eG Foodblog: hillvalley - Back to normal eating.....

[cheeseandchocolate]

do you ever find it hard to cook for one?

Like the meat and vegetable packs being too big?

or ever find it just not worth the effort to cook for yourself?

I find that a lot of time when I need something just for myself (usually lunch) it always seems like a big bother to even make something....

I loved cooking for one! I lived alone for two+ years in both Paris and Seattle before my boyfriend moved in with me last June, and it was actually hard for me to adjust to cooking for two. I've always frequented local farmers' markets (in season), and I used to cook a couple of big dishes on the weekend to last me through the week, along with a last-minute add-on or two each evening. I'd have ratatouille (with a last-minute fried egg on top or lentil salad on the side, a hunk of fresh bread, and maybe a salad), or a hearty soup with good bread and cheese. I still do roughly the same type of meal planning, but now I wind up doing additional cooking midweek too, since we quickly plow through what I've made on the weekend. I do love cooking for two now that I'm used to it, and the added effort is more than returned by my boyfriend's appreciation for a good meal at home with me.

That said, I did love cooking only for myself and never found it too much effort--but that could be due to the fact that I rarely did new dishes each night and often (especially in Paris) had dinners consisting only of a couple simple (braised, roasted, salad-ed) vegetable preparations along with bread and cheese. And being a big sandwich eater, lunch has never been a bother--plus, I enjoy scheming up creative (vegetarian) sandwiches. I rarely have food go bad because I can't eat it fast enough--but then again, I've generally eaten out rarely, so I always turn the odds and ends of raw materials from various recipes into another something to eat in the following days.

That said, Kristin, I'm not cooking for three kids, so that keeps things simple! And I've now got a Whole Foods Market only three blocks away, so when the farmers' market is off for the season or when I need more of a certain dry good, I just hit the pavement.

[JennyUptown]

One downside to having someone (e.g., a boyfriend) around a lot: he often eats the leftovers before I can get to them!!

[hillvalley]

Snack today was popcorn and cheezits.

I am trying out a new tea at work, Tazo's Calm. I am a little dissappointed, it tastes like chamomile, but it will do for now.

Lunch was the rest of the rotini from Sunday night. I don't have much of an appetite so that was all I could get down.

For the holidays I recieved about $40 worth of gift certificates to Starbucks. I don't know what to spend it on, since I don't drink that much coffee and I can only have so many Vanilla Creme's without getting sick of them. Any suggestions?

[hillvalley]

The cherry on top is that right across the street is a little grocery stuck in a time warp, Ed's Way. They have horrible produce, but will make you any kind of sandwich you want at the deli for $2.89. All the women who work in the deli must have had teenage sons, because the sandwiches are huge.

Do you get to leave for lunch? I eat with my kids four days a week. (groan)

[JennyUptown]

For the holidays I recieved about $40 worth of gift certificates to Starbucks. I don't know what to spend it on, since I don't drink that much coffee and I can only have so many Vanilla Creme's without getting sick of them. Any suggestions?

Suggestions:

* your body weight in bottled water

* four copies of whatever weird seasonal world-music CDs they're pushing at the moment

* some kind of coffee equipment plus mugs and coffee as a gift for a coffee-drinker in your life

These are not unique, I realize. Maybe regift?

[Rhea_S]

For the holidays I recieved about $40 worth of gift certificates to Starbucks. I don't know what to spend it on, since I don't drink that much coffee and I can only have so many Vanilla Creme's without getting sick of them. Any suggestions?

They have loads of items other than coffee - cd's, chocolate, coffee mugs, boxes of Tazo tea, mints, etc.

It's been interesting reading your blog. I'm also single and am always curious to see how other singles eat. I've been eating Hoppin' John with kale for the last three days because I cooked too much. I also made a wild mushroom ragu for this week, but that's currently in the freezer along with half a baguette that was also baked on Sunday. Tip about bread: it tastes better frozen then defrosted rather than just sitting in the fridge. If it's sliced, just take out as many slices as you need for the day. If it's unsliced, slice into desired sizes prior to freezing. Just make sure to wrap the bread well (freezer bag, remove excess air with straw).

[bloviatrix]

One downside to having someone (e.g., a boyfriend) around a lot: he often eats the leftovers before I can get to them!!

You have just described what happens to me. I'll be out somewhere or on my way home and I'm famished. So I start to think about some left-overs I have in the fridge. But I come home to find that Blovie scarfed them down. His defense is that since I tend not to like left-overs, he feels entitled to eat them because otherwise they'll wind up in the garbage.

[JennyUptown]

My man makes no excuses. He just eats. Those Tandycakes from Tastycake (PA in the house!!) are among his favorites. I'll buy a box that contains six or so two-cake packets. Within two or three days, they're gone and I haven't had one! I'm learning to hide a few for my own.

