About a week ago I got back from a family trip to California. I met my parents and sister in LA and we went from there to Irvine and San Diego together. It was a great trip.

While we were there though, my mother discovered JSwipe on my phone. For those of you who don’t know what JSwipe is, it’s essentially like Tinder, but for Jews. It’s location-based dating app and also has the same, swipe right to like, swipe left to dislike technology.

Well my mother loves to gamble, specifically she loves slot machines. So for her, “playing” JSwipe is like playing the slots. You swipe right on enough people then maybe you’ll get a “Mazel Tov” and a match. Now, I tried to explain to her that since it’s location based she’s only seeing men in California, but that didn’t stop my mother, “You could move,” “Long distance isn’t that hard.”

Then she starts “playing” my JSwipe for my sister. “This guy is 24, a little too young for you, Michelle, but he would be great for your sister! I’ll like him.” I also tried to explain that it’s just connected to my profile, but that didn’t seem to go through either.

One really positive thing did come out of this “game” though. My parents are beginning to understand how shallow, vain, and difficult it is to date in your twenties in the 21st century. Dating is now all based on a single picture, well at most five REALLY good pictures of you. We, as in my generation, aren’t meeting each other at bars or work or volunteer groups anymore, we’re doing it all online, and we’re constantly looking past the person we’re on a date with to see if there’s someone better. I include myself in this. It isn’t easy finding someone that you want to spend the rest of your life with, let alone someone you want to “swipe right” on for the rest of your life.

While I don’t think this new discovery on dating will change the way that my parents pester me about being single, but it may help them understand a little bit better why that first date didn’t turn into a second.

So I’m probably one of the LAZIEST people that you’ll ever meet, but this is a problem when you’re trying to live a healthier lifestyle and lose weight because in order to do so it’s suggested that you work out.

That’s part of the reason why I started training for a half marathon because I was hoping that having an actual workout goal would help me get my act together. I also hired a trainer, another attempt to get my ass in check.

Anywho, to the recipe–I want to make healthy foods but also don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen. I also try to bring my lunch to work everyday, so this is where the slow cooker comes in. I literally dump everything into this pot, turn it on low, run around and take care of all my errands, come back several hours later and I’ve got my lunches for the week.

This week I made slow-cooker chicken tortilla soup. The recipe is below but here is what it looks like when it’s all done and delicious (plus it has a topping of tortilla chips so what could be bad!!!).

Ingredients:

1 can black beans, drained and washed

1 chicken breast (you can use more but I’m only one person)

1 can fire-roasted diced tomatoes

Half a jar of salsa (I used Trader Joe’s Salsa Authentica)

1 cup of frozen corn

1 tsp. Cumin

Pinch Cayenne (or more depending on how spicy you like it)

1 tsp. Chili powder

Half of an onion, diced

1 tsp. Garlic powder

Vegetable broth (preferably low sodium) to cover

Salt and Pepper to taste

Top with: crumbled tortilla chips (my preference) or sour cream, Greek yogurt, cheese, WHATEVER

So here’s what you do: Open the cans, and throw everything into a slow-cooker. Put on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-8 hours (mine was ready in 7 hours on low). Then take your chicken breast out of the slow cooker and shred it with two forks. Put the chicken back into the slow cooker and ENJOY!! Literally it’s that easy to eat healthy.

If someone as lazy as myself can eat healthy like this than you can too!!!

One of the healthy activities I took on BEFORE the New Year was signing up for a half marathon in April.

Now to accompany that I’ve tried to adjust my eating habits to go along with the running thing.

I’m a carb whore and a fried food whore and a salty food whore. I basically just like things that are bad for you. So what I’m trying to do to combat that is make the foods I love but with the healthier substitutions so that I don’t really miss the fat.

This weekend I was hardcore craving spaghetti and meatballs. Now that’s not the WORST thing in the world you can eat but definitely not the best. What I did is mixed ground turkey with ground beef (healthy healthy) and then used whole wheat spaghetti instead of regular pasta. Simple adjustments.

What I realized though as I was eating this dinner, and let me say for most people this may seem like common sense, was that you can eat as healthy as you want but if you don’t portion control you’re SOL (that means “shit out of luck” for you newbs).

With this new realization in mind I need to make over more than my meals. I need to make over the way I eat completely. Stay tuned for how that goes…

So I’ve historically been TERRIBLE at keeping a blog, but I’ve decided to give a second or third shot. I’m trying to make this year one where I focus on me: cooking and eating things I love, getting back into fighting shape by training for a half-marathon, and writing about my experiences being a Midwest-transplant in NYC.