#is bc baby shrimp are called fry

[strawberrymilk-sunshine]

You get no say in it

if you're wondering why I wrote this blame the chapter of the Halloween event where Octavinelle scares the Magicam monsters

...I hope this is good

Warning(s): reader has a kind of controlling parent, child reader, platonic yandere Floyd!! (not proofread)

Your father brought something home a while ago. Something strange, something you've never seen before.

Your father called it a monster. But, to you, it looked more like a human than a monster.

You thought it looked pretty. He had two different coloured eyes, his body was a teal colour, and his hair was too, with a strip of darker teal falling over the left side of his face.

You wanted to be his friend! But... you know your father, and he would never let that happen...

"(Y/N), you are not to speak with that monster." Your father commanded. "Do you understand?"

"Yes father!" You told him, knowing for a fact that you were absolutely going to speak with the monster the moment your father left.

"Good. I'll be back soon, (Y/N)."

"See you soon, father!" You said, focusing once more on the thing you' been drawing.

The moment you heard the door slam shut, signifying your father leaving the building, you ran as fast as you could to the basement. The basement was used to store your family's treasures, including the monster.

You walk up the old rusty stairs. You got to the top of the platform that led to the large water tank. You got down on your knees, causing the old staircase to shake.

You stuck your hand in the water.

You yanked your hand out of the water before the jaws bit your hand off.

"Hi!" You excitedly said to the monster. "What's your name?"

"You're a weird one." He said asked. "Every other one of you I've met's been scaaaaaared of me~"

"Well I'm not!" You said. "I'm not scared of you at all!"

"Why aren'tcha~?" He asked. "Ya got lotsa reasons to be scared of me. I mean, I've got two sets o' teeth, plus I swallow prey whole. Alive. Ain't that spooky?"

"That's so cool!" You said in amazement.

"...really?"

"Yeah!!"

"Huh. You really are a weird one, huh?" He looked at you in amusement. "Fine, I'll answer your questions, I guess~"

"So what are you? Father says you're a monster but I don't believe him!" You told him.

"I'm a moray." He responded.

"And what's your name? I wanna be your friend!"

"My friend?" He asked. "You're so strange... wanting to be friends with a monster... but fine, Little Shrimp-Fry, I guess I'll be your... friend." He said, giving a wide grin. He lifted his hand out of the water, wanting you to shake his hand. "My name's Floyd, nice to meetcha~!"

You made a friend!!

Your father doesn't exactly let you leave home, so you don't really have any friends...

But now you have one! You have someone to talk to, someone to play with, though you can never let your father know.

You visit him every single night, making sure your father never knows.

"So, Shrimp-Fry, what's your family like?" Floyd asked you one night.

"My... my father runs a very successful and powerful business, but I don't know what it is... and mother isn't around much, I don't know why."

"...I have a twin brother back home." Floyd told you. "We look a lot alike... you probably wouldn't be able to tell us apart if he was here with me."

"Do you miss him?" You asked. Floyd looked shocked for a moment.

"Yeah... yeah, sometimes I do." He admitted. "And, a-and we have this friend, Azul, yeah? He's an octopus! And he can grant anyone any wish they want, for a price."

"Any wish?"

"Impressive, right~?"

"Do you miss your home...?"

"Of course I do, Shrimp-Fry...! I mean, it's... it's my home... it's hard not to miss it." Floyd told you. "But if I'm being honest..." He sighed. "I don't think I'll ever get to go home. I think I'm just gonna rot away here... nothing more than a novelty to your kind."

That's right...

Your only friend isn't here willingly.

Whenever you talked to him, he'd tell you all about the sea.

How beautiful it was, how much he loved it...

How much he missed it.

You felt sad for him. You can't imagine just suddenly being taken away from your home and being treated as just some trophy.

You don't want to lose him, but wouldn't he be happier in the sea...?

You want to help him.

You began drawing up escape plans for you and Floyd. The two of you are going to escape your father's house together.

The night you finished the plans, you immediately went to show him.

You gave him detailed explanations of all the different crayon drawings.

