What's for lunch tomorrow?

Everyone knows that I'm an early bird by nature and since my job requires that I be a ball of energy all day, I go to bed pretty early on the week nights. We're talking 9ish - pretty early, right? But here I am, standing in my kitchen, waiting for my Butternut Squash Autumn Millet Bake to be done. It's almost past my bed time! :) So, why am I still up cooking some crazy squash recipe? Because I ate all of my left overs from the weekend and I have two more weekday lunches to go.

Before my resolution, I would have just resolved to buy school lunch and call it good. You remember - the Styrofoam tray, prepackaged bags of apple slices, corn dogs, etc. That just won't cut it now. During a typical week, if I cook a big meal (leftover size) on Sundays and Wednesdays, it gets me through the week like a charm. But this week, I had plans on Wednesday that didn't end until late. So now, I find myself in the kitchen, up a little later, to have something healthy, seasonal, and delicious to eat for lunch tomorrow. Is it worth it? Hell yeah! There's nothing better than getting hungry during the day, looking at the clock and seeing that it's almost lunch time, and remembering that you have the most awesome food packed away in your lunch bag to eat. It sure beats eating mysterious breaded meat on a stick.

Now before I sign off for the night, I have one more story to tell. I come from a family of meat eaters. So when I became a vegetarian eight years ago (I'm not anymore), I was sort of an anomaly. I'll never forget visiting my grandma for the first time after I became a vegetarian. She's an amazing cook (good southern cooking) and likes to keep us well fed, but she just didn't know what to do with me. She sent my grandpa to the store for tofu and I'm sure that was the first and last time that ever happened. It was adorable. I tried to reassure her that I was fine and that I'd eat whatever she made, but she still wanted to make sure that my dietary needs were met, bless her heart. This brings me to my special request (for my grandma and all of my friends and family): Please don't be afraid of me now that I'm a seasonaltarian! I still love food and love your company, so if you want to go out for a bite to eat or have me over for a meal, I'm game - no special menu or ingredients required. My new food lifestyle is a shift I've made to improve my daily life, not something I want people to worry about or try to accommodate. It's a commitment I'm making to myself that I want to share with the people I love. :)