1. Cleaning
2. Grocery shopping
3. Car washes
4. Taxes
5. Sorrow
6. Grief
7. Worry
8. Household chores
9. Errands
10. Anxiety
11. Trauma
12. Fears
13. Happiness
14. Joy
15. Favorite TV shows
16. Musicals
17. Concerts
18. Movies
19. Pain
20. Stress
21. Disability
22. Security
23. Petting a fluffy kitty
24. Coloring books

Tomorrow it will be a smoky room, family, and cards.

The day after that? Who knows, but I’ll keep seeking out happy places.

I could go to bed…or watch The Mavericks Tiny Desk Concert. Gee, tough one!

Fun fact: I for real earlier this week was thinking it’s a shame that they’ve never had a TDC because more people should know about them. It’s not every band that will show up with horns and an accordion, after all

My initial responses were:

• What the fuck?
• Why the fuck?
• OK, this is going to be fun.
• LOOK HOW CAMPY
• FINALLY A MOVIE WITH FUCKING COLORS

After mulling it over for a bit, I think I know what has me so excited–it reminds me of Josie and the Pussycats, which is one of my favorite satirical movies that has ever been filmed. Unfortunately, it was so poorly marketed that it didn’t have a chance. Check out this trailer, do you see any hints of satire? Do you see criticism of commercialism? Fast fashion? The music industry?

I could be extremely wrong on this point, but the Barbie movie looks like it’s going to be what the Josie and the Pussycats movie could have been. I’m seeing bright colors, excessive campiness, pop culture icons, and an interest in subverting tropes and expectations by leaning into them. Fingers crossed that I’m right!

I could keep going with my current path, which is infrequent posts where I share my knowledge and opinions that may or may not be helpful to others (struggle foods, living with a CPAP, etc.)

I could turn this blog into a commonplace journal where anytime I see something that is valuable to me in some way and I’d like to have a record of it for the future, I save it to the blog. There might not be much personal commentary, it’ll just be things I like or want to remember (pictures, quotes, articles that resonated with me.)

I could also just start using this as my twitter replacement. If I’ve got something to say that I would have previously chucked onto Twitter, I’ll put it here instead. Probably the most personal option, but also potentially the most obnoxious.

To reward you for reading this, please enjoy this picture of Sugar with a Christmas tree hat. She was not pleased with the concept of dressing up, alas.

Right now, I’m paying a subscription for a car wash and Habitica (gamifies checking items off your to do list).

If I wash my car twice a month, the subscription pays for itself. The benefits: if the outside of my car is clean, I’m more likely to attend to the inside of the car. If the inside of my car is clean, it’s less stressful to be in my car.

If I use Habitica, I have a place to keep my to do lists and it’s broken out into habits, dailies, and one off items. If I check things off, I get cute prizes and I help my guild also win cute prizes. I also get things done!

When I find myself getting bored of one or both of these subscriptions, I’ll move on to something else, like a meal kit service.

If you have the room in your budget and there’s something you want to accomplish, check to see if there’s a subscription service that might help you accomplish your goals.

Please remember that this list is coming from a middle-aged white lady in decent health who has been broke, but never Broke. This means there’s a certain level of assumed convenience such as access to a grocery store, fridge, microwave, secure place to store your food, at least a little bit of cash to buy the food, and few dietary restrictions.

I came up with this list because I have a few mental illnesses that cause executive dysfunction and I can struggle with remembering to eat and having something easy to prepare when I do get around to eating. A lot of these foods require little to no prep and I’ll separate out the more advanced options that may require a bit of thinking ahead or work.

If you have any suggestions, please comment below and I’ll add them to the list. Let’s help each other out!