"You sure that'll work, Shrimp-Fry?" Floyd asked, tilting his head to the right. "Not to doubt you, but-"

"(Y/N)?!" The man stormed up the rusty stairs as you stood there, completely frozen in fear. "(Y/N), your father has told you many times you are not allowed to speak with the monster. OR to enter the basement!" Your father's assistant yelled.

"I-I'm sorry! I just wanted to-"

The man picked you up.

Floyd watched it all happen from the water. He didn't know why he did it, maybe because you were his only way of escape, but...

He grabbed tight onto the man's ankle and pulled him into the water.

You watched everything happen from the platform. You watched as the crystal clear water became more and more red.

The man didn't resurface, but Floyd did.

Most of his face was covered in blood.

"Eh? What's wrong, Shrimp-Fry?" Floyd asked, noticing how scared you looked. "You're safe, you aren't hurt, so what's wrong?"

"I-is he... ok...?" You asked, terrified.

"...yeah. Don't worry about him, Shrimp-Fry. He'll be fine. You just go off to bed, m'kay?" He reached out of the water, and patted your head with his blood soaked hand. "We'll talk more about escaping tomorrow night."

You discussed your escape plan with him every night.

And eventually comes the night you decided to put your plan into action.

You grabbed Floyd's hands and began attempting to pull him out of the water.

It was harder than you'd expected, but you got all of him out of the water eventually.

He was much longer than you'd thought, and heavier too...

Thank goodness you live close to the sea.

You dragged Floyd through the hallways and then, you ran into the one person you didn't want to.

Your father.

"Can you... close your eyes, Little Shrimp-Fry?" Floyd asked. "I have some personal business with this one."

You saw your father's look of absolute terror as this mock-human monster he'd taken as a trophy crawled towards him with murderous intent.

You squeezed your eyes shut and covered your ears with your hands as Floyd began to attack your father.

After many minutes passed, two wet hands grabbed yours.

"Start walking, Shrimp-Fry. It's probably better if you don't open your eyes yet... I'll let you know when you can." Floyd told you.

You trusted him.

You kept walking through the hallways, your eyes still tightly shut.

"I think we're far enough away now..." Floyd whispered to himself. "You can open your eyes now, Little Shrimp-Fry~!"

You realized that Floyd's hands and face were once more covered in blood, and your mind came to the terrible realization of what happened.

"Is he... dead...?" You asked.

"...don't worry about that right now, Shrimp-Fry." Floyd told you. "Just keep on pulling us towards freedom!!"

When you finally made it to the sea, you were ready to say goodbye to Floyd. Since your father's dead now, you won't have any issues making friends!

But then...

You were pulled into the sea along with Floyd.

"Ahhhhh... it feels sooo good to breathe the saltwater again..." Floyd said. "Thanks for everything, Shrimp-Fry~!"

"Um... y-you're welcome." You nervously responded. "Can you put me back on dry land now...?"

"Are you kidding?! Of course not, Shrimp-Fry!!"

"What-?"

"I waaaas planning on just leaving you for dead once you got me back out here, ehe... buuuuuut then something changed." He explained, holding tightly onto you as you got farther and farther away from the shore. "I'm not sure what changed. But now... I don't want to ever let you go, Shrimp-Fry..."

"NO!" You screamed. "I-I WANT TO LIVE ON LAND! I W-WANT TO BE A NORMAL KID! I WANT-!"

"Shhhhhhhhhhh... everything'll be oooookkkkk, Shrimp-Fry~"

"You're a part of my family now... you don't get a say in it."

[josendlessmonolouge]

Jo’s grandpa appreciation post bc I just made some overnight oats for tomorrow that he would love.

my grandpa is pretty well my father figure since my dad sucks majorly and anyway heres all the amazing wonderful stuff about him that makes me wish the entire world could have someone like him

He always told me stories when I was little. my favorite was jack and the beanstalk but because he modified it so the giant had a giant cat that in the end when the chop down the bean stalk, jack and his mom sell to a zoo and get a bunch of money.

