Wow, 2011 and resolutions

I can't believe I've been away so long. It's been nice, but busy. I've done a lot of sewing and baking. I've spent tons of time with the kids and of course there's work and just every day life. I hope all has been well with you all and that 2011 brings you all that you hope for.
Well, 2010 is almost behind us and 2011 await, bright and shiny, full of promise. I'm excited about my future. I have lots of plans.
Fitness wise, I'm going to recommit myself to eating mindfully and getting in regular exercise. It's been a challenge, but I think I've found a remedy and have no more excuses not to get moving. I'm running a 5K tomorrow so I think that's a great way to kick this off.
Craft wise I'm going to make 2011 the year that I focus on sewing for me. I love beautiful clothes but often find myself wearing my uniform of jeans and tshirts. I want to kick it up a notch. I want to work on tailoring and fitting clothes. Maybe I'll take a class or maybe I'll just crack a book. Either way I want to sew more for myself. I also want to get a jump on my holiday sewing. I've found that I do enjoy quilting, but I'm incredibly slow and if I want to have all the quilts I have planned finished in any reasonable amount of time I'm either going to need to sew faster or start earlier. Since I've never been about speed I guess I'll have to get a jump on it. I want to make quilts for several family members and also a couple for me. I want to do a few table runners, maybe a wall hanging or two. Well, see. I also want to finish knitting "The February Lady Sweater". It will probably take me all year,lol. Mainly though, I want to use what I have. I have a lot of fabric and as tempting as it is to purchase all the new stuff, I need to resist and sew from my stash.
Frugality, I need to embrace this. Less really is more. Sometimes when you have so much it's difficult to appreciate what you have and I never want to take anything for granted. Less consumerism in every aspect of my life.
Family, I want to continue to try to be the best parent I can and to pay attention to what each member needs. I want to be loving, gentle and kind.
That's alot and should keep me busy well into 2012...and beyond!

Priorities

You may have noticed that lately I haven't been the faithful blogger I once was. My life has changed so much in the last year and along with it, so have my priorities. I still love to craft and cook. In fact I find myself doing it even more lately. What I find though is I don't have as much time to document my various projects. I want to keep my blog going since it's a great way to keep a record of the things I've done (when I remember to post pictures). I've also met some amazing people through the world of blogging. I just don't want to feel the pressure to have to blog anymore. So, I will be retiring my Monday meal feature. Oh, I'll still share recipes from time to time, of course. I'll still post about my crafting too, I just am going to be honest and say that I don't have to ability to do it all and for now blogging is going to be less of a priority. I hope that you all will still stop by occassionally and see how I'm doing, I'll still be here.

Monday's Meal

In an effort to scale back on my dining out expenditures, I have been trying to cook more takeout style food at home. It's cheaper and healthier. Here's a do at home version of Asian Lettuce recipes.


16 Boston Bibb or butter lettuce leaves
1 pound lean ground pork (or beef)
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
2 teaspoons minced pickeled ginger
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 (8 ounce) can water chestnuts, drained and finely chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
2 teaspoons Asian (dark) sesame oil
shredded carrots for topping

Directions
Rinse whole lettuce leaves and pat dry, being careful not tear them. Set aside.
In a medium skillet over high heat, brown the ground beef in 1 tablespoon of oil, stirring often and reducing the heat to medium, if necessary. Drain, and set aside to cool. Cook the onion in the same pan, stirring frequently. Add the garlic, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, ginger and vinegar to the onions, and stir. Stir in chopped water chestnuts, green onions, and sesame oil, and continue cooking until the onions just begin to wilt, about 2 minutes.
Arrange lettuce leaves around the outer edge of a large serving platter, and pile meat mixture in the center. To serve, allow each person to spoon a portion of the meat into a lettuce leaf. Wrap the lettuce around the meat and top with carrots, enjoy!


Sauce for dipping
1 tsp seasame oil
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp chili paste
Mix together in blender and serve.

Monday's Meal

Here's a recipe for you to put in a jar and give as a gift. Not only is tasty, but it looks pretty too.

Cranberry Hootycreeks

5/8 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions
Layer the ingredients in a 1 quart or 1 liter jar, in the order listed.

Attach a tag with the following instructions: Cranberry Hootycreeks 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper. 2. In a medium bowl, beat together 1/2 cup softened butter, 1 egg and 1 teaspoon of vanilla until fluffy. Add the entire jar of ingredients, and mix together by hand until well blended. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets. 3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until edges start to brown. Cool on baking sheets, or remove to cool on wire racks.

Monday's Meal

For the past several years I've made a point to focus on the less is more philosophy during the holidays and beyond. I've also tried to use my love of crafting to spread that belief among my friends and families. This year I've been doing less knitting and more sewing, but all the same I'll still be doing a fair bit of handcrafted gifts this year. One of my favorite gifts to hand out is "mixes in a jar". Love them! I'm going to share one of my favorites that makes the base for a ton of delicious chocolate desserts. This recipe will yield 15 cups of mix, enough for several jars to gifts for the holiday. Over the next few weeks I'll share several recipes that you can use this brownie mix in. It makes it so special to attach a hand written recipe card to the jars and share them with those you care about during the holidays.

Brownie Mix

6 cups all-purpose
4 tsp baking powder
4 tsp salt
8 cup sugar
1 can of unsweetened cocoa powder

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, whisking together until evenly mixed. Store in airtight containers. Be sure to date content. Store in a cool, dry place and use within 12 weeks.

Friday's Fitness Wrapup

What to report? Not much. Holding steady. Still needing to figure out the exercise/life thing. I've been seriously considering dropping my gym membership. I will probably make a decision by the first of the year. Don't think I'm giving up on exercise. It's just that everything I keep reading talks about walking being the perfect inexpensive do anywhere workout and I'm thinking that's just what I should do. Except I like variety. So, I'm going to give myself the time to decide what works best for me. The cool thing about the Y is that you can rejoin without too much fuss or muss. Otherwise I'm doing better about snacking. Still need to find time to drink more water.
I'm a work in progress. I'm still 20 lbs from my goal. But, perhaps I'll make it there in 2011.

Friday's Fitness Wrapup

It's been a few weeks since I posted one. I guess from that you can guess either I haven't been focusing on fitness or I've been overwhelmingly busy. I have to confess it's a bit of both, sort of. I've been focusing more on getting my diet back on track and getting into a good routine with my new schedule. I'm a creature of habit and love my routine, so the last couple months have been huge for me. I'm working on it though. Also I sometime feel with diet and exercise I can only focus on doing one thing really well and for now I've been spending some time on the food thing. I feel like in my daily life I get a bit of moderate exercise just by the sheer fact of my occupation and lifestyle. Of course I want it to be more high intensity, but I'll get there. One thing at a time. So, I've been spending a bit of time refocusing and reconnecting with why I eat, what I eat and when I eat. I've also checked in with Dr. Beck's book (she of the think like a thin person philosophy). I've been making efforts to pack a healthy lunch with healthy snacks. Drink my water and such. It's a process. Once I feel like I've gotten firmly back in the saddle I can shift my focus to intensifying my workouts. For now, I'll count on my pedometer for a reference as to how active I really am. I guess the real point is to stay mindful and focused so that's what I'm doing.