skinny skinny skinny lots of uses of the word skinny

sometimes I think to myself, how easily flattered can I possibly be? not so easily flattered that I believe it when my jeans say "skinny" in their description. yes, the jeans may be close fitting, and snug at the ankles, but there's nothing skinny about them. what if there was a law that actually mandated large sizes couldn't be tagged as skinny? surely, skinny is just a marketing scheme. the worst thing about being chubby is seeing myself in photos, but the second worst thing is clothes shopping. would I be as willing to buy pants called, "if only I were still skinny jeans," or "not skinny jeans," or maybe "you wish you were skinny jeans?" it's a relief when I fit into the items I bring into the fitting rooms. I think I genuinely want to believe that I've just successfully clambered into a pair of SKINNY jeans! alas, I have just enough self-awareness to know that nothing I'm currently wearing is actually skinny. I had to call my husband in to tell me whether or not I would be making an ass of myself by wearing them in public. he is brutally truthful about such matters.

following is a somewhat realistic portrait of dinner last night. in truth, it wasn't plated so prettily, and we didn't have the edemame or carrots with the meal. yes, aside from the tomatoes, last night's dinner was brown. oh well, at least it was home-made!


Barley with tomatoes, onion, and baby bella mushrooms. On the side, Homage a The Grit Tofu (look behind the barley mound, on the right side). barley is filling, fairly tasty, and certainly healthy. I like it better than brown rice (that may be because I'm Chinese and grew up eating white rice EVERY day & brown rice just doesn't do it for me). I bought the hulled variety because when I compared the stats, it had fewer calories per serving, and just as much protein and fiber as the whole version. plus, I wanted it to be soft (just a little chewy, but not too chewy was the quality I was going for).

how I created the brown food: I soaked the barley over night, then cooked it on the stovetop for about 25 minutes (bring to full boil, lower heat to simmer, and cook covered for remainer of time). I sauteed the onion, mushroom, and tomatoes in extra virgin olive oil until the onions were practically melting (carmelized), then added some red wine (pinot noir, left over) and cooked them a bit more. Once the barley was finished cooking, I drained what was left of the water and stirred it into the sautee. next time I won't forget to put garlic in there.

the tofu is seriously hippee! oh so yummy, and I LOVE the Grit for creating this tofu for me to emulate. to make your own, begin with a lump or two of extra firm tofu. remove it from the packaging and put it on a plate with weight on top of it to squeeze as much water out as possible. once that's over with, dice the tofu and put it into a pan with oil (I used olive). fry it around until it begins to look dry. add enough soy sauce to color it and give it a little flavor, but go sparingly because you don't want to soak the tofu. dust it with nutritional yeast while it's still moist, then continue to cook until the tofu is crusty with soy and nutritional yeast. feel free to repeat the soy, yeast process a few times. the real recipe is probably online. look for 'golden bowl.'


ahh, my morning love. thank you and your point system, ims.

my favorite mug EVER.
I actually think about retiring it so that it can't break.
how pathetic am I?