2018 goals for deliciousness

I still have some Christmas and New Years posting to do.  But in the meantime while I get all of that organized, here is this post about resolutions going on around this small apartment.

I have big goals for 2018.  Actually, not big ones.  They really are kind of small.  But theres a lot of em, let me tell you.

Every New Years Eve the last few years I feel a buzz inside me of ideas and goals for the new year.  It feels SO GOOD to be motivated.  It usually fades all too quickly, but a few resolutions still make it through.  This year we have some big things to tackle for each of our kids.  Starting school for Audrey, potty training for Hannah, and solids and sleep training for Eli.  I’m trying be optimistic and motivated in each of these things.  But it’s already hard!  I cant even talk about it.  Let's move on.

I always am very excited about my personal goals.  I won’t share all of them, but one I will share (because we’ve already done pretty okay on it so far) is about FOOD.  I’m shooting for becoming a better cook.  For my family and for myself.  I’ve never much enjoyed making food, honestly.  But I’ve been recently especially inspired in this by my mom, my sister Julia, and the Big Family Cooking Showdown on Netflix!  Also of course the Great British Bake Off.  That show was kind of the very very very beginning of this interest for me.

this beautiful berry tart my sister made for the baby blessings.  (picture stolen from her Facebook).  she taught me how to make it before we left.  so i will now be making it everyday for the rest of my life.

I got some cookbooks from the library- Everyday Italian, Our Best Bites 400 cal, The Food Nanny and a few more. 

And guess what?  I’m loving it!  I’ve done 3 new recipes this week (two hits and one slight miss- someones gonna have to teach me about risotto) and I’m already feeling 100 times more confident in myself and in my small kitchen!

My favorite so far was Wednesday.  I made a red vegetarian curry with coconut rice and was so on top of it that I looked at the clock and thought I’d attempt some homemade Naan bread too!  Overall it might’ve been the most delicious meal I’ve ever made.  I was so happy with it.

maybe someday i will get a nice enough camera to take good food pics.  my phone only seems to take nice pictures in natural light. i could also probably plate it a lot nicer, but i made my family wait to eat so i could take pictures so i didn't want to ask them to wait any longer.

We also had a successful meal of Panino Di Prosciutto E Fontina (can you believe I made something that fancy sounding?) from Giada De Laurentiis’ cookbook which basically was just prosciutto panini’s.  With it we had sweet potato fries, sweet peas (canned), cherry tomatoes, and kale chips.  I think I went a little overboard with the sides that time but that’s a specific part of this goal.  We’ve always been a one dish dinner kind of family so I’m trying to expand things a little.

I’m loving this goal because it is teaching me what I’m capable of.  I’m learning some very much needed lessons about TIMING.  And how much I can do if I can be on top of that one detail.  And I get so excited to think how much even more I’ll probably be able to do once I don’t have such a young baby.  Except…I actually don’t want Eli to ever grow up so……let’s just not think about that one yet.

It feels so good to be pursuing this because I think it’s going to be a big part of my Menieres answer.  I’ve never gotten very good at the low sodium diet but I know that this will be an important step for that.  Cooking as many things as possible from scratch.

Of course we have an overall goal of being healthier as a family.  But right now this goal actually has little to do with that for me.  I’m planning on breastfeeding as long as possible and so for me that means allowing myself to have NO WORRIES about my eating habits for the next year (because I don’t seem to produce enough milk unless I am stuffed full).  I go back and forth about it, but in the end I know that’s what I really want. 

This goal really is mostly just about learning and developing abilities and habits that will contribute overall to everyone’s well being in this little Dobbins family. 

One of the biggest motivators for me is what they keep saying in the Family Cooking Showdown- that cooking together, spending time in a kitchen or around a table with your loved ones brings heart to the home.  That’s how our childhoods were, Andrew’s and mine and I want to be able to bring that to my own family.  Audrey and Hannah have loved helping me bake or cook in the kitchen, or sometimes just stand on a stool next to me and talk while I do it (the stool being our giant BYU rice or flour buckets).  I want more of that.

So I’ve got to up my game!  And so far, this is how.

i even snuck more of the curry later that night.  look at my little boyfriend waiting for me on the couch there.  he's the cutest.

Happy 2018 everyone!  I hope your goals are working out and feeling right.  And hope my other goals will too!!!
Wish me luck.