More Cheese More Chocolate

I kind of figured that after a weekend as exciting as last, this one was going to be several notches down on the fun scale, but little did I know exactly how far down it would fall. I went to a yoga class on Thursday night, and not even five minutes into it I felt a snap in my lower back. Instead of rolling up my mat and walking out like any sane person would do, I stuck around for the rest of the hour, gradually modifying my movements according to the pain that was increasing by the second. By the time the class ended, I could barely stand up to walk to the locker room, and on the way to my car I had to stop every ten feet as I was overcome by a back spasm. I didn’t plan to start my weekend on Thursday, but when you’re unable to roll out of bed on Friday morning without writhing in pain, getting on a bus and eventually sitting upright in a chair for several hours isn’t really in the cards.

I spent most of Friday laying on the couch with an ice pack, but once Matt headed out of town on Friday afternoon and a voice of reason was no longer present to tell me to stop moving around and lay down, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen. To be honest, I didn’t realize just how much time I spent in the kitchen until I uploaded all of the photos to my computer, and now I completely understand why I was in so much pain on Sunday after having felt so much better on Saturday. Sitting still isn’t my thing, even if the effect of my restlessness is pain. At least there were freshly baked cookies to help me cope!

Without further ado, here’s everything* that I made while I should have been laying on the couch.

*Not pictured: a poorly photographed loaf of lemony olive oil banana bread

Stovetop macaroni and cheese plus broccoli that was lightly blanched in the pasta water. I made about a third of this recipe, and it was neither amazing nor terrible, as evidenced by the leftovers still being around yet remaining uneaten.

Toasted brioche with avocado and a fried egg, strawberries, tea.

I was feeling considerably better on Saturday and ventured out to buy groceries, where I was overcome by the urge to buy a container of sprouts. I was pretty hungry by the time I got home, so I made a wrap with the sprouts and a bunch of other veggies. Again, not great but not bad.

I ordered Pizza Luce for a late dinner, and continuing with the theme, it was not very good, mostly bad and very bland. The salad was decent, though.

Another activity that I should have skipped in order to rest: bread baking.

I made two loaves of partially whole wheat bread, and while they were pretty inside, they weren’t my best work. Maybe it was the universe telling me to sit down and relax.

Toast with harissa, fried eggs, blackberries, tea, orange juice. Fuel for more Sunday activities that I probably shouldn’t have done.

Like baking oatmeal M&M cookies. They were good.

Then I made pesto/tomato/mozzarella/basil sandwiches for a picnic lunch with girlfriends.

The only benefit of being stuck in horrible traffic because the main road between Minneapolis and St. Paul is closed for the weekend is that it’s a great opportunity for icing your back.

If you thought that making breakfast, baking cookies and preparing sandwiches seems like a lot of activity for someone who should be doing none of those things, you’d be right. Instead, I did all of those things and prepared a pork shoulder for a day of slow cooking in the crock pot. At least I simplified the recipe to cut out most of the labor-intensive steps.

By the time I got home from our picnic, my stubbornness was being punished with frequent back spasms, but that didn’t stop me from preparing a batch of creamy cilantro lime sauce to go with the pork. Some things are worth a little pain, and anyone who’s had the green sauce from Brasa knows that this sauce is one of them.

After I cleaned my plate, I rested.