Perfect Pantry

It's been a goal of mine for a long time to organize my pantry. I mean really organize it. I'm a bit of an organizing freak...and pantries have been a particular obsession of mine for awhile now. Okay, so maybe it doesn't say much about me that when I have some time to spare I google "perfect pantry", and "organized pantry" and oooh and aaah over the results. Perhaps it's downright pathetic to spend over an hour in the Container Store evaluating and selecting just the right containers for my own pantry. But, that's me. It hit me after Christmas that I wanted to completely organize my house...again. So I've been contenting myself with going through cupboards and drawers purging and organizing the heck out of every last material posession. But I must admit there was special satisfaction when it came time to do the pantry. Oh...should the diced tomatoes go with canned goods or with tomato products? Should the kosher salt go with spices or with seasonings? How many varieties of dried beans must one possess before one could be considered obsessed with the little legumes? Anyway, it was bliss. I spent the day purging, containerizing, labeling, and enjoyed every moment of it.
I'm very happy with the results. I swear I can hear the Hallalujah Chorus every time I open those pantry doors! Most importantly, my new, organized pantry will help me stick to my diet goals since I got rid of the bad stuff and now I can easily locate the healthy stuff. And let's face it...it just looks cool...it would do Martha or Ina Garten proud. Now on to my bedroom closet!

Comfort Food

It was cold yesterday and I wanted something warm and comforting, and when I opened the fridge staring back at me was a cabbage that needed to be used sooner rather than later. I considered stuffed cabbage rolls but had a package of turkey sausage that I was hoping to use up at the same time, so either soup or a casserole came to mind. The casserole won. It was embarassingly easy - a quick saute of the cabbage (in water or broth to keep the fat contect nil) and then dumped it into a casserole dish. Quartered Yukon Gold's came next - a quick boil before being added just to make sure they would cook through. Then I removed the sausage from its casing and chopped it into bite-sized chunks before browning it in a drizzle of olive oil, then into the casserole dish on top of the potatoes went the sausage. I gave the whole thing a grind of pepper and added a little broth to keep it moist and juicy. I sprinkled the entire thing with a decent dose of kosher salt, then I covered with foil and popped in a 400 oven for about an hour (my oven was not pre-heated so if you pre-heat it would take less oven time). It wasn't fancy and it wasn't difficult at all to put together, but it tasted good especially served with my favorite grainy mustard, and there was no-guilt afterwards.

My challenge for 2009 is to be consistent with the small changes, and to stop considering myself and/or my diet a failure when my grandiose plans fall flat. Last night's dinner was a small step, but a good one. It was healthy and fortifying but nothing extreme. I tend to want to develop very stringent plans for myself that last all of about a day, because after all who wants to eat steamed cauliflower with flax for dinner? It's time to get real about my plan and about my goals. Perfection is no longer the objective and oh, what a relief! Success is no longer going to be defined by reaching 115 pounds, or else I'm a failure. Losing 20 or 30 pounds would be great, and would be a huge boost to my health. So for now I'm aiming to be healthy, not skinny, and being healthy means I need to drop some pounds. So I will, and I'll do it one day...no, one meal...at a time. Sounds pretty simple to the average person, but to those of us addicted to food, our emotional selves need to become in synch with our intellectual selves. Sure, we know intellectually what we should eat and what is ideal for our bodies nutrition-wise, but our choices don't always reflect that knowledge. Coming just a little bit closer to DOING what I KNOW is a change I am going to work really hard to make.

New Year's Resolutions

When last we left our heroine (woman in distress...this is not a substance abuse post) she was blogging on and on about her diet, but alas she was seduced by a whirlwind of holiday goodies that held her hostage and forbade her from blogging or worse...gasp...losing weight. But she's back. On track. And ready to make 2009 the Year of the Bikini. Oh sure, that's unthinkable right now...but come July or August...a bikini could be a possibility.

But it's a new year and I've been thinking, as I often do in new year's. This isn't just a weight loss story...it's a food story. It's about my philosophy about food, my thoughts about food, my approach to food. And I want to make some changes this year in those areas. My goal for 2009 isn't going to just be losing weight, but also to eat a more locally grown, sustainable, and seasonal menu. I would like to remove processed foods from my family's diet to the largest degree possible, and to replace them with as much made-from-scratch food as time and motivation allow.

The reasons for this aren't just health-related, although that's certainly a worthy goal. But I'm also looking at this from a budget viewpoint and the desire to increase the simplicity of our lives. I relish the thought of teaching my daughter to make homemade applesauce in the fall and jam when there is a bumper crop of strawberries at our local farmer's market in the summer. These aren't things that have to come from a jar, and I'm betting there will be a great deal of satisfaction that comes about from making them ourselves, not to mention that eating seasonally is also good for one's health and one's pocketbook.

And so, these are a few of the areas I would like to focus on as I cut calories throughout 2009. I would like to choose smaller portions of delicious, healthy seasonal food as opposed to larger portions of processed foods that are not as healthy as they should be. Sounds like a challenge, hey?