He believes rhythm is one of the very most important things you can teach a child he used to bounce all us grandkids on his knee to the beat of music and he always encourages me to tap my foot to songs

he’s very dyslexic but currently writing a book

he likes to talk about folk music with me

I’ve dated two boys in my life my first relationship was long distance and he still sometimes calls my grandpa for car advice. When I was dating my ex once him and grandpa talked on my phone for over an hour about stock car racing

if he hadn’t had a family he was going to pursue being a nascar driver

he can build anything, he built me an American girl doll bed when I was a kid and his sister (my great aunt) who lives right next door to him sewed me a mattress for it

he loves vintage western wear

he has my mom cut his hair bc he got mad that his barber kept cutting his hair too short, he says she thinks everyone should have cop cuts but he’s a product of the 50s-70s he likes a longer haircut

he completely replaced the floor and even did the plumbing in our bathroom just recently. ;he’s in his 70s)

once he said he didn’t feel well at dinner with our friends after the nhs ceremony and had us worried about him but actually he was late walking his dogs and didn’t want them to be sad but didn’t want to be rude about leaving

he always signs his title as grampa instead of grandpa bc that’s how I pronounce it. So when I was 13 and he got heart surgery and it was still Covid regulations so I was too young to visit him he wrote a thank you note to my card and signed it that, he always signs off every text message with it

he loves fruit and always keeps apples at his house. He told my mom “I’m a good diabetic.” While eating apple sauce. Still think about that lol

his little westie is the most spoiled dog to exist

Babies always smile at him in public

once I ran into him at lunch at school bc my friends went to the Walmart deli and he was grocery shopping and he apologized to me that he wasn’t dressed nicer (he was in his overalls)

he practically lives in overalls

when I was little my soccer team called him the man in the yellow hat bc he wears a straw hat almost everyday.

he dropped out of highschool.

I bought him a roy rogger tie as a present bc he got really teary over how important Roy roggers was to him as a child and at church that week he really proudly showed it to me.

he can look at anything and measure it

once he fell off a ladder working and had to stay home so we had to go shopping for him he told my mom and I the dimensions of the box of shrimp my grandma likes not the color or price or the brand or amount, but the dimensions.

oh when he fell off the ladder? The person driving the ambulance got lost and he had to tell them where to go.

his dad likes to collect rocks and so does he

he picks my grandma flowers from his garden.

he tells me about people from his childhood he realizes where probably on the spectrum like him and I are. He realize he was on the spectrum after I was diagnosed.

He makes the very best fry bread

he loves perry mason

once I called him in tears because a very baby bird had fallen out of it’s nest in a storm and I wanted him to come and try to save it (I couldn’t as I had cats at my house) or put it out of its misery and he drove out to my house and tried to nurse it to health (sadly it didn’t live)

When I was in upper elementary school I had a lot of meltdowns because I was bullied, other kids where starting to not like school so they were yelling being disruptive my little autistic self couldn’t take it and sometimes I’d have to go home early if it was really bad (eventually I got meds and accommodations) but mom and grandma worked jobs where the couldn’t pick me up so he did and he’d just take me along his errands to Walmart or something. Sometimes we’d get a doughnut. He always understood I wasn’t misbehaving I really wanted to do good and be good.

[delicatejisung]

⏱𝐘𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐀: 𝟑-𝟒 𝐏𝐌 | 𝐍𝐂𝐓 𝟐𝟒𝐡𝐫 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐘 𝐂𝐀𝐌

• time picking

— she immediately had the 3-4pm time and no one even tried stealing it from her except haechan (just for the hell of messing with her)

— but she went “yeah, no. i’m keeping it.” and hyuck’s just like “understood, have a good day” and sat back down as they all laughed

— was literally just sitting on the table hugging taeyong from behind

— “do you not want to have the time before renjun so you could spend—“ “HIS IS 1AM, DO YOU REALLY WANT US SPENDING TIME TOGETHER FROM 12 TO 2?”

