Kitchen Goals Update - February and March

At the beginning of 2011 I made a list of Kitchen Goals - 12 goals to accomplish throughout the year, focusing on one per month to create some good food and cooking habits.  To keep it real, I am updating my progress on these goals for February and March.  You can see my January progress here. 

Goal 1 - Eat from the pantry.  Completed - January
Believe it or not, this January goal is still in play.  Money has been tight and I have just been buying basic necessities from the grocery store and relying on my freezer and pantry.  This has allowed me to only spend between $20 and $40 dollars per week at the store.  Some weeks I don't even have to go to the store at all.  LOVE IT!

Goal 2 - Select and use 2 recipes/month from my Southern Living Cookbook collection.  I have only made one recipe from my extensive Southern Living collection in February and March.  Because I have not been shopping much at the store, I have not been trying very many new recipes.  Hopefully that will change in April.

Goal 3 - Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.  I haven't done this yet, but I really want to!  Maybe over Spring Break I can get it going.  I'm convinced that if I just start it, it will be easy to keep up with and use. 

Goal 4 - Less Processed Foods - SUCCESS!!  Since this is a year long goal, I try to drop one type of processed food each month.  In February I made 2 different types of granola, even converting my son to eating it as a snack. In March, I focused on making my own salad dressings.  You can find 3 great recipes for homemade dressing here.   I had one lone bottle of Kraft dressing in the pantry and used it....YUCK!  I'm a convert.  Still looking for a good 1000 Dressing recipe though.

Goal 6 - Better garden plan - analyze soil, augment soil, research plant varieties.  Tis the season to plan a garden!  I bought soil kits for each of my raised beds, now if it would just quit raining long enough for the soil to dry out so I can test it...  I have also been researching types of plants - asparagus, carrots, garlic and potatoes are already chosen and on my list.

Goal 10 - Find a freezer pizza crust recipe and make up Pizza Kits.  I froze my own pizza dough recipe in February and it turned out pretty well.  I am thinking about trying to freeze the Olive Oil pizza dough from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, once I get that going.....

Goal 11 - Plan for lunches - try to take lunch 3 days a week (year long).  SUCCESS!!  I have taken my lunch to school everyday but 3 in February and March.  I am getting much better at planning leftovers and I am beginning to create a list of "go to" lunch menus for when I don't have leftovers.  Packing my lunch has become a habit, I hardly even think about it anymore.  

Not bad, but not so great either.  I still have a lot of progress to make, but I have 9 months to go!