Lent, and Resolutions

[velvetpage]

Today is the first day of Lent. Traditionally, that means it's the day when Christians begin a 40-day fast, usually of specific types of food. I cannot count the number of times I've resolved to give up chocolate. Most of the time, I haven't made it all the way to Easter. So I'm not going to try that this time.

Instead, I'm going to resolve to eat smarter. For the next forty days, I will eat three meals a day, two snacks, and one dessert. One of the snacks will be either vegetables or fruits. The dessert will be half the size I would normally have taken.

The only exceptions are water, milk, and tea. I reserve the right to drink these at any point in the day. I'll just forgo the cookie.

Today's morning snack will be celery with cheese whiz (for lack of actual cream cheese) and a bit of red pepper jelly. Breakfast was toast with peanut butter and peach jam. Lunch will probably be leftover stew, since we need to finish it up. Afternoon snack will be a bit of the yogurt cake I made yesterday. Supper tonight is a chicken casserole. I will allow myself a small amount of ice cream after it. There will be no before-bed snack.

Comments

[failstoexist.livejournal.com]

that sounds a bit smarter than trying to give something up full-stop for over a month!

In my house, there is no dessert directly after dinner, only before-bed snacks. Of course, we eat between 7:30 and 8:30, so they're not TOO far apart, but it's definitely something I'm completely in the habit of now. hard to break, even when i DO go out to some sort of dinner with dessert included. sometimes food habits can be terribly hard to break.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I've been eating like a horse since Christmas, and I'm feeling it - in my clothes, and the last few days, in my knees. I'm not old enough to have joint problems, so it's time to start eating better, and the first step to that is to put myself on an eating schedule. If I can do it for forty days, I can do it indefinitely, and make small changes to it that will be even better.

The celery was really good, too. It's amazing what a bit of red pepper jelly will do to liven up a snack. :)

[failstoexist.livejournal.com]

what is red pepper jelly? is it spicy? I'm not a jelly fan, but I do like things with a bit of a kick.

I've gained weight at work...free school lunch is almost always unhealthy, and I need to learn to cook more so I don't eat so much frozen crap. I've been watching my mom this week to learn how to cook. I'm going to make an effort to utilize the salad bar/fruit bin more and not have pizza and chips and such.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Red pepper jelly is made with cider vinegar, red peppers (or in our case, some red, some orange, and some yellow peppers - it's actually confetti pepper jelly) and a whole bunch of sugar. We also put a bit of jalopeno in one batch, so it's got more of a kick. It goes nicely on cheese of all sorts, but especially sharp cheeses that need a bit of sweetness. My friend sassy_fae and I made some a couple weeks ago, and it was delicious. I've been eating it on everything. My favourite thing to do with it is to take a round of brie, spread some jelly on top, wrap the brie in pastry (I use Pillsbury crescent roll pastry) and brush an egg wash on the top of it. Then you bake the whole thing until the pastry is done, and serve hot with crackers. It's so incredibly good, and it's an easy appetizer.

If you want to learn to cook, check out everydaycooking. It's the cooking community that sassy_fae and I maintain, and two-thirds of my friends list is already there. :)

Once you start fiddling with tastes and textures that go together, cooking becomes easy. Try this: take one chicken breast or two thighs, and put it in a small casserole. Chop up a carrot, a stalk of celery, and a potato, and throw them in on top. Add some oil-based salad dressing. Throw the whole thing in the oven long enough to cook the chicken - it will be faster if you cut the chicken up first. You'll end up with a healthy three-course meal in one pan, with lots of flavour. Then experiment with different dressings, soups, and veggies. You'll be able to eat chicken three times a week and not get sick of it.

[neebs.livejournal.com]

Ok, but what temp and how long? Details missy! Just because YOU are a cooking goddess doesn't mean the rest of us have your inate skillz!! ;)

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

The smaller the chicken pieces, the less time it takes to cook. I do about 350 for 40 minutes, and if it needs longer, I throw it back in. It's done when you stab the chicken and the juices run clear.

[neebs.livejournal.com]

Excellent! Thanks! (Can you do the temp conversions in your head? Or...is Canada not metric? But no, you do outside temps in C...ok, I'm confused. *is such a pretty little blonde*)

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

My oven has both farrenheit and centigrade on it, and most recipe books are written or published in the States, so they usually have only the first. I only think in metric for things where I mostly use metric. Like, I think in litres of milk, not gallons, because the milk is produced, packaged and sold in Canada so it's measured in litres. I think in metres when I'm buying fabric, but not when I'm quilting, because the quilting patterns are written in inches. And so on, and so forth. It's very confusing.

[merlyn4401.livejournal.com]

Little known piece of trivia: The 40 days of Lent do not include Sundays. So technically, you can give up chocolate for Lent, still have some on Sundays, and not be breaking your resolution.

I swear it's true.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Wow. Some pope at some point really, really wanted his red meat, didn't he?

I think, if I'm trying to make it a habit, I should stick to it for the entire forty days including Sundays. Maybe I'll make another resolution after that - to abstain from sweets other than birthday cake until the end of May, or some such. (That's an important distinction - both my daughters, my husband, and my brother all celebrate birthdays in the second half of April or May.)

[merlyn4401.livejournal.com]

LOL I know, it's funny! I learned about that...maybe 4 or 5 years ago, and I giggle to myself every Lent now. I have not taken advantage of it, though. I feel the same way about it as you do.