What To Eat This Week

Cold Soba Noodle Salad-A family favorite. 

 Hawaiian BBQ chicken over rice-terrible. I marinated the chicken in this marinade for a day but it didn't taste like anything. Frank's Red Hot saved the day for me. 

Bulgogi with rice and roasted broccoli-Very delicious. I'll make this again.

Roasted Chicken Quarters

Thai Beef with Cabbage

Dinner Out

Pan Fried Chicken Tenderloins with Apple Cider Gravy

Halloween Party

Dinner Out

Steak

 What's on your menu this week?

Rain Is Not My Indian Name by Cynthia Leitich Smith

I found Rain Is Not My Indian Name on a list of diverse books. I shouldn't have been surprised that it was by Cynthia Leitich Smith. I've been a fan of her books for a while now. I'm so glad I picked Rain Is Not My Indian Name up. Though a slim book, it was a wonderful story with fantastic characters.

Rain is grieving the loss of her best friend and her mom. Rain doesn't think she has much to offer the world. She's not pretty. Galen, her best friend, understood her and without him, she's alone. Rain retreats into her own world. Preferring to stay home and clean than to socialize with other kids.  But when her aunt starts a camp for Native kids, Rain offers to take photos for her brother's girlfriend's newspaper. Slowly, Rain leaves her own world and realizes that the rest of the world has been waiting for her to come back.

I loved Rain. She's thoughtful, artistic, and innocent. She's just finding her way in the world and still so unsure of who she is. I also loved that she was mixed and talked about how she felt about that. I also enjoyed the other people in Rain's world. Her brother and his girlfriend are patient with Rain and wait til she is ready to talk about her losses but they also encourage her to go back to things she enjoyed like photography.This would be a great book for teens.

Another great book from Cynthia Leitich Smith. I would highly recommend Rain Is Not My Indian Name. Others who shared their thoughts on Rain Is Not My Indian Name: The Cazzy Files, gr8 reads, Kim's Book Reviews, and Reading In Color.

Library Loot

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and me that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.

Carry On

via GIPHY

A Red-Rose Chain

Also super excited for this one too.

What did you get this week? Claire's got the linky this week.

Teaser Tuesday-Rain Is Not My Indian Name by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"Three years ago, the local air force base closed. Grampa Berghoff took early retirement, and Dad was transferred to South Korea (before Guam)"
pg 19 Rain is not my Indian Name by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Unprocessed by Megan Kimble

I added Unprocessed to my library queue because I liked the idea of eating unprocessed. Kimble did it while trying to live a normal life. She did't move to a farm or start a garden on her terrace. So I wanted to see how she did it, living her normal life. Overall, I enjoyed Unprocessed and gained some good knowledge from it.

Kimble lives in Tuscon, Az, works part time and is a student part time. As a single woman, she has some time to devote to food making (baking bread, making chocolate, making plant-based milks). She has no rush to get meals on the table other than her own hungry stomach and no need to create full meals for just herself. I did find the information she found out (how milk is made, how flour is made) illuminating and have incorporated that knowledge into how I shop and cook. Sometimes her unhurried, casual way of making food drove me nuts. I don't have that kind of time. Grr.

Also Kimble is a young white woman with an upper middle class background. In the last chapter she does the SNAP challenge. This chapter alone changed the way I saw Kimble. She acknowledged that she had never been hungry or worried that she wouldn't eat. She went grocery shopping in a lower income neighborhood and watched families struggle to decide what to buy. I know that sometimes cost comes before health and often you choose the cheapest option, not the most nutritious. I wish that more of the conversation I heard about changing our food systems wasn't from white people. I think there are a lot of other voices out there I'm not hearing. I'll continue to look.

Overall Unprocessed gave me a lot to think about. I'll  be making some changes to what I buy and attempt to buy more locally. I'll also be looking for ways to continue the conversation and include more people. Others who shared their thoughts on Unprocessed: Walking On Travels, Living Upp, and A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss.
This is my sixth read for the Foodies Read Challenge.

