety and I knew it was bad. The relapse came with an abusive relationship and of course, quarantine. A new level of isolation. No school. No work. It has been a tough time to stay sober for many of us. Connection is the opposite of addiction.. these words have been on repeat in my mind. Not knowing what happened is hard. Wondering if there is more I could have done is harder. They had wanted to meet up. There were invitations to bars and coffee shops but I felt unsafe and was worried that they had not been taking the same precautions I do. Worried about their health and my own. I tried to be there how I could. I listened. We talked about how they could get out of their relationship and begin to heal. I sent contact information for counselors and hotlines. I offered to help them get into the recovery center I used to cook for. I just keep replaying all these ways I tried to help shift the situation around that didn’t help at all… it’s crushing. At moments it just seems unreal. I keep thinking about how yeah, they were going through a shit time but that they were going THROUGH it. Not that they were approaching the end. The cliches of looking back over the last few text messages and replaying the last time you spoke to them. Looking at how we all exist in these very powerful yet fragile ways and trying to reconcile that contrast. If not for Covid I would have said, “come for dinner. let’s take walk..” but that’s not how it went down. So here I am. Wanting to take my heart out of my head so it’s less painful to accept that they are not here anymore.. and despite my efforts I could not truly reach them when they were.

If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, isolation or an abusive relationship reach out. Connect. Have hope.

Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration Virtual Recovery Resources
Better Help - affordable online counseling
National Domestic Violence Hotline

Off Menu Mantra

My friend Amy sent me this text today. It was a nice reminder of an old mantra that I could stand to resurrect. In the spirit of not eating turds..

Day 163: Coconut ginger rice, avocado, daikon kimchi, cilantro, sesame oil, Braggs liquid aminos, chia, hemp hearts and a 6 minute egg.

p.s. my computer keeps attempting to auto correct “turds” to “tired”.. because I believe it also knows the effect of eating turds. I mean, it does regularly connect to the internet.

Seedy

I love seeds. I eat a lot of them. Maybe you have noticed. I also like to save the seeds from things I eat. It is a habit I picked up from my mother. She sprouts them around the kitchen or gifts them to neighbors. Sometimes she will forget which seeds are from what so she ends up with these mystery plants. Which is pretty fun. One time, she planted some seeds she had found in my bedroom out by the pool. They really took off. It was quite the scandal in our little suburbia. Clearly my mother is very trusting and completely innocent. I do not have the yard space my mother does so most of the seeds I save never make their way back into the dirt. I like to roast them. I like crunchy snacks plus seeds are full of fiber and nutrients. It’s a shame to just throw them away. And roasting isn’t just for pumpkin seeds in the fall. Summer is here for this. Squash, melon and even pepper seeds roast up quite well. Little bit of oil and some salt is all you truly need but you can get creative and add other spices or even nutritional yeast for the cheesy vibe. After roasting you can throw them in your coffee grinder and add the results to your favorite spice rub. You know, for all that summertime bbqing. If you are like me (less inclined to cook over an open flame while it is well over 100 degrees outside) you can just sprinkle them on everything or eat them like popcorn. Your call.

Day 162: daikon kimchi, cantaloupe, cucumber, avocado, cilantro and sunflower sprouts. Topped with tamari roasted cantaloupe and mystery squash seeds.

If you want to roast your own seeds just scoop them out, rinse them off before you spread them out on a baking sheet. Drizzle them with a little oil of your choosing (I used coconut because I have a ton of it), season it up or splash some tamari on them and pop in the oven for 10 minutes at 325 degrees. You’ll want to disrupt them a little but during this time. Just push them around the pan once to make sure they roasty all over. If they need more color on them let them hang out in the oven for another 5-10 minutes. Pro tip: let them cool before putting them in your mouth. May sound obvious but I, myself have been guilty of skipping this crucial step.

