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Hey y'all!

In Episode 2 of my podcast, I’ll be tying in decision fatigue and the invisibility of mental labor. Often, when I’ve made decisions all day, the last thing I want to do is pick what I’m going to eat. Throw an AuDHD kiddo who is an extremely picky eater (who I happily oblige, mind you - this ain't a complaint) into the mix, and I’m standing over the stove six times a day if I’m not careful. I don’t run a short order diner out here in the boonies.

Since I’m a work-at-home momma, I cut corners where I can while still trying to be as healthy as possible.

I often omit beef, pork, and large amounts of dairy from my diet as much as I can since I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). Your mileage may vary if you have it, too, but this is what certainly helps mine. That being said, most of these are chicken, turkey, or seafood-focused.

I know as soon as I post this, this shit's going to go out of stock at my local grocery because it always does. Every time I post recipes, y'all go out and buy up all the ingredients!

Poor Man’s Wedding Soup

When it’s not hot as Satan’s asshole outside or my air conditioner is working extra well on a summer day, I’ll throw some soup in a pot. I eat on it for 2–3 meals and then freeze the rest. My current favorite has the following ingredients:

• 1 can of white navy beans

• Half a bag of Pictsweet Southern Collard Greens

• Half a bag of Great Value turkey meatballs

• Diced chicken breast from a Walmart rotisserie chicken

• Chicken stock

• Onion, garlic, and bay leaves. Salt and pepper, obviously.

Chunk it all in a pot and let it simmer about 20–30 minutes on medium-high. Just make sure if anything was frozen, it’s thawed.

Grilled Chicken Veggie Medley

• 1 bag of Green Giant Garden Vegetable Medley

• Half bag of Great Value grilled chicken

• Onion, olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder

Sauté onion and frozen grilled chicken in olive oil and garlic powder. Salt and pepper as needed, but not too much because the veggies are seasoned already. Steam the veggies in the pot with the chicken according to the package directions.

You can also put all of this in a foil packet and cook it in the air fryer.

Chicken Pasta Bake

• Half a box of Banza pasta, cooked by package instructions (in chicken stock, to feel fancy)

• Frozen grilled chicken

• Mozzarella

• Rao’s pasta sauce (or your sauce of choice)

• Optional: Parmesan, Romano, or an Italian blend

• Optional: Italian seasoning

Cook the pasta by the box’s directions using chicken stock. Once it’s cooked, mix in frozen grilled chicken, mozzarella (to your heart’s content), and any of the optional ingredients if your ancestors tell you to.

Bake it at 425, covered with foil, for 20 minutes. Then take the foil off, add more cheese, and bake until the cheese is melted and starting to brown around the edges.

Turkey Sausage & Cabbage with Onion

• Half a head of chopped cabbage

• Half a white onion

• Sliced turkey kielbasa sausage

• Chicken stock

• Salt, pepper, olive oil

Sauté the sausage in a little bit of olive oil, remove it from the pan, and set aside. Sauté chopped onion and cabbage in the drippings for about 3 minutes. Deglaze the pan with chicken stock (or water if you don’t like flavor), about 2 cups—enough to cook the cabbage down. Add your sausage back in. Cover and simmer for 20–30 minutes until the cabbage is soft to your liking.

Taco Chicken & Rice

• 1 pack of Knorr’s Taco Rice Sides

• Half bag of grilled chicken

• Half can of drained black beans

• Half a packet of Taco Bell taco seasoning

• 2 cups chicken stock (as per the instructions on the rice pouch)

• Optional: Burrito wraps, sour cream, lettuce, cheese, etc.

Bring the stock and rice packet contents to a boil. Once boiling, add in your black beans. I use a spoon to add mine in because I’m too tired to run that shit through a colander and make another dish to wash.

Add in frozen grilled chicken. Cover and simmer for 7 minutes, stirring occasionally.

When it’s done, if you’re feeling froggy, wrap it up in a burrito with cheese, sour cream (or plain Greek yogurt), lettuce, or whatever you want. I usually just put it in a bowl and eat it that way.

Lazy Chicken and Broccoli

• 2 cups broccoli

• 1 ½ cups frozen grilled chicken (roughly—I just reach in and grab a fistful)

• Sesame oil

• Soy sauce

• Chicken stock

• Kikkoman’s Teriyaki Sauce

• Optional: Onion, red pepper, black pepper, ground ginger

Heat a pot with 2 tablespoons of sesame oil. I like Cookwell’s more than any kind I’ve ever tried. It’s pricey, but it lasts forever because a little goes a long way.

Sauté broccoli and chicken for about 1 minute to get it coated in the oil. Add ½ cup of chicken stock to the bottom of the pan to steam the broccoli and chicken. Sprinkle in some soy sauce to give the chicken some color.

When the broccoli is bright green and the chicken is no longer frozen, add in the teriyaki sauce (about 4–6 tablespoons). Simmer for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until the sauce is hot and starts to thicken.

