Last December, I set
11 kitchen goals, basically one per month. Looking back I really did well. I accomplished 8 goals, did not meet 2 of them and decided 1 would just not work for our family. All in all, a success. Below, find what I managed to accomplish this year.
1. Eat from the pantry in January. I participated in an
online pantry challenge in January and was quite successful, in fact, I plan on doing it again this year, either online or on my own.
2. Use less processed foods. This one I turned into a year long goal and really accomplished a great deal. In addition to the foods listed in
this post, I have also begun making my own meatballs, grape jelly, applesauce, chicken noodle soup, breakfast burritos, and granola bars.
3. Reduce take out/delivery foods.
WOW, we have done so well with this one. We used to order pizza and chinese so often, they knew our orders when we called and the delivery guys knew our dogs' names. Now, pizza delivery is because we just really want a good pizza, not because we don't have any other options. Picking up Zaxby's is a treat, not a necessity. I can't believe all the money we saved by just not ordering out.
4. Menu plan consistantly. I posted 41
menu plans this year and there were several weeks I had plans, but did not get to post them, so I probably had menu plans for 46 out of 52 weeks this year. Not too bad. Let's see if we can make it 52 this year!
5. Make homemade tortillas. I never did this one. I consistantly found great deals on tortillas at the grocery stores, so I just never had a need to make them. I am keeping this goal for 2011, we will see how it goes.
6. Add 5 new WW recipes to our menu rotation. Well, they weren't WW recipes, but I added many new recipes to our rotation, most with out any processed foods. Some of our favorites were
Italian Sausage and Potato Roast, Chicken Noodle Soup,
Hubby Will Inhale Them Meatballs,
Delicious Ham and Potato Soup and
Pesto.
7. Try making Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. I have not completed this goal yet. I have bought and read the book and I ordered (and received) a dough bucket from King Arthur Flour, so there are no excuses now....
8 and 9. Utilize a CSA or Farmer's Market. This is the goal I discovered just didn't fit our family. We only like certain vegetables, so the expense and surprise of a CSA box just wouldn't have been a good use of our grocery budget. And since I accomplished goal 9 -
Enlarge my garden and utilize it, we had plenty of the vegetables we liked and were able to eat from our own garden and not purchase much produce at all from June until September.
10. Preserve more. I preserved a great deal more this year than last year. I made
jalapeno-pepper jelly,
cherry jam, strawberry jam, strawberry-jalapeno jam, peach jelly, peach jam, sweet and sour relish, cherries, bourbon cherries, mojito jelly, Roasted Tomato Sauce, and Pesto. I have even bigger plans for next year.
11. Type up family favorite recipes and add to cookbook. Not only did I update the
regular cookbook, I created a freezer cookbook with all the recipes I regularly cook for the freezer and I included freezing instructions.
Not bad for a year of goals. I have plenty of new goals (and few old ones) ready for the new year.
