One Small Thing
Do you celebrate the little things?
I don't. Not often enough, anyway. But tonight, I'm celebrating soup.
One thing I promised myself (and, more subtly my family) was that we would eat more healthfully this year. Of the four of us (darling husband, elder son, younger son and me), only elder son doesn't worry about his weight - and he's away at school, so there's not a whole lot of control we have over his food choices.
As for the rest of us, this year is the year we will eat better, with more fruits and vegetables, less sugar (though we're really not big sugar eaters) and fewer processed meals. Younger son (12) and I agreed that he would play a bigger role in preparing and cooking meals, and I set out just after the first of the year and to buy bags full of fresh, healthy food - even things I've rarely or never cooked before: parsnips, butternut squash, cauliflower, spinach.
Tonight, younger son and I prepared one of the healthiest, yummiest dishes I've ever made in my life - and it was fantastic! I had a recipe, but I had to make some changes - in part due to preference (I confess I am not a huge fennel fan) and in part due to availability (Woodman's truly didn't have any, nor rosemary either, if you can believe it!). To be honest, I am firmly of the opinion that nearly any spice or herb can be substituted fairly favorably by cilantro - and this philosophy has held me in fairly good stead for much of my cooking life. I am happy to say that tonight was no exception, and this amazing, filling, healthful, yummy soup, tweaked slightly, satisfied our bodies and souls.
Now here's the thing ~ I am notorious for bringing home loads of fresh food and then feeling paralyzed by 'what to do with it'.
Sadly, and to my shame, often the wonderful food rots in my crisper drawer while I flounder in a sea of indecision and fear.
This time I was determined. No matter what, I was making this soup tonight. So I was missing a couple of ingredients. So I'd never cooked with parsnips before. So my food processor seems a little iffy (thanks, btw, to wonderful DH, who got it back to functioning). Tonight, I was making soup.
2010 ~ Begin Again.
Buy the vegetables and make the soup. Start exercising today, even if you ate half a cheesecake yesterday. Write 1,000 words, even if you haven't touched the thing in three months. In fact, write 10 words. Realize that yes, goals are easy to set and not always so easy to reach. But even if you've tripped up on the same road a hundred times before, sometimes it's the hundred-and-first that finds success. Stand up, brush yourself off, and keep moving. Again. And again. And again.
Begin again in 2010. Every single day.
I don't. Not often enough, anyway. But tonight, I'm celebrating soup.
One thing I promised myself (and, more subtly my family) was that we would eat more healthfully this year. Of the four of us (darling husband, elder son, younger son and me), only elder son doesn't worry about his weight - and he's away at school, so there's not a whole lot of control we have over his food choices.
As for the rest of us, this year is the year we will eat better, with more fruits and vegetables, less sugar (though we're really not big sugar eaters) and fewer processed meals. Younger son (12) and I agreed that he would play a bigger role in preparing and cooking meals, and I set out just after the first of the year and to buy bags full of fresh, healthy food - even things I've rarely or never cooked before: parsnips, butternut squash, cauliflower, spinach.
Tonight, younger son and I prepared one of the healthiest, yummiest dishes I've ever made in my life - and it was fantastic! I had a recipe, but I had to make some changes - in part due to preference (I confess I am not a huge fennel fan) and in part due to availability (Woodman's truly didn't have any, nor rosemary either, if you can believe it!). To be honest, I am firmly of the opinion that nearly any spice or herb can be substituted fairly favorably by cilantro - and this philosophy has held me in fairly good stead for much of my cooking life. I am happy to say that tonight was no exception, and this amazing, filling, healthful, yummy soup, tweaked slightly, satisfied our bodies and souls.
Now here's the thing ~ I am notorious for bringing home loads of fresh food and then feeling paralyzed by 'what to do with it'.
Sadly, and to my shame, often the wonderful food rots in my crisper drawer while I flounder in a sea of indecision and fear.
This time I was determined. No matter what, I was making this soup tonight. So I was missing a couple of ingredients. So I'd never cooked with parsnips before. So my food processor seems a little iffy (thanks, btw, to wonderful DH, who got it back to functioning). Tonight, I was making soup.
2010 ~ Begin Again.
Buy the vegetables and make the soup. Start exercising today, even if you ate half a cheesecake yesterday. Write 1,000 words, even if you haven't touched the thing in three months. In fact, write 10 words. Realize that yes, goals are easy to set and not always so easy to reach. But even if you've tripped up on the same road a hundred times before, sometimes it's the hundred-and-first that finds success. Stand up, brush yourself off, and keep moving. Again. And again. And again.
Begin again in 2010. Every single day.
posted by bobbi at 11:35 PM
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