Happy Monday everyone! Okay, so not super happy. I’m not a big Monday fan since I’m away from my apartment from 7:30am to 7:00pm and I have to be at the gym when it opens at 5:30am to get in a workout… yay.
You know what makes me happier though? Looking at pictures of this cutie:
I have to bring lunch (and snacks!) with me on Mondays, so to make things easier I prepped some food for the week! I got most of my ideas for food prep this week from Elise on Hungry Hungry Hippie. She did a post on her simple meals, and I decided to incorporate her ideas with what I already had in my fridge!
I started off by making a pot of quinoa! Only 2 servings because that’s all I had left, but at least I have lunch for Monday and enough for one other meal!
I also roasted up a ton of veggies! I chopped up carrots (which actually were steamed in the microwave) and then brussel sprouts, butternut squash and green and yellow summer squash.
For the items that I roasted, I tossed each of them in a little olive oil. The butternut squash took about 30 minutes, while the rest took about 15-20. It’s really just a guessing game, I just kept checking on them to make sure they hadn’t burnt, and then pulled them out when I thought they were ready!
For my Monday lunch, I started by steaming some kale and adding one serving of quinoa. Then I added about 3/4 cups of the carrots. Next, I took a can of tuna (which had 2 servings, but the whole can was just 100 calories so I used the whole thing) and mixed it with 1 tablespoon of my new favorite Trader Joe’s find: Raita sauce!
It’s a yogurt-based Middle Eastern sauce and I am in love! I then put the mixed tuna on top and added one more tablespoon of Raita. Tada! Lunch for Monday!
I plan on just mixing it together in a nice big blob when I actually eat it. Messy food is so much tastier…
Another thing I did this weekend was attend a book club meeting! My sister-in-law, Lauren, started a book club with two of her friends. They were so sweet to invite me to join them this month! The book they had chosen was The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain.
The story is told from the perspective of Hadley, Ernest Hemingway’s first wife. When it came to knowledge of Ernest and his life, we had a broad range in our group. One girl knew absolutely nothing about him, while the other two knew a lot more about him and the other writers mentioned in the book. I’d say I fell about halfway in between. The point being, you really didn’t need to know anything about Ernest Hemingway to enjoy the book, although it was pretty cool to see his life evolve as it did, along with the involvement of the other reality-based characters, throughout the book.
The novel is fiction, however, it incorporated as many real facts as possible. We all agreed that the author must have done some serious research in writing this book! We also agreed that it was a pretty sad book, not just because of how things went, but more because of how Hadley allowed herself to be treated and how she never stood up for herself or took any pride in herself, even with so many friends who were role models for being independent women.
The book is a great look into both the life of Ernest and Hadley, but also into the time period and the conflict between women who were still following Victorian values, and those who were embracing the “roaring twenties” and the new form of female independence that came with the time.
I actually blew through this book in a week. It was very well written and I definitely recommend it, especially if you’re interested in that time period!
Are you good about prepping meals and food for the week?
What’s the last book you read? Any recommendations?