New Year!

I didn't used to make resolutions because they don't last long. However, last year Mike and I decided to quit smoking. It's now been 1 year and 10 days since either of us smoked. All last year we let our other health concerns, dietary, sleep, etc. take a back burner. After all we had quit smoking. What could be harder? So, we would worry about our weight later. Well this year we have many many things to get a handle on. We each gained weight when we quit smoking. We need to think about Caleb's diet more. And with the economy, more importantly our budget, being the way it is we really need to think very hard about how our money is being spent. So, here I am in the midst of my Wheat Free Fiasco. The main idea or resolution is to eat at home, all the time. No fast food, no mulligans steak for two, no dinner out just because we didn't plan what to eat and it's 5:30... Obviously eating at home we are going to allow us to eat wheat free, healthier, and cheaper! We sat down and came up with 28 meals that we like to eat regularly, put them into the palm to repeat every 4 weeks and voila I never have to think about what's for supper again:) The second part of the plan is to figure out how to replace the wheat in all of our favorite recipes and third to replace convenience foods with whole foods in my cooking. Whew! Actually getting the wheat out goes a really long way in eliminating junk food as well. So, I hit the stores with a two weeks list of groceries. I'm one week into it! We ate out this week:( It was Caleb's birthday. He had a mickey mouse pancake and fries. Yikes!! The closest I could come to whole foods was to order breakfast, eggs and hash browns. But that's the whole point that we, and most Americans were getting away from. Going out to eat should be a once in a while special occasion thing. So, if we can keep it that way we'll be doing good I think. Other thoughts this week? I made wheat free lasagna and ate it with friends who liked it. I made the sauce myself and it was really good but I had to use canned tomato paste and canned tomatoes. I can't wait to try it this summer with fresh tomatoes. Next month maybe I'll try with supermarket tomatoes but I'll have to learn how to make it:( I am having A LOT of trouble getting over my fear of fat! I've always thought that butter was probably better than marge because it's a natural product but I'm going to have problems getting over buying skim milk and reduced fat cottage cheese etc. Luckily I never ever bought into the low carb thing but there are some guilt issues over the white potatoes. I made roast last night and put some butter in a pan to start the gravy and then added the juices from the roast! It was the only time I've ever made gravy that taste that amazing but it sure is a wake up call to know what you are eating. I love recipe's involving a can of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup! So, I made mushroom soup myself. OMG it was SOOO Good. But I was so scared to eat it! Butter, heavy cream, AND some chicken broth with the fat still in it!!! It was so much better for me than the canned version but all that fat... guilt, guilt, guilt. I used it in wheat free tuna casserole so it's not like I made a meal off the fat, but still!!