January Reflections: Food
Prompt: Describe the best meal you had in 2010. What role does food play in your house? Share a recipe.


My friend Megan, the one from whom I heard about January Reflections, decided not to join in because she thought it would be hard to finish well . . . or at all, basically.   I sinned boldly and marched proudly into the world of reflections with an inaudible “ah-ha!”.

It is January 13 and on January 11 I decided I wasn’t going to finish January Reflections.  “Pride comes before a fall.”  Yep.  Then I got a message from Corrin reminding me it was time to post AND suggesting I sign up for emails to help me remember.  Basically it was accountability – a reminder to do what I said I would do; be faithful.

Thankfully, one of the prompts today is about food.  I’m good at food.  Food is not a problem for me to talk about, write about, or give a lot of thought to.  Food IS a problem for my hips AND food was a problem for our family in 2010.  How can food be a problem for an entire family??

1.  My kids got picky.  Every meal started out with the phrase, “I don’t like this.”  (Even their favorite sandwich!  Good grief.)  It is so very discouraging and de-motivating to have everything one cooks be slammed from the gate.  I started “cooking” two meals under the guise/reason that Honey gets home later and we would eat together when the kids went to bed.  NOT A GOOD PRACTICE.

2.  I quit planning.  2010 was a yucky year overall and I spent a good bit of it on the underside of happy.  When one is feeling a tad depressed there is very little joy in planning a menu and MUCHO joy in Qdoba! “Feed the kiddos and split a Craft2” became our family vision statement, it would seem.  The Bible says that where there is no vision the people perish but in our case. . . with this vision an early death is  eminent.  It translated to the unintended but inevitable statement “Spoil the kids and split your pants!”.

We all know my favorite meal in 2010 so I won’t go into that part of the prompt.  Instead I will share with you what has made the last month of 2010 and the first 12 days of  2011 super great.  A blessing, if you will.  Ready? Wait for it. . . . waaaaait for it. . . .
E-MEALZ Easy Meals for Busy and Frugal Families.  Seriously! Two of my favorite words (easy.  frugal.) in the byline! How could we go wrong? 

At the risk of my post becoming a commercial, I have to tell you this has been wonderful.  I got in on a Christmas promo they were doing and it has been s.u.p.e.r.  Along with have a plan for dinner every day via e-mealz, I made the decision that our family would all eat the same thing and eat it at the same time (whenever possible) and all “I don’t want it”s would NOT be tolerated. The future is so bright I have to wear shades, folks.

Honestly – there was an entire week I slipped back into “Ooops, I didn’t defrost the meat and so we’ll have to grab take-out.”  The other four weeks have been filled with good meals (we are using the “points” menu and it is full of healthier stuff.  I can’t ever remember eating this many carrots) and all five of us around the table.  We’ve eaten things ranging from Orange Ricotta Pancakes to Pecan Crusted Tilapia – with Skillet Lasagna mixing it up!   Nothing has been cumbersome to prepare; hence the easy.

My hope is that with this tool in my belt, the memories of 2011 won’t be filled with takeout.  I hope they won’t  involve food at all.  My hope is that our memories will be of the joy we shared around the table together.  More about the people – less about the food.

Here’s your recipe. . . you’ll have to make your own joyful memories.

Orange Ricotta Pancakes – 6 servings @ 6 pts each
Crispy Bacon – 2 pieces @ 2 pts
Navel Oranges – 1 orange @1 pt

2 c part skim ricotta cheese
2 T orange zest
(½ c sugar, 1 large egg, ½ c FF egg substitute,
2 t vanilla, 1 c all purpose flour)
(Sugar free syrup)

Whisk together ricotta, orange zest, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Gently stir in flour. Heat oil in
a large skillet over medium heat. Use ¼ c batter for each pancake. Makes 18 pancakes.
Serving = 3 pancakes with ¼ cup SF syrup.
Fry bacon, drain. Serving = 2 slices.
Serve oranges on the side.