2024 New Year Goals

I had been sick in bed since last Thursday. I caught something from someone somewhere. I’ve had a fever and slept alot. I was able to make a pot of chicken noodle soup with vegetables as soon as I started to feel the fever. Everything was already cooked in jars or the freezer so all I had to do was open, mix, and heat it. I portioned it into containers to microwave. I knew I had to eat something when taking my meds. I’m feeling better but still a little weak. Today is my birthday and I refuse to spend it in bed. 

This is a drive-through foodbank salad from last month.

If you want to make God laugh, make plans. Instead I set goals. My goal this year is to get my A1C down to 7.5 from 8.9 but not by using any special diet. I know what I did wrong and now I’m starting all over. I’m just going to eat the simple meals I remember from my childhood using backwards or reverse menu planning based on what I get from 1) the drive through foodbanks 2) the monthly senior commodity boxes 3) the grocery discount bins and 4) grocery loss leaders. I’ll go into more details about my eating goals in other posts.

Actually, backwards or reverse menu planning is not a new concept. It’s been done for thousands of years. For our ancestors it was just their way of life without the fancy names. In the days before a convenience store became located on almost every corner and before mega grocery stores were built in almost every neighborhood people couldn’t make quick trips to pick up the missing ingredient for tonight’s dinner recipe. People had to make do with what they already had or do without. 

Families grew, foraged, and preserved whatever they could get for the pantry and larder. The larder was a cool space or room where meat was stored smothered in lard to preserve it. The pantry and larder were filled with as much food as possible to last until the next growing or gathering season. Meals were created from what had been stored away. In other words, people created meals from the pantry foods from season to season. Food was stored, rotated, and eaten based on the seasons of harvest. If you grew a garden you preserved as much as you could in order for it to last until the following year’s harvest. If you gathered tree nuts in the fall you stored enough to last until the next fall. If you foraged mushrooms and wild onions in spring you dried and put away as many as possible until the next spring. You have the idea?

My second, equally important, goal for 2024 is to finally get back to creating quilts again. I had wanted to have the studio cleared enough to use the quilting machine by tomorrow but the illness put me behind schedule. My quilting goal is to make several children’s quilts for homeless kids first and see how it goes.  I also want to make another quilt or two for the fair to do better than last year. As soon as I clear the stuff out of the studio and back where it belongs in the kitchen I’ll do an annual tune-up on the machine. The Staples store where I had all my drawings enlarged into quilt size patterns will be closing the end of this week. I’ll need to locate another print shop that does enlargements. I’m hoping it won’t be on the other side of the county. 

Have a happy and prosperous new year! 

Anita