by Sam Tackeff | Oct 31, 2015 | Challenge, Wellness
This week has been a vibrant whirlwind – which is sort of how I’ve come to expect my fall to be – life reflecting nature – the leaves changing colors, the winds picking up. Except I’m not gearing up to hibernate, but instead bolster myself for the holidays and the new year. It’s a little scary how fast it’s come this year. Wasn’t it summer yesterday? (Okay, so maybe it did hit 73 degrees here this week…)
Much of my free time has been spent building out my fall wellness program which starts on Monday! – the Secrets of Self Care, and I realize that I haven’t talked to you about it here on my corner of the internet, and YOU are who I’ve been writing this course for!
Secrets of Self Care is a 6 week program for those who have been focused on career, family, or business, and lost themselves a little in the process. (Okay, isn’t that all of us?) Six weeks leading up to the holidays to help you get back in touch with yourself.
Are you lacking inspiration to make simple, healthy, and seasonal meals?
Are you feeling tired with the change of seasons?
Do the holidays cause you anxiety?
Does your energy wane in the early afternoon?
Do you find yourself making sub-optimal food choices when you don’t have better options?
Do you feel like curling up on your couch with a cup of tea, and not leaving?
Join me for this adventure in which we’ll focus on being kinder to ourselves, supporting our needs and desires, and nourishing our bodies.
What you get:
– Daily weekday emails providing journaling and action prompts.
– Supportive online accountability
– A variety of printable handouts
– A personal coaching consultation with Sam (via Phone, Hangout, or Skype)
– Additional email support for the duration of the course
The cost of the course is $179 for the 6 weeks, including a 1-1 personal coaching session.
We start Monday – I’d love to have you join me – we’ll be thinking, writing, dreaming, and bringing good things to life, and I’ll be doing the work right along side of you!
If you want to hear more, email me at sam@thesecondlunch.com, and I’d happy to hop on the phone with you for a few minutes to talk about the work that I do, and how I can help!
by Sam Tackeff | Oct 25, 2015 | Meal Planning
The season is winding down at the farm, and I picked up my last regular season share on Friday. After the next one, I’ll have two winter pickups (mostly root vegetables) before Stearns closes up shop for the year.
It’s been a while since I’ve written out an actual meal plan – I go through phases where I’m completely sure about what I want to eat, and then ones where I’m finicky and can’t plan in advance. I still manage to feed myself wholesome meals (most of the time), but it really helps to have things organized.
When in doubt, I opt for a protein and two vegetables, and go from there. Sometimes it’s chicken, brussels sprouts, and a salad. Other times it’s eggs, tomatoes and potatoes. Occasionally, and very rarely, it’s no vegetables at all. But when that happens – you know, it’s okay! Because sometimes you just need Annie’s Macaroni and Cheese and lobster.
Vegetables I’l be eating from the farm share:
Acorn squash, cabbage, sweet potatoes, beets, turnips, peppers, carrots, bok choi, broccoli, potatoes, kale, daikon, and mixed greens.
Things I’ll be cooking this week:
:: A big green salad with grilled chicken thighs, fennel fronds, roasted peppers, roasted acorn squash, feta, nuts, and whatever else needs to be used in my fridge.
:: Some tomato sauce to freeze, with the last of my summer tomatoes. I haven’t decided which recipe to use yet, but I want something relatively basic that will go well with different flavor profiles and cuisines.
:: I’m tweaking a Turkish red lentil soup recipe for my forthcoming quick weeknight meals e-book.
:: Some
pickled daikon and carrot salad from Elizabeth Andoh’s
Kansha cookbook. I made this for an event at Omnivore once, and it was a total hit.
:: Beets! Beets! Beets! I’m going to make a twist on the
Veselka Borscht , and
quick pickled beets with cumin and coriander.
Treats I want to try: I make my pumpkin chocolate chip cake at least once a season! This week is going to be the week.
What’s cooking in your kitchen this weekend?
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 13, 2015 | Holidays, Meal Planning
Tonight is the eve of the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah, so I celebrated with friends and family, and partook in some of my favorite foods: Tsimmes, a dish of braised beef, carrots, and sweet potatoes, my grandmother’s potato kugel, blueberry cheese pie (what we call cheesecake), and my mom’s carrot cake!
My aunt pulled out all the tricks. She always has a great wine selection (and hard liquor – clutch for any family situation.) And the evening starts with a well curated cheese board, and chopped liver for us traditionalists. Cooper, the lab, was sniffing around for crumbs, but feeling under the weather, so alas, I couldn’t share with him any of my generous cracker schmears. Not that I’d ever do something like that.
We also had salmon, beef tenderloin, a deconstructed cabbage roll casserole, green beans, and vegetarian lasagna. And then dessert: the aforementioned cheese pie and carrot cake, a Venezuelan layered dessert called Marquesa, lemon meringue pie, apple crumble, and fruit.
