Monday, December 31, 2007

2008 Food Goals

Well, here is this next year's list. We'll see how we do. Some I plan to concentrate on more than others, and I admit that I had a difficult time coming up with 10 specific goals, but we'll see how I do.

1. Focus more on Flexitarian eating. What do I mean by that? I mean that instead of cooking a meat or protein as the focus of my meals, and then planning around that, I want to focus more on the vegetables and the whole grains. I want the meat part of the meal to become the side dish, and the vegetables, grains, and fruits to be the stars. I have several posts in mind for the near future to explore this further.

2. Continue learning about Indian food. I am so in love with Indian food. But I would love to go deeper and explore the different regions of India and the different types of cuisine to go with.

3. Source my meat locally. Although I want to take the focus off the meat at the dinner table, the meat we do have I want it to be top-notch and local. We have several options here in the area, and I hope to give each one a try and then share that information for those of you reading from nearby. Maybe we can do this one together!

4. Make homemade Angel food cake. I never have. I don't even have the right pan to do so, but there is nothing like homemade angel food cake, and it's about time I learned how to do it.

5. Garden, Garden, Garden! My garden should be featured more prominently come garden season. This year I plan to try many new-to-me vegetables and varieties. I literally cannot wait, as the seed catalogs have begun pouring in and it's going to be very difficult to pick just a few things to put in my tiny garden space. Hopefully we can find a few new vegetables that we enjoy as well as learn how best to grow and preserve them.

6. Use the grill more in warmer weather. I don't know what happened last year. It seems to me that we didn't use the grill as much last year, and that's a shame. I hope to get a little more ambitious with fish and veggies on the grill this year.

7. Explore some new grains and seeds. There are many that I haven't tried yet. Each time I do try a new one I enjoy it, so I need to spend some time exploring and trying out some new grains. Specifically ones that I am thinking of would be bulgur, amaranth, millet, and wheat berries.

8. Continue working my way through my cookbooks. I will be updating my database soon and seeing where I sit.

9. Break out of my comfort zone for weekly soup day. Wednesday's have become soup day at our house since that's the day we have ballet class. Soup holds nicely in a crock pot, and accompanied by homemade bread makes the perfect after-dance meal. But I gotta try some new ones! I seem to be in a rut, and I must break free. Also look for a semi-regular post on Thursday's featuring my soup of the week.

10. And finally, master my new wok. I want to explore the different Asian foods that can be made in a wok, and Andy wants me to make an entire dim sum feast. That sounds like a fun goal, as well as a delicious one.

4 comments:

Elisabeth said...

I love your goal of buying local meat - I just finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and have decided that needs to be a priority for me, too. Good luck to both of us! :)

Erika W. said...

I need to read that again. I really enjoyed it, and I think I read it last year at this time.

Last time we were in the cities we took my brother and his wife to a great local meat market, you are very lucky to be living someplace where eating local is easier to do.

I'm lucky too, of course. :-)

Elisabeth said...

What meat market did you go to? I'm very curious - I just get mine at the co-op around the corner but I would love to have another source.

Erika W. said...

I'll let you know! I just sent a message to my brother, so I'll let you know when they get back to me. :-)