Breakfast

One of the hardest parts of this new attitude about food is forcing myself to eat breakfast. I am not a morning person. At all. I once threatened to "Lizzy Borden" my mother because she woke me up too early on my day off. Food is the last thing on my mind when I'm dragging myself out of bed. It's not that I don't like breakfast foods, quite the contrary, I'd just rather have that five extra minutes of sleep. The past couple of days I've done alright on the breakfast front. Yesterday was a Quaker Oats breakfast bar and today was a spoonful of peanut butter from the jar in the cabinet at the library. (That sounds far sketchier than it actually is.)

Eventually I'd like to be able to get myself together enough that I can do really fantastic breakfasts. Not anything fancy, but eggs and toast would be killer awesome. Even a stock of cereal that I enjoy would be a treat for when I get tired of the breakfast or cereal bars.

What about you guys? What's a "normal" breakfast for you?

Today, You Are A Man!

My Mom is great, and I'm sure I don't tell her often enough! Right off today she was ready to get me into the kitchen and teach me a few things. We cranked up the Pandora radio (Disney songs and Showtunes) and got cracking. On the menu for this evening: Meatloaf, green beans, and pan roasted corn with red peppers and onions. Also, a cake for the memorial service for my Uncle Paul on Wednesday.

The first thing I learned this evening is that when your cooking material looks like this:

It may put you off what you're going to consume. Yeah, raw hamburger is totally disgusting. That's one of the bad things about meatloaf, you have to mix it with your hands. Eugh. The end result is tasty though, so I sucked it up.  

(We use cream of mushroom soup instead of ketchup to top our meatloaf) 

Up next was the cake batter. No prob. I've done many a cake in my time. I'm not a  total  failure in the kitchen. Though, when I first started doing cakes they always came out flat. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why the hell I couldn't get a cake to rise. Turns out you gotta butter the pan first. Okay...maybe I am a total failure in the kitchen! The finished product looks alright. Though, it's a bit cracky on the top. 

Green beans were already cooking when I got home from work. They turned out pretty good. (It's pretty hard to screw up green beans.) 

The corn was something I'd never done before. It's really simple and one of the few ways I actually like corn! Just a little bit of oil and butter in a hot pan, add corn and peppers and onions and cook until they're roasty. I have both before and after pictures of the corn! 

The finished product came together into a lovely and healthy dinner!! I'm pretty freaking proud of myself. Not too shabby for a first go, huh?!

A New Start

 I can't count the number of times I've attempted to make changes in my habits, only to lose steam after a few weeks. I was inspired to start again while watching (as cheesy as it sounds) an episode of Jamie Oliver's "Food Revolution." I realized that I am tired of eating like crap and not feeling well. I'm tired of making the lazy choices and never getting up off my butt and doing something good for myself. But, most importantly, I don't want my children (you know, those hypothetical ones that I may have some day) growing up and being unhealthy because they've learned MY bad habits. 

So, that's where this blog comes in. I'm hoping to post something new every day in order to keep myself going. I want people to know that I'm going on this journey to figuring out how to whip my ass into shape and take good care of my body. I need people to hold me accountable and ask questions and keep me on track. 

It starts now.