So, the paper is done!!! And I am way beyond sleep-deprived. And it will take my body 10 years to recover from all the sugar I’ve downed in order to get through this. And I still have a presentation to give tonight. But, after that, I will be school-free for four whole days. That means I will have a four-day vacation from getting utterly drenched in torrential downpours on the way from work to class only to sit in an over-air-conditioned room for 3.5 hours.

I may have been smiling on the outside, but I was crying on the inside.

So were Deborah, Lucia, and Pura:

Anyway, I’ve at least been pairing my sugar overages with some green. When I eat too much junk, it’s always in addition to and not instead of a healthy base. Hopefully, my body will thank me by not letting diabetes spontaneously develop overnight.

My packed lunches this week involved a variation of this recipe for Catfish and Tomatillo Salsa from EatingWell. Except I used chicken instead of catfish because that was what I had. And I completely ignored every part of the recipe except the part that told me what to put in the salsa. Well, that’s sort of a lie. I used more tomatillos and more onion than the recipe required because I wanted to use everything. By the way, if you don’t know about tomatillos, you should get acquainted.

They resemble green tomatoes on the outside and somewhat on the inside, but the flavor is more like a Granny Smith apple.

I used two of my CSA garlic scapes in place of the garlic, and I also had to improvise when the recipe wanted japapenos and I did not have any. Instead, I poured in this super spicy green salsa that Lillian had left over from her tacos last week at work:

I chopped 1.5 chicken breasts (I’ve had them in my freezer since November at least!) and placed them on the bottom of a baking dish. The huge pile of salsa went on top.

I covered the dish and baked for 40 minutes at 400, and then I uncovered the dish and broiled for an additional 15 minutes to get this:

For the side, I decided to mobilize the rice I’ve been storing in my freezer for months. I defrosted Vianni’s veggie rice and chicken (and you know this is old because Vianni left my agency over six weeks ago!), Myrna’s rice and sardines, and stepdad John’s leftover coconut curry rice from a Thai restaurant and mixed them all together with BRM triticale berries to satisfy my whole-grains-loving conscience:

For an extra kick, I mixed all the rice-y goodness with the last of the TJ’s SPICY jalapeno-lime salsa (the origin of those orange bits in the picture above) from Elisabeth.

Outdoor patio lunch in action (the same day, incidentally, that afore-mentioned perfectly-timed-with-my-commute flood drama took place):

Food marriage has a much higher rate of success than people marriage:

As I’ve mentioned before, my agency has very Catholic roots and was started by nuns. This pious (?) man is probably a prominent Catholic figure, and he watched vigilantly over our lunch:

Word is, if you stare long enough, he actually starts to move closer. A religious miracle or a trick of perception? You decide. Or, if you don’t want to talk about religion and miracles, you can just tell me your best caught-in-the-rain story …

Thanks to my CSA share, eggs have been playing quite the starring role in my life over the past few weeks.



When I buy eggs from the grocery store, I have no problem letting them hang out in my fridge for several weeks as I slowly work my way through them. (These eggs lasted me for six weeks!) With these fresh eggs, however, I’ve been feeling the pressure to use them while still at their peak!



My dad always told me: when in doubt, boil water … so that’s what I’ve been doing with these eggs! It doesn’t hurt that my favorite way to eat an egg is poached 😀

Ellie recently asked me how I poach my eggs. I actually have an excellent Revere-ware pan with six egg poaching cups that used to belong to my grandma … but the truth is that I prefer free-style poaching because I love the wispy bits of egg white that form. I boil a bunch of water in a saucepan and then crack the egg right into it:



I like my eggs “hard-poached” and not runny (Brandi and Olivia are probably experiencing a succession of massive heart attacks at that statement), so I usually let them cook for about 8 minutes. Sometimes I turn the heat down and cover the pot, and sometimes I just let it boil uncovered the whole way through. I guess it depends on my mood.

And a sampling of my poach egg perfection over the past week …

On half of a toasted sandwich thin with three-leaf pesto, all over 1/2 cup of habichuelas I rescued from the work fridge during the weekly clean-out last Friday:

Somehow, I always end up arranging my food in circles of decreasing size. I wonder if this is a habit I’ve developed to facilitate photography for the blog? I don’t think I used to do this!

I topped the poached egg stack with freshly ground black pepper, freshly ground coriander, and homemade grated parmesan.

The absolute perfect internal texture for me:

On the side, I had a teeny teeny bite of lasagna that I also rescued from the work fridge on Friday!

Poached egg on a sandwich thin, round 2 (with my CSA bok choy blossom centerpiece!):

This time around, I spread the toast with the pesto and 1/8 of a mashed avocado, mmmmmmm:

I could stare at avocado all day long …

One of the beauties of free-style poaching, this yolk decided it wanted to sit on top in a giant ball:

Again, internal perfection:

I can’t stop with the photos!

Finally, I incorporated the poached egg into Vani-inspired savory oats topped with a Brandi-inspired egg (though the non-runny part is Sarah-inspired, of course):

In the overnight mix of oats, I combined 1/4 cup Scottish oats, 1/4 cup unsweetened soymilk, 1/4 cup plain yogurt, chili powder, cayenne pepper, cumin, coriander, oregano, coarse sea salt, a drizzle of my mom’s homemade herb-infused olive oil, and steamed spinach:

In the morning, I topped the oats with another fun free-style poached egg shape, 1/8 avocado, freshly ground coriander, and freshly grated homemade parm:

These oats were amaaaaaaaaazing — Vani, you’re a genius! — and I’ve been eating them for breakfast all week:

(That’s not a runny yolk! It just shifted in the course of photographic manipulation.)

OK, time for work and then more paper-writing all night long. This paper is due tomorrow, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I can get it done! I miss sleeping, and you don’t even want to know what’s happened to my eating habits with all of this late-night work … but I’m hoping everything can get back to normal by the weekend for a little reprieve before summer session 2 starts next Tuesday!

Do you eat eggs? Why or why not? If you do eat eggs, what is your favorite egg style?