So it’s possible that I won’t need to eat for a few days, but I’m still on the hook for a healthy meal Monday through Thursday this week. On Friday, I’m running Reach the Beach (a 200 mile relay through my home state of New Hampshire, so my meal will likely be some American Chop Suey served to me in an elementary school cafeteria around midnight!
Here’s what’s on the docket this week. The weekly cook-up, which, in addition to my dinners make up my breakfasts, lunches and snacks for the week:
– cook a large batch of greens
– hardboil eggs
– braise green beans with tomato
– make fennel salad (this holds!)
– chop peppers for snacks
– make pesto
Monday: grilled jerk chicken with fennel salad
Tuesday: pork tenderloin with pesto and zucchini noodles
Wednesday: roasted fish with sticky roasted tomatoes and garlic
Thursday: steak and potatoes with green beans.
And here’s a closing note for you of my favorite evening ritual: a pot of herb tea. I’ve been alternating between fresh mint, and dried lemon verbena. I took a good portion of my mom’s plant, and have been supplementing my habit with the leaves from Stearns Farm.
What’s on your dinner table this week?
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 12, 2015 | Blogging, Wellness
It seems that August got away from me. It was a whirlwind month, and now that we’re square in the last days of summer, I’m doing everything I can to savor the moments before winter is here in New England. (I kid… although… if we get snow next month, don’t say that I didn’t warn you.)
Last night, I did one of my favorite rituals: heading to the Wellesley Booksmith to pick up a new August to August day planner, which spans, as the title suggests, from August to August, following roughly the academic year, rather than the calendar year. No matter that it’s been close to a decade since I graduated college, the August to August is a favorite tradition, even though I’ve switched to digital for the actual planning and calendar. Instead, I use the notebook for two things – a one sentence kitchen diary, and a few bullets every night as my gratitude journal. It’s a nice way to reflect on the day and good things in my life.
Last night, I was thankful for:
- some new book purchases (Brené Brown‘s Rising Strong, David Lagergrantz‘s Lisbeth Salander The Girl in the Spider’s Web – not sure if that counts as fan fic even though it’s technically authorized, and Laila Lalami‘s The Moor’s Account – I’m working through the Man Booker list again this year.)
- time on the farm to pick my CSA share
- our new apartment (for the options of a new dog, and my new kitchen, below)
Hope you are having a good weekend! What is new and good with you?
by Sam Tackeff | Jul 1, 2015 | Books, Books in 2015
It’s a wet travel day on my way to Texas, and while I’ve finally arrived in the Lone Star State, unfortunately, I’ve arrived in the wrong city, and we’re currently sitting outside the gate waiting for a new pilot to get us from Austin to Houston. I spent a good long while chuckling as the gate manager has been ever so politely dealing with my fellow passengers, but there are oh so many times you can listen to someone say “I’m sorry ma’am, I really can’t control the weather,” and then continue to get berated by a irate traveler without starting to feel a little crazy yourself. So I thought this would be a good time to talk to you about some of the great books I’ve been reading lately!
At the end of the month I finished an early galley copy of Jess Fechtor’s Stir, and last night I had the pleasure of attending her spectacular author event at the Harvard Bookstore.
I’ve been reading her blog Sweet Amandine for nearly as long as I’ve been writing at The Second Lunch. We started writing the same month in 2009, albeit for very different reasons. I was feeling very lonely in my new city, San Francisco, and she was finding something to do after a devastating brain aneurism left her very, very sick. Of course, I didn’t know that at the time that I started reading her blog, and it wouldn’t be until much later that she started sharing more with the world. (Incidentally, I started reading her new blog in 2009 because she was writing about food from Boston, and I missed New England. It’s been delightful seeing this book come into fruition!)
Her book, which I worked through in one whirlwind sitting (I didn’t get up for five hours) is spectacular. Beautifully written, will make you cry, AND there are recipes! Go read it!
I’d also like to say that as a book lover, the amount of people who came to this event gave me ALL of the warm and fuzzies. But duly deserved, because Jess is just as lovely in real life as she is on the Internet.
West Coast friends! She’ll be speaking at Omnivore Books on July 16th! Go!
In Fiction, I just recently finished The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, another book that I’d held off on for absolutely no reason other than I thought that the popular obsession couldn’t possibly be warranted. I was wrong. It’s a great book!
A few other titles on my bookshelf include Americanah, and Jonathan Galassi’s Muse.
And of course by the end of this travel debacle, I’ll likely have finished the ENTIRE 530 pages of All The Light We Cannot See. I’m on page 363, and I started this morning after take off, after picking it up on a whim for David Leite’s new book club. I had absolutely no idea what the book was about before starting, and it hooked me from the first 10 pages.
What are you reading?
