Replac-ed.

Today marks the first day of Lent, which for me, as in years past, marks the first of 40 days without chocolate. 

Though I understand that not everyone practices Lent, I believe self-restraint is something worth testing from time to time.  

What is your vice?  Is it facebook? diet coke? wine?

Give it up…just for today.  And even better, replace it with something you wish you did more frequently.  Log out of facebook and write a blog post instead.  Put down the coke can and chug a bottle of water.  Stick the cork back in the wine bottle and take a jog during happy hour.  As for me, I’ll be replacing chocolate with green or herbal tea.  

You know that old saying about breakups?  The best way to get over someone is to get under someone else.  It applies here too.  Replace a bad habit with a better one and you’ll lessen the separation anxiety.  

Especially if you ate nearly this entire box of chocolate covered strawberries last night...

Vegg-ed Out.

A little late to be jumping on the healthy New Year's Resolution train, and a little early to be giving up chocolate (again) for lent, I'm chalking my new found healthy attitude up to a few wacky cravings.

This Sunday I had the day to myself--for the first time in a while.  At first I paniced.  How am I going to fill the hours?  Then, before I knew it, I realized I was on one of the best dates I've had in a very long time--with myself!

Me and myself took a chilly walk to knock off a few errands and ended up coming home with (of all things) a box of quinoa. 

I am by no means a vegetarian.  Meat still holds a special place in my heart, and stomach.  But, lately due to budgetary restrictions, some encouragement from a few fellow bloggesses, and a few strange cravings, I have started to incorporate more and more veg-only meals into my diet.

Yesterday's lunch consisted of roasted curry butternut squash and smoky paprika cauliflower served over quinoa (a protein-heavy grain).  I topped the dish with some chopped almonds for crunch.  It was one of the best things I've tasted in a very long time.  I'm trying out the whole food photography thing, so please excuse the close up.

I am not here to tell you that vegetarianism is cool or hip or healthy or environmentally correct.  But I do believe it is the easiest way to save a buck, a few calories, and some cholesterol points. 

Now, anyone out there have another idea of what to do with the rest of my quinoa?

Doom-ed.

I am a hopeless romantic.

Why all romantics are labeled “hopeless?” Would pragmatists then be labeled "hopeful?" Is it really the truth that if one is romantic at heart, he is destined for a dreary future—-a life of gray and predictable dullness? That's seems a bit backwards.  Wouldn't you expect that the romantics are the one's who have hope--hope that one day the world (or at least their world) will be filled with love?  And not just love, romance, love twisted and folded into poetry and Valentine's cards and rendez-vous in dark cafe corners.

Is it hopeless to believe that flowers were meant to be given? That the lips' second and sweetest function is to be kissed? That chocolate should always come in little red, heart-shaped boxes?

Is it hopeless to love nothing better than to catch him looking at you across the room? To want to exclaim to the world that you've finally found what everyone else spends their life looking for?

Well, if it is hopeless, then I'm happy to be doomed.

pic: weheartit

Wish-ed List.

During this season of hope, of giving, of love, of spirit, I've decided to make a wish list of just a few stocking stuffers for my readers.  May you all find the following somewhere in your life:

1.  toothache love, so sweet it hurts
2.  red balloon laughs, light and bright
3.  a clock that ticks in reverse, time tucked into all the tiny corners of your pockets
4.  simplicity, complication, control, excess
5.  a reflection that reveals truth, ciao bella
6.  a spot on the naughty list
7.  and chocolate. always, chocolate.

pic: weheartit

Crav-ed.

I crave you.  At work, at home, on the train, in a plane.  Sometimes I wish the world was made of you, just so I'd always be in sweet surrender.  But then again, the world melts when I think about you, so perhaps it would get a bit messy. 

Mmm, but what a delicious mess.