Hard to believe the first week of the new year is already in the books. I am proud to say that both my step-son and I are going strong with the no alcohol. I have to think it’s easier for me because I am not in my 20s with an active social life of going out like he does, so I am just as proud of him that he’s sticking with this goal. But he’s a lot like his Dad in that way. If Tony decided to go low carb, I couldn’t sway him to eat a bite of pasta or a piece of bread to save my life.
But here’s an interesting thing that’s happened this week. My night time snacking is back. I blame the Chex Mix my Aunt and my brother Charlie sent me. I am kidding (sort of) but it seemed if I had a drink in my hand I didn’t even think of snacking after dinner, and now that it’s off the table, my snacking has come back with a vengeance. I thought about it hard last night, and I think subconsciously I think that I can eat more because I am not consuming any extra calories of wine, but what good is that if I just replace the wine calories with extra food calories?!
So it’s baby steps. I’ve acknowledged the problem, the Chex Mix is now gone (it was delicious by the way!) (and go check out my brothers resolution post) and I just need to focus a bit more. Done and done.
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Wednesday night I came home after the gym and Hannah had my kitchen torn apart. All my spices were out, baking supplies, etc. It basically drives Hannah nuts how I keep my kitchen unorganized. If I use the cinnamon I will just put it back in the closest cabinet to me, whether or not it actually “belongs” there. Only one tiny problem. I was hungry! By that time I already had close to 15k steps, and I just wanted to get bizzy in my kitchen to get dinner going. But I could see the look in Hannah’s face that I wasn’t going to start cooking until we got it all straightened out.
It seriously took less than 15 minutes after that to throw out shit I don’t use, put the stuff I don’t use that often on the top shelves, and put the stuff I use most on a lazy susan in my cabinet next to the stove. I was told unequivocally that under no circumstances was I to add a single seasoning to that lazy susan!
So we finally eat around 7:45, I really want to get my comfy clothes on and watch American Idol, but Hannah said “okay, now we are moving on to the pantry!” Ugh. I wasn’t feeling it, but when Hannah has her cleaning/organizing pants on, you better just buckle up for the ride.
I love her to death, but her slight OCD and Type A personality can drive me crazy. Case in point. Well, I have too many canned goods in her opinion. She said that I am not allowed to buy and beans or green beans in the near future! But here’s the thing. I’d be sorting through the canned goods and handing them to her to put back, when she realized she had one too many cans of beans and green beans to fit her organization – you see it had to go a row of green beans, rows of beans, THEN start with canned fruits. I saw a spot behind a can of mandarin oranges and said “just put the green beans there” and you would have thought I told her to take her clothes off and run around the house naked.
But an hour and a half later, this was the end result. And to avoid another hour and a half session of cleaning out the pantry, I am going to do my best to keep it this clean!
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You all know I love my beef, pork, etc., but I decided this year to have at least one vegetarian meal a week to give my body a break. And to make Hannah happy. I decided to make falafel, and while I usually buy tzatziki sauce from my local beef stand for .50 cents a container on my way home (great idea by the way – you buy just what you need and don’t have to throw out a whole container that makes its way to the back of your fridge only to let it get moldy and you throw it out a month later. Um, not sure how I know this!)
I made this falafel recipe and this naan recipe – both I’ve made before but as I was putting my naan bread together, I forgot that this particular recipe called for an hour rise. Damnit. But I figured what the hell – so I went ahead with the recipe first and let it sit on the counter for about 20 minutes before working on it while I put the falafel and green sauce together.
Since I didn’t have tzatziki, I wanted to make a tahini sauce. Um, turns out I had an unopened bottle of tahini in my pantry that I didn’t even know I had! A quick Pinterest search for tahini sauce brought me to this sauce – but when I first read it I read “spicy green tahini sauce” not “spiced.” I put it together minus the fenugreek, because who the heck ever has that spice in their arsenal, Hannah and I tasted it and well, we thought it was a bit – flat. Not spicy enough, and a bit to tahini-y. So we tweaked it until we got it exactly the way we wanted it.
I cooked just enough naan for dinner, then finished off the batch after dinner. I have thoughts of making naan breakfast pizza for breakfast. Each one is only 119 calories, and while the quick preparation doesn’t make them as fluffy as when I let the dough sit for an hour, the flavor is still amazeballs.
