No more scarfing! (If that isn't a word, I now declare it one.)

I love a new year only because it provides the opportunity to set new goals and change the bad habits I’ve formed over the past two months – especially over the holidays. I tend to do a mini-new year every Monday (eat healthy this week, go to the gym every day, etc.), but there’s something about the “real” new year that makes me feel more obligated to stick with it. I’ve read it takes six weeks to change a habit. If this is true, that means by Valentine’s Day I will one productive, healthy person and I might have to change my blog name from Bungalow Bum to Bungalow Superstar!

I’m not going to bore you with all of my new year resolutions (I always have at least five or six), but I do want to share one of them I started to work on last night – to eat slower. I’ve noticed I SCARF down my food as if someone is going to steal it any minute and I won’t get any more food for days! It’s such a bad habit and I’m sure I end up eating more food than I need to at each meal. Coincidently, I ran across an article last week in an old issue of a “Body and Soul” magazine that talked all about this and it gave me a couple of pointers:

1. Don't eat with the TV on. Instead put on some nice, classical music.
2. Eat on decorative plates.
3. With each bite, think about the flavors of the food and enjoy them.

There were probably some others, but I don’t remember them. These were the three I decided to try. So... last night instead of sitting in front of the TV I set a place at our kitchen table, which usually is a place for piling junk. I put out a napkin and cute napkin ring (Christmas gift from my friend Cameron) and picked a plate I thought the meal would look pretty on. I asked my husband to pick some classical, nice music (he picked Christmas tunes of all things!) and I worked on eating slower. Now, I still cleaned my plate and probably ate faster than I should have, but it's a start and hopefully this will be my new habit.

By the way, the dinner was really good. Here are links to the recipes:

Giada’s Stuffed Pork Chops with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Spinach

I stuffed chicken breasts tonight but have also done the pork chops. Both are really good.

Ina Garten’s Parmesan-Roasted Broccoli

One thing I learned in 2009 is that roasting any vegetable in the oven tastes so much better than steaming them.

Rachel Ray’s Cheesy Orzo

I used to make this all the time and my husband got sick of it, so it was a treat for me tonight and it was just as good as I remembered! Toss in fresh Italian parsley at the end to make it even better.

Happy slow eating!