[hillvalley]

The sushi making was a complete success!!! I am so excited. Activities like this remind me of why I put up with a low paying but still highly stressful job. Every kid tried it, which is amazing. Of course, we bribed them with the promise of candy after they tried it, but they still tried it. In the immortal words of Mikey's brother, "they liked it!"

We made cucmber maki without wasabi. The rice was sushi grain (I can't think of the term right now) but was not seasoned. Except for cooking the rice (we have a hot plate in the room so we cooked it there) the kids did everything. They cut the cucumbers, rolled the sushi and sliced it. Half the class has some form of imparement that makes tasks like this hard, yet everyone tried, which is all we ask.

Everyone tried a piece of nori (seaweed) first before they knew what it was. Once they found out what it was, four of the boys liked it. One child, (let's call him Eric)who I have a special relationship with, looked at me like I was crazy when he figured out what he had eaten. Granted, the only seaweed Eric knew before today was on Spongebob Squarepants, but he still thinks I am crazy for eating this stuff. Wait 'till he tries tofu on Friday!!!

Everyone had a pair of chopsticks with a matching soy sauce dish. I have a great set from Zabars that are red, yellow and black plastic. 5 of the kids liked it and ate more than one piece. Two of the kids ate one tiny bite, but at least they ate it. These are kids with very sensitive mouths and only eat about half a dozen foods, so any attempt at something different is huge. Eric is now positive that I am crazy.

The rest of them had a ball posing for pictures while eating their sushi. I'll download them tomorrow and they will become our screen saver. A couple of kids think they are famous because they are on the computer.

We forgot about the gari (ginger) so I will include it in our food tasting on Friday. The boys have asked if we can eat more seaweed and when am I bringing them more sushi. I am thinking of bringing in natto (fermented soybeans which does not smell or look good unless you love the stuff, which I do) to see their reaction.

This ended up being more about my experience with food than I expected, but when you watch kids eat their first piece of sushi, it becomes that kind of day!

[Marmish]

The cherry on top is that right across the street is a little grocery stuck in a time warp, Ed's Way.  They have horrible produce, but will make you any kind of sandwich you want at the deli for $2.89.  All the women who work in the deli must have had teenage sons, because the sandwiches are huge.

Do you get to leave for lunch? I eat with my kids four days a week. (groan)

Yep. I teach middle school, so the bell rings and I am free for 42 minutes. 46 if you count passing time. We pay aides and part time people for lunch duty. Occasionally, a teacher will pick it up because they need extra cash, but then they don't have a lunch. You couldn't pay me enough to do lunch duty.

[Marmish]

Congratulations on your sushi success! That's fantastic!

Last year when we studied Ancient Greece, my teaching partner and I brought in spanakopita, tyropita, feta, agjar (sp?), roasted red peppers, bread, and I made saganaki in an electric skillet for about 50 kids. I gave a little talk about each item, telling what to expect it to taste like, and how it would be eaten in the home, really emphasizing that these are the things our (mine and my partner's) families eat. They tried everything, and liked most of it, although not everyone was converted to spanakopita or feta. Saganaki was hit even without the flames. Opa!

[hillvalley]

Yep. I teach middle school, so the bell rings and I am free for 42 minutes. 46 if you count passing time. We pay aides and part time people for lunch duty. Occasionally, a teacher will pick it up because they need extra cash, but then they don't have a lunch. You couldn't pay me enough to do lunch duty.

I am so jealous. 42 whole minutes to yourself? We don't have a lunch room for the lower school so everyone eats in their classroom. It is by far one of my least favorite parts of the day. Wednesdays we can go out, if we don't have a meeting. I am planning on it tomorrow.

[hillvalley]

do you ever find it hard to cook for one?

Like the meat and vegetable packs being too big?

or ever find it just not worth the effort to cook for yourself?

It's more eating for one than cooking for one that is hard for me. If I actually cook something, I try to make enough for lunch tomorrow. Fish/seafood is the only thing I really one cook without making more for another meal.

Eating for one sucks. Take a pack of Oreos, or a box of the cereal I have been craving. When I buy it I either a)eat all of the package/box, etc. or b) end up throwing it away because I got sick of it or it went stale. I end up wasting more food than I would like, especially when tuition is due.

I also buy most of my meat/poultry from either Whole Foods or Eastern Market. One of the Whole Foods near my house has a great meat counter and I can buy as much as I need. Eastern Market is a smaller version of Redding Terminal (I think) on Capitol Hill that I hit a few times a month. They have a great poultry stand, the steaks are not to be believed and there is a cheese stand. Again, I can buy as much as I need.

During most of the year I get vegetables from an organic farmer's market right near my house. I worked there this year, which was a great experience, and helped out with their price.

