10 New Year's Food Goals and Resolutions

I prefer goals to resolutions because they're a bit more concrete and easy to shoot for. However, I've had a hard time quantifying some of my goals in relation to the kitchen, so here's a list of both concrete goals and vague resolutions....

1. Eat more produce! 3 servings each of fruits and veggies/day. We have a hard time meeting the veggie goal, but I'm going to try.
2. Stay within the food budget! We have a great budget for our grocery/eating out expenses. I have to be conscientious, but not pinch every last penny.
3. Use up most leftovers! We throw away too much food, so I'm going to try to figure out creative ways to use leftovers--even those left on actual plates. For instance, did you know that you can take leftover cooked oatmeal and turn it into oat griddle cakes? Hmmmm.... interesting, eh? Did you know that Chicken-Pecan Quiche uses many of the same ingredients as Chicken Enchiladas? I actually use my ingredients more efficiently by cooking them the same week (both recipes will be posted this week).
   
4. Cook/Eat responsibly. I think it's more responsible from a budget standpoint, environmental standpoint, and health standpoint to do things such as cook whole chickens and make my own broth from the leftovers rather than simply buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts and storebought broth.
5. Eat more local food. I already shop at a produce stand that gets a fair amount of local produce; we'd like to start reducing our cheese intake so that we can also afford the cheese from a local dairy and other small changes like that.
6. Make my own bread! I used to do this regularly and miss the bread so much. I'm salivating just thinking of it. It wasn't hard, and I think I could bring it back into the routine. I'm having lots less computer time available because I need to be pretty mindful of my three little whirling dervishes, but at least one can help me with the bread (whereas, none of them can help me with computer-related interests).
7. Read In Defense of Food! I've skimmed the first section of The Omnivore's Dilemma and decided to skip to this next book. Both are quite interesting.
8. Limit my cookbooks to 5 on the counter at a time. (Hard when you own 45+ and so many have such interesting recipes).
9. Simplify my cooking/prep work. I think we're at a time in our lives (with three young children) where simple is better--more appealing to the kids and easier on a harried momma. It's also usually healthier and cheaper!
10. Put some old family favorites on this blog--there are lots of recipes floating around in our family that exist only on random index cards and the like, but which would be cause for tremendous mourning were they to vanish someday. So, I would like to put the famous pecan pie, cornbread dressing, chocolate ice box cake, homemade eggnog, fruitcake, boiled custard, no-peek casserole, mock ravioli, and other such family memories out into cyberspace where they can't get dripped on, thrown away, or chewed by the family pet (am I right, Carrie?!). Many of these are holiday favorites that I can't imagine Thanksgiving or Christmas without.