Baking, Barry’s Bootcamp, and books (weekly recap)

I felt like a baking and cooking extraordinaire this week.

I made this ginger sweet potato coconut milk stew with lentils & kale. Verdict: delicious but could use a shorter name.

I made banana bread with Callebaut chocolate chunks. It was a little dry, if you’re wondering.

I made this thai crunch salad with peanut dressing and topped it with this baked sriracha and soy tofu.

I made oatmeal butterscotch cookies from dough that I froze months ago. I then ate six cookies in rapid succession and had to foist the rest on a friend and her boyfriend (my butterscotch-loving husband was out of town).

After gorging myself on the fruits of my labor, I attended a class at the new Barry’s Bootcamp in my city, followed by an enriching and wonderful 1.5 hour Friday morning coffee date with a friend (something I’d typically never make time for before work on a Friday, but I’m very glad I did).

I went to yoga twice, even after telling myself last week that I was only going to go once to avoid spiraling into a ‘tightening’ phenomenon.

I also reviewed my progress on my annual goals for the month of February. Although I made 6 new recipes, I only read 7 research papers in full last month (compared with 17 in January and more than 50 in December). Note that these don’t count articles that I read for a specific purpose (i.e. to write a grant or research manuscript, to prepare a presentation, or to read around a patient). I think this reduction in volume might reflect me getting better about filtering out the articles that probably aren’t going to be beneficial. Although, it might be that I’m getting lazier about reading. I only finished 1 book in February, and my goal was at least 2. I’m heading into March curious about whether my reading habit will pick back up or not.

Three things I’m thinking about at the moment:

• How much I enjoy New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern. I loved this.
• Paul Graham’s essay about how to write usefully. Which makes me think that I probably shouldn’t publish anything on this blog.
• This article about reflecting on our childhood interests and curiosities when thinking about refocusing our career as an adult.

Have a wonderful week!