Student Loan Balance

As of September 2, 2015, this is my student loan balance. :)

Veggie Tales

So, here I am, out of the blue, blogging for the first time in five months.

I'm not going to explain where I've been or what I've been doing. It's boring. I lead a boring life.

Nope. Tonight it's all about veggies. I'm a member of a CSA. Each Tuesday I briefly leave work to go pick up my weeks worth of veggies. After work, I take my veggies home, put them in the fridge and do nothing with them until I have to throw them away because they've gone bad, spoiled, wilted, whatever. I really do like vegetables. However, I work until 7:30pm and by the time I get home, I don't feel like cooking.

At least that's what I tell myself.

Throwing away beautiful, locally grown veggies is neither fit nor frugal.

So, for the past two weeks, I've been trying to be a good girl and eat all my veggies. Actually, I've been trying to at least clean the vegetable to eliminate one excuse for not using them. I'm doing better, but it's a lot of food for just one person.

Today's haul was huge! Turnips, green beans, wax beans, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, broccoli and a small bunch of basil.

There was also a bunch of onions but I despise onions so those went to a coworker.

Oh and there's also blueberries and raspberries but those are never, ever, around long enough to go bad. Ever.

I got a little carried away with my food prep plans tonight. My dinner ended up being an odd assortment of very good veggies.


First up...tomatoes....basil....this screams caprese salad! Yum!


Next came three bean salad. It needs to chill a bit but it was still very good.


Finally, roasted turnip fries with Parmesan cheese. I've never cooked with turnips before so I checked out some recipes. I decided to start with the recipe that included cheese for my first attempt at turnips because it had cheese. These were good. They didn't get crisp, except for the cheese, but they were tasty. They have a little bite. Nothing too strong, but definitely there.

Overall it was a very tasty dinner.

Weird but tasty.

Hopefully my body won't reject the overload of veggies. It's already craving something familiar, something comforting. I believe it's time for some peanut butter. I'll call it dessert.

Slacker

Wow, I haven't posted since December?! How did that happen? I'm a slacker. A few interesting things have occurred since we last met.

I paid off my credit card debt on January 11! After I saw the $0 balance, I changed my automatic payment option to "Pay Off Balance". Even though it pains me to even think about using it, I will likely try to use my card once every month or so just to keep it active. However I want to make sure I never carry a balance.

On January 18, my credit card company deducted $1717.08 from my checking account. That was my balance at the beginning of my last statement. I went to use my debit card and was denied. When I checked my online account, I saw that I was -$500. I called my dearest credit card company and was told that the "Pay Balance" option used the balance at the beginning of the statement and didn't take into account any payments made during the statement period. I was also told that my refund would take 2-3 business days to clear. January 18 was a Friday.

On January 20 I got a $35 insufficient funds fee from my bank. I called the credit card company and they said they would credit it back to my credit balance...? Um, no. I would like it credited back to my bank account.

On January 25 I finally get my $1717.08 back. I also check my credit card account and notice I've been charged $4.82 interest. I paid this off immediately.

On February 3 I get my $35 fee refunded to my bank account. I also went out and purchased a new laptop.

February 4 was my birthday. I had a lovely day.

There's a whole lot more going on with home improvements, refinancing and travel plans for the upcoming year - but that can wait for another post.

Holiday Party Gluttony Detox

First, an update on my dairy free week...I made it 6 days. Bad planning tripped me up. I didn't really notice any major changes in how I felt. I definitely think I need to try it for more than 6 days to really notice a difference. It went pretty well overall. Thoughts of cheese did cross through my brain but it was yogurt that tripped me up.

Next, the work holiday party. I haven't been that out of control with food in a very long time. It's kind of unnerving. I don't like that I basically just went hog wild. Events at work always have the potential to trip me up but I've previously shown more self control. I have some theories about what is going on. My four faithful readers can probably fill in the blanks (guilt). Whatever the reason, I need to get this under control. I have a plan, at least for tomorrow. I'm jokingly calling it my detox menu but really, it's just planning ahead to make good food choices. There's nothing kooky, just food. I've allowed certain aspects of my life to get out of control, this is an area that I can get back on track.