There are common food things that I don't have. I rarely have milk, eggs and more than one loaf of bread in the house at the same time. They spoil too quickly, and I hate bread from the freezer.

[hillvalley]

Forgot about dinner, but that's because it hasn't happened yet. I take medication that causes some pretty bad nausea and it is acting up tonight. Had a couple of the wings I picked up at Fresh Fields today, but couldn't eat finish them. Sometimes if I eat through the nausea it helps, but not tonight.

[hillvalley]

This is our snack selection in the classroom. For those of you not familiar with kid food, starting on the left:

Cheese curls, goldfish, hard pretzels on top of the goldfish, cheeze its and last but not least animal crackers.

mise-en-place for last night's meal

Scallops with shallots and ginger and spinach. Tasted much better than it looked!

Now I just have to figure out how to make the pictures clear.

Thank you Jenny!!!!!!!

Edited January 7, 2004 by hillvalley (log)

[hillvalley]

Used the tea to wash down some carmel covered popcorn and almonds, from the same student who gave me the Godiva.  It's ironic that this family gave food as gifts because their kids is a terrible eater, and a portion of my day is spent trying to get him to eat.

You're positive he wasn't supposed to eat those things?

There is still a ton of chocolate around the school and so today at lunch I tried to give him a truffle. He pointed his finger at me and said "Go away Ms. Hillvalley, you go away!" and then he ran away. One can only work so many miracles in a day.

Edited January 7, 2004 by hillvalley (log)

[hillvalley]

I decided to treat the nausea with a nice Burgandy 1/2 bottle I had. I am a serious light weight. Two glasses at the most. And that is a lot. Unless I am cooking with it, or have someone to drink it with, buying more than 1/2 bottles is a waste of good money and wine. I don't know as much about wine as I would like to, other than I like burgandy and chianti and crisp white wine.

Didn't help my stomach, but I didn't think it would and now I have a nice buzz. Tomorrow morning however, could be rough, if my students have changed their minds about the seaweed

BTW, does anybody listen to Beth Orton?

[babka]

fantastic description of the grand sushi experiment!!

[and yes on Orton]

question--what/how do you use the snacks? I know how to use food to bribe folks into a meeting, but within the classroom, where some kids would receive a snackbribe while others don't, it seems like it could be difficult. How exactly does that go down?

[suzilightning]

Snack. One of the best parts about my job. How many of you have a snacked programmed into your day every day? And have eight people to remind you in case you forget?

interesting you said this. my mom taught regular classroom(how would YOU like to have your mom for your second grade teacher?!!) for 30 + years and she always had cheese, crackers, peanut butter and apples for a snack for the students since she saw a drop in teaching ability about 10 am - day started at 8:15.

now of course the peanut butter would not be allowed.

[Marmish]

Yep. I teach middle school, so the bell rings and I am free for 42 minutes.  46 if you count passing time.  We pay aides and part time people for lunch duty. Occasionally, a teacher will pick it up because they need extra cash, but then they don't have a lunch.  You couldn't pay me enough to do lunch duty.

I am so jealous. 42 whole minutes to yourself? We don't have a lunch room for the lower school so everyone eats in their classroom. It is by far one of my least favorite parts of the day. Wednesdays we can go out, if we don't have a meeting. I am planning on it tomorrow.

Well, theoretically 42 minutes to myself. Since all my prep time is first thing in the morning - a real blessing as I am NOT a morning person - I usually have a pile of stuff to do by lunch. But it is my time, with no kid responsibilities. Today, for example, lunch was an evaluation meeting with the principal, coordination of two field trips, one to a play and one to the Art Institute, meeting with another teacher regarding same, and mailbox cleanout. Hmm. I ate some cheese during the next class.

Where do you go when you go out?

[hillvalley]

fantastic description of the grand sushi experiment!!

[and yes on Orton]

question--what/how do you use the snacks? I know how to use food to bribe folks into a meeting, but within the classroom, where some kids would receive a snackbribe while others don't, it seems like it could be difficult. How exactly does that go down?

Thank you.

We use food a number of different ways, but snack is snack. The kids have very long days and get hungry (so do the teachers!). Everyone in the lower school has snack in the morning. Many of my kids have fast matabolisms because of their disability so they have to eat more often. Others don't get enough to eat at home (if they get breakfast) and this is our tiny way of helping.

Some students have food as reinforcers (rewards). Saying good job or giving a sticker doesn't always mean anything to some kids, but food does. If they complete a task they are given an M&M, or a little cookie, as a reward. It can backfire on you though. I have seen students who started the year as angels turn into monsters when they realized they can get candy for acting up. This is a simplified explination of a topic that special ed. teachers could go on about forever.

