Starting the New Year

It has been a quiet start to 2012, time for clean up and watching movies and writing up my goals for this year. I still haven’t taken down the Christmas decorations, but since I put them up so late I’ll leave them there until the 6th or 7th (isn’t there some sort of tradition around those dates?). 2011, our first year of retirement, was a year for rest and recuperation, now it is time to get busy. With what? Getting fit, eating better (and losing more weight), getting cracking with some of the projects around the house, and entertaining more. In summary – moving more!

Around the table on New Years Eve – we were still there when the clock struck midnight! I’ll bet everyone wishes we had more comfortable chairs…

My main and most important goal for 2012 is getting off 2 of the 3 bipolar medications I’m on AND keeping mentally healthy (like I am now). One medication is already causing some long-term side effects and who knows what else the others are doing. I am hoping that by putting into practice more self-management techniques (meditation, cognitive thinking, exercise, etc.) that I will be able to manage better with less. Of course I’ll have to have my doctor’s go-ahead and support.

Yesterday I made a new dish (one of my goals is to make a new recipe every two weeks). With a salad on the side, it follows the ETL principals – fat-free vegan. It was easy to make and tasty (Carm gave it 4 stars) – and will be a good addition to our regular line-up. I try to make one crockpot meal a week (with leftovers for another night) and already have a few regulars. I love it when supper rolls around and I just have to serve up!

 

	Crockpot Black Bean and Sweet Potato Stew
	1 medium onion finely diced 2 cloves garlic minced 1 small Red bell pepper roasted, diced 1 medium carrot shredded (or finely diced) 2 medium sweet potato cubed 2 15oz. can black beans drained 1 can diced tomatoes 1 cups water or more as required 1 teaspoon Hot sauce Juice from one lime
	Instructions Put all ingredients, except for the lime juice, into crockpot. Cover and cook 5 - 7 hours on low. Add lime juice just before serving. It couldn’t be any easier!

It was too cold to out out for much of a walk today, Kabira was on 3 legs before we were even 1/3 of the way so we turned around and hustled back to the house. I think Spike was dreaming of more time outside.

And finally a belated: