Welp, I’m in Twitter jail, apparently little right of appeal and may have just lost 17 years of my life for who knows what but probably just you know being on the right side of history over GENOCIDE and the like.
Ahem.
What a way to end an otherwise pretty good birthday week. Turned 42 on Monday, spent the day eating cake and hanging out with my partner.
Got a couple of gifts from Internet people, Ambrose sent lights and chockies and Trish send Japanese Snax. Bruce bought me a new monitor which should arrive today as an upgrade. The one he got me for me for my bday last year died in the move, which was sad.
The Lindt balls are long gone, and I need to figure out where the lights go around the outside of the house. Looking forward to trying all these snax!
So, a lot of plans have hit the wall, I want my Twitter account back, but I’m a bit crook and also tired and really don’t want to fight with fascists over this. Might just resurrect an alt on Monday and rebuild from there?
In the meantime, it’s probably a good thing I’ve started focusing more on this blog and running my life out of it in some ways – I made a support page with a donation form and my wishlist links for people to support me, I’ll add my other socials into my Contact page today and make sure links from there send people here instead of to a deleted Twitter page.
I have more things I want to write longform on, so maybe this is another nudge towards that? IDK. I’m sad.
You should all subscribe by email to this blog too, so they can’t keep us from each other xox
We got a Marley Spoon meal box last week after trying QuiteLike the week before (back onto Everyplate this week since that’s what my budget allows). A six meal box like this with Marley Spoon is about $125, while the Everyplate I usually get is just below $90 a week. They’re certainly a step though.
Like QuiteLike, the non-chilled ingredients for the meals come bagged by the meal. I said last week that I didn’t really like this, even though it’s good at reducing confusion, I prefer to sort which of the vegetables and dry ingredients go into the cupboard or fridge, while with the bags I end up just putting them into the fridge – taking up more space and chilling items I’d rather work with or store at room temperature. Since it’s winter and my kitchen doesn’t get above 15 degrees, I could have gotten away with keeping them in the cupboard, but there was a cucumber that wasn’t happy when I used it, and it would have been worse without being in the fridge.
Marley Spoon has a mix of their yellow-packet generic items and some branded items, like Birch and Waite aioli and dressing.
“The Cracking Katsu”
The meal cards were easy to understand and there was no inconsistency between stated amounts and the number of items given. They have a thing for sesames seeds it seems to fancy things up a notch.
15-Minute Szechuan Pork Noodles
Five of the six nights I was feeding 3 of us and the meals easily stretched to three for all of those given there was rice and noodles in abundance along with plenty of veges. I’m still happy padding out my Everyplate meals with cheap and free veges to make them stretch to three of us more easily, hoping for some goodies in the $2 Ozharvest bag tomorrow at the local foodbank after they were closed last week.
Garlic-Pepper Beef and Snow pea Stir Fry
The chicken katsu was certainly a favourite – it used mayo instead of an egg to help stick the crumbs on which seemed pretty smart! I also quite liked the pork steaks, but wouldn’t put dressing on the spinach next time, there was already a lot going on with the acidic veges and butter taters.
Teriyaki Pork Mince
“Pickled” veges for a couple of the dishes which worked better than I expected. I’m a fan of salad radishes, but never think to buy them!
South American Beef and Cous CousSweet and Salty Olive Pork Steads with Caper Potatoes
Which of these would you be most likely to try? I rarely get any of the burgers any more and tacos rarely since they’re really made for two, and we usually have three. Also the boys eat a lot of burgers during the week anyway.
I think this must come under unmasking as an Autistic person – making peach with some of my anxiety, especially when it doesn’t actually stop me from doing anything. Like, is my voice shaking? Sorry I mumbled, I’ll repeat myself, did I get my message across clearly this time? Awesome.
Is my foot tapping and knee-bobbing a stim? Does it help the rest of my to focus, or have I had too much Diet Coke and need to get that out somehow? Or, have I been picking at a dry piece of skin or my scalp? That, I want to replace with something else or help calm it down because it actually can lead to other harms. I found that having 40mg of fluoxetine made those picking habits come back, but back on 60mg they’ve eased again. Not sure if that’s the only thing that I changed to make that happen, but the extra meds don’t seem to have harmful effects so I’ll run with it for now. If I notice myself starting to pick I’ll find something else to do with my hands, maybe smash out something here on on Twitter. Turn that nervous energy into words.
I still need to find a good oral stim, I do like chewing on soft drink bottle lids, and it really does bring me comfort. But they’re not always available and I chew them to death then they have to be thrown out. Gum doesn’t seem to be enough for me, it needs more resistance. Pascal Caramels when cold are great too, but since they’re full of sugar I can’t really rely on them.
I’ve been using my under desk pedaller more, working off that need to move while I’m at my desk, especially in this cold weather. A walk is still so good, with its fresh air and sunshine, I miss running but it would take a bit to get my body back into that, especially with some residual injuries that keep nagging at me. We went bike riding on the weekend, that was good, I’m just a bit nervous on it, I did fall off before I even started, but after that I warmed into it. I’m sore though from using different muscles. Which means I need to go again soon.
Here’s a food post, which is good because my political advocacy brain went off last week and I’m tired and it was NOT a good week to try a more intense meal box, and change is hard and the meal box was tasty, but out of my budget, so we won’t get it til the next awesome offer comes through.
So, clicked on an offer somewhere which meant I got four QuiteLike meals for less than the price of six EveryPlate ones, when it’d normally be twice as much. The box arrived while I was out so my partner unpacked it into the fridge – the meats, sauces and yoghurt were in a chill pack, while the rest of the ingredients for the meals were in separate bags for each meal. This is definitely more approachable than them all being together like in the EveryPlate box. It did mean we just put them into the fridge though, whether the ingredients were needing to be chilled or not, as the experience with these boxes is some veges don’t last the week if you don’t. I could have gotten away with them going in the cupboard since it’s winter and my kitchen won’t be above 15 degrees, but no way I’d risk it in summer.
The first meal I made was the Sesame chicken and stir fry veges and rice. The recipe listed two sticks of celery, but as there was one, and it was rather large, I assume that was on purpose. But it threw me a little. Later in the week there was one potato listed but two sent so I used the two. Another thing I ran into was using the wrong sized sachet of sesame oil – probably wouldn’t have done that if I’d unpacked everything, or those had been in the dry ingredients bag since they really didn’t need to be in the fridge?
Look at me prepping ahead! I read and re-read the recipe steps for these, since they were new to me, and I wanted to follow them sat least for the first time. I do take liberties now with the EveryPlate meals as I’ve made some of them so often, or I’m adding in veges to stretch them to three people – These all easily went to three people, which would have annoyed me if I was cooking for two, that’s one of the issues I had with HelloFresh when I was last getting it – most meals were huge servings, easily for three in some cases, good I guess if you want leftovers for lunch the next day, but I have to be expecting that for it to be a good thing for me.
Sesame chicken – yum!
The quality upgrade of the meat was the most noticeable part over the EveryPlate meals. The Chicken Thigh was incredibly juicy and still had bone (though I didn’t cut out all the gristle, sorry Bruce!), and the little vacuum sealed packs were peel open, so less messy. There was paper lining the mince, which I didn’t notice the first pack so fished out of the frypan.
Beef mince biryani
The three-hour musamum beef was a novelty, and very tasty. Again, not the week for me to be doing a three hour meal, but I chose it and it was delish. The fresh ginger for a change in the meals was noticeable over the crushed ginger that usually comes packed with my regular boxes. I should have simmered this down more before serving but it is what it is 🙂
Mussamum beef
I found it odd to pack a portion of cabbage and then list in the ingredients as “1/2 wedge of green cabbage”. I really wasn’t certain what that meant so I just trimmed it and chopped it and threw most of it in. Since I was dishing up for three, extra cabbage wouldn’t help and what else was I gonna do with any leftover? My reckoning is if you’re going to send a certain cut portion of something why ask for less of that? I also didn’t like that I’d had the onion in the fridge, while I was cutting it up, I’m used to it room temp. I’m sure it doesn’t matter but add.
