Day: February 6, 2020

Self-Help Review: Why Good Girls Don’t Get Ahead but Gutsy Girls Do

Why Good Girls Don‘t Get Ahead but Gutsy Girls Do by Kate White is probably the best self-help book I have ever read. And re-read. And studied. Analyzed. Used to get a raise.

It’s an older title–1996. Someone in my local RWA chapter gave a presentation on the book, and I was fascinated. At the time, I was still working in local TV and still on my Big Business Career Track. The book is full of sound advice. Years later, I still offer its wisdom to my husband when he’s perplexed by something at his Day Job.

My copy of the book is dog-eared and bulging with sticky notes. The pages are a rainbow of colored highlights because something new struck me each time I read it.

Yes, the book is geared toward “executive” women, so there’s a lot of “delegate it downward”attitude, but there is also a lot about how to hoist yourself out of the crap pile.

I loved this book so much, I bought the author’s next self-help book and was disappointed. It seemed more about how wonderful she is. When she spoke at an RWA PAN session, I purchased the recording, and while I’ve listened to her speech innumerable times, again I was struck by her almost smug attitude. She should have quit while she was ahead.

Still, the nine “secrets” revealed in the Good Girls book are solid advice. Skimming the pages as I write this inspires me to read the book again: “The secret is to stop trying to do everything and start concentrating only on the essential steps that will allow you to achieve your goal. Anything more is a waste of valuable time and energy.”

Amen.

MJ Monday-Meals: Produce

No recipe this month, but rather, an observation about food.

My local supermarket has a program where they’ll shop for you and deliver to your house. My main concern with concept has always been produce. I like to pick out my own.

I like fruits and most vegetables. However, I find vegetables a pain in the butt to cook. And fancying them all up with sauces and cheese and whatever tends to render the healthy aspect of eating them pointless.

But my biggest issue with produce is it’s propensity to go bad.

I food shop once a week. Maybe if I shopped daily, spoilage wouldn’t be an issue. When the children were small, my weekly menu was pretty much set in stone, with only a little room for deviation. Rotting food wasn’t a problem. Now that there are only the two of us living here and our lives are more flexible, me cooking a weeknight meal with the two of us sitting down together is a rare occurrence. So even though I know we should eat more fresh vegetables, I hesitate because I so often have to throw them away before I get an opportunity to cook them.

Yes, I know “they” are doing amazing things with frozen veggies these days, and yes, they are convenient. But some veggies simple don’t freeze well, no matter how amazing they are treated. Winter squashes come to mind. Greens are another.

I’m lucky. My supermarket sells fresh veggies that have been prepped: precut butternut squash, shredded Brussels spouts, chopped Asian “salad” (which is wonderful stir-fried). Doing the prep makes incorporating fresh vegetables into our diet easier.

Now if there was some way they’d stay fresh in the refrigerator.

 

 

 

 

 

MJ Musing: SEP-It Had To Be You

The first of Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ Chicago Stars books, It Had to be You is a fun romp through the world of professonal sports. I am not a football fan, but a reader doesn’t need to be fond of a sport to enjoy a well-told story.

The heroine wants everyone to believe she’s a sexy bimbo. Her camouflage works all too well. When she inherits her estranged father’s professional football team,  she needs all her assets–including her brain–to survive.

The hero is a sexist he-man trying to manage a team whose owner is a sex kitten with no interest or respect for the sport.

The author introduces us to football players as people, not merely oversized-thugs. The focus is on the team, not the game (thank goodness!) which makes this the first great sports romance.

 

MJ’s Monday–Meals: Vegan Buddha Bowl #2

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Here’s another vegan variation on a Buddha Bowl my friend Kris shared with us.

Again I start with quinoa (instead of rice). 

While the quinoa is cooking according to package instructions, I drain a can of sliced beets.

I place them in a dry cast iron skillet and chop them.

I cook them on medium high heat, stirring frequently until bits are blackened.

While everything is cooking, open a can of mandarin oranges and drain them. Or peel an orange. I’m lazy. Canned mandarin oranges are shelf friendly.

Drain the quinoa.

Mix the quinoa, oranges, and beets together.

If you want, you can add precooked chicken, but quinoa is a complete protein, so adding more isn’t necessary.

Then I add my handy-dandy Sesame Ginger salad dressing

And voila. A colorful, flavorful complete meal.

One of My Finer Moments

A former co-worker recently passed away. There were many heartfelt tributes to him on social media, all of them well-deserved. He really was a good person.

However, we did have a couple of points where our views on life could not have been further apart. One of them was the ERA–the Equal Rights Amendment. As far as I could tell, my co-worker thought women should be kept barefoot and pregnant.

On June 30th, 1982, the ERA “died”. Not enough states add ratified the amendment to the constitution within the deadline or the three-year extension it was given.

On July 1, 1982, the front page of the local morning newspaper featured a photo of my co-worker raising the American flag at a celebration of the demise of the hoped-for amendment. He took a lot of ribbing that morning. Even I patted him on the back. But as I did so, I was also taping a handwritten KICK ME sign there.

Other co-workers laughed. Hours passed before someone told him about it. He was good natured about it. As I said, he really was a good person at his core.