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Saturday, January 1, 2011

New Year Foods & Thoughts

May the best days of your past be the worst days of your future.

Welcome to 2011, folks! Whether you're ready or not, the new year is here! Hopefully it's off to a joyous start for you so far.

I rang in the new year with a group of lovely local vegan pals. The night included fun conversation, vegan nibbles, sitting around a fire pit (complete with vegan s'mores!), and a very long and very late game of Taboo (which definitely gave me a second wind). It was certainly a different kind of New Year's Eve than what I'd been used to in the last several years, but change is the name of my game, especially in 2011.

I have no pictures from the party, but I do have pictures of breakfast this morning (which was around 2pm). I brought some gluten-free pancake mix and frozen blueberries and enjoyed the heck out of 'em! I can't remember the last time I had a pancake. (I'm a bad flipper, you see.) Luckily, there were better, more patient pancake flippers at the ready this morning.

I chose this Bob's Red Mill mix because it specifically said on the back that it would work well with "egg alternatives." I've had a disaster or two in the past with using vegan substitutions with gluten-free mixes, so I always check for this.




These were lovely little pancakes! They smell and taste a little like corn, but I didn't find it overpowering. Besides, pancakes are just a vehicle for good, natural maple syrup. That's the flavor I care more about, anyway.

I'm so proud of myself for making a black-eyed pea salad the day before. (This made dinner very easy as I was pretty groggy by then.) I'd always heard that eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day was good luck, but I just never got around to making anything with those cute little peas. I figure, with everything that has happened in the last year for me, and with everything on the horizon for me now, I could use all the good luck I can get! I served this with my favorite salad mix.

It worked for me!

I don't make "resolutions." Instead, I constantly add to my Life's To-Do List, which just gets longer and longer, believe me. As always, I hope to cross off several things from that list throughout the year. I hope to add another stamp to my passport. I intend to do some traveling, of course. I have plans to do plenty of traveling around the big ol' Sunshine State, specifically, since I'm living here now. There's so much of Florida that I have never really explored, so this goal excites me quite a bit. After 5 years land-locked in the midwest, I do resolve to spend more time by the water. I will get to know my new city and I am already helping out in my new community. I also have some big, fun projects in the works for 2011 that shall be unveiled in due time.

Also, since I've been chatting up PCRM's 21-Day Vegan Kickstart so much, I decided to sign up and actually do it, so I can give a first-hand opinion on the program. You can expect to read some thoughts and reviews on this in January.

Are you ready for the new year? What are your goals and intentions for 2011? Are you doing the 21-Day Vegan Kickstart?

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