WFP: What would you do?
I can’t tell you how helpful menu planning has been to me. With everything going on around these parts, by four or five o’clock I’ve lost most of my gumption in the creativity department. When it was just Jeff and I, I would often make these elaborate dinners after work- it was fun. Now, though, I am lucky to have 20 minutes to clean the kitchen and get dinner started. So, if we’re going to avoid eating take-out or prepared foods all the time, then I have to be well-planned. And when I do menu plan, it usually stays simple and easy, and we eat well! So, I thought I’d share this week’s plan here.
Wednesday: Eggplant burgers w/ homemade mayo and lacto-fermented salsa, roasted sunchokes
Thursday: Dinner out at a friend’s house. Bringing a cheesecake.
Friday: Potato Leek soup
Saturday: Tuna cakes with roast squash and a salad, + homemade pickles
Sunday: Family dinner… not sure what we’re having
Monday: Crock pot meal- some cut of meat from the freezer + canned veggies from the garden and spices. Served on brown rice, probably…
Tuesday: Acorn squash quesadillas + lacto-fermented salsa
I hope to bring you pictures next week. I’m really utilizing the local produce we have available to us lately. Kale, leeks, potatoes (we finished ours off on Thanksgiving), onions, lettuce- all making regular appearances on our menus. Makes me excited for next year when I’ll get our greens right out of our own greenhouse. I’ll also be sure to grow leeks next year. They are something special!
—
You know, our journey with food is often of the "two steps forward, one step back" variety. We make big advances (like doubling the garden when I’m 7 months pregnant…), and then regress a little (like all the take-out burgers we had after a long day of gardening/baby soothing… ahem). I used to feel bad and like a big fat hypocrite when I couldn’t get it all perfect. But, after a couple of years of trying at this I’m realizing that we really are going in the right direction. Perfection is not in the cards for us, not with anything in this life. And given the world we live in, changing our food systems and the way we eat… well, it’s going to be a process. If I get too caught up in thought about what I’m not doing, it very well might keep me from working on what I can and am doing. I don’t say all this to justify the slackage, but I do know that lots of people just kind of throw up their hands because it all seems too overwhelming. But it’s always worth making a change for the better- however small. Even better- take a chance at something big (like this farm project I’m doing, some people are skeptical), and just see it for the successes. Because some failure is inevitable, but it’s always there to help us to learn and do better next time. So what is a failure, anyway? I suppose I see this season as a time for making plans for next year, and each year I’m excited to do more and more.
Last year I often heard people say discouraging things- that they couldn’t do this or that and wished they could. So, I was thinking, maybe we could all challenge ourselves as we face the coming year- and let’s work to not let our fears navigate our actions or plans. My plans? I plan to do an even better vegetable garden and to store even more of our own food, to finish our little greenhouse, to plant perennials and work on creating a lush and beautiful no-grass yard, and to work hard at my new job to see them through to something they can be proud of. Then, once the growing season is up, I plan to work harder to eat locally and seasonally- doing research and finding local sources for most of our foods, and working to make relationships with actual farmers. And so, I’d like to pose the question: What about you? What would you like to do in the coming year? I have a paper weight that my dad gave me years ago that says "What would you do if you knew you would not fail?" So, what would you do?
Latest posts by Gracie (see all)
- Let the world be fed - October 21, 2024
- The Encounter - April 19, 2024
- On Practice - February 23, 2024
If I knew I could not fail? I would turn the kitchen around at my job and make it successful (maybe not profitable, but I’ll settle for successful). I would lose 20 pounds, and another 20 after that. I would exercise regularly, and eat more locally with fresher foods.
Really, at the end of the day, that’s all I want. I be successful in my career, to feel comfortable in my body, and to give my body the fuel it deserves. Everything else I want will come as a result of all that.
Isn’t it funny to look at our desires, all whittled down like that? We don’t need much- health, good work, and love. 🙂
I just try and make a better choice, one choice at a time. I fail a lot. I can’t change the choices I made, but I can change my next one. Sometimes, the best choice is to compromise your values for one meal, and to just accept it. You like to have someone else cook you burgers after a hard day in the garden, which really isn’t that terrible is it? Accept this, then try and see if there is a way to improve that decision. Is there a locally owned burger joint instead of a chain? One with healthier options?
Going to school forces all sorts of these compromise decisions on me. The stress of making my own lunch when I’m really busy, eating garbage on campus, driving several miles off campus to eat slightly better, chain or local. I try to make the best choice I can at the time, and the trend it towards better and better choices. If I expected perfection from myself, I’d give up and start eating crap again.
I agree with all this. Nice to see you here- I’ve missed your posts. How did the garden do overall?
That’s a big question! If I knew I couldn’t fail I would probably go for the honors program at school, learn to make soap (people keep scaring me out of trying), learn how to can food (people also scare me out of trying this), and who knows what else. Have a baby? Failure is definitely the biggest fear with that. Maybe I’ll start with learning how to make soap…
You can do all these things! I’ve been wanting to make soap too… 🙂
Huh. I wish I could answer that question. I’m not sure I fear failure as much as success. Success might mean I have to grow and take more chances. I was raised to underachieve it seems, and I’m still doing a good job at it! Hey, that means I am achieving something. Wait, that means I’m not underachieving, so now I’m not achieving underachieving, which means… I’m silly. And confused.
I need to meditate on your question.
I think it’s really important to acknowledge everything you do do, all the positive changes you do make, and not worry about getting everything right. Life is about making mistakes, trying new ways, new things, the process like you say. The important thing is you are headed in the direction your heart and head wish for you and the world, so it’s all good. Frankly, I think you’re amazing, handling all that you do with such, well, such grace. You were well named. 🙂
I can really relate to this. I heard once that my fear of public speaking isn’t because I hate the attention, it’s because it’s too important to me. That really made sense. For what it’s worth, from this vantage point, you are a very brave woman who challenges herself in all sorts of ways. I admire you. 🙂
I had my biggest fear-of-failure moment almost exactly four years ago, when I was mailing off the first of my grad school applications. I had decided to quit a stable job that I had been doing for six years and go try to make a life as a writer, and as I mailed that first application I became convinced that not only would I not get into any grad schools, but also that this would somehow result in me all the way back to living at my parents house and working at the same construction as my father. The scenario was completely absurd–why would not getting into grad school mean that my only option was to work road construction?–but I was so afraid of failing and the big risk I was talking that I cried as I walked to the post office.
Having that kind of moment really worked to change my thoughts about failure and what failure means. The thing I would do if I knew I couldn’t fail is to be a writer. But the only way I could fail at that is if I stopped writing. So I guess for me, it’s as much about defining success as it is about defining failure, and thinking about whether my markers of success vs. failure are internal or external. I’ve been trying to let go of the external stuff (even though it isn’t always easy) and to view success as continual work towards a goal, rather than just an outcome. Y’know, success is in sitting down to work every day (or most days, anyway!), rather than just in the moment when I finally crack the bestseller list (unlikely ever to happen!).
What a cool story! How brave. I love how you had to point out to yourself all the false assumptions we make that keep us from doing what we want… like no grad school = construction job. I agree, failure is not really failure if you use it. It reminds me of what Julia Butterfly Hill says about waste- something like: you only have waste if you’re not using that thing in the right way. Anyway, I think that’s true with physical things, but also concepts and things like “failure”… it can so easily become a challenge, a learning experience, a sign.
I’m glad you’re going for it. 🙂