Sure, I Could Be Working, But....

'Tis Labor Day, folks, and if a girl can't have a holiday from work on a day that recognizes labor, when exactly can she have a holiday?

Actually, I've been very busy, just not with stuff related to my job. For the past four hours or so, I have been cooking. That's right, I am spending the day cooking. See, with all of the craziness of the school year to this point, I haven't really had time (or, probably fairer, taken time) to cook. I've been eating ok (lots of stuff in the freezer, buying salads and wraps at school for lunch/dinner on the long teaching days) but nothing I've been eating has been tremendously inspiring. Since I'm trying to lose weight, I really need to be inspired by food or I will totally fall apart in about two weeks and start eating garbage. And so, today has been a day of cooking. What have I made, you ask?

1. Chicken and Brown Rice, with mushrooms, carrots, red pepper, onion, garlic and some sour cream (for the creaminess, and I love how sour cream goes with mushrooms). Delicious! Half of it is frozen, half of it will be lunches this week.

2. Extra rice to freeze.

3. Baked boneless skinless chicken breasts, seasoned three ways. (Italian, Indian, and Mexican, respectively.) The Indian and Mexican versions have gone into the freezer to be pulled out when I need to make dinner with little effort. The Italian version will be dinner over the next couple of days - with what comes next....

4. Roasted butternut squash, mashed with scallions. YUMMY.

5. Roasted butternut squash soup with bacon (cooking now, and will freeze half of this, too).

No more sad sandwiches at school! No more stupid dinners of leftover chili (ugh, am sick of the chili) or other sad dishes.

Of course, now that I've cooked all of this stuff, I'm kind of tired. Perhaps I should take a nap and then have some dinner?