Obsessed with Martha Stewart

February Overview....20 Recipes

I’m not going to lie – I’m a little disappointed in how many recipes I made in February. I just have to tell myself that life gets in the way sometimes. In total, I've made 48 recipes and I've already learned a lot. This month I’m already on a roll though. I’ve made three recipes out of Everyday Food and a cookie recipe out of Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook, and I’ll be blogging about those recipes this week. I’m trying to keep my goals realistic, but I would love to double the amount of recipes I made in February this month. In February, I also received Martha Stewart’s Homekeeping Handbook and I’ve made cleaning lists for each week (sometimes they get done, and sometimes they don’t) and I got a new craft tool which I’ve put to good work.

 

Martha Stewart Living (10 Recipes)

Broccoli and Pasta Casserole

Breakfast Quinoa

Chicken Parmigiana

Warm Potato and Frisee Salad

Caramelized Pears and Red Onions

Croque-Monsieur

Chocolate Truffles

Raspberry Cupcakes with Pink Buttercream Frosting

Chocolate Hearts

Mini Heart Fruit Pies

Martha Stewart’s Cooking School (1 Recipe)

How to Make Chicken Soup

Everyday Food (4 Recipes)

Swiss Chard with Orange

Old Bay Roasted Sweet Potatoes

One-Pot Chicken and Brown Rice

Baked Pasta with Spinach, Ricotta and Prosciutto

Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook (3 Recipes)

Cranberry-Zucchini Muffins

Pear-Spice Bundt Cake

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake

Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The New Classics (2 Recipes)

Caesar Salad

Baked Stuffed Red Peppers

New Year's Resolutions?

Image from Martha Stewart

Yesterday I said that I don’t make resolutions…and I still don’t, but I also said that I was going to try to be more like Martha and follow as much advice as possible. I went to the Body and Soul section of Martha Stewart’s websites and the first article that popped up was, “10 Resolutions You Should Make Now.” So, instead of calling them resolutions, I’ll call them goals that Martha encourages me to incorporate into my life.

1. Eat more dark, leafy greens. I hate dark, leafy greens. I seriously do, but I’ve already started to make an effort to eat a salad with spinach leaves before dinner each night, so I guess this counts.

2. Enjoy omega-3 rich foods twice a week. This is something that I really need to do. I really enjoy eating salmon which is a good source of omega-3’s, but we couldn’t fix any fish dishes in our Brooklyn apartment unless we wanted our apartment to stink like rotten fish for a week. We’ve gotten away from eating fish dishes, but I’ll definitely add this to my list of goals.

3. Walk for a half hour a day. I need to be doing this anyways, because I have three dogs who all need daily exercise. Sometimes I do it, sometimes my husband does it, and sometimes we do it together. I’m going to make more of an effort to do it together and daily.

4. Breath deeply for five minutes a day. I get really uptight when I try to sit calmly, clear my mind and take deep breaths. I’ve never been able to get into the concept of meditation….but if Martha Stewart says…

5. Eat more quinoa. Eat more what? I would have to start eating it first to eat more of it. I guess it can’t hurt to try it.

6. Use more spices. I love using spices, so this won’t be hard.

7. Create deadlines. I do this on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. For instance, I’ve already scheduled my Martha recipes for the next two months, so I know exactly what I’m cooking each day. This way it’s harder for me to “forget.”

8. Eat a better breakfast and lunch. I definitely need to do this. My breakfast consists of a cliff bar and a cup of orange juice. I’m always hungry by 11:00 a.m. and I’m embarrassed to say I usually eat three servings of potato chips at about that time. For lunch I eat whatever I come up with which is usually a sandwich, microwaveable mac and cheese, or more chips.

9. Get more sleep. I’m way ahead of Martha on this one. Most days of the week I get at least 8 hours of sleep thanks to my fantastic husband who wakes up with the puppies in the middle of the night and lets me sleep. He knows that I’m not a pleasure to be around if I haven’t gotten my full 8 hours of sleep.

10. Choose one person to connect with. Unfortunately, I don’t get to spend as much time with friends as I would like to, because many of them live hours away in Richmond, DC and New York….so, I could definitely work on staying in touch better. 

Review of 2009....Goals for 2010

 

I’ve had an eventful year to say the least. I moved from Brooklyn, New York to Richmond, Virginia to Blacksburg, Virginia. I’ve gone from a tiny kitchen to a HUGE kitchen. I got married to the most amazing (he really is) man on Halloween. I was hospitalized for 5 days the week before my wedding. The sweet, easy going lab mix that my husband and I adopted from the pound was unknowingly pregnant when we adopted her, and she had 7 puppies the day before our wedding. I went from providing therapy to teens with substance abuse and mental health problems to writing full-time. I definitely miss the teens that I worked with, but I absolutely love writing on a full-time basis.

There is one thing missing that I really wanted to happen by the end of the year – getting pregnant. However, my husband and I want to set up a good life for a new addition to our family, and we haven’t been able to focus on that. Our television is still sitting on top of an unpacked cardboard box in our living room, we still have a “wedding room” filled with wedding related items, our rental company refused to get the standing water out of our basement a few weeks ago even though it’s against the law not to do so, and we just received a $20,000 medical bill from my hospitalization. Yikes!

I don’t do New Year resolutions, because they just don’t stick. But I do set goals on a regular basis, and since so many people around me are making goals for the upcoming year, I’ve decided that I might as well, too. I realized that I haven’t done this project justice, so it’s time to start over. Even though I’ve baked lots of cupcakes and cookies and a few Martha Stewart meals since I started, I just didn’t have time to take on such a consuming project as trying to be more like Martha. But I’ve decided that it’s time to completely jump in. Since I haven’t gotten pregnant, that is definitely going to be a goal for this year –that gives me at least 9 months – probably more because we’re not going to start “trying” for at least another month or two. This year is going to be dedicated to Martha.

Before I have a child, I want to learn how to bake delicious cakes and pies, whip up dinners that will have my husband begging for more, make myself a priority (stress can significantly impact a pregnancy) and get my house clean and tidy. To learn how to do all of the above I’ll be turning to the one woman empire, Martha Stewart, for advice by reading her books and magazines and watching her television show. Therefore, I’m making it my goal to post at least five times per week on this blog to hold myself accountable.

I’m not just Martha obsessed – I’m also book obsessed. I can’t step foot into Barnes and Noble without purchasing at least two books or magazines, and that’s a stretch. It’s usually more like five or six books and one or two magazines. I’m not a shopaholic unless you put me in a bookstore and then it’s all over. My thoughtful father-in-law and his wife gave my husband and I two $50 gift certificates to Barnes and Noble, so my husband and I purchased a puppy training book recommended by our vet (our puppies are taking over our house and are going to be about 90 pounds each), I got a Nora Roberts book (I’m a sucker for romance novels) and two more novels. We had about $42 dollars left and I saw that the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook was reduced by 30%....It’s normally $40…..so I could have gotten a couple more novels including one I’ve been pining over for a couple months or I could get the baking handbook.

Since, I’m taking this goal seriously I decided I had to have the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook. This amazing book is divided into six chapters: Simple Baked Goods, Cookies, Cakes, Pies Tarts Cobblers and Crisps, Yeasted Baked Goods, and Pastries. I’m going to split these chapters, so that I focus on one chapter for two months at a time. I’ll also be making lots of breakfasts, dinners, and desserts from Everyday Food and following the advice from Body and Soul. Also, I’ll be attempting to incorporate recipes and advice from The Martha Stewart Show.

I hope that you’ll come along for the ride….