You can add ginger, red pepper, or black pepper at this point. Don’t add the ginger earlier, or it’ll turn bitter from overcooking.

That's It.

These are my go-to’s when I’m just too damn tired to put much thought into it.

If I’m extra lazy, I throw grilled chicken in foil and toss it in the air fryer, then dump it into a bagged salad. Caesar is my favorite. You can also make good wraps out of that if you don’t want to eat a whole salad.

Also, not all of these are extremely low carb. Your brain needs carbs, or else you become an asshole. Ask me how I know.

If you’re still not sure what to cook from this list, send it to a friend who has the bandwidth and ask them to help you decide. Another one of my tricks is to put all the options into a roulette wheel and spin that bitch.

Leave a comment or message me on the socials to let me know which one of these you’ve tried. Or hell, give me your own, and I’ll try it out.

Talk to ‘ya.

In case you’re not following me on my personal Facebook, here’s a rant I posted after seeing gym-fluencers shit on people for using GLP-1s.

Personally, I’m sick of it and there’s a lot of stigma that just needs to die. Mean girl and Ugly in High School Behavior being carried out to knock other people down for trying to save themselves is not cute. I stopped going to the gym because of being made fun of so now I work out at home. It shouldn’t have been like that in the first place, but I still lose weight nonetheless. 

But here’s my take on it.

The best clapback I have heard in relation to gym-fluencers shitting on plus size people for doing what they need to do to lose weight, since they just think we're lackadaisical binge eating cows:

"Your genetics have served you, your brain has not."

I need people to start doing scholarly research put out by scientists and clinicians working in the field every day before listening to these mean girl children in adult bodies on social media.

I cried real actual tears when I told my nutritionist I wasn't binge eating but hadn't lost any more weight. She looked at my medical history, extensive food and exercise logs, my body composition scans, my low blood pressure and heart rate, and said, "I believe you." It was the first medical professional to ever believe me.

I used to run 4 miles a day. Two miles at 4:30 AM before a 13 1/2 hour shift and 2 miles at 7:30 PM after it. Every day, obsessively. I was well over 300 lbs when I did it. Macros were my religion and I could not drop the weight. Just because someone is fat does not mean they are binging and lazy. Let me introduce you to chemical imbalances, poly cystic ovarian syndrome, lymphedema, metabolic syndrome, perimenopause, and an entire host of other conditions that affect weight that don't have a flippin' thing to do with binge eating.

Big folks are damned if they do, damned if they don't. The shaming around weight loss methodologies supported by nutritionists, dietitians, and obesity centric medical practitioners needs to stop. I eat healthy, move my body, and I pay out of pocket for a shot every month. It's the only thing that's made the weight finally start coming off again after a 3 year stint of solid consistency doing everything I was told to do by medical professionals. And if some little girl parading around in Lulu Lemon she bought with daddy's money has a problem with it or an opinion about it, she can kiss my ass. I'm trying to stay alive for my little boy. Nothing else matters but that.

Hey, y'all!

I'm recording Episode 5 this week and it should be out next Tuesday!

I'll be inviting Circe to come speak with me about her personal transformation and the work she did to achieve it. She's one of the fastest growing witches I've ever seen and she's overall just an extremely amazing woman. I trust her with my life and I know y'all will love her, too. 

If for some reason, the stars don't align and I can't record with her, I'll pull something else out of my ass to talk about.

Thanks for your patience as we I close out this crazy summer.

- M

Episode 2: Decision Fatigue and the Invisibility of Mental Labor: How I Handle it with Soft Structure

This week, we’re talking about decision fatigue and the invisible weight of mental labor. You know, all the shit nobody sees but somehow still needs to get done.

I’m breaking down how I manage it without breaking myself in the process, using what I call the Soft Structure method: a flexible, ADHD-friendly planning system that helps me be honest about my energy while taking care of my responsibilities.

We'll get into:

• Why decision fatigue is real as hell and what happened when I ignored it.

• What mental labor looks like and how to bring it to light.

• The nitty gritty of my Soft Structure method and how to make it work for you

• How to get the printable version of the Soft Structure guide.

• How to use things like body doubling and the modified Pomodoro method to keep from getting lost in the sauce.

Mentioned in this episode:

⁠The Honeyman Method video⁠: the original inspiration that went alongside one of my therapy appointments to help me build my version. ⁠Download the Soft Structure Planner PDF⁠: totally free, editable in Canva or easy to print/use digitally. ⁠
Memberships & Perks⁠: How to get early access, behind-the-scenes, and random content from me. Before everybody else.
⁠Members Only Feed⁠: The place where my subscribers can tap in directly to access the good stuff they paid for.

A huge thank you to my Onyx & Raven members: Nikki H., Kelsey W., RK Garrett, Coney Ham, Chelseaavert, & Ceruleanfirefly 🖤 

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/alamance/evaporate
License code: WGPWQMXO9NMD10FU

I finally got the listing up for Members Only Tarot Readings!

Instad of $150, they're $45. Can't beat that with a stick, honey. 

Grab yours here.