Happy J.F.K. day! It's been 45 years and we still don't know whodunnit.

Breakfast, 12:30 p.m.

Banana and peanut butter on wheat toast.

Snack, 2:00 p.m.

Cherry candy cane and hot chocolate. 'Tis the season...except that it's not even Thanksgiving yet. Geez.

Lunch, 4:00 p.m.

Taco soup.

Snack, 5:15 p.m.

A Dora the Explorer candy cane. I am very disappointed in these...they're very soft. Like they've been sitting in the back of the store for a year waiting to go on the shelf. Not cool. Oh. You'll be seeing an inordinate amount of candy canes in the next month. I'm kind of an addict. As soon as I see them in the store, I buy about 10 boxes -- no joke. I took half to my office and left half at home.

Snack, 8:00 p.m.

Chocolate chip cookie with caramel center.

Dinner, 11:45 p.m.

Pork chop cooked in cream of mushroom soup, and canned corn.

Breakfast, 6:45 a.m.

Peanut butter on wheat toast, and light blueberry yogurt.

Lunch, 11:30 a.m.

My friend Alaska Lauren (who is now Portland Lauren, I suppose; as opposed to Minneapolis Lauren) sent me a sweet lunch box in the mail. It arrived on Tuesday -- the shittiest day ever (in which I discover that I have to pull a course out of my ass in no time flat). It couldn't have been better timing, really; at least I had something to be happy about for a few minutes. Anyway, I've decided to say, "fuck being a grownup at work." Well...sort of. I've been carrying a purse to give more of an adult impression, since I look younger than half of the students, and I will continue to carry the purse...but why not use a lunch box for my lunch? It seems like a good compromise to me, and a good way to retain at least a little of my personality.

Snack, 5:00 p.m.

Leftover pizza.

Dinner, 10:45 p.m.

Taco soup...and some Fritos. This is a recipe I found in the Kraft Food & Family magazine my friend Lisa told me to sign up for. It's sweet -- a free magazine that shows every few months packed with recipes. OK, yes, the recipes are thinly disguised ads for Kraft products -- they wanted me to use Kraft shredded cheddar for this recipe (I used Costco) -- but so far I've had good luck with finding quick and easy dinners that also taste pretty good.

Snack, 1:30 a.m.

This seemed like the biggest apple in the universe. I put Jon in charge of selecting the fruit on our last grocery run, so it's all monster-sized. The apples are bigger than my fist. Next time I eat one, I'll have to set it next to something for comparison.

How is that an entire week has passed since my last post? Oh...right. Work. On Tuesday, I found out that one of my spring classes was canceled for low enrollment -- which means that I'm now teaching fewer credits than what my contract requires. To make up the credits, I am being more or less forced to teach a May Term class...which means a 3 week intensive "special topics" course. But it gets better -- this 3 weeks special topics course has to be planned -- proposal, syllabus, and text books -- by Tuesday. In other words, I was given a week to pull an entire course together. Yikes. Good thing I'd worked my ass off the week before the wedding, because otherwise I'd be very, very screwed right now instead of just plain screwed. So, here's the week in food:

Friday, Nov. 14

Breakfast

Peanut butter on wheat toast and light strawberry yogurt

Lunch

You know...some crap from the cupboard.

Snack

I never eat these unless I'm on a road trip.

Dinner

Taco John's in Menomonie. You know...this is one of Sheboygan's biggest shortcomings. No Taco John's. I mean, what a ripoff. I'm back in 'Sconnie, and there's no Taco John's in a 50 mile radius -- at least, not that I'm aware of.

NOT PICTURED: We arrived at the hotel about 8:00, and by midnight we were starving. So...we ordered delivery from some local restaurant. I had a bowl of chili. It was pretty good.

Saturday, Nov. 15

Brunch

All I ate until the reception was this cheese steak...and most of the fries.

NOT PICTURED: Wedding reception food: appetizers, lots of cheese and crackers, and cheesecake. (They didn't feed us dinner because the wedding wasn't until 7, so the reception didn't start until 8:30-ish.) We were pretty hungry late that night, because we'd eaten the cheese steaks some time around 2:00, so we ordered in a pizza some time around 1:00 a.m.


Sunday, Nov. 16

Dinner

Somehow, the only picture I took all day was of what I ate after we got home. During the day, I had a granola bar for breakfast, a gas station snack (I don't even remember what), and a big lunch at the Altoona Family Restaurant in Eau Claire -- I met up with my friend Jeff and his fiancé, Laura. They're getting married while I'm in Prague, so I figured I'd better swing by and see them before the big day. It was good...I hadn't seen Jeff in about 3 years. Anyway, I had a bacon cheeseburger and fries.

Monday, Nov. 17

Breakfast

The usual.

Lunch
NOT PICTURED. I had my monthly lunch with my mentor, which meant that we ate in the cafeteria, and I'm still not ready to let my colleagues know I'm crazy, so...no photos. I had a cup of icky veggie soup, some rice, and...I can't even remember what the entree was.

