Sunday, December 26, 2010

What? New Years Resolutions?

This is a TV show we watched on Chritmas Eve. It's called Yule Log, and is a constantly running motion picture of a fire. Our Christmas Tree was too close to the fireplace for us to have our own fire, so we "borrowed" one from channel 45

To my Canadian and Down Under friends, I hope for you a grand Boxing Day.



It never ceases to amaze me how time and motion wait for no one. Every tick of the clock moves us towards the next moment, and gathered together, they become hours, then days. It’s Sunday. Christmas is over. The holiday season is still in full swing for many though. I know my Grandkids are celebrating with another part of their family. But it’s over for us. Back to everyday living started yesterday.
Speaking of yesterday, I heard the term New Years Resolution for the first time this season. I don’t have any. I don’t even think about making any. It’s not that I don’t want to change anything. But I’m such a realist that I know that I’ll never keep doing something that I start doing when I haven’t been doing it all along, so why start trying to do it all the time?
An example would be the band wagon approach to weight loss. Everyone is starting a new diet and on New Years, they will implement said diet. Sales of lettuce and fat free salad dressing go up disproportionately to the sales of Toasted Almond Fudge Ice Cream.
Although, I can’t remember a day in the past twenty-some years that I haven’t said, “I need to lose a few pounds.”
But starting an eating routine so drastic that I sit and bite my finger nails for nourishment and chew on raw broccoli spears has never worked. I can go into the whole idea of a real change in what we eat and how much we eat, habit changes, but the emphasis is really about vanity, what you think others think of the way you look and maybe a few health concerns.
Today, the day after Christmas, I still have to eat. I still must nourish my body. We certainly didn’t eat every morsel that we had prepared for the family Christmas celebration, and there is no way I’m throwing away, or feeding to the birds and squirrels, foodstuffs that cost the proverbial arm and leg. No way I’m going to let that food rot from neglect in the refrigerator either.
Folks, they hardly touched the home made oatmeal raisin nut cookies. By the way, the way I tweaked the recipe to make them crunchy worked. Lessen the brown sugar and make it up with the white granulated sugar and use egg whites instead of whole eggs. They came out perfect. Crunchy. And because we had so many other offerings, the cookies were relegated to sitting on the counter in a beautiful pan. Now they must be eaten.
Same with the stuffed mushroom caps. They turned out so rich with the crab meat, onion, celery and portobello mushrooms all sauteed in butter and olive oil as a filling. I made eighteen of them for eight people, but half the attendees were little kids whose gullets were filled with red and green peanut M and M’s, candy canes and Sprite. They may have eaten some of the other cookies that were available, like the Ritz Crackers laced with peanut butter then dipped into the chocolate almond bark.
It’s also hard to make small pizzas. We use the large cookie sheets as pans to bake them. And I don’t like a pizza with half of this or that on one side and the other side with some other concocted assortment of vegetables and pepperoni. Give me the whole pie laden with Italian sausage with no plain cheese on one end.
Italian Sausage Pizza at Spadoville

That special pizza, the one with the asparagus tips, sun dried tomatoes, fresh basil, red onion, portobello mushroom with ricotta and fresh mozzarella cheese was to die for. We heated up some of the left over pizza yesterday, just our platefuls that we were planning on eating around dinner time. Today looks no different as we have no plans for any activity except to laze around, watch football and talk about upcoming plans to get out of Dodge sometime after New Years and head down to New Mexico.
The "Special" Pizza, hot out of the oven

There are other leftover items, some in great abundance and others that hardly have a serving left in a container, like the three or four shrimp. Maybe I’ll have to incorporate them into an omelette along with some black olives and onion. You know, omelettes and such can be served for any meal? They’re not just for breakfast. I never did make the Italian sausage Calabrese, and I won’t refreeze. That’s gonna be dinner tonight, and I better wash that down with another Cannoli so that cheese won’t spoil. The cookies will last another day.
Maybe that’s why they have Christmas and New Years holidays planned exactly one week apart. It’s my own personal rule of thumb that a leftover container does not get eaten if it has sat in the fridge for one week. So, in my estimation, we have one week to eat all this food, and if it’s not eaten by January first, we toss it. Kind of a contest then. Let’s see if we can eat this up and hence not waste anything by next Friday. It makes perfect fiscal sense.
See, that brings me back to the New Years resolution dilemma.  It’s gonna take at least another week or two to wean yourself back to regular size portions and balanced protein, fat and carb measurements let alone the overuse of butter and high fructose corn syrup!