— so yeah, she just giggled at everyone because they’re cute and petty

• her 24hr relay cam

— “hello~” she giggled as she waved at the camera

— she then starts panning the camera around her living room before facing the camera towards her again

— “so, like agreed before. i’ve moved to a different apartment, since our jisungie already reached adulthood.” she explained, fixing the placement of the camera on her coffee table

— “you might think it’s lonely, but it’s not! they’re always here anyways, it’s not much of a change. i just sleep here.” she explained further

— “honestly, i’ve been thinking for days on what i should be doing for this one hour. i’ve already spent.... [checks the time] 3 minutes, explaining. what should i do now?” she asked with a giggle before realizing no one would answer her

— “i would cook, but it would go to waste if i’m the only one eating and more waste if i just cook for myself...”

— in the end, she decides to bring “czennies/the camera” to her room

— “this room’s not pink anymore, i’ve changed up the color of the walls to black so it wouldn’t be too bright. i like sleeping in recently” she mumbled as she placed the cam on her vanity table

[the gist of her room]

— “even when i sleep in, dream members know the password of the door so sometimes i wake up to them already on my couch” she said with a giggle

— “they also helped me decorate, specially taeyong-hyung and jaehyun-hyung. they wouldn’t leave me alone the the first few days i lived here!” she complained before grabbing her ukulele

— “i’ve been writing songs recently, i’ll let you hear one”

[yanna’s unreleased song (it’s actually “to my youth” by bolbbalgan4)]

— “that’s... that’s all i can show you [giggles] let’s move on!”

— “i’m slowly realizing my day’s boring without the guys” she says in a pout, bringing the camera with her as she walks back to the living room

— “my dog should be here in the next few weeks, she just has some tests and vaccinations to get. i’m sure chenle will bring daegal here often when my baby gets here also.”

— “my unit is gonna turn into a dog playground. but it’s okay, they’re cute. even bella’s cute.”

— “oh! i’ll cook my favorite dish, i think i have all the ingredients.” she squealed, excitedly running towards the kitchen with the cam in her hands

— “oppa helped me with the groceries yesterday” she mumbled, purposely not mentioning who “oppa” is bc everyone knows she calles them “hyung” (yes, it’s renjun)

— excitedly shows the camera her pack of frozen raspberries and bananas

— “this way, we won’t have to add ice since the fruits themselves are frozen and my blender won’t have to work hard.” she said while nodding to herself

— “i said ‘we’ as if you guys are here”

— “i’ll make this first so i won’t be hungry while making the dish” she explained while putting blueberries, banana, milk and honey unto the blender

— “cover your ears” she whispered towards the camera before turning the blender on and giggling

— “okay!” she excitedly said when it was done and transferred it into a tall glass

— as she took a sip, the sound of the door opening and closing was clear and she immediately turned to it

— “oh, i’m making creamy shrimp curry” she said, welcoming the guest and leaving the camera in the kitchen

— after a few seconds, she entered the kitchen again and now with renjun behind her

— “introduce yourself” “hello, i’m renjun.” “why are you speaking in english?” “.... i don’t know”

— “i’ll cook, so just sit down outside.” she said as she pushed the boy towards the living room and came back to the kitchen laughing

— “no offense, but his kitchen skills are..... not his best asset. and i like cooking alone, so it’s fine if he just stays there and relaxes.” yanna explained to the camera

— she then proceeds to cooking rice before deciding to grab the ingredients for the curry

— “oh, wait.” she stops and pours the remaining smoothie unto another glass and runs outside the kitchen to probably give it to renjun

— as she comes back, she grabs red prawn from her fridge and soaks it in water before chopping up onions

— “this is pretty easy, to be honest. i don’t use carrots and potatoes, just onions.” she mumbles before caramelizing the onion with butter

— “i also use curry blocks, like this” and shows what they look like before dumping it on the pot

— she then proceeded to cook silently, focusing on frying the prawns after she put cream on the curry

— “tada!” she said after she prepared the dish in two seperate plates for her and renjun

— “mom must be so proud of me” she said with a laugh before taking a picture of it

— “i’ll leave some for jisungie, in case he messages saying he’s hungry” she mumbled before showing the camera the rest of the sauce and prawns

— she then brought the camera to the living room, placed it on the table and asked renjun to grab the plates from the kitchen

— “what are you watching?!” she asks while laughing before showing the camera what was on the tv

— it was an episode of “gakuen babysitters”

— “you’re the one watching that, i just played it. i’m too lazy to look for something else to watch.”

