If I am going to focus on slow food this month it is important that I take a look at how I currently interact with food and I quickly realized that I lean heavily on food to self medicate: If I have a bad day I make myself feel better by picking up an iced coffee (or three), a slice of pizza, or better yet a whole pizza. If I have a good day I celebrate by treating myself to a frappucino from Starbucks or Subway for lunch. If I am tired and not in the mood to cook dinner I blindly order Dominos online (you see the pattern here) and it has been happening for far too long. Ryan and I also like to eat out as entertainment, and we have often said we won't be able to do this when we have kids so we might as well take of advantage of it now. But if I've learnt one thing it is that too much of a good thing can make a good thing a bleh thing. I can't count the number of times I've said to Ryan 'it feels like we haven't eaten out lately' when he quickly reminds me that we ate out three days ago.
I also thought that it would be a good idea to take a look at how much money we had spent on eating out (take out, coffee's, restaurants etc.) in the past couple of months to gauge what this habit has been costing us. In November we spent $270 and in December we spent $480. This is on top of our regular grocery shopping which we spend roughly $80-$120 on per week. How is it possible that we are spending this much money on eating out, and yet it doesn't even feel like we eat out all that often? When I saw these numbers it reconfirmed that this is exactly where I need to start in my year of slow.
Here are some things I hope to achieve this month:
- Reserve eating out for special occasions or celebrations
- Come up with a go to meal list that I can use when doing my weekly meal planning
- Make simple meals or meals that I can make in a big batch that will reduce time spent in the kitchen
- Record how much is being spent on food per week
- Make my own coffee to take to the office instead of buying it from a coffee shop
- Have the same breakfast, lunches and snacks each week which will keep things simple and allow me to buy more in bulk
- Try to eat intuitively. If I am not hungry at dinner time, don't eat. If I am still hungry after dinner, eat more.
I have some lofty goals for this month and I feel good about them so we will see where things stand at the end of January. I thought this would also be the perfect time for me to share a recipe of a dish I've been loving lately: Eggplant Flatbread.
Eggplant Flatbread Recipe
Feeds: 2-4
Time to cook and prep: 40 minutes
Here's what you'll need:
- 2 Flatbreads (you can also use ciabatta or baguette)
- Mayonnaise (the Hellman's vegan option works really well for this)
- Pesto
- Spinach
- 2 bell peppers (red, yellow or orange)
- 2 small onions
- Feta cheese (or any other cheese you like, I like feta because it adds some saltiness to the dish)
- 1 large Eggplant
- Light olive oil
1. Put your flatbreads on a baking sheet and preheat your over to 385F. Spread a thin layer of mayonnaise and pesto on the flatbread.
2. Add a handful of raw spinach on top of the flatbread.
3. Thinly slice the onion and bell peppers and sauté in a pan with olive oil until the onions and peppers are soft and slightly dark around the edges.
4. Slice the eggplant into slices and then slice them into smaller slices and sauté until eggplant is soft and browned.
5. Add cooked onions, peppers, and eggplant on top of the flatbreads. Crumble feta cheese on top.
6. Pop into the over for 10 minutes, and serve!
Here's to my year of slow and the lessons and learning's that lie ahead.
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