New Year’s Resolutions

Yesterday I went on what I like to call a “baking binge.”  I spent the morning cooking stuff that I could freeze and have once I returned to work:

• Frittatas, one of my favorite, easy-to-make and freezable 2 point breakfasts:

• Lentil Soup
• Lentil Barley Burgers
• Black Bean Burgers.  I froze all of these on a piece of wax paper on a plate.  Once frozen, they can be put in a Ziploc bag without sticking to each other. 

Most of my burger recipes call for panko breadcrumbs.  I was out of those, and learned the hard way that regular breadcrumbs shouldn’t be used in the same quantities.  But other than having to figure that out, my transition back to work should be much easier.

In the afternoon, I cooked food for a belated Christmas gathering with Neil’s family.  We had his whole family and my mom over.  I made:

• Challah from scratch
• Roasted butternut squash and chickpeas
• An eggplant + kale recipe from Mark Bittman
• Brown Rice
• Pot roast (first time making this and it came out great – thanks America’s Test Kitchen)
• Blondies

As you can imagine, it was fun but exhausting!  Today has the potential to be slightly more relaxing.  We spent the morning we took a long hike around Rock Creek Park, followed by errands at Target.  I have plans to take a nap since I had a bout with insomnia last night and go for a short run this afternoon.  Tonight we will ring in the New Year with our friend who is in from out of town and a few others. 

Every year since 2008 I have added a list of resolutions into a google document.  This year was a good year.  (So far) I have ran 721.5 miles, worked out 240 hours and an average of 4.76 days a month.  My worst workout month was June, where I was working 60+ hours a week (ran 10 miles, and worked out ~12.5 hours) and my best month was October, where I was coming up on the marathon (ran 112 miles and worked out 27.5 hours).

Last year my goals were:

1. Run marathon.  Check!
2. Run sprint triathlon.  Check!
3. Call or email one far away friend a month.  Fail.
4. Procrastinate less at work – do not check any personal web sites between 9:30-11 am.  Fail.

It looks like I’m about 50/50 for last year.  I wish I was better at keeping in touch with friends, but sometimes I feel like I’m barely keeping my head above water with work, family, the house, Leela, training and in-town friends.  This is still something I need to work on though.

Without further ado, here are my goals for 2011:

1. Run >750 miles for the year.
2. Do an Olympic distance triathlon. 
3. Lift twice a week.
4. Be more proactive at work asking to be on projects I’m interested in.
5. Try a new-to-me DC activity/museum/music venue every month. 

I like to make my resolutions just hard enough that I will have to push myself, but not so hard that I would inevitably fail.

I hope everyone has a very Happy New Year!