With our higher functioning kids we use food as a reward too, but in different ways. Many of the kids yesterday ate the sushi because they kenw they would get to try Japanese candy afterward. If the whole class has a good day (known as an all star day) then once in a while they will get a surprise. When we were studying Europe it was Nutella on toast.

[hillvalley]

Snack.  One of the best parts about my job.  How many of you have a snacked programmed into your day every day?  And have eight people to remind you in case you forget?

interesting you said this. my mom taught regular classroom(how would YOU like to have your mom for your second grade teacher?!!) for 30 + years and she always had cheese, crackers, peanut butter and apples for a snack for the students since she saw a drop in teaching ability about 10 am - day started at 8:15.

now of course the peanut butter would not be allowed.

We are still allowed to use peanut butter. There is one classroom that can't, but the rest of us are fine.

[torakris]

How common is it to eat in classrooms?

I don't remember ever eating in classrooms as a kid, except for once in my Spanish class we made gazpacho....

Are the kids allowed to just eat during a class or are there specific times set aside for eating a snack?

[hillvalley]

Snack was popcorn again and animal crackers. I think I ate more popcorn than the kids did. Drank a lot of my Calm tea today.

My students leave early on Wednesday so we can have meetings. Since I am doing this blog I was planning on going out to eat, to spice up my lunch a bit. I thought I didn't have to go to any meetings, but I was wrong. They moved our annual IEP* Season Kickoff up by a few weeks so there went lunch. I only end up going out about once a month, and really look forward to it. It is a real treat to eat a civilized lunch, where I don't have to microwave anything or remind 10 year old boys to eat their prepackaged, proccessed, flourecent, so called food. Remember what you were like at lunch when you were 10?

I ended up with a steak burritto without beans but with guacomole. There is a local chain, California Tortilla, that makes decent burrittos (for DC standards which I am told are quite low). The meat isn't great and the rice is always just a little too crunchy for my taste.

Since I had a meeting today I will take a moment to mention food and my school. Today was the first meeting of this size (most of the school) that did not have food. (The administrator who was in charge of the meeting was booed when she tried to apologize and I got dirty looks from some people as I ate my burrito. Less than normal though, because all the jewish mothers were relieved to see me eating again.) We are a very food oriented school. There is a lot more eating going on than you would think....

We have a great PTA who puts out food at any school wide meeting. Granted, they always put out the same food, but at least they feed us. Besides, most of their children take comfort in things that do not change, so in our world it makes sense.

There are always: green olives, cheese cut up into squares, carrotts and brocolli with the same nondescript dressing/dip, almonds, triangle chuncks of some kind of salami fancy sugar wafers with chocolate in them and cookies that are long tubes filled with chocolate inside. The cookie is flaky and very thin. Drinks change each week, but there is always sparkling water.

Now that it is officially IEP season....

Monday morning, in the office kitchen where students rarely go, some kind of candy will appear. Maybe a bowl of the mini Hershey bars sampler. Or perhaps a Costco sized container of individually wrapped twizzlers. Or a bag of Valentine M&M's (my favorite, of course). This candy will magically reappear regularly for the next 4-5 months. Over the next few months, that candy is what gets me through some days.

*An IEP is an Individualized Education Plan. Every child who is ellegible for special education services has one. It dictates what the child is going to study next year. They are a necessary evil that used to just be a pain. For the last two years, of course, they have become even worse.

[hillvalley]

How common is it to eat in classrooms?

I don't remember ever eating in classrooms as a kid, except for once in my Spanish class we made gazpacho....

Are the  kids allowed to just eat during a class or are there specific times set aside for eating a snack?

Keep in mind a few things:

a) It is a private school which means we have a larger spending budget than public schools.

b) Since this is a special education school, we do things differently that most schools. We have to motivate and reward our students more than most children. c) Food is a subject that comes up with every student. It is a major part in our curriculum. Some students need help learning to eat. Some can only tolerate certain textures. Many have severe allergies. Others are on special diets. A few will only eat three or four foods. All need help holding a conversation around the dinner table.

The kids do not spend their day eating. We have snack at a specific time, the same way we have lunch at a specific time. It's just part of our schedule. Some students are handed a piece of a cracker, or one skittle, or a goldfish, at regular intervals as a form of motivation. Many people work for a paycheck every few weeks. My kids just need their paycheck in smaller and more frequent intervals.

Most of the kids at my school travel for at least 30 min. each way. An hour is not uncommon. That is a long day for any kid, but really long for my kids.

That being said, we are also a school that loves to eat. Our job is hard, we don't make a lot of money and most people think we are a little nuts for working where we do. Candy and cookies and pizza helps. Feeding each other is one way we take care of ourselves and each other.

I think it is important for me to note that I work in a very unusual school. My school is the last resort before institutionalization for many of my students. We are a specialized school, which allows us some flexibility that public schools do not have. What I experience is by no means an example for the rest of the special education system in the US.