Trust

I want to talk about intuition. Warning.. there is a rant coming on. I want to talk about it because we are all so unbelievably perceptive and yet.. I see so many of us not listening to our guts. I think it’s due to the fact that in this life we face a lot of inconvenient truths. And here are just a few.. That pizza is not good for you. Ya know it. That dude you’re dating is a total dirtbag. Look at him. The system is corrupt. They keep proving it. Wine exacerbates your anxiety levels. Tell me I am wrong. We have a nose for what’s up. Humans are high instinct. We’re animals but we live outside of our environment. We’ve been domesticated and too many of us no longer trust ourselves. Not when it comes to what to eat. How to act. Who to fuck. How to vote. We are not tuned into ourselves. And in the moments we are we often discount that clarity We second guess ourselves. We gotta stop this. Here’s a story.. once upon a time the wife of a man I worked for scheduled a meeting with me. She sat down at my desk and flat out asked me to stop helping him. Basically she wanted me to stop doing my job. She said that he came home from work and expected the same kind of assistance he got in the office from her. I’ll never forget it. She put her hands in her hair and said “I just can’t be his shortcut to thinking.” Gasp! A shortcut to thinking. What a nightmare. That is what we have done here. Inconvenienced by the miracles that are our mental processes and internal instincts.. we are relying on others far too often. And we all know that a lot of the time “others” actually means corporations, administrations and dubious systems. Groups with agendas that don’t have our best interest in mind. I mean look at how much blind faith we have in the FDA. It’s criminal. They are criminal. We look and trust outside ourselves rather than deciphering, feeling, thinking, facing and accepting our own truths. And why would we would we do that? I worry that it’s because too many of us do not truly value ourselves. And on that note… I’m going to put a pin in it. Clearly there will be a future follow up rant about self worth. Until then.. get quiet. Turn up your intuition. Put down the pizza. Trust. You know what’s up.

Day 161: Sautéed kale with lemon. Cucumbers and cherry tomatoes with smoked trout. Plus a spicy mustard yogurt sauce and everything bagel seasoning.

Adaptable Energy

It rained this morning and it felt like a sign from above to sleep in late. A sign to have hot tea. To make oatmeal with extra cinnamon, ginger and ghee. I had planned to wake up, juice a little and head out on my bike covered in banana boat for a good sweat but.. 2020 hasn’t cared about any of our plans thus far and today is no different so ... rain, yoga and a warm bowl of cherry topped oatmeal it is. Pretty solid plan B. It’s all about that adaptable energy. That is why we meditate, folks! Because our plans don’t matter. We can bend or we can break. I don’t know about you but I’ve broken enough shit. I hope you are all enjoying the puddles and feeling highly adaptable on this fine Tuesday.

Day 160: Oat groats in almond milk, fresh ginger, cinnamon and ghee. Topped with coconut cashew cream, cherries, hazelnuts, pistachios and chia seeds.

Coconut Cashew Cream:
1 5oz can of organic coconut cream (chilled)
1/4 cashews

Easy, right? Blend until smooth in blender or with an immersion blender*. You can add honey or jaggery or maple syrup if you like. I didn’t want to add a sweetener to this batch because I am eating a lot of fruit these days and don’t need the extra sugar. You can put this on everything, add it to smoothies, dip fruit and pretzels in it for a snack.. whatever.

*The immersion blender is probably one of my all time favorite things in my kitchen. If you don’t have one, get one. It’s the Magic Wand of food. Highly effective and basically effortless to clean. Unlike most blenders.

What is new and good? II

A while back I mentioned that all of my work calls start off with a little round of “What is new and good?” I want to turn that into Monday ritual here on Naked and Eggs. Kicking the week off with some gratitude couldn’t hurt. So let’s get into it! I’ll go first. What IS new and good?

1. I have taken on a few private clients as a health coach and they have all been a lot of fun to work with! This new line of work is proving to be even more satisfying than I originally imagined. I feel more optimistic right now than I have since maybe January. Can’t spit at that.

2. My handstand game is getting strong! It is amazazing what daily practice will do for you.

3. All my tomatoes are starting to come in and they are beautiful! I generally do not eat a lot of night shades. They can cause inflammation. BUT in an effort to eat more (or strictly) seasonally I’ve decided to just let myself enjoy all the tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and eggplants the world is dishing out right now with wild abandon. My gut tells me that the Mother Nature knows what I need to be eating and when so I’ll roll with it until I am given a reason not to. Come what may!.. As they say.

