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.