What To Eat This Week

One Pan Ranch Garlic Chicken

Delicious. Everyone loved this one. Tai even took leftovers and said it was yummy the next day,

One Pan Hamburger Gravy

Another winner. Great comfort food. Served it over mashed cauliflower.

Apple Juice Chicken with Roasted Broccoli

I wish the juice had become more saucy but I did double the recipe. But it was still delicious.

Garlic and Smoked Paprika Sole with roasted green beans

I just sprinkled Flavor God Garlic seasoning with some smoked paprika over the sole and baked it for about 6 minutes. Then squeezed lemon juice over the fish. Very easy and tasty.

Hawaiian BBQ chicken

Cold Soba Noodle Salad

Kalbi Beef

Dinner Out

Dinner Out

Dinner out

Sticky Thai Peanut Orange Chicken

 What's on your menu this week?

The October Readathon Post

I had hoped to get more reading and cheerleading done earlier but life got in the way. We were out house hunting for most of the day. We found one that we like but not sold on the area.

Intro  Meme:
1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Bellevue, WA (near Seattle, WA)
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
No books in my stack. Just reading whatever I want.
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
No snacks planned. Just flying by the seat of my pants here.
4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
My husband and I are searching for our first house. I'll be spending part of the day house hunting.
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
I love the readathon. I'm starting much later than I usually do but that's ok!

Mid Event Meme:
1. What are you reading right now?
Just starting Nimona.
2. How many books have you read so far?
None.
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?
Not sure.
4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?
My whole day was an interruption but I'm looking forward to being up a lot of the night reading.
5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?
Usually I feel the October one is less popular but it doesn't seem that way today.

October Readathon Post

This Saturday is Dewey's 24 hour Readathon. I had the readathon on my calendar since the last readathon. But the October one is harder for me to keep open. Especially now because we are looking for a house! So I'll be out house hunting for part of the day.

I plan to cheer as part of #teamrogue and read what I can. But I hope to see you on Saturday here and on twitter.

Library Loot

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and me that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.

The Lotus Palace

Historical fiction in China? Sign me up.

What did you get this week? Add your loot below.

Teaser Tuesday-Unprocessed by Megan Kimble

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"For most of its early history-for at least the last three thousand years-chocolate was consumed in liquid form, usually prepared by brewing ground cacao in hot water, much like coffee today. It was a bitter brew, one drunk to invigorate rather than to indulge."

pg 63 Unprocessed by Megan Kimble

Korean Beef Bowls #pinitdoit

I'm always looking for good dairy free meals that are quick. This wasn't the prettiest of meals but it was a winner.

Here's the terrible photo:

Meat over rice. Yum.

I didn't have green onions but I'll add them next time. I served some steamed veggies on the side and it was a meal. I think it took about 30 minutes to make the whole meal but still a good quick meal.

Original post
My Pin

What To Eat This Week

It's back!

One Pan Garlic Ranch Chicken and Veggies

Steak tips with Peppered Mushroom Gravy

Apple Juice Chicken

Ground Beef, Zucchini, and Onion Skillet

Game night with friends

Dinner out

 Salmon

 What's on your menu this week?

American Catch by Paul Greenberg

I picked up American Catch because food related non-fiction is my favorite. I especially love learning about foods I like. I eat salmon weekly, oysters when I can and shrimp often (anywhere from weekly to monthly depending on the season). I eat a lot of local oysters. But I knew the shrimp and salmon was frequently not local. I didn't know American Catch was going give me so much information that would make it hard for me to buy cheap foreign shrimp again.

