raw and living

i may have mentioned in an earlier post that my husband and i are eating 70% raw these days. i actually have so much to say about it, so much so that i don't know where to start. eating raw has a ton of health benefits and for us, eating 70% raw involves eating a raw breakfast and lunch and a cooked dinner. technically, to make it 70%, we need to eat one raw dinner per week. eating raw gives me a lot more energy and i have an easier time concentrating both at work and with homework.

although my weekday meals are pretty simple, i.e. a raw juice for breakfast and a salad and snacks for lunch, i do at times try to make some fancier dishes. this weekend, two of my best girlfriends came over for lunch and i made a raw stuffed pasta dish. they also helped me to prepare a raw coconut pie (with a raw nutella layer) that was delicious. here are some pictures:


raw vegan stuffed pasta (click here for recipe)


raw vegan coconut pie (click here for recipe)

i feel like eating raw is changing my life in huge ways. i hope to talk more about raw and living foods over the course of the semester, but if you have questions, let's chat in the comments section.

best practices

lately, no matter what i do, i just can't get myself to do homework on the weekends. but i feel so much pressure to do homework on the weekends that i end up unable to do anything else. what a waste of time!

lately, i've been thinking, why not try to get as much of my homework done on weeknights after work? if i can manage that, then i can free myself from the weekend homework prison i've created (that i don't manage very successfully). my new goal: read for at least two hours on wednesdays, thursdays, and fridays. if there's a lot left, carve out just a couple of hours on saturday to do what i can, but let the rest go.

truthfully, and i'll post more about this next week, my husband and i have been eating 70% raw lately and i seriously love preparing raw food. it's something that i want to spend my sundays doing. also, i've been really getting into learning how to make clothing and i want to spend some time doing that on the weekends as well. the clothing thing might be a little selfish, because it might not amount to anything, but one product is pure joy and i really can't deny myself that given all the stress i'm under. so... over the next few weeks, i'm going to see how my weeks go. i do at some point need to add exercise to the equation, but i'm not going to worry about that just yet!

an off week

no clue how, but i spent the entire weekend doing mostly nothing. i watched tv on hulu, watched late night movies in bed with my husband and cats, did not cook a single meal or buy groceries (but ate a lot of take-out), loafed on facebook which is something i seriously rarely do, and updated both of my personal (private) blogs. i'll admit i did do a bit of reading, but very far from my usual amount. i typically spend at least one weekend day at a cafe studying, but it's 5pm on sunday, so i am coming to terms with the fact that my typical weekend study routine is unlikely to materialize this particular weekend. and yes -- posting on this blog is another attempt to waste time.

in any case, i'm trying to think of some tips on how to get work done (literally, like, i want to blog about them and then somehow do them right now):

pre-planning and follow-through
the kind of pre-planning i typically do is really important, i think, for people who are short on time. a lot of the folks in my program have full-time jobs, so nights and weekends are huge for getting work done. at the same time, you can squeeze homework into morning commutes and coffee breaks. but the big thing that helps to actually get it done is focus and determination, i.e. planning to study and then doing it.

the only choice
one thing i do during the semester is take all of the non-school books out of my purse and replace them with shit i have to read. this way, when i'm in the mood for a book (for example, on the trolley in the morning), i am definitely going to read something for school.

blocking out time and going public
i also block out time on my calendar for reading/studying/etc. once that time is blocked out, i just have to follow through. i find that getting out of the house really helps me to get work done. when i'm in the house, i'm so distracted by my cats, my husband, my computer that i end up just hanging out and having fun all day. and i know this kind of sounds like a good thing, and it's true that you can never have too much fun, but by monday morning, if all i can show for my weekend is how much fun i had, i know i'm screwed. when the 9-5 hits, it's hard for me to stir up the energy to get anything done. basically, that's what i have to look forward to tomorrow if i don't get some shit done today.

pretending work is fun... or something
i list zenhabits.net as one of the blogs i read on the regular. leo, the writer of zenhabits, has written a couple of posts about re-tuning your mind to think of work as fun. this is especially useful for people who procrastinate... if you reframe work as something you're excited to do, then you're more likely to get to it and get it done. i haven't tried that hard at this one, but the idea that you can pretend something is fun until it really becomes fun actually makes sense to me, so i am definitely going to try it soon.

anyway, writing this hasn't really inspired me to do anything, so i'm going to go watch a movie with my husband and eat some pizza. i'm almost ashamed to post this, but you know what, everyone deserves an off week...

the clark park farmer's market

if you live around penn or in west philly, you should absolutely spend your saturday mornings at the clark park farmer's market. you can find everything there: bread, veggies, eggs and meats, yogurt, cakes, spices, chocolate, all kinds of stuff. all of it is local and most of it is organic.

if you want to get more for your money, you can also join a csa (community-supported agriculture). joining a csa is a great way to build a close relationship with a local farmer, eat local, and get more food for less money. right now, i'm a member of the keystone csa. you can read more about it here: http://www.keystonefarmcsa.com/.

when it's warmer out, clark park is also just a great place to hang out on the weekends. there are usually tons of people out (and lots of dogs and babies). there is also a flea market that happens every few weeks in the spring and summer. you can find more info here: www.clarkpark.info.

bottom line: you should check it out. and bring some friends.

nine facts about me

1. although i was arguably the best speller in my 5th grade class, often winning "spelling bee baseball," i am currently opposed to the concept of "proper/standard english" and am madly in love with a "poor speller."

2. i love to cook and bake and often use them as stress therapy, i.e. i'll probably be blogging about food and cooking around finals time.

3. "ethnically" indian, i was born in the united arab emirates where i lived until age 7.  once moving to the states, i lived in baltimore, md, cherry hill, nj, west chester, pa, mechanicsburg, pa, and philly.  i don't necessarily believe that indian is just one ethnicity anymore.

4. even though i was an english major as an undergrad and i'm now a reading/writing/literacy student, i'm actually way better at math than anything, at least in terms of standardized test scores (what does this mean, anyway?).

5. my favorite kind of food is mexican and my favorite mexican restaurant in philly is jose's on 10th street (not to be confused with jose pistola's on 15th street, though that's pretty good, too).  another good mexican place, which is on campus, is the mexi-cali truck on 38th and walnut.

6. my favorite thing to do on a friday night is to stay in and watch a movie with my husband.

7. i like blogging in lower case.

8. i've just begun teaching some workshops independently.  right now, i'm teaching a workshop called "asian american experience" through asian arts initiative, a local philadelphia youth-serving arts organization.  i'm aiming for a workshop per semester and one or two over the summer.  i'm really excited to teach more reading/writing workshops.

9. i want to be an organic farmer one day.