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So in the spirit of 2016, I started writing down things that I want to do this year. Not sure I’ll do them all, and I am sure the list will change from time to time, but for now I have a few that are high on the list. The first one is going back to Austin for a visit. That’s happening in March. My DIL has so many foodie places she wants to take me and I really want to learn to hula hoop from her – she’s amazing at it. I’ll also be meeting up with my long time blog friend Shelley sometime during that week! So excited to cross that one off my bucket list!
The other thing that was high on my list was hot yoga. Only problem is that the closest studio that had it was 45 minutes away and the only class that fit my schedule was at 7:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Now my wine friends, you know you would never get up at to be somewhere at 7:00 on a Saturday!
So just for shits and giggles I googled “hot yoga near me” and lo and behold there is a new studio that opened 15 minutes from my house. Their 8:45 class is an hour and fifteen minutes long, and because I am a newcomer, the cost was only $10 for my first session. I am really looking forward to it! And since wine is off the table, I’ll probably be awake at 7 a.m. raring to go!
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I hope you have an amazing weekend, and that you are sticking with your goals that you set, or readjusting them as you see fit. I am happy with how my year is going so far, and while I have more work to do, I am perfectly happy with where I am at.
See you on Monday! Until then, stalk me on Instagram (my bizzy kitchen). Hugs!
Hannah and I would get along perfectly, I’m just like her. I can’t stand it when my cabinets are a mess.
I think I’m going to follow your idea of one vegetarian meal a week. I had onion soup with mustard bread yesterday so that was a coincidence it was vegetarian but I need to pay more attention to it. Eating meat every day isn’t necessary. Now if I only like fish more, I could eat that once a week too.
OOH…look forward to hearing how you like hot yoga. Have a great weekend Vat.
I just had to say that I do have fenugreek in my cupboard, and actually have two jars of the stuff somehow, haha!
You have a big pantry, mine is angled and weird and hard to see anything. I have had that sauce pinned since it was printed in the magazine. It looks great, too bad J would not touch falafel with a 10ft pole.
I was going to say there was no way J would eat that! Make it for yourself – I’ll let you know how long it keeps! 😀
It must be hard for both you and Hannah to co-exist in the same house at times; I’m a super-organized person and absolutely get where she’s coming from, but I can also see that when it’s not a priority for you, it must be challenging to have to go along with it…still, I like how nice your pantry looks now! 🙂
Can’t wait for March and to meet up with you!!!
Yes it is – case in point. I was making dinner last night – mind you, I had three things going on – making naan dough, brought the blender out for the sauce, had the food processor out AND the deep fryer. I went to reach for something and I looked and Hannah had already put half of the stuff away already 😛
Can’t wait for March too! 😀
Well I’m not the jealous person, not at all but now I am 🙂 But also so excited for you both.
I despise hot yoga (I like regular yoga) but I encourage everyone to try it at least once! I could have yoga so cheap if I liked hot yoga because my boss owns a hot yoga studio. Oh well.
I was just telling someone today that I prefer not to drink most of the time because I like to get up and get a workout done. Even one glass of wine and I seem to drag a bit.
That makes me a bit nervous to hear, but maybe I’ll like it? I figure for $10 bucks its worth a shot.
Well, you get up so early too Helen – that makes a difference too!
You are trying hot yoga? OMG, I think I would rather gnaw my own leg off. I hate being sweaty and I have zero coordination, so I am pretty sure that would be the end of me. Can’t wait to hear how it goes, though!
Well, I don’t mind being sweaty, but I have zero coordination too, so it should be interesting. I told my friend I was doing it and she said she tried it, and when she was having trouble with a pose, the teacher tapped her on the shoulder and said “you can rest on your mat if you like.” She ended up sleeping for 30 minutes! 😀
I drive my family nuts because I am not in the least bit oganized. I have good intentions, but my kitchen cabinets are a mess most of the time.
Glad I am not alone Kim!!
Sorry to hear you’re all out of Chex Mix. I’ll get a fresh batch out to you ASAP.
Ha – no thanks! I’ll wait until next December thank you very much – but I have to say, I liked yours better than Aunt Martha’s this year – yours was spicier 😀 That didn’t stop me from eating hers too though!