Greenberg tells the stories of the New York oyster, the Louisiana brown shrimp, the Alaskan Sockeye Salmon. I knew Manhattan had stopped having oysters in their waters a long time ago but I didn't really know why. The reason its hard or impossible to find local seafood is because man is destroying much of America's coastline. Shrimp and oysters thrive in those marshy areas on the coastline. Salmon is being negatively impacted by mining. Half the time, I kept murmuring what can I do? So much has already been done. Well, I can stop buying foreign shrimp and salmon. Choose wild salmon and shrimp. Stop buying farmed fish and shrimp. It's going to be hard a lot of our American seafood goes to foreign countries because they'll pay more than we will. We get the cheaper seafood from foreign countries. The process is hurting both sides. Americans prefer farmed fish and shrimp  but it's hurting our health (farmed fish can have dangerous chemicals and it can be less nutritious) and our coastlines. And in the countries that farm our fish, the farms have a negative impact on the land and agriculture of the country. Also tell your congresspeople to vote no on bills and laws that could damage our seafood supply and destroy our coastlines.

American Catch was very informative but not in a preachy way. I would read  more of Greenberg's work. He's very knowledgeable and passionate about fish.
This is my fifth read for the Foodies Read Challenge.

Library Loot

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and me that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.

Rain Is Not My Indian Name

For the #Diversiverse. It looks like a short one. Yay!

What did you get this week? Claire has the linky this week.

September Book Tally

The Duke's Guide to Correct Behavior by Megan Frampton
First There Was Forever by Juilana Romano
Tampa by Alissa Nutting
The Suffragette Scandal by Courtney Milan
RIPD vol 1 by Peter Lenkov
Hawkeye vol 4 by Matt Fraction
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
Whitney, My Love by Judith McNaught
The Boy Most Likely To by Huntley Fitzpatrick
Deadpool: Merc With A Mouth vol 1 by Victor Gischler


A decent month. Still closing in on 150. Almost there! There some winners (The Boy Most Likely To and The Duke's Guide To Correct Behavior) and some losers (First There Was Forever) this month. But a good month.

Stats:

What's In A Name Challenge: this month: 0 (challenge complete) YTD: 6

Graphic Novel and Manga Challenge: this month: 3 (RIPD vol 1, Hawkeye vol 4, Deadpool vol 1) YTD :4

Historical Reading Challenge: this month: 4 ( The Duke's Guide to Correct Behavior, The Suffragette Scandal, Julie of The Wolves, Whitney, My Love) YTD: 17

Foodies Read Challenge this month: 0 (none this month) YTD: 4

Total: 125

September Goal Review

How did I do this month on my goals?

1. Make one meatless meal for dinner a week. I pinned a couple of ideas. Have yet to execute them.

2. Continue working on my fitness and lose another 30 lbs. Still working on my kettlebells. I threw biking into the mix and having fun with that. Sadly it's getting colder here so outdoor biking is less likely but I'm going to continue with stationary biking.

3. Go back to meal planning. Need to start posting my meal plans.

4. Schedule one do nothing, stay home weekend a month. September was busy but we had one do nothing weekend. October is super busy too.

5. Plan one trip with Tai this year. We went on a short weekend getaway to Bremerton last weekend. We have another short trip planned next month.

6. Get a will and other necessary estate planning documents. Haven't even thought about this.

7. Clean and declutter one room a month. Still moving slowly on this one.

8. Do one things for myself a month. Got a pedicure, a hair cut and went to the spa!

9. Watch one older (pre-2014) movie a month. I need to keep better track of this. I'm sure I did watch at least one older movie this month.

10. Learn to make 5 Japanese dishes.  Still nothing here/

11. Stop complaining and start sharing my gratitude. I've been a lot better about this.

12. Take 2 cooking classes. The meat class I took in September was amazing. I hope I can make a few of the dishes we learned. I'm looking forward to tamales in a couple of weeks!

September Graphic Novel Review

RIPD vol 1

I liked the movie version but thought it could have been more. The graphic novel was better than the movie. I'm going to try to get the second volume since the library doesn't have it.

Hawkeye vol 4
I've been enjoying this series. This one was confusing at first but got better. It looks like this is Matt Fraction's last volume as author on Hawkeye.

Deadpool: Head Trip

In preparation for the Deadpool movie, I've decided to learn more about Wade Wilson. Good story, funny. I look forward to more Deadpool.