35 before 35 list

Previous Updates

1. 62/105 new recipes

The past couple of months have been weird for new recipes. We’ve been in Virginia in a little apartment far from the staples of my own pantry. I got some basics, but I didn’t want to fully stock a pantry for a two month stay, so once I had those basics I tried to use them as much as possible. Making new recipes would often involve buying lots more staples so I couldn’t work on this much. I did make some new stuff though, and I made up some stuff too. Sometimes when I do a challenge like this I forget that there aren’t actually rules. I’m doing this for myself. So I’m going to post some pictures of things I made up with the ingredients I had, even though I can’t really share a recipe to go with them.

52. Easy Weeknight Burrito Bowl (Minimalist Baker’s Everyday Cooking by Dana Shultz) – Very simple and tasty, if not particularly beautiful!
53. Perfect Golden Beets – (https://www.abeautifulplate.com/how-to-cook-perfect-beets/) – They really were PERFECT. It probably helps that they came from the farmer’s market. I fried them up with their greens and served them with roasted potatoes and rice and it was such a feast.
54. Vegan Mac & Cheese with Broccoli, Kale and Tempeh Bacon – This looked like absolute trash and I loved it. It had broccoli and kale in it, guys, it was… healthy? 😬
55. Roasted Asparagus and Radish Salad with Creamy Garlic Cashew Dressing (https://www.yayforfood.com/recipes/roasted-asparagus-radish-salad-creamy-garlic-cashew-dressing) – We don’t have a blender, so I used tahini in this instead of cashews. It was super-super good.
56. Citrus Quinoa Sweet Potato Salad (https://www.contentednesscooking.com/citrus-quinoa-sweet-potato-salad/) – This was my favorite of the three salads I made for a July 4th Potluck. You guys, it was so good. I wish I was eating it right now.
57. Herbed White Bean Picnic Salad (https://soupaddict.com/2017/08/white-bean-picnic-salad/) Oh this was so good. Bean salads are a dream come true. I have an unusually hard time finding just plain white beans in Oklahoma, so this was a special treat.
58. Vegan Cheese and Mushroom Ravioli – Normally I wouldn’t include something this pre-packaged but we don’t have stuff like this at home! I combined a vegan ravioli with red sauce, shredded pepperjack daiya (cutting board series is the only way to go, can’t find it at home!) and vegan feta (WHAAAAAT) and it was too delicious and bubbly and fancy.
59. Pesto with Roasted Asparagus, Red Bell Pepper, Tomatoes and Vegan Feta – All the veggies were from the Farmer’s Market that we could walk to on Saturdays, SO SPECIAL.
60. Fried Rice with Steamed Vegetable Buns – I made the fried rice from scratch and it was stupidly good. The steamed buns were frozen but fun. They probably needed some sort of fancy sauce to really shine, but we enjoyed them!
61. Spicy Black Bean Rice Noodles and Tofu – I have just been dreaming about these noodles. I feel like some kind of Noodle God. Tremble before me.
62. Kimchi Fries – One of our favorite restaurants back home (Lone Wolf Tulsa!) has amazing Kimchi Fries and we have been missing them! Shoestring fries, kimchi, pickles and a dressing made from sriracha veganaise. They HIT THE SPOT.

2. Bullet Journal 2019

I have been daily journaling all summer long and enjoying it a lot. It’s a little less about to do lists in the summer, but still very gratifying.

3. Weekly Effort

Everywhere you go in this town, everyone looks so cute and confident. I haven’t been catcalled once, even though I have gone out on lots of walks on my own. Back home any extra effort gets a lot of weird attention and it’s just freeing to be somewhere were feeling yourself seems like the norm, and it makes me so happy to see so many different types of people dressing cute. It’s a very good vibe here. Consequently I was really really into myself this summer. Hot girl summer!

4. Saturday Movie Nights

23. My Name is Julia Ross
24. Love Witch
25. Ralph Wrecks the Internet
26. A Silent Voice

7. Keep my Patreon up to date!

https://www.patreon.com/rachelakelso

I’m very on top of this, and I have a lot of stuff coming up! My weekly phone photo posts are pretty consistent, I have shared some videos and I have a 365 photo project coming up towards the end of August.

10. Take Breaks

This whole summer has felt like a break, as is perhaps evidenced by the fact that I rolled my June and July 35 before 35 updates into one! In June, before it got too hot, we were really going for lots of walks and enjoying the town, and in July we spent a lot of downtime in the apartment, but all in all it has actually felt like a for-real break, the likes of which I rarely let myself have. I’m looking forward to getting back into some creative projects with renewed vigor!

12. Get caught up on video editing and stay on top of it!

You GUYS. I edited my 2018 video last week so I am officially caught up! Mostly I share these videos Patron Only, but the 2015 one was such a sticky video to get past I posted it publicly. You can read about it and watch it here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/2015-28310685 It’s probably a goofy one to share publicly because it’s not my best video by any means, but it was such a long time coming and I had vented about it on various social media over the years and thought everyone who had to see me complain about it deserved to get to actually see the final product.

13. Play more Video Games

I made a really cute house and family in the sims this summer!

15. Let myself shoot film again! (even though I don’t have it all developed yet)

I’m doing it, you guys!

16. Plan my summers better!

I feel like I at least have to acknowledge the existence of this one! I had a better summer. Some of that was because of planning, probably, but I wanted to be more of a tourist than I was, I guess. Anyway, we have already TALKED about next summer, and how we might do things to actually get into DC before the weather is too disgusting and I’m hopeful. I also don’t feel like this summer was wasted at all. It was a good one.

17. Monthly Date Night

We have kind of had weekly date nights the past couple of months. It has been lovely to be able to walk to so many interesting places.

20. Yoga Goals

I’m maybe the fittest I have ever been in my entire life right now. Not the strongest OR the most flexible, but the most balanced and the best feeling.

22. No strict daily photo projects for 1 year

I’m coming up on the end of this one (August 24th!) and I was right to word it this way because I’m doing my second 100happydays of some sort and a personal 365 photo project so I guess I kind of failed except! in attitude. These aren’t STRICT projects, and I do not owe them to anyone but myself, which is how all my creative pursuits should actually be, but, I don’t know, sometimes I feel people’s expectations, and sometimes I don’t. It’s a balance that I feel like I will always be working on, but only because it’s what I really really love to do.

24. Read 10 non-fiction books

bold=new

Queens of the Conquest by Alison Weir
Victoria’s Daughters by Jerrold Packard
Dark Shadows Memories: 35th Anniversary Edition by Kathryn Leigh Scott

25. Read 10 fiction books