This week the boyfriend is out of town, and I’m on my own. Great in lots of ways (no offense, honey!) but when it comes to eating, not so much. I’ve never done well with cooking just for myself… It’s hard to cook for just one person, and I don’t particularly like leftovers. Still, I did my weekly grocery shop today, and I’m hoping to not cop out and eat canned soup all week.
Tonight I did a quick stir-fry of bacon and baby bok choy seasoned with garlic, pepper and lemon juice. It was delish.

I haven’t been up to much out of the ordinary lately… but I haven’t been posting either. Still cooking away, trying new things. I’ve tried a few different recipes, with varying degrees of success.
I made a spicy cauliflower recipe which was pretty awesome (though sadly my cauliflower was white, not purple). The roasted texture and the spicy flavour definitely made this veg more interesting.

I made some ginger lime chicken bites, (and found a new source of recipes and paleo info in the process!) which turned out tender and with a nice flavour. I felt like this might work as a marinade before cooking.

The other day I put together some double-pork stuffed chicken breasts. Meat, stuffed with meat, and wrapped in meat! The flavour was good, but honestly, it was a lot of meat. I can’t imagine eating one of these suckers with my hands, as described in the recipe. A couple of servings of roasted vegetables rounded out the meal.

There it is. Still cooking, still eating, still trying my best to be healthy. I reorganized my kitchen a while back, which has made cooking a little easier. I think the next step is going to try getting better at planning and preparing meals (or parts of meals) ahead of time, to avoid eating late and having a lot of work to do in the kitchen after a long day at work. We have enough freezer room to store stuff in, but I’ve never been a huge fan of frozen food (unless it’s ice cream!). I’d rather eat fresh every day. Something to think about, anyway.
In a couple of weeks I will be conducting a workshop that focuses on how instructors (in higher ed) can build creative assignments that use technology. For obvious reasons, I’ll be drawing a lot of inspiration from ds106, particularly the Daily Create and Assignment pool, but I was wondering if anyone else out there in technology land had any ideas or thoughts they wanted to share.
Pedagogically, the big message I want to give people is that you need to focus on what you want students to demonstrate they have learned - rather than wasting everyone’s time going on ad infinitum with details about what the final product should look like (think of research paper requirements: double spaced, APA style, blah blah blah). Technology-based assignment formats can engage students, help them practice useful skills they’ll be using in their careers, and start building critical media literacy skills. Based on that message, I plan to show some examples and introduce instructors to tools they might use.
What do you think?
This meal was a couple of firsts for me. First first, this Asian Almond chicken salad recipe came from nom nom paleo, a lovely and entertaining tumblr I just discovered (which makes me late to the party, I know. I will be going back there for more recipes and ideas, for sure. And I will probably have to buy a t-shirt).
Second, I made a new vegetable friend today: kohlrabi! I’d never had it before. It’s like a cross between an apple and a radish, and I like it. Managed to slice some finger off while chopping it though. Good reminder to work on my knife skills a bit (PS. typing this is really hard with a bandaged ring finger. I’m hitting the “l” key a lot.). Anyway, I served the salad with some roasted sweet potatoes, with the chipotle dip I mentioned in a previous post. Nom nom indeed!

Cooked another good meal last week. Discovered that fish and sausage makes a surprisingly good combination, and that celery can hold its own in a salad. Chorizo and almond crusted cod - recipe from Mark Sisson’s Primal Blueprint Quick and Easy Meals book, served with simple celery and almond salad, recipe from Mark’s Daily Apple. The salad keeps well and the leftovers are great to take for lunch.