That feels like a good place to stop. I’d love to hear from all of you in the comments! Let me know what is new and good in your world.

Day 159: Kale salad with coconut oil and brags amino acids, cucumbers, zebra tomatoes (grown by yours truly), marinated tofu and sesame seeds. Not pictured: The banana I ate while I made this salad situation happen.

I wanna be like you…

I think my dad took me to see The Jungle Book nearly half a dozen times while it was in the theaters. We would walk out of there all sugar high and singing. He would get Whoppers and I always got the Dots. He told me they would make my hair grow and I believed him. He told me a lot of unbelievable things that I totally ran with. Such as.. those giant round bails of hay? He had me believing they were cow eggs and yeah, at 5 or 6 years old that made sense to me! He told me that speed bumps were where they buried all the neighborhood pets and he would make sad tiny cat sounds when we drove over them. Dark? Maybe. Hilarious? Absolutely! He’s my funny Dad. He’s a man who has done many things and he’s done all of them well. He worked at the Paramount for years and then opened a head shop at 19th and Lavaca. It was called the White House. Because well, he’s my funny Dad. He worked for MCA Records for most of my life and supplied me and my friends with albums before they hit the shelf, the best of seats and all the backstage passes. I was spoiled for sure. He has also introduced me to some of my all time favorite things.. Transcendental Meditation, Tom Petty (the man himself and his music), the art of telling a good joke and ice cream. Apparently I was resistant to the ice cream. I don’t know who I would be with out him. So this one is for him. Love you Dad. Happy Fathers Day. Wish I could have made you breakfast.

Day 158: Hash.. sweet and reggae potatoes with an unidentified squash I grew in my garden (who knows how these things happen) with broccoli stalks and florets and arugula with a cheesy friend egg.

Eclipses, Retrogrades & New Moons, Oh My!

Happy Solstice Everybody! Man, the stars are totally reflecting all of our chaotic energy down here on planet earth.. or vice versa, rather. Which way does a mirror really work, right? Anyhow with 5 planets in retrograde (Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto), a solar eclipse and a new moon approaching… the energies are legit. Retrogrades insist we reflect, revise and decompress. The current energies suggest we may have failed to effectively do so in the past. I fear that if we don’t pay attention this time it could all go the way of that classic aversion therapy scene from Clockwork Orange. You know the one. So buckle up for the ride. Breathe. Pay attention. Look at all the deep dark stuff you’ve got laying around inside. And remember, carnival rules apply here. Keep your hands and arms inside The Mixer at all times. If this post felt a little too woo-y for you just remember that the moon creates the tides, yeah.

Day 157: Cosmic Chaos Solstice Salad: Kale, cabbage, mango, cantaloupe, avocado, cilantro, mint, chili, lime and coconut oil. Tossed.

Not everything I love is bad for me

“
“Eating a raw oyster is like french kissing a mermaid.”


”

— Tom Robbins

As I was about to start in on making breakfast a friend called me. It’s his birthday. He said that he desired to eat everything in the sea and that he’d like some company. Gemini’s.. am I right? They know how to party. We ordered two dozen blue points before they even brought water to the table. It had been a minute since I felt such glee. I love oysters. There’s just nothing else like them and I used to go out weekly for such a treat. I even kept a little notebook listing all the varieties I had tried. We slurped and got lit up on horseradish. I ordered a Topo. He got some Prosecco. Because oysters and bubbles are like peas and carrots or… kimchi and blueberries, imho. We were the only people there. Just us and the oysters on ice. We talked about the state of the world. We pondered aphrodisiacs and mused over the the awesomeness of Japanese pearl divers. Laughed about getting old and feeling young. Oysters might very well keep you young. They are so incredibly nutrient dense. Granted, even if they were no better for you than a hot bag of twizzlers I’d still be first in line to eat an alarming number of them. Luckily oysters are here to prove that not everything I love is bad for me. Check it out. They are mega high in zinc, copper, omega 3’s, B12, vitamin D and a recently discovered, unique antioxidant called 3,5-Dihydroxy-4-methoxybenzyl alcohol (DHMBA). It is currently being studied as a treatment for liver disease.. which may explain why oysters were once my all time favorite hangover cure. More expensive than ibuprofen, no doubt but they went down easier and gave me a reason to get dressed.
So there you have it. Day 156: Blue Points for breakfast. Perhaps a new birthday tradition has been born.