— “it’s cute.” she reasoned out before playing the episode and recieving her plate from renjun who sat down beside her

— she glanced at the time and saw that it was 5 minutes till 4

— “it’s almost time to say goodbye” she said with a pout before drinking from her smoothie

— “i’ll say a few words before leaving, then.” she mumbled, her mouth full of food making both her and renjun laugh

— “uhm, we’re glad to be of help to you guys during these trying times. i heard it’s worse in other countries and i’m glad that you find comfort in us, we are really happy that we provide that for you while we only try to do what we enjoy doing. always take care of yourselves and drink lots of water, that’s really important. don’t worry too much about us, worry about yourselves more!”

— she then ended the video by pushing a spoonful of rice and curry towards the camera and laughing before saying “bye bye~”

• other relay cams she appeared in

— she appeared on jisung’s, arriving with jeno and renjun

— she basically just laid on jisung’s bed with him and helped him have something to talk about before saying goodbye

— “you should tell them about your recovery, like how you feel and if you feel like you’re doing well already”

— she also appeared in taeyong’s relay cam but only through a video call

— taeyong excitedly picked up her call and smiled as she said “good morning, hyung~”

— “hyung, i have a question.” her curious tone was heard through the car and even the manager laughed at her chirpy tone so early in the morning

— it was about an outfit she needed to prepare and taeyong thought for a while before saying “the second one”

[eddiegirls]

do you have some ~easy recipes to make? i want to learn how to cook but i always find myself too tired to make anything when i get home from work /:

hello my friend! so what i find the easiest to throw together is a stir fry bc you can really use any protein and veggies, and it’s usually done in the time it takes to cook the rice. 

here’s my stir fry ~formula:

1. start the rice first, bc it takes longest. i use sticky/sushi rice, but anything will work, and you can also do quinoa/another grain. here’s a rice cooking guide!

2. if you’re using tofu (which i usually do), press it right away to drain the water. i use extra firm tofu, and i wrap it in many paper towels, then i putting a cutting board with a heavy pan/book/whatever i can find on top. extra firm usually only needs 15 mins to press, but it won’t hurt to leave it until you’re ready to cook. you can use chicken/fish/shrimp/beef/pork/etc, whichever’s easiest.

3. cut your vegetables. you can literally use anything! i put garlic in everything, but everything else varies. some ideas: onions or green onions, broccoli, green beans, asparagus, bell peppers, carrots, bok choy, snap peas/snow peas, baby corn, water chestnuts (they come canned!), mushrooms, etc. frozen veggies or the pre-cut packs in the produce section are a good idea if you don’t want to chop or don’t have time. 

4. cook your protein. for tofu, i usually cut it into cubes and coat them in some flour seasoned with whatever spices i feel like (mine is usually salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, and smoked paprika). then i fry it in some vegetable oil. it usually takes like...5 mins on each side, but i generally get lazy and don’t cook every side of every cube lol. you can use pretty much any protein and there’s youtube tutorials for the best way to pan fry all of them. you can also buy a rotisserie chicken from the deli and shred it, or frozen pre-cooked meats, which’ll both save a lot of time.

5. while the tofu/whatever’s cooking, make a sauce. mine is usually a random, unmeasured combination of: soy sauce, honey, some kind of chili sauce (sambal is my fave), garlic powder, rice vinegar, and sesame oil. you can 100% buy a premade stir fry sauce to make your life easier (kikkoman makes good ones, they’re usually in the asian foods section). if you wanna make your own, just start with like...1/3-1/2 cup of soy sauce and add stuff until it tastes good. it’s honestly very hard to mess up. 

6. remove protein from pan and cook veggies. as a general rule, hard vegetables take longest. put stuff like broccoli and asparagus in first, then onions, then softer things like bok choy. if you can’t tell if something’s done cooking, stick a fork in and feel how soft it is. if you still can’t tell, taste it. if you’re using frozen, follow instructions on the package. put the garlic in LAST or else it’ll most definitely burn and you’ll be sad. 

