Food and Fiber Friday - I'm Eating and Not Stitching!

The last part of the year has been crazy. 

Work has been busy. I'm filling in the to-go shopping at work since one of the few people they have trained just upped and quit with no notice. Kids!

Of course, 8 hours of walking nonstop does me in for the most part. Luckily, I had made a batch of 'granny' soup and a pot of chicken and dumplings. And I have a ham, for sandwiches mainly. So I can come home and eat without having to cook. Just heat in the microwave and crash.

However, for Christmas Day, I did celebrate the day with a nice breakfast and dinner. The breakfast was big enough it saw me through to dinner.

Toast, 2 eggs, hash browns, country jam and sausage. The toast I used my peach preserves on. I was stuffed afterwards, but it was so good. Eat your heart out, Waffle House!

I picked up the country ham at Bush-n-Vine earlier in the week. I love going there and I only went there last week to pick up some elderberry syrup to help boost my immune system. And they are the only place I know of where I can get 'real' syrup.

What I didn't know was they were carrying some local country ham (love it!) and I bought a package of their pork sausage to try, along with a wedge of their hoop cheddar cheese. I was very pleased the sausage was really good. I loved it because, for me, it wasn't too heavily spiced - just enough, in my opinion, to make it well worth the higher price I paid over something from the grocery store. 

To back up a bit, especially since I am tightening the money belt for 2023, is why I would pay more for sausage from Bush-n-Vine over something I could get at the grocery store at a couple of dollars less.

It's all about quality over quantity. I would rather have some really good sausage and have it only every now and then, over acceptable and cheaper sausage from the grocery store. Plus, I like knowing I am supporting a local business over something that is shipped in from hundreds of miles away. 

Then for dinner, I 'ate from the pantry' and fixed a nice meal.

Roasted potatoes and asparagus casserole, along with a pork lion 'steak'. The asparagus is from a can of cut asparagus. I'm hoping, in a couple of years, to be able to open up a jar of my own canned asparagus, but for now I use the can from the store for my casserole. If I do get the spears from our produce department, I would roast them along with the potatoes with a bit of grated parmesan cheese on them.

The pork loin I seared in my cast iron skillet and then put it in the oven to finish cooking. I used salt, pepper and Italian herbs on it and a pat of butter when I put it in the oven. It was so good! Luckily, I have several more 'steaks' I cut from a large pork loin I purchased on sale and sliced up and put in the freezer. Now I'm thinking of a marsala sauce for the pork loin will be in my future. 

One of my intentions for 2023 is to not only eat better, but to continue (or pick back up on) eating from my pantry. I want to also eat from my garden and am working on getting things to where I can pull things from the garden almost all year round. 

And to 'spice' things up more, I want to use herbs, especially fresh ones, more. I have enough that I actually need to learn how to dry my own herbs out of my garden for use in the kitchen. 

Another intention is to try at least a new method or recipe twice a month. I'm starting out the New Year on that goal by making myself Shrimp Fra Diavolo to go along with a spinach salad (money) and fresh black eye peas (luck). There will be a glass of white wine to go along with the meal as I need to buy a bottle of wine for the recipe, so I might as well polish off the bottle! I'm really excited about trying my hand at this recipe. I had it at a restaurant in Helena, Lucca's. They serve theirs over angel hair pasta. I think I'm just going to leave the pasta out (cut those calories/carbs). 

But the dish is spicy and I'm hoping it comes at least halfway close to what I ate at Lucca's. 

Something I have discovered, as I am attempting to learn how to 'cook down' (make less for each meal since it's just me in the house), is that I not only enjoy the process, but also I want to be more mindful and enjoy the meal more. 

So '2023 for me' will include lots of healthier food, purchased locally as much as possible.