no more excuses

no more excuses

Another year, another Americorps? (too bad some vowels don't have the same pungent alliteration as consonants)
I started at Van Go (formerly "Van Go Mobile Arts") a week ago and things have been pretty quiet thus far. I'm able to gratify my love of material organization (anywhere but in my home!) with quite a bit of research (poking around on the internet and reading about Ann Cooper) and menial things like cleaning and preparing for our next big event.

It's incredibly different from City Year's exhausting sturm und drang - most of the staff is older and the general understanding is that the troubled "youth" we serve (some of them are close to my age) are the ones who will be serving forth the drama.

I have to admit that it's nice to be in a setting that is structured compared to the loosey-goosiness of college life, with its indeterminable gaps between classes which, more often than not, served as occasions for stolen naps in the stacks. Everyone talks about how nice it is to be able to go home and not have to worry about homework or preparation.

The problem, as I was complaining to Drew the other day, is that I feel like my entire life has become about coming home, preparing a meal, and then cleaning the kitchen (with reading, internet-ing, and PS3 Civilization-ing thrown in the mix). Not a terrible thing, granted, but one that needs to be a little more stimulating considering I expend relatively so little energy throughout the day. However, I've noticed that I've become a lot more conscientious about my food since I've started Americorps - a whole lot less meat, less eating out, less random snacking. It's not perfect, admittedly - I'm munching on a large bag of Jalapeno Crunchers as I type this - but it's a noticeable change from the harried indulgences of student life.

This has inspired me enough to really begin an exploration of home cooking, as is so popular on and off the blogs nowadays. I'm calling it the Poverty Diet, though hopefully it'll be rich in flavor while low in cost. This may change if I get food stamps (fingers crossed!) but either way, I'm going to look into producing more well-rounded meals, with an emphasis on vegetables. I have yet to jump on that local food wagon yet but in preparation for Van Go's summer food program (more on this later) I might start picking up ideas.

We'll see how it goes but I'm off to a decent start. Last week included a lentil stew-ish thing (which looked incredibly bland and off-putting but tasted great in my opinion) with quinoa and an unctuous mushroom bourguignon that was easy though time-consuming to make (10 PM after shopping and prep was far too late for my Midwestern 7 PM eating schedule).
I've been especially inspired by Sara Dickerman's lovely "Food Lover's Cleanse" journal for Bon Appetit. I love reading food diaries like New York Magazine's "New York Diet" and have thus decided to set forth into creating my own on this very blog. I probably won't write about many of my meals (my lunches usually consist of strategic leftovers) but I think it'll provide me with a push to get some variety into my diet. Let's see what happens!