Does anyone remember the last time I tried to make healthy bars? Yes, the photos were not the best, but the most embarrassing thing about that post was that the bars I made didn’t even fill up the whole pan. Who wants a recipe to make only half a pan of bars? Why, past Jessica, why did that even make it on the blog in the first place?
Weather wise, January has been a very confusing month. For a while, we had really unnaturally warm weather and then by the next day, it would turn on you. Sticky, wet snow. Strong, blustery winds. After a braving this weather each day after work, I’ve taken to spending my first hour at home curling up on the couch with a hot mug of tea, a good book and a warm blanket.
After a few days of enjoying this new routine, I knew I would have to bake something to enjoy with my tea. A girl can only eat so many snacks of carrots and apples before she starts salivating at every bakery she passes by.
January is the month that I always find that I eat the healthiest. I stock up on portable fresh fruit and vegetables to take to work and I avoid junk food like the plague. I feel really good for about three-ish weeks and then as February starts to inch closer, I slowly fall off the wagon.
But like every year that I can remember doing this, I am thinking not this year. This year is a big wedding year, and with being a bridesmaid in one of my best friend’s wedding in July and our wedding in August, I figure that this alone is enough motivation to keep on eating better.
This is one of the challenges I’ve faced since starting a food blog – trying to eat healthier. Since I bake something new at least once a week, its almost a guarantee that there will always be baked goods in our kitchen. That’s not a lot of willpower for someone who wants to keep fitting into both a bridesmaid dress and her wedding dress in less than 8 months.
Although a lot of people use the month of January to make resolutions, I find that I make a lot of little mental resolutions throughout the whole year. They usually consist of spur-of-the-moment things such as “eat healthier” when I’m in the grocery store salivating over the candy aisle or “exercise more” when I find myself planted on the couch in front of the TV. The problem is that these kinds of resolutions never last because I never remember them until I find myself in the same situation again. And then I feel guilty for not really sticking to them.
One of last year’s more memorable mental resolutions was to try and eat more varieties of fruit. Back in the summer, I bought a large bag of frozen mango chunks from Costco in hopes of getting out of my then smoothie rut. I was getting tired of consuming the same fruit over and over and decided that frozen mangoes would cure me of this problem. It was later that I realized that it wasn’t a fruit rut I was suffering from, it was a sick-of-summer feeling. I was tired of the sticky humidity and eating cold food for supper every night, including smoothies. By December, I still had 3/4 of the Costco-sized bag taking up my precious freezer space.
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| One of the many delicious meals I enjoyed in Japan |
Looking back, I’m realizing that 2012 was such a crazy, whirlwind year for us. It’s was no 2010-and-we’re moving-to-Toronto type of year, but it was still very busy never the less. Trevor was able to start his dream job, I started (several!) new jobs, and we set a date for the wedding. I was able to watch my brother and sister’s teams win silver medals in curling (nationally and provincially ranked) and I went on a three-week trip to Japan with my Mom and my Grandma.
On the blogging front, I started to take She Bakes Here more seriously, switching ad companies part way through the year and purchasing my lovely Nikon DSLR camera. I made an effort to try and update at least once a week and I tried to get even less discouraged when my baking experiments and my photos didn’t turn out the way I wanted them too. This blog is still a work in progress and I’m grateful for everyday that I get to continue learning and expanding on this hobby.
I’m not much of a resolutions person, but in our late night discussion last night, I decided to do one for 2013. One of the things I feel that I need to work on is better expressing my appreciation and gratitude and I am going to start making an effort to thank people more often.
Today, I want to thank everything single person that takes the time to click and read my silly, baking blog. In a sea of millions and millions of food/recipe blogs, I can’t express enough gratitude that you take the time to read my postings and try my recipes. I have big ideas for this blog for 2013 and I can’t wait to share them with all of you. More importantly though, I want to thank you for turning this silly little hobby into something fun and fantastic and something I look forward to updating all the time.
As a fun little round-up, I thought I would go through my recipes of 2012 and pull out my favorites. These are the recipes that we found were the biggest hits and are some recipes that I’ve even made multiple times after posting the recipe because they are so good. Recipe repeats don’t happen to often since I’m always making something new each week, so that really says something.
Happy 2013 everyone!
Canadian food blogger, baking and eating her way through life. Musical theatre fanatic. Personal finance nerd. Sometimes runner/yogi. Green smoothies are pretty amazing.