You’ve been eating like a pregnant sow for a week straight in the interest of not wasting food and you’re thinking of going cold turkey into a lettuce salad and cous cous diet?
Nope, I’m going to be realistic. No crash diet for me. Gonna eat up these leftovers on a One Day at a Time schedule and add a salad here and there to the mix. I’ll diet when I change my scenery and head South. After all, I need some extra calories to stay warm out in this cold and snow we have here in the Northland. I’ll eat less in New Mexico, where the weather is warmer,  and get down to a steady diet of beans and rice, the complete protein and all that. The capsaicin from the intake of red and green chiles is good for the circulation. This dietary change must be gradual. Wouldn’t want to startle my fragile digestive system into anything drastic.
Oh look at the time, I’ve been sitting here typing this piece and I see it’s time to put on the coffee pot. The acid and high caffeine in the coffee has been bothering me lately, so I’ll be switching to drinking tea, starting today.

Peace

9 comments:

Jeannie said...

I agree that sudden drastic change doesn't work to change eating habits. I know I have to lose weight as well but I hate eating salad and I'm in no mood to eat crap I hate. I'll just go easy on the potatoes I love and heftier on the veggies I love. What I need to dump is the chocolate. It keeps creeping back into the house.

Mel said...

OH my gosh....I so am hungry for pizza now....

Right. Well, there's himself that needs to lose weight and me that needs to gain it.
Though, I've put on some and moved up a dress size....having lost 5 dress sizes when this 'thou shalt not eat gluten' kicked in, I'll consider it a good thing.
OMGosh--such yummy lookin' stuff you made!

Right. I'll try some rice and corn chex mix with gluten free pretzels. (talk about costing an arm and a leg and needing to be fiscally responsible....LOL)

Nice mid morning snack, dontchaknow.
With coffee, of course!
;-)

I inventory nightly--so 'resolving' once a year would be a treat....LOL
OHHHHHHHHhhhhh noooooo--every morning, like clockwork!

*hugs*
Happy Day after Christmas!!

eaprez said...

I love me some pizza....and those look to die for!

english inukshuk said...

I'm a believer in the hunter gatherer diet - eat what you have in the winter, eat salad in the summer

(-:

as for the "tea diet", I might have to send you some delicious teas from the UK of GB

(-:

my new year's resolution is to write a diary entry every night

(-:

fortunately, for you lovely people, it'll be in a little book that I keep for myself on the bedside table

(-:

(I had a lovely selection of left-overs today, when The Teens - well the two that were with me yesterday - went off to their father's. . . the best part was the bread sauce, but that's another story)

Christopher said...

Jax's comment reminds me of some rather unworldly cousins with whom I went to stay for a few days after Christmas when I was about 11. For a winter picnic - it was quite mild - we kids were given bread sauce sandwiches.

This would equate to having a pizza base with pizza pastry topping. Just the thing for your new diet.

rebecca said...

good morning spadoman.
while you have been tempting mankind with delicious left overs....i have been thinking how you are a savory portion of
sustenance in bloglandia.
you always set out a comfy chair, fire side in the winter, and welcome us in with your ruminations of the early hour.
i always leave with food-for-thought. always better for the time i spend with you.

thanks for your hospitality and generosity, and always reminding us to come and go in peace.
now that's a resolution worth its weight in gold.

peace to you and yours...
rebecca

Unknown said...

well...a diet is not on my list of resolutions, thank goodness because after reading this I am sooooo hungry!!

here's to a week of good eating!

x..x

Fran said...

This X mas we had a turkey from a buy so many groceries & get a free turkey deal @ the grocery store (but I digress, is it really "free" if you have to spend $150 bucks to get it??) But in the 21st century, it is not at all difficult to spend $150 bucks in a grocery store... especially if you include toilet paper & cleaning supplies.
In any case, we pared it down big time. Everyone was sold out of fresh cranberries...
So we baked the bird, did a wild rice side dish (scrapped the stuffing & did not do fresh baked garnet yams).
Mrs. Smith made the pies, I just baked them... so we kept it simple. Still, I am kicking myself because some friends dropped by last night & we should have offered them pumpkin pie... to help make the leftovers disappear. Doh!

We did not have Thanksgiving w our kiddo (he was in Ohio), so we kind of had a culinary reinactment!

Usually for X mas, we already did the big food holiday of Thanksgiving, so we enjoy doing something more simple & healthy... like Salmon for X mas.

It is unfair that as we age poundage sticks to us like nobody's business.
But if you want a kick ass cure to help kick you into gear, rent the movie FOOD, INC.

But as my son recommended-- do not watch it *before* eating a meal.

It is a huge eye opener about behind the scenes of what happens in agri- biz.
It ain't pretty-- so don't say you were not warned.

Truth is I was a vegetarian for 7 years (lacto ovo-- so I did eat eggs & cheese).... although I was much more active at that time, the diet itself was much less fat & not surprisingly it was the time I was thinnest (and healthiest) in my life.

So my best recommendation-- have friends over to help eat the leftovers. That way you accomplish both missions... don;t let the food go to waste, but get help eating it.

Not much work involved, maybe throw in a salad & voila! Dinner ready to roll.

It is lifestyle changes & for me especially, getting in more exercise.

Best wishes!

susan said...

All things in moderation but for good friends and good times my mother said. Peace and best wishes to you friend Spado :-)