Reading and Eating
Alright, alright… if you read yesterday’s post you may be thinking “Uh oh, Jenny’s totally losing it!” But not to worry- I woke up today feeling more like my normal self. Of course, Tuesday is my Friday, because I don’t work on Wednesdays… it’s always easy to be happy on a “Friday.” ANYWAY. I am on a roll with my books! There are so many books I’m excited to read, which is a nice position to be in. I read two this past week. First up: This book got a rave review in this Modern Mrs. Darcy post. Granted, the post was about the best sci-fi/fantasy on audiobook, and I read the print version- but I didn’t love it. I LIKED it though. The main character is a “Sec-Unit”, half robot-half cloned human, and the main point of interest is how it interacts with the humans in the story. The rest of the story, which was billed as a “thriller,” was not very thrilling. This is the first book of a series, and I have a feeling it gets better and better- but there are too many other books to read for me to continue with this series. This book was another “like” but not “love.” The problem was, it felt like a mash-up of a great mystery and a poor romance novel. The main female character spends a lot of time thinking about weight watcher points, how much weight she’s gained, and whether or not to wear control-top pantyhose on her date. Now, I don’t mind a serious discussion about struggles with food and body image, but this was supposed to be funny. The book was written in 2010 and maybe this was the kind of BS we were used to back then, but it was annoying, and made me take her character less seriously. The male main character went on to solve the mystery (probably because he wasn’t wasting his brainpower on calories and pantyhose) so, good for him! Again, the mystery was very good, and this is the first book in a series. And again, there are too many great books I want to read to continue on in a series I don’t love. Eating. Oof. It was another rough week. I ate a tofu scramble for dinner three nights in a row. My husband was working and my daughter ate something else (offhand I can’t remember what! At least one night I probably got her sushi from the grocery store- an easy dinner I fall back on about once a week for her.) For this scramble (night #3), I used tofu and anything else I could find in the fridge- a little broccoli, a little cauliflower, peas, and some chickpeas. It was GOOD! By Sunday I was feeling guilty enough to actually make a nice dinner- baked ziti, salad and garlic bread. The baked ziti recipe is one I cut out of the newspaper about 20 years ago. Back then we actually had the paper delivered, and in the weekly food section there was always a vegetarian recipe, which was frequently vegan! The creamy sauce is made with tofu, and after all these years it’s still our favorite baked ziti recipe. We ate leftovers on Monday, and now I’m back to wondering what we’ll have for dinner. WHY IS THIS SO HARD??? Do you think I should try the next book in the Martha Wells series? What are you making for dinner this week??? – Give me some inspiration! Top photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash