Resolution 2009

I haven't made new year's resolutions in years. For 2009, I'm not exactly making a resolution which usually has metrics on the level of success. This year, I've decided to:

Eat better

This could mean different things to different people, I could be eating more gourmet meals, low-fat, less processed food, more home cooking. What I'm primarily aiming for is:

More organic
More local - either produced locally or at the very least from a local store, not a national chain.
Less processed - less stuff from boxes and cans. Dried and frozen vegetables/fruits/legumes are okay. Less refined carbohydrates like pasta and white rice. My food should look pretty close to the way it looked when it was alive.
More natural - Less of ingredients that I couldn't/wouldn't use if I was making from scratch. More variety of grains.
Less waste - This is my main weakness. I waste a lot of food because I am driven by impulse. Fruit, vegetables, milk, and juices rarely get used up before they go bad in my house, I buy things for a particular recipe then I forget about the rest. I have piles of half-eaten snacks and candy. It's kind of like the whole "I am an adult now, so I can eat ramen noodles and ice cream for dinner if I want. Woo hoo!"
More sustainable/ethical - seriously, grass-fed beef/free-range chicken tastes better and do go on sale sometimes, and can be frozen without losing flavor. Why not stock up? Plus they're better for you. I like my meat to be happy before they're humanely slaughtered, less cortisones.

Action plan:
1) Join a local food co-op and do more than 50% of my food shopping there. They have really awesome bulk bins that rival Whole Paycheck but cheaper. You're also encouraged to reuse containers by weighing empties at the checkout before filling them. They do have less variety of vegetables. I am also highly skeptical of tree-huggery mayonnaise (homemade mayonnaise is really cheap and easy to make, but only for good for special occasions because it goes bad in less than a week). Despite the fact that Pike Place Market is really close by, I've had really mixed results from buying seafood there, there are so many frigging tourists and their hours suck. I'm not usually in Seattle on weekends to go to the farmer's markets.
 
2) Grow more varieties of vegetables. Tim and I grew a shitload of certain vegetables last year, and not enough of others. Note to self: 1 collard green plant is plenty, don't plant 15 next time. Less collard greens, swiss chard, and lettuce; more beets, carrots, beans, peas, spinach, and squash.

3) Plan meals weekly in advance. It'll help with waste and be more seasonal. I never took home ec, this is a pretty foreign concept to me. I may have to use Excel or some project planning software for this.

4) Get a CSA share or some other kind of local produce delivery for variety.

*5) Optional - Catch my own food. This may involve getting a yearly fishing license. But I'm ready otherwise, I have a pole and waders that haven't even been used. Good fishing weather = Cold and miserable. Tim and I have also been considering keeping our own chickens. Maybe take a mushroom identifying class?

*6) Optional - Learn food preservation methods. Mmmmm kimchi. Mmmmmm bacon. Mmmmmm jerky. We've been experimenting with smoking food. Not the healthiest, but certainly tasty and I guess more or less a primitive way to preserve food.

It's a pretty ambitious plan. But at least this will serve as some sort of guideline.