yeah, i'm pretty much a vegetarian until 6 pm

my friend emily (who is an engaging/lovely/honest writer/musician/mother, among other things...you should really check out her blog HERE) started following me on pinterest a while ago.  mostly cause we are dorks and talk about food a bunch.  being a faux-foodie is fun.  i think emily is a real foodie, actually.  but i don't know if i have the commitment to be a real foodie.

i digress.

so i have a food board that she follows.  if you want to see it, it's HERE.  (fair warning...i am kind of terrible about pinterest.  i will go through spurts where i will look at it a bunch for about two days and pin things...and then forget it exists for three months.  but this board serves as an online recipe box for me, so that's helpful.)

emily and i hung out a while ago at hearthstone (apparently, this is a link happy blog...but the place is awesome, and you should investigate it HERE), and i ordered one of their flatbread pizzas because the menu description contained words like pesto, mushrooms, and cheese.  duh.  so emily commented, 'are you a full-time vegetarian?'

i almost choked.

me?  a vegetarian?  the daughter of a hunter?

definitely not.

emily explained, 'well, most of your recipes on pinterest are veggie ones...'

she has a point.  i think if you did a search on my board, you would notice words like asparagus, avocado, spinach, hummus, and goat cheese come up over and over.  BECAUSE I LOVE THESE THINGS.

seriously.  love.

(you will also notice a theme of olive oil and garlic: two basic staples that i want to put in everything, even if there is no reason to at all.)

and when i get on pinterest, my eye is naturally drawn to these foods.  can't be helped.  so there are many many many vegetarian-friendly recipes on my board.

but let's get serious.  i love meat.  boy howdy, do i love meat/animal protein.  i love the basics (pork, beef, chicken, seafood), the hunted (squirrel, rabbit, venison), and the lesser-talked about (tripe, offal).  i'll eat it all.

but most days, i don't have any meat until my evening meal.  and not always then.  so about 70% of my life is vegetarian by the sheer coincidence that i happen to love fruits and vegetables. 

so yeah.  i'm pretty much a vegetarian until 6 pm.







(if you want to know the foods i don't like, they are as follows: rhubarb and grapefruit.  there are other foods i can't eat because of my allergies, but it doesn't mean i don't like them.)

**edit** it has been pointed out i also hate chocolate milk.  not sure how i forgot that.

30 by 30 update: 2 more months

time sure is flying.  hard to believe that a month ago, liz and i were running a marathon.  crazy.

so here's what i have gotten done in the past month:

1) i got my master's degree!  i graduated on april 28th, with much pomp and circumstance.  for all of you still confused about what i have been doing for the last two years, this is my degree: master's of art in counseling, specializing in student development counseling and administration.  no, i am not certified.  no, i do not want to be.

this pic is heather and me at the hooding ceremony.  oh, so fancy.  :)

2) my debt to my father is down to the last $200.  pretty exciting!  ($2500/$2700)

8) i knocked out the pinterest meals in one month!  and they were amazing.  the first two are on my monthly cooking segment.  i dominated this goal, though.  i made a total of eight things.  i am leaving comments on my pinterest board HERE if you want to keep track of the things i am cooking.  but i'll also link to the individual recipes below the pictures for you.  so here is what else i made:

thai coconut curry shrimp.  yum.  RECIPE.

garlic and mozzarella wontons.  amazing.  i baked them (425 for about 17 minutes) instead of frying them.  RECIPE.  

rosemary and goat cheese-stuffed mushrooms with bread crumbs.  these are delicious and rich.  RECIPE.

green coconut salmon (with cous cous, peas, french bread, and fresh mango).  liz said this was her favorite meal.  RECIPE.  

southwestern egg rolls with avocado ranch dipping sauce.  i should have baked them a bit longer.  and made the sauce zestier.  but still yummy.  RECIPE.  

tuscan chicken pizza.  we used a yellow pepper instead of a red one.  very good, and the pizza was delicious left over.  RECIPE.

11) as i said, the first two meals (spinach and artichoke baked pasta and eggplant sandwiches) were featured on my monthly cooking segment (18/20).  check them out HERE.

12) i planned a scavenger hunt for my sweet little wigger girls.  heather and keely helped execute the plans.  i think they had a pretty fun time.  i made them run all over marion and do ridiculous things.  but they got lots of treats along the way.  here are some pics:

the girls as they headed out on their adventure.

helping heather choose 'the right hat.'  not sure this was it...

delivering treats to our pal, fritz.

27) i am changing 'get another tattoo' to 'get another piercing,' because i haven't settled on my next tattoo design, and it is not something i want to rush just for the sake of the list.

29) i have read 74/100 books.  i need to get cracking on this.  this past month, i finished the simple life, the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society, and perelandra.