7. put protein back in w the veggies and pour in the sauce. cook it for a few mins to thicken it up. if you want, you can combine a tablespoon of corn starch and a tablespoon of cold water to help it thicken, but i wouldn’t recommend that if you’re gonna eat it again the next day, bc the corn starch makes it kinda gummy later on. 

8. serve over rice. i sometimes add a fried egg on top! 

that was longer than i intended.........and i am not done

here’s some places i usually find easy recipes:

my absolute queen budget bytes

honestly...buzzfeed tasty has good & quick one pot recipes

binging with babish’s basics series is very good for learning how to cook

i don’t really like to give conde nast my money, especially bon appetit, but i use an ad blocker to go on their basically site. every recipe is 10 ingredients or less!

pro home cooks, which used to be called brothers green - he makes, like, everything, but a lot of his vids focus on cheap and easy meals. (i haven’t watched any of his meal prep vids but i bet they’re good)

if you have a day, or even a few hours, every week that you can set aside, you might wanna look into meal prep. you don’t even have to prep entire meals; just pre-cutting all your veggies and portioning them into containers makes cooking after work/school feel so much easier. 

here are some meal prepping youtubers:

mind over munch - i s2g this woman is like the queen of meal prepping. she’s also like way too perky but it’s fine bc her vids are VERY helpful even if you don’t wanna make the exact meals she makes

goodful’s professional meal prepper series - she gets paid to go to ppl’s homes and meal prep for them, and she shares a lot of easy recipes that are good for prepping and also just general tips for the best ways to cook and store stuff!

and finally here’s some easy stuff i make when i’m lazy:

i boil water for pasta, i chop up broccoli into tiny little pieces and throw it in the boiling water with the pasta when there’s like 4 mins left. i drain it, put it back in the pan, and add butter, italian cheese(s), garlic powder or a garlic herb seasoning blend, salt, and pepper. it’s so good.

premade gnocchi with jarred sauce or storebought pesto, served w whatever vegetable will take the least time to cook (i had this today with asparagus lol)

canned salmon burgers! 

tuna & mayo mixed w rice, top w eggs and nori if i have it (thank u @oddesteyecircle)

smashed chickpea salad - i take a can of chickpeas and smash em w a potato masher, then i add mayo, dijon mustard, lemon juice to taste, and whatever spices i feel like (usually salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, cayenne, paprika, turmeric bc i like the color it adds lol). serve on toasted bread w/ whatever you like on sandwiches (i do tomatoes, hima usually does cucumber slices and spinach)

this doesn’t count as cooking really but the chipotle black bean burgers from don lee farms (we get them at costco) are incredible. i usually make em w frozen fries and microwave steamed broccoli (if u haven’t caught on i love broccoli)

bfast for dinner (pancakes from a box, scrambled eggs, bacon/sausage, maybe some potatoes)

aaaand i think that’s all i have to say! when in doubt, u can always ALWAYS find a recipe on youtube for literally anything. i hope this was helpful!!!!!!!

[tawouk]

When I am keeping to my established diet, here are the main food options I usually go for which I have found to be quite easy/doable in terms of maintaining a no sugar, no/low carb diet, which was daunting at first: 

- Chicken salad: in the form of tawouk fattouch which is a common offering at Arab restaurants, and the one by my workplace has it on lunch special and the portion is huge, so for about $8 it’s a massive carton of fattouch (a Levantine salad) and a big piece of grilled chicken breast on the side. Fattouch normally comes with fried pita chips on top but I ask for it without. The amount of food is easily enough for two meals so I’ll have half for lunch and half for dinner, or leave half for the next day’s lunch and have something else for dinner. I get this quite a lot. Generally chicken and salad are big staples, whatever form that may take... most restaurants usually have a grilled boneless chicken item on the menu so that’s a great option, just get it with salad instead of fries. My “cheat” version of this is a buffalo chicken caesar salad which one restaurant around here does exceptionally well and also in a huge portion that I can cut into two meals, so I’ll “treat” myself with that every now and then; the buffalo chicken is breaded so it’s somewhat carby but I will get it without croutons, and not have any other carbs that day. 

