Alright guys. I think about you every day, though I cannot muster the attention span it takes every day to find the time to do this. In the morning I might be able to forge a little alone time to do this before the frisky one comes home. See, at 6 am it is 6 pm for him so things on his mind reflect that and he’s a lot hard to resist. I know, the problems of married without children. I was off Friday which was a surprise to me and seemed to bother the liquor store lady until I explained, yeah, I don’t have kids so every day is almost like the next sometimes. But given it was the liquor store lady I was visiting, this explains what we did Friday. None yesterday because no, and I cleaned.

I watched Marie Kondo’s show as clearly all the inspiration would not hurt me. I am not exactly a hoarder, but that is simply because I move too much. I have hoarder tendencies and my current work/room office is not there yet but I want it to be, so much so that it is currently being tackled as my next project. I have no joke, thrown away 30+ trash bags of clothing SEVERAL times in my life and I just pulled together another 5.

But one thing I have been spending my time doing is–cooking. Holy shit can I just tell you those meal boxes are no joke. If you are bored with yourself and what you can do and just need someone or some other thing designing that for a time–I highly recommend them. I can cook almost anything now and I have tried out more than a few. First was Hello Fresh, then Blue Apron because, yes, money did matter. Then Purple Carrot (not as great as you would want), EveryPlate (the cheapest) and Home Chef. I have also done Daily Harvest and a few other fully cooked ones, but–I am not looking for leftovers to reheat as I get bored of food and hate leftovers anyways.


Don seems to think I could not cook before, which was definitely true compared to now. I could cook some average stuff, but now my meals are outstanding. And no, not all the boxes are the same.

I love them all but to learn how to cook a lot of international recipes–Blue Apron for sure. I have a spice drawer many would die for because I legitimately have almost anything and everything for a lot of thai, chinese, and middle eastern dishes. Home chef is pretty wholesome and nothing is too bland generally and it’s nice to adjust the servings per week.

And after an early youth of country crock and iceberg lettuce salads and never butter, never salt nor a lot of things you’d consider average dining experiences…a pretty bland All American lifestyle of American chop suey, bad pork chops and boring meatloaf for enough of my youth I was a vegetarian for almost 6 years after I left. I was generally bored by food which explains a bit of thinness–I don’t eat to excess because I never liked it enough to want to eat a lot of it most days. Now I do still have the appetite of a thin person but food is far more interesting to me than it used to be.

Of course— I do have an instant pot and a lot of different tools. The air fryer is coming next and then the pasta machine replacement for real pasta (not polymer clay which claims its purpose now) and then a soda stream and then who knows what’s next. It has been a bit more challenging getting meals together over the past week with my new schedule–leaving at close to 6 and having 45 minutes to cook before he wakes up and prep and everything cuts it close with my current organization. The current organization being–food box, take out twice a week at least and then several trips to the store where I spent more than I ever wanted to in the first place.

But the instant pot has saved the day again there–I made hmmm….chicken curry, chicken tortilla soup, beef stew, oatmeal, a bunch of other stuff I cannot remember but I did use it and wow, when you have no time, this is the thing. I know, it is expensive but it is so worth it. Hardboiled eggs in 5 minutes? Yes please, me looking like the hero with 30 minutes to spare.


Yes please.

Eventually I will re-write this article on my lifestyle blog. But just get an instant pot. As I have been gloating before–not much taking my focus but Don, cooking and Duke. Cooking is simplified with this wonder device. I will share this week’s recipes later which actually I do often combine my favorite elements from 3 online so some are all mine but I don’t want that–but I can teach you my tricks to searching meals. With my $0.77 pie crust the other day I made a $2 dinner that lasted two meals (chicken pot pie!). The meal boxes might be hard to wrangle until someone does the instant pot meal service, something I have been dreaming about for a year now. But if you have the time to cook, say an hour at night. Try the damn meal boxes. Trust me on this–portion sizes are perfect for normal human sized people–and you learn a LOT.

Universe? Have someone do that for me, please?

INSTANT POT MEAL KITS PLEASE!!!