A Year of Abundance

I learned from my friend Melissa years ago to choose a word to frame each new year. New Years is her favorite holiday – full of possibilities and fresh starts, and I love that outlook. This year my word is Abundance, and I do feel abundant in every area of our life. 

On New Year’s Eve the kids came back from their grandparent’s house exhausted and with nothing left in their social batteries after a week of solid events. 

I made Beef and Broccoli from scratch – total winner, and a smashed cucumber salad that was good but not so good I would make it again and we ordered a bunch of takeout. Eli made a fire in the wood stove, and he and I watched Barbie, while kids did their thing. It was quiet but very nice with everyone taking the time to restore their energy in their own ways.

I meant to make Chinese Chive Dumplings for dinner as well, but I forgot to get wheat starch to make the dough, and while I could have substituted wonton wrappers, it wouldn’t have been the same. So instead, I chopped up the chives and froze them for a later meal. Honestly, you really can freeze almost everything. 

I’ve been really trying to preserve things lately and avoid waste, even slicing up and sauteeing mushrooms and then freezing them if we have some we aren’t using. I had some of our last apples that were starting to get a little mealy, so I turned them into cinnamon applesauce for our big family brunch too – just peeled, cored, and popped the apple bits in the crockpot with 2 tablespoons of sugar, a decent slug of cinnamon, and a little water. It was really good, and I sent most of it home with my sister since we had so much food. 

And here we are in 2024, entering it softly, and with optimism. We put the last of the tax impacts from 2022 to bed in December, and so we’re walking into the new year with a level of freedom from financial burdens we haven’t had for a while. 

Interest rates are very high, so we’re not sure exactly when the renovations will start, but it’s likely to be late this year or early 2025 because we want to be thoughtful about how much we spend and commit to spending. It’s hard to keep waiting, but we also know in our hearts it’s the right decision. It will happen, and in the meantime we’ll do some small-ish improvements that give us some quality of life, like replacing a few windows and finally bricking the walkway, and a few other things. 

But despite having to keep pushing off the renovation, we’re very much at peace. Everyone got things they needed and wanted over the holidays. We got to spend time with family. January, despite a couple of work trips, is going to be relatively peaceful, and we deliberately kept the first weekend open other than one errand that will take a couple of hours, because we all just need a break. 

We are slowly de-Christmasing the house, and I find the lack of ‘stuff’ in it refreshing. And what’s nice is that we really do have everything we need and then some. I’m grateful for the bounty in our lives and that we’re able to share it with others. 

And we’re having a very frugal month – eating down the pantry, focusing on our financial future. We do have a ski weekend planned, and a dinner at the end of the month with my parents, but those are budgeted in. 

This week we’re eating simple and healthy. To kick off the new year I made the Green Goddess Salad that is making it’s way around TikTok. It’s really good, especially after it sits for a little bit for the flavors to blend. Also, it makes a metric pantload of salad (this being the technical unit of measure), so you might want to consider making it for a party or as I did, give some away.

Use up: We have a lot of green veggies to use – spinach, baby kale and lettuce, brussels sprouts as well as tons of root veggies. 

Monday January 1st, 2024: Homemade chili, cornbread, green goddess salad, guacamole

Tuesday: Just Eli and I, salmon over cauliflower rice with veggies

Wednesday: Grilled chicken wings that were in the freezer, couscous, roasted brussels sprouts and onions

Thursday: Eli cooks with a protein from the freezer

Friday: Homemade pizza with various and assorted veggies and toppings

Saturday: Baked sage chicken meatballs (only we have ground turkey, not ground chicken) with parmesan orzo & roasted vegetables

Sunday: Clam Chowder and homemade bread

Monday I’ll travel for the first time in 2 months, so Eli and the kids will have a few days of their own meal plans before I come home and we start the meal planning again. 

Happy New Year to all.