Kickin' Salad!

That's what Paul said when I fed him last night. I always feel a bit guilty when dinner is either a)ethnic or b)healthy.... and this salad was both. He's a hamburger helper loving, American cheese worshiping, crispy-fried kind of guy.... he recently told me that if I'm planning on making Indian food I should give him several days of forewarning so that he can mentally prepare himself to walk into our curry-scented house thinking 'Mmm... Indian food!' instead of 'Crap. Indian food.'. Being vegetarian, it can be challenging to come up with a good variety of meals which provide us with our daily nutritional needs while also making us feel satisfied. I try to balance out the mac n'cheese and burritos with things like roasted vegetables and cheese-less ethnic items. Last night I made an Asian salad and was pretty thrilled when Paul scarfed it down saying, "This salad is kickin'!".

Here's what I did:
In a calm moment during afternoon nap, I sliced half a zucchini, half a red pepper, and half a cucumber into long thin strips. Meanwhile, I cooked some 'smart' spaghetti (the kind that looks like white pasta but is really full of protein & stuff), and made an Asian sauce/marinade. For the sauce I mixed together a splash of apple cider vinegar, plenty of ginger-soy sauce (Kikomans... it's hard to find, but SO good!), a good glug (don't you love the exactness of my measurements?) of sweet chili sauce (bottled, in the Asian food aisle), a splash of toasted sesame oil, and some sesame seeds. Once the noodles were cooked & cooled I put them into a bowl, added the slivered veggies, and poured on the sauce. I gave everything a good "jooj" (as Rachel Ray would say), and put it in the fridge until dinner time.
When Paul got home I assembled our salads. First, I sliced up some scallions and some fresh cilantro, then diced an avocado. I put a bed of baby spinach leaves onto a large plate, topped the spinach with a mound of the marinated noodles & veggies, topped that with the diced avocado and sliced scallions and cilantro. For some crunch I sprinkled toasted slivered almonds on top, and then drizzled some of the sauce on top.

Voila. Kickin' salad! I suppose I should have taken a picture to include here.... oh well, I'm sure you can imagine it in all of it's glistening soy-noodle-avocadoey goodness. Try it, let me know what you think.... and go ahead and throw some chicken or shrimp on top if that's your thing.

Drowning in Life.

Life feels so up in the air lately. I find my mind racing all the time, trying to shuffle through the 'to-dos' and the 'what ifs' and the 'if onlys'.... trying to make sense of this crazy thing that is life. Time really does keep ticking, ticking, ticking into the future and if I'm not actively managing every little aspect of life, I tend to feel like like I'm just being dragged along by it, constantly trying to catch up, get organized, get it together.
The biggest problem at the moment is one that Mama Berenstain Bear would put under the heading of 'too much stuff'. We are 7 living creatures living under the roof of this two bedroom house, and we are at max-capacity. I feel like I'm in a perpetual state of disarray and that no matter how often or how hard I try to get organized and find a proper place for everything, nothing is where it should be most of the time. I'm also in a perpetual state of clutter-clearing. I've got bags labeled 'give', bags labeled 'Craigslist', bags labeled '2T Winter', '3T summer', etc. I haven't seen my kitchen table for a few weeks now. It, too, has fallen victim to the 'too-much-stuff' syndrome which I am currently losing the battle against. Try as I might to develop systems for organizational storage, everything seems to find a place in the wrong place.
I like to think that all we need is more space, but my logical mind tells me that if I had more space I would probably just acquire more stuff with which to overload the spaciousness. What we really need is LESS STUFF. I have to remind myself multiple times a day- I must value space more than I value stuff if I am ever to feel organized and in control of my external surroundings. I resent this consumer-driven world and the tendency to be brainwashed by billions of ads- they're everywhere- constantly trying to make us feel like we'll be better/happier/more fulfilled if only we have this thing or that product or whatever.
Even my four year old daughter is already falling for it- every supermarket display and television commercial geared towards her demographic causes her to feel absolutely, wistfully, desperately void of whatever that particular sparkly-sneaker or battery-operated hamster could do to improve her sense of self.
At least I am aware of the situation (and knowing is half the battle, right G.I. Joe?), and am determined to get things under control. I like to re-read Karen Kingston's book 'Clear Your Clutter with Feng-Shui' to boost my motivation. Watching the occasional episode of 'Hoarders: Buried Alive' doesn't hurt, either! Note to self: if I ever come up with a logical reason why I need to save a dead kitten in the freezer I have lost this battle (seriously saw a hoarder explaining that she just kept ONE of the dead kittens from her cat's litter... no big deal, just one.). I resolve to not let that happen, hah! :)