The month of January has officially been deemed the month of getting back into cooking at home. Sounds tame right? Well, then you add in a few “little” extra rules like no alcohol, no extra sugar/treats (except for cooking, so cookies = no, small amount in a recipe = yes), less dairy (this one might make a liar out of me), no coffee (1 cup of black tea per day allowed), no junk food/snacks, and only going out to eat once per week.

What the what?! Yes, January is [self-imposed] Be Healthier: Cook at Home month. So in the name of healthiness, it’s really not too challenging (like going raw for a month or doing a cleanse), instead it’s about refocusing on cooking at home, being healthy, and saving money. My once goal of going to more new restaurants turned into a bad habit of going out to eat almost every day, and with so much good/cheap eats in Portland, it’s an easy habit to continue. My one loophole since I work from home, is that coffee shops are ok, where I shall order the largest mug of tea available and stare longingly at the pastry case. Otherwise I would be homeward bound for the month!

How the first week went down:
For my bit of complaining, I’m eating fantastic meals, and having a lot of fun actually cooking every night, and wasting less time on the Internet (yes, seriously).

Breakfasts have been avocado banana smoothie, fresh-squeezed orange and grapefruit juice, green drink juice, avocado egg chipotle breakfast sandwich, oatmeal, banana peanut butter w/Amazing Grass smoothie, pear custard pie, and fruit/nuts.

Lunch and dinner has seen tasty kale, squash, chevre tacos, slow-cooker veggie & chickpea coconut curry and rice, tomato and feta dill orzo, Spanish tortilla, this delicious avocado citrus salad:

and all the tasty leftovers!

The downside? My limited caffeine intake of 1-2 cups of tea a day (& the resultant headaches) took four days to power through. I’m also missing restaurants, so picking my ONE restaurant for this week was a tough choice.

My only meal out this week. Making it count with a fav… (@ Dove Vivi) 4sq.com/xnQaLa

— Olivia Raymer (@poweredbytofu) January 7, 2012

January 31 at midnight, you’ll find me at Rum Club with an Old Fashioned followed by a bowl of cheese. Kidding… kind of.

What have you been cooking up lately?