These next few weeks are going to incredibly busy.  If you are in the Saint Louis area you should stop by SLU Friday or Saturday night to watch the SLU Monologues! They are real stories from students, staff, alumni, and faculty of SLU performed by SLU students, staff, alumni, and faculty  that tell stories about identity. Needless to say they will be awesome. I've been working on them with my fellow core team members and actors for some time now and we are really excited about this year's show. The flyer is attached in the post. Soon Vagina Monologues will be here as well. Next week my office is holding Celebrate Generosity week at SLU which will only make things more hectic. With everything going on I have near to no time to cook. But cook I must for sustenance! The other night I made a great roasted cauliflower dish with lots of caramelized onions (YUM!) and last night we whipped up potatoes and brats. Tonight I am roasting radishes so be on a lookout for recipes! Many people ask me how I find time to cook between 2 jobs, Una, school, studying, and the rest of life. Well it's like this:

 1. I love cooking and I need it in my life not to kill people.
 2. I take advantage of bulk grains and my rice cooker. We eat a lot of rice and quinoa.
3. Freezing veggies! (Blanching and shocking helps cook veggies faster!) 
4. Some simple planning goes a long way. I make  sure I know what I have on hand so that I can throw something together fast! Prepping things on the weekends also makes life a lot easier during the week. You can also avoid fast food this way. Plan on being stressed during the week and act accordingly (Even if the week isn't going to be... Just so their's no surprises.)
5. Shop and stock yourself so that the item is useful for multiple meals.
6. Wing it.

What are some ways you keep yourself going? Let me know and you can see your tips here!

I love to buy fresh produce. The only problem is that I don't get through it in enough time to actually use it all before it goes bad. So you have 4 options. 1. Use it like crazy. If you are resourceful enough to use those ingredients in several dishes, more power to you! 2. Can it. I don't have the time, nor have I ever done this by myself. With canning you need to be really careful. You can kill someone if you don't do it right. You have to kill the bacteria! 3. Freeze them! But you have to do it right! 5. End up wasting your vegetation. 
So I opt to freeze my vegetables. I don't plan well enough to get through the vegetation like I should. When you freeze vegetables you can't just pop them into the freezer. You have to Blanch and Shock. This is super easy! You just  slightly cook the prepped vegetables in boiling water, no more than a minute or two, until slightly tender then put them into an ice bath to stop the cooking. When you boil the vegetables their colors are so bright and brilliant  Blanching and shocking the vegetables help to keep the dignity of the colors and composition of the vegetables. Without doing this they'll be mush, dull, and not awesome. When freezing you can freeze them on a cookie sheet or sheet pan so that when you transfer them into a bag they don't clump! Now I have wonderful vegetables that I can pop into the oven and have dinner in minutes! Tomorrow night I will have to get the potatoes done before the go bad. I know I've been gone for a while so be sure to check the recipe page for new additions!