How I Spent My Day Off

I really de-stressed yesterday. First, I slept until I wasn't tired. That still meant I was up by 8. I had breakfast and played on the internet. I did some yoga, just to stretch things out. I did up the dishes, including unloading the dishwasher and reloading it. I read more of the book I am working on "Yellow Fever, Black Goddess", which is about the co-evolution of people and plagues. I did some cooking. Cooking is something I really enjoy and it really is relaxing to me. It's the cleaning up that is hard! I made pasta with peas and ham, which is a variant of a dish I got off a PBS fund-raiser show. You cook 8 oz. of small shaped pasta, like shells or elbows. While it is cooking, you saute a little garlic and onion in some olive oil till soft but not brown, and then add about a cup of frozen peas, lots of black pepper and sprinkle of salt. I added some diced cooked ham at this point, but it wasn't in the original recipe. Anyhow, after the peas, you put in about 1 1/2 cups chicken broth and let it simmer. Take the cooked pasta out of the cooking water and add it to the peas, etc. If it is too dry, add a couple spoons of the pasta cooking water. Then stir in a tablespoon of butter and some grated Parmesan cheese. Adjust the seasonings if necessary. Serve with additional grated Parmesan if you want. I had it for lunch yesterday, and I've got leftovers for lunches for about 3 days now. I also made up some granola. I used Alton Brown's recipe with some modifications of my own. I didn't have cashews, so I substituted walnuts, and I used a mixture of dried raisins (golden and regular), chopped dates, craisins, apricots (I chopped about 4 halves), and cherries instead of the cup of raisins. I also added a sprinkling of pumpkin pie spice to the mixture before sticking it in the oven. I am not sure about the serving size given with the recipe, though. Six servings????? That's a lot of granola at one sitting. I don't eat a cup of granola at one shot. So I am dividing it into 24 1/4 cup servings. I am putting it with some yogurt for breakfasts. I had some last night sprinkled over a serving of passionfruit sorbet. Yum!

For dinner, I broiled some turbot from Trader Joes and did some pea pods. A glass of lowfat chocolate milk rounded things out. I watched some TV and read a bit more. Turned in around 10 and stayed in bed till a bit after 6 this morning. Now I'm doing a load of light clothes before heading into work this afternoon. I'll need to get my suitcase packed as I plan to head north to Dad and Dogzilla after work tomorrow. We're taking Dogzilla to the V-E-T on Sat. a.m., and I am getting my hair cut in the afternoon. I made an appointment with my ex-sister-in-law, and I'm looking forward to doing something with my hair. I think it has been 3 years since I did anything with it! Tired of long and shaggy!

I think I'll go have a little more coffee.......