- Chili: I love this because it’s a hearty, filling, yummy food I really enjoy, without high fat or carbs, especially if it’s not too heavy on beans (which are carby but like, not the same as eating bread or rice or pasta, and are a good protein source). I make a big pot of it at home sometimes but also sometimes pick up a cup for a few bucks at a halal restaurant that’s between my home and workplace and theirs almost feels like a veggie chili, it’s not heavy on meat at all even though it’s labeled as a pastrami chili. It’s nice to have that because my own chili recipe is quite basic as I don’t have the patience to put a million vegetables in it; it’s just beans, beef, tomato, chilis, spices (no onions bc I hate onions but I’ll use onion powder). 

- Chipotle burrito bowl: the greatest thing!! It’s convenient too because there’s a Chipotle near my house so it’s easy to swing by. I don’t eat meat from there bc it’s not halal but it’s fine because the (tofu) sofritas is soooo good; whatever your protein is though the burrito bowls are an awesome way to have your protein + veggies and other burrito fillings without a carby tortilla (I don’t get any rice or corn on it either). 

- Spinach salad: that I make at home, it’s tons of fresh baby spinach, diced tomato, sliced cucumber, diced avocado, lemon juice and salt. Normally I’d add olive oil to a salad but the avocado is already fatty and dresses the salad to an extent that I don’t miss the olive oil there. Sometimes I’ll add feta and occasionally pecans, which I love but they’re expensive lol. 

- Chicken: that I make at home, with boneless skinless thighs, chopped up carrots, a ton of peeled sliced garlic, maybe sometimes a little bit of chopped potato, and a Moroccan-influenced spice combination; it’s my mom’s recipe and she adds diced onions and peppers too but I hate onions and peppers. I love the flavor that this certain spice combo gives and this is really easy and quick to make. 

- Steak: the halal supermarket by my workplace sells these packs of 6 long thin steaks for like $4, which is a great bargain for me even if they are really not real steaks at all but just these long thin pieces of meat - I’ll buy a pack and split it into 3 portions of 2 pieces each and freeze them for quick meals. They’re so thin that I just season them and fry them in a touch of olive oil for 1 minute on each side on high heat, and then have that with some salad or guac (that I make) or carrots that I slice and grill in a bit of olive oil and spices under the oven broiler. 

- Stew: sometimes I’ll make Arab stews at home, namely a lima bean/tomato sauce/garlic/cilantro/ground beef stew or green bean/tomato sauce/garlic/ ground beef stew or carrot/pea/garlic/tomato sauce/ground beef stew, and make brown rice along with it and have it with just a bit of the rice or no rice at all. The pea/carrot one eats especially well with no rice, kind of like a soup. We really love making lamb karahi (Indian style curry) as well but not so often, as it has a high oil content (even though we cut that down from the original recipe), takes a while to make and it’s the one thing we exceptionally make with white basmati rice instead of brown, because you really need to enjoy that dish properly (and frankly it’s spicy enough that you really need the rice to balance it out). 

- Ablama: a variation on the traditional Arab stuffed zucchini, this is basically zucchini stuffed with a filling of ground beef/pine nuts/spices and cooked in a tomato sauce or yogurt sauce, served with rice; however I skip the stuffing part and just slice the zucchini in half, grill it then top it with the filling, add the tomato sauce (I don’t like it in yogurt) and bake; so simple. I’ll have it with just a little bit of brown rice. 

- Pasta: I make a quick and easy sauce which is basically a pasta sauce jar + cans of diced tomato and tomato sauce + ground beef + garlic + herbs/spices + diced sundried tomatoes if we have some in the house. No dairy or oil or butter at all, not even to fry the meat. Generally whether it’s for pasta or stew or chili or whatever we buy lean ground beef without much fat in it; you can still easily fry it in a nonstick pan without any oil. Wholegrain pasta with it - which I do not mind at all; it was very easy for me to get used to over white pasta, moreso than brown rice over white rice. Sometimes I’ll forego the pasta altogether and just have that sauce like a soup, maybe with some cheese on top, so kind of like an Italian chili. 

