My 2009 Cooking, Food and Diet Goals

There's no better way to prod yourself to reach your goals than to state them in a public forum, so today I'm going to share my 2009 food-related goals with you.

There are only five goals on this list: enough to be a challenge, but not enough to overwhelm. With any luck, pursuing these goals will generate even more of the insights, cooking tips and easy, low-cost recipes I try to bring to you here at Casual Kitchen. And that, I hope, will improve Casual Kitchen's value to you.

Readers--what cooking, eating and blogging goals have you set for yourself for 2009?
***************************
Casual Kitchen's 2009 Food Goals:

1) Learn to Bake Bread:
I've been talking about this for long enough--now is the time for action. My goal is to get competent at making at least a few different types of yeast-based breads over the course of 2009. Perhaps 2009 will be my year in bread.

2) Tackle Indian Cuisine:
Laura and I have already dipped our collective toe into Indian cooking, and I've already posted a mini-blogroll of easy Indian cooking sites (which has since grown into a much larger blogroll that I hope to share in a separate post in the coming weeks). But 2009 is going to be the year we dive into this cuisine in earnest.

3) Learn Hawaiian Cuisine:
We're going to be in Hawaii for a total of about four months in 2009 (it's kind of an extended vacation/sabbatical for both of us), and hopefully this will give me the opportunity to learn as much as I can about the cuisine of the USA's 50th state.

4) Increase Exploration of Partial Vegetarianism:
I love to focus on vegetarian meals here at Casual Kitchen because so many of the best recipes are both cheaper and healthier than meat-based meals. I intend to find, cook and post many more recipes of this sort in 2009.

5) Explore Raw Foodism:
I'm extremely curious about the raw foods movement, its potential health implications, and to what extent raw food can be a fundamental part of a diet for those of us who might be cooking on a budget. I don't see myself converting to raw foods entirely, but I plan to increase the percentage of raw foods in my diet in 2009. If my efforts yield any interesting blog posts, you'll be the second to know!

Related Posts:
Six Secrets to Save You from Cooking Burnout
The Pros and Cons of a High-Carb/Low-Fat Diet
Three Strategies to Create Space in Your Kitchen
Top Ten Most Popular Posts of Casual Kitchen

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by linking to me, subscribing to my RSS feed, or submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon.

10 comments:

Kristen's Raw said...

Cheers for Vegetarianism and Raw Foods!!! I'm looking forward to hearing about your success with those :)

Happy Holidays,
Kristen

Anonymous said...

I don't know if we'll make Hawaii...(its the economy, stupid) but I can see where you could arrange a stop in Vegas on the way back...and if you do we promise Indian cooking lessons!!!

(And learn some new and delicious vegetarian dishes while you're at it!)

Mi Casa es su Casa...we would love you to visit.......

Laura said...

Love the goals! I'm really looking forward to learning more about each of those through your blog :)

Daniel said...

Kristen:
The more I look into raw eating, the more interested I get. I'm looking forward to that subject in particular.

Janet and Jerry:
Great to hear from you--and thanks for the invitation! It's been too long since we've seen you both. And believe me, when I post a few Indian recipes I'll be looking to you for feedback.

Laura:
Thanks for reading! I'll be looking for your feedback too as I follow your running exploits. :)

Thanks, everyone, for your comments!

DK

Amanda said...

2009 promises some interesting fodder here at CK--I look forward to the Hawaiian cuisine features, especially! Thanks for a glimpse into what's to come. Happy Holidays!

rebekah said...

Delurking to say Merry Christmas and I can't wait to see what you come up with in 2009!

Daniel said...

Amanda:
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, and thank you for sharing so many of your insights here over the course of the year. Here's to more in 09!

Rebekah:
I'm so glad you delurked (what a great word!). Thank you and Merry Christmas to you too!

DK

Unknown said...

We just came back from Hawaii. We were there a week on vacation and I lost 4 pounds--without trying.

I think the "secret" was eating fresh fruit WITH EVERY MEAL and we snorkeled 1-2 hours every day. What a fun way to exercise. Not practical in MN, however.

We are going to include fresh fruit in every meal from now on.

I look forward to your posts on HI. Be sure to search out where the locals eat and the road side fruit stands. One we stopped at had the most amazing home made banana bread.

Daniel said...

Fiona:
We'll be sure to stop off and try every roadside stand we can find--thanks for the suggestion.

Funny, the last time we were in Hawaii, I ate a lot of fresh fruit and exercised a ton too, but I think I canceled all of that out with the two or three high-calorie umbrella drinks I had each night. :)

DK

chow and chatter said...

oh I want to learn to bake bread as well and Indian is so much fun I cook it a lot