Goodness, how time flies when you add work and school to cooking and blogging. So here we are, three weeks later and while I do feel like I am leading a greener lifestyle, the leaner portion of the goal isn't going as well as I would like.
It all started with two failed attempts at making mozzarella. I don't know what went wrong, but it certainly wasn't as easy-breezy as my cheese making book made it seem. Now maybe I'm the only one this has ever happened to; but my second dismal mozzarella performance sent me into a total tailspin: I mean a huffing, puffing, crying meltdown. Which only got worse when I started to get ready to meet Kevin that evening and nothing, I mean nothing, fit right.
I don't think it was all the mozzarella's fault, really I think it was a product of stress from the recent deaths in the family and the fact that I'm feeling really uncomfortable in my own skin these days. I look in the mirror and I don't see the healthy vibrant person on the outside that I feel like inside.
This minor meltdown didn't completely derail me from my goal to breakup with processed foods. Most of the items in my kitchen meet the requirements of the challenge: local when at all possible, organic, and made with four ingredients or less. But I have to admit to some serious abuse of the "eating out clause", as in I've been eating at restaurants nearly 5 times a week for the last couple of weeks. I could say my new, more hectic schedule is to blame, which is partially true; but deep down I know that's just a convenient excuse to be lazy in my food preparation.
So this day marks a new addition to the challenge: No more than 2 meals out a week and that includes snacks at Starbucks or my school's coffee shop.
Until next time, I'll still be fighting the good fight - one bag of chips at a time.