- Kibbe: the love of my life, is an Arab dish which is basically a meat filling in a meat/cracked wheat shell; so it’s kind of carby but I’ll have it in moderation and it will be the only carbs of the day. It comes in different forms but commonly in egg-sized “footballs” which the  deli at the Arab supermarket by my workplace sells at like 80 cents apiece so I’ll grab a few of them and some salad from there for dinner sometimes. 

- Soup: so many non-carby soups you can go for! the restaurant by my workplace has the BEST lentil soup and a great chicken vegetable soup as well. The latter is a great healthy option to go for while the former is a bit carby what with the lentils, but I just love it so much. It’s enough all on its own as a light lunch for me. I love tomato soup as well so my “cheat” thing will be a bowl of that from Panera; it’s sooo good but more fatty bc of the cream and probably has a considerable sugar content too. 

- If I do have bread: we only buy wholegrain bread, occasionally I’ll have a toasted piece of that with avocado spread (avocado/lemon/salt/pepper/crushed garlic) or peanut butter, which is the most amazing (non-carb/no sugar/good fat!) creation. Having it on celery instead of bread is also a great no-carb snack to go for. I avoid jams/jellies completely because of the sugar. 

- Eggs: My kind of “cheat” thing that I occasionally make is poached egg + sliced avocado + sliced tomato fried in olive oil, all piled on a piece of toast. Not the most unhealthy combo ever but I consider it a cheat thing because it is a relatively high fat content, especially with the fried tomato (which I lovvvve). This is also a much healthier version of the way I used to make it years ago, where the egg and bread were also fried...... frankly terrible. Eggs in general are so great though and you can easily forego any kind of bread and have a great omelet with healthy ingredients, even throw some cheese in there, the fat content is fine as long as you’re avoiding carbs. Or poach the egg if you want to avoid frying and have it with fresh sliced avocado and tomato or whatever else you like. 

- Fish: don’t eat as much of this as I should, but baked salmon or a shrimp stir-fry with veggies are a good way to go; tuna is also a quick fix I sometimes go for, without drowning it in mayo. 

- Coffee: a bit of a struggle, because I lovvvve coffee and need it to be somewhat sweet, not overly but I can’t drink black/bitter coffee at all. What’s nice is that there is a regional Michigan coffee chain called Biggby that has sugar free flavoring options (so you could get a coffee with sugar free vanilla instead of sugar, or a sugar free mocha) and that’s what I opt for; a café au lait is a good option because being half coffee half milk it’s not so bitter. However the struggle for me, even with sugar free options available, is wanting coffee in the morning but resisting it to stick to my intermittent fast till noon. My night owl lifestyle has always worked out fine even if I have to be up early as long as I have coffee; sticking to the fast has made me actually need to start sleeping earlier lol. Which I guess is healthier anyway... 

- Chocolate: No sugar and avoiding desserts is hard, even while I don’t have the hugest sweet tooth in general, sometimes it can be hard to resist. I do sometimes of course cheat, but try to keep it balanced. When I’m not cheating, for a leetle bit of indulgence, I have always loved dark chocolate anyway so a bit of that doesn’t hurt while I’m not having any other significant sources of sugar. Not all dark chocolate is created equal though, so I studied all the kinds at Target to find the one with the lowest sugar content without being too bitter. The winner is Ghirardelli Intense Dark 86% Midnight Reverie, a 90g bar of 8 large squares with 10g of sugar to the bar = 1.25g of sugar per square. That’s my go-to now and I usually have one square a night. 

- Other snacks: peanuts!!! A great no sugar/no carb snack and I really love peanuts; it’s easy to go overboard on them so I bought like a box of the small individually packaged ones, the kind of thing you’d put in a kid’s school lunch, and that’s in my office desk drawer so I’ll have a pack as a snack occasionally. The small packs ensure sticking to a controlled portion, vs having a can of peanuts that you just dive into. Chips or cheez-its (which I adore) are not the worst thing on earth either in moderation, like those small 50 cent bags; there’s no sugar and a small serving isn’t the hugest carb intake so that’s something to occasionally indulge on. Plain tortilla chips with salsa also is better than like doritos or whatever - portion control is just the key.