fingers to the bone

Welp, I was going to open my Etsy shop on January 1st buuuuut...let's face it. The Christmas cards aren't even out yet and I feel like I have been on a Tilt-A-Whirl since Thanksgiving. These next couple weeks I'm going to spend getting my house back from 2 weeks of being swept up in the family holiday madness, taking the tree down, going through A's old toys (and a lot of other stuff in the house) to give away or donate, generally putting everything back together again. I said I would post at least once a week on this blog, so here it is! Checked off the list! 

The other thing I did today was a mad grocery trip to Whole Foods. I did the "meh - holidays" thing in terms of my diet and exercise and found to my horror that I'm up SEVEN WHOLE POUNDS since Thanksgiving. Seeing as I'm giving my leg a break from running, I'm going to have to 1) get my walk on every day. EVERY DAY. and 2) STOP EATING SO MUCH. I have the WORST self-control when it comes to portion control. Awful. I love love LOVE food, and I don't have an "off" switch with the whole fullness thing. I'm trying so hard to be more mindful of when that still, small voice in my head stretches back and says "yup. Full." because my tendency is to sucker punch it and eat the rest of what's on my plate because hey, the hubs and I are excellent cooks.

The good news is that being back home means being out of the Land of Casseroles (the Midwest) and back to our regularly scheduled veganism. Phew. On the menu today includes a delicious apple, kale, ginger smoothie, some tomatoes and hummus for lunch, apples and oranges for snacks, and some black eyed peas with greens for dinner tonight.

My days are filled with sorting, organizing, tossing, composting, making food and the like, and I've decided that if I'm going to run a successful Etsy shop, I'm going to have to dedicate at least an hour every night of making something. Last night I crocheted a chunky navy blue headband/earwarmer, inspired by my cousin Calley who was wearing a grey one at Christmas. I have some ideas on what kinda flair I want to add, but first I need to make a bunch. The good news is I whipped it out in an evening while watching Our Idiot Brother. Heartwarming and hilarious, in case you're in need of a good flick. Okay, back to the grind. Happiest of Happy New Years to you!

Step 1

If there's anything that I'm disorganized most about that makes me the most crazy, it's my complete inability to conceive of and execute a weekly dinner plan. I mean, the conception isn't that difficult. It's the execution. The get home work out relax(?) laundry tidy up feed child make dinner put child to bed in whatever order or permutation of help from my awesome hubs and mom it happens to happen. 

Case in point: it is 9:10pm and there's still 10 minutes to go on the eggplant parmesan.

Which brings me to my next point: Meatless Mondays! I have played around with vegetarian and veganism for awhile now and after getting the hell scared out of me by reading The China Study have decided to make a concerted effort to get my little family to eat less meat.

I absolutely worship eggplant parmesan. I don't care who makes it or where it's from (Campisi's though...mmm talk to me slowly) I adore it. So, it being Monday I decided to try out a recipe from my mom's old dusty 1970s cookbook with a screechy baby trying to be rocked to sleep in the next room. Is it just me or does the sound of your crying child make you lose brain cells and/or concentration as well? Anyway, I can't tell if the recipe was terrible or if my brain was just operating on half speed, but it's going to be done in 5 minutes and you best believe I'll be tweaking it because it will not. best. me.

So yeah - my goal for these next few weeks is to have a plan and carry it through. Wednesday: Chicken & Artichoke Enchiladas with Black Beans! Maybe I'll even give you my beans recipe. You can woo people with these beans, I'm not even lying.

Happy Monday!