Saturday's menu

Breakfast

Quinoa with blueberries

Eggs with salsa and maybe a whole wheat tortilla

Some kind of mid morning snack, maybe apples with almonds or yogurt

Lunch

Turkey soup

Spinach salad

Some kind of mid afternoon snack

Dinner

Salmon

Butternut squash soup

(This seems like a weird combination, maybe it's too much orange. Anyway I just made the soup and have the salmon thawed so it's more a matter of not wasting really yummy food.)

Dairy Free Day 1

My first day without dairy was uneventful. I didn't add milk to my oatmeal, I had iced tea instead of a mocha or hot chocolate when I met the man for coffee this morning and I avoided the string cheese in the fridge. There's really nothing else to tell. It wasn't hard. I don't typically eat tons of dairy to begin with so it really wasn't an issue.

Hey, Ho, The Dairy, O

I've been congested for the past week or so. I'm not coughing or sneezing, I don't have a runny nose, I'm not running a fever or feel run down, I'm just congested.

I've read and continue to read a lot about food and the more I read, the more I realize how fucked up the American diet is. We've taken basic ingredients and fiddled with them, turning them into additives, preservatives, fillers, the list goes on. The result, a diet that our bodies cannot handle. Food allergies and food intolerance seem to be increasing. Is it because they simply went undiagnosed until recently or is it because the more we invent, mutate, create, construct "food" the more problems we encounter?

Back to my congestion, I've been wondering if my congestion is due to a reaction to the foods I'm eating. I've been researching (Googling) which foods can cause sinus congestion. It's been interesting. First thing to note, the search results typically lead me to "alternative healing" or the like, websites. For instance, I wasn't directed to WebMD. That could simply be the search criteria I used but it's worth noting. The consensus among the sites I visited was the main culprits in food allergies are typically dairy, gluten, sugar, meat. The fact that none of this was surprising to me makes me think that although this isn't mainstream news, it's not just kooky fringe elements saying this. I've also consistently read that the best way to determine if you have an allergy (or at least an intolerance) to a certain food group is to avoid it for a length of time and see how you feel.

With that in mind, I've decided to give it a try. I'm going to attempt to give up dairy for a week. I really don't think a week is enough to determine if dairy is a factor in my congestion. I decided on a week because I want to see if I can go a week without certain food group. I think the hardest part will be to remember I'm doing this in the first place...and cheese, it will be hard to give up cheese. After a week I'll decide if I want to continue with dairy or move onto something else such as gluten. At very least, I will be refocusing my attention on what I'm putting in my body and how it might affect me. I need that. There's been way too much mindless eating on my part lately and maybe, just maybe, I'll learn more about what foods work with, rather than against my body.

Calculate That

So I put two calculators on ebay last week. Both are HP scientific calculators, one also graphs. It's crazy, the calculator I had in the mid to late 80's sold for $157! The graphing calculator from the 90's only sold for $24. Who knew a calculator could be so valuable?

I've also sold a wetsuit on ebay and a few books on Craigslist. I'm not getting rich, but it is bringing in a little extra cash.

Here's my ebay/craiglist picture taking setup. Pictured is the calculator that sold for $157. As you can tell it's very high tech setup.

With my extra cash and with closing my "Scuba Fund" savings account, I was able to send in $1300 to Citibank. Yay! That brings my remaining balance to $2200! This is so exciting. Hopefully Christmas won't get out of hand and I can still make a decent payment in December. I definitely want to get my balance below $2000.

Side note - the "Scuba Fund" saving account will be reopened but with a different bank. It was only $230 so it's not like I completely ruined my vacation fund, and honestly, the yearly Blackbeard's trip is up in the air for now so the fund isn't a priority right now.

100th Post

Oops, my last post was my 100th. I should have celebrated or commented on something more profound than my piggy bank.

I'd like to thank my loyal 3 readers. It's nice to know someone out there is paying attention. :)