New Year's Resolutions

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Do you make New Year's Resolutions?  I don't necessarily make resolutions but I do try to set goals each new year.  This year my goals all center around the health and wellness of my family.  I have even gotten hubby on board with the goals.  

Physical Health/Fitness goals--

Focus on eating at home

Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables as a family

Introduce Little Dude to nutritious foods and avoid processed crap

Workout at least 3 times per week

Everyone to be a healthy BMI/BF%

Financial Health goals--

Payoff all"bad" debt (credit cards, miscellaneous loans, cars)

Stop buying "stuff" we don't need and get rid of the "Stuff" we already have

Hit a specific $ amount in our savings account

Emotional/Relationship goals--

One date night per month when hubby is home

No cell phones/computers/tv/electronics in bed

No TV on weeknights before Little Dude goes to bed

Read at least 1 book to Little Dude per day

Read 1 story from the Bible as a family at least 2 times per week

Purge excess junk from our house to help encourage a sense of calm/limit clutter

What are your goals for the new year?  How do you plan on accomplishing them?

So confusing

So I started doing some research last night trying to figure out the best place to start putting together a household binder.  I thought I would be able to find some cute fun printables that I would like that I could use but as many of the bloggers who had printables available for download stated...One size does not fit all...So instead I'm going to work on creating my own in the coming weeks I am by no means a design artist so I'm sure they won't be the cutest things in the world but for now I'm going for functionality over fun so wish me luck.

What are some things you think I should include in my binder?

Colcannon Puffs

I love fried potato pancakes and latkes.  This recipe combines the delicious comfort food of my youth with an equally comforting Irish Colcannon recipe for fun bite-size puffs that would make a great (healthy!) appetizer for a party or carb/side for a family meal.   Hubby and I had them with veggie loaded meatballs and a salad for dinner last week and they were delicious!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds potatoes (I used red potato's and left the peels on them)
• 6 ounces kale
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 2 teaspoons salt (or to taste)
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons milk(ish) (I used almond milk this time)
• 2 tablespoons potato starch or corn starch

Instructions

1. Cut the potatoes into small cubes (about 1/2-inch), put them in a large pot, and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are tender.
2. While the potatoes are cooking, remove the center stalk from the kale and slice the leaves into strips. When the potatoes are done, lift them out with a slotted spoon and place in a large mixing bowl. Put the kale into the potato water and cook for 6 minutes or until kale is tender. Remove kale with a slotted spoon to a food processor. Add 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid and pulse to chop fine.
3. Preheat oven to 425 F. Mash the potatoes and add the kale and all remaining ingredients. Stir well. Using a well-rounded tablespoon, form into balls about 1 inch across. Place them on an oiled baking sheet or, preferably, a baking sheet covered with a silicone mat or parchment paper. Bake for 20 minutes. Carefully turn over and bake fore 20 minutes more, until lightly browned.

Number of servings (yield): 6

If Freezing you can freeze the puffs after step 2 then thaw them before baking (my preferred method) or pre-bake them before freezing and then reheat in the oven after thawing.  Personally since the potato's are already cooked I figure waiting to bake them until I am ready to eat is the most energy efficient method since reheating them in the microwave might make them soggy.

Water Kifer

Today's recipe isn't one of my freezer meals -- sorry!

A lot of people have trouble drinking enough water every day. Even people who do hit their water goals get sick of drinking so much water and want an alternative option.  

For this reason I thought I would share my favorite water Kifer recipe with you today.  

I added 1/4 C raw sugar dissolved in 1/2 C water and 2 Tbsp water Kifer grains to a 1 quart mason jar. Then I added slices of lemon and filled the jar the rest of the way with coconut water. 

I then loosely fitted the lid on the jar and let it ferment at room tempature for about 36 hours. After 36 hours the grains had ate most of the sugar from the coconut water and sugar water.  I strained the liquid into a glass bottle and added 1/2 Tbsp of raw sugar to the bottle. I sealed it and placed it in the refrigerator for an additional 24 hours giving me a slightly carbonated delicious low sugar lemonade-ish drink.  The probiotics produced by the Kifer grains continue to eat the sugar and ferment the beverage so you're finished product has much less sugar than was added initially. 

For more info on Kifer/fermented beverages visit

http://www.gemcultures.com/water_kefir.htm

Gem Cultures also sales Kifer grains. Or if you email me shanonrenee@gmail.com I would be happy to share my grains with you if I have extras since they grow so fast!

Sometime in the future I'll share my favorite milk Kifer smoothie recipe!!! 

Balance your Checkbook

Am I the only person in America under 50 who still balances a checkbook?   I recently discovered that not only do my friends not carry their checkbooks, I knew this, everyone uses debit and credit cards.  No one writes checks any more that’s what online bill pay is for.   However I was shocked to discover that the majority of my friends don’t even BALANCE their checkbooks.  Despite, or perhaps because of, direct deposit, automatic bill pay, automatic savings transfers etc my friends have no clue what the actual balance in their checking accounts are, and these aren’t people like my husband who, admittedly has a different approach to personal finances than I do (he also spends less than me so…) but other accountants, people with CPA’s, MBA’s, CFA’s and other letters behind their names.

Perhaps working with money all day every day has made them not care?

What do you think? Do you balance your checkbook? Do you know your current bank balance?