New Year's Resolution Thingybobs of Sorts

Now that Oprah has a new network, I've been filling up my TiVo with all the new shows to try out and see if I want to follow them or not. Low and behold, I stumbled onto a total gem of a show (some of them are real stinkers). It's called Anna and Kristina's Grocery Bag. It's a Canadian import that's been on the air since 2007. That's more episodes to watch, so yay for me!

The thing I like about the show is that the premise is two amateur ladies taking on cookbook after cookbook, with some success and also many disasters that follow. They get experts to judge their work at the end of each episode. It's very insightful and often hilarious. They also field/lab test ingredients and kitchen gadgetry which is awesome for those of us who would like to save money by getting it right the first time.


Well, they have inspired me to get cooking again. They have caused me to re-consider cookbooks I previously turned my nose up at and have motivated me to get more ambitious with my baking. I know I've been a bit of a slacker lately, but hey, we all get into food ruts from time-to-time. So after watching about five episodes over the last couple of days, while I was suffering through one of the worst colds I've had in three years, I decided for hubby and I, that we are going to start trying one new recipe a week and that we can alternate who's turn it is, so no one has to do more that two new meals a month. I think that's manageable. He seems skeptical, but I think I can win him over with delicious new things to add to our menu options that are GF and low sodium.

I may even ask my sister to guest blog about working with dry beans. I called her about the beans yesterday, but we'll wait a bit because she just had a new baby a week ago.

I've been quite the nagging wife about  hubby's sodium intake for the last month or so, and now that he's seen enough of Dr. Oz's scare tactics about heart disease, he is taking it seriously. We discovered that canned, pre-cooked beans are loaded with sodium and that the cans they are packaged in are coated in BPAs, which can be really bad for you in large amounts. Perhaps some of you remember my anti-plastic campaign I started roughly a year ago partially for that very reason. I also like sea turtles to live nice lives, free of eating plastic bags in the giant garbage swirls in the oceans.

So, the long and the short of it is, I will be trying new things. And we will be in an even slower food movement at our house, if you can imagine that. We're trying to eliminate as many pre-processed foods that come in cans and boxes, including single ingredients, like beans. You will see the successful dishes posted here, with pictures.

Thanks to Anna and Kristina, I will be getting a used copy of the Everyday Italian by Giada De Laurentis for my birthday this year, which is mere weeks away. We'll see how the food allergy conversions go. Maybe there's hope for us all that we can eat good Italian food that won't kill us (BTW, I've tried the new Olive Garden GF menu and it's terrible).

Wish me luck!