January 2017 Goals Progress: Week 2

So how is everyone who made resolutions or goals fairing now that we are halfway through January already?

Things are going fairly well for me so far. I think having specific goals in mind and writing and talking about them helps motivate me. So far I have stuck with my no buy and not purchased any clothes, wax or nail polish. It's not been quite as difficult as I thought; I guess I'm just resigned to it. Fortunately I haven't really stumbled across any products or sales that would tempt me. I am definitely plotting a couple of special orders for February though.

I think my food goals are a bit more complex and I am having legit sugar withdrawals. I was good at the grocery store and didn't purchase any sweets or potato chips, but I found myself thinking about them a lot. One night the sugar cravings were so strong that I swear I think I subliminally influenced my husband! The next morning I randomly found a bag of these Ghiradelli dark chocolates in the fridge and I texted hubby like "Holy cow! Where did these come from?" He told me that he had a random craving for it and bought them, which is really odd for him because he doesn't eat candy much at all. Apparently he ate one piece and left the rest for me. I had literally been thinking about the same time he decided to buy it that I wanted to get a dark coco bar so I could indulge in a square a day since it has more health benefits than most other candy. Such a weird couple's ESP thing I guess, lol! I must admit I was so excited I ate 3 squares the first day but managed to eat just one a day thereafter. You can bet I was savoring them too.

As far as my goals to have a more balanced diet and try new recipes, I started on that this week. I've decided to generally try and make some prep-ahead type recipes and snack on them all week instead of trying to cook single portions for every meal. I will generally be doing 1 breakfast recipe, one lunch recipe, 2 dinner and 1 snack or dessert recipe per week, incorporating both new recipes and old favorites and focusing on reasonably healthy fare.

Here's what I chose this week:

Breakfast is Egg & Veggie Muffins with a side of bacon. 

The muffins were quite tasty overall but I'm going to have to adjust to not having my beloved Eggo waffles every morning. I followed the recipe fairly exact but did add a dash of garlic powder. I think it actually could have used even more seasoning; other than the egg and veggie flavors it was a touch bland. I have seen many different variations on the egg cup recipe so I will definitely be trying others in the future. One thing I learned for sure is do not trust the anti stick muffin pans and cooking spray; you NEED cupcake liners for these if you don't want to spend an hour cleaning the pan. I even left it to soak overnight and it still took a lot of elbow grease. 

That's been the one downside to cooking more; all the dishes!

Anyway, lunch for the week was a recipe I had tried before but apparently forgot I didn't really care for, oops. Chicken Salad With Avocado. 

The ingredients all sound really good and I do generally like chicken salad sandwiches, but something about the combinations of flavors and textures here doesn't really do it for me. It's not bad, just not delicious either. I used shredded rotisserie chicken because it's a great value for a whole chicken and it's convenient in that it's already cooked and seasoned. I also used pre mashed avocado instead of whole, and I omitted the mayo because it was creamy enough with the avocado and greek yogurt.

For dinners I did Shrimp Chowder, which once again was good but not amazing.

I've found most of this week's recipes to have a profound lack of seasoning which is an odd coincidence. I will obviously have to try a bunch of dishes to find some I really love. I followed this one pretty much to the letter.

The other dinner recipe for this week that I haven't made yet but am really looking forward to is an old favorite: Chicken Lombardy. At least I know I love this one.

Probably the most unusual but tasty new recipe I tried this week was dessert: No Bake Coconut Crack Bars.

I mixed the ingredients by hand since I don't have a food processor, but I like the flaky coconut texture anyway. For the life of me I couldn't find unsweetened flaked coconut anywhere so I ended up using sweetened and omitted the sweetener packets. These bars are pretty good and do help with the sugar cravings. Not sure I'd make them frequently though.

These are my recipe adventures and blunders this week. Have you tried any yummy new recipes recently? How are your goals for 2017 going?