behold, food mountain!

so i was just doing that new year’s resolutiony thing over at broke207, and i declared that this year i was resolved to PAY ATTENTION! being my money blog, i was specifically talking about paying attention to my personal finances. however, i have decided that PAY ATTENTION! is a good overarching resolution for my whole life. saving money or losing weight are great goals, but if i can just learn to be more vigilant and take more time and care with my life in general, i have high hopes that it will pay off in all areas.  i also find that when making my goals too specific (lose 30 lbs! save $10,000! read a book a week!), i am too easy to hurl them out the window the second that my path from A to B becomes less than perfect.  so this year, no expectations. just watching and observing my life- national geographic style to see what’s really going on.

on the diet angle, i am stuffed to the gills with holiday cheer (primarily in the form of cookies and gravy). i weighed in this morning at a not stellar 163.8, after holding steady at 159 for weeks!  not surprising, considering the ENTIRE BOX OF WHEAT THINS i ate for dinner last night. can you say SALT BLOAT? but now that the holidays are over (and there isn’t another food bearing holiday until valentine’s day), i’m ready to start eating like a human being once again. but back to PAYING ATTENTION! every now and again, i go nuts and make food for an entire month in 1 day. 15 hours of my new year’s day were spent doing this seductive cooking dance, and the end result was both kitchen armageddon, AND the following foodables (neatly packed in to my uber anal freezer):

2 french onion soup (who needs beef stock!? this vegetarian times recipe is SPOT ON)

2 veggie chili (obviously minus the turkey, i also nix the celery and the red pepper, add a can of corn and a can of green chiles, and throw in a diced green pepper at the end so it’s still got a little snap to it).

2 veggie fried rice (soy, sesame oil, butter, and whatever veggies were left over)

4 shepherds pies (if you mix butter & a-1 sauce with morningstar meat crumbles, it makes the perfect shepherds pie base!)

2 mushroom stroganoff (i used real sour cream and gardein beefless tips instead of seitan- SO DELICIOUS! hopefully will still be good after cryogenic sleep)

4 veggie & cheese calzones (with leftover ricotta & veggies)

16 ricotta & spinach stuffed shells (i big container ricotta, 1 package of frozen spinach- well drained, 1/2 cup grated parmesean, 1 tbsp oregano, and fresh minced garlic and salt & pepper to taste).

20 asian faux pork meatballs (i used sausage flavor gimmie lean & steamed them- so tasty!)

40 tofu & veggie dumplings (i’ve heard tofu doesn’t freeze well… but it’s alton- i had to at least try!)

16 lemon poppyseed mini muffins (i used greek yogurt & a little extra lemon juice to phenomenal results!)

20 cornbread mini muffins

22 apricot & cranberry granola bars (easy, tasty, and you can add whatever you want)

making a mountain of easily accessible food might seem counter intuitive to the diet cause, but i did something that i hope will turn out to be totally brilliant. i didn’t just divide out my meals into reasonable  portions, i also labeled them with calorie counts. it isn’t that i’m intending to do any hardcore calorie counting (which always makes me crazy), it’s just that on the PAY ATTENTION! front, being confronted with that number when i reach into the bag/box/jar for a second bear claw full could elicit the moment of pause i need to back away and rethink what i’m about to do.

will it work? maybe not. but what i have been doing ISN’T WORKING, and i’m ready to let go of the shame and self loathing method of portion control, and try something a little gentler.

are new year’s resolutions for suckers?