On the road to somewhere: Jan. 13, 2008 - Thoughts and Christmas Knitting

As I have mentioned before, I am having a hard time keeping up with the blog - everyday I think about the things I could write in my blog, everyday I feel a twinge of guilt thinking about writing on my blog, instead of writing to my friends directly. On top of this dilemma, making time to do either is difficult. But writing in this blog is important to m - e - I have never kept a journal for more than a handful of days. And I have kept up with (to varying degrees) this blog for a year. I like being able to look back over the past year and see the things I made, the thoughts I had, the events, the challenges, the changes.

So - what to do.
First. - spend about 20 minutes at the end of each day writing on the blog. This does not seem like too big of a time commitment, but enough time to write. Second - on Tuesday and Saturday, allow myself to write a longer post if I want. Third - do not feel guilty about not meeting one and 2.

Update on Eating Resolutions:
We made it one week without eating out. Due to spending a bit too much at Christmas, we have severely curtailed our food budget for the rest of January. Thus, we are eating through the food we have in the pantry. I am hoping that by the end of the month most of the highly processed foods we do have will be gone. And in Feb. will be the big push to replace those items with "whole" foods, organic foods, local foods etc.

Another development - we got a new stove/oven this week. When we returned from New Year's at my in-laws, our oven was not working. The landlord replaced it (one of the great benefits of renting). It is just a basic stove/oven unit - but it is clean and it works. So I may do some baking this week. But I discovered I need to by both baking soda and powder.

Food Plans:
Honey and Feta Flat Bread
Soak and Cook Black beans in the slow-cooker. This is in an effort to reduced the amount of canned beans we eat (which are really high in sodium). I have been cooking more beans in the crockpot.
Balsamic Lentils and Potatoes

We currently have a lot of pasta in the pantry, but my husband does not like tomato based sauces, neither of us are fond of mushrooms, and I just cannot bring myself to buy basil in the store to make pesto. Any suggestions for other pasta sauces? We did make home-made macaroni and cheese on Friday.

I am also in the planning stages of our garden for the summer. Since we are renting, I am questioning how much effort I want to put into making garden beds vs. planting vegetables and herbs in containers. Next time, I will share my list of plants I want to grow so far.

Finally, today, I want to share the rest of my Christmas knitting.
A hat for my aunt.