Why?

Rushing around getting ready for work wondering… why is there work today? Christopher Columbus was king shit of dirtbag mountain and we close the banks (and maybe the schools, I dunno I don’t have kids) for him.. seems like Juneteenth deserves better. Also, speaking of dirtbags, did you know Trump claims to have made this holiday famous? Laughable. Maybe that’s how we could get rid of him. We could all gather together, in his yard (our yard) and just point and laugh at all of his insecure, small dick energy until he just withers away into nothingness. A laugh heard around the world. We could laugh until he cries and then we could make that day a holiday he could take some credit for. Who’s with me?

Day 155: Snackery… a rice cake, cherries, bananas, almond butter, blueberries, chia seeds and… I mixed up some Greek yogurt with a little coconut butter and fresh grated ginger. It was dope. I had two.

Beauty & the Beast

I feel as though I have hit my stride with this whole balancing my feminine and masculine energies situation. I have added playing competitive sports (badminton) to my life. Wights to my work out. Plus I am now allowing myself to simply sit and do nothing (and worry about nothing) intermittently through out the day. They say feminine energy must always be finding something to do. I am over it! Today I had a pretty intense workout that made me feel like a total beast and then I made this salad which is lovely, delicate and playful all at once. If thats not seeing the results then I don’t know what is. Has anyone else struggled in balancing these energies for themselves? If so, how do you manage them? A guy friend of mine suggested I start carrying a pocket knife as well. I think that is a pretty functional and sexy idea.

Day 154: Sunrise salad. Cantaloupe, strawberries, lemon cucumbers (from my garden) and blueberries tossed in a splash of kombucha with sunflower sprouts over Greek yogurt, with hemp hearts, sunflower and chia seeds.

Nostalgia & Sweat

Today I found myself momentarily bored with my yoga practice. Pretty rare for me. I started looking around on the webbernets for an alternative exercise experience. As I scrolled around I started thinking of the collection of work out VHS tapes I grew up with. Abs of Steel. For posteriors sake, Buns of Steel.. Jane Fonda’s Original Workout, Tae Bo. Gawd damn Jazzercise. Oh and of course, Sweating to the oldies. I thought about pulling one of those up for shits and giggles when I remembered Cindy Crawford’s Next Challenge Workout from the 90’s. I used to pop this in the VCR with an old roommate and Cindy would have us limping around from a lifetime of lunges for days afterward. Which may not sound appealing but I swear on my incredibly sore ass that it truly is. The video tricks you into a false sense of ability. You keep up with her. Rep for rep thinking “maybe I could be a swimsuit model too, this is pretty freakin’ easy”. Then, BOOM! The next day your legs beg you to call 911 when you simply try to get up off of your bed.. or out of your car.. or off the toilet.. Cindy Crawford is humbling. And I’m totally into it.

Day 153: Sweet potato with ghee, kimchi, cilantro avocado, sunflower sprouts and a soft-ish boiled egg. This breakfast was A++. It is everything I’m looking for. I wish it were a human. I’d date it. Sweet, spicy, a little funky, smooth as hell, exciting, nourishing, filling, colorful and totally comforting.

Salad Rules

Salad really does rule. Mostly because it does not really have any rules. Anything can get cast in the role of salad. It’s a lawless land of loose definition. One definition reads “a mixture containing a specified ingredient served with a dressing.”  I like those parameters. I guess that explains Ambrosia and it’s weird cousin the Watergate Salad. A mid-century toss up of pistachio flavored jello, cool whip, pecans and pineapple * shutters *.. which maybe they named it watergate because the person who made it didn’t want anyone to know they were up to some shifty shit. Yikes. I digress. As the temperature rises there’s going to be a lot more salad in my life and here on Naked and Eggs. Salad over smoothies I say. Because 1. Chewing is tremendously important and 2. Summer produce is too beautiful to obliterate in the blender.

