I told myself when I started this blog I wouldn’t make every post perfect or have the most exciting, thrilling post and pictures. So here’s a non-thrilling one I felt compelled to write.
Brian is on duty tonight, which means he is sleeping on the submarine. I joke with him that it’s my night to go out on the town and by that I mean go to the gym, beach and commissary… which I do three nights a week anyway. He is on duty 2x week for the foreseeable future. There is a really huge push to get the engineering side of the boat ready to leave shipyard, so they are all working hard on that and Brian has to pull more of the every day weight. When Brian’s orders changed from being a weps to a nav, he (and many of our submarine friends) said he wouldn’t have a lot of work to do because, well, the boat can’t navigate anywhere in the shipyard. Well, that my friends was fake news. Brian is very busy and working long hours. And when he’s not, he’s tired. It’s taking some getting used to but we’re managing. A lot of people say that at least he comes home regularly, and that is very true.
I took a two hour nap today, I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve been waking up really early and not doing the best at sleeping early enough, or if I’m still recovering from COVID. After that, I mustered up the energy to go to the gym at the marine corps base and the commissary.
I get asked a bit about prices here. I get to shop on base, so that automatically makes things a bit cheaper. I am not the best person to ask about this, so the next time I get a receipt I’ll post it and you can be the judge. I spent a really long time and a ton of effort in paying off my student loan debt so that I didn’t have to penny pinch and pay attention to grocery prices. I’ve also lived in metro Boston for the last ten years. That being said, if my yogurt was $20 a tub I’d probably take notice. So today I saw this:
And I’m pretty sure that’s a bit above what I’d pay in MA or CT.
I did the thing where I wrote an essay before the recipe that is basically irrelevant to the recipe, but since this isn’t a recipe blog I think it’s fine. I did some meal prepping tonight and made pizza dough and a salad.
I haven’t made this recipe in forever, like since before dating Brian, and for no good reason at all except that maybe I got sick of it and then forgot about it. It’s very versatile and can be used as a dip/side. I learned about it from my friend Kris’s sister. I do not make claim to this recipe, and if you find it on the internet I am happy to cite it… I haven’t been able to. Also, that’s Pat the Spatula and he makes a great housewarming/Mother’s day gift.
Ingredients for the dressing:
- 1/3 cup veggie oil
- 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/3 cup sugar (I usually use a lot less, go for your own taste)
Mix in a small sauce pan to start to dissolve the sugar. Bring to boil. Turn off heat and remove from heat.
Ingredients inside (super customizable, I like the balance of sweat and bland/starchy with this set):
- Two medium green peppers, chopped
- Half a red onion, chopped
- White/Yellow canned corn
- Garbanzo beans
- Black Eyed Peas
- Pinto Beans
Combine in a bowl. You should make it a day ahead to let things marinate and allow the dressing to cool. What I love: There’s very minimal prep. It’s got tons of healthy ingredients. It can be a dip or a side by itself. It lasts for ~4 days and tastes better the second day. Can easily double/adjust ingredients, hard to screw up. Most of the ingredients are easily kept in the pantry.
If you make it, please let me know what you think!