Quoda’s Space Blog

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Christmas has a lot of hype, but it doesn’t hold a candle to Thanksgiving. Christmas seems like such a hectic holiday, running around to get gifts and go to holiday parties. Thanksgiving requires some food prep (okay, a lot), but it’s overall a cozier holiday to spend with family. It’s a time of reflection and joy.

I’m thankful I have a good job. My coworkers are awesome people. My boss is great. I spend every day talking to kids about science and amazing kids and adults with science demonstrations. I work a flexible schedule and although I work some crazy days (like Black Friday!!), I also get to actually use vacation days to relax. I don’t take work home with me and I don’t have to.

I’m thankful I have a nice apartment. It doesn’t leak in the rain, my landlord is helpful and responsive (even proactive). It’s just the right size and it doesn’t get exceptionally hot or cold. It has a nice kitchen and a big bathroom. The neighbors are mostly nice and quiet. Even at their noisiest, the neighbors don’t wake me up the way my old ones did.

I’m thankful I have a great boyfriend. He loves me for who I am, tells me every day that I’m beautiful, has handsome eyes and a dashing smile, and has a great sense of humor. He’s someone I can talk to anytime. He is truly a blessing in my life!

I’m thankful for a wonderful family. I’m close to my family and I know that they support me. I learned so many important life lessons from my parents and as a result can live on my own, as an adult, without excessive spending or destructive habits. I don’t know if my parents really realize what a great job they did raising me. They taught me to be responsible, to be respectful, to care about others, and to keep learning and growing for the rest of my life. My sister is the smartest kid ever and is going to be an awesome scientist someday. My family is awesome.

I’m thankful for a great church. It’s a place where people are real, sermons are thought-provoking, and worship is genuine. I have true friends in my church. We pray for each other and expect God to do great things.

There is a lot to be thankful for. I’m glad that Thanksgiving is almost here. What a fantastic holiday!

I have a budget. I try my best to stick to the budget all year. I do make changes to my budget as the year goes on, but I try to stay under budget as much as possible.

Of course, I have weaknesses. Today it was a perfume. It’s a perfume I’ve wanted for ages, it has been selling out as soon as it gets to the store, and today it was in stock while I was buying Christmas gifts.

So I bought it.

It was about a $40 perfume. Not the end of the world, but pricey for me. But I bought it knowing my budget and knowing it was within my budget. However, I also planned on an eyebrow wax this month. While I can still afford it (I have about $20 left in that part of the budget), it seemed smarter to just get tweezers (for $1 at Target) and do some touch up myself. I spent about 15 minutes in front of a mirror, slowly and carefully plucking stray hairs from around my eyebrows. My brows don’t have that great freshly waxed look, but they look a little less like caveman eyebrows now.

Meanwhile, I can’t stop smelling my wrists. This perfume is lovely!

So what does this mean? My budget is not a restrictive thing. It gives me the power and the confidence to be able to occasionally splurge on myself. I don’t have to spend myself into debt, but I can occasionally get something nice. That’s why I have a budget. Not to keep me away from nice things, but to give me the power to buy nice things with confidence that I am still making progress toward my financial goals. It felt good to know that I was able to get myself something nice, buy great Christmas gifts, and still be able to afford my bills.

I have the flu. Or something like it. Fever, aches, sniffling, coughing. It sucks.

But I also have hot apple cider. It has been getting me through the day, simmering along in my crock pot.

I had leftover potatoes and corn from last night’s dinner, but I wanted to make them new. So I did something fun.

First, I mixed the potatoes and corn together. I added one egg to help bind everything.

I heated some oil in my cast iron till it was sizzling hot. Then I took the potato/corn mixture, formed it into patties, and coated each patty with cornmeal.

Fried them till golden brown.

They are so delicious. I needed something quick and easy I could make with the food I had on hand. It’s not particularly well-balanced, but it will do! Yum!

Talk about an easy dinner with the stuff I had laying around…

What I Used:

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• A small onion, chopped
• About 10-12 oz leftover red sauce (made from the last time I made pizza–it was about a can and a quarter of Aldi’s canned tomato sauce with some tomato paste and spices mixed in)
• 2 eggs
• Some water
• Spaghetti (gluten free corn spaghetti from DeBoles)
• Cheddar Cheese

What I Did:

Heated olive oil over medium-high heat in a small pot. Sauteed onions till soft. Added sauce and some splashes of water so it would simmer instead of spattering. Added some salt, basil, and oregano.

Got sauce to medium high. Carefully cracked eggs one at a time into a bowl, then put them in the simmering sauce. Turn heat down to the lowest setting, covered, and made the spaghetti according to package instructions.

Served eggs and most of the sauce over spaghetti and added some cheddar cheese.

Very tasty. The eggs added a creaminess to the dish, as well as some protein. I’d say that unlike the last time I used the corn pasta, this was very good. I think last time I undercooked the pasta and this time I corrected that. I think corn pasta is tasty with red sauce for sure! This was an easy and delicious meal to make from the odds and ends in the fridge.

When I meal plan, I plan to make about a week worth of food every Monday. So I make a week worth of pancakes or polenta for breakfast and a week worth of dinner food that mostly ends up being lunches. This means I have quick food to grab, reheat, and eat. Since I don’t make a ton of money and I can’t eat gluten, having quick, good food around is essential.

Yesterday I made polenta for this week.

Today I made sesame beef.

I used:

• a pound or so of breakfast steak from the farmers’ market (thin cuts are best!)
• sesame oil
• gluten free soy sauce (I use La Choy)
• rice vinegar
• mirin
• half a large onion (one whole medium would suffice)
• a red bell pepper, a yellow bell pepper, and an orange bell pepper
• sliced button mushrooms (they were on sale… it was a dollar for already washed, already sliced mushrooms!)

Put the steak in a medium pyrex or plastic bowl. Make a marinade of about 1/4 cup sesame oil, 1/4 cup soy sauce, a few tablespoons mirin, and a few tablespoons rice vinegar. Massage marinade into meat. Pour marinade in dish with meat, cover dish, and let marinate overnight.

Remove steak from marinade and slice into thin strips. Brown the meat in a little sesame oil over medium high heat. It will cook quickly. Set cooked meat aside and clean out pan.

Add more sesame oil. Cook the veggies on medium high. I started with the onions, then added the peppers after the onions got soft, then added the mushrooms. I poured the marinade in the pan early in the cooking process and then added more sesame oil, soy sauce, and rice vinegar.

After veggies cook, add the meat back in and stir around, heating the food through. Top with some sesame seeds.

Eat over rice!

This made enough for tonight, for lunch all week at work, and for a couple more meals. Yay!