Day 152: Salad, a lazy trilogy. Part One. Tomatoes and cucumbers dressed in raw apple cider vinegar, olive oil and fresh thyme. Part Two. Leftover kale salad that was wilted in coconut oil, lemon, S&P, sprinkled with raw pumpkin seeds. Part Three. Potatoes boiled in garlic, rosemary and thyme (classic move). I cooked them the day before and had them chilling in the fridge. I just cut one up, covered in a chopped boiled egg (also cooked ahead of time) drizzled them in olive oil, threw in a little Parmesan cheese and parsley. It’s lazy but it’s good. Garnished the whole thing with some toasted quinoa and voila! A pretty dope salad breakfast experience is mine.

Things to know about dressing a salad: First off, these aren’t rules. Just suggestions. Unless it’s kale or cabbage, if you dress it too early your salad with get sad and undesirable. The crunch will be MIA. Think of dressing your salad like putting on your hat as you are leaving the house. It’s a last minute move. Also a cooking question I’ve been asked a lot over the years is ‘what is the ration of oil to vinegar (fat to acid) in a vinaigrette?’ Technically it is 3 to 1. Three parts oil 1 part vinegar or citrus. But you do you. Play around with it. It is your salad after all.

Thrive

Me and the things in my life are on the outs. I’m de-cluttering. I’m cutting the fat. Trimming down. Making room. Telling things to clear out their desks and kick rocks. Less is more right? I want life to be easier. I want to make less micro decisions throughout the day. They say creativity thrives on limitations. And that’s my goal, to creatively thrive. So let the limitations begin!

Day 151: Breakfast in (nearly) less time than it takes to say “pass me the bananas, please”. All these things just live on a shelf. Just put it all in a bowl. It can still be pretty. Greek yogurt (no added sugar) 1 banana, 2 Tbsp of almond butter with honey and coconut oil, some blueberries, spirulina, pumpkin seeds, chia and crunchy quinoa.

Spirulina is a nutrient-dense Blue-green algae. Available just about any grocery store that has a bulk section. It is packed full of vitamins A, C, E and many B vitamins as well. It has plenty of calcium, magnesium, zinc and selenium. Vitamin C and selenium are both antioxidants which can protect all your lovely cells that make you, you from becoming damaged.

Never Say Never

It’s a good rule of thumb to never say never. It’s right up there with “Goonies never say die!” And it keeps you from needing to master the art of eating your words or crow, for that matter. In the past I have said that I would never eat steak and eggs for breakfast.. it feels too macho or like “gotta get them gains, bro”… no offense to anyone seeking gains. I fully support bio-individuality AND gains. Just for me personally, steak at breakfast feels excessive. If not aggressive. Today I guess I felt different. I had these really adorable patty pan squash from F-Stop Farm and some of his rad marinara sauce calling to me. I decided to stuff the squash. I used a melon baller to core out the squash guts. I covered the squash cups (yeah we’ll call them cups) in ghee and a little salt then roasted them at 350 for about half an hour. While they were in the oven I took what I had scooped out and sautéed it up with diced potato, bell peppers (from my own garden), kale, basil, parsley, garlic shoots and.. left over steak. Who am I, bro? I filled the roasted squash cups with the steak and veg, put some of that marinara on it and sealed the deal with a poached egg. It was delicious. 10 out of 10 would stuff again. Every bite of this was grown in my zip code. That’s incredible. It made me feel like queen. * pinkies out *

Get inspired. Check out the story of F-Stop Farm. It will make you look at your yard in a completely different way. I promise.

So there you have it. Day 150: Steak and Eggs

Primary Colors

Last night I celebrated 11 months of sobriety. I spent the evening with myself. There was steak, rare AF. I took a walk, I took a bath and just generally enjoyed what it is to be me. I feel like sobriety has shown me my own primary colors, if you will. Like I am finally getting a good look at what I have got to work with and I get to play around with all the potential that lives within that. All the nuance that can come from combining my strengths, accepting my weaknesses and having the guts to let it all shine. Come what may!

Day 149: Keeping it simple.. 1/2 a mango, strawberries, blueberries and a little Greek yogurt with chia seeds