Well hello there… I know it’s been a while since you’ve heard from me! I think the last thing I posted about was how we were leaving for Iceland and that I was so excited to share our experience and awesome pictures.. and then I just left you hanging! How rude of me. I don’t know why but I just felt like I needed to take a break. I found myself struggling to find inspiration and come up with recipes. Instead of being super pumped to write up a post I kind of started to dread it a bit. I hate saying that because I shouldn’t dread doing something I’m truly passionate about something in me was just getting kind of burned out.
Can I get real with you really quick? You see, it’s kind of hard being a ‘blogger’. That is if you don’t really like talking about yourself. I started out this blog primarily as a way to share recipes and that is all I wanted to do. I really did not intent to write up blog posts and go on and on with my internal monologues but people kept telling me that if I wanted my blog to do anything for me one day that it’s super important to add writing to my recipes and establish my ‘voice’. Problem is, I’m still trying to figure out that ‘voice’. I was never much of a writer growing up.. I mean I always did pretty well on my papers I had to write in school but I didn’t feel like it was anything that came natural to me. And another part of me just feels a little weird writing about my thoughts and hoping people care, I mean really..
I think that break was so necessary now. I was able to really think about what I wanted to do and how I wanted to spend my time. I found myself getting overwhelmed with all of my commitments and really needed to get real with myself and figure out what I really wanted to do. 8 hours of my day is spent doing my actual job and I have somewhat limited time left to commit to other things but I really needed to figure out what I wanted those others things to be and stick to them. I decided on social commitments (time with friends), marriage commitments (quality time with the hubs), fitness commitments (workout out at least 30 min a day), blog commitments (well, duh) and lastly, volunteering/church commitments. That’s a lot to commit myself to.. I know. But somehow I manage to squeeze it all in. My blog was suffering recently because I hadn’t sat down and prioritized my time like I’m doing now. I sound like such wierdo, I know. But I’m realizing how important it is to do this kind of thing when you find yourself overwhelmed or at a stand-still with how to spend your time!
I think in my last blog post I told you how I was getting a ‘little sister’ through the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization down here in Charleston. Well, I’m happy to say I was matched with 10 year old Khaliha back in April and we’ve been hanging out every week since. She is super sweet, polite and somewhat shy. I remember when the BBBS Match Specialist called me to let me know they had found a potential match for a little sister for me. They told me she was in elementary school, loved to ride her bike and get her nails done and was severely shy. They also told me that she had been matched twice before the other bigs just stopped seeing her shortly after meeting her and she didn’t know why. That broke my heart. Here is a little girl that is seeking an older role model in her life and this is how she’s treated? I was determined to bond with her and make it work, and that’s what we did!
The first picture is at her graduation from elementary school a few weeks ago and the second one was when we went to the North Charleston Waterfront Park and she met Cash for the first time (she initially wasn’t a fan of dogs but I think she quickly learned to love Cash) –
She can be shy at times but other times she will happily go on and on about how she went to the beach recently or what kind of meals her mom cooks for dinner. I can actually relate to her personality pretty well since I was a pretty shy only child.. and it also makes me feel that much better to know that she does feel comfortable talking to me and asking me questions. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on our recent activities and how things are going!
On a whole different note.. I watched a pretty scary documentary the other day. I’m sure you’ve heard of it by now. It’s called ‘What the Health’ and the name is somewhat misleading. Having no idea what the documentary was about I took my best guess by the name of it and assumed that they were going to talk about living a healthy life.. i.e. eating generally healthy, working out, etc… you know, the normal kind of stuff you hear about when it comes to your health. Wellll this one talked about your health too but in a very extreme way. It’s basically about this one guy who allegedly found out (through extensive research I guess?) that meat and animal products causes cancer and diabetes. All of these health specialists, nutritionists and doctors back up this idea by going on and on about the negative effects of these animal products.
I will say my short and sweet thoughts on this documentary and then I’ll shut up. While I do believe that eating a plant based diet is better than a carnivorous diet and that everyone should try to eat less meat and more veggies.. I think it’s a steep statement to say that there is a direct correlation between meat and cancer. I 100% agree that red meat isn’t good for your heart and can cause problems but I don’t think we should go on to say that grilled chicken and yogurt equals cancer.
I also think that processed foods play a HUGE role in human diseases more so than meat.. and they didn’t really get into processed foods which surprised me. I do agree that most of our bodies are intolerant to dairy because technically we weren’t meant to consume cow’s milk BUT I don’t think that means you can never eat a piece of cheese ever again. I think you just have to take it all in consideration and maybe commit to trying to replace more meals with plant based recipes and try to eat more whole foods versus processed crap. But what do I know.
Ok I think that’s enough rambling for one night. So much rambling that I forgot to even mention my recipe!!! I found this frozen falafel at Trader Joe’s the other day and thought I’d give it a try! I’ll admit it’s not as good as the local mediterranean restaurant down the street (Ali Baba’s.. SO GOOD) but then again it’s not fried and it’s still pretty tasty. You can obviously make your own falafel if you’d rather.. I definitely want to give that a try soon but in an effort to keep it a pretty simple, easy recipe I went with the pre-made stuff. I made a simple lemon tahini dressing to go with the bowls (found the tahini at Trader Joe’s for super cheap).
ENJOY!
- 1 package Trader Joe's (or other brand OR homemade) frozen falafel (about 10 pieces)
- 1 bag spring mix lettuce
- 1 cucumber, diced
- 1 tomato, diced
- 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
- 1 cup quinoa, prepared
- pita chips
- feta cheese
- 1/4 cup sesame tahini
- Juice from 1 1/2 lemons
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- salt, to taste
- Follow instructions on the bag to cook falafel.
- While the falafel is cooking, prepare the dressing. Mix together all of the ingredients and set in fridge to chill.
- Fill bowls with spring mix and top with the falafel, cucumber, tomato, red onion, quinoa, pita chips and feta cheese.
- Drizzle with tahini dressing and serve.
July 27, 2017 at 2:17 pm
this looks delicious! I want it for lunch.