Dinner

Beef ravioli in tomato sauce. Yum.

Tuesday, Nov. 18

Breakfast

Yogurt and toast. What else?

Lunch

I ran out of lunch meat, so...no sandwich.

Snack

These are pretty good. I find that kind of odd since I used to hate them back in the day, when my mom always had them in the cupboard.

Dinner

This was the day the shit hit the fan in terms of finding out about the class cancellation. There was no time for "real" food.

Wednesday, Nov. 1 9

Breakfast

More peanut butter on toast, more yogurt.

NOT PICTURED: I have no idea what I ate for the rest of the day...there's no photographic record, and I can't remember.

Thursday, Nov. 20

Breakfast

Just toast -- I had a faculty meeting at 11:00, and they feed us lunch, so I didn't see any need for the full breakfast being that I was going to have lunch in 2 hours anyway.

NOT PICTURED: lunch with the faculty. I had salad (lettuce, tomato, cheese, sunflower seeds), a cup of chili, and two breadsticks.

Snack

Chocolate chip cookies with caramel centers...very yummy. I had two.

Dinner

Take-n-bake pizza from the Wal-Mart deli. It's actually pretty good.

Snack

Blackberries. I split these with Jon. They were very, very yummy.

A Week's Worth of Food

...this was a bad week for posting. I'm going to Minneapolis this weekend because Jon's cousin is getting married, so this whole week has consisted of me working my butt off in preparation for the weekend. I know I won't get anything done while I'm gone, and I didn't want won't have any grading or lesson planning to do when I get home on Sunday night after a long six hour drive, so...I did absolutely nothing this week but work and run errands. It didn't help my "get ahead" plan that it was a very busy week at school -- lots of meetings, lots of students in my office, and so on. I wasn't 100% successful at finishing everything, but there's very little left for me to do when I get home on Sunday night, and it's mostly easy stuff, so that's a good thing. Anyway...here's my foods. No more posts until Monday at the earliest, because I'm not bringing my laptop with me and I really doubt I'll get around to it Sunday night.

Monday, November 10

Breakfast

Peanut butter on wheat toast, and light blueberry yogurt.

Lunch

The usual assortment of stuff.

After School Snack

Tangerine.

Dinner
NOT PICTURED: Shrimp alfredo from Chili's. I only ate about half of it.

Snack

This is so Wisconsin of me. The crackers are reduced fat, and the cheese isn't as bad as I thought -- only 80 calories for 2 tablespoons. That's less than half the calories in the same amount of peanut butter.

Snack

My new favorite "ice ream." I had half of the pint.

Tuesday, November 11

Breakfast

The usual.

Lunch

Also the usual -- but with a hard boiled egg!

Dinner

Homemade chicken soup and au gratin potatoes. The soup is better when my sister makes it, but I think I did an OK job. Jon ate it, and he's picky, so that's a good sign.

Snack

This snack indicates that I am becoming my father. I mean, port wine cheddar cheese spread? Really? What happened is that I saw it at the grocery store, and I just needed it. That happens sometimes.

Wednesday, November 12

Breakfast

Light strawberry banana yogurt and peanut butter on wheat toast.

Lunch

Same old, same old. That's what happens when you buy in bulk at Costco.

Dinner

Leftover shrimp pasta from Chili's.

Snack

Grading fuel! Going strong on the cheese spread while grading like a crazy person.

Snack

Reward for grading an entire section of grammar papers in one sitting. It was brutal. I deserved this.

Thursday, November 13

Breakfast

Peanut butter on wheat toast and light blueberry yogurt.

Lunch

I had a very late lunch today. I'd planned to eat after my morning meetings and before my doctor's appointment, but the meetings ran late. Well. After the doctor I had to run to the mechanic to get my alignment fixed before the big trip to Minneapolis. (It's a 6 hour drive from here -- like Anchorage to Valdez.) So...it was about 3:30 before I got to have lunch. That was not cool.

Dinner

More soup.

Snack

Tangerine.

Breakfast, 11:30 a.m.

Peanut butter on wheat toast and light mixed berry yogurt.

Lunch, 3:45 p.m.

Rice.

Dinner, 7:45 p.m.

A tangerine, a turkey sub, and a side of pickles.

Snack, 10:30 p.m.

Hard-boiled egg.

Breakfast, 11:00 a.m.

Light raspberry yogurt and peanut butter on wheat toast.

Lunch, 2:00 p.m.

Spaghetti with marinara, and some sort of onion bread that wasn't very good. I only ate a few bites of it.

Snack, 5:30 p.m.

Granola bar.

Snack, 7:15 p.m.
Not pictured: A blue raspberry margarita and chips and salsa at Highland House. Jon was bar tending, and he called and said, "You should stop by." So...I did. Because of the chips, though, I wasn't hungry for dinner.

Dinner, 12:30 a.m.

We ordered pizza when Jon got home from work. Bad, I know.