All very “Asian” meals, they do offer more western options but these are what appealed to me. I haven’t ordered a second week, I’m actually doing a Marley Spoon box this week since they also had a coupon that meant 6 of their meals were the same as an Everyplate box, so I’ll let you know how that goes too. Again, the QuiteLike meals are very nice, better quality than the EveryPlate (and they’d better be at the price), but out of my price range for now.
Do you use meal boxes like these? Which is your favourite or suits your family best?
Every week there’s discussion on Twitter about convenience and disability accommodations. You’ve probably put your two cents in without even knowing it on a post ruing how you can buy pre-cut fruit at the supermarket, or on a post about the labor conditions of DoorDash workers. You probably weren’t deliberately ableist, you just come at it from your point of view – home delivered groceries from the majors is a convenience for you, a time saver in this busy world, while for others it’s the only way they can do a grocery shop for whatever reason. That reason isn’t really any of your business, but it could be physical ability to carry groceries, energy sapping disabilities that really can’t prioritise browsing the aisles, sensory difficulties that mean supermarkets are hell on earth, and many more. These are some of the people who can’t just shop at Aldi, no matter any price savings that may come from it.
Other people may DoorDash a meal on a day when they don’t have the energy for cooking, after prioritising other mentally or physically taxing tasks in their spoon allocation. They’re likely well away that the delivery driver isn’t receiving minimum wage, and feel guilty. That driver is possibly also disabled or another minority, eeking out a living in this discriminatory world, taking what work comes their way.
A Twitter contact was denied pre-prepared meals in the NDIS plan. These services tend to be only part-funded even if you do get them, but can mean the difference between subsisting off two minute noodles or having to rely on a $60 an hour NDIS funded support worker to cook for you. This particular person loves to cook and can’t do it any more due to their disability, but instead of accepting this, the OT recommended they get more supports around learning to cook in order to become independent in their cooking. Again, she really wishes she could get back to making meals for herself and even for others but that’s not what life is presenting her, and having to fight the NDIS to acknowledge this and BELIEVE her is also energy-sapping and disheartening.
I was present for my sister’s first NDIS planning meeting this week, and she, like many late-diagnosed AuDHD peeps out there, has a collection of strategies that she uses to get by in this world, that are “ok” but not brilliant and we’re hoping these new supports can help her organise her life into something she thrives in.
Meanwhile, I’m watching and seeing how it goes for her, seeing if medications and therapeutic and other supports actually helps her out before I even consider going down that route for myself. In the meantime I have my own little things in life that people may consider convenience tools but I use to make my life more satisfying and manageable.
One is the meal box delivery services I use, a mainstream tool as an executive functioning aid. I still have to / get to cook meals every night, but I don’t need to get into the planning out of the meals, what and how much of it I need, ensuring what I want makes it home in my shopping, and not having to face the dilemma of what to do if something isn’t available (common for us Aldi shoppers) because I’m there at the wrong time of day. It also makes my actual in-person shops smaller – I mostly buy dairy and eggs or little treats, with extra fruit and veg coming from my foodbank foraging through the week. This means I’m in the store less, get less overwhelmed, and don’t really have to think too much on the spot, I just do the shopping and get out.
I don’t want to just talk about food, but that’s my thing isn’t it? Ever the food blogger, even now. But again what you might see as a treat – seeing a sex worker, having a trip away from your family (or respite stays when you’re caring 24/7 for someone), having a bar fridge next to your workstation – enable you to function and thrive and live your best (disabled) life. If the NDIS doesn’t fund these things, many disabled people (or their carers) won’t have access to them, they will never be a little luxury for them, and they certainly cannot afford to fund many of these things themselves.
So, when you worry about whether something a disabled person is doing or using is necessary, it probably is for them. Unfortunately we’re not at the stage of most disabled people getting to move beyond that, so please watch how you challenge their everyday needs.
