A Simple Meal

Top Ramen, yogurt, and an apple. This was the usual meal I made for myself in my "struggling artist days." Sometimes I miss it. It was simple, affordable, filling, and nutritious (if you don't count the MSG in the ramen flavor packet, and the fact that the ramen noodles were fried). I loved eating cold cereal late at night, too, three or four bowls full, right before going to bed. I swear it gave me more energy the next morning.

I didn't cook much in my early twenties. I mostly just warmed things up. I almost never bought meat, so I never really had to cook. I wasn't vegetarian back then, meat was just too expensive. I ate a lot of fast food hamburgers, too.

I remember these simple meals fondly because I was eating them when I was going to dance classes almost every night, and to various dance auditions, waiting for that first big break that would grant me the status of a working dancer, a paid dancer. Those simple meals represent the days when I was dreaming of becoming a Real Dancer.

Even though I can afford more groceries and better meals, now, I miss those meals a little, and those days. I still save money where I can, including taking my lunch to work five days a week. I'll usually chop up a MorningStar veggie patty and scramble that with eggs. And I still include yogurt and fresh fruit with my lunch.

I'm not struggling as much as I used to, financially, just struggling as a novice writer, attempting to get a first novel written. Maybe I'll look back fondly on my take-to-work lunches, too, some day.