There’s tired, and then there’s spoonie tired.
I decided to make an easy dinner tonight. I’ve been trying to eat healthy food as much as possible, and I was feeling run down, so I wanted the best combination of easy and healthy. For me, that meant pasta for dinner. I use this a lot as my go-to easy dinner. I sautee onion and garlic, add in veggies, include meat or beans or something, add spices, add sauce, cook pasta, and I have a healthy, relatively easy dinner. Even easier is eggs and/or oatmeal, but I’ve done that a few times lately so I wanted to go to the next step. Apparently, I wasn’t ready for the next step.
I’m not great at chopping up anything. No matter how big or how small it is, I have to concentrate hard just to avoid cutting my finger 
(and even then I sometimes cut it.) Today, more food than usual was hitting the floor. I felt really off. I had so much energy an hour earlier, but I hit the wall hard, and I just couldn’t seem to do anything right. Luckily I wasn’t doing much cutting, since I was using frozen veggies. Fresh veggies are better, but I didn’t have the energy for them. Still, a lot of onion and garlic hit the floor.
As I was finishing the sauce, I kept thinking that something was missing. It all seemed to be there, but I had that nagging feeling. What could I have forgotten? Then it hit me all at once: spices! I forgot to add spices! I quickly reached for the oregano and parsley and thyme and…. what was I thinking?
The steps ran through my head. I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten the spices. I’ve made this so many times I thought I could do it in my sleep. Clearly I can’t even do it when I’m awake and run down. But that’s ok, I fixed it. It would be good enough.
Beans! I forgot to add the beans! Ok, no worries, I ate plenty of protein at lunch, and I have plenty of spinach and broccoli in the sauce. It’s ok.
Beep beep beep. Time to drain the pasta. Something was wrong. Why was it so mushy? I timed it for 16 minutes and the package said 17-18, so what could be wrong? Oh no, I used the instructions for the wrong pasta! The other type, the other brand, is 17-18 minutes. This type is only supposed to cook for 7-10 minutes! Yikes!
Ok, the sauce will mask the pasta, right? But wait, the sauce is…. liquidy. I didn’t use enough veggies! I usually make the sauce very thick, so that the meat/beans and veggies are just barely coated by the sauce. I got it wrong tonight. It looked so pathetically thin.
Despite all of the problems, the meal turned out ok. It was even slightly tasty. And I’ve learned an important lesson: the next time I feel drained, I won’t attempt anything as complicated as pasta. I’ll stick to eggs. Clearly my brain can’t be trusted to function on all cylinders when cooking (or typing, for that matter, judging by the number of mistakes I’ve already caught in this post.)
What basics things have you messed up when you’re not completely there? Let’s revel in our spoonie mistakes.
Chronic Rants 