My stomach: A day in the life.

I woke up yesterday morning at 7 am to the feeling of dread. Dread for the midterm-class-work-midterm kind of day I was starting. And no breakfast. Thanks to my upcoming trip to Egypt (tomorrow), I have to take one tiny pink capsule filled with live Typhoid fever every other day for 8 days. I can’t eat for two hours on either end, and even after the two hours are up I feel incredibly nauseated and don’t really want to eat anyway. They’re super. However, I’ll trade four days of nausea for 9 days of Egypt in a hot second. I digress. I took my pill, crammed as much information about media audience research as I could into my brain until 9, and went off to begin the day.


After my test, which was not nearly as daunting as I had anticipated, my two hours were up and I had time to go grab a coffee and a tiny overpriced cup of soggy fruit. I tend to stay away from USF’s cafeteria as much as possible, but Mondays are limited since I’m on campus from 10 am until 9 pm. If any of you have ever tried the French Vanilla Latte type drink dispensed out of the big metal box in the “caf”, you will know that it is much closer to simple syrup with a half cup of coffee poured in than a latte. I don’t have much idea what’s in it, and am admittedly certain it is terrible for me, but I had a lot to do, and that stuff gets the job done.


2 hours later, after sitting through a review of the midterm I had just taken early, I had time to grab a quick salad from the vegetarian bar (stop # 2 at the caf...sin) to bring to work and eat before running around to photograph some extremely thrilling MBA workshops. Note the artichoke hearts. I. Love. Artichoke. Hearts. I tend to like to put a lot of stuff in my food - since I was a kid, so says my mom, I just mixed all my foods together. This possibly explains my affinity toward salads, casseroles, and complicated sandwiches. In between workshops, I snuck in a few Jolly Ranchers from the undergraduate business office.

Now Monday is a blissful day at work, because Monday is free cookie/brownie/coffee day. The business school puts out tables of these snacks for their students every Monday evening and Tuesday morning to reward their hard work. The other business school workers and I get first dibs because we're the first to hear the screeching of the tables being rearranged for the epic display of sweets while the actual business school students are in class. "2 cookies Ali...2?" you question. But to be fair, I don't eat any sweets during the week, so these two cookies are my treat of treats. I counter the refined sugar with my vice of vices: orange juice, con mucho pulp (imagine its beauty, because I was so excited I drank it before I remembered to document it).


As my work day came to a close, I crammed once again for my 6:30 midterm in Journalism. Post-writing-heavy-exam, I returned home to discuss philosophy and the meaning of life with my roommate. Both tired from long weeks, weekends, and days, we did said bonding over a few Wyder's Pear Ciders (that is our fish, Mrs. Featherbottom). They taste like sprite and I can't say I am a true fan, but it's what she needed. I realized I hadn't eaten in 8 hours and was suddenly starving. We'd worked bartending at an engagement party the previous Saturday night, and the hosts had given us an enormous chunk of the leftovers of a 6-foot sandwich: toasty french bread, mozzarela, roasted red peppers, pesto and sundried tomatoes. After attempting 3 bites, it was just too difficult to handle, so I gave up to go paint. By 11 pm the hunger was becomming irritating, so I turned to the traditional.


Almost every single night, I eat vegetables and rice with curry sauce. I heard rumors long ago that curry is addicting, and rolled my eyes at this impossibility. I now stand humbled and corrected, one year after my curry addiction began (it is also rumored that eating curry results in crazy dreams... At the risk of sounding crazy myself, I am living proof). I threw together some yellow squash, mushrooms, zucchini, and broccoli (I usually use potatoes but we were out), and created my favorite meal that literally could never get old. Here's how I usually do it:

Ingredients:
Third Yellow Squash, sliced
Third Green Zucchini, sliced
Small Red Potato, sliced thinly or bagged Trader Joes Broccoli
Handful Crimini Mushrooms
White Rice
Trader Joes Yellow or Red Curry Sauce
Trader Joes Coconut Milk

The directions are simple. I sautee the ingredients in olive oil (EVOO as our muse, Rachael Ray, would say...kidding), salt and fresh garlic (garlic salt/powder is a sin, please remember this), keeping the lid on as much as possible to allow the potatoes to cook all the way through. This usually takes about 10-15 minutes on a medium stove setting. After the vegetables are almost cooked all the way through, I add some coconut milk and the curry sauce and put the lid back on, turning down the heat and letting it simmer for about 5 minutes. If I need to reheat already-cooked rice, I throw a serving into the pan as well because rice dries out in the refrigerator, but it's best to cook it fresh (directions are on the bag: it usually takes 20 minutes so it's best to put that in first). When the sauce is hot and the potatoes and other vegetables are soft, serve however you like.


You might not all become addicts like me, but this is a really great, cheap comfort food that doesn't require much cooking skill at all, and is much better for you than ramen or other quick-cook meals.