Giving myself a break, and more fanart!

Amusingly, after my post yesterday about how the cooking every day thing may not be working, I've stumbled across a number of posts on blogs I read about this same thing -- how, in order to make cooking a sustainable endeavor, one needs to pace oneself, allow for nights out or "freezer" nights, and generally give oneself a break.  I'll link to my favorite of the posts tomorrow (part of the reason it's my favorite is that it encourages going out to dinner on Thursday or Friday, teehee!).

Also, I realized that I really didn't take Passover into account with my menu plans.  I can't do portobello panini on Friday unless it's for lunch and has no leftovers, since panini is bread!  And I can't do pasta tonight unless we're sure to finish it before sundown tomorrow.  I really didn't think this through, did I?  So, the latest plan is that I will not cook tonight (sushi, hooray!), and I'll make portobellos with quinoa tomorrow to use up the rest of the portobellos.  I still have a bunch of mushrooms left over, but they're actually the perfect amount for making mushroom stock, which I want to try next week.  And I'm still planning to do matzah ball soup on Saturday for second-night Seder, so I actually will have accomplished 7 recipes this week, despite the break.

So, I'm thinking that for the rest of the month, I will aim for the same number of recipes, but fewer days.  It's more feasible for me to cook a main and a side on a couple of the days, just a main on several others, and not at all on one or two more.  Mid-week is particularly hard, and next week, I have evening commitments on both Tuesday and Wednesday.  Hopefully, this modified goal will help me feel like I'm still taking on this challenge without feeling burnt out.

Finally, the totally awesome Cindy has provided more fan art!  Why?  She says, "Because it seemed like the scrunchiness of the mushrooms was important, and yet lacked a scientific guide."  So, here is a practical guide to how scrunched cooked portobello steaks should be!