Low Effort

• Cream cheese and saltines (put the cream cheese on the unsalted side, it’s tastier that way)
• Baby carrots and hummus
• Pitas and hummus
• Instant rice (frozen tends to only be plain rice, but you can get flavored instant rice in the rice aisle at the store)
• Steamer vegetables (pairs well with the instant rice, can be found in the frozen vegetable aisle)
• cheese sticks or string cheese
• Cheese & crackers
• Fruit–there’s a lot of prepared fruit in containers in the produce section at the grocery store. Ever looked at pre-sliced apples or already peeled clementines and wondered who buys those? ME. I buy those.
• Veggie trays
• Microwave potatoes (there are potatoes at the grocery store that are already cleaned and wrapped in plastic for you to chuck in the microwave)
• Meal replacement shakes (keep them as cold as you can and slam them quickly so you don’t taste them)
• Cereal (bonus points if you have a favorite that doesn’t need milk, Golden Grahams and Cheerios are my go tos)
• Chips and dip or tortilla chips and salsa
• Shredded chicken (Costco definitely has this, some grocery stores also have shredded chicken in a tub or bag that you can buy. They’re assuming you’re going to use it as an ingredient but you can also just stuff it directly in your face.)

Moderate Effort

• Taco chicken: buy chicken on sale at the grocery store and dump it in a crockpot with a jar of salsa or enchilada sauce and a ridiculous amount of taco seasoning and then cook until the chicken is falling apart. Shred it and then you’ve got tasty chicken to eat by itself, in tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas, over your instant rice, etc.
  • Tip: If you’ve got the money, buy crockpot liners so you don’t have to scrub the crockpot afterward. If you don’t have the money, fill the crock with hot water and dish soap and let it sit for a while to loosen things up.
• Sandwiches are a forever classic. Bread + filling + bread = food. Sliced meat or cheese if you’re feeling fancy or your favorite nut spread if you’re in a hurry/extra broke. Ready-made tuna and chicken salads are things that exist and could also work. Fried eggs or egg salad are also classics for a reason.
• Roll string cheese in sliced meat
• Lazy charcuterie board: pre-sliced cheese, a handful of whatever nuts you may have on hand, crackers, sliced meats (you can even get some specifically for charcuterie boards at some grocery stores if you’re feeling fancy and not broke), maybe a bit of fruit, olives if you’re nasty, just…whatever will fit on your board/plate/tray. Think Lunchables for adults.
• Smoothies: Look, you need a lot of planning for these but putting them together is fast enough. Dump fruit (frozen is already prepped and therefore delightful) and some liquid into a blender and hit the button until it’s a drinkable consistency. You can find smoothie blends in the frozen fruits if it’s a lot of effort to pick your fruits. You can put in extras like nut butter, spinach, protein powder, kefir, or yogurt if you want to boost the nutrition value further. There’s definitely some bucks involved in these, but they’re a tastier option than meal replacement shakes.
  • Downside: you will have to clean the blender. At least rinse it off as soon as you’ve poured out the smoothie because you are not going to want to deal with it after it’s sat out for hours.
• Macaroni and cheese: boxed, frozen, premade….it’s all cheese and noodles in the end.
• Pasta is always an easy choice. I have seen premade pasta in a bag that you can just heat up and pour out, but I haven’t tried it and can’t speak to it. Buttered spaghetti is easy to make. Dump a jar of pasta sauce and water into a pan and cook your dried pasta directly in that for extra flavor. Frozen cheese tortellini is tasty and cooks up in only a few minutes.
• Ramen is a struggle food classic for a reason. It’s easy to make and only needs a hot pot, electric kettle, or even just a microwave to make it happen. If you’ve got the time/resources, you can make it fancier by adding a slice of American cheese, frozen veggies, an egg, or subbing the sauce packet with something else (soy sauce, butter, a teensy bit of hot sauce, and a touch of brown sugar can be quite tasty but again: effort).
• Oatmeal is easy to make and relatively low effort, but it’s still on this list because some prep is still needed. I tend to buy packets of flavored oatmeal and boiling water for it in my electric kettle. You can buy oatmeal in bulk and make overnight oatmeal in the fridge. While a lot of Americans tend to go sweet with their oatmeal toppings (maple syrup, brown sugar, fresh fruit, dried fruit, chocolate, etc) you can also go savory if you’re feeling brave (eggs and vegetables were common suggestions I saw when I googled).

I’ll be adding things sporadically as they occur to me. If you have a question, please submit it and I’ll do my best to help you out–even if it’s just to direct you to a better resource. If you do not want a response directly on the site, be sure to say that when asking your question.

To make this more interesting for you, please have a cat: